M: Molly J: Joe
M: Hey, Joe. The Labour Day holiday is coming.
J: Not yet. Maybe I just stay at home.
M: Oh, that sounds boring.
J: Em… Where do you plan to go?
M:
J: That's nice. I'll go with you.
M: Sounds great! I hope the weather will be fine then.
J: Me, too.
A. I can't wait to go!
B. Have you got any plans?
C. Why don't you hang out with us?
D. And we can also go for a bike ride.
E. We're going to Dong'an Lake Park to have a picnic.
Maybe it's time to say goodbye to your old clothes. Or you need to buy the clothes which can 1 you better just because of your bigger body. But how do you deal with them? It is easy to throw them away directly, but it is sure a huge 2 . In fact, there are many ways to deal with old clothes.
First, you can clean your old clothes and give them 3 to poor children in the faraway countryside. Second, it's also a popular way of recycling clothes on some online platforms. In China, recycling services are 4 on the apps, WeChat public accounts and mini programs. They'll get to your home to recycle old clothes. In America, when you see a sign with "Free Stuff" on it, you can put your old clothes there. Someone will clean them and 5 them. Then the money will be used to help the people in need.
When my daughter was in primary school, she brought home four small twigs from school to plant. 1 of them looked strong, but I still decided to plant them with hope. I found a place with enough sunlight in our yard for them.
A few years later, three of them died but only one is 2 . It didn't look like a tree because it didn't grow so straight. I tried what I could do but it didn't work. 3 , leaves on it started to fall one day. It was going to 4 . That disappointed me. I was wondering whether I would just 5 this sick little tree and plant another one. Then I asked my daughter to see the tree and hoped she could make a 6 together with me.
"Mom, come and have a look. " My daughter said in a 7 voice. She waved her hands to ask me to be quiet. I went over. There was a bird building a nest (巢) in the top. We watched the bird then I realized that the tree was still 8 . It might not be healthy or pretty, but it was still giving a bird a home. This tree also 9 me that all lives were valuable. It doesn't matter 10 we are young and strong or old and sick. We always have things to do, love to give, and joy to share.
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January 2, 2023 Travelling page editor: Wu Qiang Have you ever paid attention to the beautiful landscapes (风景) on the backside of RMB? Let's take a look.
Each of them carries its own cultural value and has special meaning to Chinese. For example, on the back of 1-yuan RMB is West Lake, Zhejiang. The location has been a great place for moon watchers. The moon light reflected on the water is especially amazing during Mid-Autumn festival. On the back of 5-yuan RMB is Taishan Mountain in Shandong. For thousands of years, many emperors would go there and wish the God to prevent the countries from bad luck. Have you ever been to the Three Gorges, which includes Qutang, Wu and Xiling Gorge? It is also called San Xia which is regarded as one of the most ten famous landscapes in China. On the back of 10-yuan RMB is the west gate of Qutang Gorge in Chongqing. Lijiang River is on the back of 20-yuan RMB. It is near Guilin city in Guangxi, south of China. On the back of 50-yuan RMB is the Potala Palace in Tibet (西藏). It is a typical building in ancient China. On the back of 100-yuan RMB is the Great Hall of People in Beijing where many important meetings are held. These pictures behind RMB help make the landscapes even more popular among tourists. Many people finished a tour of all the landscapes above in China. Do you want to try? |
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Volunteering is good for not only those who receive help, but also the help-givers. For school-aged kids, volunteering helps build social skills and develop self-worth awareness (意识) . Through volunteering, high school students may help themselves get into a good college, and college students can improve themselves for better jobs after graduation. Volunteering truly makes a difference.
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You should always put volunteering safety in the first place. Join the organized training actively before volunteering each time. It will teach you some professional skills and some ways of dealing with the dangerous situations. And it's important to buy some insurance (保险) for yourself when necessary. Don't tell others about your private information. Remember to protect yourself at any time.
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There are two kinds of volunteering according to the time you spend on it. If you are a first-time volunteer, short-term work will provide you with the best chance to see if the work is right for you. If you are experienced and have more free time, serving a longer-term volunteer program gives you the chance to develop a higher level of skill.
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Perhaps, you don't know how to choose volunteer work. Here are the tips. On the one hand, you will have a more enjoyable volunteering experience if you spend some time thinking about your goals, interests and the reason why you want to volunteer. On the other hand, one chance of volunteering looks great in the advertisement, but it's quite different in the reality. So it's a good try to visit different organizations and have a talk with the staff and other volunteers.
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① the reason to volunteer ② the types of volunteering
③ the safety of volunteering ④ the advice on volunteering
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Now one company has made a 3D model of a future human with some scientific predictions, and the result is truly scary. Is this what people will look like in 2100?
Called "Mindy", the human of 2100 has a strange back, caused by sitting in front of a computer and craning(伸长) her neck to look at smart phones for hours. "Spending hours looking down at your phone hurts your neck," said Caleb Backe an expert at Maple Holistics. "As a result, the muscles (肌肉) in your neck grow to support your head. "
▲ Her skull has thickened, helping to protect her brain from radiation (辐射) sent out from smartphones. Her brain has also become smaller, for sitting too long.
At the same time, her hand has become claw-like and her elbow is bent to 90 degrees because of long hours spent holding a smartphone.
Mindy's final physical change is possibly the scariest—she has a second set of eyelids (眼睑). Kasun Ratnayyake from the university of Toledo says this change could stop some of the harmful light getting into our eyes.
The Mindy model seems scary and gives us something to think about. Will you continue sitting before your computer all day long? Will you still spend all your free time on your smartphone? Will you make yourself like Mindy?
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A: Molly, have you read the news these days? All the news an AI programme called ChatGPT which swept education world these days.
B: Of course. This powerful AI programme can be used for chatting, surfing and writing texts. It can reply to you ask. That can be easy like "Talk to me, I feel terrible. " or difficult like "Help me write a passage about English learning. " That's unbelievable.
A: It is certainly for us. With the help of it, we can learn and work easily, and I believe that our life will improve a lot in a short time.
B: It's a good teammate in this way. The rapid of the world can't be separated from high technologies like this.
A: But every coin has two sides. In some way, it's truly a bad thing. There's a survey among 1,000 students in US. It shows that 89% of students didn't work hard at their study. They cheated on their homework by using ChatGPT .
B: Do you mean they managed to finish doing homework the AI programme?
A: Exactly. This is what professors worry about. If students depend on ChatGPT too much, it will have a bad on their problem-solving ability.
B: Yes, they will have difficulty solving problems on their own and their learning habits will become . The less they practice, the lazier they'll be.
A: I agree with you. Students should be for their study and it's their duty to learn by themselves.
B: You're right. Some experts are making rules to make it more reasonable so that people can use it . But it will take a long time.
A: Be patient. Nothing good comes late.
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Hello, guys! Today we're entering the world of emojis—the small characters people use feelings in texts and emails. Do you have a favorite emoji? Do you know where they are from? Let's see together!
When we talk with someone face to face, we use gestures (姿势) like smiling, laughing or nodding to show the other person how we feel. But these feelings sometimes get lost in written communication because of the lack of gestures. That's where emojis come in—they add feelings and emotion to messages like QQ and WeChat. There are different kinds of emojis, facial expressions, places and types of weather, animals and so on.
The first emoji was in 1999 in Japan and then became popular among Japanese mobile phone users. But they were used in the western world until 2011 and then was used by Android and other operating systems. Now there are over three thousand emojis that can be from. They help people put back some of the human feelings that are in written texts and emails.
However, not everyone is an emoji fan. Some people believe that choosing words is the best way of expressing yourself, and using emojis too often will lower our ability to put feelings into words. But they possibly the nature of communication. Emoji is important. In fact, it offers more ways to communicate in the digital (数字) age. What's your opinion?
There is a traditional performing art in China called Xiangsheng, also known as cross talk. The whole process is basically talking. They always wear traditional long gowns with no special stage design, but only microphones.
There are different types of Xiangsheng based on the numbers of performers. Monologue is the earliest form, a solo show which is called "Dankou". A monologue means that there's one performer talking alone. And the most common one is performed by two people which is called "Duikou". One is the lead actor, the other is the supporting actor. Sometimes, it's a group of performers giving a show on the same stage at the same time. It's called "Qunkou".
At first, it was performed on busy streets and then in houses and on stage. Those who plan to see a show need to wait in lines for the moment that tickets go on sale. Because they will be sold out within a second.
The most important reason is fun. Xiangsheng is expected to make people laugh, no matter what the topic is. Performers tried their best to produce jokes. Besides laughing, you're also supposed to be inspired. It's always expressing deeper meaning and close to people's lives.
What's more, it gives you enjoyment of art which shows shuo, xue, dou, chang. It takes a couple of years to learn these skills. A Chinese saying goes "One minute on the stage needs 10 years practice on stage. " And this kind of art form brings people a colorful experience. Go to a theater, take a seat, and be prepared to laugh. Give it a try.
A. He sometimes tells a joke or tells a story.
B. So cross talk is more than a play of words.
C. Then why is this traditional art popular till today?
D. It's an inspiration to people who listen to the cross talk.
E. The performers usually discuss or argue about a subject.
F. People like to watch the shows although the tickets are very expensive.
Do you know the Silk Road has been a bridge between East and West for more than 2,000 years? It began during the Han Dynasty. It was a network of trade routes (路线) connecting Europe, Africa and Asia.
The Silk Road is about 7,000 kilometers long with 4,000 kilometers in China which includes Shanxi, Gansu, Qinghai and Xinjiang.
The Silk Road got its name because Chinese silk used to be carried along this road. Besides silk, china and other products went west.
Here are people who played an important role in the Silk Road. During Western Han, Zhang Qian visited the Western area of China twice, forming a route, which enabled silk to spread and became popular for the first time. Ban Chao from Eastern Han Dynasty set off on a diplomatic (外交的) trip to western China. What he has done made the Silk Road to Europe even longer. During Yuan Dynasty, Italian traveler Marco Polo reached China and described many details about the trade route to the whole world through his book.
The Silk Road was very important to the world. During the trade, knowledge about science, arts and culture were shared across the Silk Road. The towns and cities along the Silk Road developed as well because of the trade.
In modern times, the old Silk Road routes are still used, but trains go through the Road instead of camels and horses. Now, beginning in August, 2022, a new train line, the New Orient Express, runs from Beijing across the Silk Road. Today, places along the Silk Road are great places of interest, such as Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuan, Gansu.
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Basic Introductions to Silk Road*: About 7,000 km * Origin of the name: Silk was carried on the road to west. * History: It started from Han Dynasty. * Role: It's a network of trade routes connecting Europe, Asia and Africa. |
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Three important people for the Silk Road* Zhang Qian: He was one of the who started to develop the Silk Road. * Ban Chao: What he had done helped to extend the Silk Road to Europe. * Marco Polo: The of the Silk Road in his book made it known around the world. |
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Meanings* It improved the of culture, science and art. * The towns and cities along the Silk Road developed quickly. |
Situations in Modern Times* Trains camels and horses. * Many places become the places of interest, such as Terracotta Warriors in Xi'an and Mogao Grottoes in Dunhuang. |
