Every day, it is easy to see advertisements in English all around us. Look at your own bags and clothes, and at the bags and clothes of your classmates. How many different advertisements can you see which use English words?

Often bags and clothes show the name of the company that made them. This is a popular form. A special picture or symbol called a lo go(标识语)is sometimes used. Logos appear on many different products(产品). They are popular because when you see a logo, it is hard to forget that product or company.

    It is common to see advertisements on TV and hear them on the radio. Most advertisements are very short. Sometimes the advertisers use a short sentence which is easy for people to say and remember. Nike, for example, has a simple English sentence which is used all around the world: “Just do it.” Advertisements often use funny situations as well. It is simple to remember it.

    All advertisements are designed(设计) to make people buy a product. An advertisement for a soft drink, for example, might show a group of young people who are having fun. The young people are all drinking the soft drink. Advertisers are saying to you, “Why don't you buy this drink and be like these people? You can be young and modern.”

    You might think that advertisements are not after you, but next time you buy a soft drink, ask yourself this question: Why am I buying this particular(特别的) product?

    "Cool" is a word with many meanings. Its old meaning is used to express a temperature that is a little cold. When the word is changing, the word has different meanings.

    "Cool" can be used to express feelings of interest in almost anything.

When you see a famous car in the street, maybe you will say, "It's cool." You may think "He's so cool" when you see your favorite footballer.

    We all maximize(扩大)the meaning of "cool". You can use it instead of many words such as "new" or "surprising". Here's an interesting story we can use to show the way the word is used. A teacher asked her students to write about the waterfall they visited last week. On one student's paper was just the one sentence, "It's cool." Maybe he thought it was the best way to show what he saw and felt.

    But the story also shows a scarcity(缺乏) of words. Without "cool", some people have no words to show the same meaning. So it is quite important to keep some credibility(可信性).Can you think of many other words that make your life as colorful as the word "cool" can? And I think they are also very cool.

    The Monkey Buffet Festival is on the last Sunday of November. It is a great day for monkeys in Thailand（泰国）. The festival has a history of 25 years. People there think monkeys can bring good luck to them. So, to thank monkeys, they have this special festival.

    On that day every year, people put lots of fruit, vegetables, cakes and even drinks on the tables outside. They are all for monkeys. Many people come to see the monkeys on that day.

    During the festival, there are a lot of interesting activities about monkeys. Young people always dress like monkeys and they sing and dance and play some music on the street.

    Monkeys always live in groups. Most of them live in the trees. They are good at running and jumping. They eat fruit, vegetables, flowers and birds' eggs. Monkeys are smart. Do you think so?

    Ancient China produced many types of beautiful works of art. Among them, calligraphy (书法), poetry (诗歌) and painting were the most famous. Often they would be put together in art. These became important starting with the Song dynasty.

    Calligraphy is the art of handwriting. In the old time the Chinese considered writing as an important form of art. Calligraphers (书法家) would practice for years to learn to write perfectly, but with style. Each of the over 40,000 characters needed to be written correctly. And each stroke (笔画) in a character had to be written in a certain order.

    Poetry was also an important form of art. Great poets were famous all over the country, but all educated people were expected to write poetry. During the Tang dynasty poetry was so important that writing poetry was part of the examinations to become a civil servant (文官) and work for the government.

    Chinese painting was often connected with calligraphy. It is one of the oldest artistic traditions in the world. The most traditional way of Chinese painting is known as "national" or "native painting (国画)", which is quite different from Western painting. People can draw mountains, homes, birds, trees and water on it.

    A city without cars would be very strange, right? The European city Venice is such one.

    Venice is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn't built on land, but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere all around the city.

    Even so, travel isn't difficult. The water ways have always been the best way to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that can lead you where you want to go. People in Venice move from place to place by boat. They like to enjoy the scenery(风光) and cool summer nights while taking boat trips.

    Venice grew out of small islands in saltwater lakes when some Italians escaped from a war 1,500 years ago and built their homes there.

    Water makes the city beautiful and special, but it is also a big problem. Sometimes tourists will have such strange experiences. One moment they walk across the bridge, and there's nothing special. But when they come back to the bridge an hour later, it's underwater and everyone has to wear rain boots to cross.

    People used too much underground water, which made the city get lower little by little. Now the city is down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the rising seawater. The rising temperature(温度)makes the ice of the Arctic Ocean(北冰洋)melt(融化). Every year, high water hits the city in autumn and winter. When the water comes, more than half of the city is underwater.