【推荐1】What would you say when we told you that you could learn to speak a new language in only 7 days? Pretty unbelievable, right? But how could it be? To find out, we spoke to David－one of our brave Babbel learners－to see how the Babbel app successfully got him speaking French in just one week.

How much time did you learn each day?

I didn’t need to give my whole life over to learning French. Each Babbel lesson takes only 15 minutes, and I give myself the certain aim(目标) of finishing three Babbel lessons daily. This took 45 minutes each day.

How did the Babbel app help you learn so quickly?

The Babbel app has a course plan for beginners that taught me how to make sentences in French within the first few days. Then I was able to personalize（个性化）my learning by choosing lessons on eating, drinking, music, culture, travelling and so on. This made me quickly enlarge(扩大) my vocabulary!

This way of learning kept me really interested, and made sure I wasn’t bored with grammar practice that we all remember from school!

“After 7 days I was able to introduce myself in French, talk about my hobbies and interests, and most importantly, communicating with a native(本国的) French speaker in a real talk and I could even play a joke or two!”

Would you introduce this app to others?

Certainly! Babbel has 14 languages to choose from, so if you’re thinking about brushing up on your German for a business trip, or learning a bit of Japanese for next year’s summer vacation, you’ll be happy to hear that you only need an app, 7 days of learning to get you perfect!

【推荐2】House fires cause many deaths each year and a large number of these fires are unfortunately set by children.     1    kids must understand that they'd better not play with fire. You should keep matches and lighters out of their reach.

    2    The main job of such an alarm is to protect you while you're asleep. You should have a smoke alarm outside each bedroom and on each floor of your home. You ought to have two plans for getting out of your house if there is a fire and practice these plans in the dark with your family.

A smoke alarm warns you of the danger.    3    Take action immediately. When you come to a closed door, check it with the back of your hand. If it feels hot, there may be smoke or fire behind the door, so take care. Once you are out of your house, call the fire department from a neighbor's house. If a family member or a pet is caught inside, you shouldn't go back in. Firemen know how to perform rescues safely.

    4     Change the batteries at least once a year. You should use the test button each month to see if the alarm and batteries are still working. A smoke alarm lasts about ten years. You ought to change it even if it seems to be working.

About two out of three fire deaths happen in homes with no working smoke alarms.Most of these deaths can be avoided.

【推荐3】Today on your phones, you can find many great APPs (应用). Now, here are some nice Chinese APPs to see.

Do you know TikTok (抖音)? In this APP, you can see some video clips (短视频). Some people love this APP and they use it every day, but some people don’t. You can’t find the APP on their phones because the video clips are too loud and boring for these people and distract (使分散) people from doing important things.

On some people’s phones, you can find another APP: Bilibili. This APP helps them find some great cartoons (动画片). The cartoons are very interesting for them to watch as well as learning many kinds of useful knowledge (知识), so they really love this APP.

One last APP is Taobao. It’s a great APP, too. Chinese people love to buy things in it. If you want some notebooks, you can order them in Taobao. And you can have your notebooks after three to five days. It’s so easy to buy things. All people like it very much.

Now you know these three APPs. So, are these Apps on your phone now? Do you like them? Maybe you can tell us!

【推荐1】Cultural relics (文物) carry rich history. But sometimes, they seem like something that only older people enjoy. Recently, a CCTV show about cultural relics has taken young people by storm. It’s called National Treasure. The show has been highly praised on Bilibili.com. This website is believed to be China’s biggest pop culture website for young people. So how can a show about relics from hundreds or even thousands of years ago attract so many young viewers?

The show’s 10 episodes show 27 treasures from nine museums across China. Instead of telling the stories and history behind them, the show invites famous actors to act out these stories on stage.

Actor Wang Kai plays Emperor Qianlong on the show. He meets ancient artists as well as his father, Emperor Yongzheng, in a dream. They criticize Qianlong’s taste in such fancy designs. But Qianlong argues by saying that this kind of design is the best way to show the prosperity (繁荣) of his time.

This soon became a hot topic online. Internet users also compared pictures of vases from the times of Qianlong (1736-1796) and Yongzheng (1678-1735).

The stars might be part of the reason that young viewers enjoy the show. But it is still the treasures themselves that are the main focus. “The treasures make me so proud of our country and culture”, an Internet user wrote on Sina Weibo. “After watching the show, I want to visit all the museums in China,” wrote another user.

【推荐2】A road is a bridge between two places. The Silk Road has been a bridge between East and West for more than 2,000 years.

But did you know that the Silk Road is not a single route? It is actually a series of trade and culture transmission（ 传送）routes. It started to take shape during the Western Han Dynasty. The trade route started from the city of Xi'an in Shaanxi Province and ended in Eastern Europe, near today's Turkey and the Mediterranean Sea. The Silk Road was about 6,500 kilometers long. It went across one-fourth of the planet. The Silk Road got its name because Chinese silk used to be carried along this road. In addition to silk, jade, tea and iron also went west to Rome. From the West came glass, gems, and foods like carrots and sesame.

The Silk Road was very important to both China and the rest of the world. In addition to trade, knowledge about science, arts and literature, as well as craftsmanship and technology, was shared across the Silk Road. In this way, languages and cultures developed and influenced each other. Today, various historical sites along the Silk Road are popular travel destinations, such as the Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang, Gansu. A new train line, the New Orient Express, is running from Beijing across the Silk Road.

阅读短文，判断下列句子是否符合短文内容，符合的用“A”表示, 不符合的用“B”表示。

【推荐3】To us, it seems so natural to put up an umbrella to keep the water off when it rains. But in fact the umbrella was not invented as protection against the rain. Its first use was as a shade (遮蔽) against the sun.

Nobody knows who first invented it, but the umbrella was used in very ancient times. Probably the first to use it were the Chinese, back in the eleventh century BC.

We know that the umbrella was used in ancient Egypt and Babylon as a sunshade. And there was a strange thing connected with its use: it became a symbol of honor and power (权力). In the Far East in ancient times, the umbrella was allowed to be used only by those in high office or by royal people such as the kings or queens.

In Europe, the Greeks were the first to use the umbrella as a sunshade. The umbrella was in common use in ancient Greece, but it is believed that the first people in Europe to use the umbrella as protection against the rain were the ancient Romans. During the middle ages in Europe, the use of the umbrella almost disappeared. Then it appeared again in Italy in the late sixteenth century. And again it became a symbol of power.

Umbrellas have not changed much in style during all this time, though they have become much lighter in weight. It wasn’t until the twentieth century that the umbrellas for women began to be made in all kinds of colors.

Most people agree that honesty is a good thing. But does Mother Nature agree? Animals can’t talk, but can they lie with their bodies and behavior? Animal experts may not call it lying, but they do agree that many animals behave dishonestly to fool other animals. Dishonesty often helps them survive (生存).

	Many kinds of birds are very successful at fooling other animals. A bird called the plover sometimes pretends (假装) to be hurt in order to protect its young. When an enemy gets close to its nest, the plover pretends to have a broken wing. The enemy follows the “hurt” adult, leaving the baby birds safe.
	Another kind of bird, the scrub jay, buries (埋) its food so it always has something to eat. Scrub jays also steal food. They watch where others bury their food and steal it. But clever scrub jays seem to know when others are watching them. So they get back later, unbury the food, and bury it again somewhere else.
	Chimpanzees can also be sneaky. After a fight, the losing chimpanzee will give its hand to the other. When the winning chimpanzee puts out its hand, too, the chimpanzees are friendly again. But an animal expert once saw a losing chimpanzee take the winner’s hand and start fighting again. When chimpanzees find food, it’s natural for them to cry out. Then other chimpanzees come running. But some clever chimpanzees learn to cry very softly when they find food. That way, other chimpanzees don’t hear them, and they don’t need to share the food.

【推荐3】Birthday is a special day for most people. We may spend much time celebrating (庆祝) it. On birthdays, we may go for a trip, have a party or watch a movie with our parents and friends. We can also enjoy some special food. Do you know what people eat on their birthday all over the world? Here are three people from different countries. They tell us what food they eat on their birthday.

Liu Jing is from Beijing,“The long noodles are a symbol of long life. In China, red is a symbol of good luck. We think red eggs bring us good luck. So you can see Chinese eat long noodles and red eggs when they celebrate their birthday.” says Liu Jing.

“I am so happy because today is my birthday. I want to have a birthday party. At the party, we can play games, sing and dance. We can also eat a big birthday cake with fifteen candles (蜡烛). I’m sure we can have a good time at my birthday party.” says David from America.

“In Canada, people put a coin (硬币) into the cake. If the birthday person eats the cake with the coin, he or she will be lucky. I am so happy because I eat the cake with a coin,” says Sandy.