So, let's imagine you are walking down the street drinking a box of tea. You finish drinking the tea. Now, what do you do with the box? Do you drop it on the ground? Or, do you do the right thing and drop it in a trash can? Hopefully, you drop it in the trash can because, besides harming the environment, littering is also very impolite.

    Recently, a magazine published a list of the most polite cities in the world. They looked three things: did people litter, did shop clerks say thank you and did people hold the door open for the person behind them? The top three politest cities were New York, USA, Zurich, Switzerland, and Toronto, Canada. Hong Kong, China was number 35. Shanghai wasn't even on the list.

    Does that mean that Shanghai is not apolite city? Well, maybe. There are different ways to judge(判断) politeness but the survey was looking at how a visitor to a city would feel when walking around its public places. Visitors don't like to step over empty tea boxes as they walk down the street. They don't like it when they buy something and the shop clerk doesn't say thank you or even give them a smile. They also don't like it when someone lets a door slam(砰然关上) into them instead of holding it open.

    Shanghai is a nice city but it is not always the most polite city. I don't think this is intentional(有意的). I think it's just a lack of awareness(缺乏意识). China is becoming a popular place for tourists to visit. When they come to Shanghai they will find a friendly city: it would be nice if they also found apolite one. And, remember, being polite makes you feel good, too. It's nice to be nice.

    Spain is famous for its tomato festival, called La Tomatina. It happens in a small town Hanoi on the last Wednesday of August every year. During the festival there are all kinds of activities, but the most exciting part is the tomato fight. It takes place at the end of long celebration (庆祝). You are encouraged to throw tomatoes in the fight. There're many stories about how the festival began. One of the stories goes that during the 1940's, some friends started a tomato fight, while another story is about a local band. Anyway, everyone in Bunol seems to have a different story.

    Before the tomato fight, there are parades (游行)，musical bands, street parties and so on. On the day of the fight, shopkeepers cover their windows and doors in order to keep away from the tomato fight. At the same time, thousands of tourists and local people come to the town square together. Then large trucks (卡车) full of tomatoes arrive. From the back of the large trucks, a great town band start to throw tomatoes at others. Then the crowds fight back, throwing the tomatoes at anything and anyone. Soon the streets are in the sea of red tomato juice.

    Everyone is supposed to obey a small number of rules: You must squash (压烂) the tomato before throwing it and you are allowed to throw nothing but tomatoes.

    It is usually over in less than half an hour. Everyone then sets off to the river to clear up. Sounds like fun!

    An important question about eating out is who pays for the meal. If a friend of yours asks you to have lunch with him, you may say something like this, "I'm afraid it'll have to be someplace cheap, as I have very little money." The other person may say, "OK, I'll meet you at McDonald's."

    This means that the two agree to go Dutch, that is, each person pays for himself. He may also say, "Oh, no. I want to take you to lunch at Smith's," or "I want you to try the Chinese dumplings there.

    They're great." This means the person wants to pay for both of you. If you feel friendly towards this person, you can go with him and you needn't pay for the meal. You may just say, "Thank you. That would be very nice."

    American customs about who pays for dates are much the same as in other parts of the world.

    In the old days, American women wanted men to pay for all the meals. But, today, a university girl or a woman in business world will usually pay her bill during the date. If a man asks her for a dance outside the working hours, it means "Come, as my guest." So as you can see, it is a polite thing to make the question clear at the very beginning.

    What is a typical day like for a high school student in the United States? Well, everyone's is very different. I can describe my normal day in high school for you,

    Our school day usually went from 8:30 am to 5: 30 pm. However

some days I had cheerleading(啦啦队) practice or play practice at 6:30 am. If I had cheerleading practice, I got ready at school, and if I had time, I ate breakfast at the school dining hall.

    Then I would go towards my locker and get my books for the first period. Each class went for about 50 minutes and we had 4 minutes to get to the next class. We studied everything from science to maths and Spanish to PE.

    I played the flute(长笛) in band, so one of my class periods was used for that. Lunchtime would be at 12:30 pm and then we had some time to hang out outside or by our lockers. At the end of the day there was a seminar(研讨会) period. It could be used for studying or meetings.

    After school, I would cheer at a basketball game, be a lifeguard(救生员) at work or has speech practice. My family always tried to have dinner together at 7 pm, but there wasn't always time. I would finally start studying at 8 or 9 pm.

    So there you have it! That's my typical day in high school.