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.

    Benjamin Banneker was born a few months before another great American—George Washington. Benjamin was black, but he was not a slave (奴隶). He and his mother and his grandmother were free. Benjamin's grandmother came from England. In America she got a job and worked for many years to pay for her boat trip across the ocean. After working many years, she saved enough money to buy a farm. Benjamin lived with her for a while. She taught him to read, write and do arithmetic (算术).

    Benjamin's neighbours knew that he was clever. They were not surprised when he built a large wooden clock. He made each piece after studying a small pocket watch. The clock made him famous, for it was one of the first clocks built in America. People from other places began to send hard problems of all kinds to Benjamin to settle.

    Thomas Jefferson heard of Benjamin Banneker's ability to settle hard problems. He asked Banneker to help build the city that was to be the capital of the United States—Washington, D.C. Banneker worked hard on the plans for the city. He marked where the streets and buildings—the Capitol (美国国会大厦), the White House, and many other places should be built.

    Later, L' Enfant, the Frenchman who had designed the new city, had a quarrel, and went back to France in anger. He took all of the plans away. The workmen couldn't build without any plans to follow.

    For a while it seemed that the plans for the capital might have to be changed, but Benjamin Banneker remembered the plans he had helped draw. He drew each again as he had built each piece of his clock.

    If it weren't for Benjamin Banneker, Washington,

    D.C might look very different from the way it does today.

    David Beckham opened his London football academy (学院) in 2005. The academy welcomed boys and girls aged 8 to 15. It accepted 15,0001a year, 10,000 of them free. In America, football is a2sport.3, American football is quite different. Players sometimes kick the ball but they often throw the ball and4with it. They try to take it to the other end of the field. They have four chances to5the ball ten yards (码). They can6and throw it. If they move the ball ten yards, they can try to move it7ten yards.8they move it to the end of the field, they can get six points.

    It is difficult to move the9. Eleven men on the other team try to stop the man with the ball. If he doesn't move the ball ten yards, his team kicks the ball to the other team.10university wants its own team to win. Thousands of people come to watch. They all shout for their11teams.

    Young men and women come on the field to help the people shout more. Each team plays 10 or 11 games each12. The season begins in September and ends in November. If a team is very good, it can play another game13the season ends. The14teams play again on January 1st, the first day of the New Year. Many people go to see these games and many others watch them15TV.

People know animals do have feelings, but they are not sure if these feelings are correctly understood. In recent years, scientists have done research about the feelings of cows, frogs and pandas.  ▲  It says that humans can tell whether a chicken is happy or sad by listening to its calls.

The researchers put a bowl behind a door. Inside the bowl, sometimes, there was something chickens love to eat, such as rice or insects. Sometimes, there was nothing. When the chickens saw food behind the door, they seemed happy and produced fast and loud sounds, known as food calls. When there wasn't food, the chickens made low and long noises to express disappointment. The researchers recorded all these sounds and studied their waves.

Then the researchers chose 16 recordings of such chicken noises. Half were from the chickens seeing the food and half were from the chickens finding no food. The recordings were played to 194 volunteers. Sixty-nine percent of the volunteers correctly understood whether the chickens were feeling happy or not, and some of them even had no experience of taking care of chickens.

The result shows that humans have the natural ability to understand the feelings of chickens. Hopefully, this finding can bring about new technology to help with chicken-raising, a big industry in many countries. Some scientists are already working on a smart computer program that can identify chickens' feelings. This is good news for farmers who want to make the birds happier and healthier.

Throwing tomatoes — Spain

Spain takes "tomato fights" to a whole new level. But the tomatoes are thrown, not eaten. The festival takes place on the last Wednesday in August. Trucks carry tomatoes into the square. People rush to the tomatoes and throw them into the crowd. 

Rolling cheese — England

This festival is celebrated on the last Monday in May. It takes place on Cooper's Hill. A large wheel of cheese is rolled down Cooper's Hill. In fact, the festival is a race where people run down the hill after the rolling cheese. The first person to cross the finish line at the bottom of the hill wins the cheese. 

Burning man — The United States

The Burning Man Festival lasts a week. It falls on the first Monday in September in America. The festival takes place in the Black Rock Desert. The best part of the festival is the burning of a large sculpture (雕塑) of a man. 

Pouring water — Thailand

The Songkran Festival is the celebration of the New Year in Thailand. Thailand celebrates the New Year from April 13th to April 15th. Thai people run after each other and pour water. 

Songkran is one of the most important reasons why foreigners travel to the beautiful land. 

Enjoying snow & Ice — China

Snow & Ice Festival is held in Harbin in China from Jan. 5th to Feb 5th every year. It lasts a month. The Harbin festival is the largest snow and ice festival in the world. There are all kinds of full-size buildings made of ice and many ice and snow sports activities. All of the people in Harbin do ice and snow activities. 

 Alice is a 6- year- old girl. She likes drawing(画画) very much.

 One day, after the rain(雨), she goes out with her father and her dog Coco.

" Wow, what's that?" She asks.

" It's a rainbow. How many colors can you see, my dear?" asks her father.

" Er... one, two, three... seven. Seven colors. It looks so nice."

 Then they go home."I want to draw a rainbow, Dad, but I don't have orange , green or purple," Alice says to her father.

" That's easy. We have the three colors. Let me help you. Red and yellow can make orange. Put(放) yellow into blue, and we can get green. Blue and red can make purple."

" Wow, that's interesting! I have seven colors now. I can draw a rainbow. Thanks, Dad!"

 With the help of her father, Alice draws a great rainbow. She is so happy!