Sayings are used every day. You may ask an unhappy friend why she’s “feeling blue”. If you’ve done only a small part of a big job, you might call it “a drop(滴)in the bucket(桶).”   These sayings don’t mean exactly what the words say. But it’s easy to tell why we use them. Blue is a cool, quiet color. So it’s a good word for “sad”. A bucket holds too many drops of water to count. So just one drop is very little.

Other sayings are more difficult to understand. When you are about to go to bed, you are going to “hit the hay(干草)”. This saying does not make much sense unless you know where it came from. It was first used in the 1930s. At that time, many Americans were out of work. Some went from place to place, looking for jobs. At night they were very tired. They often made a bed of hay in a field or barn(谷仓). As soon as their heads “hit the hay”, they fell asleep.

Here is another saying. When you are sick, you might say you are “under the weather”. But why? This saying is more than 200 years old. It began in the days when many people went from place to place by boat. When storm winds rocked the boat, people often felt sick. The boat was sailing(航行)“under the weather”.

Young kids may find old sayings like these hard to understand, and old people may also have difficulty understanding new sayings. That’s why a granny might not know what you mean by saying “give me five”. She might think you’re “off your rocker” which means “out of your mind”.

If you like chocolates, you are not alone. Millions of people around the world say that they can’t live without chocolate. But have you wondered if chocolate is harmful to your health? Let’s separate the truth from the facts about this popular food.

Chocolate makes you happy.

There are over three hundred chemicals (化学物质) in chocolate, which make our brain active and enable us to feel happy. For example theobromine (可可碱) can help increase feelings of happiness and makes you feel less stressed. The caffeine (咖啡因) in chocolate can give you more energy and is also found in coffee and tea.

Chocolate makes you fat.

Chocolate is commonly seen as a kind of fattening food. In fact, cocoa beans are full of antioxidants (抗氧化剂) that are good for health. However, a lot of antioxidants are removed during the process to clear up their bitterness (苦涩). Most chocolates have high sugar and fat and only a little cocoa. Eating these and other chocolate desserts like cakes and cookies can really increase your weight.

Chocolate causes bad teeth.

It’s not chocolate itself that causes tooth decay (腐烂), but the sugar in chocolate and bad teeth-brushing habits. In fact, it’s believed that cocoa butter covers our teeth, and this might actually protect instead of hurting them,

As with most things, chocolate only become a danger when you eat it too much. It’s important to remember that most of the advantages of chocolate come from cocoa. That’s why dark chocolate is the healthiest choice. So choose your chocolate wisely, eat it properly, and you will get the best of both worlds—happiness and health.

When two people meet, there are a lot of ways of greeting. The ways of greeting are not always the same in different countries.

In America, two people usually greet each other with a handshake. It is a way to show respect to the other person. Athletes from opposite teams shake hands before a game for the same reason. However, most Americans don’t shake hands when they meet people they have already known well. When American friends meet each other, they might only wave (挥手), or maybe just nod their heads.

In New Zealand, there is a special way of greeting called “Hongi”. In the greeting, two people press their noses and foreheads (前额) together and close their eyes. This is an old tradition that comes from the Maori, who were the first people to live in New Zealand. Even today, many New Zealanders still press their foreheads when they meet.

Kissing is sometimes used as a way to greet someone. In some countries, important people used to wear special rings. It was the custom for visitors to kiss these rings when they came for a meeting. In France, when people met, they sometimes kiss each other on the face.

In Japan, people bow to each other every time they meet. Even family members bow to each other. How low to bow depends on how respected the other person is.

Today, new ways of greeting are created all the time. People can do this with a quick “hi”, a handshake, or even a simple smile. The important thing is that the people they are greeting understand them.