People who go to a formal Western dinner party for the first time may be surprised by table manners in Western culture. Knowing them will help you to behave properly.

    First you should know how to put knives and forks. The forks are always on the left while knives on the right of the plate. When you see two spoons, you should know the big one is for soup and the small one for dessert. When you sit down at the table, you can take your napkin, unfold it and put it on your lap.

    Then dinner starts with a small dish. Some people pray before they start eating, and other people may keep silent for a moment. After that everybody starts. After the small dish, you will get a bowl of soup-but only one bowl of soup and never ask for a second. Many Westerners like to use their fingers when they eating chicken or other birds at table, but never touch beef or other meat in bones. It is polite to finish eating everything on your plate, so don't take more food than you need. Of course you should try to speak quietly and smile a lot, but do not laugh all the time at the table.

    However, table manners change over time. They follow the fashion of the day. Beside, table manners are only important at formal dinner parties. If you're not sure what to do, you can always follow your hosts. Although good manners always make you look good, you do not need to worry about all these rules while having dinner with your friends or family.

    Winter solstice, as the name shows, means the coming of winter. As an important solar term in the traditional Chinese calendar, it is also a traditional holiday for Chinese, which is also called “冬节”， “长至节”，“亚岁”, etc. Generally, winter solstice occurs between December 21st and 23rd. According to the traditional Chinese calendar, five days constitutes a pentad and three pentads constitutes a solar term. One year is divided into twelve periods and twelve climates which are regarded as twenty-four solar terms. The Winter Solstice is one of twenty-four solar terms. On this day, in the Northern Hemisphere the period of daytime is the shortest of the year and the period of night is longest. . In Northern China during winter solstice there is a custom of eating dumplings.

    In many English homes people eat four meals a day: breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner. People have breakfast at any time from seven to nine in the morning. They eat porridge，eggs or bread. English people drink tea or coffee at breakfast. Lunch comes at one o'clock. Afternoon tea is from four to five in the afternoon and dinner is about half past seven. First they have soups, and then they have meat or fish with vegetables. After that they eat some other things, like bananas，apples or oranges. But not all English people eat like that. Some of them have their dinner in the middle of the day. Their meals are breakfast, dinner, tea and supper and all these meals are very necessary.

    People use their mouths for many things. In the English language, there are many expressions using the word "mouth". But some of them are not so nice.

    Sometimes, people say something to a friend or a family member. Later they regret because it hurts that person's feelings. Or they tell the person something they didn't mean to tell. The speaker might say: "I really put my foot in my mouth this time."

    Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend is going to say. When this happens, the friend might say: "You took the words right out of my mouth!" Sometimes a person has a bad or sad experience with another person. He might say that experience "left a bad taste in my mouth." Or the person possibly has a very frightening(可怕的）experience, like having an angry dog running after him. He might say: "I had my heart in my mouth."

    Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. You might say the person "was born with a silver spoon (银勺) in his mouth". He is the opposite of a person living from "hand to mouth". This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food. 

    Christmas and the Spring Festival are two important festivals in the world.

    Christmas is the most important festival in western countries. It comes on 25th December. When Christmas comes，people have a long holiday. And there is Father Christmas! He comes on Christmas Eve and Christmas Day and gives presents to children so they love him very much.

    The Spring Festival is very important in China. It usually happens in January or February. On the New Year's Eve，people have a big family dinner and they watch TV together. Parents usually give their children a hongbao, which means lucky money.

    On October 31,2016, an Egyptian (埃及的) university held a Chinese movies week with China Radio International (CRI).

    The first movie Go Lala Go was shown at the Suez Canal University in Ismailia. Ismailia is about 120 kilometers northeast of Egypt's capital Cairo, It was greatly enjoyed by over 100 Egyptian students learning Chinese at Confucius Institute (孔子学院) in the university.

    "I would like to thank the Chinese Cultural Center that gave many books to the university, which are important for our students and for the teaching process. I hope everyone enjoys the movie and understands more about China," said Hassan Ragab, a worker of Confucius Institute.

    An 18-year-oid girl student who studies Chinese expressed admiration (崇敬) for the Chinese movie that depicts a woman's efforts (努力) to achieve success. "Since I study Chinese, it's necessary for me to watch such Chinese movies and get to learn about the culture, habits and traditions," she told Xinhua.

    Zhang Li, director of CRI Middle East headquarters (总部), said, "Many Egyptians told me that they liked watching Chinese movies and they found Egypt and China shared similar (相似的) cultures." She added, "The reason to hold this Chinese movies week is that we want Egyptians to know more about modern China, and we also hope to develop the interest of Egyptian students to learn Chinese."