America is a mobile society. Friendships between Americans can be close and real, yet disappear soon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmas greetings for a year or two, perhaps a few letters for a while — then no more. If the same two people meet again by chance, even years later, they pick up the friendship. This can be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendships between us flower more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending (延伸) sometimes deeply into both families.

    Americans are ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays, and their home life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept their hospitality (好客) easily.

    Another difficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they include us warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness to us if it requires a great deal of time. This is usually the opposite of the practice in our country where we may be generous with our time. Sometimes, we, as hosts, will appear at airports even in the middle of the night to meet a friend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends. The Americans, however, express their welcome usually at homes, but truly can not manage the time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They will probably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. And they expect that we will phone them from there. Once we arrive at their homes, the welcome will be full, warm and real. We will find ourselves treated hospitably.

    For the Americans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to their homes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accept their hospitality at home!

    In addition to the official basketball world, various other types of basketball are practiced around the world.

    Wheelchair Basketball

    Wheelchair basketball was invented in 1946 by former American basketball players, who, after wartime injury, wanted once again to experience the excitement of a highly athletic sport within a team environment. It is now played in more than 80 countries by over 25,000 men, women and children with a physical disability which prevents them from playing competitive basketball on their feet.

    http://www.iwbf.org

    Beach Basketball

    Beach basketball is an exciting, non-stop action game played in the sand. The game was born more than forty years ago on the physical education fields of Gulf Shores School. This kind of basketball, invented by Philip Bryant, has grown from an extremely effective skill improvement game to a very popular, widespread competitive sport.

    http://www.beachbasketball.com

    Street Basketball

    Street Basketball or streetball is mainly played as a leisure game, but streetball players can also compete against each other. There are no specific streetball rules and the game is played outdoors; the players make up their own rules to play. Streetball is very popular among younger players and allows players to publicly show their own individual skills.

    http://www.streetball.com

    Deaf Basketball

    Basketball for the deaf (unable to hear in one or both ears) men and women has been played since the early 1920s. The game today has exactly the same rules as FIBA (International Basketball Federation).

    http://www.dibf.org

    Bankshot Basketball

    Bankshot is a new game of skill and challenge that is often described as “mini golf, but with a basketball.” Bankshot is the only sports system that allows the able-bodied and athletes with a disability to play together at the same time. This game is about no running, jumping, or body contact(接触)and relies on the shooting skill.

    http://www.bankshot.com

    The color of animals is by no means a matter of chance; it depends on many considerations, but in the majority of cases tends to protect the animals from danger by making it less outstanding Perhaps, it may be said that if coloring is mainly protective, there ought to be fewer brightly colored animals. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. The kingfisher itself, though so brightly colored, is not easy to see.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. Thus, for instance, the lion, and the wild donkey are all sand—colored. “Indeed, in the desert, neither trees, brushwood, nor even undulation (起伏) of the surface afford the slightest protection to its enemies.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.” says an expert.

    The next point is the color of the mature caterpillars(毛虫), some of which are brown. This probably makes the caterpillar even more outstanding among the green leaves. What would you do if you were a big caterpillar? Why, like most other defenceless creatures, you would feed by night, and lie hidden by day. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}. When the morning light comes, they go down the stem of the food plant, and hide among dry sticks and leaves around the ground, and it is obvious that under such circumstances the brown color really becomes a protection. While we may say as a general rule that the large caterpillars feed by night and hide by day, it is by no means always the case that they are brown: some of them still remain green.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}, and that the brown color is a later adaptation.

A. So do these caterpillars

B. Therefore, the color of the animals is bright

C. We can say that they formed a good habit

D. Desert animals are generally the color of the desert

E. We may conclude that the habit of hiding themselves by day comes first

F. However, there are some cases where vivid colors are themselves protective

G. So the color of birds, snakes and even smaller animals, is of one uniform sand color

Young Americans Are Less Wealthy Than Their Parents

    The cost of living in the United States is going up, notes writer Alissa Quartz. As is reported in New York Post, Quartz points to "the costs of housing, education and health care in particular." At the same time, a new study, the report of which is called "The Fading American Dream" found that half of Americans born in the 1980s are falling behind their parents economically.

    These findings show that many younger adults are experiencing "downward mobility." In other words, they are not doing as well economically as their parents were at the same age. The idea of downward mobility is especially troubling for Americans, writes Robert Samuelson in The Washington Post. He says most U.S. citizens believe that, over time, the amount of money they earn will rise and life will get easier.

    Alissa Quartz wrote a book about the financial difficulties of Americans. In the book, Quartz tells about teachers who are struggling to pay for regular costs. One high school teacher drives for ride sharing service Uber at night to earn more money. He corrects students' papers between riders.

    A college professor turned to government assistance to feed her child and pay for a doctor. Quartz says even lawyers increasingly cannot earn an income that enables them to meet their needs. The problem of decreasing incomes in their field is made worse by debt they may have from law school. Quartz and the economists who studied these issues say many things have led to lower incomes and downward mobility. The economic recession(衰退) of 2007 to 2009 is partly to blame, they say. Modern technology also plays a part. Quartz says robots threaten to reduce the earnings of health care workers, reporters, and people who work at supermarkets, drug stores and tax preparation services. In The Washington Post, Robert Samuelson noted that poor schools, a weak housing industry and too many government rules are also to blame.

    With all these things, and more, partly responsible, what is the solution? These experts say the answer is complex. But all point to one issue that needs to be examined: economic inequality. Quartz writes that while America is one of the richest countries in the world, it also has one of the biggest divides between the wealthy and the poor.

    The researchers in "The Fading American Dream" study make a similar observation. They say raising GDP will not significantly improve the economic situation of most Americans. A higher GDP may help only those who are already doing well. Instead, the economists say, the United States could try to repeat something Americans born in the 1940s experienced. As those children grew up, they almost all benefited from a better economy.

    There is an old saying that America and Britain are "two nations divided by a common language." No one knows exactly who said this, but it reflects the way many Brits feel about American English. But are American and British English really so different?

    Vocabulary

    The most obvious difference between American and British English is vocabulary. There are hundreds of everyday words that are different. For example, Americans go on vacation while Brits go on holidays; New Yorkers live in apartments while Londoners live in flats. There are far more examples than we can talk about here. Fortunately, most Americans and Brits can usually guess the meaning through the context of a sentence.

    Past Tense Verbs

    You'll also find some differences with past forms of irregular verbs. The past tense of "learn" in American English is "learned". British English has the option of "learned" or "learnt". The same rule applies to "dreamed" and "dreamt", "burned" and "burnt", and "leaned" and "leant". Americans tend to use the -ed ending; Brits tend to use the-t ending.

    Spelling

    There are hundreds of slight spelling differences between British and American English. Noah Webster, an author, politician and teacher, made an effort to reform English spelling in the late 1700s.

    Webster wanted to spell words the way they sounded. You can see Webster's legacy(遗产) in the American spelling of words like color (from colour), honor (from honour), and labor(from labour).

    Not So Different After All

    British and American English have far more similarities than differences. With the exception of some regional dialects, most Brits and Americans can understand each other without too much difficulty. They watch each other's TV shows, sing each other's songs and read each other's books. They even make fun of each others' accents.

A facial expression results from one or more motions of the muscles of the face. These movements convey the emotional nonverbal communication. They are a primary means of conveying social information among humans, but also occur in most other mammals and some other animal species.

In the business world, much emphasis is placed on your first words, but it isn't all about what you say. You only have seconds to make a first impression that can make or break a relationship in business. Since the face is the first thing we notice about a person, it's vital to use your face to make that important connection.

Researchers have shown that 55 percent of non-verbal communication is facial. People generally try to mask negative expressions such as disappointment, fear or envy, but these feelings are often reflected in their eyes, or the downward turn of the mouth.

Genuine expressions of anger and surprise can be quite brief, lasting for only a few seconds. If an expression remains longer, it may be a sign of insincerity (不真诚). In general, a genuine expression matches the beginnings of a feeling, so watch for expressions that come after the words.

The research conducted last year by a team from Glasgow University, suggested that people from different cultures read facial expressions differently. Not only can that mean confusion in everyday life, but it can lead to confusion when conducting business.

The study found that East Asian participants tended to focus on the eyes of the other person, while Western subjects took in the whole face, including the eyes and the mouth. The work, which was published in Current Biology journal challenged the idea that facial expressions are universally understood. In the study, East Asians were more likely than Westerners to read the expression for "fear" as "surprise", and "disgust "as "anger".