According to the Chinese lunar calendar, the year staring on Feb 12 will be the Year of the Ox. Many Chinese people believe it will be a good year, partly because they have a strong liking for the animal itself. So, let's learn something about the ox in the Year of the Ox.

In Chinese culture the ox stands for the spirit of hard work and unselfishness. We often say that the ox is enduring(忍耐的) and generous(慷慨的). The term "Iaohuangniu" describes those who help others and ask nothing for themselves. Just as Chinese writer Lu Xun once wrote," Cows eat grass, but give milk".

But in the West, people have a different opinion about the animal," Bull-headed" people are very stubborn (固执的) and will not listen to advice.

If you scorch on the internet for the word" bull", you'll also find other interesting English expressions.

For example. if someone behaves" like a bull in a china shop", he or she behaves in a clumsy(笨的) manner when they should be more careful.

With the new year coming, we hope that all of us will work just as hard as the ox does. Avoid anything that might make you as angry as" a red flag to a bull". We hope you can always" take the bull by the horns (不畏艰险) when you have to deal with a difficult situation.

The idea that red means stop and green means go has influenced our lives in more ways than just traffic signals(信号). We have been taught from a young age that the color red means danger and green means it's okay to move forward. But why were those colors chosen for traffic lights in the first place? For something we have to look at every day, why couldn't they have been prettier colors?

Well, it's important to know that before traffic lights for cars, there were traffic signals for trains. At first, railway companies used red to mean stop, white to mean go, and green to mean warn. As you could imagine, trains ran into a few problems with white meaning go. For example, one train mistook a bright star for a white light and something unexpected happened. Because of that, railway companies finally moved green meaning go and used yellow to mean warm. And it's been that way ever since.

Red has always been a color that mean danger, long before cars were even around. This most likely started because it's the color with the longest wavelength(波长) so it can be seen somewhere farther than other colors.

Bu, believe it or not, yellow was once used to mean stop. Back in the 1900s, some stop signs were yellow because it was too hard to see a red sign in a poorly lit area. Finally, highly reflective materials (高反射材料) were developed and red stop signs were born. Since yellow can be seen well at all times of the day, school zones, some if signs, and school buses continue to be printed yellow.

So next time you are impatiently waiting at a traffic light, don't get so mad at then, they've certainly come a long way.

Dear classmates,

The entrance examination of high school coming in three months.