These apps can make our life easy and interesting!
| Today, it is hard for us to remember passwords (密码) to use our computer, our phone, all of our favorite websites and email…the list goes on! Luckily, there's LastPass! LastPass can help you keep all your passwords. All you need is one password to use all of your other passwords and personal information. You can log on (登录) with your face or fingerprint. |
| Do you feel stressed in your study? Do you have sleep problems? If so, Calm — a meditation (冥想) app is the right choice for you! It can help you feel less worried and relax yourselves. You can choose from the following parts: daily meditations, breathing exercises, relaxation music and so on. Calm has sleep stories not only for children but also adults. |
| How to get out of bed easily and quickly on a cold winter morning? How to make more friends? Life hacks (生活小妙招) are popular among people. Wouldn't it be better to just find them all in one place instead? Crumblyy can do it! You can see pictures, videos and infographics (信息图表) to help solve life's problems. Crumblyy also keeps users out of unreal information. |
Sui Xin and her friends spent an afternoon roasting nuts and fruits around a coal stove (炉子) while enjoying freshly boiled white tea. This traditional practice of boiling tea has been described in many ancient Chinese art works. Recently, it has become a popular way for the young to run away from the busy life. It also gives young people of today a chance to get to know more about Chinese tea culture.
Boiling tea over coal stove has always been part of people's lives, especially during cold winters. To promote tea culture among the young, traditional teahouses have turned into new-style ones to meet the tastes of young people. The decoration (装饰) of some stores shows a combination (结合) of traditional Chinese styles and youthful design, such as Heytea's Zhongguancun store in Beijing. Tea makers and modern teahouses are also trying to introduce tea culture to more people by creating new drinks and related (相关的) products to highlight local cultures and history. The drinks and products do catch a lot of people's attention.
Sun Xuling, a co-founder of Theatre Tea, noticed that there has been a clear increase in people's understanding of Chinese tea in the past two years. To meet the need of young people, Theatre Tea is planning on building a tea experience store, which will give customers chances to try different ways of making tea and to learn more about tea culture.
The exploration of new combinations between traditional tea culture, pop culture, and modern life is an exciting and important trend (时尚) in China. With the increasing popularity of Chinese tea, tea makers and teahouses are continuously finding new ways to promote the culture to the young while keeping its traditional customs.
Prince Nallamothula is a nine-year-old inventor. He built a model for a robot that will let people do farm work remotely (远程).
When Prince was a young boy, he didn't share the same interest as the others. He didn't have many toys at home and seldom played computer games. However, he was interested in playing with blocks to build things whenever he could.
One day, Prince's mom said that there was not enough space in their apartment to grow all her plants, so he started thinking about ways to solve the problem. Then an idea came up, "What if we plant them in a different place from where we live?"
Prince spent about two to three months building his robot. Before drawing out designs, he had to search for a great deal of information on the Internet. In order to build the robot successfully, he went to the market to buy necessary parts. The robot had everything to help it move around. The last step is doing all the coding (编程) to get the robot to be useful and not just a model. His robot was named GrRobot. It had a camera for live video and a basket to plant seeds. It could decide whether to open the sprinkler (喷洒器) according to the soil conditions (土壤情况). All of these will help farmers do farm work and even some difficult work.
Besides this robot, Prince had also invented a game and apps. When asked about the secret to his achievements, he replied, "Seeing people's life getting better because of my inventions makes me feel great. I'll do what I can to solve more people's problems. And the world may be different with my help."
①Writing codes for the robot.
②Drawing out designs of the robot.
③Shooting live video with a camera
④Searching for information on the Internet.
⑤Going to the market to buy necessary parts.
In ancient China, people called a man of great virtue (美德) a gentleman. In the world of flowers, plum blossoms, orchids, bamboo and chrysanthemums are known as the four gentlemen in China. That's because these plants' natural characters have something in common with human virtues.
The plum tree is famous for its flowers opening in the dead of winter. This makes it difficult to go unnoticed. It stands for inner beauty and humble display (谦逊表现) under hard conditions. According to historical records, plum blossoms appeared on drawing paper 1,600 years ago.
Grown in deep mountain valleys (山谷), the orchid was named as the fourth of China's ten famous flowers. With the smell making people's minds fresh, and the elegant (优雅的) shapes swinging in the wind, orchids stand for elegance in Chinese people's eyes.
The bamboo is thin with the inner empty. It stands for tolerance (耐力) and open-mindedness. For example, Su Shi once wrote down "Rather eat without meat than live without bamboo" in his poem to express his deep love for bamboo.
Chrysanthemums were planted as early as three thousand years ago. When nearly all the flowers fall, the chrysanthemum opens in the cold autumn air and predicts the coming of winter. It stands for the virtue to go through all difficulties smoothly.
A. It is valued in Chinese culture for its character. B. It was admired by many poets and painters in ancient times. C. Its fine smell fills the air at one of the coldest times of a year. D So the chrysanthemum is a traditional flower loved by Chinese people. E. They have all long been common subjects in Chinese art, like paintings and poems. |
Roberta appeared on the stage (舞台). She took a deep breath and began to speak. Now she was Portia, a strong-willed character in Shakespeare's (莎士比亚) The Merchant of Venice. The theater was filled with people. She was speaking with a 1 she had never had before, the words coming smoothly (流畅地) from her.
In fact, Roberta had never acted in her life before the audition (选拔试镜). She 2 being in front of other people. She was very shy at school. She had 3 thought she was good enough at anything. She stayed mostly with herself, making few friends. She had 4 grades, but she always thought that something was missing.
Two weeks before the audition, Roberta's mother had heard about it and 5 her to join in.
"I can't think of anyone else better to play the part. Remember all the plays you used to act out for us."
Her mother wouldn't let the matter drop "You're just a little scared. Everyone gets scared. You know you can do it. The trick is to look over the fear to find the 6 of what you're doing."
So Roberta went to see the head of the Drama Club. She had read the play and found herself excited by the idea of speaking such rich words. In secret she practiced Portia's part, learning the lines by heart by 7 them over and over. It wasn't hard, and she loved every minute of it. Every time she spoke the words, she had a 8 understanding of the lines, as if Shakespeare had written Portia on many levels.
On the day of the audition, she 9 two of Portia's famous speeches for the auditors. When she had finished, the head of the Drama Club announced (宣布) the 10 was hers, she knew she had made it.
More and more people play Taichi all over the world. Taichi is __ symbol of Chinese culture. It was __ (one) developed in China as wushu. Then, it was popular with people all over the world. It's becoming one of the__ (popular) sports now. It __ (practice) by over 100 million people in more than 150 countries.
Taichi is a mix of breathing, meditation and slow movements (动作). As you make your movements, you breathe __ (deep) and naturally with meditation. This _ (help) you free yourself from pressure.
Caitlin, a young German beginner, says, "Taichi is a fun exercise, easy to learn, and you don't have to be good _ it to enjoy it. I love the feeling of calm I get from it."
It's best to learn Taichi from a teacher, __ you can either look for local clubs or have classes at school. You can also watch _ (video) online and try Taichi at home.
It's a perfect way to give you a sense of happiness and peace after _ (spend) a tiring day. It's worth a go, isn't it?
Like most students on international exchange programs, Shavia Westmoreland experienced culture shock (文化冲击) in Beijing, China.
Instead of hiding herself from the outside, Westmoreland overcame (克服) her culture shock by doing an activity she enjoys — volunteering.
"A friend brought me to an orphanage (孤儿院) to help me overcome culture shock," she said, "He knew that I loved volunteering and language teaching, so he told me the orphanage would be a great place to 'develop a feeling of home' in a different culture and improve my language skills."
Westmoreland enjoyed the visit so much that she started volunteering at the orphanage. She visited once a week to teach English. She also did several "non-purpose" visits on the weekends, just to spend time with the children.
Working with the children, staff and other volunteers taught her more about Chinese culture and gave her chances to practice Chinese. "I had a better understanding of Chinese culture by working with the staff and volunteers. At the end of all conversations, I found that there were more similarities between us than there were differences," she said.
Volunteering also gave Westmoreland a sense of achievements and the courage (勇气) to hang out around Beijing on her own. "The experience developed my courage to hang out and learn more about Beijing on my own, giving me more chances to practice Chinese outside my class lessons," Westmoreland said. "The feeling of independence is an achievement for an exchange student, and I believe my volunteering was helpful to my study in China and was also a huge help to my personal growth."
