1 . It may be hard to believe, but the American Revolution (革命)—the war that freed the American states from British control—began over a cup of tea. Tea was not the only thing that caused the war, of course, but it played a very big part.

The British people’s love of tea is well-known. When the British won control over much of North America in the early 1700s, they brought their tea-drinking habits with them. Tea quickly became the continent’s most popular drink. As tea could not be grown locally, just as in Britain, it was shipped into the country—mostly from India.

In the early 1700s, the Britain government made a special deal with the East India Company, an English trading company. They agreed that no other company was allowed to bring tea to Britain or any country controlled by Britain, including America. It was a great deal for the East India Company, since it meant that the company could decide whatever price it wanted for its products. And it always decided on a high price!

In North America, the local people did not like having to pay such high prices. Instead of overpaying for tea from the British, they turned to Dutch traders, who secretly brought tea to the country that was just as good—and much less expensive. Although this broke the law, the American people didn’t care. They got the same cup of tea at a much lower price.

The East India Company, however, didn’t like this at all. By the 1760s, they were losing millions of pounds each year to Dutch traders—a huge amount of money in a time when £60 a year was considered a good income. Instead of reducing their prices to compete with the Dutch, the company asked the British government for help and the government agreed.

In 1767, the British introduced new laws that increased the prices of all goods which were brought into America. These laws helped make the East India Company even richer and forced local people to pay much more for everything. The American leaders asked the British government not to do so, but the British refused to listen. These unfair laws increased Americans’ anger about British rule and the rest, as they say, is history.

7 . World War II lasted from 1939 to 1945. Life changed for everybody, including women and children because of the war. Millions of people lost their lives during the war. The Diary of a Young Girl was a record of that time. The book was written by a girl named Anne Frank.

Anne Frank was born in Germany in June 1929. Because the German Nazi (纳粹分子) hated the Jews (犹太人) and warned to kill them, her family had to move to another country. In July 1942, they went into hiding in a secret place in her father’s office. During that difficult time, Anne kept writing diaries until she and her family were discovered by the Nazis in August 1944. They were caught and sent to a Nazi camp. The next year, her mother died. In the same year, she and her elder sister died of illness, before the war ended.

After the war, her father collected her diaries and the book The Diary of a Young Girl came out in 1947. It has been put into over 30 languages since then. The book has been read by people all over the world. In her diary, Anne wrote down her thoughts, her feelings, her hopes and her dreams for the future, “I want the diary to be my friend, and I’m going to call this friend Kitty.” “I can’t spend all day complaining because it’s impossible to have any fun! ... Every day, I feel the beauty of nature and the goodness of the people around me. With all that, why should I be sad?”

The Diary of a Young Girl has also become a symbol of the greatness of the human spirit. It is called one of the wisest and most moving records on war.

8 . Canberra is the capital of Australia.     1     The increasing speed of popularity is the fastest in Australia.

Canberra is the eighth largest city in Australia. It is 238 kilometers from Sydney and 507 kilometers from Melbourne. Melbourne was once the capital of Australia. Sydney people also wished to make their city capital. It was difficult for the government to make the decision.     2    

The new capital was between Sydney and Melbourne, the two largest cities in Australia. It took more than 12 years to build the city. In 1927, the city was set up completely.     3     “Canberra” means “a place for friends to get together.”

    4     There’s the Flower Festival in September each year. People can enjoy all kinds of beautiful flowers and welcome the spring to arrive. In Canberra, there are many famous universities like the Australian National University and the University of Canberra. The National Library and National Museum of Australia are also famous places that people like to visit. A man-made lake-Lake Burley Griffin is in the center of the city. It’s about 25 kilometers long.     5    

With the development of Canberra, even though it is not the oldest city or the most famous city in Australia, more and more young people are going to live, work and study in Canberra.

9 . The history of Chinese characters dates back to ancient times, with the history of at least several thousand years.

There are many tales and legends about the origin of hanzi, Chinese characters: there is Cangjie, the legendary inventor of Chinese character; the ancient practice of knot-tying; the eight trigrams (八卦); and ancient painting legends to name a few. It is generally agreed that hanzi began as simple pictures, images that the ancient Chinese people drew, painted or carved to describe nature or their lives. Other ancient cultures developed picture-based writing systems as well, such as the hieroglyphs (象形文字) of ancient Egypt or the script of the ancient Mayan civilization. Hanzi, however, is the only one of these ancient writing systems to survive.

Today, Chinese characters are the oldest continuously used system of writing in the world. Researchers generally agree that the oldest symbols recognizable as Chinese characters are those found on ancient oracle bones. These 3000-year-old symbols, known as, jiaguwen, were carved on turtle shells or bones of animals. The jiaguwen can give all of us in the modern era insight into how ancient Chinese saw the world around them and into their great creativity in expressing their observations. Take, for example, the modern character jia, meaning home or family. The jiaguwen character looks like a house with a nice pig inside, originating from the ancient idea that a good family home has plenty of food. Over thousands of years, this hanzi evolved into a variety of different forms but finally developed in a more stable manner after the unification of China under Emperor Qinshihuang.

When you first look at Chinese characters, you will most likely feel that they are very complicated. However, if you know just a little about how these characters are formed, you will find that they are not nearly as difficult as they seem. About 80% of Chinese characters are composed of small parts, known as radicals (部首), which are combined in many different ways to form tens of thousands of hanzi. Fortunately, you need to know only about two or three thousand characters for use in daily life!

As China takes its place in the international community, the Chinese writing system has spread to other countries. Today, many international students are studying Chinese, both the spoken and written language, and are coming to appreciate China’s fascinating culture. And, as China’s culture and society have continued to develop, the amazingly versatile(多功能的) Chinese characters (hanzi) have been adapted for use in digital format on computers and other devices. And so written Chinese lives on, spreading Chinese culture wherever it goes.

10 . China is the home of tea, which has more than 4000 years of history. Among the three main drinks—tea, coffee and cocoa, tea is drunk by the largest number of people in the world. Tea from China, along with silk and porcelain, began to be known by the world over a thousand years ago.

The words for “tea” in different languages came from the Chinese character “cha”. The English word, “tea”, sounds similar to the pronunciation of it in Xiamen. The Russians call it “chai’i”, which sounds like “chaye”(tea leaves). The Japanese character for tea is written exactly the same as it is in Chinese.

Tea leaves are produced mainly in the south of China because of the mild climate and rich soil there. Longiing, Pu’ er, Wulong and Tieguanyin are all famous tea. Over the past centuries, Chinese people have developed their unique tea culture. Tea is also a popular topic in dances, songs, poems and novels.