"How are you?" is a nice question. It's a friendly way people in the United States greet each other. But "How are you?" is also a very unusual question that often doesn't have an answer.

    When a person meets a friend on the street and asks "How are you?", he only expects to hear the answer "Fine." even if the other person isn't! The reason is that "How are you?" isn't really a question and "Fine." isn't really an answer. They are simple ways of greeting people and saying "Hello".

    Sometimes, people also don't say directly what they mean. For example, when someone asks "Do you agree?", the other person might be thinking "No, I disagree." But it isn't very polite to answer so directly, so the other person might say. "I'm not so sure." It's a nicer way to say that you don't agree with someone.

    People also don't say directly what they are thinking when they finish conversations with others. For example, many conversations over the phone end when one person says, "I've got to go now." Often, the person who wants to hang u gives an excuse: "Someone's at the door." "Something is burning on the stove!" The excuse might be real, or it might not be. Perhaps the person who wants to hang up simply doesn't want to talk any more, but it isn't very polite to say that. The excuse is more polite, and it doesn't hurt the other person's feelings.

    Whether they are greeting each other, talking about an opinion， or ending a conversation, people often don't say directly what they are thinking. It's an important way that people try to be nice to each other, and it's all part of the game of language!

    My mother is a nice woman. She is 37 years old. She is tall with a small mouth. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} She is a good Chinese teacher. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Her students like her very much and they like her clothes, too. Her clothes are always blue. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} She thinks a woman in blue looks young. My mother can speak English very well. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Students like the helpful teacher. She works in Xiamen now but she wants to go to UK. She hopes to be an exchanged (交换) teacher. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

Recently, secondhand transaction(交易) has become quite popular in our daily life. More and more secondhand goods have found their way in the market, such as used books, furniture and even cars. Why do so many people like to buy secondhand goods? One of the most important reasons is that the Internet provides a more convenient and quicker transaction platform(平台) for secondhand goods.

Li Li, 29, an office worker in Shanghai, sells used products online. Since she began to cooperate with a secondhand transaction platform two years ago, she has sold nearly 14，000 yuan of goods.

The size of China's secondhand product market rose from about 300 billion yuan in 2015 to more than 1 trillion yuan in 2022. Xinhua News Agency reported that the rapidly growing Chinese online resale platforms have also driven secondhand transactions. 

"The increase shows Chinese young people's changing views on consum-ption(消费)，" said Zhang Li, a researcher from the Chinese Academy of International Trade and Economic Cooperation. "Traditionally, buying used products is often seen as a sign of being poor that is socially shameful. But today they focus on the actual value of the product instead of whether it is completely new，" said Zhang.

Secondhand consumption also shows the ideas of environmental protection and the need to cut down on waste. "Humans are the creators of things in life and should be responsible for everything they create，" said Lu Yaping, the founder of a secondhand goods exchange platform.

NEW YORK MUSEUM

Opening time:

Monday to Friday: 9:00 am — 5:00 pm

Saturday: 9:00 am — 1:00 pm

Address: 1100 Chesnut St. New York

Telephone: 7736-4431 

CITY FLOWER SHOW

Time: April 8-April 17

Price: $50 for adults, $25 for children

Address: 112 Kendal Way Chesterton Cam bridge CB4

Telephone: 5553-9561

ENGLISH SUMMER CAMP

How will you spend your summer?

The English Summer Camp at the University of Toronto, Canada!

Age: 13 to 18

For more information, call CEE / CCIEE at 010-6606-2607

POP MUSIC WEEK

Bands from home and abroad will give performances in Chaoyang Park, Beijing. 

Chinese singers like Zhang Liangying will also share music with fans. 

Price: 30-50 yuan

Time: 9:00 am — 9:00 pm

Hi! I'm Gina. This is my friend, Lily. And these are the photos from her. 

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This is a photo of her family. They are her parents. The boy is her brother. He is a student, too. 

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

It is big and tidy. Only 15 desks and chairs are in it. The big desk is the teacher's. On it you can see four books. They are the teacher's, too. 

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Frank is its name. It is three years old. But it's very small. It is white and black. She plays with it every day. 

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

Look! Some things are on her desk. The red pen is from her brother. And the red skirt is from her grandparents. She likes them very much. 

My uncle has a big farm. There are many animals on the farm. They are cows, chickens, ducks, sheep, pigs and three dogs. The farm is far from the city. It's very nice and quiet. I love the beautiful countryside. I like to live there. But I have to go to school in the city. So on the weekend I often go there to help my uncle. I often help him feed cows, pigs and chickens. All the animals on the farm are friendly to me. The dogs like to run around me and I like to play with them. The ducks like to swim in the river. The pigs like to sleep. When they are hungry, they can eat a lot. When I grow up, I am going to have my own farm. I will live in the beautiful countryside with animals.