302 Found

　　②Yes, sometimes. I often have many classes at school. Only on weekends I have time to help her. Whatever I can do, I will help her. Whenever I have time, I will help her.

　　17. Please talk about any one of the following topics in one minute: festival, season, school, hobby, music, pet, Internet, car, character…

　　Festival

　　①Lantern Festival

　　  Well, here I want to say something about the Lantern Festival.

　　  The 15th day of the 1st lunar month is the Chinese Lantern Festival because the first lunar month is called Yuan-month and in the ancient times people called Night Xiao. The 15th day is the first night to see a full moon. So the day is also called Yuan Xiao Festival in China. It also marks the last day of Spring Festival.

　　  According to Chinese tradition, on the night of this day, people usually make thousands of lanterns hung out together for others to appreciate. When the night comes, countless colorful lanterns are hanging in the open air, and all of them, because they are made by different people, have different shapes and colors. You can never imagine that a lantern can be made into so many different shapes. Some of them look like water melons, some like buildings, and some made into beautiful scenery. Right now, some people even make very large lanterns, which are more than two meters high. After the darkness comes, all the people come to the square from different directions to see the lanterns, and enjoy the bright full moon hanging high above in the sky. All the lanterns send people into a joyful atmosphere.

　　②Spring festival

　　  In China, Spring Festival is one of the most important festivals. It is also getting more and more popular in some foreign countries. When Spring Festival comes, it means that a new year comes, and people grow a year older. During the festival, it is very crowded throughout the country.

　　  On the eve of Spring Festival, parents get food, clothes and Spring Festival's goods prepared. The people who work outside come back, and the whole family gets together to have meals and say goodbye to the last year, and welcome the New Year. After the meal, they wait until midnight comes. They set off fireworks then.

　　  On the first morning of the Spring Festival, everyone wears their new clothes and then go to other's homes to celebrate the New Year. Each family sets off fireworks when their guests come, and they take out sweets and peanuts to share. On the following days, they go around to their relatives and friends. The Spring Festival has several meanings. It means people working outside can come back to relax themselves, a new year begins. When spring comes, farmers begin to plant crops and people make a plan for the New Year.

　　  All the people throughout the world pay much attention to it. Our country of course holds some national celebrations to celebrate it. This most traditional festival in China will go on being celebrated in the future.

　　③Dragon Boat Festival

　　  There are many festivals in China, and each has special customs. However, among these festivals, I prefer the Dragon Boat Festival, because it usually reminds me of a famous person in Chinese history.

　　  The origin of this festival can be traced back the Warring States Period. During that period, there was a patriotic poet named Qu Yuan, who was removed from office by those treacherous officials, and he was sent to exile by the Duke of Chu. During his exile, Qu Yuan still concerned about his country, and wrote lots of poems about his feeling towards his country. When he heard his country was occupied by the armies of another country, he jumped into the river to show his royalty. The local people wrapped glutinous rice in mugwort leaves and threw them into the river to lure the shrimps, fish and crabs away from the remains of the deceased poet. With the passing of time, the practice of throwing rice into the river as a sacrifice to Qu Yuan gradually evolved into a custom. From then on, to remember this famous poet and patriot, every year on Lunar May 5th, people eat Zongzi to show their respect and longings for the great patriotic poet.

　　  It is the only day that people will hold a competition of dragon boats every year. In fact, people do not care about the result of the race. They enjoy the emotion the race brings to them. At the same time, the Dragon Boat Festival is also "a cleaning festival". People clean their courtyard on this day, putting up some leaves of mugwort or cattail on either side of the door, spray realgar water, and drinking realgar liquor. People clean away the rotten, kill bacteria to prevent diseases.

　　Pet

　　①Recently, three owls appeared suddenly on our campus. They made me think of my pet from childhood. When I was little, we had an owl at home. It was small, gray, and had two big eyes. We liked it very much. Every time I went home, it greeted me by making "goo-goo" sounds. We always played with it and talked to it. It would blink its eyes just like it understood what we were saying. It was like my best friend. But when the weather became colder, we forgot to keep it warm, and it died. It made us sad for a long time, and it also taught me how important it is to take care of animals.