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    Christopher Columbus is famous because he found something he wasn't looking for.

    In 1492, Columbus sailed across the Atlantic Ocean in order to reach India. What he found was something far different. He found the New World. How did this come about? It all started in Italy.

    Christopher Columbus was born in Genoa in 1451. His family didn't have a lot of money, and Christopher wasn't an only child. He didn't have much of an education until he was much older. Instead, he went to sea. He sailed around the Mediterranean(地中海) and as far north as England and Ireland.

    During his travels, Columbus heard the reports of land to the west of the Madeira and Azores Islands. They were in the Atlantic Ocean west of Portugal. He wanted to know more and got maps and books on geography.

    Marco Polo said that Japan was only 1,500 miles east of China. As a result, Columbus thought that Japan was only 3,000 miles west of Portugal. And 3,000 miles was a distance that ships could travel in those days.

So, Columbus decided that he wanted to get to the East by going west. He thought that if he sailed far enough west, he would sail around the world enough to reach the East. Based on his calculations(计算), Japan was only 3,000 miles away, after all.

    Many animals have disappeared during the long history of the earth. The most famous of these animals are dinosaurs. They lived on the earth tens of millions of years ago, long before humans came into being and their future seemed to be safe at that time. There were many different kinds of dinosaurs and a number of them used to live in China. The eggs of twenty-five species (种类) have been found in Xixia County, Nanyang, Henan Province. Not long ago a rare new species of bird-like dinosaur was discovered in Chaoyang County, Liaoning Province. When scientists inspected the bones, they were surprised to find that these dinosaurs could not only run like the others but also climb trees. They learned this from the way the bones were joined together

    Dinosaurs died out suddenly about 65 million years ago. Some scientists think it came after an unexpected incident when a huge rock from space hit the earth and put too much dust into the air. Others think the earth got too hot for the dinosaurs to live on any more .Nobody knows for sure why and how dinosaurs disappeared from the earth in such a short time.

    We know many other wild plants, animals, insects and birds have died out more recently. According to a UN report, some 844 animals and plants have disappeared in the last 500 years. The dodo is one of them. It lived on the Island of Mauritius and was a very friendly animal. But it disappeared in the late of sixteen century.

A

A Family's Past

    It's important to learn about your family' s history. You can pass it on to next generation (一代人). Someday, you can retell your family's stories. You will be a bridge from the past to the future.

    Lee learned that her family moved to the United States from their native land of China. The time line shows what Lee found out about her family's history.

    The Aztec population was divided into four main classes．Nobles were the highest and most powerful class．They included the emperor and his extended family, as well as governors in charge of local areas, and members of the government．The nobles owned most of the land．Commoners made up most of the population．They ran small family farms or did ordinary jobs in the towns and cities．Serfs worked on the land owned by the nobles．They were given food and shelter, but weren't paid．Slaves were either prisoners of war or criminals who could be bought and sold.

    Many Aztec people lived in rural villages, working the land．However, many more lived in large towns and cities．Tenochtitian, the Aztec capital and home to the emperor, became one of the largest cities in the world．Its construction began in 1325 AD, and it's believed that by 1500 AD more than 200,000 people lived there．

    As with all Aztec towns and cities, there was a central area for temples and other special places in Tenochtitian．People could gather there to worship the Aztec gods.

    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 1 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.

    The Stars (Xingxing) show of 1979, hung on the wall outside the Chinese National Art Gallery(美术馆)in Beijing, was one of the most important shows in the recent history of Chinese art. Yan Li was a key member of the group of Chinese artists, Stars (Xingxing), and was also a member of the literary(文学的) group "Today" at that time. In the conversation between Yan Li and Dr. Silvia Fok, they will review the history of that period and how literature(文学) and arts were changed.

    Yan Li, born in 1954 in Beijing, is a writer and painter who moved to the U.S. in 1985 and since 1998 he spends his time between Shanghai and New York. He began writing poems and painting in oils during the Cultural Revolution(文革). Li who is very well-read in both Chinese and Western history and literature has several books of poems including a Chinese-English book named Poetry Possibility (2009) and Things Are Symbols of Themselves (2005) . Yan Li is the host of the Mid-Autumn Poetry Festival which takes place in Beijing every September.

    Dr Silvia Fok received her B.A., M. Phil., and Ph.D. from the University of Hong Kong in 1998, 2002 and 2008. Her primary research is Chinese Art. She has taught art history in the Hong Kong Art School from 2002 to 2004. She worked as part-time teacher at the Department of Fine Arts, HKU, and Cultural and Religious Studies Department, CUHK, in 2009. She is a teacher in Art at the General Education Centre, The Hong Kong Polytechnic University.

Information Card

    Once upon a time there was no tea at all in England. People there used to drink a light beer (啤酒). No coffee or milk but large glasses of beer stood on the breakfast table！

    When tea was first brought to England, an old couple got some as a special treat. But they did not know how it should be used. They cooked the leaves in hot water, and spread them on a piece of bacon (it p) which they were going to have for dinner. They ate the leaves, and threw the tea away! However, tea is becoming as popular as coffee and milk in England today.

    Tea is the leaf of a plant which grows widely in China, Japan and some other countries. Tea farmers usually grow a great many tea plants on a large piece of land. When the tea leaves are ready to be picked, it is the busiest time for tea farmers in a year. They pull off the leaves and dry them. In their spare time, they pick out the best leaves and get them ready for market. In China, whenever a visitor comes into a house, he is served with a cup of tea.

    Hunting with birds is a very old sport. In some countries the golden eagles are used for hunting wild animals. They are used for hunting foxes and wolves.

    Training an eagle to hunt takes a long time. Hunters catch young eagles by using nets made of hair. After being trained, the eagle is taken to a field. A blindfold (眼罩) over the bird's eyes keeps it quiet until the hunter is ready.

    The eagle sits on the arm of me hunter. The hunter's arm is covered with a long, special glove to protect it from me sharp claws (爪子) of the bird. In the field, as soon as the hunter sees a fox or a wolf, he takes the blindfold off the eagle's eyes. The eagle quickly flies into the air and begins to look for the wild animal.

    The eagle sees the animal and catches it with claws like steel (钢铁). Its mouth and claws are strong enough to hold the animal. Usually, the bird carries the animal back to the hunter. Sometimes fast animals with good eyes can get away.

    Welcome to London! Now let me tell you something about this wonderful city. London, the capital of the United Kingdom, is the biggest city in Western Europe with over 7 million people. It sits by the River Thames. London has a history of more than 2, 000 years. Because of its long history and different cultures, London is a very famous city in the world. People all over the world are familiar with the city's red double-decker（双层的）buses and black taxis.

People

    The British Empire used to（过去常常）rule around the world, so many people from around the world moved to London. They have brought with them their own languages and cultures. More than 300 different languages are spoken in London.

Culture

    London is known for its museums. One important museum is British Museum. It is the oldest public museum in the world. There are two main art museums in London the National Gallery and the Tate Gallery. Besides, London is also home to arts, such as theater and music. The Globe Theater, which was popular in the late

16th and 17th centuries, was opened for performances of William Shakespeare's plays.

Tourist attractions

    London has many wonderful places to visit. For example, the well-known Clock Tower, a 320-foot-hightower, was called the Big Ben. Another famous London building is Buckingham Palace. The members of royal（皇家的）family of England live there. Besides, Hyde Park is the largest open area in central London.

    Every year, people from every corner of the world travel to Australia to meet the kangaroo—the lovely, unusual and special Australian animal that jumps all over this sunburnt continent. There is a young kangaroo that is lucky to be alive today, thanks to meeting a pair of New South Wales teenagers.

    Nick Heath and Jack Donnelly were riding their motorbikes in the bush outside Sydney on Sunday when they came across a kangaroo stuck in the mud(泥). The boys were lucky enough to see the head of the animal sticking out of the mud at Agnes Banks next the Nepean River in southwest Sydney.

    The animal was clearly in pain but the boys couldn't reach it so they raced home to get a rope. When they returned, Mr. Donnelly tied the rope around his waist(腰) and walked into the thick mud to get hold of the kangaroo while his friend then pulled them about 30m to safety.

 Appearing on Today this morning, the young men retold their story.

"The kangaroo's life was important to us, so we pulled out all the stops to rescue it." Mr. Heath said.

    "We're proud of what we did. If we see something like that again, we'll do it all over."Mr Heath added.

    The animal, which was not in great health, after being saved, was handed to Wildlife Rescue Organization. It's believed that it's very hot and the kangaroo was likely searching for water in the dry conditions when it got stuck in the mud.

    As for the heroes of the story, they're glad to have been in the right place at the right time to help the animal and don't care about the attention it's brought.

    "Yeah, we liked it, something different." Mr. Donnelly told reporters.

    Do you have a headache? Eat some bird brains for dinner, and your headache will go away. Is your hair turning gray? Eat black rice every day. And you won't have gray hair.

    Eat bird brains and black rice? Some people ask. "How strange!" But for many Chinese people, bird brains and black rice are not strange things to eat, they are good things to eat. They are good medicines, too.

    Many Chinese believe that food can be medicine. Food that is medicine is called medicinal food. The Chinese have eaten medicinal food and spices(调味料)for hundreds of years. Ginger(姜), for example, is a common spice in Chinese cooking now. Ginger gives food a nice favor(味道). The Chinese began to use ginger many years ago. At that time, they used ginger not because it tasted good. They used it because it was medicinal Ginger, they thought, was good for the digestion (消化). It also helped people who had colds.

    Not everyone approves of the medicinal food. Some people think that food and spices are not medicines. They want to buy their medicine in drug stores, not in supermarkets. Other people want to try medicinal food. They say, "Maybe medicinal food can't help me, but it can't hurt me, either.”

    People can try medicinal food at a Chinese restaurant in San Francisco, California .The restaurant serves only medicinal food. Queen's Secret", for example, is one dish at the restaurant. Meat from a chicken with black skin is in the dish. It is for women who want to look young.

    Alan Lau is the owner of the restaurant. He says, "Some people try medicinal food only once and then say, 'It didn't work. But think about this: When your doctor prescribes (开药方) medicine, you take the medicine for five days, or for ten days, or maybe for weeks. It's the same with medicinal food. You have to eat the food many times before it begins to help. "Mr. Lau believes that medicinal food works, he eats medicinally every day.

    New York is the biggest city of the USA. A long time ago, is was called Lenapehoking. In 1626, Dutch(荷兰) people bought the land for only $24. They called it New Amsterdam. Then in 1664, the British took it over and changed the name to New York.

    New York had an excellent harbour(港口). Many people from all over the world came by sea and landed in New York. These people wanted a better life. New York seemed to give them that. By 1835, New York became the largest city in the United States. New York City used to have five smaller towns, but now they are all part of the same city. They are Manhattan, Brooklyn, Queens, the Bronx and Staten Island.

    Today, New York is home to millions of people from all over the world. These different cultures make New York an exciting place to visit. There are many things to do in New York. You can take a helicopter(直升飞机) riding through the city, ride horses in Central Park，see a movie in the afternoon and watch the sunset(日落)over the Brooklyn Bridge. Don't worry if you get hungry. Some restaurants are open 24 hours a day!

    Painting and writing on walls is nothing new. In prehistoric times, people in Africa and Europe painted pictures of animals and people in caves. Graffiti has been found at ancient sites in Greece, Italy, Syria and Iraq. In the Roman town of Pompeii in Italy, archaeologists found a lot of graffiti written in Latin, including political and romantic messages, and even some magic spells!

    In the 1970s, young people in New York used pens to write their names, or "tags", on walls around the city. One of the first "taggers" was Demetrius, a teenager from a Greek family. He wrote his tag on walls in his neighborhood on the way to school. Other teenagers saw Demetrius's tag and started writing their own tags on walls, buses and subway trains all over New York. Then, some teenagers stopped using pens and started using paints. Their tags were bigger and more colorful and appeared on trains, buses and walls around the city. In the 1990s and 2000s, a lot of graffiti artists started to draw pictures on buildings in public places.

    In many countries, it is a crime to paint on public walls and street artists can have problems with the police. In some other countries, street art is permitted in certain places. Nowadays, street art is more popular with the public. In some cities, there are street art festivals. In Bristol in the UK, there is a street art festival in August every year. Artists paint all the buildings in a street. Lots of people come to watch the artists and take photos. Street art can be seen in galleries too. There have been exhibitions of street art in galleries in Paris, London and Los Angeles.

    Most street artists are young people who paint in their neighborhood or home city. Many of them use the Internet to communicate and share photos of their pictures with other street artists around the world. Although we don't know what will happen to street art in the future, we can be sure that it is here to stay!

    There are many unusual customs around the world. If you travel there, it's important for you to know about them.

    Greece

    If children are changing their teeth, instead of saving their teeth and placing them under a pillow (枕头) for the tooth fairy (仙子) to collect, Greek children's teeth are thrown to the roof of their homes. This unusual tradition is thought to bring good luck for the family, as well as a healthy tooth for the child!

    China

    When dining with locals and traveling in cities, it's important to give out gifts as a way of saying thank you. But remember to avoid giving them the following gifts: clocks, handkerchiefs (手帕) , shoes and anything white or black. It may seem like a good way of saying thank you for their lovely treat, but they are each strongly connected with death and funerals. A proper gift to pass on to show your thanks is delicious sweets or fresh tea.

    Thailand

    This is probably one of the most unusual customs to look out for, but it's also a lot of fun—especially for your kids! Every November, in the town of Lop Buri, the locals lay out fresh fruit, cakes and candies on top of tables that line the streets. But these mouth—watering treats aren't for the people, they're for the native Macaque monkeys to enjoy. This strange but wonderful celebration is called the Monkey Buffet Festival, and is a must—see on a trip to Thailand.

    Travelling is not always happy, at least for the buddies in the movie Green Book. The popular film won Best Picture at the 91st Academy Awards on 25 February.

    The movie was adapted from the true story of a road trip through the southern US in the early 1960s. In the film, the black pianist Don Shirley hires Italian-American Tony Vallelonga to drive him to performances, but they face problems because of Shirley's skin colour. These problems lead them to form a special friendship.

     "There's something so deeply right about this movie, so true to the time, " wrote US film critic Mick LaSalle. The time LaSalle is talking about was between the late 1870s and 1960s, a very different period in the US history. Many parts of the country had Jim Crow laws(《吉姆·克劳法》), which allowed racial segregation(种族隔离). These laws made life and travelling dangerous for African-Americans. They couldn't use certain hotels, restaurants, or even gas stations. They had to be indoors after sunset, or they might be put into prison. Even black celebrities(名人) had to follow the laws.

    But in 1936, a black mail carrier named Victor H. Green had an idea. He made a list of friendly businesses in New York City. He published the list as a small book with a green cover. The Green Book helped African-Americans travel more safely. Then, in 1964, Jim Crow laws went away. The book went away too.

    Today many US people still remember the time of Jim Crow laws. But they probably don't know about the Green Book. It's a forgotten part of the story. Thanks to this movie, maybe people can remember it again.

As everyone knows, Jingdezhen in Jiangxi province is the center of world porcelain production (瓷器生产) .The[ˈləʊkl] porcelain is quite popular around the world. Last week my school held a two-day research activity, the aim of which was to build students' awareness (意识) of traditional Chinese  [ˈkʌltʃə(r)].

On our way to Jingdezhen, our guide (introduction) us to the basics of porcelain production. Our first stop was the Museum of Chinese Ceramics, which has a unique collection of porcelain made from such as clay and stone.

The guide told us of the great achievements in ceramics from ancient times until today. I paid special to what he said, and I learned that ceramics was invented in the Neolithic (新石器时代) period. At that time, clay was (use) to make pottery (陶器）,which carried water and food. Today, we still use porcelain but our pottery is far more beautiful than the(produce) of those times.

In the afternoon, we visited a factory to learn about the[ˈprəʊses] of making ceramics. We found that any small mistake canto the failure.

On the second day, we were given some clay and the chance to design a piece of pottery. Although our efforts were not as beautiful as the articles in the museum, they were our own work.

The two-day activity was very(enjoy) and meaningful. I learned a lot about porcelain and made an item on my own. It meant a lot to me.

    The Great Fire of London started in the very early hours of 2 September 1666. In four days it destroyed (毁坏) more than three-quarters of the old city. Most of the houses were1out of wood and close together. One hundred thousand people became homeless, but only few2their lives.

    The fire started on Sunday morning in the house of the King's baker (面包师). The baker, with his wife and family, was able to3through a window in the roof. A strong wind blew the fire from the bakery (面包房) into a small hotel next door. Then it4quickly into Thames Street.

    By eight o'clock three hundred houses were on fire. On Monday nearly a kilometer of the city was burning along the River Thames. Tuesday was the5day. The fire destroyed many well-known6, old St Paul's and the Guildhall along them.

    Samuel Peyps, the famous writer, 7the fire. People threw their things into the river. Many poor people stayed in their houses until the last moment. Birds fell out of the air because of the8.

    The fire stopped only9the King finally ordered people to destroy hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire. With10left to burn, the fire became weak and finally died out.

Many of us reach news every day is probably because we'd like to know what's happening in the world. Today we can get news from TV or the Internet, but how did ancient people get news?

At the very beginning, information spread by word of mouth. People living in tribes (部落), got news from neighbors or travelers. Ancient Romans changed the way people knew about their communities. They posted a list of daily happenings at public squares in the cities. Ancient Chinese people did it in another way. The government had news sheets sent to officials in the whole country so people could know what was going on in the capital.

The fifteenth century saw big progress in printing technology in the west. The progress brought a sudden rise of news business. Printers sold whatever people loved to read. In the sixteenth century, the first real newspaper appeared. People started to form the habit of reading newspapers. They liked to share their opinions on newspapers. The invention of telegraph（电报）machines led to another big step in history. News stories were sent to the papers in minutes instead of weeks.

 Now we get news in seconds from all over the world. We can become some kind of reporters by posting online what happens around us.

Though chopsticks are used in many Asian countries, they have their beginnings in China. Chinese1says that China had chopsticks as far back as the Xia Dynasty（夏朝），In the Spring and Autumn Period copper and iron chopsticks appeared. Then in the Han Dynasty lacquered（涂漆）chopsticks came. Gold and silver chopsticks followed later. Today we have chopsticks2of plastic. The most expensive ones are made of tusks of elephants and hard green stones.

Chopsticks tell Chinese: tradition in their way. In ancient times the rich used gold chopsticks3their wealth. In history many kings used silver chopsticks to take their food to see4it was poisonous（有毒的）. It was said that if it was， the silver chopsticks would5color. Chopsticks are traditionally given to a daughter when she marries to show that they should have a son very soon, for "chopstick" in Chinese is pronounced, 6"quick a son"!

Tianzhu chopsticks from Hangzhou, wooden chopsticks from Shanyang of Shaanxi Province, and Beijing's chopsticks are7. Chopsticks appeared in the old Chinese story: An old man8his sons a lesson by showing how he can easily break a single chopstick but not a number of them. In China chopsticks are 9good luck. So on the Chinese New Year's Eve many families will10 new chopsticks at dinners as a way of making requests for good luck

Environmental protection is one of the hottest topics nowadays. It was also something that ancient Chinese paid great attention to. In fact, the world's earliest environmental protection idea, ministry （部门） and law were all born in China. How did the ancient Chinese protect the environment?

The world's earliest idea of "managing state affairs（政事）through environmental protection"

Xunzi, a famous thinker in the Warring States Period, came up with the idea of "managing state affairs through environmental protection". He wrote in his book that vegetation（植被）should be protected well by humans.

Guan Zhong, a government officer 400 years ahead of Xunzi, was also an environmental protection expert. He said "a king who cannot protect his vegetation is not doing a good job".

The world's earliest environmental protection ministry"

Nine ministries set up by Shim, an ancient Chinese emperor, included "Yu"（虞） , an environmental protection ministry. Hie first " Yu'' leader was Boyi, an environmental protection expert. He invented wells so people could drink clean water. He knew a lot about animals and also called for animal protection.

The world's earliest "environmental protection law"

Over 4, 000 years ago, Dayu, an ancient Chinese water-control expert and also an emperor, made a rule, not allowing people to cut down trees in March or catch fish in June, because it was the time when they grew quickly.

Almost 3,000 years ago, Tianlv, the first environmental protection law, appeared in Qin. It recorded many ancient environmental protection rules. Two of them were interesting: firstly, rivers should not be blocked（堵塞）; secondly, grass and trees should not be burned to be fertilizer （肥料）except for summer. The second one is inspiring even for today. It can help to keep air clean and fresh.