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(熏肉) 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 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 the market. In China, whenever a visitor comes into a house, he is served with a cup of tea.

In China, there are many different kinds of food and some of them are very popular in other countries, such as dumplings. Now let’s learn something about them.

Almost everyone in China likes dumplings very much, and here are hundreds of kinds of them. Some have meat and vegetables in them, others have sugar, eggs or peanuts. I like dumplings with vegetables and pork better than any other kind.

Usually people make dumplings at home. If you have no time to make them by yourself, you can buy them in supermarkets. Then you cook them at home and eat them with vinegar.

The Spring Festival is very important for Chinese people and most of the families make dumplings as a dish in the big dinner. When we make them, we usually put a coin in a dumpling. If one eats the dumping with the coin in it, he or she will be the luckiest person in the following year.

Now you may like to try making some lucky dumplings for yourself and your family.

In many English homes, people eat four meals a day, breakfast, lunch, tea and dinner.

They have breakfast at any time from seven to nine in the morning. They eat porridge, bread or eggs. They drink tea or coffee.

Lunch comes at one o’clock in the afternoon. Afternoon tea is from four to five in the afternoon, and dinner is about 7:30. First, they have some soup, then they have meat or fish. After that, they eat some other things, like bananas, apples or oranges. But not all English people like that. Some of them have their dinner in the middle of the day. Their meals are breakfast, dinner, tea and these meals are very simple (简单).