READINGS

John is travelling by train. He is very hungry. The train stops at a small station. He wants to buy one cake to eat very much. But it？蒺s raining hard. He wants someone to help him. A little boy is coming over to him. John asks him to buy cakes and gives him one yuan and says：“Go and buy two cakes with the money. One cake is for me and the other is for you.”

The little boy is very happy and runs over to buy cakes. A few minutes later he comes back and says to John，“I？蒺m sorry. I？蒺ve eaten one cake and it？蒺s delicious， so I？蒺m now eating the other one. Thank you very much.”

“You are welcome to have dinner with me on Sunday，” said John.

“But I don？蒺t know where your house is，” said Henry.

“It？蒺s easy. You get off the bus， then you cross the road. You take the first on the left. You walk for five minuts， then you come to a big tree. You take the second on the right behind the tree. About a hundred minutes down this road there is a big red house. You go past the red house and after about a quarter you？蒺ll see a small yellow house beside a little tree. Open the door with your foot.”

“Why with my foot？”asked Henry.

“Why， yes，”said John.“Well， you won？蒺t come to my house empty handed， will you？”

Almost everyone knows the meaning of “Mr”， “Mrs” and “Miss”.“Mr” is used before the names of men.“Mrs” is for married（结婚的）women， and “Miss” is for single（单身的）woman. But what is “Ms”？

For some time， businessmen（商人）in America have used Ms before a woman？蒺s name when they do not know whether the woman is married or not.

Today， however（然而）， many American women like to use Ms better than Mrs and Miss. The word Mr does not tell us whether a man is married or not. Many women think this is an advantage（优越）for men. They want be equal（平等的）to men in this way. These women feel that it is not important for people to know whether they are married or not.

There are some problems with Ms， however. Not all women like to use Ms. Some like the old ways of doing things. Some find it difficult to pronounce.（Ms sounds like [miz].） But young women usually like it better than older ones do. Perhaps Ms will be used by more American women before long.

We call the Chinese New Year the Spring Festival. There is a name for each Chinese year. We may call it the year of the sheep， the year of the monkey or the year of the pig and so on.

Before New Year？蒺s Day， people are busy shopping and cleaning their houses. On New Year？蒺s Eve（除夕）， there is a big family dinner. After dinner， all the family stay up late（熬夜）to welcome the New Year. On the first day of the New Year， people put on their new clothes and go to visit their friends say“Good Luck”and some other greetings （问候）to each other. People usually have a very good time during the festival.

We find many kinds of animals on earth. Some animals， like tigers and elephants， live in big forests. They are called wild（野性的）animals. Some others， like cows and dogs， live with man and we call them domestic（驯养的）animals.

Animals are important to man. Man catches wild animals for fur （毛皮）and meat. Domestic animals give man food， too. They are more important than wild animals. Without them life would be hard.

Sheep and dogs are useful for man？蒺s food. Skins（皮）of some animals can be made into coats and shoes. From cows， we get milk. Horses can take us to other places. In some places animals are used to plough （犁）fields. It is clear that man can？蒺t live without these animals.