Tickets

Children at or under 120 cm tall don't need to buy tickets to take the train, but they cannot take the train by themselves. Children above 124 cm must buy a full-price ticket.
If you buy a round ticket, you can get on the train at Longyang Road Station or Pudong Airport Station, and get off at the other station. The return part of the ticket must be used on the same day.

    What do you think of black cats? Are they unluckier than cats of other colors? Many people in Western countries think so. Scientists at the University of California, Berkeley (UC Berkeley), did a study on cat colours and people's understandings of cat personalities.

    The study found that people do judge(判断) cat personalities by color. Scientists did a survey(调查) on the Internet. There were 49 statements (描述) matching five cat colorings with 10 personalities. People think orange and bi-colored (双色的) cats are friendly, tri-colored (三色的) cats are not generous, and white cats are calm, lazy and shy. As for black cats, people think they don't have special personalities.

    But why do so many people dislike keeping black cats as pets? People think black cats have less special personalities, which might be because of their bad reputation (口碑). They think black cats may bring bad luck, especially at Halloween. Movies and television shows also make people believe that.

    Although people have these ideas, UC Berkeley scientists give another reason: people don't think black cats are pretty enough. After all, nothing can show black cats are unluckier than other cats. “You can't judge a cat by its color, because it's the personality of the cat, not the color, that will let you know if the cat is right for you,” Cathy Marden, a scientist said.

    Father's Day has a very short history. It was started because there was a Mother's Day, and just because some Americans thought that if we had a Mother's Day, we should also have a Father's Day. Father's Day has become important in North America. And shopkeepers (店主) found it was a good way to get people to buy presents for their fathers, presents from their shops.

    By the way, very few countries have a Father's Day, though some have Children's Day, or a special day for boys and another for girls. More and more countries are having Mother's Day, so maybe Father's Day will also become popular before too long. Now, what do people in North America do on Father's Day? The newspapers, radios, and TV tell children what they should do—buy a Father's Day present for your father. They even tell a wife to buy a Father's Day present—not for her father but for her husband, even if he is a not yet a father. And they tell grandchildren to buy a Father's Day present for their grandfathers.

    The important thing to remember about Father's Day is that American children can show their love to their fathers in a more open way.

    ①If you have a chance to go to Finland(芬兰), you will probably be surprised to find how "foolish" the Finnish people are.

    ②Take the taxi drivers for example. Taxis in Finland are mostly high-class Benz(奔驰) with the money of two US dollars a kilometer. You can go anywhere in one, tell the driver to drop you at any place, say that you have some business to do, and then walk off without paying. The driver would not show the least sign of being nervous and worried.

    ③The dining rooms in all big hotels not only serve their guests, but also serve outside diners. Hotel guests have their meals free, so they naturally go to the free dining rooms to have their meals. The most they would do to show their good faith is to wave their registration(登记) card to the waiter. With such a relaxing check, you can easily use any old registration card to take a couple of friends to get the meals free.

    ④The Finnish workers are paid by the hour. They are very much on their own as soon as they have agreed with the boss on the pay. From then on, they just say how many hours they have worked and they will be paid accordingly.

    ⑤With so many mistakes in everyday life, surely Finland must be a place to those who love to take "petty advantages"(小便宜). But the strange thing is, all the taxi passengers would always come back to pay their fare after they have done their business; not a single outsider has ever been found in the free hotel dining rooms. And workers always give an honest record of the exact hours they put in.

    ⑥As you can see, living in such a society has turned everyone into a real "gentleman". In a society of such high moral(道德) practice, what need is there for people to be on guard against others?

    Do you know Roma people? They were called Gypsies(吉普赛人) by Europeans because they thought they came from Egypt(a country in Africa). About a thousand years ago, the Roma people left their homeland. They are known as nomads because for hundreds of years many of them have lived in large groups that travel from place to place. They have no real homeland.

    Today, the Roma are now living all over the world. They have kept their language and many customs. For example, it's important for Roma to marry other Roma. It's also a custom for parents to choose the person their children will marry. Roma people get married when they are young, sometimes even as young as 14.

    Romany is the language of the Roma people, which was written down only recently. Because the Roma are nomadic and have moved all over the world, their language has developed in many different ways. It is sometimes hard for Roma in one part of the world to understand Roma from another part.

    Roma music is famous all over the world, because many Roma throughout history have been musicians. Their music has influenced many other kinds of music, like classical and jazz.

    Roma don't usually assimilate(同化) into host countries. Over many centuries, governments have forbidden them to marry each other, travel or wear their traditional bright clothes. They have their gold taken away from them—treasures (财富) from their parents and grandparents. They have been taken as slaves(奴隶), and have been forced to change their names.

    But today, the Roma are finding ways to live in peace with others while keeping the treasures of their culture. "There's a will within us to continue to live as a people," says George Kaslov, whose family arrived in New York from Russia a hundred years ago. "All the other ethnic(种族) groups who came to America assimilate gradually with time going; they lose their customs and language. But not the Roma. We hold out."