—I read a lot, and the works of Lu Xun had a strong____on me as a child.
—Yes, and he has become chess world champion (冠军) recently.
—Yes. The new invention makes it quite ____ for people to write papers and stories.
—Why not make a card by yourself? He will ____ love it.
—That's true. As teenagers, we should learn to protect ourselves.
—Be more active in class ____you can improve your ability to express yourself.
—Sure. She is a great woman who can ____ her dreams. I really look up to her.
—It ____ be Mary. None of us except her is able to do it.
—He ____ so, but he has just hurt his leg. It's impossible now.
—____. All those little things will add up to be great.
When I first arrived in China, I knew little Chinese. And some of the Chinese words I 1 had something to do with food. I learned the names of a few dishes, but still didn't know most of the things I saw on Chinese restaurant menus. Luckily, there were 2 to help me.
Nearly every restaurant menu in China has pictures of food 3 it. But many restaurants I've been to in the US don't. What is the 4 for the difference?
One thing I've definitely (明确地) 5 about China is that food is a bigger part of their culture than it is in the US. A common way to 6 someone in China is to ask them if they've eaten yet. Food is just a bigger deal here—and having pictures of food in menus is part of that. Some menus are almost like works of art, with beautiful photos.
Another thing is the 7 of the dishes. Chinese dishes sometimes have fanciful (别出心裁的）names like "palace guard chicken" or "three fresh things from the soil". These are interesting names, but they don't really tell you 8 the dishes are like. Therefore, it's 9 to have pictures so you can actually see what you are going to eat.
There are 10 even more reasons. All I know is that I was very thankful to have those picture menus when I first came to China years ago.
Children's games in ancient China
During ancient times, children didn't have smart phone, iPad or computer to entertain them. Instead, they came up with interesting games to play in their childhood. Let's take a look.
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Playing hide-and-seek Hide-and-seek is a traditional game for children, popular around the nation. There are two ways to play: covering a child's eyes while other kids run around to play a trick on him or, more commonly, others hide and one child must try to find them. |
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Flying kites Kites have quite a long history in China. The earliest kites weren't made of paper. They were made of wood instead. Nowadays, the three most famous kites are the Beijing kite, Tianjin kite and Weifang kite. Each has its own style. For example, the bird-shaped kite with long wings is a special kind of the Beijing kite. |
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Watching shadow plays The most similar thing to watching a film during ancient times was going to see a shadow play. The artists controlled puppets (木偶) behind the screen to make the puppets move like people and tell stories. People liked listening to the music and enjoyed the beautiful puppets. |
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Kicking stone balls During the Qing Dynasty (1644—1911), kicking a stone ball around was a popular sport in the northern part of China, and it was often played in the winter to keep warm. Stones were carved into small balls and kicked along with feet. |
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Showing respect for seniors
Dads have Father's Day. Moms have Mother's Day. Kids have Children's Day. But, do our grandparents have a special holiday? Yes, they do!
The Double Ninth Festival is a special day for elderly people in China. The festival is on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar. As the Chinese word for nine has the same sound as the word for long, people take the Double Ninth Festival to show their wishes of long life for elderly people.
There are many traditions for this festival. On that day, families get together and climb mountains for luck and in the hope that elderly people will live much longer. They also drink chrysanthemum wine (菊花酒) and wear a plant called zhuyu to celebrate it. Both chrysanthemum and zhuyu are regarded as clean plants that can clean houses and cure (治疗) diseases.
Respecting elderly people is shown not only on this special day but also in daily life. For example, when an older person enters a room, everyone stands up. When there are several guests at the table, the host usually introduces them from the oldest to the youngest. When a younger person is presenting something to an older person, two hands are used. On a crowded subway or bus, younger people always offer their seats to elderly people.
It is a traditional virtue (美德) in China to respect elderly people. That's because the Chinese know that elderly people have knowledge and experience that young people can learn from. So, Chinese people are proud of being old. Besides, to respect the elderly people is to respect yourself tomorrow.
Basket full of dreams
A set of photos of a boy carrying his tennis rackets in a bamboo basket has gone viral (走红).
The boy, Wang Fa, 14, is a member of the Va ethnic group (佤族) from Yunnan. After wining the under-14 title (冠军) in the Guangzhou stop of the 2022 ASICS Tennis Junior Tour, an audience (观众) member from Yunnan gave him the bamboo basket as a gift and the photos were taken.
"We always carry bamboo baskets when we work in the field. This is a typical farming tool of the Va ethnic group. I carried my rackets in this basket to honor my hometown," Wang said after the match.
Before tennis, Wang was just an ordinary boy from a village. But in 2016, he was chosen by a local club as one of the first 10 local children to learn to play professional tennis, "I was nervous at the beginning because the outside world was so different from my home," he said, adding that tennis has helped him make more friends and get a better education.
Over the past six years, Wang, along with other players at the Yunnan Wild Elephants Tennis Club, has trained hard to improve his skills and physical strength. The children would get up at 6:30 a. m, and practice for more than six hours a day, Every day, they need to swing a racket more than 7,000 times and run 9 kilometers.
"If it were not for tennis, I would still be helping out my family with farmwork back home," Wang said
Wang's parents didn't want him to learn tennis at first because they couldn't afford it. But the tennis club offered to teach him for free. Wang's hometown, the mountainous Cangyuan Va autceomous county, was just lifted out of poverty (脱贫) in 2019, reported China Daily. For Wang, winning the ASICS Tennis Junior Tour title was the beginning of a hopeful future. "I will aim for the top spots (位置) on the professional stage," he said.
D
present Wang's talents in his young age
Do you often ask questions? Children are known for wanting answers to many questions because curiosity (好奇心) is part of human nature. Books and TV shows often depend on curiosity. People keep reading or watching because they want to find out what happens.
As we all know, curiosity provides many advantages. Many of history's greatest discoveries were made by curious people. People wondered how things worked and how work could be done more quickly. Thanks to their curiosity, people now know far more about the world and have useful technology to help them. Even if you don't plan to be an inventor or researcher, curiosity can still help you in the classroom. If you develop the curiosity of learning, classes will become more interesting. You will be good at them because you enjoy the process of learning. Even if you're no longer a student, curiosity will make you an able worker.
What will you do if you're not already curious? Luckily, curiosity is a skill that can be improved. Often, the more you learn about a topic, the more interesting it becomes. To improve your curiosity, get information from as many sources (来源) as possible when you learn about a topic. At the same time, read all kinds of books, watch or listen to speeches and ask questions. Don't always get information in the same way. Instead, learn to understand the facts that different people know.
Don't assume you already know everything. Instead, search for other possibilities and opinions. Remember, everyone knows something that you don't know. Find out what it is, and ask about it. This lets you learn something and makes the other people happy by sharing their knowledge. Let's try to become people who are full of curiosity.
(In the winter of 2022, people living in Binzhou had to stay at home because of COVID-19)
A: How is everything going, Zhao Ming?
B: Very well. Compared with last winter, our life now is very comfortable.
A:
B: Well, it was hard to say. First, we couldn't go outside.
A:
B: I studied online and my parents needed to finish some of their work at home. Besides, we made food together and watched our favorite movies.
A: It seemed that your life wasn't so boring.
B: Maybe. Thanks to some fitness apps, we can keep exercising every day.
A: I agree. Those apps are helpful.
B: You know, we stayed at home for a long time. During that time, we worried that we wouldn't have enough food to eat.
A: It was terrible. How did you deal with it?
B: The problem was solved in time.
A: Great! So we can't lose hope when we are in a difficult situation.
A. What did you do then?
B. I don't think it's a boring life.
C. What about other difficulties?
D. How was your life at that time?
E. We also did sports at home to keep healthy.
F. We felt nervous and we didn't know what to do.
G. Luckily, we received food packages (包裹) from the government.
An idol is someone who we respect or love. However, unlike many of my classmates, my idol is not a film star, a famous writer or a sportsman, my idol is my dad.
Most people believe that a man (go) out and work. However, when I was only a five-year-old boy, I was (serious) ill and needed attention all the time. My dad knew how much my mum loved her job, so he stopped (work) to stay at home and look after me. Many men in this situation would want their (wife) to stay with the child, but my dad always thinks about (other) before himself. This made me start to respect him.
My dad later took a job and worked at night. He chose the job so that he would only be out of the house when I was sleeping. Since then, my dad (help) and supported me in everything I do. I remember when I was learning to ride a bike, my dad ran behind me and held the back of the bicycle so that I would not fall. I (feel) so safe because I knew he was near. Soon, I was able to ride by (I).
My family is not rich, and we do not own a big house or an expensive car. My dad has shown me that something is (important) than money. Although he now works hard every day and is often very busy, he always makes time (stay) with me. He helps me with my homework, and plays games with me on weekends. He has also taught me that I can achieve anything if I really work hard on it.
My dad is my idol because he showed me the most important things in life.
Artist shapes a bit of Chinese culture
Over the past three years, Kang Jian has created more than 400 dough sculptures (面塑) and become a city-inheritor (继承人) of the dough sculpture in Mohe, Heilongjiang province.
Kang has shown an interest in art, especially dough sculpture since he was a child. Every time his parents made dumplings, he would ask for a small piece of dough to make animals — a rabbit, a fish or a small. Those small dough animals brought him lots of good childhood memories. However, Kang didn't learn art in college. His family was poor and his parents were not able to afford his art education. Kang left college in 2016 and worked in the Mohe Forestry Bureau.
Then in 2018, during a visit to a museum in Beijing, Kang learned something about dough sculpting. Then he had the idea of taking his childhood interest up. He visited some famous artists and learned to make dough sculptures from them. His skills were improved a lot.
As a fan of Chinese literature, Kang would like to make dough sculptures of Chitese heroes, such as Sun Wukong and Guan Yu. In April 2022, he even finished the dough sculptures of 108 heroes from the novel Outlaws of the Marah after 16 months of work.
When Kang is free, he is invited to give classes at schools to teach students to make dough sculptures. He is happy to have a chance to tell young people about dough sculptures and stories about Chinese folk heroes. He expects more young people to take up this traditional art form.
参考词汇: diet(v. 节食), appearance (n. 外貌), inner beauty (内在美)
Dear Li Hua,
I have been a bit larger than other girls since I was little. For a long time, this really troubled me. I feel more worried because I will start my senior high school life soon! I am afraid that the students in the new school will laugh at me because I am "big". I decide to look more beautiful, so I want to lose weight by dieting. What do you think of my plan? Can you give me some advice?
Looking forward to your reply.
Yours,
Amy
要求:
1. 要点齐全，并适当发挥;
2. 文中不得出现真实姓名与校名;
3. 卷面整洁，书写美观，可适当加2—3分;
4. 80词左右。开头与结尾已给出，不计入总词数。
Dear Amy,
I have received and read your letter, in which you said you wanted to lose weight by dieting.
Yours,
Li Hua
