UNIT 6
Lesson 22
Exercise 1.2
Hi, Dave
Thanks for your message.
I'm having a great time here in Beijing.
It's a very special time now
because Chinese people are getting ready
to celebrate the New Year.
This is the most important festival of the year.
It is a time when all the family gets together
-just like Thanksgiving and Christmas
in the United States.
As I told you before,
I'm staying with the Zhang family.
When they are preparing for New Year,
there are many special traditions
and the Zhangs are following some of them.
For example,right now,
Mrs ,Zhang is cleaning the house.
People clean their houses from top to bottom.
Mr. Zhang is painting the window frames
of the house with red paint.
This is another tradition.
I think red is supposed to be a lucky color.
Lucy, the Zhangs' daughter,
is writing out a short couplets
to hang on the door.
She's painting with black paint
on pieces of red paper.
The couplets are very short - only two lines.
Chinese people hang these couplets
on their front doors -
one line on each side of the door.
That's all for now.
I'll write again in a few days.
Take care.
Josh