1 . Good manners are always good manners. That’s what I thought until I married Alexander, who is Russian.

When I first met Alexander and he said to me in Russian, “Nalei mnye chai—pour me some tea”, I got angry and answered, “Pour it yourself.” Translated into English, without a “Could you..?” or a “please”, it sounded really rude to me. But in Russian it was fine—you don’t have to add any polite words.

However, when I took Alexander home to meet my parents in the UK, I had to give him a good lesson about pleases and thank you (which he thought were completely unnecessary), and to teach him to say sorry if someone happened to step on his toes, and to smile, smile, smile.

Another thing that Alexander just couldn’t understand was why people say things like “Would you mind passing me the salt, please?” He said, “It’s only the salt, for God’s sake! What do you say in English if you want a real favour?”

He also watched in amazement when, at a dinner party in England, we swallowed some really disgusting food and I said, “Mmmm...delicious.” In Russia, people are much more direct. The first time Alexander’s mother came to our house for dinner in Moscow, she told me that my soup needed more flavouring. Afterwards, when we argued about it, my husband said, “Do you prefer your dinner guests to lie?”

Alexander complained that in England he felt like an idiot because in Russia if you smile all the time people think you are mad. In fact, this is exactly what my husband’s friends thought of me the first time I went to Russia because I smiled at everyone, and always said “please” and “thank you” in Russian.

At home we now have an agreement. If we’re speaking Russian, he can say “Pour me some tea”, and just make a noise like a grunt (咕哝声) when I give it to him. But when we’re speaking English, he has to add a “please”, a “thank you”, and a smile.

5 . FESTIVALS AND CELEBRATIONS

Festivals and celebrations of all kinds have been held everywhere since ancient times. Most ancient festivals would celebrate the end of cold weather, planting in spring and harvest in autumn.     1    

Festivals of the Dead

Some festivals are held to honour the dead or to satisfy the ancestors, who might return either to help or to do harm. For the Japanese festival Obon, people should go to clean graves and light incense in memory of their ancestors. The Western holiday Halloween is now a children’s festival, when they can dress up and go to their neighbors’ homes to ask for sweets.     2    

Festivals to Honour People

    3    The Dragon Boat Festival in China honors the famous ancient poet, Qu Yuan. India has a national festival to honour Mohandas Gandhi, the leader who helped gain India’s independence from Britain.

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Harvest and Thanksgiving festivals can be very happy events. People are grateful because their food is gathered for the winter. China and Japan have mid-autumn festivals, when people admire the moon and in China, enjoy moon-cakes.

Spring Festivals

The most energetic and important festivals are the ones that look forward to the end of winter and the coming of spring.     5    In some Western countries, Easter is an important religious and social festival for Christians around the world. It celebrates the return of Jesus from the dead and the coming of spring and new life.

People love to get together to eat, drink and have fun with each other. Festivals let us enjoy life, be proud of our customs and forget our work for a little while.

8 . Should we allow modern buildings to be built next to older buildings in a historic area of a city? In order to answer this question, we must first examine whether people really want to preserve the historic feel of an area.Not all historical buildings are attractive.However, there may be other reasons—for example, economic reasons—why they should be preserved.So, let us assume(假设) that historical buildings are both attractive and important to the majority of people.What should we do then if a new building is needed?

In my view, new architectural styles can exist perfectly well alongside an older style.Indeed, there are many examples in my own hometown of Tours where modern designs have been placed very successfully next to old buildings.As long as the building in question is pleasing and does not dominate(影响) its surroundings too much, it often improves the attractiveness of the area.

It is true that there are examples of new buildings which have spoilt(破坏) the area they are in, but the same can be said of some old buildings too.Yet people still speak against new buildings in historic areas.I think this is simply because people are naturally conservative(保守的) and do not like change.

Although we have to respect people’s feelings as fellow users of the buildings, I believe that it is the duty of the architect and planner to move things forward. If we always reproduced what was there before, we would all still be living in caves .Thus, I would argue against copying previous architectural styles and choose something fresh and different, even though that might be the more risky choice.

9 . Every year on April 1, April Fools' Day is celebrated in many countries around the world. In France, it's called "Poisson d^’Avril" or "Fish of April”. In Scotland, the holiday is often called "Gowkie Day". In Iraq, the holiday is called "Kithbet Neesan” or "April Lie".

History experts say people have celebrated April Fools^’ Day for a long time. Some believe April Fools' Day comes from the ancient Romans more than two thousand years ago, which was a day of playing games and pretending to be someone else.

Others say the day for fooling began in France in 1564. when King Charles changed the yearly calendar. He moved New Year's Day from April 1 to January I Many people did not know about the change because of communication problems then. Some people continued to celebrate New Year's Day on April 1. Other people called them April Fools and played jokes on them.

In the United State, April Fools' Day is just a day of joking and playing tricks on friends. These kinds of jokes are also called pranks （恶 作 剧）.These jokes typically end in the prankster shouting “April Fools”!

Simple pranks, like telling a friend a funny lie or making prank phone calls, are still common. But major companies also get in on April Fools' Day in a much bigger way. A few years ago, on April 1, Starbucks announced it was introducing new coffee cup sizes-plenta and Micra. The very large cups, bigger than a human head, remained useful for customers even after finishing all that coffee. According to Starbucks, the cups could be used as a rain hat, a pot for plants, or a lampshade.

It did not take long for customers to catch on to the prank. More and more people use media or smartphone apps to play pranks on their friends on April Fools' Day. One very annoying smartphone app, Cat Facts, sends funny facts about cats to your friends⁵ phones every day.

10 . Unique and Weird New Year's Eve Traditions

German

In some parts of Germany, they do lead （铅）pouring. Pour a dollop （团）of lead into cold water and the shape it dorms may be telling you about the year to come. A heart shape, naturally, means love will come your way. A crown predicts wealth and fortune. A star indicates happiness. But if you see a cross, you're almost dead!

Latin America

If you are in Latin America, make sure you have some colourful underpants to ring in the New Year. End — of — the — year partiers put on colourful underwear to ensure certain types of outcomes of the following year, red for love and yellow for success.

Naples, Italy

Neapolitans like throwing things out of the windows, at least on New Year's Eve. Furniture, kitchen machines, grandma.. Well, maybe not the last one. Let's hope not, anyway. This tradition is meant to symbolize an out — with — the — old gesture and get a new beginning of the new year. These days people are a bit more mindful of what they throw into the street below.

Spain

In 1909, winegrowers in the Alicante region of Spain had a brilliant idea: Start and promote an annual tradition that would involve people in having to buy and eat more grapes. Everyone must eat 12 grapes on New Year's Eve to pray for wealth of the coming year. Now, it's a popular custom in Spain. But the problem is that people have to eat a grape for each bell striking at midnight.