Nowadays, lots of foreigners are learning Chinese. Like many of them, I 1 knew two words of Chinese ("Ni Hao" and "Xie Xie") when I first came to Beijing, China in 2009. As you can guess, my life was 2 for a while after I arrived. Simple tasks like ordering food or taking a taxi were quite stressful.

    I knew I had to learn more Chinese, so I 3 a Chinese class. My teacher was 4, although I didn't learn enough to have a real conversation. Later I studied on my own as well, but my progress was still slow. And I decided to 5.

    Around this time, I started playing in a band with a Chinese man who became one of my best friends in Beijing. He taught me a lot of 6 about music, such as "melody". He learned a lot of English from me in return, so it was a good way to 7 language and culture.

    I have learned enough Chinese to 8 many problems like booking train tickets. These days, there are more foreigners who are studying Chinese. I can 9 why it's an amazing language. Finally, I found that the best way to learn a 10 is to make friends with native speakers and spend time with them.

The Art of Paper

    Chen Zijiang is a paper cutting expert whom I interviewed for my article on Chinese Art. Paper-cutting is something that he learned to do from an early age.

    "It is a Chinese folk art with a long history," Mr. Chen told me, "Paper cuts of animals have been found in tombs. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}" He added that by the Southern Song Dynasty, paper-cutting had become an important part of everyday life.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}They are paper cuts for decoration, for religious purposes (宗教目的) and for design patterns.

    Paper cuts for decoration are often seen, on windows and gates. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}They are also used on presents. A present for parents whose child has recently been born might show a paper cut of children, for example. Paper cuts which show the Chinese character for double happiness are often used to celebrate weddings.

    Paper cuts for religious purposes are often found in temples{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    The third kind of paper cuts are these used to make patterns on clothing. They are also sometimes used to decorate jewelry (珠宝) boxes. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

    We should not use more water than we actually need. If we do, we will not have enough water in the future.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}It is not a difficult question to answer. If we remove more fresh water than nature replaces, we have taken too much.

    Many cities run campaigns (运动) to get people to stop wasting water. They show them ways they can cut back on water use.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}What's more, they carry out programs that offer money to reduce water use. For example, they give people shower heads and toilets that use less water.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Another threat (威胁) to our water supply is pollution. When our sources of fresh water get polluted, we can no longer use this water. This also endangers (危及) the animals that depend on the water.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#}We can save lots of water by not letting taps (水龙头) run while we brush our teeth or by turning off taps right after washing hands. By collecting cold water when we're taking warm showers, we can also save water.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}In this way, we can make full use of water.

A Bite of China

Are you an eating-lover? Do you want to eat every delicious food in the world? Then do you watch the popular program A Bite of China? It's a TV program on Chinese delicious food which has been produced by CCTV. Is there any holiday that isn't celebrated with special festival food? Here are several traditional Chinese foods:

Noodles are a symbol of long life in Chinese culture. They are as much a part of Chinese birthday celebration as a birthday cake with its candles lit in many western countries. Since noodles mean long life, it is considered very unlucky to cut it off.

Although westerners sometimes may be very sorry to see fish lying on the plate, in China a whole fish is a symbol of richness. In fact, at a party it is a tradition to serve the whole fish last, pointed towards the most valued guest. Fish also has a special meaning because the Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for richness or plenty, and it is believed that eating fish will help your wishes come true in the year to come.

A very popular dish during the Dragon Boat Festival is Zongzi. This tasty dish is made of rice dumplings with meat, peanuts or other delicious food in bamboo leaves. The tradition of Zongzi is meant to remind us of a great man, Qu Yuan in Chinese history.

    Beauty sleep is a real thing, researches have shown that people who have enough sleep look more attractive (有魅力的) to others.

    A few bad nights are enough to make a person look especially "more ugly", their sleep experiments show.

    The researchers asked 25 university students to join in their sleep experiment. They were asked to get a good night's sleep for two nights.

    A week later, they were asked to sleep for only four hour every night for two nights in a row. The researchers took make—up free (素颜) photos of the volunteers after both the good and the bad sleep.

    Next, they asked 122 strangers to have a look at the photos and judge (评价) them on attractiveness, health, and sleepiness, as well as asking them: "How much would you like to make friends with this person in the picture?"

    The strangers were good at judging whether the person they were looking at was tired, and if he was sleepy, his attractiveness score would be low.

    The strangers also said they wouldn't want to socialize with the tired students. The researchers say this is natural for people. An unhealthy-looking face makes people run away. In other words, people don't want to hang around with people who might be ill.

    Dr Brewer, an expert at the University of Liverpool said: "Judgment of attractiveness is often unconscious (无意识的), but we all do it, and we are able to judge on even something small like whether someone looks tired or unhealthy. This study is a good reminder of how important sleep is to us."

Children all around the world love Lego bricks(乐高积木). With those bricks, they can make anything they want. Lego bricks are a great toy(玩具) to play with. Now, for the first time, Lego makes Braille Bricks in English and French, making them a useful toy for blind(失明的) children. 

Lego Braille Bricks have dots (小圆点) on them. The dots are Braille. By feeling (感受) them, blind children can read words and numbers. They can also learn Braille when playing with the bricks. It makes learning easy and fun. 

Olivia is a blind girl, and she learns Braille when playing with the Lego bricks at her school. She loves to play with them and learn Braille at the same time. Her mother also plays with her at home and now she also knows Braille. 

Reece, a little boy, uses the Lego bricks to teach his family Braille. Now, his mother and sister know Braille as well. He says, "I feel so good. Because my loved ones learn something new and I am their teacher. So cool!"

Lego makes its colourful bricks useful. Let's thank it for bringing a new way of playing and learning!