Carrots are grown all over the world. They are easy to plant and easy to harvest. They have a good taste.

When people think about carrots, they usually think they are a kind of long, thin, orange-colored vegetable. In fact, carrots are in many different sizes and shapes. And not all carrots are orange.

Carrots should be grown in a field that does not have water for a long time. The earth also should not be too hard. To prepare your carrot garden, dig up the earth and turn it over(翻土). 

Weather, soil condition(土壤状况), and time affect(影响) the taste of carrots. Warm days and cool nights are the best time to grow great delicious carrots.

The best way to decide if a carrot is ready to be harvested is by its color. Usually, the brighter the color is, the better the taste is.

Most people do not know that carrots can be grown during the winter months. If the winter is not cold enough to freeze the ground, you can grow carrots the same way as you do during the summer months.

Carrots are prepared and eaten in many different ways. They are cut into thin pieces and cooked with other vegetables or meat. Or, they are washed, and eaten just as they come out of the ground.

This is my first time in Japan. One day some new colleagues invited me to eat out. At first, I felt quite pleased and learnt to use chopsticks with them, but later the problems started.

My cold was not quite finished and my nose was still running a little so I took out a tissue (纸巾)，turned away from the table and blew my nose(抠鼻涕). My colleagues, who were talking

about how to arrange (安排) the final exams of pupils, were looking at me strangely. They explained to me that in Japan, people don't blow their noses in public especially at the table.

When I was trying to stick my chopsticks in my bowl of rice, one of my colleagues said, “Don't do that. Just leave them on the table.” Later, I found that leaving your chopsticks in your rice means death in Japanese culture!

The next time I needed to blow my nose, I left the table and went to the toilet. When I returned, it was nearly time to leave. I noticed there were some little bowls of tea with lemon next to everybody's place on the table. It was hot, and I started drinking it before it got cold. Then I noticed some of my friends were covering their mouths and looking at each other. They were trying not to laugh. “What's wrong?” I asked the friend next to me. “That's not for drinking,” he explained. “It's for washing your fingers.” For a moment, I didn't know whether to laugh or cry.

    Nobody knows how many different languages there are in the world. The most widely used language is English. It's used by business people, airline pilots all over the world. It's also the first language of sports and science. So it's very important for us to learn English.

    English is most widely spoken in the world, while Chinese has the largest number of speakers. There are not only over one billion people living in China, but also many Chinese people living outside China. You can find large or small groups of Chinese people living in almost every country in the world.

    There are some other important languages in the world, too. Chinese is of course very important, especially in Asia. Arabic is widely spoken in many parts of Asia and Africa. Russian is spoken both in Europe and Asia. French is widely understood, not only in Europe, but also in parts of Canada, Africa and Asia. Spanish has a growing number of speakers all over the world, especially in Central and South Africa.

    What language do people speak in the United Nations? There are so many different languages in the world, but they decide to use only six of them. They are Arabic, Chinese, English, French, Russian, and Spanish. Everything spoken or written in one language is translated into the other five.

Hot pot(火锅) and Hotpot

    I'm learning English in the UK where I meet a lot of new friends and eat something delicious. Hot pot is many Chinese people's favorite food, including(包括) me. After having three days of hamburgers, sandwiches and potatoes in the UK, how excited I was to know that there was going to be a free meal of hotpot to welcome the new students. On the way to the canteen, I seemed to smell the hot pot in the air.

    To my surprise, when I stepped into the room, in front of me were still potatoes and bread. Where was the hot pot?

    With many questions in my head, I sat down to have the free meal. After talking with a French girl, I got to know that hot pot is completely different from hotpot. Chinese hot pot is written in two words and hotpot, one word, is a traditional English dish.

    Hotpot is made from mutton and onion. On the top there are sliced potatoes. People put it in the oven all day in a heavy pot and on a low heat. You can often see it at parties in the UK because it's easy to prepare for a large number of people and is not expensive.

    Hotpot doesn't taste bad. However, I still miss hot pot, two words!