Green is an important color in nature. It is the color of grass and the leaves on trees. It is the color of most growing plants, too.

Sometimes, the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes, it describes something that is not yet finished or plants that are not ripe.

For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in war (战争) .By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today——a person who is new in a job.

About one hundred years ago, greenhorn was a popular expression in the American west Old—timers used it to describe a man who had just arrived from one of the big cities in the east. The greenhorn didn't have the skills that he would need to live in the hard, rough country.

Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early nineteen hundred.

A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

The Green Revolution (革命) is the name which was given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural (农业的) scientists who had green thumbs.

Where would you like to stay when you go on a vacation? What kind of hotel would you like to choose? Different people have different ideas. In fact, there are all kinds of special places to stay when you go on a vacation. There are hotels, motels, youth hostels, B&Bs (bed-and-breakfast), home stays, and more. Each is for a different kind of people. If you travel by car, a motel is good for you. You can park your car outside your room. A youth hostel is good for young backpackers (背包客). A B&Bs might be best for couples (夫妻) or anybody who doesn't like being noisy.

    For people who like reading, the library hotel in New York is a must-see. Each of the hotel's 60 rooms is full of books. In fact the hotel has over 6, 000 books in all. If history is your thing, the 9th floor is for you. If you are interested in math and science, you can stay on the 5th floor. Artists will feel at home on the 7th floor. The Poetry Garden is on the 14th floor, and there is a cozy sofa in it. You can sit on the sofa and enjoy reading a good book or relax outside in the Poetry Garden.

All of us want to be healthy. To keep healthy, more and more people are doing sports. Do you like sports? If yes, which is your favourite sport?

Beijing Opera is one of the Chinese traditional drama art forms and the largest Chinese opera form. Having a history of about 200 years, it is developed from many other drama forms, mostly from the local drama" Huiban". It was especially popular in south China during the 18th century.

Theatrical(戏剧的) art forms in many other countries do not have singing, dancing and spoken parts together in one single drama. An opera singer, for example, neither dances nor speaks on stage; there are no singing or dancing parts in a modern play; in a dance drama, the dancer doesn't speak or sing. Traditional Chinese drama, including Beijing Opera, is a kind of entertainment(娱乐). It includes spoken parts, singing and dancing.

Beijing Opera has spread to many other places. Mei Lanfang, one of the most famous performers of all, was the first to introduce Beijing Opera to foreigners and made highly successful tours to foreign countries." You will doubt and sometimes be a little bored, but you will be interested gradually. You will be strongly attracted to Beijing Opera, even if you know nothing about the drama background." This is how one traveler described his first experience in watching Beijing Opera.

Beijing Opera is China's national opera and it is full of Chinese cultural traditions. Welcome to China and enjoy Beijing Opera!

An animal house lets a bad parrot go away for he likes saying bad words. Now the parrot finds a friend in Amazon's voice app at his new home.

Rocco is a gray parrot. His owner finds that he can use the voice app to play his favorite music,tell jokes and even order food.

Thanks to the app, it helps stop the clever bird from doing shopping. If not, he may really buy some strawberries, ice cream and even a cup.

Mary has the parrot now. She says she takes in the parrot after the animal house lets him out because he often says bad words.

Eric, Rocco's first owner, teaches him bad words. Now he really loves his new home. He talks with the app about 40 times a day.

And he can make different sounds. He can make the sound of a phone, a car, a clock, a door bell, and even the sound of opening or closing the door.

Last year, some groups of students in their community (社区) made a survey about "How do people spend their free time?" The following diagrams (图表) show some results of it:

Diagram 1: Hours for people of different ages who surf the Internet in a week. 

Diagram 2: Different days people go to the library. (library attendance) 

Diagram 3: Different programs people like.