Saudi Arabia (沙特阿拉伯) is getting popular these days. It beat Argentina (阿根廷) in the 2022 World Cup. Also, President Xi Jinping visited the country on Dec. 7th last year. How much do you know about this Arabic(阿拉伯的) country?

Saudi Arabia is in the Middle East. It is a country that puts old and new together. In the old town of Al Ula (欧拉), there are old Arabic buildings built 2,000 years ago. In the modern (现代的) city of Dammam (达曼), there is the world’s largest airport. It is even larger than Singapore. The country has a large oil reserve (石油储量) . This makes it one of the world’s richest countries.

But Saudi Arabia has poor farming (种植业). There is little rain and no river there. Deserts (沙漠) cover about 40 percent of the country. They can only grow dates (椰枣). People there call dates the “bread of the desert”. You can find them on the street stalls (摊位) or in big hotels. People dry them and eat them. They also put dates into cookies or tea.

Many parents think that it’s very difficult to get their children to do chores. But I think it’s easy to get children to do chores.

My daughter is ten years old. At night, I write down her chores for the following day. Then I stick(贴) the paper with chores on her door. Usually she gets three to eight chores a day. It depends on how she does chores. If she does all of her chores well, she can get fewer chores the next day. Some chores are easy, such as sweeping the floor, folding the clothes and cleaning the table after dinner.

For my other two children, the chores are different because they are too young. They both know how to put their empty dinner plates in the dishwasher(洗碗机)．My 19-month-old son helps me put the dirty clothes in the washing machine(洗衣机) when I am washing the clothes. They can also help me when I’m working in the yard. They help me pick up the sticks(树枝) and throw them away.

Afternoon lea is one of the most popular English customs (风俗). Tea came from China to England during the 1660s. But the name of “afternoon tea” first appeared in the mid-19th century (世纪).

The Duchess (公爵夫人) called Anna introduced afternoon tea to England in the year 1840. At that time, people usually had only two main meals a day: breakfast and dinner. They were at around 8 o’clock and in the evening. There was a long period of time between lunch and dinner. Anna usually felt very hungry at about four o’clock in the afternoon. So Anna asked for tea, bread and cakes during the late afternoon. Later, she invited her friends to join her to drink afternoon tea. They liked this practice (行为) very much.

The practice became popular (受欢迎的). During the 1880s, afternoon tea was usually served in the room between four and five o’clock. During traditional afternoon tea, people can enjoy delicious sandwiches, cakes and other food. Tea grown in India or Ceylon is poured from silver teapots into the china cups.