Do you have any foreign friends? Do you know their characteristics（特征）?

    The Germans are very quiet and they always keep calm. They don't like to speak more words. They look very serious. They like different kinds of amusements（娱乐）. The Germans are very hard－working. They like tidiness, especially the women, who always keep their home clean.

    In some ways, the Englishmen look the same as the Germans. They are very quiet and never talk too much with the strangers. They are really polite, so we often hear they say “Thank you.” Or “Sorry.” The gentlemen are also the Englishmen.

    The French's holidays are very long. They like traveling and usually spend their long time staying in other countries. The Frenchmen are more outgoing than the Germans. It is very easy to make friends with them.

    Compared to the Frenchmen, the Americans are more outgoing. And they are even opener than all of the Europeans（欧洲人）. They don't like to depend on others. So it is very common that the students do part-time jobs in their free time. And in Americans' eyes, success is an important part in their life.

    Deep in the forest of southeastern Mexico, scientists found a surprise. They found an ancient pyramid. There were colorful murals (壁画)in it. A mural is a painting on a wall. Those murals are helping scientists unlock a mystery about people who lived in ancient times.

    The murals are about 1,350 years old. That's more than five times older than the United States. Scientists say the paintings belonged to the Mayas. That was a group of Native American people. They lived many years ago in what is now Mexico and Central America.

    Scientists are excited about the discovery because they don't know much about the Mayas' daily life, explains Michael Coe, an expert on the Mayas. The paintings show how the Mayas worked, shopped and dined. One mural shows a man drinking from a bowl. Another shows a woman selling food to a crowd of people.

    "Mostly we get the murals that show gods and kings, never anything about the daily life," Coe said. "This is like walking into a Maya supermarket." So far, scientists have found more than 30 murals in the pyramid. They are not sure why the Mayas created them. The experts hope to learn more as they continue their search.

    "We never had anything like this before," said Coe. "These are really special murals."

    Scientists learned a lot about the Mayas from the murals. The Mayas were known for more than paintings. Now the murals tell us some fun facts about the Mayan way of life.

    Sweet Home

    The Mayas lived in what is now Central and North America. Today the area includes parts of Mexico, Belize, Guatemala, and Honduras.

    Smart Starts

    The Mayas invented a type of Maths. They also created a type of writing that used symbols or pictures. Mayas used bark (树皮)to make books.

    _____

    The Mayas often ate com and used it to make other foods. They grew many crops (庄稼), including beans and sweet potatoes.

    Cool Clothes

    Mayan men dressed themselves up with some cloth while women wore long dresses. Rich Mayas wore jewelry (珠宝).

    The great fire of London started in the very early hours of September 2, 1666. In four days, it burnt most of the old city. Many houses were wooden and close together, so they were burnt down. One hundred thousand people lost their homes.

    The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker. But the baker, with his wife and family, got out through a window. A strong wind blew the fire from the baker's house into a small hotel next door. Then it was on fire everywhere. But that was only the beginning.

    By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometre of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the worst day. The fire burnt many well-known buildings. Old St. Paul's and the (Guildhall were among them.

    Samuel Pepys, a famous writer, wrote about the fire: People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until they died. Birds died because of the hot air.

    The fire didn't stop until the King asked people to push down hundreds of building in the way of the fire. With nothing left to burn, the fire became small and died out at last.

    Many lives and things were lost after the fire, but London became a better place many years later.