学进去

Nowadays, people usually shake hands when they meet each other. Do the Chinese always greet others like this? In fact, handshaking was introduced to our country around 100 years ago.

There were several kinds of greeting in ancient China. Among them the fist and palm salute(拱手礼) was a quite common one, with a history of about 3, 000 years. It was first used by people in the West Zhou Dynasty. In ancient times, if people met a stranger, their hands were always ready for holding something used for fighting. Holding out both hands showed that people could feel relaxed.

When people meet, men usually use their left hand to hold the right one. 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 when they give the fist and palm salute, they should put their right hand on the top. When someone presents the fist and palm salute to you, you are supposed to do it back as well.

In many wuxia or kung fu TV series and movies, people greet each other with the hold fist salute, or Baoquan in Chinese. The gesture (手势) is that the right hand is made a fist, while the left band is to cover the right fist. It’s similar to the fist and palm salute, but they are different. Baoquan is widely used among kung fu masters and students.

So, don’t make a mistake.

A clever man

A gentleman met Bill one day. The rich man said, “They say you are very clever, but I don’t believe it.” Bill said with a smile (微笑) , “I am not clever. Instead (然而) , you are very stupid (愚蠢).” The gentleman became very angry. Bill said, “Please don't be angry, sir. If (如果) you don’t believe (信) what I said, let me ask you one question. If you have a group (组) of cows, and I give you another (另一个) group, then how many groups of cows do you have?” “Why, that’s the easiest (最简单的) question in the world! One and one is two, I have two groups of cows.” Bill laughed and said. “You are wrong, sir. Two groups put together are still one group. That is the easiest question in the world.”

There seems (似乎) to be apps (手机应用软件) for everything. And mobile apps have been a part of (一部分) our life. The following apps are part of the most popular ones.

Ctrip can be a helper when you feel it’s hard to buy train or plane tickets. You can buy tickets anywhere anytime.

Ximalaya Reading has lots of books including (包括) poems (诗歌), short stories, novels (小说) and even fairy tales for children. You can listen to books online. You can also download book recordings (录音).

BabyBus is a very good friend for children under three years old. Kids can learn to speak, understand numbers and draw pictures with the help of this app.

Word 100 can help us learn English when you’re playing games. So if you have problems (问题) in remembering the new words when you learn English, use it!

Once there was an old farmer, with a horse which was almost as old as himself. He set out one morning with his son to sell the horse before it died. Father and son walked because the farmer did not want the horse to be too tired. They met two men on the road who said, “Why are you walking, farmer? It’s a long way to the market. You should ride on it.” The farmer knew that this was true, so he rode on the horse while his son walked. Then they met two old women, “What are you doing up there, farmer? Can’t you see how tired the boy is?” So the farmer got down and his son rode inside instead. Next, three old men stopped them, one said, “Why are you walking, farmer? Get up. It’s too hot for an old man like you to walk today.” So the farmer got up behind his son and they rode on. Some time later, a young woman passed them, “Why aren’t you walking?” She asked, “It isn’t far to the market. Give your poor horse a rest.” So the farmer and his son got down once again. It is a fact that you cannot please all the people all the time.

When Alan was young, he played football very often and he was good at it. Then he worked in a town. There was no team for him there, so he stopped playing football.

He began to get fat. So he thought, “I’ve stopped playing and I’m getting fat. What should I do?” He thought about it for some days, and then he said to himself, “I know I should play table tennis.”

He met a nice girl at the tennis club one day and they played a game of tennis against (对抗) another young man and woman. Alan played very badly and was angry with himself. “I’ve never played as badly as this time.” he said to the girl. “Oh,” she said in surprise, “You have played before, haven’t you?”

Many years ago, Shanghai was a small village. Not many people lived there. Many of them were fishermen and farmers.

Later, people from other places came to Shanghai and it became a town. Today Shanghai is a big city. There are a lot of tall buildings (建筑物). Many people live there. Some of them are from other countries.

The Shanghai History Museum shows the story of Shanghai. In the museum, you can see old houses, old boats and many other old things. There are also a lot of photos of old Shanghai.