Birthdays are celebrated（庆祝）all over the world. Some ways to celebrate birthdays are rather similar from county to country: candles, cakes, and birthday wishes. But there are also different ways to celebrate birthdays. Here are a few:

    2014 is the year of horse in China. Do you know anything about the horse?

    The horse is strong and runs very fast. He's a useful and hard-working animal. The horse learns to know his owner soon. He loves his owner, even after his owner loses his life. Here's a story about such a horse. In a war, the owner passed away(死), and fell from his horse. When people found his body some days later, the horse was still standing beside it. During that long time, the horse didn't leave the body of his owner, without food or water, in the coldest weather, driving away the birds that might eat it. Wasn't he a great animal?

    In China, two-child policy(政策) has come out. That's to say, China now allows two children for each family. However, different people have different opinions about it. Some parents are willing to have a second child as soon as possible. They think the second baby is a gift for themselves. One child will feel lonely when his parents go out for work. Two kids will help each other and share happiness and sadness together. In Chinese tradition, the old people wouldn't like to spend their later life in the old people's home. After the second baby grows up, he will be able to share the pressure of looking after his old parents. China has become a country with an increasing number of old people. Two-child policy will improve the balanced (平衡的) development of population. However, other parents refuse the second child because they have some worries. For example, they can't afford the cost of education. They also worry that their two children won't get along with one another. Maybe the young people can't find jobs easily in the future. For our country, perhaps the policy will lead to the house and population problems.

    In a word, more and more families will have a second child. Do you mind having a brother or a sister?

    Audrey is a Chinese-American student. She has found value (价值) differences between Chinese and Americans.

    About money:

    ①Americans would like to spend more than they have, so many of them are always in debt (欠债). Chinese usually spend less than they have, so many of them always have money left in the bank.

    ②American kids love to make money by themselves. Chinese kids always ask their parents for money.

    ③Americans parents think that it is not useful to send their children to an expensive university. Chinese parents would do anything to send their children to good universities and that might make them very poor sometimes.

    About school:

    ①Many American girls take part in sports, dancing and singing groups while Chinese girls take part in academic groups.

    ②Some American students think that "B" is a gift while Chinese students think that "B" is terrible.

    About American parents and Chinese parents

    American parents allow their daughters or sons to have some part-time jobs in their free or at weekends. Chinese parents usually don't allow their children to do so in middle or high schools.