【推荐2】No matter where you live, giving gifts is a common way for us to express thanks, concern or love. Although the reasons for giving gifts are about the same around the world, the traditions of giving gifts can be quite different from one another.

In Europe, don’t accidentally cut yourself out of someone’s life.

In the US, a set of kitchen knives seems like the perfect gift idea for a wedding or holiday. However, in certain European countries like Germany, superstition (迷信) defines that a knife presented as a gift will end your friendship. There is a way to beat this superstition: tie a penny to the knife or gift box. The receiver then returns the penny to you as a “payment” to drive away the bad luck.

In Native America, your host gives gifts rather than receives them.

The Native American gift giving custom is exactly the opposite to that of any other culture. Traditionally, during weddings and some big celebrations (birthdays aren’t included), guests are the receivers of gifts rather than the host.

In Japan, presentation is paramount.

The Japanese place great emphasis on the act of gift giving, and presentation plays a big role in determining how your gift is received. For example, it’s considered unpleasant to receive uncovered cash. So whether you’re sending money as a gift or just leaving a tip, place your money in an envelope to ensure it’s received in a respectful manner.

In China, red envelopes and even denominations (面额) bring good luck.

Chinese New Year has a rich set of traditions. One of the most popular customs of this holiday is giving out money in red envelopes. Known as yasuiqian, these gifts are meant to bring good luck. In addition to how you give money, there’s also superstition relating to the amount you give. Giving an odd numbered amount of money is considered bad luck. It’s important to make sure that even the first digit is even as numbers like 30 and 5 0 are considered odd.

【推荐1】Little New Year usually falls a week before the lunar New Year. It is also known as the Festival of the Kitchen God, the deity (神) who oversees the moral character of each household. Here are six things you should know about the Little New Year, another sign of the start of spring.

1. Offer sacrifices to Kitchen God

One of the most distinctive traditions of the Little New Year is the burning of a paper image of the Kitchen God, who will report on the family’s conduct over the past year. The offerings to the Kitchen God include pig’s head, fish, sweet bean paste, melons, fruit, boiled dumplings, barley sugar, and Guandong candy. Most of the offerings are sweets of various varieties. It is thought that this will seal the Kitchen God’s mouth and encourage him to only say good things about the family when he ascends to Heaven to make his report.

2. House cleaning

According to Chinese folk beliefs, during the last month of the year ghosts and deities must choose either to return to Heaven or to stay on Earth. It is believed that in order to ensure the ghosts and deities’ timely departure people must thoroughly clean both their persons and their houses, down to every last drawer and cupboard.

3. Eat Guandong candy

Guandong candy, a sticky treat made out of glutinous millet and sprouted wheat, is a traditional snack that Chinese people eat on the Festival of the Kitchen God.

4. Paste paper-cuts to windows

In the Little New Year, old couplets and paper-cuts from the previous Spring Festival are taken down, and new window decorations, New Year’s posters, and auspicious (吉利的) decorations are pasted up.

5. Bath and hair-cut

As the old Chinese saying goes, whether they’re rich or poor, people often have a haircut before the Spring Festival. The activity of taking bath and haircut is often taken on the Little New Year.

6. Preparations for the Spring Festival

People start to stock up necessary provisions for the Spring Festival since the Little New Year. Everything needed to make offerings to the ancestors, entertain guests, and feed the family over the long holiday must be purchased in advance.

【推荐2】Why do Chinese like drinking hot water?

In Western countries, drinking hot water isn't common.     1    

    2    .A British man, who has been in Beijing for over five years, visited local cafe during his trip in England. He said to a friendly waitress in a classy British accent, “Can I have a glass of hot water, please?” The waitress' eyes widened. She was so confused. “To...to...to drink?” she replied. Eventually, the man received the steaming liquid but felt cold stares from every corner of the cafe. Westerners are as curious about why Chinese people drink hot water as Chinese are curious about why Westerners drink cold water.

This cultural difference is not a simple issue, but related to history, culture, and science. When did Chinese start to drink hot water?     3    . Archaeologists found pottery dating to 20,000 years ago. They believe the pottery was used to cook food and heat water.

Drinking hot water is considered to be healthier among Chinese people.    4     Bodies’ normal temperature is 37℃, which keeps the smooth flow of blood cycle and the regular operation of the body's organs. Cold water has the effect of slowing.

    5    If the body is too weak to warm up, some syndromes（症状）may present themselves, like cold hands and feet, Raynaud's phenomenon(the fingers turning white after exposure to low temperature or emotional events),a weak desire to eat food, poor digestion or body pain.

【推荐1】There are so many websites to help you plan trips and book trips and save money.

1. Dishtip.com

If I had to pick just one site to help with restaurant recommendations around the US, it would be Dishtip.com. Dishtip organizes the information of eating out in the United States in a whole new way: In other words, the site sorts through reviews across the web, such as the best dishes in Denver or the pizzas in Portland or the fried food in Phoenix.

2. Skypicker.com

Skypicker.com basically helps you figure out where you can fly within your budget. It’s sort of like the “explore” page of Kayak.com, but focuses mainly on Europe, and on very, very cheap flights.

3. Stay.com

I usually doubt the sites that claim (声称) they can plan your trip for you. But for a quick agenda with a few useful extras, Stay.com is not bad at all. Here’s what you do: Choose one of more than 100 destinations, from Provence to Marrakesh to Lake Tahoe. Then go through their listings of top attractions, museums, shopping, restaurants and something else, clicking on whatever appeals to you. Those choices magically turn into a personalized plan that you can either turn into a pdf file and print or send to your smart-phone, where with the Stay. com app you can use it, and the city map that comes with it, even when you’re offline.

4. Staydu.com

A neat site that matches hosts from around the world with travelers looking for unique local experiences. That can mean volunteering to teach English or doing farm work in exchange for staying and meals, or simply paying a small fee to move in with a local family.

【推荐2】In the past 50 years, the amount of water in the open ocean with zero oxygen has increased more than four times. In coastal water bodies, including the river mouth and seas, low-oxygen sites have increased more than 10 times since 1950. Scientists expect oxygen to continue dropping even outside these zones as the Earth warms. To stop the decline, the world needs to control in both climate change and nutrient pollution.

Oxygen is a must to life in the oceans. The drop in ocean oxygen is among the most serious effects of human activities on the Earth’s environment.

This is the first time for the scientists to take such a deep look at the causes, consequences and solutions to low oxygen worldwide, in both the open ocean and in coastal waters. About half of the oxygen on the Earth comes from the ocean. However, combined effects of nutrient loading and climate change are greatly increasing the number and size of “dead zones”in the open ocean and coastal waters, where oxygen is too low to support most sea life.

In areas traditionally called “dead zones”, like those in Chesapeake Bay and the Gulf of Mexico, oxygen drops to levels so low that many animals have trouble in breathing and die. As fish run away from these zones, their living areas become smaller and smaller. But the problem goes far beyond “dead zones”. Even smaller oxygen drops can hold up the growth in animals, reproduction and lead to disease or even death. Low oxygen also can cause the release of dangerous chemicals. While some animals can thrive in dead zones, overall biodiversity falls.