It's a white Christmas in the United States today, with snow falling from Seattle to Maine.

    Northeast

    Biting winds with snow swept the Northeast.

    Earlier, up to 15 inches of snow fell during a snow storm in Maine, while up to one foot fell in New Hampshire. Winds reached 76 mph on Cape Cod, Massachusetts, while up to 61 mph winds tore through Long Island, New York. Falling snow collected on the runways at Boston's Logan International Airport, causing temporary flight delays.

    The wind was so severe in Pennsylvania and New Jersey that the annual (重演) of George Washington and his soldiers'crossing the Delaware River was canceled, the Washington Crossing Historic Park told ABC News.

    Midwest

    Heavy lake effect snow fell in western Michigan.

    The National Weather Service has issued a wind-chill warning and advisory (公告) from Montana to Michigan. Bitter cold air in the Midwest produced wind chills Monday morning as low as minus 48 degrees in North Dakota and minus 47 in northern Minnesota.

    As this bitter cold made its way east overnight, it was expected to move over relatively mild Great Lakes, producing intense lake-effect snow bands capabie of producing 2 to 4 inches of snow in an hour.

    West Coast

    That storm system moved overnight through the Rockies, bringing more snow and the threat of avalanches(雪崩). The National Weather Service has issued an avalanche warning for the Wasatch Range Mountains outside Salt Lake City.

The story of the movie Inside Out mostly takes place inside the mind of 11-year-old Riley as she moves from Minnesota to San Francisco. The main characters are Riley's emotions—Joy, Sadness, Disgust Anger and Fear, which guide her decisions and often compete with one another for control of her brain.

    Fear is tall, thin, looks like a frayed（焦燥的）nerve and is purple. Not only that, this eyes are purple, too. Anger, which is red, looks like a brick and has red eyes. Disgust, who is green, has green eyes. Sadness, not surprisingly, is completely blue, and even looks like a teardrop. But Joy, who is mainly yellow, has more than one color in her. She has blue eyes and blue hair. Why? Well, if blue represents sadness, then the message is clear: there is no such thing as “pure joy”. Instead, even in our most joyous times, there is often sadness mixed in.

    After all, one of the most joyous moments we can experience is a wedding, but it may end with the breaking of a glass. It reminds us that our world is still broken. In other words, even at our highest moments, there is always a little sadness.

    But the comfort is that the reverse is often true. Think about how you feel after crying. When you cry, your body is releasing some chemicals that often make you feel good. And that's why you feel at ease after a good cry.

    Indeed, Inside Out reminds us that even the emotions that appear “negative” have value.in other words, Inside Out shows us that the goal of life isn't “to be happy”. We will feel sad, angry or frightened. But we need our whole range of emotions for developing our sense of self and our relationship with others.

    Annie Oakley was born in 1860 in Darke County, Ohio. Her family was very poor. She decided to help family even when she was young, so she learned to use a gun, and began hunting animals for food. She could shoot them without losing the important parts of the meat.

    Soon her shooting ability became well known. When she was sixteen, she was invited to a competition with a famous marksman(神枪手) , Frank Butler. Annie surprised everyone by winning the competition. Later that year she and Frank married.

    In 1882 Annie Oakley and Frank Butler started putting on shows together. Frank Butler was the star of the show and she was his assistant. The famous native American leader, Sitting Bull, thought so highly of her shooting ability that he called her "Little Sure Shot". Later Annie Oakley became the star of the show and Frank Butler was her assistant. Posters （海报）for the show called her the "Champion Markswoman".

    During World War I, Annie Oakley wanted to train a group of women volunteers for the army, but the United States did not accept it. She gave American soldiers shooting lessons, and traveled across the country visiting many training camps. She gave shooting performance and raised money to support the American soldiers.

   Annie Oakley died on November 3, 1926. Eighteen days later, Frank Butler died too.

    Have you ever been afraid to talk back when you were treated unfairly? Have you ever bought something just because the salesman talked you into it? Many people are afraid to speak out for their rights. Dr Robert Albert, author of Stand Up, Speak Out, and Talk Back thinks it's because their self-respect is low.

    But Albert and other scientists are doing something to help people help themselves. They offer "assertiveness training" courses A. T. for short. In the A.T. Course people learn that they have a right to be themselves. They learn to speak out and feel good about doing so. They learn to help themselves without hurting other people.

In one way, learning to speak out is to get rid of fear. A group taking an A. T. Course will help the shy person to lose his fear. But A. T.uses an even stronger motive— he needs to share. The shy person speaks out in the group because he wants to tell how he feels. Whether or not you speak up for yourself depends on your self-respect. If someone you face is more "important" than you, you may feel less of a person. You start to doubt your answers to problems. You can get to feel good about yourself. And once you do you can learn to speak out.

    Societies all over the world name places in similar ways. Quite often there is no official naming ceremony but places tend to be called names as points of reference by people. Then an organized body steps in and gives the place a name. Frequently it happens that a place has two names: One is named by the people and the other by the government. As in many areas, old habits died hard, and the place continues to be called by its unofficial name long after the meaning is lost.

Many roads and places in Singapore(新加坡) are named in order that the pioneers will be remembered by future generations. Thus we have names such as Stamford Road and Raffles Place. This is in keeping with traditions in many countries — in both the West and the East.

Another way of naming places is naming them after other places. Perhaps they were named to promote friendships between the two places or it could be that the people who used to live there were originally from the places that the roads were named after. The mystery is clearer when we see some of the roads named in former British bases. If you step into Selector Airbase you will see Piccadilly Circus — obviously named by some homesick Royal Air Force personnel.

    Some places were named after the activities that used to go on at those places. Bras Basah Road is an interesting example, "Base Basah" means "wet rice" in Malay(马来语). Now why would anyone want to name a road "Wet Rice Road"? The reason is simple. During the pioneering days, wet rice was laid out to dry along this road.

    A few roads in Singapore are named by their shapes. There is "Circular Road" for one. Other roads may have part of their names to describe their shapes, like "Paya Lebar Crescent". This road is called a crescent (月牙) because it begins on the main road, makes a crescent and comes back to join the main road again.

    In 1996, someone found some very old clothes in an old mine in Nevada, USA; they included a pair of dirty old jeans. Today, those jeans are very valuable, and they are now in the Levi Strauss Archival Collection in San Francisco. The jeans, which are over 120 years old, are the oldest pair of Levi's 501 jeans in the world.

    They are almost the same as a modern pair of 501's; there are just some small differences in the detail. For instance, today's 501's have two back pockets, while the old pair just has one.

    In 1853, a young tailor from Germany, called Levi Strauss, began working in San Francisco; Levi sold thick canvas(帆布) to miners; the miners used the canvas to make tents.

    One day, a miner told Levi that he could not find trousers that were strong enough for work in the gold mines. Levi decided to make some trousers out of canvas. Very soon, he sold all the canvas trousers he had made! They were just what miners wanted.

    However, the canvas was rather heavy and stiff(坚硬的). Levi therefore began to look for a different textile(织物). Soon he found a heavy textile from France; it was denim(斜纹粗棉布). Denim was a bit lighter than canvas, but it was very strong. It was ideal for miners.

    However, original denim was almost white, and miners did not like the color! Their denim trousers got dirty as soon as they began working! Levi Strauss therefore decided to use colored denim, and he chose dark blue. In 1873, he began to make denim trousers with metal rivets(铆钉) to make them stronger. “Blue jeans” arrived!

Levi's jeans were so popular that his company got bigger and bigger. Soon, other firms were making blue jeans too. Miners liked them, but so did cowboys and other working men. Blue jeans became classic American working trousers. After the Second World War, jeans became popular all over the world. Today, blue jeans are made all over the world.