Hi, everybody. My name is Alice. I have worked as an airhostess(空 姐) for China Eastern Airlines for five years. I have some useful tips for you on taking flights.

    All passengers must arrive at the airport two hours before the departure time. You have much time to check everything. If you have never been to another country, don't forget to take your passports, air tickets and your suitcases with you.

    Have you got your boarding card(登机牌) yet? You must get it as soon as you arrive at the airport. Have you checked your suitcases and put name tags on them?

    If the suitcases are too heavy, you can find a trolley(推车). Have you exchanged(兑换) some US dollars? If not, there are a few banks at the airport.

    You can also have a meal at a restaurant before boarding. When you want to go upstairs, you can take the escalator.

    If you have any questions, you can come and ask me. We hope you will have a pleasant flight!

    Do you know something about the holiday camps in Hong Kong? In the past, the students in Hong Kong usually join an English holiday camp in their holidays. And their parents didn't go with them, though they were very young.

    Now they still enjoy joining many kinds of holiday camps without their parents. Many parents let their children join some kinds of holiday camps in order to learn some useful knowledge in the life and also learn some knowledge about living skills, science, reading, writing and so on. The most important thing for the children to join the holiday camps is to learn to look after themselves.

    Holiday camps in Hong Kong are not so expensive. Most families can afford to sent their children there for study or for making their bodies strong.

    It is said that students in Hong Kong have much knowledge about many things. Perhaps it has something to do with all kinds of holiday camps.

    Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival is the first festival in China for farmers. The festival starting from 2018, falls1the Autumnal Equinox (秋分) each year. The Autumnal Equinox is one of the 24 solar terms (节气) of the Chinese lunar calendar and usually falls between September 22nd and 24th, during2harvest season.

    As we all know, China has the3population all over the world. It was difficult4so many people in the past. After reform (改革) and opening, with the5of modern agriculture (农业), people's life is getting better and better, and their living conditions6a lot. Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival shows7our government is paying more attention to agriculture and farmers' life. It will greatly encourage farmers to farm and develop8modern agriculture. China has  a long history of agriculture. Chinese Farmers' Harvest Festival, the cultural symbol,9to show China's long farming culture to the world. It also connects the excellent traditional Chinese culture to modern civilization (文明) and improves the cultural self-confidence and national pride.

    Since the festival is especially created for farmers, they10to think of their own ways to celebrate harvest. The celebrations will be11based on local customs. Some activities are held across the country,12most of the celebrations will take place at a local level that comes from local customs. Also, local government usually hosts all kinds of activities13attract various people for the festival, such as folk culture performances and food tasting.

    Some people think the festival is the happiest time of a year, even better than the Spring Festival, because food gives people14sense of safety and hope. For15people, the harvest festival is a time to look back at the past and look forward to the future.

    Many students think that learning a new language is very difficult. But if your brain (大脑) is only the same size as a bird's, you will know how difficult it is to learn English. That is what some birds can do.

Many birds can copy (模仿) the sounds of language. A type of African parrot is very good at doing this. This kind of parrot has grey feathers and people say they are clever.

Every December in London, the National Cage and Aviary Bird Show tries to find the best "talking" bird in the world. One bird named Prudle stood out (突出) among the " talking birds"  by winning this prize every year from 1965 to 1977. In 1958, somebody took Prudle from his nest in Uganda, and then sold it to a woman named Iris Frost. She then took care of him at her home in Seaford, England. Before he died in 1994, aged 35, Prudle knew almost 800 words in English. Prudle was also the oldest bird in the world that lived in a cage.

Another parrot named Puck was tested in 1993. It turned out that Puck knew even more words than Prudle. Puck knew more than 1,700 English words. In the 2003 Guinness Book of World Records, Puck was listed as knowing more words than any other bird in the world.

Every country has its own way of cooking.

Most people in the United States like fast food, but if you think that {#blank#}1{#/blank#}, you are wrong. It's true that most Americans eat fast food for their breakfast and lunch, but {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Parents see the importance of teaching their children how to cook, and most Americans say that home-cooked meals are the best.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. For example, baking（烘焙) is the most popular way of cooking in America. Most American families have ovens and {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. In planning a big meal, they try to cook meat, a few vegetables, some bread and often some sweet food.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. There are many kinds of foods in different colors, so the meal is healthy and looks beautiful, too.

    If you had billions of dollars, would you donate almost all of it to charity? Well, that's what Mark Zuckerburg, CEO and founder of Facebook, just said he would do.
    Zuckerburg and his wife Priscilla Chan promised to give 90% of their Facebook shares to society. Right now that is about $45 billion, and they plan to donate the money to things like science and education.
    Many billionaires have done similar things. Bill Gates, creator of Microsoft, made The Giving Pledge, an activity in which billionaires promise donate more than half of their wealth to charities. This started in 2010, and now 139 people from 15 countries joined it.
    But giving back and helping others isn't just for big billionaires. People like Zuckerberg, and Gates may have more to give, but people with less are doing it, too.
    Especially around the holidays, people want to do their part and give back to people who are less lucky than them. Schools may have food collections where people bring a few food items, and together they can make a big donation to places like homeless people's homes.
    People also host special events like concerts of runs to be creative while raising money. Regular people donate whatever they can to US charities like the United Way and the American Red Cross.
    Then these charities are able to help US communities in different ways like education, health and improving the lives of the poor. These individual donations come together to make a big difference.