This is a song， and millions of Americans will hear it on New Year's Eve. It is called "Auld Lang Syne" (《友谊地久天长》). It is the traditional music played during New Year's celebration. "Auld Lang Syne" is an old Scottish(苏格兰)poem. It tells about the need to remember old friends.

    The words "auld lang syne" mean "old long since". No one knows who wrote the poem first.

    However， a version(版本)by Scottish poet Robert Burns was published(出版)in 1796. The words and music we know today first appeared(出现)in a song book three years later.

    The song is played in the United States mainly on New Year's Eve. The version you are hearing today is by the Washington Saxophone Quartet. One of the 4 musicians in the group is VOA's Rich Kainfaite. As we end our programme with "Auld Lang Syne"，I would like to wish all of our radio friends a very happy New Year! This is Buddy Thomas.

    Top five universities in Asia-Pacific region

    ⒈National University of Singapore.

    The National University of Singapore is a highly international university with more than half the students made up of international students. With 17 schools across three campuses in Singapore, it has overseas colleges in many different places including Israel, Germany, the US and Sweden. The university started as a medical school in 1905 and has since developed to be one of Asia's best universities.

    ⒉Peking University

    The university was built in 1898 and was the first national university in Chinese modern history. The teaching language for college students is English. As the leading university in China, it has 31 colleges and 14 departments. It has the largest university library in China containing more than 4 million volumes. Many of the buildings on campus remain their original Chinese-style design and structure.

    ⒊University of Melbourne

    The University of Melbourne is a public research institution and Australia's second-oldest university. Four Australian prime ministers have graduated from the institution since it was set up in 1853. It is one of the leading research universities in Australia and some of the research developed there has been widely used throughout the world. In the 1970s, research at the institution led to the first successful cochlear implant(人工电子耳).

    ⒋Tsinghua University

    Tsinghua University was built in 1911. It is one of the best-known institutions in the world. Its 20 schools and 54 departments cover subjects in art, economics, education, engineering, history, management, medicine, law, literature, philosophy and the sciences.

    ⒌Nanyang Technological University, Singapore

    Nanyang Technological University, Singapore is a young institution and is considered Singapore's main science and technology university. It was set up in 1991 and three campuses: Yunnan Garden, NTU @one-north, and Novena. Yunnan Garden is the biggest in Singapore and has been one of the top 15 most beautiful campuses in the world and has planned to be the greenest campus in the world by 2022. Located in Singapore, Nanyang Technological University, Singapore is often overshadowed by National University of Singapore. But it is still one of students' dream universities in Asia-Pacific region.

    Many people in China like animals and usually keep some of them as pets. These pets can bring people a lot of fun. People in the UK are pet lovers, too.

    Lots of families in the UK have one or two pets. Dogs are their favorite pets. Cats are the second. And birds are the third. But some families don't like to keep dogs, cats or birds. They keep other special animals as their pets in their homes, like tigers, elephants and snakes.

    English people always look after their pets very well. They usually give them lovely names, let them wear beautiful clothes and feed them with delicious food. They usually buy the food in some pet shops. Sometimes the food is really expensive. Many pets even have their own houses, beds, meals and bowls. When they talk about their pets, they usually say "he" or" my son", and "she" or" my daughter. They never say" it.