Dear Wang Fang,

    Thank you for your letter. You wrote to ask me about American social customs(风俗) in their dinner party. You are asking the right person. I once lived in America for five years. Now I'll tell you something about it.

    It's a good idea to bring a small present when you go to a dinner party. Flowers are always nice, or you may bring a bottle of wine if you know that your friends drink it.

    You should arrive(到达) on time or five minutes late. Don't get there early. If you're going to be more than fifteen minutes late, you should call before.

    Try to be free at the dinner table. If you don't know about choosing(选择) the right fork or knife, just watch the other people, and follow them. If you still have no idea of what to do, ask the person beside you .

    If you like the food, say so. Of course, you'll thank them for the meal and for their kindness. It's also a good idea to send a card to thank them the day after.

Rose

Answer the following questions with No More Than 5 Words

    Our school is on Guangming Street. It's next to the People's Library. There is a park across from our school. The pay phone is between our school and a post office. Our school is very beautiful. There are many trees and flowers in it. If you want to come to our school from the airport, take a taxi and go down Center Avenue. You can see a big restaurant on your right. There is a bridge near the restaurant. Go across it and turn left. Then go down Bridge Street. Turn left at New Park and go down Guangming Street. Our school is across from a bank.

    A Greeting is a way of saying "Hello" to．someone．People in different countries greet each other in different ways．The following are some examples．

    In the United State，people usually shake hands．The handshake has an interesting origin(起源)．It started long ago as a way of showing people that they weren't carrying a weapon(武器)．Shaking the person's right hand while looking him or her in the eye is the usual way．

    Handshakes are also common in other parts of the world，including Britain and Russia．In Russia, a man often holds another man's hand very strongly during the handshake．Most people in New Zealand also greet each other by shaking hands．However，the Maori people in New Zealand greet each other by pressing their noses together．

    In other countries，such as France and Belgium，hugging and kissing are more common when two people meet. In those cultures，people kiss each other on the cheek(面额)．The number of kisses is different from country to country．In Saudi Arabia，men might hug and kiss each other(but not with a woman)on the check．In some Eastern countries，including Japan，bowing is the traditional way of greeting people．

    Sometimes it may seem difficult to improve our health. If so, the following health habits may help you.

    Eat breakfast every morning

    Research(研究) shows that if you eat a meal in the morning, you may not become too fat or eat too much during lunch. Eating breakfast can help people feel better through the day.

    Get enough sleep

    Poor sleep can influence(影响) our memory and learning. It can also cause traffic accidents! Studies show that people who don't get enough sleep seem to get into more accidents. So stay safe and get enough sleep!

    Take a walk every day

    Walking is an easy way of exercising. You'd better meet friends for a walk, not for a meal. As you walk, you will see the beautiful world around you. Once you try, you'll find that adding a walk into your daily life is very easy.

    Join social groups

    Social groups can provide support. They might include sport teams, art or music groups. The people in the group can offer advice and can help each other in difficult times. Also, being in a group keeps your mind busy. And active mind is a healthy mind.

    Have a hobby

    A hobby could be running, reading or making something with your hands. Hobbies help people to relax and rest. Hobbies bring us joy, too.

    Jia Meng used to keep a diary in Chinese. But one year ago, the 14-year-old girl from Heilongjiang began to write her diaries in English, because Jia found her mother was reading her diary secretly. She changed the language because her mother can't read English. "It's like killing two birds with one stone," said Jia. "My privacy(隐私) becomes safe and my English improves a lot."

    Jia's mother is not the only mom who reads her child's diary. Recently, Renmin University of China had a national survey among over 2,300 parents. The results show that about 40% of parents read their children's secrets.

That's why many teenagers try to find ways to protect their privacy.

    Wu Lei, 15, from Shanxi, keeps a diary, too. But he doesn't write it on paper. He writes online, which he thinks is perfectly safe because his parents "know nothing about the Internet".

    Lu Huan, 13, from Guangdong, said her parents always secretly listened to the talk between her friends and her on the telephone in their room. To solve this problem, Lu asked her parents to buy her a cell phone.

    "Parents want to know what is going on in their children's lives," said Shao Xiaozhen, a teenage expert in Beijing. "But sometimes they go about it the wrong way." Shao suggested the teenagers that instead of hiding their secrets, talking with parents is a better solution. "If your parents know that you are safe, they'll let you keep your secrets."

Information Card

    Now and then we all get ill. Then we usually go to see a doctor. Doctors know a lot about what makes us ill. They may give us something to take. The medicine often makes us well again.

    But sometimes the doctor's medicine doesn't work. A sick person does not get well. The pain(痛), or hurt(伤), will not go away. This happened to a man named Walter. He was in hospital, but he was not getting well. Then he found a new "doctor" inside himself. This "doctor" was his own sense of humor(幽默感). He saw funny films. He read funny books. And something wonderful happened. Laughing took away his pain. Then he was able to sleep and rest. His own happy feeling helped him to feel well again. And he told his story in a book. He said laughing was his best "medicine". His doctor thought so, too.

    Another man called James was ill, and he had a terrible pain in his back. The doctor could not stop it from hurting. So the man began to "picture" his pain. In his head he "drew" a picture of a dog. He imagined(想象) it as a real dog. And he made friends with the dog. And his pain went away!

    These stories may surprise you. But more and more people are getting well in this way. So call on the "doctor" inside your own head. Stay happy and well.