【推荐1】I’m from Poland. Christmastime is my favorite time of year.

We start on December 24th. It is a very important day for Polish Christian people. On Christmas Eve in the morning, families decorate Christmas tree and we put presents under the tree. In the afternoon we meet with family and eat a special dinner without meat. We leave a free seat at the table for an unexpected (出乎意料的) guest. At the beginning, we wait for a first star and later we share the special wafer (薄饼) and we wish all the best each other. A traditional Christmas dinner should be 12 dishes. After dinner we sing Christmas carols together and some kids go carol singing and get some money or sweets. We go to church at midnight.

The next day, on December 25, it is Christmas day. We spend time with family and we visit friends.

【推荐2】Thanksgiving Day is the most traditional holiday of America.It is on the 4th Thursday of November.

The first Thanksgiving Day is held in Massachusetts in 1621 after the first harvest(丰收) by the pilgrims(朝圣者).They want to give thanks to God for their first harvest.They invite their Indian friends to join them in a big feast(盛宴).The day has been celebrated since that time.But now Thanksgiving Day is a time for each family member to go back home.Usually families all get together and have a big dinner.The main dishes(菜) for Thanksgiving Day are turkeys and pumpkin pies.Each family will have their own favourite food to eat，so it is not the same all over the USA.But usually people cook corn，mashed potatoes and pumpkin pies.

【推荐3】Many families live busy lives. Every week, the children have homework, sports, music lessons and club activities.     1     They work, do housework, cook meals and drive their children to activities. Some families do not have time to eat meals together more than once a week. Our community decided that it was time to take a break.

After three weeks of planning, we took one night off. It was a night for families to spend time together.     2     On that night, sports teams stopped their practices, and teachers did not give homework.

On “Family Night”, we decided to turn off our televisions.     3     Answering machines (电话留言机) said, “Please call back tomorrow. “Many families ordered hamburgers and other food from shops or restaurants so that they wouldn’t spend time cooking.

    4     Among them, storytelling and card games were the most popular. These games gave families the chance to spend time together. Children and parents weren’t so busy, and children didn’t spend so much time playing computer games or watching television.     5    

We hope to have many more “Family Night”.

【推荐1】People often get to try some new food when they travel. That is part of the fun of travelling. Here are four people’s experiences with foreign food.

David King is a Chinese student in France. “ I never had cheese or even milk before I came to France. We seldom see cows in my part of China. So I don’t drink milk or have things made from milk. I drank some milk when I first arrived in France. I hated it! I tried cheese, too, and I didn’t like it. But I love ice cream. The milk in it doesn’t taste bad.”

Birgit is from Sweden.She travelled to Australia on vacation.”I was in a restaurant. I heard some other people order flake, so I ordered some, too.It was delicious!Later, I learned that flake is an Australian name for shark. Now, every time I see new food, I am willing to try it. You know why? I remember how much I enjoyed flake.”

Chandra is a doctor in Texas. She is from India. “I’m afraid to try new foods because maybe there is beef in them.I’m a Hindu and my religion（信仰）stops me from eating meat from the cow.”

Nathan is from the United States. He taught for a year in China. “My friend gave me some 100﹣year eggs to eat. I didn’t like their looking at all. The eggs were grey inside, but my friend said the colour was all right. Chinese people put something on fresh eggs. Then they put them in the earth for three months. So the eggs weren’t really very old.Even so, I didn’t want to touch them.”

【推荐2】Every country has its favorite food. Italians like to eat pizza. Indians like to eat hot food. Japanese like to eat fish. Often they don’t cook it.

In England, one of the most popular kinds of food is fish and chips. People usually buy it in a fish and chip shop. They put it in paper bags, and take it home, or to their workplace. Sometimes they eat it in the park or on the road. The world’s favorite food is American fast food. If you go to some important cities in the world, you can find people eating hamburgers and chips.

Fish and chips, and Chinese take-away food are very popular in England. But they are less popular in the USA. The Americans eat take-away food, too, like chicken. But the most popular kind of take-away food is the hamburger. It looks like bread with meat in it. Ham (火腿) is a kind of pork, but the hamburger does not have any pork in it. The hamburgers are also popular in England and Australia.

【推荐3】Sally is twelve. She is a middle school student. She is in Grade Seven. Sally gets up at seven in the morning. Then she has breakfast. For breakfast she has bread and milk. She doesn’t have eggs and hamburgers for breakfast.

After breakfast Sally goes to school. At twelve, she goes home from school. She has lunch with her mother. For lunch she has chicken and rice. She likes chicken, but she doesn’t like rice.

At seven she has dinner with her father and mother. They have fish and vegetables. Her father likes fish, but Sally doesn’t.

“Color, color, color!” are the words of artist Eric Carle.

Eric is like the king in the world of children’s books. He has written over 70 children’s books. His most famous book, The Very Hungry Caterpillar, is common on children’s bookshelves all over the world. What most people don’t know is that Eric also makes art for adults, which is called “ArtArt”. People didn’t know about it, because he didn’t show it to the public until he was 84 years old!

Like Eric’s children’s books, his “ArtArt” is full of bright and clear color. He says that he loves color so much because he missed it during the war in Germany. Eric was born in New York in 1929, but moved to Germany with his family when he was 6. When he was 10, World War II began. He noticed that all the houses and buildings in his town were painted grey, brown or dark green. It was a sad time, and it seemed like there was no color anywhere.

At the end of the war, “when color came back”, Eric explains, “I just loved it so much. I keep saying that I wish our eyes could see more color. Color is a very important part of my work.”

That’s true. Eric paints bright colors on paper, cuts out shapes, and then glues them onto another piece of paper. This method is called collage. In fact, it is what led Eric to his “ArtArt”.

Eric’s “ArtArt” includes large collages as well as paintings, photographs and even costurnes. In all these works, he uses all kinds of colors-everything from purple to light green to orange. Now that’s a lot of color!

【推荐2】Now many people like the game Angry Birds. Here is a piece of good news for them—soon there will be a lot of Angry Birds-themed activity parks around the world.

The first two parks opened in Finland last year, and a few other parks are going to open in the UK. However, people still don’t know when and where Angry Birds-themed activity parks will open in the UK.

“As a kind of online game, it is popular with people of all ages. It’s really an interesting game. And the parks will be interesting places for everyone around the world.” said Peter Vesterbacka, an officer of Angry Birds Company. He also said, “We want to make Angry Birds a part of pop culture. We’re just getting started.”

Angry Birds-themed activity parks have many interesting places for children to play. They likethemvery much. People can see the characters and colors from the game in the park. People can also play the Angry Birds game on large screens in the park. The company wants to invite people to not only play it on the sofa, but to go out, move around and have fun. So everyone will be happy in Angry Birds-themed activity parks.