Some British and American people like to invite friends for a meal at home. You should not be upset  1 your English friends don't invite you home. 2 doesn't mean they don't like you. Dinner parties usually start 3 7 and 8 p.m. and end at about 11 p.m.

    Ask your hosts what time you should arrive. It's polite to bring flowers, chocolates or a bottle of wine 4 a gift.

    Usually the evening starts with drinks and snacks. If you want to be extra polite, say how much you like the room, or the 5 on the wall. But remember－it's not polite to ask how much things 6.

    In many families, the husband sits at one of the table and the wife sits at the other end. They eat with their guests.

    You'll probably start the meal with soup or something small, then you'll 7 meat or fish with vegetables, and then dessert, followed by 8. It's polite to finish 9 on your plate and to take more if you want it.

    Did you enjoy the evening? Call your hosts the next day, 10 write them a short "thank you" letter. British and American people like to say "thank you" all the time!

    You may know the English letters A, B and C. But do you know there are 1 called ABC? You may like eating bananas. But do you know there is such a thing as a "banana person"? How 2 ! Are these people from "another earth"? No, they are just Chinese people 3 you and me.

    ABC means(意思是) American-born-Chinese. 4 ABC is a Chinese, but was born in the United States. Sometimes, people 5 an ABC a "banana person". A banana is yellow outside and white inside. 6, when a person is a banana, he or she is white inside—living like a Westerner and yellow outside—7 like a Chinese.

    Do you know why? Usually, ABCs know 8 about China or the Chinese language(语言). Some of them don't 9 Chinese. But if ABCs can't speak Chinese, can we still call them Chinese people? Yes, of course. They are Chinese. They are overseas(海外的) Chinese. These people may be citizens(公民) of another 10 like the USA, Canada or Singapore. But they have Chinese blood(血统). Their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents were from China. They all have black eyes and black hair. But they are not Chinese citizens. For example, we all know the famous scientist Ding Zhaozhong. He got the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1976. Chinese people love him. But he is an American citizen.

    There are many different traditional festivals in China. The Dragon Boat Festival is celebrated 1 the fifth day of the fifth lunar month by 2zongzi and having dragon boat races.

    The festival began in the Warring States Period(战国时期), and has a3 of more than 2,000 years. The date of the festival is said to be the date 4 Qu Yuan died. He was a wise and upright(正直的) man, and was loved 5 people. He wanted the emperor of Chu6against the State of Qin by cooperating with the State of Qi,_7 he was refused and sent to the border area. During his stay there, he wrote8 poems to express his strong9 for Chu. On the day when Chu was defeated by Qin, Qu Yuan10into the Miluo River to express his strong love for his native land.

    After the11 of Qu Yuan, people of Chu went to the Miluo River to mourn(哀悼) for the  great12 they loved so much. Some threw rice wrapped in leaves into the river to feed the fish13 keep them away from Qu Yuan's body. Some doctors poured realgar (雄黄) wine14 the river to drive away snakes and other animals that might try to eat Qu Yuan.

    Now the Dragon Boat Festival has become a(n) 15 festival for Chinese people.

I was walking along a busy road when I noticed a young man standing near the crossing selling toys.1I would hurry past such sellers. But I found this young man was 2, so I stood for some time without crossing the street. I wanted to see how he sold his things.

Soon, a young mother with a little girl came by and the child set 3 eyes on one of the teddy bears. The mother asked the 4 and it was only one dollar. She 5 out a 10­dollar note from her handbag and told the young man that she was giving him 10 dollars and wanted the 6 back. I was wondering how he was going to do it. He told the young mother to put the money in the bag 7 around his neck and take out her change.

I realized that this young man depended on believing people would not cheat him. There was no way for him to know 8 someone took out more than they should have done. I was so 9. I bought a car model from him that I did not need. As I walked down the street, I gave the car model to a kid walking with his father.

I kept thinking that the world would be a better place if we could all learn to 10others more, like the young blind street seller.

It was Saturday morning when I was six years old. Christmas was still three weeks away, but everyone in town was 1 . Santa Claus, the Father Christmas, was coming in our small Irish town.

The main street was full of children. They cheered 2 as the band passed by. Santa followed on a white 3 . He waved to the crowd while shouting, "Ho! Ho! Ho!" But just as he passed me, his beard （胡须）fell off.  That was when I knew Santa wasn't real and started to4 . Tears were welling up in my eyes.

The man on the horse was my dad.5 ,1 wasn't surprised. Dad was always the most popular person in our town. He sang in church, acted in the theatre and even 6 on TV

Thirty years later, my dad visited me in New York City. It was his 7 time in the United States, and he felt like a very excited child.Atdinner, he told me a story.

Back in the 1950s, my dad left school at the age of 16 to work in a small 8. One summer, his Uncle Ben came home from the US. He told Dad to go to America with him. But my grandma wasn't 9 with the idea. My dad was the only breadwinner in the family. In the end, he stayed and never left.

At that moment, I understood that Dad was once young. Father Christmas also had dreams. But he10 those dreams for______his family. What would he have become if he had gone to New York? Could he have become a famous singer, actor or dancer?

Sadly, dad just worked in that small factory for 40 years.

 Arriving in Sydney on his own from India, my husband, Rashid, stayed in a hotel for a short time while looking for a house for me and our children.

 During the first week of his stay, he went out one day to do some shopping. He came back in the late afternoon to discover that his suitcase was gone. He was extremely worried as the suitcase had all his important papers, including his passport.

 He reported the case to the police and then sat there, lost and lonely in a strange city, thinking of the terrible troubles of getting all the paperwork organized again from a distant country while trying to settle down in a new one.

 Late in the evening, the phone rang. It was a stranger. He was trying to pronounce my husband's name and was asking him a lot of questions. Then he said they had found a pile of papers in their trash can(垃圾桶) that had been left out on the footpath.

 My husband rushed to their home to find a kind family holding all his papers and documents. Their young daughter had gone to the trash can and found a pile of unfamiliar papers. Her parents had carefully sorted them out, although they had found mainly foreign addresses on most of the documents. At last they had seen a half-written letter in the pile in which my husband had given his new telephone number to a friend.

 That family not only restored the important documents to us that day but also restored our faith and trust in people. We still remember their kindness and often send a warm wish their way.