Potato chips are Americans' favorite snacks(零食). Where do potato chips come from? In 1853 a native(本土) American named George Crum made the first potato chips. Crum was a chide(头目) in an expensive restaurant in Saratogasprings， New York. One day， a customer(顾客) did not like the French fries. He said they were too thick(厚的). So Crum made more， this time thinner. The customer still didn't like them. Crum got unhappy. He decided to make the customer angry. So he cut the potatoes， very thin. The customer loved them.

    Other people wanted Crum's  potato chips. Now， there was a new food on the menu— Saratoga chips. Soon Crum opened his own restaurant and made his special chips.

    It took a long time to make potato chips. People peeled the potatoes by hand. Then in 1920，the automatic(自动的) potato peeler changed everything. Now it was faster and easier to make potato chips. Now potato chips were not a specialty. They were a popular snack food， but only in the north.

    A salesman named Herman Lay wanted to sell potato chips in the south. He sold potato chips in bags. His business grew. Today， Americans eat a lot of potato chips every day.

    Basketball players are usually very tall. Because they need to put the ball into the basket. Other sports players may be shorter than them.

    Short people often have better balance (平衡) than tall people, so they don't fall  over very often. In some sports， the players must have good balance, for example, table tennis, they don't need to have long legs to run fast! Some of the fast runners in the world are not very tall.  Some people are tall and some are short. The tallest man in the world is 2.41 meters tall. Today young people in many countries grow taller than their parents.This is because they eat better than their parents. Good food can help children grow.

    Many people in the world are living a very fast life. They seem to be always in a hurry (匆忙).

No time to stop

    People in cities around the world walk 10 percent more quickly than they did twenty years ago. Singapore is at the top of the list for fast walkers.

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    People aren' t as patient (有耐心的) as they were in the past. If it takes more than five minutes for a bus to arrive, they become very impatient. They think they don' t have any time to wait

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    Written communication (交流) on the Internet is getting shorter and shorter. People now use more and more simple words, like BRB (be right back) or NP (no problem).

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    Even in their free time, people do things in a hurry. Twenty years ago when people went to art museums, they spent about one minute looking at each picture. But today they spend much less time.

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    The cars are faster, but the traffic (交通) is worse, so people drive more slowly. They spend more time than ever sitting in their cars, feeling worried that they aren't going to arrive on time.

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    In the US, there is a book called One-Minute Bedtime Stories, for children. The stories in it are famous but short. They are popular with those parents who are too busy to tell their children long stories.

    People are living faster, but are they living better?

    An English gent leman always takes an umbrella and wears a hat. Why? In England, it rains often. The rain comes at any time, so an umbrella is necessary (必要的) in people's life. English gentlemen love to take a long black umbrella. It is useful when the rain comes. And it is also a style. The hat plays an important part in their life too. If two men meet in the street,  they take off (脱掉)  their hats to show their respect (尊重) to each other. If a man visits his friend, he takes off his hat frst when he gets into the room. If he goes to a party, he can only put the hat on his chair, but not on the table. You don't have the two things, but you can still (仍然) be a gentleman. Always be nice to others and be ready to help others. Show your respect and love to old people, women and children. Never shout. Never lose your temper (发脾气).

    In the UK, bus journeys are very common. Buses are often convenient(便利的）for the people who live or work in the city center. Passengers can avoid heavy traffic and do not have to pay for the parking. However, taking the bus is just a necessary but boring part of life: they get on the bus, pay for it and sit down or find a place to stand when it is crowded. Everyone seems sad and bored. 

    In Latin America, however, bus trips can be wonderful. For a start, films are showed on the buses between cities for passengers to have fun along the journeys. Local buses do not show films. but drivers usually turn on the radio and it can be great for passengers to listen to songs and get relaxed. 

    Even better than films and music are the sights and sounds on the buses. Local buses always go to parts of the town that passengers would not visit by themselves. There passengers can see shops that they have never heard about. And they can also see other cultures of the town from the windows of the buses.

    Besides passengers' luggage(行李)is also interesting. It is common to see a happy dog's head getting out of somebody's bag or a lovely chicken "speaking cheerfully "under somebody's arm. Once on a bus in Peru a farmer even tied a sheep to the top of the bus. It was quite surprising.

    In all, taking the bus in Latin America is really fun and unforgettable.