“Thank you” is widely     1     in a modern society. It is a very good manner. You should say “Thank you”     2     others help you or say something kind to you. For example, when someone     3     the door for you, when someone says you have done your work well, when someone says you have     4     a nice shirt, or your city is very beautiful, you should say “Thank you”. It is used not only between friends,     5     between parents and children,     6     and sisters, husbands and wives.

“Excuse me” is     7     short polite usage. We use it the same as “Thank you”. When you hear someone says so behind you, you’ll get to know that somebody wants to walk past     8     touching you. It is not polite to interrupt (打断) others while they are     9    .

If you want to have a word with one of them, please say “Excuse me”     10    , and then begin to talk. You should also do so when you want to cough or make any unpleasant noise before others. Let’s say “Thank you” and “Excuse me” on the right situation.

In most Asian countries, “face” is very important and complex (复杂的). We may call it “pride” in the western culture. In China, I often hear of “losing face”, “giving face” and “    1     face”. They are different expressions. As a     2    , I often get confused (迷惑的) about these expressions. Here are three examples.

A student in the back row knows the answer     3     the teacher’s question, but she won’t answer the question because she doesn’t want to make her classmates feel     4    . That is to say, she doesn’t want them to lose face.

Last week, I was     5     to have dinner by my workmate and his friends. I refused his invitation. He was angry with me. He said I didn’t give face to him. I didn’t know     6     he was angry. To be     7    , I didn’t want to have dinner with strangers.

One day, I asked an old man how to get to the museum, and he just     8     to the left. In fact he     9     me the wrong way. He did so     10     he didn’t want to admit (承认) that he didn’t know the way. That is to say, he wanted to save face.

Why is “buy things” in Chinese spoken as maidongxi (buy east and west) , but not mainanbei (buy south and north)?

One theory (假说) says maidongxi has     1     to do with the five elements (要素): jin (metal), mu (wood), shui (water), huo (fire) and tu (earth). In Chinese culture, the four     2     have to do with these elements. East matches wood, west matches metal, south matches fire, and north matches water. If someone carries nan (south) and bei (north) in a basket, it means to     3     water and fire, which is not even possible. But if one puts dong (east) and xi (west) in one’s basket, of course they can carry metal and wood.

There are also more common explanations.

One says that in the Tang Dynasty (唐代), there     4     two popular markets in Chang’an, the capital of China at that time. One was called the East Market, and the     5    was called the West Market. When shopping, people usually went to the East Market     6    , and then went to the West Market. As time went     7    , people started to describe shopping as “buying east and west.”

The last theory is about China’s trading history. Around the 15th     8    , China began trading with the world, and most of its foreign goods (货物) happened to come from the east (Japan) and west (Arabia). Markets     9     “things from the east and the west”. It was short for “east and west”     10    .

Which theory do you prefer?

Everyone of us may have a headache. But do you know about headaches? What may cause them? And what should we do     1     we have a headache? When should we go to see a doctor?

A headache is not a disease（疾病）, but it may show that     2     in your body is wrong. We may have more than one headache each month.

Usually a fever or some other     3     may cause headaches. You may get a headache when you work too hard. You may get a headache when you can't get enough     4    . You may get a headache when you exercise on an empty     5    .

What should you do if you have a headache?

You should lie down and have a good rest. You should get enough sleep.

If you have headaches often, you need to see a doctor.

We each have a memory (记忆力). That’s     1     we can still remember things after a long time. Some people have very good memories, but some people can only remember things when they say or do again and again. Many great men of the world have     2     memories.

A good memory can help people     3     a language. Everybody learns his mother language when he is a small child. He hears the sounds, remembers them and then he learns to speak. Some children live with their parents in foreign countries. They can learn two languages as     4     as one because they hear and speak two languages every day. In school it is a little     5     to learn a foreign language because the pupils have so little     6     for it, and they are busy with other subjects, too. But your memory will become better and better when you do more exercises.

Everybody has a brain, but not many people know     1     the brain works. The brain has neuronal networks (神经元网络). What     2     them grow? Learning! “    3     makes the brain change (改变),” says James Zull, an     4     from Case Western University in Cleveland, Ohio, USA. “    5     learning, nothing changes in the brain. For every new word you learn in your English lessons, every     6     you serve in maths, every new song you learn to sing, a neuronal network grows in your brain and the brain changes.”

The     7     neuronal networks we grow, the better we can think and the better we can remember. You may wonder if there is     8     you can do to make the networks in your brain grow better so that we can learn more efficiently (高效地). Professor Zull says yes, there is. He says that the brain changes the most     9     when you are interested in what you are learning, and when you get a little bit difficult tasks (任务). These tasks make you feel     10     and develops (开发) your brain.