【推荐1】An ice cream sundae（圣代）is a special treat that many enjoy. And in summer it is the perfect dessert to cool down with after a hot day. Of course, ice cream in any form is a dessert no child could miss either. Back in the 1890's there was an old-fashioned ice cream store in Two Rivers, Wisconsin. It was owned by a man named E.C. Berners. One day a boy named George came into the store and ordered a bowl of vanilla ice cream. He looked across the counter and noticed the bottle of chocolate syrup（糖浆）that was used in making ice cream sodas. He asked if the owner would add some to the top of his vanilla ice cream. The owner agreed and George said that it tasted really good. Other customers started to order chocolate syrup over their ice cream too. It very quickly became quite popular to do so.

But in those days ice cream cost five cents and adding the chocolate syrup made it too expensive for Berners to continue serving the ice cream that way for the same price. At last Berners came up with an idea — to sell ice cream with chocolate syrup on Sundays only.

Many years later the new name was invented by an unknown trader who thought the treat should have a name as fancy as its taste. That is how today when we enjoy ice cream with chocolate syrup it is now called a “sundae”.

【推荐3】While China is almost the same size as the US in area, it is home to over one billion people. It has a special culture with a very long history.

Chinese Food

    1     Different foods have special meanings. The biggest difference is that Chinese people eat their meals with chopsticks. One of the main foods in Chinese culture is rice. Tea is a favorite drink and it is popular in the market.

Chinese New Year

The Chinese calendar is called a lunar (阴历的) calendar.     2     New Year’s Day is in late winter. It is also called the Spring Festival. It has a big celebration of letting go of the old and bringing in the new. It has special foods and traditions. For example, sweeping the floor before New Year’s Day sweeps away all the old year’s bad luck.

Chinese Zodiac (生肖)

The Chinese zodiac, known as Sheng Xiao, follows a twelve-year cycle (循环). Each year is named for an animal. These animal signs are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, sheep, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.     3    

Chinese Language

Chinese is a complex (复杂的) language. Chinese writing developed almost 4, 000 years ago and may even be older. Chinese writing has thousands of characters. A character is a word and also a meaning.     4     Besides Putonghua, Chinese people speak many kinds of dialects (方言).

【推荐2】A city without cars would be very strange, right? But Venice is such a city. Venice(威尼斯) is in the northeast of Italy. It wasn’t built on land, like Beijing or Shanghai, but on more than 110 islands.    1    

Even so, travel isn’t difficult. The water ways 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.    2    They like to enjoy the scenery 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 more than 1,500 years ago, and built homes there.    3    Once, 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.    4    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.

【推荐3】Tony is a student aged 15. He and his parents are going to travel around Beijing this summer. Below is some information that they have got.