The Aborigines (澳洲土著) have lived in Australia for about 60,000 years. They painted pictures inside caves, and these are the rock paintings that have given us so much information about Aboriginal life. For example, some of the paintings that are about 10,000 years old show men with boomerangs. From this we know that the Aborigines started using boomerangs for hunting at that time. Other pictures show kangaroos, so we know that there were kangaroos at that time.

    The Aborigines believed that spirits made people, animals and plants, and that these spirits still live in the earth. For Aborigines, no one can own the earth—the earth belongs to the spirits.
    In 1700, there were many Aboriginal groups with a population of 750,000 all over Australia, and there were probably more than 240 different Aboriginal languages. The groups did not have a leader. Instead, things were decided by the older men in a group. People from different groups often travelled hundreds of miles to meet each other.
    Aboriginal life changed when an English boat arrived in Australia in 1770. Many Aborigines were killed in the wars that they had with the English. More Europeans came, and they started taking land from the Aborigines. The Europeans also brought new illnesses that killed the Aborigines. The result is that today there are only about 300,000 Aborigines in Australia.

     American Food Habits

Most Americans eat quickly during the day—that is, breakfast and lunch—unless it is a social, business, or family ①occasion. The evening meal, however, is usually ②leisurely and a family time. ③Racing through daytime meals is part of the“American pace”of life, for working time ④is considered ⑤precious. There is also another reason, that others in public eating places are waiting for you to finish, so that they can be served and get back to work within the ⑥allotted time .Each one hurries to make room for the next person.

    Mothers Day is a celebration in memory of mothers. It celebrates the importance of mothers in society. It is celebrated on different days in many parts of the world, mostly in March, April or May. Let's see how different people celebrate their Mother's Day.

    Mexico(May 10)

    Children make gifts and give them to their mums on Mother's Eve (May 9).On the morning of May 10,families make a special trip to church and cat tamales(玉米饼),sometimes filled with meat, cheese or vegetables.

South Africa(Second Sunday of May)

    Besides giving mums Mother's Day cards, people show their thanks for their mothers by wearing red and pink flowers called carnations. If their mothers have passed away, they wear white carnations.

    United Kingdom(Fourth Sunday of Lent(大斋期))

    Mother's Day is a traditional day for people to visit their hometown and attend their home churches. People also bake(烘焙)special fruitcakes to give to their mums.

    Indonesia(December22)

    People throw big parties for their mums, filled with fun activities-such as cooking competitions and kebaya-wearing competitions!(A kebaya is a traditional blouse and skirt.)

    When you hear people talk about Washington D. C.，you may want to know what the letters“D. C.”mean. They mean“District of Columbia(哥伦比亚区)”. Washington D. C. is the capital of the U. S. It's in the District of Columbia，not in the state of Washington. Washington state is on the northwest coast，far from the capital city.

    Washington D. C. is about 220 miles south of New York City. Americans named the capital city after George Washington to remember the famous president. George Washington's home is not far from the city. His home was a simple white country house and it is kept as it was when he lived there. Every year a lot of Americans from all parts of the country take their children to this famous house where“the father of America” once lived.

    Americans and Chinese have quite different views about how to treat friends.

    Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon. They don't feel hurt. If the same two people meet again, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand. Friendships between us develop more slowly but may become lifelong feelings, extending(扩展) deeply into both families.

    There is another difficult point for us to understand. Although Americans treat friends warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to them if they are asked to spend a lot of time staying with friends. But in China, we are usually generous(慷慨) with our time. We, as hosts, will appear at an airport even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days of from our work to act as guides to our friends. It is opposite in America. Americans can't manage the time to do so much with a visitor outside their daily plans. They will probably expect the visitors to get to the hotels by themselves and expect the visitors to phone them there. Once the visitors arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real.

    For Americans, it is often considered more friends to invite friends to their homes than to restaurants, except for business matters. Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. So accept their hospitality(款待) at home and enjoy your visit in America!