1 . Fu Lei’s Family Letters is a book of letters written by Chinese translator and writer Fu Lei to his elder son Fu Cong, who is a famous pianist. Between 1954 and 1966, Fu Cong spent a lot of time away from home training as a piano player. As a result, writing letters became Fu Lei’s usual way of communicating with his elder son. Fu Min, Fu Lei’s younger son edited the letters and the book came out in 1981.

The book shows Fu Lei’s family tradition and value. To Fu Lei, the purpose of education of a person, is to make that person useful to the society. Fu Lei praised his son Fu Cong after winning a piano competition. Fu Lei wrote, “We are happy because you make your country proud. I am so excited when I think about your future. You will make great progress and serve more people, encourage them and heal them.”

In the family letters, Fu Cong was also advised to read famous Chinese texts. When reading these books, Fu Cong was told to connect ideas and feelings together, for that would help him become a better person. To Fu Lei, learning to be a good person comes before any academic training.

Fu Lei’s Family Letters has a great impact on people in China because it helps many young students understand how they should live their lives. The following contents are teenagers’ favorite:

“We won’t get hurt so long as our moods stay stable.”

“The degree of success is not completely under our control. It’s half through personal efforts and half through destiny. But so long as you stay tough, you can weather failures, blunders and heavy blows — whether such blows stem from interpersonal, livelihood-related, technical or academic matters.

“A person needs to have the courage to confront reality and past mistakes. As such, he can come up with sensible analysis and in-depth appreciation. Only then he won’t be weighed down by bad memories.

5 . The 2020 Nobel Prize in Literature has been awarded to former U. S. Poet Laureate (桂冠 诗人) Louise Gluck. The prize committee cited “her unmistakable poetic voice that with plain beauty makes individual existence universal”. Gluck is the first American woman to win the award since Toni Morrison in 1993. Gluck, 77, joins a list of literary giants and previous Nobelists who include, in this century, Canadian short-story master Alice Munro, Chinese magical-realist Mo Yan, etc.

Gluck’s work includes 12 collections of poetry and a couple of volumes of essays on literary writing. “All are characterized by striving for clarity (清晰). Childhood and family life, the close relationship with parents and siblings is a theme that has remained central to her,” Anders Olsson, the chairman of the Nobel Committee for Literature, said. “She seeks the universal, and in this she takes inspiration from myths and classical themes,” Olsson added, citing her 2006 collection Averno, which the committee described as “masterly” for its “visionary interpretation of the myth of Persephone’s fall into hell in the captivity of Hades, the god of death”.

Being a professor at Yale and a resident of Cambridge, Gluck also served as U. S. Poet Laureate from 2003 to 2004 and is no stranger to awards. She won the Pulitzer Prize in 1993 for her collection of poems titled The Wild Iris, in which “she describes the miraculous return of life after winter in the poem Snowdrops,” the Nobel literature committee said Thursday. She also won the 2014 National Book Award for poetry for Faithful and Virtuous Night. In 2016, President Obama awarded the National Humanities Medal to Gluck in a White House ceremony.

The publicity-shy Gluck did not immediately issue any comment about the latest honor for her body of work, which spans more than half a century. In a 2012 interview, she acknowledged that prizes can make “existence in the world easier” but did not amount to the immortality (不朽) of a true artist.

29 outstanding Party members were conferred the July 1 Medal, one of     1     was Zhang Guimei. She founded a high school,     2    (offer) free education to girls in a less­developed area of Yunnan Province.

Zhang’s efforts helped nearly 2,000 girls go to college. She visited poor     3     (family) and persuaded them not to let their children drop out of school. This shows     4     educators should work with a greater sense of responsibility.

Another important lesson from Zhang’s story is that we should take a long­term view of rural education. Zhang has been working     5     (improve) education in rural areas because of her high degree of     6     (commit) and making the education of talents as her goal.     7    is because of the very goal that Zhang could overcome difficulties, and help the poor throw off     8     wrong idea that “education is useless”. It also reminds us that more efforts should     9     (make) to develop education in rural areas, and we should focus     10     long­term goals and interests.

7 . Book Express

About the translator (翻译家)

Xu Yuanchong (1921—2021) was a professor of literary translation at Peking University. In 1994, British publishing company Penguin published his 300 Tang Poems.

Drinking Wine

Tao Qian, more widely known for his other name Tao Yuanming (陶渊明), was a Chinese poet (诗人) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (东晋) (317—420). The poet lived a peaceful life, and is known to have enjoyed country life, farming, reading and drinking wine.

Golden Treasury of Chinese Poetry in Han, Wei and Six Dynasties/Translated by Xu Yuanchong/Published by China Intercontinental Press

Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night

Zhang Ji, a Chinese poet who was born during the Tang Dynasty (唐朝) (618—907). Zhang’s poem Mooring by Maple Bridge at Night was one of his most famous poems and is still known to many readers today.

300 Tang Poems/Translated by Xu Yuanchong/Published by China Intercontinental Press

On the Height

Du Fu, a Chinese poet of the Tang Dynasty. The poet was a good friend with another famous poet of the same time who was called Li Bai.

300 Tang Poems/Translated by Xu Yuanchong/Published by China Intercontinental Press

Lake Dongting Viewed from Afar

Liu Yuxi, a well-known Chinese poet during the Tang Dynasty. The poet was especially interested in writing poetry that reflected (反映) real social problems in common people’s everyday lives.

300 Tang Poems/Translated by Xu Yuanchong/Published by China Intercontinental Press

10 . John von Neumann was the oldest of 3 children of a banker, and his speed of learning new ideas and loving problems stood out early. At 17, his father tried to persuade him not to become a mathematician because he might lead a poor life being a mathematician, so von Neumann agreed to study chemistry as well. In 1926, at 23, he received a degree in chemical engineering and a Ph. D. in mathematics. From then on, mathematics provided well enough for him, and he never had to turn to chemistry.

In 1930, von Neumann visited Princeton University for a year and then became a professor there. His first book was published in 1932. In 1933, the Institute for Advanced Study was formed, and he became one of the 6 full-time people in the School of Mathematics (Einstein was one of the others).

World War Ⅱ hugely changed von Neumann’s areas of interest. Until 1940 he had been a great pure mathematician. During and after the war, he became one of the best mathematicians who put mathematical theories into practice. During the last part of the war, he became interested in computing machines and made several fundamental contributions. After the war, von Neumann continued his work with computers, and was generally very active in government service. He received many awards, was president of the American Mathematical Society and was a member of the Atomic Energy Commission. He died of cancer in 1957.

Von Neumann made several great contributions and any one of them would have been enough to earn him a firm place in history. He will be remembered as one of the greatest minds of the 20^th century.

Von Neumann really was a legend in his own time, and there are a number of stories about him. His driving abilities is a part of his legend. He reported one accident this way: “I was driving down the road. The trees on the right were passing me in an orderly fashion at 60 miles per hour. Suddenly one of them stepped in my path.”