Late Chairman Mao Zedong famously once said that “women hold up half the sky”, and that certainly could be said of China’s female athletes at Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics because Chinese women got plenty of achievements at the Games.

	Xu Mengtao, one of Team China’s flag-bearers(旗手) at the closing ceremony, showed the Chinese women’s fighting spirit. With a perfect jump, freestyle skier, Xu finally got her hands on Olympic gold by winning the aerials title on Feb 14. She also won silver with teammates Qi Guangpu and Jia Zongyang in the mixed event on Feb 10.
	Team China’s Gu Ailing got her gold medal in the women’s freeski halfpipe event on Feb 18. Gu also won Big Air gold and slope style silver to become the first athlete to win medals in all three events at a single Olympics. “Girls can be dragons too,” the 18-year-old said. “I want to show young women that they can also realize any dream.”
	Zhang Kexin, the 19-year-old girl landed back-first at the bottom of the pipe in the competition. For a few minutes, she didn’t move at all and the whole sports center went silent. After being treated, she stood up and skied down to complete the run while the crowd cheered for her. She received the same encouragement as her teammate GuAiling.
	Feng He, first-time Olympian, raced in the women’s snowboard cross on Feb 9, making her the first Chinese woman to ever compete in the event at the Olympics. “I feel so excited to be here. I have learned a lot by training and competing with these athletes from around the world. I will keep training harder and harder in the future,” said the 17-year-old, who was the youngest of all the athletes in the event.

As the spirit spoke, they passed through the wall and stood on a country road with fields on either side. The city had disappeared, as had the darkness and fog. It was now day time, and there was snow on the ground.

“I know where we are!” Scrooge exclaimed. “I was born here and lived here as a boy.” He began to have memories of his life as a boy. A tear came into his eye.

“If you remember this place,” the spirit said, “you may now lead the way.”

“I remember everything about it,” Scrooge said.

“Then it is strange that for so many years you have never thought about it,” the spirit said. They walked along the road, Scrooge recognizing every gate and tree, until a little town could be seen ahead with its bridge, church, and river. Some small horses came toward them with boys upon their backs, who called to other boys in carts, driven by farmers. All these boys were happy and shouted to each other until the fields were full of their laughter.

The boys came nearer, and as they came, Scrooge knew and called out their names. He felt so happy to see them all again.

“We are now at the school,” said the spirit. “Only one child is there, left alone there by the others.”

Scrooge knew who the child was, and he began to cry. They walked on and soon came to the school house. It seemed to be empty, and it needed to be repaired. They walked through the house until they came to a room that was empty except for a small boy sitting at a desk, reading. The spirit touched Scrooge on the arm and pointed to the boy. It was Scrooge when he was young. Scrooge sat down and cried as he looked at himself as he used to be.

Suddenly, a man wearing strange clothes stood outside the window. He was leading a horse.

“It’s Ali Baba!” Scrooge exclaimed excitedly. “It’s dear, old, honest Ali Baba! Yes, yes, I remember. One Christmas, I was left here all alone, and the other boys had all gone to their homes. He did come, for the first time, just like that.”

People who knew Scrooge as he now was would have been surprised if they had known him as a boy. Scrooge remembered how lonely he had been as a child. “Poor boy!” he said, and tears came into his eyes. “I wish,” he said, putting his hand in his pocket, and looking about him after drying his eyes, “but it’s too late now.”

“What do you wish?” asked the spirit.

“There was a boy singing a Christmas carol at my door last night. I should have given him something. That’s all.”

— taken from A Christmas Carol

Does the endless messages and the thought of replying to unopened texts make you stressed? Texting stress is a real thing, and more common than you’d think.

In the last 25 years, texting has already changed the way we communicate. From QQ to WeChat, likes, shares and group chats join traditional forms of communication like email and texting. Many find themselves tired out from the endless notices and group conversations.

The average person in 2022 checks their phone 262 times a day, up from a daily average of 80 in 2016. On average, each person will have 47 unread text messages and 1,602 unopened emails. Yet the average phone screen time is more than ever before, at 4.2 hours per day.

Leah Aguirre, a psychotherapist explains that text conversations are usually a cause of stress as they come with a lot of uncertainty. “We don’t know how someone will reply, if they will reply, or how quickly they will reply. We can’t control other people’s actions or behaviour or how they think, and for people that are more likely to be stressed this can be hard to deal with.”

Text stress can influence your relationships with friends and loved ones. A 2018 study found that friendships are far more successful when you and the other person have a similar texting style. If both of you reply to texts quickly, the relationship is less likely to hit the rocks. Similarly, if everyone is happy to go hours, days, even weeks with replying to texts, then the relationship is better.

Aguirre suggests limiting the time you are on your phone will help you feel relaxed. “You can tell yourself that you have no control over another person’s reaction or behaviour. Remind yourself that this is just a phone or a text message and that you are okay and will be okay,” she said.

Now, time to get to all those unanswered texts.

The moment they are picked up from kindergarten each day, Tan Xinyan and her friends rushed into a playground with new swings, climbing frames and slides.

“I’m surprised that such a small change can bring the children so much joy,” says Tan’s mother Hu Yufeng while talking about the playground in her community.

The appearance in old neighborhoods of well-equipped children’s playgrounds shows that China is taking steps to create better conditions for raising a child.

The country with the largest population is preparing for the low fertility of rates(生育率), at a low level of 1.3 in 2020.

In 2015, China began to allow all couples to have a second child. In 2021, this was▲to three children for each family. It was followed by a series of supportive actions. The country’s new population and family planning law was also made to build a more birth-friendly society.

Even so, most of the couples don’t want to a second or a third child mainly because of the heavy stress of bearing, raising and educating children. As a result, support from local government includes longer paternity leave(产假), extra parental leave and better public services.

Having grown up as the only child in her family, the 35-year-old mother always envied those who hadsiblingsto play with and offer support. However, she doubted whether to have a second child in the beginning, worrying that her parents and parents-in-law are already in their late 60s, and she and her husband both have busy careers.

“If we could not offer the children the attention and care they need for a happy and healthy childhood, we wouldn’t have a second child” Hu says.

As it turns out, she found more happiness with two children. “What doubled is not theworkload, but the joy and good memories they created,” Hu says.

With supportive actions being taken, more mothers-to-be aiming for two or three children are expected to feel the same way.

In general, children are the creators of our future, and it’s the job of us grown-ups to create an environment to make this come true.

The men then took his mother by the rope and led her. He didn’t like this; it was like a trap. He followed them. They went down to the river, and made a camp. White Fang was amazed by what he saw the men do. They were the masters of things not alive. Their tent were especially strange and big to him.

White Fang explored the camp. He met a puppy, who was older than him, called Lip-lip. White Fang wanted to be friendly, but Lip-lip suddenly attacked him. They became enemies. White Fang’s mother wanted him to stay with her, but White Fang was curious and soon he was exploring again.

Gray Beaver was doing something important with two sticks and some grass. Women and children carried sticks and branches to him. White Fang saw something like mist (雾状物) coming from the sticks and branches, and then, something bright like the sun appeared, and grew.

White Fang went towards this bright thing with his nose, and touched it with his tongue. Then he jumped into the air, yelping. Gray Beaver laughed, and told everybody, so they all started laughing, too. Kiche started snarling loudly, but she could not get to her cub because of the rope. Poor White Fang sat there crying in the middle of the laughing men. Their laughter hurt him more than the pain.

He went back to his mother and lay down beside her. As night came on he felt sad. He missed the woods and the cave. Here, there were so many people making noise, and all the dogs. The men were always doing something, using their power. They were gods!

— taken from White Fang

Wang Yueyue works at a supermarket in Yangzhou. The story of her cellphone that t    61     from Yangzhou to Shanghai for a day without its owner has brought a smile to lots of Chinese netizens.

After she l    62     it on Monday, Wang didn’t expect to see the cellphone again. Wang was packing v    63     into boxes to be sent to Shanghai to help with the city’s food supply during the lockdown.

Wearing a sweater with s    64     pockets, she had already dropped her phone on the floor three times before the phone disappeared. After looking around, Wang couldn’t find her phone on the floor o    65     in the rubbish bin. She guessed that she d    66     it in one of the boxes. Her sister posted on Sina Weibo: “Anyone in Shanghai who got a cellphone in a delivery box please contact me. My sister was busy packing the supplies and c    67     left her phone in one of the boxes.”

The post was quickly s    68     online. Wang Yongyong, a supply chain manager in Shanghai’s Hongqiao township, saw the post on Tuesday. She together with some volunteers helped to search the packs and m    69     to find the cellphone in a truck.

Many local people said in their WeChat groups that they should try their best to find the cellphone in order not to fail the people who were h    70     them.

It was an interesting experience for Wang Yueyue, and her cellphone.

76. 家住扬州的大学生李华去年暑假成为了一名志愿者。近期疫情又在多地爆发，她所在外语学院正在举办一次以“抗击疫情”为主题的征文活动，李华想把自己的经历写成文章来投稿，假如你是李华，请根据以下内容要点，给校刊写一篇文章。

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