Do you know "World Reading Day"? It is on April 23rd. It is the eighteenth "World Reading Day". As we know books are very important for us.

    In Germany, more than 70% of the people like reading: They often read. They read in their homes. They read in libraries. They read in parks. They even read in hospitals. Parents often read books for kids.

    It is easy to buy books in Germany. There are many bookshops in Germany. They are in big cities and small town. A bookshop can sell many books every day. Germans also like to buy books on the Internet. More and more people buy books on the Internet.

    In Germany, people often have reading parties. They are happy at the parties.

    Do you love reading? Hope you enjoy it!

    "How are you?" is a nice question. It's a friendly greeting that people in the United States use. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It's a question that often doesn't need an answer. The person who asks, "How are you?" expects to hear the answer "Fine," even if the person isn't fine. The reason is that "How are you?" isn't really a question and "Fine" isn't really an answer. They are common ways of saying "hello" or "hi".

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#} For example, when someone asks "Do you agree?", the other person may be thinking, "No, I don't. I think you're wrong." It isn't polite to disagree very strongly, so he might say, "I am not so sure." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

People also don't say exactly what they are thinking when they finish talking to other people. For example, many conversations over the phone end when one person says, "I've got to go now," or the person who wants to hang up gives an excuse such as "Someone is at the door," or, "Something is burning on the stove." {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The person who wants to hang up simply doesn't want to talk any more, but it isn't polite to say so. An excuse is polite, and it doesn't hurt the other person's feelings.

    Whether they are greeting each other, talking about an opinion, or ending a conversation, people often don't say exactly what they are thinking. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. This is a nicer way to say that you don't agree with someone.

B. You'd better not to tell the truth to your family.

C. However, "How are you?" is also an unusual question.

D. The excuse may be real, or not.

E. Sometimes, people don't say exactly what they mean.

F. If you disagree with others, they will hate you.

G. This is one way of being nice to people, and it's a part of the game of language.

    Many of us have ever loved the two toy bears-a brown Teddy bear and a yellow Winnie-the-Pooh bear. The two toy bears come froth real stories in life.

    In 1902, Theodore Roosevelt, President of the USA, went on hunting. The hunting dogs found an old bear in the forest near Washington D. C. and the guide asked the president to shoot（射杀）it. But President Roosevelt disagreed. A cartoonist（漫画家）drew a cartoon showing that the president refused to shoot the bear. Soon, the bear began to appear in other newspapers. People named the bear Teddy which was Theodore's nickname（昵称）.

    In 1913, a captain named Harry Colebourn paid 20dollars for a black bear which was born in the Canadian countryside. The captain's hometown, Winnipeg, was the origin（起源）of the bear's name. In Winnipeg, Winnie served as the mascot（吉祥物）. When World War I began, the captain went to France. Winnie was sent to London Zoo which many kids often visited. Because of its lovely look, the bear became popular with children.

All Together Now!

    Have you ever heard of homemade music? That's right-homemade music. Music that is made at home can be lots of fun. And all of the family can take part in it. You don't have to have good voices. And you don't need to buy a musical instrument. What a family needs is the willingness to make music.

A singing game my family like is Crazy Voices. Each person sings a different song. But everybody sings at the same time! We do sound a little crazy. But the tunes (曲调) all fit together. Sometimes we get all mixed up. Then we just hum the songs. Or we put our hands over our ears. Then we try it again. And crazy voices fill the air. We really have homemade music when we play the Tap-a-Glass. Why? We make the instrument- that's the Tap-a一Glass. This takes some time. First, we hunt for drinking glasses that have a good ring to them. We tap them with a spoon to find out. We need eight glasses- one for each tone (音调) of the scale. How do we get different tones? By putting different amounts of water in the glasses. The more water, the lower the tone. After a while, we have all eight tones of the scale. Now the Tap-a-Glass is ready. One person takes the spoon and taps out a simple tune. We always give the player time to practice a little bit first. Then we try to guess the name of the song.

    Sometimes we do echo (回声) singing. In echo singing, we sing the same song. We pick a simple tune. One person begins to sing. Then a second person starts-right after the first singer! Sure enough, we have homemade music with a homemade echo!

    My family have fun with homemade music. We enjoy the time being together. Sometimes we get all mixed up. Sometimes we have to stop because we are laughing s0 hard. But more importantly, we can make music ourselves. To us, it sounds great.