Black Friday

Thanksgiving is always on a Thursday. The day after it has been known as Black Friday. It is the start of the holiday shopping season, and it has been the busiest shopping day of the year in the US since 2005.

Most stores offer big sales on Black Friday. They open their doors quite early in the morning. They try to attract shoppers with big discounts (打折). Some items (商品)like TVs and cloths are much cheaper than usual. Stores may even lose money on these items. They hope that shoppers will buy gifts for other people while they are in the store.

Black Friday is a great time to go shopping. However, there are problem. The biggest one is that there are not enough low-priced items. Each store may only have a few. These items are in great need, so people stand in long lines to get them. They may wait three to four hours before a store opens. They may be hoping to get a low price on a TV or computer, but not everybody can get one. Some people leave, disappointed.

The situation makes people worried. Some Black Friday events have been crazy. There have been fights over toys among shoppers. Some workers have even been hurt by large crowds. But most Black Friday events are safe and fun. Still, if you plan to go, you will expect large crowds and a bit of pushing.

So where does the name “Black Friday” come from? It was first used in Philadelphia in the 1950s. The police called this day Black Friday because of the heavy traffic it caused. In the 1960s, stores tried to rename the day “Big Friday”. It did not stick. The name “Black Friday” continued to spread across the country. It seems that it is here to stay.

Now people all over the country take part in Black Friday events. It is even spreading to other parts of the world. Stores have held Black Friday events in the UK, Australia, and Brazil since 2012. In Mexico, stores offer a weekend of discounts every year. They call it “El Buen Fin”, which means “the good weekend” in Spanish. I guess people everywhere like to buy things on sale.

1.Is Black Friday the start of the holiday shopping season?

2.What is the biggest problem with Black Friday?

3.How long may people have to wait before a store opens?

4.Where was the name “Black Friday” first used in the 1950s?

5.Why do people like going shopping on Black Friday?

Every year in April, students at Renmin University of China have more pleasure than other students in Beijing. Why? Because they get a week off in the middle of the term, the so-called(所谓) spring break.

“It’s been a tradition of our school for years,” said Wang Yueran, 20, a student at Renmin University. He organized a weeklong trip to Sichuan with 12 classmates last year.

Besides having fun during the spring break, field trips, voluntary work, and social projects are all on students’ to-do lists as well. The Chinese proverb says “reading 10,000 books and traveling 10,000 miles”. It means experience is as important as theory. But while Chinese universities have the tradition of spring outings, what’s the aim of making spring break?

Qin Jianguo, from the student affairs office at Shenzhen University, thinks the idea of the spring break in some universities in China comes from the intention(目的) of pushing students out of the ivory tower(象牙塔) to get experience in their life. Many countries have similar vacations in the middle of the semester for students to do things they like. Taking Japan as an example, instead of partying like the US, many Japanese students choose to work as interns(实习生) to have some ideas of their future jobs.

Besides Renmin University, only a few other universities in China, such as Yantai University, have a spring break for their students. Wei Xiang, a professor at Beijing International Studies University, said that the spring break is a good experiment for universities to give students more choices to arrange their own leisure(休闲) and study activities.

1.Why do students at Renmin University of China have more pleasure than other students in Beijing in April?

2.At least how many things are included on students’ to-do lists ?

3.According to Qin Jianguo, what is the purpose of the spring break in some universities?

4. How do many Japanese students get prepared for their future during the spring break?

5.Do most Chinese universities have spring break now?

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