What is the hottest English word these years? “Selfie" may be one of them. It was even named Word of the Year by Oxford Dictionaries in 2013. The word was first used in an Australian online forum in 2002. Now, almost everybody knows it.

 Selfie is a photo that one takes of oneself. People usually take selfies with a smart phone and send them to a social media website. Nowadays, more and more people are taking selfies. From your best friend to your favorite pop star, selfies are taking over Renren and Sina Weibo.

 What makes people love selfies? Selfies can help to remember what's going on in their personal life. "Almost every day, I take a photo of myself at school, and save it in my Qzone. These photos record my happy and sad moments." said Huang Xu, 16, from Hunan. Another usual reason for taking a selfie is to share online. They hope to make friends and share their feelings with others. "During summer vacation, my classmates and I shared many selfies online. Through these photos, we got to know each other's holidays and feelings," said Wang Lin, 15, from Henan. "I'm too shy to ask someone to take pictures of me, but it's easier to do it by myself."

 Although taking selfies is popular among young people around the world, they should be careful at the places where they take selfies. People are warned（警告）not to take light-hearted selfies in serious places, such as in some traffic accidents. In order to protect art works, selfie is banned in some museums and galleries, too.

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：

    Idioms(成语) are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of each word you see or hear, you may not understand the idiom because you don't understand the culture behind it.

    For example, if an American boy asks his mother what's for dinner tomorrow, she may say “I'll play it by ear”, that means she doesn't have plans for dinner and she will decide later. “Play by ear” used to mean playing music using the sheet music(活页乐谱), but now people often use it when they're not talking about music.

    There're many idioms in English. If you learn to use them, your English will be more vivid and colorful. English idioms are more common in spoken English. They can be difficult to remember sometimes. Next time when you hear somebody saying to you, “Give me a hand”, you don't necessarily reach out your hand to him/her, but you do need to be helpful. And when the situation is out of hand, you usually can do very little to manage all that. What about a green hand? It's not about the color of your hand! You're a green hand when you are very new at your work and don't have much experience. If you and your partner always work together hand in glove, you two certainly work together very well.

    Can you guess the meanings of some common English idioms to do with parts of your body?

    Family traditions are special habits or customs that your family have. For example, in the family of Bill Gates, his parents keep the tradition of reading with children. And what's the tradition in your family？