The year 2023 saw a wide variety of TV and Internet variety shows in China, offering amazing entertainment to audiences. Here are some popular variety shows of the year. It's never too late to start enjoying them.
Become a Farmer
The farming-themed show took Chinese social media by storm in the first half of the year, shining a spotlight on farming—a crucial part of Chinese culture. The word "farming", however, may be unfamiliar to many young urban Chinese citizens.
In an effort to connect these individuals with the industry, the show tries to deal with the topic by inviting 10 men to experience life.
Divas Hit The Road-Silk Road
The fifth season of the reality show, featuring popular celebrities traveling to various destinations, has been airing since October 2023.
This season saw Chinese actresses start a journey to Saudi Arabia, Croatia and Iceland. They explored the beautiful landscapes and diverse cultures of these countries and learned about the Belt and Road Initiative.
Infinity and Beyond 2023
With an amazing viewership, the music cultural program emerged as a success in the first half of this year. The show was broadcast from March to June, generating massive online attention with 8.9 billion views of topics related to the show.
Featuring a star-studded cast, the show brings about cross-Strait（海峡两岸）connection and classic and popular songs dating back to the 1970s.
Riding the Wind 2023
Singers from various backgrounds at home and abroad tune into one another during hit reality show.\
Starting its latest season this year, the program seeks to expand cross-cultural cooperation and mutual support among women, regardless of their different languages, ages or personality traits. To achieve this, the show has invited female celebrities from diverse cultural backgrounds to participate in group performances throughout the rounds of competition.
Li Jing, 29, currently serves as the director assistant to the village secretary of Maotianping Village Committee in Cuijiaba, a town in Hubei province. Li is a native of this village and was one of the first from her community to achieve higher education. She studied hotel management and tourism. After graduation, she started a career in the hotel industry in Wuhan. However, she made a decision last year to return to her village. She wants to be an essential part of her hometown's development, realizing her own personal value.
When Li returned to her hometown, she received unconditional support from her family, despite some villagers' questioning her decision. She resolved to prove herself through determination and action.
Her job involves extensive communication with the villagers, with over half of her workload about promoting potato production, the main business of the village. Li and the villagers regularly hold meetings in the village square, where they share insights on potato planting techniques, sales channels, market trends, and more. These gatherings provide her with opportunities to equip the villagers with planting tools and offer a window for them to voice their concerns and experiences.
In her spare time, Li remains closely connected with the villagers through regular conversations. She admits that it demands a considerable investment of time and energy, but it's all worthwhile.
Li has very fond memories of an incident from last year when one villager had a poor potato crop. Although her potatoes were unimpressive in terms of size and quality, she held faith in Li and worked tirelessly and enthusiastically. Li never forgets the smiles on the villagers' faces at harvest time, which is the ultimate reward for her.
In the near future, Li hopes to continue helping her fellow villagers raise their potato production and increase their income. Her long-term vision is to promote urban-rural integration（整合）.
The traditional handwritten "thank you" letter is no longer the most popular way to express gratitude, with digital methods such as instant messages and emails favored instead, according to a recent research.
A survey of 2,000 adults finds just 9 percent send a letter of thanks nowadays—a decline of 11 percent in the past ten years— while messages via WhatsApp, SMS text, email and Facebook, have become some of the most common ways to show appreciation.
Despite this, handwritten notes of gratitude are in fact considered to be among the top most meaningful ways to say thank you—close behind heartfelt phone calls and visiting someone to show appreciation in person. Further highlighting the influence of the personal touch, the M&S Club Rewards research finds hand-delivering flowers or treating someone to a coffee are also among the truest ways to show thanks.
The research also finds 58 percent think it is more essential than ever to say thank you to loved ones, with 28 percent admitting the last couple of years have helped them appreciate the little things. And 29 percent think it's really necessary to show others just how much they mean to them so they realize how loved they are.
However, in our digital age—and with all these new and simple ways to communicate and show our gratitude—saying a quick thank-you via instant message has become the habit for many. But if you really want to share a meaningful thank-you, giving someone your time or adding an element of a personal or more human touch will go a long way and have a much bigger impact.
Paul Stokes, from M&S Club Rewards, says: "Our research shows that while the art of saying thank you may have changed over the years, the significance of showing our appreciation has never been higher."
Over the last few years, we have had to come together and support each other perhaps more than ever, so it's great to see so many of us are taking the time to share a thank-you.
Humans have sailed the oceans' surfaces for millennia, but their depths remain effectively uncharted. Only about a quarter of the seafloor has been mapped at high performance. Maps of most regions display only approximate depths and often miss entire underwater mountains or valleys.
So a group of researchers has selected some deep-diving experts: Elephant Seals and Weddell Seals. Scientists have been placing trackers（跟踪装置）on these marine mammals around Antarctica compared these divers' location and depth data with some of the less detailed seafloor maps. They for years, gathering data on ocean temperature and salinity. For a new study, the researchers spotted places where the seals（海豹）dove deeper than should have been possible according to the maps—meaning the existing depth estimates were inaccurate.
In eastern Antarctica's Vincennes Bay, the diving seals helped the scientists find a large, hidden underwater valley. An Australian research ship called the RSV Nuyina later measured the valley's exact depth using sonar（声 呐）. "The seals discovered the valley, and the ship confirmed it," says Clive McMahon, a researcher at the Integrated Marine Observing System in Australia and a co-author of the new study.
But seals can't map the entire ocean floor. The trackers used in the study could mark a seal's geographical location only within about 1.5 miles, which allows for useful but not exactly high-resolution data. Plus, because the seals don't always dive to the bottom of the ocean, they can show only where the bottom is deeper than in existing maps—not shallower. McMahon notes that scientists could improve on these data by means of more precise GPS trackers and analyzing the seals' diving patterns to determine whether they have reached the seafloor or simply stopped going down.
The current seal-dive data can still be valuable for an important task, says Anna Wahlin, an oceanographer at the University of Gothenburg in Sweden. The deep ocean around Antarctica is warmer than the icy waters at the surface, and seafloor valleys can allow that warmer water to flow to the ice along the continent's coast, Wahlin explains. To predict how Antarctica's ice will melt, scientists will need to know where those valleys are and how deep they go.
From canned tomatoes to frozen pizzas, processed foods have become a regular part of our diet. We've gained time and energy as a result of processed foods. Here are the reasons why we should avoid processed foods.
A 2018 study found that ultra-processed（超加工的）foods are linked to an increased risk of cancer. The American Cancer Society reports that at least 18%of cancers are related to excess（过量的）body weight, physician activity, and poor nutrition, which could potentially be prevented by avoiding processed foods.
Processed foods are designed to make you overeat. It has also been found that some processed foods can lead to greater brain activity, which can affect eating behavior.
Processed foods often contain artificial ingredients. If you're looking at the label on a box of your favorite junk food, there are probably a bunch of ingredients that you can barely pronounce. These ingredients may have a negative effect on your health.
Many processed foods are high in carbohydrates（碳水化合物）and low in nutrients and fiber. Not all carbohydrates are bad, but processed foods are often packed with refined carbohydrates. They can cause your blood sugar to increase very quickly. On top of that, processed foods are typically much lower in nutrients and the fiber is often removed.
A. Processed foods may raise your health risk. B. Some processed foods aren't bad for you at all. C. All processed foods are loaded with added sugar and fat. D. At the same time, we have also gained a host of health issues. E. In fact, your body just needs the two substances to digest food properly. F. In this case, there are man-made colors, flavors, and additives in your food. G. Studies show the" reward system" in our brain can allow us to consume more. |
Recently, one of my best friends spent the weekend with me. We've 1 just about everything since the first day of kindergarten. Several years ago I 2 to a new town, so we've both always looked forward to the 3 chances a year when we can see each other.
Over the weekend, we spent hours and hours, 4 up late into the night, talking about the people she was hanging around with. She started telling me 5 about how she experimented with drugs and was into other self-destructive behaviors. I was completely 6 !
No matter how hard I tried to tell her that she 7 better, she didn't believe me. Herself-respect seemed to have 8 . I tried to convince her that she was 9 her future and heading for big trouble. I felt like I was getting 10 .
By the time she left, I was really 11 about her and exhausted by the experience. It had been so 12 , and I had come close to telling her several 13 during the weekend that maybe we had just grown too far apart to 14 our friendship— but I didn't. I put the power of 15 to the ultimate test and wanted to believe that it could 16 anything.
A few days later, she called to say that she had thought long and hard about our 17 , and then she told me that she had 18 . I just listened on the other end of the phone with tears of joy running down my face. It was one of the truly 19 moments in my life. Never had I been so 20 of a friend.
"Only when I take the needle out and touch the silk thread, I feel （full）comfortable," says Zou Yingzi, an inheritor of Su embroidery（刺绣）, an ancient craft that originates from the garden city of Suzhou in Jiangsu province.
The day before the interview, 53-year-old worked more than 10 hours, until late into the night, on a large piece of Su embroidery. A piece measuring around half a meter can take her months （complete）. From Zou's mother to her grandmothers, all the women in her family are good at needlework, particularly Su embroidery, which features rich stitches（缝针）and the creative use silk threads dyed in various colors.
Su embroidery has a history of more than 2,000 years. A piece of fabric with silk embroidery (find) from a tomb in the area showed that the craft dates back to the Spring and Autumn Period（770-476 BC）. In ancient times, needlework was a must-learn skill for women, had to make clothes for their families. It was a tradition that mothers should make wedding clothes with exquisite（精美的）embroidery for their （daughter）.
Zou （recall）that, when she was little, her grandmother was busy every day, making wedding clothes and quilts for granddaughters. At the age of 6, she started to help her mother to make Su embroidery items, all of which （sell）to support the family.
She had a dream to become a （paint）. Now, the needle helps her to realize that dream.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last week, our school was held a sports day that left a lasting impression on me. The event started an opening ceremony, where students from different classes gathered. I was thrilling to participate in the relay race. With our hearts beating or determination 1o our eyes, my teammates and I was well prepared for the race. As the race began, we ran with strength, hand off the relay stick from one teammate to another. The crowd burst into cheers while we crossed the finish line. The sports day organized by our school was a really test of the power of sports. Not only did it provided a platform for showcasing talents, but also promoted friendship and teamworks.
注意：1. 词数100左右：2. 可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；3. 信的开头和结尾已为你写好。
Dear Editor,
I'm Li Hua, a senior 3 student.
Yours,
Li Hua
