2 . Today, with the development of society, people all over the world almost have the same hobbies, watch the same movies, and wear the same clothes. That is to say, we are not very different in some ways. However, cultures are still quite different. In the East and in the West, social rules are not the same.

In the East, it can take a long time to become someone’s friend. But people are very close to their friends. When people from the West meet you, they will call you a friend right away. That doesn’t mean they are close to you.

When people from the East meet you, they often ask questions. They want to know about your age,your salary (薪水) and whether you are married or not. For people from the West, these are not polite questions. They don’t like to talk about these personal things. They think such kind of questions violate (侵犯) their privacy (隐私).

Family is important for everyone. However, in the East, family is always a part of life. Kids there live with their parents for a long time. They still listen to them after they grow up.

In the West, independence is very important. Parents prepare their kids for life. Then, after their kids grow up, they say goodbye and leave home. Later, the kids can choose to start a family or not. They don’t have to listen to their parents.

▲ People in the West think about small details (细节). They also think less and act more. So, they will be loud about their opinions. In the East, people pay much attention to relationships between things, and they often keep their opinions quietly. That keeps relationships happy.

5 . In a place in Thailand, there is a very special festival for monkeys on the last Sunday of November every year. People usually call it Monkey Festival. Because there are many fruit (水果) trees in this place, monkeys often come and go. Many years ago, a businessman (商人) liked monkeys. He put a lot of fruit, juice and so on in front of the door for the monkeys to have. How happy the monkeys were! As time passed, more and more monkeys came, and the neighbors did it the same way. Later, people in the place planed to prepare a big dinner for the monkeys. The food on the dinner table were the monkeys’ favorite fruit and vegetables. In all, people gave over 2,000 kilograms of fruit and vegetables to over 1, 000 monkeys.

Monkey Festival became a tradition (传统) for all the places in 1989. From then on, it attracted (吸引) a lot of people from all over the world to see the monkeys playing and eating. Also, some young people danced to music. These young people dressed up as monkeys to make people feel more interesting.

This festival is a way for people to thank monkeys.It also brings fun to people.

6 . There were several kinds of greetings in ancient (古代的) China. Among them, fist and palm salute was quite common. Today, though Chinese would usually shake hands when meeting friends, people would still make fist and palm salutes when they are paying a visit to someone during the traditional Chinese New Year or attending someone’s birthday reception (接待).

Fist and palm salute is one of the typical Chinese etiquette (礼仪) with a history of more than 3000 years. In ancient times, if people met a stranger (陌生人), their hands were always ready to hold something used for fighting. Holding hands together showed that people could feel relaxed (放松的). Later it became the etiquette when meeting each other and showing thanks. In modern China, fist and palm salute has been used a lot on traditional occasions (场合).

The gesture of fist and palm salute: Firstly, stand straight. If you are a man, let your right hand be a half fist (拳头), and then your left hand hold your right hand in front of your chest (胸部). Watch each other in the eyes, raise both of your hands to your brow (额头), bent down and shake hands towards each other gently for three times. Meanwhile, you could say some lucky greeting words such as “gong xi fa cai” (Wish you much money), “ni hao” (Hello), “xing hui” (Nice to meet you), “xin nian kuai le” (Happy New Year) to each other according to different occasions. It’s believed that people considered the left as the important side for men in Chinese history, while for women, the important side is the right. So, if you are a woman, you should make fist and palm salute in the other way—put your right hand on your left hand. At last, please remember when someone makes fist and palm salute to you, you need to do it back as well.

8 . There is a very special place in China. It is the Qinghai-Tibet Plateau (青藏高原). In the place, the weather changes (变化) a lot in summer. You can experience (经历) “four seasons” in just one day.

“Spring” morning

The Qinghai-Tibet Plateau has a cool morning. When the sun comes out, the weather there becomes warm, just like spring. It’s a good time to take a walk in the morning.

“Summer” noon

The weather at noon is very different from that in the morning. You may feel it like summer. Because it is hot and the sunlight is so strong. You had better wear sunglasses. Or it rains sometimes, but the rain doesn’t last long. If you are lucky, you may see rainbows.

“Autumn” afternoon

You have to be careful about the weather in the afternoon. As the sun goes down, ______. If you don’t keep warm, you may catch a cold.

“Winter” night

At night, the temperature gets very low, just like winter. You need to wear warm clothes. The rainy season is from June to September each year. It often rains at night.

①Humans usually communicate with each other with words. However, sometimes our hands can also show people what we mean. The same thing happens to the apes (猿) as well.

②Apes have their own gestures (手势) to show what they mean. Chimpanzees and bonobos are two kinds of apes that are the closest to humans. In fact, they have up to 80 different gestures to express themselves. Though the two kinds of apes use different signs in some ways, they share over 90% of the same gestures.

③Two researchers wondered whether humans could understand the gestures of apes. They created a game for people to play online. People needed to watch short videos of apes making a gesture and then chose the correct meaning of the gesture out of four possible answers.

④The result surprised the researchers a lot. They found that those people could choose the correct meaning over 50% of the time. For some gestures, they could even choose the correct meaning about 80% of the time. One example was the gesture of wiping the mouth. People could guess it correctly by choosing “give me that food”. And “big loud scratch (抓挠)” means “help pick insects off me”. But how could this happen?

⑤ ▲ . One possibility is that the gestures came from our ancestors, which we shared with the apes. Another possibility is that the gestures are a natural result of having similar body shapes and communicating similar ideas. It’s also possible that the gestures simply look like the actions they are asking for.

⑥It’s necessary to carry out further research to study how humans can understand the gestures of apes. And scientists also wonder how humans understand other animals, like dogs.

10 . Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Do you feel that sometimes a task that takes you five minutes in the morning may take fifteen minutes in the afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. If this is true, why wouldn’t people feel just as sleepy after eating a large breakfast or after dinner? The truth is that this sleepiness has little to do with meals and is due to another cause.

The real reason lies inside your bodies. At that time, about eight hours after you wake up, the body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleeping habits in experiments (试验) where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern (模式). They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.

In many parts of the world, people take naps (午睡) in the middle of the day, especially people in warmer climates where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate.

A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind. In countries where naps are common, people have less health problems like heart disease.

If you want to make the most of your nap, here are some tips. First, remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time to try a short nap—even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.

If you feel down next time, try taking a nap to lift your spirits. Napping, or even just resting for an hour without falling asleep, can also light up your day.