Workplaces all over the UK are preparing for Christmas and all the traditions and customs that come with it. But will Christmas be a cause for happiness and celebration or embarrassment and disappointment?

    One way that colleagues in Britain show their appreciation of each other at this time of year is by doing "Secret Santa" present giving. At that time, people who work together buy each other gifts without saying whom they are from.

    Co-workers all write their names on a piece of paper and then organize a lottery in which each workmate takes another colleague's name at random(任意地). Each person then has to buy a present for the colleague whose name they have picked, usually with an agreed price set at a small amount of money such as five or ten pounds.

    As the gifts are given without knowing the names of the gift givers, the quality of the presents can be very different; gifts that people received are from tickets to the opera to an air-freshener for a car.

    Another common seasonal workplace tradition is the office Christmas party, when workmates put on their most attractive clothes and enjoy lots of free wine.

    Although most parties are held without a hitch, sometimes the effects of alcohol(酒精) cause party goers to regret their drunken antics(古怪行为).

The BBC invited people to share their most embarrassing(令人尴尬的) Christmas office party stories, and received hundreds of funny stories, such as the man who split his trousers back to front with his strange dance moves or the drunken lady who spent the entire night with back of her dress tucked into her pants and saw the photos that proved it later at work.

    But the worst story must surely come from Stuart Vaines, who got so drunk that he put his boss's head into the toilet. Unsurprisingly, he lost his job the very next day.

    Have you ever found yourself in this situation：You hear a song you used to sing when you were a child-a bit of nostalgia（怀旧）or "blast from the past，"as we say．But it is not a distant childhood memory．The words come back to you as clearly as when you sang them all those years ago．

    Researchers at the University of Edinburgh studied the relationship between music and remembering a foreign language．They found that remembering words in a song was the best way to remember even one of the most difficult languages．

    Here is what they did. Researchers took 60 adults and randomly divided them into three groups of 20．Then they gave the groups three different types of "listen-and-repeat" learning conditions．Researchers had one group simply speak the words．They had the second group speak the words to a rhythm，or beat．And they asked the third group to sing the words．

    All three groups studied words from the Hungarian language for 15minutes．Then they took part in a series of language tests to see what they remembered．

    Why Hungarian，you ask ? Researchers said they chose Hungarian because not many people know the language．It does not share any roots with Germanic or Romance languages，such as Italian or Spanish．After the tests were over，the singers came out on top．The people who learned these new Hungarian words by singing them showed a higher overall performance．They did the best in four out of five of the tests．They also performed two times better than those who simply learned the words by speaking them．

    Dr．Katie Overy says singing could lead to new ways to learn a foreign language．The brain likes to remember things when they are contained in a catchy 3，or memorable 4，tune 5．

    Dr．Ludke said the findings could help those who struggle to learn foreign languages．On the University of Edinburgh's website Dr．Ludke writes，"This study provides the first experimental evidence that a listen-and-repeat singing method can support foreign language learning，and opens the door for future research in this area．"

    A year after graduation, I was offered a position teaching a writing class. Teaching was a profession I had never seriously considered, though several of my stories had been published. I accepted the job without hesitation, as it would allow me to wear a tie and go by the name of Mr. Davis. My father went by the same name, and I liked to imagine people getting the two of us confused. "Wait a minute," someone might say, "are you talking about Mr. Davis the retired man, or Mr. Davis the respectable scholar?"

    The position was offered at the last minute, and I was given two weeks to prepare, a period I spent searching for briefcase and standing before my full-length mirror, repeating the words, "Hello, class. I'm Mr. Davis." Sometimes I would give myself an aggressive voice. Sometimes I would sound experienced. But when the day eventually came, my nerves kicked in and the true Mr. Davis was there. I sounded not like a thoughtful professor, but rather a 12-year-old boy.

    I arrived in the classroom with paper cards designed in the shape of maple leaves. I had cut them myself out of orange construction paper. I saw nine students along a long table. I handed out the cards, and the students wrote down their names and fastened them to their breast pockets as I required.

    "All right then,'' I said." Okay, here we go." Then I opened my briefcase and realized that I had never thought beyond this moment. I had been thinking that the students would be the first to talk, offering their thoughts and opinions on the events of the day. I had imagined that I would sit at the edge of the desk, overlooking a forest of hands. Every student would shout. "Calm down, you'll all get your turn. One at a time, one at a time!"

    A terrible silence ruled the room, and seeing no other opinions, I asked the students to pull out their notebooks and write a brief essay related to the theme of deep disappointment.

    People in the United States honor their parents with two special days： Mother's Day, on the second Sunday in May, and Father's Day, on the third Sunday in June. These days are set aside to show love and respect for parents. They raise their children and educate them to be responsible citizens. They give love and care. These two days make us think about the changing roles of mothers and fathers. More mothers now work outside the home. More fathers must help with child care.

    These two special days are celebrated in many different ways. On Mother's Day people wear carnations(康乃馨). A red one symbolizes a living mother. A white one shows that the mother is dead. Many people attend religious services to honor parents. It is also a day when people whose parents are dead visit the cemetery(墓地).On these days, families get together at home, as well as in restaurants. They often have outdoor barbecues for Father's Day. These are days of fun and good feelings and memories.

    Another tradition is to give cards and gifts. Children make them in school. Many people make their own presents. These are valued more than the ones bought in stores. It is not the value of the gift that is important, but it is “the thought that counts”. Greeting card stores, florists, candy makers, bakeries(烘焙店), telephone companies, and other stores do a lot of business during these holidays.

    My topic today is the Internet. It was prompted(引出)by the first letter, which I am unable to answer fully for the reasons given!

    Dear David, I am a middle school student. Now I am preparing for a writing competition. Could you please check the mistakes in my article about using the Internet and give me some advice? Thank you.

    No name

    David writes: I am very sorry to say that I think it would be very unfair for me to help you win a competition — unfair to the other competitors!

    But I will say that your article is very interesting and I wish you good luck. Your article makes some good points that deserve talking about in this column!

    Dear David,

    I'm now learning English by myself. Can you introduce some useful websites where I can make friends with foreigners? Please help me.

    Moonlight

    David writes: Well, dear moonlight, I bet you made a good choice by using the Net in your self-studies. Two very good websites I would suggest to you are: www.britishcouncil.org.cn and www.britishcouncil.org /learnenglish.

    By the way, for those readers interested in the teaching of English, there is an Internet discussion group called ELTCSChi-L (English Language Teaching Contacts Scheme China List).And also, a healthy warning to all my readers: If over-used, the Internet can be a WOMBAT-A Waste of Money, Brains and Time!

Huang Shunjie might have the best job in the world. The 24-year-old is {#blank#}1{#/blank#} panda photographer and zookeeper. Huang spends each day {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (look) after 18 baby pandas at the Giant Panda Protection and Research Center in China. He prepares their meals, checks on their health and{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (carry) them between their sleeping pens and their public enclosure (围场).

"I can get very close to the baby pandas, {#blank#}4{#/blank#} makes many people jealous (忌妒的)," Huang says.

Any job{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (certain) has downsides. In Huang's case, it's the regular scratches (抓伤) he gets from the 45 - to 55-pound bears. But it's a small price to pay to spend each day with the cute pandas.

"I'm a full-time daddy for these baby pandas," says Huang. "If I take some{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (day) off to go home, I feel empty inside."

For many years, giant pandas were one of the world's most endangered creatures as construction destroyed their {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (nature) habitat in bamboo forests.

But populations have recovered in recent years due {#blank#}8{#/blank#} programs to help pandas breed (繁殖). Today, there {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (be) 1,864 pandas in the wild, up from only 1, 114 in the 1970s, according to China's National Forestry and Grassland Administration. Two-thirds of {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (they) live across 67 nature reserves.