Thang-ga is a special kind of painting. It started from the Tang Dynasty. Thang-ga paintings have attracted the public's attention in recent years. At the same time, the Chinese government has also tried hard to protect the culture.

    Thang-ga paintings were developed in the 7th century in the Tibetan area. The paintings are colourful and the paints used in Thang-ga paintings are different from those in other paintings. Because of the special environment of the Tibetan Plateau (高原) and the excellent painting skills, the colours of Thang-ga paintings look special. The paints in Thang-ga paintings in the past were made from minerals, including gold, silver, as well as some plants. Since they were made by hand, the beautiful colours could last for hundreds of years.

    However, with the development of machines, people now use cheaper and more easily-made chemicals to make paints. The traditional paints in Thang-ga paintings needed too much work and there were many secret methods. Later people stopped making the paints and forgot about them. So the skills were almost lost.

    Canada is the second-largest country in the world, with almost 10 million square kilometres of landmass. Due to (由于) its size, it is divided into four different regions(地区).

    The Atlantic Provinces

    Fishing is the old industry in this region. Agricultural crops, such as fruit and potatoes, and forests, which produce paper and lumber(木材), form part of the industry. Traditionally depending on fishing and farming, they are developing other natural resources, such as oil and copper.

    Central Canada

    Ontario and Quebec form the industrial and manufacturing (制造业的) heart of Canada. They produce three quarters of Canada's goods. More than half of Canada's population lives in the cities in the southern part of Ontario and Quebec. Most of the people living in Quebec speak French.

    The West Coast

    The British Columbia Coast is Canada's western continental coastline (海 岸 线 ). Europeans settled (定 居 ) in British Columbia in the early 1800s. The railroad built by the government in the late 1800s made moving much easier. Thousands of Chinese came to British Columbia during this period to work on the railroad. British Columbia has the most valuable forest industry in Canada.

Salmon (鲑鱼) fishing is not only a popular sport, but also an important part of the industry. Pacific salmon are exported (出口) all over the world.

    The North

    The Yukon and the Northwest Territories (领土) cover a third of Canada. This huge region has a very small population. Most of the people are natives. There are several native languages, which are equal (平等的) in status (地位) to English and French. During the Gold Rush at the end of the 1800s, thousands of miners (矿工) came to make their fortune (财富). Mining is still an important industry in this region.

On May 15，Zhang Rongqiao wiped tears from his eyes as China's Mars rover （巡视器） Zhurong landed safely on Mars. "I was so excited，" said Zhang.

As the chief designer （总设计师） of China's Tianwen Ⅰ Mars mission （任务），Zhang was chosen by the journal Nature on Dec 16 as one of the top 10 people "who helped shape science" in 2021.Under Zhang，China made a huge step in interplanetary （行星向的） exploration. "I got a taste of the old Chinese saying ﹣ it takes 10 years to sharpen a good sword，" Zhang told Nature.

In the Mars mission，Zhang led a team of thousands of researchers.The team was not only responsible for technical work like launches and flight control，but also for scientific research on Mars.

There were many difficulties.They knew little about the strange and complex environment of Mars. "We may not even know what we do not know about，" Zhang told Nature.

During the process，Zhang played a key part in the decision to send an orbiter （轨道飞行器），a lander （着陆器） and a rover to Mars together in one shipment （运输） ﹣ making China the first country to do so. "That's a big leap （飞跃） because China is doing in a single go （what NASA took decades （数十年） to do），" said Roberto Orosei from the Institute of Radioastronomy of Bologna in Italy.

Zhang also made the important decision to land the rover on Utopia Planitia，where there are special landforms （地形） for scientists to study.He hopes that the mission can do as much research as possible and bring back "rich" information.

"The buck stops with him （他敢作敢当），" said David Flannery，an astrobiologist （天体生物学家） at Queensland University of Technology in Australia.

Do you know about "November 11th Festival"? Nowadays, November 11th Festival is very popular with the young people. It had become a special festival during these years. With four numbers of"1", this date was named as Bachelor's Day(单身节). The single young man hoped he could find his lover on this day before. However, with the development of online shopping, this day becomes more and more like a shopping festival. Many Chinese online companies begin their business promotions(促销) to sell their things. 

Big promotions in the name of celebrating Bachelor's Day usually start at the very beginning of November. 360 buy started its one -month promotion in October 10.

Suning's promotions were called "Zero Buying Within 300 Yuan". After spending 300 yuan on suning. com, the customers could get coupons(优惠券). They could buy another 300- yuan products(产品) for free with the coupons. They could also use the coupons in more than 1, 700 Suning's offline stores. If your home was next to one of them, it would have been easy for you to use a coupons. 

Tmall also offered coupons. Different kinds of promotions started at 10:00, 14:00, 20:00 every day. The promotions continued to Bachelor's Day. Taobao also joined in the promotions during the shopping festival. More than 10, 000 online shops joined in them , which was five times of that compared with last year. 

JD. com started its own promotions long before November11th. The promotions continued from last September to the end of November. There were thousands of promotions and coupons sold. 

Dangdang held its "Fire Promotions" from November 9. It also lasted until November 11.

There are many festival s around the world. Dads have Father's Day. Moms have Mother's Day. But do our grandparents have a1 ? Yes, they do.

The Double Nint h Festival is a special day 2 old people in China. The festival is on the3 day of lunar September. On this day, people4 love and respect(尊敬) to their grandparents.

Respecting old people is a tradition in China.5 an old person walks into a room, everyone should stand up. Also, people are introduced from the 6 to the youngest. If we want to give something to an old person, two hands are used. The old usually don't have to buy tickets for buses and young people always 7 their seats to old people on a crowded subway or bus.

However, in western countries, old people have 8 lifestyles from those in China. They don't often live with their children, they live 9 . They don't want to get help from others. They even don't want to be offered seats. Westerners still respect old people. For holidays, families usually 10 at the grandparents homes. A great smile and a warm hug are enough for grown children to show their respect.

When we get into middle school, we find we can easily get angry with our parents and that sometimes we even quarrel with them. Although we know we love our parents, sometimes we still have different opinions. Then how can we solve this problem? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

If we have recently had a fight with our parents, we should try to calm down(冷静) first. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} We can go to our own rooms. We can sit outside or go for a walk. Take this time to think about what happens and how we feel about it. This will give us time to deal with our feelings.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Choose a time when we're all calm. Then, sit down and talk about how we feel and what we need from them. Sometimes we don't think our parents can understand us at all. This may be true, so we need to tell them how we feel and what's going on in our life. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Of course, the communication is mutual(相互的). We can find out why they have these different feelings. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} We should also reply calmly when they say something that makes us upset. It's important that we should keep ourselves calm. They're more likely to listen to us if we don't shout at them.