A funny thing happened to my sister Tina last month. She lives in Japan and teaches English. In Japan, people don't usually wear their outdoor shoes in the house or in school, and a lot of buildings have places for shoes. So her school has a special place for shoes. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}
Tina teaches English in the evening. One Friday, she went to school, and she put her shoes in the shoe box as usual. Then she had an interesting spoken English class with her students. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} But to her surprise, her shoes weren't in the box. There was only one pair of those there, and they weren't her shoes! She had to get home in a hurry. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}
On Monday, at her next English class, her shoes were in a shopping bag on her desk! There was a note that said, “I'm so sorry. I took your shoes by mistake!” {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Somebody felt a lot of shame!

　The word“day” has two meanings. When we talk about the number of days in a year,  we are using “day” to mean 24 hours. But when we talk about day and night,  we are using“day” to mean the time between sunrise and sunset. Since the earth looks like a ball,  the sun can shine on only half of it at a time. Always one half of the earth is having day and the other half night. A place is moved from day into night and from night into day over and over by the spinning（旋转）of the earth. At the equator（赤道）day and night are sometimes the same length（长度）. They are each twelve hours long. The sun rises at 6 o'clock in the morning and sets at 6 o'clock in the evening. For six months the North Pole is tilted（倾斜）toward the sun. In those months the Northern Hemisphere（半球）gets more hours of sunlight than the Southern Hemisphere. Days are longer than nights. South of the equator nights are longer than days. For the other six months the North Pole is tilted away from the sun. Then the Southern Hemisphere gets more sunlight. Days are longer than nights. North of the equator nights are longer than days. Winter is the season of long nights. Summer is the season of long days.

      Reality TV (真人秀电视节目 ) is very popular in the UK. These programmes give us a good look into the lives of different people in Britain. Also they are a very cheap way to make programmes. Here are some of them.

Strictly Come Dancing

In the show some famous people learn to dance with a professional dancer. Four professional dance experts give them scores and comments (评论) about their dances. After that, the public vote(投票) for their favourite couple. The two least favourite have to dance again and the judges decide who stays in the competition and who leaves. This show is very popular with people of all ages in the UK.

Come Dine with Me

      Each week four people prepare dinner in their home for the other players. Each player then gives the cook a grade out of 10 for the food. The winner gets￡1,000. Sometimes the food is terrible and the players are very rude to each other.

World's Strictest Parents

      Badly behaved British teens are sent abroad to live with a super strict family for a week. The teenagers have to follow the rules of their host family and go to the local school. After seven days the teenagers return home and their parents tell us whether their behaviour is better or not. There is often a lot of cries and shouts in this show but it can be worth watching too.

    Spring is coming. For students in the US, this means that a vacation is on its way. Students may have the spring at 1times. So while students from one town are on vacation, their neighbors in the next town might have classes as usual.

    Spring vacation is 2 known as "spring break". During this time, students have one to two weeks3from school. The break usually happens in late March or April. Some 4 plan the vacation to take place on the same week as Easter(复活节). Not all schools do this, though. Since Easter is 5on a Sunday, students whocelebrate the holiday do not need to worry 6 missing school.

    Spring break is a fun and relying time. Teachers usually don't give   7 over the break, so students can8 their days and nights free from school -time stress.

    There are lots of ways to spend the time. Some families go on vacation, visiting a new state or 9 a new count. Others may travel to visit family members who live far away. Or students may enjoy the break by relaxing at home, reading books and watching movies, visiting friends' houses, and taking day trips.

    When students return to school, they are relaxed and ready to10the school year.

    There are many different kinds of museums in the world. But have you ever visited a museum of tap water? Beijing Museum of Tap Water may be the only one in the world.

    The museum has a large number of photos, models, maps and equipment which tell the water treatment history of China. Few of them are in English, so it's a bit difficult for foreign visitors to understand them.

    Beijing's tap water history began in 1908.  At that time Empress Dowager Cixi(慈禧太后) ordered to build water plants and city pipelines to help fight fires that happened in Beijing.

    At first, people did not believe in tap water. They continued using well water(井水) which was not safe. Later, the government did everything to explain to people how safe tap water really was. Finally, more and more people started using tap water.

    The museum is one of the most wonderful places in Beijing. For those who want to try something different, this place near the Dongzhimen Subway Station is a very unusual one.

    The Silk Road is the name of different roads that long ago connected Europe, Africa and Asia. People reached these different places along these roads. Scientists believe people began to travel the Silk Road about 3000 years ago. By the time the Chinese silk trade became important in the world, the Silk Road covered almost 6500 kilometers. It spread from Rome to China, which is from the West to the Far East.

    Traders travelling along the Silk Road carried silk, of course. They also carried and traded spices（香料）,cloth, valuable stones and gold.

    There is a famous old story along the old road. It is said that Roman soldiers（士兵）travelled through central Asia. They started to live somewhere near the ancient Chinese village of Liqian. Some of these Romans married local Chinese women and the story of blue-eyed villages of China was started.

    During its busiest period, the Silk Road allowed people from many different cultures and countries to meet each other and mix. The Silk Road allowed the sharing of valuable goods and new ideas. These included people and trading goods from the Mediterranean, Persian, Magyar, Armenian, Bactrian, Indian and Chinese areas. All these peoples travelled the Silk Road, and they shared goods, stories, languages, and cultures.

    In modern times, the old Silk Road routes（路线）are still used, but now they are crossed by trains instead of camels and horses. There is even a Silk Route Museum in Jiuquan in China. It has over 35,000 objects from all along the Silk Road. In this way, China protects the history of many countries and peoples.