Americais a mobile society. Friendship between Americans can be close and real, yet disappearssoon if situations change. Neither side feels hurt by this. Both may exchange Christmasgreetings 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 thefriendship.

   Thiscan be quite difficult for us Chinese to understand, because friendship betweenus flows more slowly but then may become lifelong feelings, extending(延伸) sometimesdeeply into both families.

   Americansare ready to receive us foreigners at their homes, share their holidays and theirhome life. They will enjoy welcoming us and be pleased if we accept theirhospitality (好客) easily.

   Anotherdifficult point for us Chinese to understand Americans is that although they includeus warmly in their personal everyday lives, they don't show their politeness tous if it requires a great deal of time.This is usually the opposite of thepractice 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 afriend. We may take days off to act as guides to our foreign friends.Americans, however, express their welcome at home. But they truly cannot managethe time to do a great deal with a visitor outside their daily routine. They willprobably expect us to get ourselves from the airport to our own hotel by bus. Andthey 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 to be treatedhospitably.

   ForAmericans, it is often considered more friendly to invite a friend to theirhomes than to go to restaurants, except for purely business matters. So accepttheir hospitality at home!

Chinese New Year is one of {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (important) celebrations in the Chinese calendar. It is also known as the Spring Festival because it celebrates the start of new life and the season for {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (plant) crops. 

Chinese New Year starts with the new moon on the first day of the new year and it doesn't end {#blank#}3{#/blank#} the moon is the brightest 15 days later.

Just before Chinese New Year, people clean the houses. They decorate them with pieces of paper with words meaning "Happiness"and "Wealth" written on them. Some couplets (对联) {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (put) on the front door. On Chinese New Year's Eve, families get together and have an unusual meal {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (happy). Of course, the popular food is dumplings. 

Chinese New Year lasts fifteen days, so during these days, people always visit their relatives and friends. It is a good time to relax {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (they). Children always feel excited because they can get some {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (luck) money wrapped in red envelopes.

One of the most interesting parts of Chinese New Year {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (be) the dragon dance or lion dance.{#blank#}9{#/blank#} dragons made out of paper, silk and bamboo are really lively. Chinese people think of dragons as helpful, friendly animals which symbolize long life {#blank#}10{#/blank#} wisdom. At the same time people also like to set off fireworks to welcome the new year.

Scientists say they recently invented the world's tiniest remote—controlled robots. The robots are small enough to sit on the side of a coin. They don't have any power of their own，and they can be controlled from a distance by using lasers（激光器）. The scientists say one day robots like these may be able to work in areas too small for tools. The robots don't move very quickly. But because of their tiny size，they're also not too slow. It takes the robots about 20 seconds to cover 1 centimeter. 

Right now the robots aren't all that useful. All they can do is to move，and they need to be in a place where lasers can shine on them to do that. But the scientists say these robots are an important step toward inventing more helpful tiny robots. 

The researchers say that one day tiny robots like these might be able to work in very small spaces. It's possible that they could build very tiny machines，or perhaps even travel inside the human body to help do with medical problems. 

Using similar building methods，the scientists made a number of different robots，including ones that looked like small insects. John Rodgers，says that their methods allow them to "build walking robots with almost any sizes or 3 D shapes. "

Every school day, we use schoolbags to carry all of our things to school. They are a big part of our lives. But have you ever thought about the history of the schoolbag?'. 

In the Han Dynasty（汉朝）, students in old - style private schools used bamboo boxes to carry books to school. People consider the bamboo boxes to be the earliest schoolbags. There were usually two or three layers（层）in the box. Kids put different things like books, brushes, ink stones（砚）and paper in the boxes. 

Hundreds of years later, people developed a new kind of schoolbag called the budai, or the " hip - pocket ". The budai was lighter than the bamboo box. With the founding (成立) of the People's Republic of China, military rucksacks（军用背包 )became popular. Many people carried them when they were in school. Ask your grandparents or parents about these bags. Maybe they can tell you about their experiences of carrying them when they were in school. 

A new style of schoolbags has appeared in recent years. Many of them have colorful and fashionable designs（时尚的设计） on them, such as pictures of cartoons or pop stars. And they are more comfortable to use. Some students pull wheeled bags filled with heavy textbooks and others carry backpacks. 

Schoolbags are still changing. Can you imagine what future schoolbags will be like?

Nowadays, we have kinds of technologies to protect us from different disasters（灾难）. We even know where and when some disasters, like the typhoon, come. While most of the new technologies are far away from us, some around us can help people in disasters.

The drone（无人机）is one of them. It can be used to send food, water and other important things when a natural disaster happens. Very often the buildings are too dangerous for rescue teams to get in. They can make the drone fly into the buildings to search for those who are still alive first.

Social media is also a useful tool when it comes to natural disasters. With its help, people can know about the natural disasters before they hit. And some social media platforms allow people to mark themselves as safe after disasters so others can know their status.

 Social media is also a place for up-to-the-minute news, so people can learn what is going on in the disaster areas. Besides, many social media platforms allow people to donate money to help people in disaster areas. The money will help them get back to their normal life as soon as possible. For example, livestreaming（直播）helped raise a lot of money for Henan after the flood in 2021.

Although these technologies can help when there is a natural disaster, we still need to prepare necessary tools and learn important skills to protect ourselves.