【推荐3】The day pass. Dorothy works very hard in the kitchen. She remembers Uncle Kerry and Aunt Em in Kansas. She remembers her friends the Scarecrow and the Tin Woodman. She’s very sad and she often cries. At night she goes to see the Lion. The Witch doesn’t give him anything to eat or drink, so Dorothy takes him food and water from the kitchen. Then she lies down next to him, puts her head on his warm body and sleeps until the morning.

The Witch watches Dorothy all the time. She’s waiting for the right moment to take the silver shoes. Dorothy wears them all the time. She loves them. The only time she takes them off is when she has a bath. The Witch doesn’t like water, so she’s afraid to go near the girl when she’s in the bath.

One day Dorothy is cleaning the kitchen and she slips on the wet floor. She falls over and one of the silver shoes comes off. The Witch is watching. She picks it up quickly and puts it on.

“Give me back my shoe!” Dorothy says.

“No! It’s my shoe now?” the Witch replies.

“You are a wicked woman!” Dorothy shouts. “I want my shoe!”

There’s a bucket of water near the door. The girl picks it up and throws the water over the Witch.

“Aarrgh!” The Witch cries. “Water is the end of me!” And she starts to disappear in front of Dorothy’s eyes.

“I’m going.” she says. “Going, going, going.”

Why are dogs our best friends? Maybe because they can understand our words much better than we thought, according to a study in Hungary. It found that dogs understand not only what we say,but also how we say it.

"The results were very exciting and very surprising," said the researcher Attila Andies,from Eotvos Lorand University in Budapest.

For the study,the researchers first trained 13 dogs for months. The dogs had to sit quietly inside machines,so that the researchers could check their activity.

Then the researcher put headphones on dogs and played people's voices to them. There were four different voices. Some were positive words,such as "well down" , or neutral(不带感情色彩) words like "however". The words were also in different tones( 音调). Some were positive( 积极的) and some were neutral.

Brain scans( 扫描) showed that the dogs could recognize( 辨认) words,as well as the tone of words, much like people do. The positive words with a positive tone brought the stronger activity in their brain's reward centers(反应中枢).

"It shows that for dogs, a nice phrase can work very well as a prize, but it works best if both words and tones match, "said Andies.

They also found that dogs deal with meaningful words with the left side of the brain and tones with the right. Human brains work in the same way.

"It gave us a new understanding of language," said Andies. That is, not only do humans understand the meaning in words, other species(物种) do too.

【推荐3】If you have problems describing people, don’t worry! We’ll use popular movie characters to help you learn some useful words.

Naive Meaning: If someone is naive, they have little experience and believe good things will always happen. Example: In the film Elf, Buddy is a naive person who grows up with elves(精灵). One day, he goes to New York City but finds things very different there. Director: David Berenbaum.	Loyal Meaning: If you’re loyal, you always help a person on a group and act honestly. Example: In the film Toy Story 3, Woody is loyal to his friends and owner, Andy. He stays with Andy, even when Andy grows up and goes to college. Director: John Lasseter
Demanding Meaning: If someone is demanding, he or she is not easily satisfied(满意) or pleased. Example: In the film The Devil Wears Prada. Miranda is very demanding. She works very hard, and expects others to do the same. And she’s always not satisfied with the things that others do. Director: David Frankel	Talented Meaning: If you’re talented, you have a natural ability(本能) to do something well. Example: In the film McFarland, USA, coach White finds some talented runners in his PE class. He forms a cross-country group that races against other schools. Director: Niki Caro

【推荐2】The Lunar New Year, which usually takes place in late winter or early spring, is one of the most important holidays in many parts of the world. And every culture has its own way of celebrating the Lunar New Year, but they have a few key things in common.

Clean your home. Clean your home before the new year to sweep away bad luck.     1     These cleaning activities are thought to help drive out bad luck and help you start fresh for the New Year.

Decorate your home with red lanterns. Red lanterns are a traditional symbol of the Lunar New Year. Buy some beautiful red paper lanterns to hang up in your home.     2    

Dress in red for joy and good luck.     3     This color is also thought to help drive away bad luck, so many people traditionally dress in red to celebrate the Lunar New Year.

    4     Dumplings are common food in many Asian countries. Making dumplings together is a wonderful way of staying with your family and friends during the new year.

Set off firecrackers together to drive away bad luck.     5     Buy some firecrackers and set them off to celebrate, and drive away bad luck for the coming year.

【推荐3】Are you interested in our Chinese characters (字)? Chinese characters have a long history and they usually have some special meanings (意思) for Chinese people.

We pronounce (发音) each character by using “pinyin”. But the same “pinyin” can represent(代表) different Chinese characters. For example, “fu” can be the “pinyin” for good luck in Chinese. And it can also be the “pinyin” for other Chinese characters with the same pronunciation (发音).

Here are the top lucky ones.

● 福 “fu” means (意思是) good luck.

During Chinese New Year, we can see Chinese character 福 “fu” in every family. People often put it upside down on the front door of a house. The upside down 福 “fu” in Chinese sounds the same as “good luck comes”.

● 禄 “lu” means pay.

In feudal (封建的) China, if you work for the imperial government(朝廷), the imperial government needs to pay you “feng lu”.

● 寿 “shou” means being long-lived.

Chinese character “shou” also means life, age or birthday. As we all know, Chinese people usually have “shou” noodles or “shou” peaches for their birthdays.

● 喜 “xi” is happiness.

The doubled character囍 “xi” means double happiness. We can see it everywhere at Chinese weddings (婚礼).

● 财 “cai” is money.

During Spring Festival, Chinese people usually say “Gong xi fa ‘cai’!”, which means wishing you to have a lot of money. There is also a Chinese old saying “money can make a ghost (鬼) turn a millstone”. It is to say money can really do a lot of things. But, still—money can’t buy everything.