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Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people all over the world. It is also called the Spring Festival or the Lunar New Year.
The exact date of the Spring Festival on the Western calendar changes from year to year.
However, Chinese New Year takes place between January 1 and February 19.
On the Chinese calendar every year has an animal's name.
These animals are the rat, ox, tiger, rabbit, dragon, snake, horse, ram, monkey, rooster, dog and pig.
A Chinese legend says that these twelve animals had a race. The first year was named after the rat, the winner.
The other eleven years were named according to the order in which the animals arrived in the race.
The clever rat jumped onto the ox's back, and then at the end jumped over the ox's head to arrive first!
The Chinese believe that a person born in a particular year has some of the characteristics of that animal.
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A teenager's joke: guidelines for doing schoolwork
My school had a policy about homework.
Students should not spend more than ninety minutes per night doing homework.
This is how I use the time for my work.
Fifteen minutes looking for assignment;
Eleven minutes calling a friend for the assignment; Twenty three minutes explaining why the teacher is mean and does not like teenagers;
Eight minutes in the bathroom; Ten minutes getting a snack;
Seven minutes checking the TV Guide;
Six minutes telling my parents that the teacher never explained the assignment;
Ten minutes sitting at the kitchen table waiting for Mom or Dad to do the assignment.
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A toad saw a frog near the road.
He was a fat old frog.
He sat and moaned and groaned.
The toad said, “Do not moan and groan, Mr. Frog. Hop like me. Hop down the road.”
So the frog and the toad went down the road to a big oak tree.
“I am home,” said the toad. “Come in and I will make tea.”
But Mr. Frog said, in a deep croak, “I must not roam far from home. I will be off to my home near the pond.”
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A was an apple pie
B bit it
C cut it
D dealt with it
E ate it
F fought for it
G got it
H had it
I inspected it
J jumped for it
K kept it
L longed for it
M mourned for it
N nodded at it
O opened it
P peeped in it
Q quartered it
R ran for it
S stole it
T took it
U upset it
V viewed it
W wanted it
X，Y，Z and ampersand all wished for a piece in hand.
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My name is Jenny and I did a homestay in America.
When I first met my host mother, Mary, she gave me a big hug.
I was really shocked because I had never been hugged before, and I wasn sure how to respond.
By the time I left America, though, I came to enjoy hugging and being hugged.
Shaking hands was also a challenge.
My homestay father, Peter, looked at me straight in the eye and squeezed my hand firmly.
Both Mary and Peter wanted me to call them by their first names because they, as Americans, like informality.
By using first names only, we felt friendlier towards each other.
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My sister is a year older than me and we've been sharing a room since I was 3 years old.
We are very close, but we also fight all the time.
Our fights are never serious.
I can't remember the cause of our fights now, but they were always over small things.
Sometimes it was just over a particular word I used or maybe just because my sister gave my teddy bear a hug and I was unhappy about it.
We don't take our fights very seriously as if all the fights are a game.
I think it's perfectly okay for kids to fight with their brothers or sisters.
Now I'm a teenager, and I even think that they're sweet memories!
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Thirty days hath September,
April, June, and November;
All the rest have thirty-one,
Except for February alone,
It has twenty-eight days clear,
And twenty-nine on each Leap Year.
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A young man had a small business.
He worked very hard, and he made a lot of money.
One day, he had dinner with a businessman.
He wanted the man to become his business partner.
When they finished the dinner, there were two dumplings left.
The young man told the waitress:
"Please pack them in a doggy bag and I'd like to take them home.
Soon the businessman decided to work together with the young man.
He said, "The young man is great. He has lots of money but he won't waste it.
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On their first day in the capital, Diana and Peter visited the Old Tower which stood on a hill near the city centre.
There were stairs leading to the top, but Diana and Peter decided to take the lift.
At the top there was a caffee and a balcony where visitors could stand and enjoy the view.
It was magnificent — you could see the whole city, the river and the hills beyond.
On their way back from the Tower, Diana and Peter went past the main square in the city centre.
They stopped at a stall to have some orange juice, and sat and watched the traffic for a while.
The square was very busy, with cars, buses, bicycles and pedestrians going in all directions.
In the centre of the square there was a policeman controlling the traffic.
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Rain, rain, go away,
Come again another day.
Rain, rain, go to Spain,
Never show your face again.
Rain, rain, pour down,
But not a drop on our town.
Rain on the green grass,
And rain on the tree,
And rain on the housetop,
But not on me.
Rain, rain, go away,
Come again on washing day.
Rain, rain, go to Germany,
And remain there permanently.
Rain, rain, go away,
Come on Martha's wedding day.