A Bite of China

    Are you aneating-lover? Do you want to eat every delicious food in the world? Then do you watch the popular program A Bite of China? It's a TV program on Chinese delicious food which has been produced by CCTV. Is there any holiday that isn't celebrated with special festival food? Here are several traditional Chinese foods:

    Noodles are asymbol of long life in Chinese culture. They are as much a part of Chinese birthday celebration as a birthday cake with its candles lit in many western countries. Since noodles mean long life, it is considered very unlucky to cut it off.

    Although westerners sometimes may be very sorry to see fish lying on the plate, in Chinaa whole fish is a symbol of richness. In fact, at a party it is a tradition to serve the whole fish last, pointed towards the most valued guest. Fish also has a special meaning because the Chinese word for fish, yu, sounds like the word for richness or plenty, and it is believed that eating fish will help your wishes come true in the year to come.

    A very popular dish during the Dragon Boat Festival is Zongzi. This tasty dish is made of rice dumplings with meat, peanuts or other delicious food in bamboo leaves. The tradition of Zongzi is meant to remind us of a great man, Qu Yuan in Chinese history.

    For centuries, the body's blood has been connected closely with the feelings. People who show no human emotions or feelings are said to be cold-blooded.

Cold can affect other parts of the body. But the expression ―get cold feet has nothing to do with cold or your feet. The expression means being afraid to do something you have decided to do. For example, you agree to be CEO of a company. But then you learn that all the other officers have resigned (辞职), and all the work of the company will be your responsibility (责任). You are likely to get cold feet about being CEO when you understand the situation.

    The expression “give someone the cold shoulder” probably comes from the physical act of turning your back toward someone, instead of speaking to him face to face. You may give the cold shoulder to a friend who has not kept a promise (遵守诺言) he made to you, or to someone who has lied about you to others.

    “A cold fish” is not a fish. It is a person. But it is a person who is unfriendly, unemotional and shows no love or warmth. A cold fish does not offer much of himself to anyone. Someone who is a cold fish could be cold-hearted. He or she will never feel sorry for those in bad situation.

    “Out in the cold” means not getting something that everybody else got. A person might say that everybody but him got a pay raise—he was left out in the cold. And it is not a pleasant place to be.

    Films provide more than just entertainment．Watching foreign language films is a way to develop language skills．While watching a film，you are immersed（沉浸）in the language and can pick up new expressions that you might not find in a textbook．Some difficulties can arise when watching foreign language films-for example，unfamiliar colloquial language or strong regional accents．With this in mind，here are my tips to help you make progress in English learning while enjoying the films．

    Choose a film type that you enjoy.

    If you like action films，watch an action film-for example Indiana Jones．If you prefer comedies，watch a comedy-anything with Hugh Grant in always provides a laugh！It's simple enough，but if you choose something you enjoy watching in your native language，you're more likely to enjoy it in English．

    Choose something that you are familiar with.

    It's best to start off with something simple because in this way you have a higher chance of understanding the film．Disney films such as The Lion King，or the more recently released Tangled，are classic examples．Other cartoons such as Rango and The Lego Movie are also worth a watch．

    If you need to，use subtitles（字幕）．

    Subtitles are very helpful for beginners．using subtitles in your own language is the easiest choice，but for more advanced learners why not consider using English subtitles？This way，you can match the written subtitles to the words spoken on .screen．It helps you to develop your language further.

    I hope you find these tips useful-if you want to recommend a film to other users，feel free to use the comments section！

    Each year on Feb 21, UNESCO (联合国教科文组织) holds an International Mother Language Day (IMLD). The event is to help people to pay attention to the disappearance of the world's languages; many of them are disappearing each year. UNESCO sees this as a terrible fact.

    What happens when a language dies out? Something great is lost-not just sounds and marks but the way that people understand the world and communicate with each other. We keep different cultures and traditions through languages. Kill a language and all these are killed too.

    Through IMLD, more and more people come to realize he terrible situation and try to stop it.

    Google's 2018 Endangered (濒临灭绝的) Languages Project is a good example. Many speakers and protectors of endangered languages upload (上传) texts, audios and videos to the project website. They want to introduce the way that people communicate and express themselves around the world.

    The Myaamia Project is the same kind of effort to revive the language spoken by the Miami tribes (部落) of the United States. Project members work to encourage people to study and communicate with this language, which died out in the 1960s.

    These activities give life to those endangered languages. People who work to keep Languages alive are not limited to the past. Many young people design apps and use social media to support their activities. They "spread the word" to save the world.

    So, while the problem of disappearing languages remains a very serious one, there is hope. We all have a special feeling of our mother language. This is why we should remember the wise words of late president of South Africa, Nelson Mandela: "If you talk to a man in a language he understands, that goes to his head. If you talk to a man in his own language，that goes to his heart."