Some China Podcasts (播客) to Listen to
Whether you're an old-timer or a newcomer to China, there's always more to learn about
this awesome country. To help in your never-ending thirst for knowledge, we've rounded up
some most entertaining China-focused podcasts that hit on everything from history to business.
Tech Buzz China by Pandaily
Tech Bu China by Pandaily is a technology podcast about China's innovations. Its co-hosted by Rui Ma and Ying Lu, who are both seasoned China-watchers with years of experience working in the technology space in the country. They share and discuss the most
important tech news from China every week.
The China History Podcast
Started in 2010, Laszlo Montgomery presents topics that cover 5, 000 years of Chinese history and culture. The show has a lot of unknown and interesting history lessons that help provide more color as to why China is the way it is. Topics like the history of Tang poetry, or
the Hokkien people are analyzed and explored.
China Untold
The China Untold podcast is a program that aims to introduce listeners to lesser-known stories from the Middle Kingdom. From urban tales and extinct religions to China's role in the
exploration of space, this podcast hosted by Matt Bossons, is your essential guide to the unusual and wonderful aspects of the world's most highly populated nation.
The Wasai Show
The Wasai Show is hosted by Ne to Trevino from Mexico and Alice He who is a local Chinese. In each episode, stories are collected from listeners about a topic and shared in a funny way by both comedians. The first half of the show is presented in English, followed by a Chinese section.
Many of us have heard of Alex Honnold, who made history in 2018 when he became the first man to climb EI Capitan without ropes or safety equipment. But his mother, Dierdre Wolownick, just became the oldest woman to conquer the famous peak: she reached the top on September 23-the morning of her 70th birthday.
Dierdre, the writer and language teacher, decided to take up climbing as a means to connect more with her son. In 2008, accompanied by her son Alex, she visited a climbing gym and completed 12 routes that first day with his help, but it was months before she worked up the courage to return and practice on her own.
Dierdre became committed to the sport, and began to meet friends and sharpen her skills. She scaled (登上) parts of Half Dome and Cathedral peak at a time when many people at her age are thinking about retirement and slowing down. The writer would go on to publish a book about her climbing experiences with Alex called The Sharp End of Life: A Mother's Story.
"As a mother, I am impressed by this role exchange process. Parents and children often wind up changing roles in life as they get older," she writes in her book. "But never, I thought,
is that transformation as obvious as when they climb together. "
On September 23, Dierdre and her friends set out in the dark, at 6 am. The route is steep (陡峭的) enough to require all-fours, grabbing rocks and trees and whatever else will hold the weight. Yet despite all difficulties the team made it to the top. "It was really inspiring to watch her and then to have her on top with all of us," said one of Dierdre's friends. "There was a special look on everyone's face. We knew where we were. We knew how amazing the moment truly was.
Young adults in Singapore can often live with their parents into their 30s. They are encouraged by the government, which is fond of praising family values. Housing policy makes it difficult for young people to live independently. Almost 80% of Singaporeans live in subsidised (补助的) public housing. They cannot have a flat of their own until they marry or turn 35.
Yet a small but growing number of Singaporeans are resisting the nanny state (保姆式国家). Between 1990 and 2020, the number of those under 35 who lived alone or with non-family members grew from 33,400 to 51,300. Since they do not qualify (有…资格) for public housing, they must rent in the private sector. One factor (因素) is that Singaporeans are getting married later. In 1980, the average ages at which men and women married were 27 and 24; today, they are 30 and 29. A growing number choose not to marry at all. For others, it was COVID-19 that pushed them out of the nest. Serene Chee, a 25-year-old lawyer, did not greatly mind living with her parents until travel restrictions and work-from-home policies kept her stuck at home all the time. In June, Ms. Chee and a friend moved into an apartment together.
Living on your own is not easy. First, you must inform your parents. It took Lydia Yang, an illustrator who was then 28, three months to gather the courage. Then you must learn to pay bills and do basic chores. When Lenne Chai, a photographer, moved out seven years ago at the age of 23, she did not know how to cook.
Life on your own can be lonely. Ms. Yang found it "a bit depressing", particularly during the lockdown. But living apart may improve relationships. Both Ms. Yang and Ms. Chai said that they got on better with their parents after moving out. When living together, they paid each other little attention. Now their weekly visits are "quality time", said Ms. Chai. When Ms. Chee's parents came to her flat for dinner recently, they were impressed by how tidy it was.
Children now worry more about their parents spending too much time on their mobiles or computers than parents worry about their children. Those who order their children to switch off televisions, computers or mobile phones because they fear they are becoming addicted (上瘾的) might need to take a long hard look at their own screen habits, new research shows.
Almost 70% of children think their parents spent too much time on their mobile phone or other similar devices, a research found. More than a third of children worry that their parents struggle to switch off from technology and a quarter of children surveyed openly doubt their double standards when it comes to too much use of mobile devices, televisions and computers. One in five British children say their parents do not listen to them properly when they are together because they are so busy checking their emails or picking up work messages.
The survey was carried out by Opinion Matters, a research agency for the New Forest National Park Authority. The authority has recently begun providing facilities for visitors to hand in mobile phones, tablets and other devices for fear that technology is ruining family life and making it impossible for people to appreciate nature properly.
Dr Richard Graham, a psychologist and expert in technology addiction at Capio Nightingale Hospital, said there is growing evidence that children are finding their parents' preoccupation (全神贯注) with communication technology increasingly worrying.
Four in ten of the children surveyed admitted that they sometimes communicate with their parents by text, email or social media even they are in the next room. The survey found that six in ten parents worry their children are spending too much time glued to small screens at home but almost seven in ten children have the same fear for their parents.
Dr Aric Sigman told the Royal College of Paediatrics and Child Health conference that parents who cannot switch off risk driving them to a lifelong dependency on screens with striking similarities to alcoholism (酗酒).
Learning how to care for a sad person will help you be there for your loved ones and friends when they are down. However, knowing how to care for a sad person is not something an individual is born with. Here are a few tips that will eventually help you lift the spirit of a sad person.
Give a hug. Hugging someone shows your affection and care. This can make them feel relaxed and open to you. This can also help them recognize that you are there to help them go through this moment. With no kind and loving words, your actions have already said a lot.
Now, go on and say some kind words. Words like "I'm here", "we are in this together", "you'll get over this", "lean on me" and so on, can help a sad person feel better and know that you're there to take him/her through the sad moment.
Use the right tone of voice. They go along with tone to convey a meaning to the listener. To convey your words with faith that would create a positive effect on the sad person, you would need to say it with the right tone of voice.
Listen patiently. People ask lots of questions but they end up paying little attention to getting the feedback (反馈) that they wanted. Don't be that person. After asking the questions listen patiently to know what the sad person would appreciate at that time.
A. Say kind loving words.
B. Make use of polite expressions.
C. Then choose to appreciate others too.
D. Remember that words do not stand alone.
E. It will help you know how to offer the best fitting help.
F. This knowledge is gained through research and practice.
G. When you do this to someone, they can feel your warmth.
A new week began. Marcus entered the school. 1 , he cried out, "What happened to the stadium?" Someone had painted faces on the stadium wall!
All students were whispering with 2 about the graffiti (涂鸦). Possible explanations spread like wildfire around the school.
Later, when Brian cleaned the blackboard, Marcus suddenly spotted the paint on his hands. He 3 that it was Brian who did it. After school, Marcus followed Brian and 4 on what he was doing. When Brian opened his locker, Marcus saw small cans of paint! He decided to 5 it to Mr. Johnson.
The next morning, Brian was called to the principal's office. The moment Mr. Johnson 6 asked about the graffiti. Brian cried. 7 , Brian explained that he liked to paint, but he couldn't join the art club because he had to go 8 home after school to babysit his little brother. "I'm sorry. I'll clean the stadium," he sobbed.
Though angry at first, Mr. Johnson began to soften as he realized how 9 Brian was. "Brian, painting graffiti on school walls is a very serious matter. Of course, you should clean and 10 the wall. " Mr. Johnson paused, "11 I must say, those paintings are quite good. Did you do it alone?" Brian nodded, "Yes. I'm good at painting. "
Mr. Johnson thought for a moment before making a(n) 12 . "Well," he said. "some teachers suggested that we hire a local artist to paint our school mascot on the school wall. Would you like to participate in that?"
"Really?" Brian hesitated, 13 to believe it.
"Yes, but it's hard work, and we can consider it part of your 14 ," Mr. Johnson said, trying to hide his 15 as he picked up the phone.
It's common to see a barista (咖啡师) create coffee art, but it's a whole different ball game doing the same thing with tea. Han Zheming, 80-year-old Shanghai resident, has managed (perfect) the skill, creating tea art in cups, or dian cha (点茶) in Chinese, which used to be a routine during the Song Dynasty (960-1279). Over the past decades, he (use) tea and spoons to create nearly 200 patterns (base) on ancient paintings.
It's also his intention to bring the old ritual back to modern life and have more people appreciate (it) charm. Dian cha in modern brewing enhances the taste of tea, Han says. ‘‘It is similar the foam on top of a cup of coffee, except that it is made of tea rather than milk."
Chinese tea culture started to enjoy (popular) during the Tang Dynasty (618-907) and flourished throughout the Song Dynasty, tea had become a necessity for almost everyone, from nobles and scholars to common people, just like other important items, such as rice, oil and salt, as suggested by Song politician and thinker Wang Anshi.
(total) different from the method of brewing tea during the Tang period, in the Song Dynasty, the popular way of having tea was through dian cha. The action of pouring hot water over fine powdered tea is called dian, hence the name dian cha, which (list) as an intangible cultural heritage of Runzhou district, Zhenjiang city, Jiangsu province, in 2019.
内容包括：1、最喜欢春节；
2、节日简介、庆祝活动；
3. 喜欢的原因，
注意：1、词数80-100（标题已给，不计入总词数）；
2、可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
The Traditional Chinese Festival I Like Best
I was born and grew up in a small seaside town, In my childhood, I often played on the beach with my elder sister, chasing (追逐) the waves and enjoying the seaside scenery (风景).
One sunny summer afternoon, my sister and I were playing on a big rock quite a distance (距离) from the beach. We were so happy that we didn't notice the water rising. When we decided to go back, we were shocked to find that the rock had almost been covered by water and there was no way back to the shore. Meanwhile, the wind blew harder and harder. We got into a panic (惊慌)，waving and shouting crazily towards the shore. Suddenly, i slipped (滑) and fell into the sea. My sister reached out her hand to catch hold of me. However, she could not stay still, and slid off the rock into the sea, too.
"Help! Help!" We cried. I could feel my body tingling (酸麻) as I tried to breathe for air. I attempted to swim back to the rock, but the water was too deep and the waves were too strong. What made things worse was that the rough water made it almost impossible for anyone to hear our cries. Tears mixed with the water as I struggled in the sea. My sister, although using all her strength, wasn't able to pull me in. Instead, she was being pushed apart from me by the big waves. The two of us, scared to death, kept crying.
Luckily, two boys playing on the beach happened to see us. They quickly found a stick nearby and approached us cautiously (小心地)，hand in hand. They tried to pull us ashore with the stick (木棍). But the stick was too short for us to reach. Worse still, the wind was getting so strong that the two boys were rocked from side to side, unable to stand steadily. Eventually, they had no choice but to go back to the shore to look for other people to help us.
注意：1. 续写词数应为100左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Another huge wave crashed over my head and pulled me under.
