Would you like to experience what going to school was like in the late 1800s? To start with，imagine everyone in school only one classroom．

    In the 19th and early 20th centuries，most American students went to a one—room schoolhouse．A single teacher would typically(典型地)have students in the first through eighth grades，and she taught them all．The number of students varied from six to 40 or more．The youngest children sat in the front，while the oldest students sat in the back．The teacher usually taught reading，writing，arithmetic，history，and geography．Students memorized and retold their lessons．

    The classroom of a one—room schoolhouse probably looked much like your own．The teacher’s desk stood on a raised platform(讲台)at the front of the room，however，and there was a wood-burning stove(火炉)since there was no other way of heating．The bathroom was outside in an outhouse．

    In Honeoye Falls，New York，there is a one—room schoolhouse where kids today can experience what it was like to the students in the late 19th century．For a week during the summer，they wear 19th century clothes and learn the way children learned more than a hundred years ago．

    What else has changed about school since the 19th century? For more information，please visit our website：www .LoeaHygacy. con．

It has been around for centuries, but up until very recently, traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) wasn't fully accepted abroad. The 2001 film Treatment(《刮痧》)tells the story of a Chinese man in the US who's charged with guasha, a form of TCM treatment, to cure his grandson's disease.

During the last 10 years or so, however, TCM has been getting increasingly popular all over the world. A report says this style of health care, which includes different forms like herbal medicine and exercise, has spread to 183 countries and areas.

"We have set up 10 TCM centers outside China, and all of them are popular among locals," said Wang Guoqiang at a news meeting on Dec 6. "Governments of 86 countries and areas have signed agreements with the Chinese government on TCM corporation(合作)."

One of the reasons behind the growing popularity of TCM is the increase of scientific research into it. And after Tu Youyou-the Chinese scientist who discovered the anti-malaria(抗疟疾)drug qinghaosu(青蒿素)-won the Nobel Prize, TCM became even more famous all over the world.

However, all these achievements in TCM don't mean that it's problem-free. Over the years, TCM has faced challenges in being able to prove that it has certain effects.

Some researchers have suggested TCM should be more exact and work together with western medicine.

"Bringing together with western medicine and TCM, rather than being in competition, is where the potential(潜力)for great effects is," said Bernhard Schwartlander, the China representative(代表)of the World Health Organization.

Language changes all the time. New words and phrases appear and develop. The words and pronunciations used by young people in the UK can be very different to those used by adults. Living in a multicultural (多元文化的) society has an effect on language, especially on young people, whose friends are often from a mix of backgrounds. TV and music also have big influence on the language of the young. Often UK singers sing in American accents (口音) without realizing.

Young British people use lots of language that you usually can’t find in most dictionaries. These informal words and expressions are known as ‘slang’. It is not possible to make a complete list of modern British slang. By the time the list was finished, it would be out of date! New words come and go like fashions. However, here are a few examples:

Safe, sorted, sound, cool or wicked all mean “That’s good” or “I understand”.

Instead of using different tag questions like … isn’t it?, can’t you? or don’t they?,     people use innit.

Instead of saying very, really or completely, people use well.

Whatever means I don’t care.

‘He’s fine’ or ‘He’s fit’ both mean ‘He’s good-looking’. Fine and fit can describe a boy or a girl.

Not everybody uses slang and not everybody likes it. A school in Sheffield, in the north of England, recently stopped its pupils using slang words such as hiya (hello), cheers and ta (both mean thank you). The head teacher says that if young people learn to speak ‘correctly’ this will help them get a place at university and a good job.

When British people use language like this, it’s no surprise that some students say they can’t understand native (本土的) speakers. But perhaps learners don’t need to worry about communicating with native speakers so much. Research shows that most of the English spoken in the world today is spoken between non-native speakers of the language. In fact, when we think about “International English”, there is no such thing as a native or non-native speaker.

—But the teacher says we can’t leave until we’ve finished.

—________ . I’m going.

You may know the English letters A, B and C. But do you know there are people called ABCs? Do you know there is such a thing as “a banana person”? How strange! ABC means American-born Chinese. An ABC is a Chinese, but was born in the United States. Sometimes, people call an ABC a “banana person”. A banana is yellow outside. So, when a person is a “banana”, he or she is white in side—thinking like a Westerner and yellow outside—looking like a Chinese.

Usually, ABCs know little about China or the Chinese language. Some of them don’t speak Chinese. But if ABCs cannot speak Chinese, can we still call them Chinese people? Yes, of course. They are overseas（海外的）Chinese. These people may be citizens（公民）of another country like  the US, Canada or Singapore. But they have Chinese blood. Their parents, grandparents or even great-grandparents were from China. They all have black eyes and black hair.

But they are not Chinese citizens. They are people of the People’s Republic of China. For example, we all know the famous scientist C. N. Yang（杨振宁）. He got the Nobel Prize for Physics in 1957. Chinese people love him. But he is an American citizen.

    Do you wear large T-shirts and baggy jeans? Or have you heard someone rap(说唱)? Hip-Hop is very hot now．

    Hip-Hop music was started in the middle of the 1970s by African Americans in New York．The music，break-dancing(霹雳舞) and graffiti(涂鸦) make up Western Hip-Hop culture．Most of Hip-Hop songs are about love，jobs or even games·

    Singers speak words very quickly to a certain beat．Most of the words are fun．Singers use words to make fun of themselves or others．Hip-Hop music has few rules．Singers just do what they think and rap it out in a clever or creative way．The freedom makes a lot of teenagers fall in love with the music．Many of them like wearing large T-shirts and baggy jeans．Famous rap and Hip-Hop stars include Eminem in the USA and Jay Chou from China．

    Today Hip-Hop is nlore and more popular across most of the world．

  You may have seen many pumpkins in posters and TV shows recently, since Halloween came on Oct 31.                                                      

Lanterns (灯笼) made of pumpkins, also known as jack-o’-lanterns, are often seen during Halloween. Many people in the US like to make them 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 (味道). People often put some whipped cream on top of it before serving it. It is one of my 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!

Have you ever been to Hawaii? People from all over the world dream of seeing the beautiful island in the middle of the ocean. It’s always one of their dreams to watch the sun going down. The sun drops like a ball of bright fire into the sea, and it drops so quickly that you can even see it move.

  About two thousand years ago, the first people went to Hawaii in a very small boat. They found the beautiful white sand beaches and the waving palm trees. But it was difficult for people to go to Hawaii at that time. And there were no big hotels like the ones today. Now people can get to Hawaii in different ways. More and more people go to Hawaii. So lots of nice big hotels have been built in recent years. However, the scenery (自然景色) in Hawaii hasn’t changed much. The white sand beaches and the waving palm tree are still there. People often have a peaceful time, taking a walk along the water in the morning. At night, they get together to hold parties, chatting and dancing. So if you’re thinking about relaxing yourself, Hawaii is surely the first place for you to choose.

There are two ways of driving in the world: if the driver’s seat is on the left and cars travel on the right side of the road, it is called “left-hand driving”, as is in China, while the other way of driving is called “right-hand driving”, as is in Britain. Nowadays, around 65％ of the world’s population drives on the right of the road, while the rest is used to driving on the left.

    Though no one knows the exact reasons, it seems likely that people in ancient times travelled on the left of the road. Roman coins show pictures of horsemen passing on each other’s right. And right-hand people generally got on a horse from the animal’s left. Obviously, it’s safer to do this at the left side of the road, and it makes sense for the horse to be ridden on the left.

    A change happened in the late 1700s. When Napoleon（拿破仑）conquered（攻占）nations, he forced them to travel on the right side of the road, which spread left-hand driving throughout Europe. However, Britain still stuck with the right-hand driving rule and countries which were part of the British Empire were made to follow. This is why India, Australia and the former British colonies（前英国殖民地）in Africa continue to drive on the left. One exception（例外，除外）is Egypt, as that country was defeated（打败）by Napoleon before becoming part of the British Empire.

    Some countries changed sides until modern times. Sweden only moved to driving on the right in 1967 and Iceland changed the following year. Ghana changed sides in 1974. On September 7, 2009, Samoa became the third country ever to change from left-hand to right-hand driving for the reason that it made it easier to import（进口）cheap cars from right-hand driving Japan, Australia and New Zealand.

    So if you want to travel to another country or go on business, make sure you know whether it is left-hand or right-hand driving to avoid unnecessary trouble.