An English traveller found himself in Norway with only enough money to buy the ticket for his journey back home. As he knew that it would take him only two days to get to England, he decided that he could easily spend the time without food. So he bought a ticket and got on the ship. The man closed his ears to the sound of the lunch bell. When dinner time came, he didn't go to the dining room, saying that he was not feeling very well.

    The next morning, he still didn't have breakfast and at lunch time he again stayed in his room. But at dinner time he was so hungry that he went to the dining room and ate everything the waiter put in front of him. He got ready for the quarrel(争吵).

     “Bring me the bill,” he said. “The bill, sir?” said the waiter in surprise. “There isn't any bill. On our ship meals are included(包括)in the money for the ticket,'' said the waiter.

    Papercutting is a kind of the traditional folk art in China. Papercutting has a long history of about 1,500 years. Let's learn something about papercutting.

    Wonderful meanings

    Papercutting has some wonderful meanings. Some papercutting means happiness and good luck. In the Spring Festival, people paste(粘贴) "Fu" on doors or windows. At a wedding, people paste "Xi".

    The largest Chinese papercutting

    The largest papercutting was made by Gao Xiaodong. It has an area of about 456 square meters. It is as large as a basketball court.

    Why is it red?

    In the old times of China, people think highly of the sun. Red was the color of the sun. They always regarded red as the symbol of hope and life. Now, we can also see red everywhere in China. The walls of old palaces are red. Lanterns are red. Weddings are always full of red things, too.

    Black papercutting in Shanzhou

    Much of the papercutting is red. But papercutting in Shanzhou, Henan Province is black. Black is the best color there. Shanzhou is a dry place. People make black papercutting and wish for rain.

    Phil White has just returned from an 18,000-mile, around-the-world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making this epic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised £70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White's second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out whether he has broken the record or not.

    White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June, 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe first, and then the Middle East, Asia, Australia, New Zealand, and finally the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.

    The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to get away with the little money he had. The worst thing that had happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometers he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and wants to write a book about his adventures.

    A lady and her husband in usual clothes walked into the president of Harvard's outer office. "We want to see the president," the lady said softly. Looking at the usual couple, the secretary said, "He'll be busy all day."" We'll wait," the lady replied.

    For hours, the secretary did nothing for them, hoping that they would finally go away. They didn't. "Maybe if they just see you for a few minutes, they'll leave," the secretary finally told the president.

    The president looked down at the couple. The lady told him, "We had a son that had studied in Harvard for one year. He loved Harvard. But he was accidentally killed. And my husband and I would like to build something for him in Harvard. "Madam," the president said angrily, "we can't put up a statue for every person who attended Harvard and died."

    "Oh, no," the lady explained quickly, "we mean we would give a building to Harvard." The president looked at their usual clothes, and then said, "A building! Do you know how much a building costs? It took us over seven and a half million dollars to build Harvard."

    The lady turned to her husband and said quietly, "Is that all it costs to start a university?" Her husband nodded. Mr. and Mrs. Leland Stanford walked away, traveling to Palo Alto, California where they built a university with their name—a memorial（纪念）to a son that Harvard no longer cared about.

    You can easily judge the character of others by how they treat those who can do nothing for them or to them.

Videos of the granddaughter of American President Trump showing her Chinese speaking skills became very popular on the Internet. In the video, Arabella {#blank#}1{#/blank#}a popular Chinese song and recited two Chinese poems by a Tang poet.

More and more kids try to learn Chinese just {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Arabella. About 50. 000 American students {#blank#}3{#/blank#} now studying Chinese." Because of China's fast growth, Chinese is more useful {#blank#}4{#/blank#}other languages, "said Scott Mcginnis, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} language expert(专家).

For example, in 1999, only three Chicago schools had {#blank#}6{#/blank#}classes. This year more than thirty do. In many US cities. students take Chinese lessons during holidays or on weekends. But Chicago schools teach Chinese during the school days. Last year China gave them 3.000 textbooks {#blank#}7{#/blank#}they had done a good job.

Although Chinese classes are becoming popular, it is still {#blank#}8{#/blank#}of the most difficult languages. It {#blank#}9{#/blank#} an English speaker about 1,320 hours all to become good {#blank#}10{#/blank#} Chinese, but 480 hours to learn French, Spanish or Italian.