Americans usually eat three meals a day. Breakfast usually comes before eight o’clock in the morning. They usually have eggs, some meat, bread, fruit juice and coffee. Lunch is between twelve and one o’clock. It is like a light meal and working people must take lunch with them or get it near workplace.

Children in school take sandwiches, fruit, and cookies with them or eat in school. Supper, the main meal, is between six and eight in the evening. People cook it carefully. They may have meat or chicken, turkey and duck. They may all have potatoes or rice, vegetables or salad. The drink is coffee, tea or milk. Then comes the dessert.

Before you go to another country it is a great help if you know the language and some of the customs of the country.

When people meet each other for the first time in Britain, they say, “How do you do? ”and shake hands. Usually they do not shake hands when they just meet or say goodbye. But they shake hands after they haven’t met for a long time or when they will be away from each other for a long time.

  Last year a group of German students went to England for a holiday. Their teacher told them that the English people hardly shake hands. So when they met their English friends at the station, they kept their hands behind their backs. The English students had learned that the Germans shake hands as often as possible, so they put their hands in front and got ready to shake hands with them. It made both of them laugh.

      In a map of the world you can easily find two big cities, London and New York. London is the oldest city in Britain. It’s certainly the biggest city in Europe(欧 洲）. New York is as big as London, and it’s the biggest city in America. The streets in New York are just as crowded as in London. And the New York subway carries more people each day than the London underground.

       In London there are many palaces (宫 殿）and churches, for example, St. Paul’s. New York isn’t as old as London, and it doesn’t have many old buildings.

       London has more parks than New York. But New York’s Central Park is much bigger than the biggest park in London.

根据短文内容，判断正（T)误(F)。

To us, it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains. But in fact the umbrella was not invented as protection against the rain. Its first use was as a shade(遮蔽) against the sun.

    Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chinese, back in the eleventh century B. C.

    We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade(遮阳伞). And there was a strange thing connected with its use: It became a symbol of honor and power(权力). In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by those in high office or by royal people such as the kings or queens.

    In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade. The umbrella was in common use in ancient Greece, but it is believed that the first people in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against the rain were the ancient Romans.

    During the middle ages in Europe, the use of the umbrella almost disappeared. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it became a symbol of power.

    Umbrellas have not changed much in style during all this time, though they have become much lighter in weight. It wasn't until the twentieth century that the umbrellas for women began to be made in all kinds of colors.

In China, children like to make promises by hooking pinkies with each other. They say, “A pinkie promise must be  (1)  for 100 years.” Then they may press their thumbs together to complete the promise. Sometimes,   (2)  will hook pinkies and promise to be together forever.   

If you come to China, there are many places of interest to see and there is also a lot of delicious food to enjoy. Many of them are very popular. But I think the real Chinese food is dumplings.

    Everyone in China likes dumplings very much, and there are many different kinds of them. I like dumplings with vegetables and pork better than other kind.

    Usually people make dumplings at home. If you have no time to make them, you can buy them from supermarkets. Then you take them home and enjoy them with vinegar.

    The Spring Festival is very important in China. When it comes, we make dumplings. Usually we put a coin(硬币) in a dumpling. If one eats the dumpling with the coin in it, he or she will be lucky in the year.

    In the old days, people were poor and they could not eat dumplings often. But now things have changed.

    Welcome to China, and we’ll invite you to eat the real Chinese food-dumplings.

Schools in the U.S.A are a little different from schools in China.

Classes start at 8: 30 each morning and the school day ends at 3:30 or 4 oˈclock in the U.S.A. And in China, classes usually start at 8:00 in the morning and the school day ends at 5:30 in the afternoon.

Students have one hour for lunch and two 20-minute breaks each day in the U.S.A. One break is in the morning, and the other is in the afternoon. In China, students have two hoursˈ break during lunchtime and ten minutesˈ break for each class period(每节课).

In the U.S.A, students often go to the school cafeteria at lunchtime or at break. They buy snacks and drinks there. In China, some students have lunch in the dining hall at school. Others buy their lunch outside the school or go home to eat with their family.

In the U.S.A, the most popular after-school activities are baseball, football and basketball. In China, ping-pong and basketball are their favourite sports.

When we talk about music, we can think of different kinds of it. Some people like pop music very much, but it often comes and goes so quickly. It shows our deep feelings of love, hate, joy and sadness in daily life, so it is quite popular among young people.

However, classical music is not so lucky among young people though it’s the symbol of high music level. We know that classical music is serious music, so some people can’t understand its real meaning. That’s why it’s not popular among youngsters.

In fact, folk music is different from other music forms. It’s more traditional than entertainment (娱乐). In American history, fork music began to show up when people needed it most. The earliest folk songs were those like “Down by the Riverside”, “We shall overcome” etc. These are songs about hard life, but they are also full of hopes. Anyway(无论如何)， anybody can understand folk music and it also welcomes everyone to join.

  Venice is in the northeast of Italy.It wasn’t built on land, like New York or Houston,but on more than 110 islands. Seawater is everywhere around the city.

  Even so, travelling isn’t difficult. The waterways have always been the best ways to get around. There are 117 waterways and more than 400 bridges that can guide you where you want to go. People in Venice move from place to place by boat. They like to enjoy the scenery(景色)and cool summer nights while taking boat trips. They can talk to other people as they go along.

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

  People used too much underground water. This made the city get lower little by little. Now the city has gone down by 23 centimeters. Another problem is the rising seawater. The temperature has risen over the years. This has made the ice of the Arctic Ocean melt(融化).

  Every year, high waters hit the city in autumn and winter. When a lot of water comes, more than half of the city is underwater.

  Scientists are trying different ways to stop the city from getting even lower.

You may have seen many pumpkins in posters and TV shows recently, since Halloween came on October 31^st again.

Lanterns made of pumpkins, also known as jack-o’-lanterns, are often seen during Halloween. Many people in the US like to make jack-o’-lanterns by themselves and put them in front of their houses. People hollow out a pumpkin, carve a face on one side, and place a candle inside to make the pumpkin glow. The lanterns can look funny or scary.

This is not the only way in which pumpkins are part of American culture. During the Thanksgiving holiday, pumpkin pie is a common food. It is made from pumpkins and has some delicious spices to give it a nice flavor. People often put some whipped cream on top of it before serving it. It is one of many people’s favorite things to eat during Thanksgiving.

There is also “pumpkin chucking”. It’s a competition where people build machines to throw pumpkins through the air. The person whose pumpkin flies the farthest wins the competition. The world record for pumpkin chucking was set in Utah in 2010.  The distance for that world record was about 1.69 kilometers!

Finally, there are also pumpkin growing contests. For these contests, farmers try to grow the biggest pumpkins they can. The person who has the biggest pumpkin will win the first prize.