我的作业，放在这里，没准别人用得上。

The Singing Festival

My hometown is in southwest China. In my hometown, the third day of March on lunar calendar is the Singing Festival. I’ve been away for 27 years. Since then, I was not able to celebrate the festival. It is a very special day. I have lots of interesting memories of it.

During the festival, people cook five-coloured sticky rice. Each colour is from one kind of tree leaves or vegetable. Sticky rice is soaked in water with leaves before cooking. Normally, we wrap the rice using lettuce leaves. You can put other food inside as well. Then you can take it by hand, and eat it with the leaves. Coloured rice looks very beautiful. It smells great. It is delicious as well.

Children prefer coloured eggs. They put several eggs into a bag, hang it around neck. It’s a string bag, so you can see the coloured eggs inside. It looks like a special necklace. Children go out with it, and they can play with the eggs. There’s a hitting-egg game - I hold one egg. You hold another. I hit your egg once using my egg, and then you hit mine. Your egg is broken. Mine is fine. So I win the game. You needn’t to be depressed. You can eat the broken egg. It is delicious and nutrient.

Singing is the most important thing on that day. People of all ages wear national attire, bring coloured sticky rice and eggs, and go to the singing field. They sing, dance and play games together.

The most popular activity is "Cross-singing". Cross-singing means people sing songs in a pair of groups - a group of boys, another group of girls. When a group finish a song, another group must reply. Normally, one group has two to five singers. There are lots of pairs of groups in the singing field.

The folk songs have similar melodies, but the words of songs are different. Singers often compose or edit the words randomly. In the songs, they may ask questions; they may sing love songs; they may debate; they may praise or blame. In fact, singers sing ANYTHING they want to say. IT’S SO GREAT THAT EACH SONG LIKES A POEM. For example, this is a question song:

Who somersault on water surface?

Who raise towers on water surface?

Who open umbrellas on water surface?

Who live together till old age on water surface?

How can you answer by singing another poem? - One sample is:

Ducks somersault on water surface.

Ships raise towers on water surface.

Lotus leaves open umbrellas on water surface.

Mandarin ducks live together till old age on water surface.

They are funny poems, aren’t they?  You must be curious to know how they are sung out. Please listen:

哎！什么水面打跟斗咧？嘿了了啰。

什么水面起高楼咧？嘿了了啰。

什么水面撑阳伞咧？

什么水面共白头咧？

The answer (to indicate your cross-singing partner to sing - this section is optional):

哎！鸭子水面打跟斗咧，嘿了了啰。

大船水面起高楼咧，嘿了了啰。

荷叶水面撑阳伞咧；

鸳鸯水面共白头咧。

It is interesting, isn’t it?

When the young people sing, the elderly and children are the audience. Sometimes, the elderly explain the songs for the children; sometimes they help the singers. The young people make friends by singing, and then may fall in love and marry.  There are lots of interesting stories about cross-singing and the Singing Festival. They always stay in my memory…

Very nice article.

and your english is so good.

多谢鼓励！看来学习还是有点进步了。

当年我连6级都没敢去考。现在就吃英语不好的亏。

这是一篇5-7分钟的演讲稿。要求简单易懂。