When I was at the age of ten, I dreamed of starting up a music club in the future so that I could share my passion（激情）with people like me; I dreamed of ________ thousands of fans who admire my performance; I dreamed of standing on the center of the stage. ________, these were just my dreams when I was young.

From the time I was young, I always tried to throw ________ into music, so I learned piano, guitar, singing and so on. Then, when I was in Grade 10, I started to ________ a band. At first, there were just four people in it, and all of us were not musicians, but we were ________ about what we were doing. I started to ________   the band. Every week, there were always many days when I came back home very late. I spent quite a lot of time for study ________ a dream that would never come true. So my parents ________ me that it was a waste of time and told me to give it up.

I knew that I was not a real musician ________ I still wanted to work hard in my band. In the first half of the year of our band, we were not given even one ________ to perform outside of the school. I was upset, so I always told my friends that we had to do something to make us more   ________. So, I created a WeChat account（账号）to ________ our band to others. We got a little bit of fame little by little and I found that I had ________ for organizing and planning, too. Soon, we received a(n). ________ to perform in a study center. We were so excited that we finally put ourselves on a bigger stage. ________, we got more fans and we were more and more popular. Now we have millions of fans around the world. No matter what happens to your life, you should always, believe in yourself and hold on to your dreams.

Jackie, a 15-year-old ninth grader in No. 1 Middle School, is writing a summary (总结) and feedback (反馈) about School Day to his teachers.

Summary

School Day was held successfully on May 5th. Twenty-four student helpers from Grade 8 were divided into four groups of six. Each group had a task to raise money for the disabled.

All of the groups performed well. on School Day and received praise from the students. In short, our School Day went well and we got no poor opinions from the students.

Feedback

Opinions from 160 students have been collected. Most of them thought the activities were good.

However, some students thought, the prices of the school postcards were a little too high.

Satisfaction Feedback

Follow-up

Have a meeting with the headmaster about prizes for excellent student helpers.

During the two sessions(两会), people around the world talk about China. Have you ever wondered what topics Generation Z(people born 1995-2009) are most interested in? Let’s take a look.

Among all topics, “mental health(心理健康)” got the most attention. The top choice is not unexpected. Reports on mental health problems of young people have increased in recent years: The rate of depression(抑郁率) among them was nearly 25％, However, as they care for themselves, they dare to speak out and ask for help when they don’t feel well.

“Spreading traditional culture” followed “mental health” closely. Although Generation Zers are young, they understand the power of traditional-culture and would like to spread it to the world. Zhao Yan, an eighth-grader from Liaoning Riwan Middle School, said, “My school set up many clubs to help students understand the importance of traditional culture. I join a paper cutting club and I have learned a lot. I made a tiger-shaped paper cutting piece. It has not only helped me practice my handwork skills but also let me know the beauty of art. I consider myself as an inheritor of the culture. It’s my duty to pass this great art to future generations.”

Generation Zers also paid attention to social problems. Keyin Xu, a 16-year-old boy from Changchun, told the reporter, “I care about the prevention and control measures(措施) of COVID-19. I’m now studying in the UK. In February, the UK government announced COVID-19 patients could go out. This would never happen in China! I think China’s ‘dynamic zero-case’ policy(动态清零政策) sounds more responsible. A country should protect its people in any situation.”

People seem to know little about Generation Zers. Thanks to this survey, we are able to take a closer look at “what Generation Zers care about” and paint a picture of what they are like.

Chopsticks are pairs of sticks with the same length that have been used in most of eastern Asian countries for over 3,000 years. According to the history, the first chopsticks appeared in China over 5,000 years ago. During the Spring and Autumn Period, chopsticks made of copper(铜) and iron developed over a long period of time. Later the chopsticks with coating came in the Han Dynasty. Then gold and silver chopsticks followed. Different materials have been used to make chopsticks until now, among which the most valuable—ones are made of ivory and green stone. Those can show how rich the owners are.

It was said that silver chopsticks would turn black at once if they touched poisoned(有毒的) food(but we know it was wrong today), so in history many emperors used silver chopsticks to check whether the food was bad for them or not before eating. Chopsticks are also regarded as gifs to others. In China, chopsticks are traditionally given to a daughter when she marries to hope that they will have a child very soon, because the pronunciation of word “chopsticks” in Chinese is like “quick child”. Also, people often believe chopsticks have something to do with good luck. So many families will choose to put new chopsticks on the table at dinner on New Year’s Eve as a way of wishing for good luck while dropping chopsticks is a sign of bad luck.

It’s believed that using chopsticks can increase fingers’ flexibility(灵活性). Some experts also find that it can improve memory. Many westerners, businessmen and tourists put their knives and forks beside the bowls and plates but choose chopsticks in China.

All of us may have experienced embarrassing moments. It could have been the time when you pronounced a simple word wrong in class, wore your T-shirt backwards, or talked about someone else without realizing that they were right behind you.     51    

Though these embarrassing moments don’t harm us a lot, they come back from time to time and make us feel upset. Even if we couldn’t remember these moments clearly after some time, we would always remember, the feeling of strong embarrassment.     52     When these kinds of feelings return, they are known as a “cringe attack（羞愧综合症）”.

I personally get a quite uncomfortable feeling when I think back to a party my parents took me to when I was younger.     53     My parents shouted at me—in front of everyone—for being so selfish. From then on, every time I put a strawberry into my mouth, my brain just brings that embarrassing scene back.

Why do these “cringe attacks” still come in our daily lives even though the events happened weeks, months, or even years ago? According to researchers, our brains give special attention to feelings that can be easily noticed.     54    

If you have a highly embarrassing moment, no matter what it is, your brain will try to catch it.

    55     Well, we can start by trying to be more objective（客观的）about our past selves. Consider that you are not alone in your embarrassment—everyone fails or makes silly, embarrassing mistakes. Instead of just trying to forget what we did, we should try to accept who we were at that moment and think about how we can change for the better.

I got up early and made a phone call with my mother. I told her everything about my recent life. She yawned（打哈欠）and we said goodbye to one another.

I didn’t know then just 16 hours after that, my mother would leave me forever. My mother was my best friend. After she died, it seemed that I was the loneliest girl in the world. The only person that I wanted to talk to was missing. I didn’t know what to do and I just sat at the corner, with great sadness around me.

My mother gave me many things, but she’d never taught me how to cook. She had learned to cook when she was a teenager and she had some secret recipes（食谱）. Everyone said my mother made the best roast beef in the world. But her favorite food was fish pie. Almost every week, she would buy a prepared fish pie from a nearby supermarket. Then she made her own white sauce, poured the sauce over the pie and served the dish to us for dinner. I felt tired of it.

My mother never had time to teach me how to make a white sauce, and I never had a chance to ask her. Now that she was gone, I would have to teach myself. So this became my focus. For the first few weeks, I survived（生存）on cheap food.

One night, I sat in front of the electric stove in the kitchen, recalling the past memories with my mother. An idea suddenly came into my mind —I wanted to taste that dish again. I quickly opened the fridge and found a prepared fish pie in it. Then with my mother’s recipe beside me, I tried to teach myself to make a white sauce. Halfway through the recipe, I couldn’t believe it—I made it!

I poured the sauce over the fish pie and ate it. This time, I found it was the most delicious dish I’d ever had.

Zhao Hongcheng was born in 1990. She is a video content creator（短视频编导）    61     has over 84,000 followers on the video-sharing platform（平台）Bilibili. A wheelchair     62     (be) part of her life since she was one year old. She uses her platform to call for greater understanding of the lives and needs of disabled people. She wants to be a bridge     63     the disabled and the rest of society. She made her     64     video in 2019, which gave her confidence to go on with her second one. Her fourth video made her even     65     (popular). In the video, she encouraged more disabled people to find a job and live     66     common life. In 2021, she became a full-time content creator on Bilibili.

In her video about an accessibility bus tour（无障碍巴士之旅）in Shanghai, she put forward some     67     (advise) for such service. She said     68     people with disabilities faced such service every day, they would give up traveling.     69     (luck), her suggestions were accepted by the city.

But most people with disabilities are not as lucky as Zhao. Some disabled people were not cared for because their disabilities might not influence their daily lives; She hopes that the rights of disabled people to receive education can     70     (protect) better, and the good news is that the situation has improved over the years.