Chinatown is the name of an area (地区) in the middle of London. It is a large Chinese community (社区) with a lot of Chinese restaurants, Chinese supermarkets and shops. Do you know its history?

In the 1950s, it was a poor area and everything was very cheap. At the same time, the world rice market became bad and thousands of farm workers in Hong Kong lost their jobs. They began going to London to look for work. They found jobs in the restaurants in this area.

These restaurant workers often worked 17 hours a day and had no time to learn English. As more Chinese arrived, more shops and businesses grew up. Women came to join their husbands and children came to join their fathers. The community grew, and Chinatown was born.

In the 1970s and 1980s, British-born Chinese started to have a better education (教育) and this brought economic (经济的) success to the area. Many families moved out of Chinatown, and there was more space for businesses. Chinatown soon became a popular place for tourists.

Now everyone knows about London’s Chinatown. During the Chinese New Year, the streets are seen with flags and thousands of Chinese go into the streets. For most time of the year though, Londoners and tourists go there mainly for the food in the Chinese restaurants. The best restaurants are the ones where the Chinese eat.

People often remember what they were doing when they heard the news of important events in history. In America, for example, many people remember what they were doing on April 4, 1968. This was an important event in American history. On this day, Dr. Martin Luther King was killed. Although some people may not remember who killed him, they remember what they were doing when they heard the news.

Robert Allen is now over 50, but he was a school pupil at that time. “I was at home with my parents,” Robert remembers. “We were eating dinner in the kitchen when we heard the news on the radio. The news reporter said, “Dr. King died just 10 minutes ago”. My parents were completely shocked! My parents did not talk after that, and we finished the rest of our dinner in silence.

More recently, most Americans remember what they were doing when the World Trade Center in New York was taken down by terrorists. Even the date—September 11, 2001—has meaning to most Americans.

This was a day Kate Smith will never forget. She remembers working in her office near the two towers. “My friend shouted that a plane just hit the World Trade Center! I didn’t believe him at first, but then I looked out of the window and realized that it was true. I was so scared that I could hardly think clearly after that.”

6 . Chinatown (唐人街) is the name of an area (地区) in the middle of London. It is a large Chinese community (社区) with a lot of Chinese restaurants, Chinese supermarkets and shops.

In the 1950s, it was a poor area and everything was very cheap. At the same time, the world rice market became bad and thousands of farm workers in Hong Kong lost their jobs. They began going to London to look for work. They found jobs in the restaurants in this area.

These restaurant workers often worked for17 hours a day and had no time to learn English. As more Chinese arrived, more shops and businesses grew up. Women came to join their husbands and children came to join their fathers. The community grew, and Chinatown was born.   

In the 1970s and 1980s, British-born Chinese started to have a better education (教育) and this brought economic (经济的) success to the area. Many families moved out of Chinatown, and there was more space for businesses. Chinatown soon became a popular place for tourists (游客).

Now everyone knows about London’s Chinatown. During the Chinese New Year, the streets are seen with flags and thousands of Chinese into the streets. For most time of the year, though, Londoners and tourists go there mainly for the food in the Chinese restaurants. The best restaurants are the ones where the Chinese eat.   

7 . Fire was discovered many thousands of years ago. The first time humans saw fire was probably when a tree was destroyed by lightning(闪电). Humans soon learned how to make fire. They probably made the first fire by rubbing (摩擦) two sticks together.

Fire was very important to humans. They needed to keep warm at night. They used fire to cook food. They used fire to keep enemies and wild animals away. In some parts of the world fire was used to send messages. The Indians in America, for example, used fire to make smoke(烟雾) as a message. In some other countries people lit fires to warn their friends of danger.

Fire was also used to give light. Before the invention of the oil lamp(灯), humans burned sticks to get light.

One man even used fire to tell the time. He invented a candle clock. He made a candle that took exactly twelve hours to burn. Then he marked this candle in twelve equal(相等的) parts. He lit the candle and could tell the time by counting the number of parts left of the burning candle. But the candle clock did not always work well. If there was a wind blowing on the candle, it burned too quickly.

8 . Experts believe that there are more than 8 million restaurants in the world today. So it might surprise you to learn that restaurants, as we know them, have only been around for a few centuries. Before 1765, there were no restaurants. That it is to say, there were no places that provided the restaurant experience. There was nowhere in which a waiter brought you food and drinks that you picked from a menu. In fact, there were no menus anywhere.

A man called Boulanger changed that. In 1765, he opened a place in Paris that sold soup. On his sign, he used the word “restaurant” to describe what he was selling. At that time, it was believed that soup could help restore(恢复) your health—in French the word “restore” is “restaurer”—so he called the soup “restaurant”. Soon, people started buying his soup even when they were not ill. And later, people begin to use the word “restaurant” to mean a place selling soup rather than(而不是) the soup itself. People could see more “restaurant” in France, and they began to buy soup more often.

Later, restaurant in Paris began to serve other food besides soup. In the 1790s, menus started to appear. By the mid-1800s. there were many kinds of restaurants around the world. The United States offered coffee shops. Tea houses become popular in China. Paris created beautiful restaurants for the rich. The British began to copy the French, and the restaurant idea spread in Britain.

Today, cities are filled with all kinds of restaurants. Diners have millions of choices for what to eat. They like going to eat at those restaurants and always have a good time.

9 . As we all know, the "rice bowl" culture of China has influenced some Asian countries such as Japan, Korea and Vietnam since we started to use chopsticks while eating food.

Chopsticks are usually two long thin pieces of wood or bamboo. They can also be made of plastic, animal bone or metal. The most important thing is that chopsticks are a great invention in China.

Five thousand years ago people usually cooked their food in large pots, using twigs（小树枝）to remove it. As the population grew, people began cutting food into small pieces. Food in small pieces could be eaten easily with twigs by people. And twigs were gradually changed into chopsticks.

Some people think that the famous scholar Confucius living from about 551 BC to 479 BC pushed the development of chopsticks. Confucius believed that using chopsticks instead of knives would remind people to stay away from killing and violence at table.

We enjoy our delicious food with our family members or friends while feeling the peaceful and people-loving world by using chopsticks at table anytime.

10 . Study a calendar. It looks simple and orderly. But a calendar is more of a mathematical puzzle than you might guess. The calendar we use today has gone through centuries of changes.

For millennia, people watched the seasons, sun, moon, and stars to help them keep track of time passing. Ancient people did not know that Earth orbits (沿轨道运行) the sun about every 365.25 days. They tried to track the year by counting the full moons. Each year had 12 full moons. Twelve moons, or months, made one lunar year.

Calendars in Babylon used a lunar year. Twelve months added up to only 354 days. That made the lunar year 11 days too short. As years went by, the months and the seasons no longer matched up.

People in ancient Egypt came up with a solar calendar of 365 days. They observed that Sirius, the Dog Star, appeared near the rising sun every 365 days. Soon after that, the Nile River would rise. They looked forward to the flooding of the Nile, because it brought good things. The rich soil left by floodwaters was good for planting.

The ancient Romans used a calendar of 10 months. Because a Roman year was only 304 days, it seemed to always be out of step with the seasons. Holidays showed up at the wrong time of year.

A Roman ruler named Julius Caesar ordered a change. He created a calendar with 12 months, each 30 or 31 days long. He added an extra day every four years to keep things on track. This calendar was used for more than a millennium. But by the end of the 16th century, it was ten days out of step.

Pope Gregory XIII created today’s calendar in 1582. He set new mathematical rules for keeping the calendar in step with the seasons. Today, the Gregorian calendar is used almost everywhere in the world.