Everyone admires heroes. When we are asked who are our heroes, someone well-known like Yang Liwei or Zhong Nanshan may come into our _________. They make a big difference to the world. However, there are “everyday” heroes in our daily life. They may not be so _________ to the public, but these common people are also working hard to build a better world. Among them is Sun Jun.

Sun Jun comes from a poor village. The villagers used to have no enough food. He knew much about the _________. When he was a college student, he found that the problem of food waste was more and more _________. He started to collect unsold food from restaurants and stores for homeless people.

After graduating, Sun Jun joined a volunteer _________ called Green Food Bank, which was set up in Shanghai in 2014. The purpose is to build a bridge between people who are ready to help others and those who are _________. It works by collecting and _________ free food for the poor, the disabled and so on.

Sun’s team developed a phone app. It can _________ how much food restaurants leave each day. Usually, the workplaces of volunteers are not far from the restaurants, _________ they can just walk there to get the food for free. Then it can be given out in just a few hours.

So far, Sun and his team have done something _________ to the society. On the on hand, they’ve saved a lot of food. On the other hand, they’ve helped some people. _________, more volunteers and restaurants join them now. The small actions of these heroes can make a _________ influence than we imagine.

Why does Sun do all these things? He says, “Thanks to Grandpa Yuan Longping we are almost no longer _________ of food. We need to think about how to _________ wasting. There’s a long way to go, but I won’t _________ halfway. It’s just the start. We still have much to do.”

An amazing theme park: Happy Valley

Leo was a small and thin boy living in a small village. Some boys in the village often bullied him and Leo was afraid.

One day, an old wizard went by the village and saw Leo being bullied. So when the bad boys left, he gave Leo a lion’s tail. “It’s a magic tail.” the wizard said, “When someone wears it and acts bravely, he or she will turn into a strong lion.” Leo hung the lion’s tail behind his body and decided to teach the bad boys a lesson.

But when the boys came, Leo was afraid and tried to run away. Yet they caught him. Suddenly, Leo showed the tail and remembered what the wizard had said. He became brave. He looked them in the eyes and said he would make them regret doing that. Leo felt the goose bumps (鸡皮疙瘩) all over his body . “This means that I am turning into a lion.” he thought. The boys ran away in fear. Leo wanted to catch them but he found his legs were as short as before.

When the wizard saw it, he came to Leo. Leo was very happy, though a little disappointed because his lion body had lasted only a short time.

“You are great.” said the wizard, “But have you ever seen a lion fighting? No one fights with lions because they know how brave and strong lions are.” Yes. Leo had never seen a lion fighting. He suddenly understood that he didn’t really turn into a lion and that what really worked was his brave heart.

If you walk through a park in the morning or in the evening, you might see a lot of people doing these slow and beautiful movements—Carry the tiger over the mountain and White crane spreads its wings. In fact, they are doing Taichi.

“Taichi is an ancient martial art（武术）. It is a common kind of exercise in China. More than 100 million people in over 150 countries practice Taichi at present. Recently UNESCO（联合国教科文组织）has added Taichi to its Intangible Cultural Heritage List（非物质文化遗产名录）. Many Taichi fans were happy to hear of it. “This will make Taichi more popular around the world. Hopefully, more people will become healthier by practicing it.” said Chen Bin. He is a Taichi master from the village of Chenjiagou, Henan Province. This village is the birthplace of Chen-style Taichi.

It’s true that doing Taichi is good for our health. It can make us walk and move more freely, and it can also make us stronger. During slow movements, we can focus on our hands and feet. We can control them better. Slow movements also help us to take deep and long breaths.

Taichi also focuses on the harmony（和谐）between yin and yang. It shows how the ancient Chinese people saw the world. The world is full of yin and yang: dark and light, soft and hard（对立）each other completely. As we see in the picture, a white spot is in the black area and a black spot is in the white area. After a dark night, the sun will rise. Leaves fall in autumn but grow again in spring. Everything keeps changing—that is how the world works.

Taichi carries old Chinese philosophy（哲学）, such as being in harmony with nature and using softness to beat hardness. It has become a symbol of Chinese culture.

Dragon Head Raising Day: time for a haircut

China is a country with many     43     (tradition) days and festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day—Longtaitou is one of them.

This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It stands for the     44     (begin) of spring and farming.

The dragon is important in Chinese culture. We Chinese people call     45     (we) the “descendants (传人) of the dragon”. Therefore, people celebrate the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs about dragons.

On the day in ancient     46     (time) people put ashes(灰) in the kitchen. This was to “lead the dragon into the house”. People believed that with the help of the dragon they could have a good harvest in autumn.

Also people cat special foods on that day. The foods are named after dragons. For example people eat “dragon whisker(细须)” noodles and dumplings     47     (call) “dragon teeth”.

Today many customs have faded away (消退). But the cutting of hair     48     (remain) ever since. It was said that a haircut during the first lunar month may     49     (easy) bring bad luck to the mother’s brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

The natural world is colorful with humans, plants and animals showing different colors.

Human skin can be many different colors and it changes with the sun, our feelings or our health for example. This is because of pigments (色素), which reflect light and make what the eye sees as colors. So (A)当我们感到兴奋或生气时, our heart can send more blood to the face and the pigments in the skin become red. This is why we have the expression that someone ‘‘sees red” when they are angry.

Plants also have pigments. ①Color is important for them to live on. The bright colors of flowers catch the attention of insects, which then carry their pollen (花粉) from one flower to (B), and they follow these to the inside of the flower. Without bees visiting flowers in this way, many plants would die out.

②They protect themselves with different colors so as not to be seen by predators (捕食者). The snowshoe hare for example, a type of wild rabbit, and in winter it is white so that it can hide in the snow. However,   (C)some animals use color as a warning to make predators stay away: Bright colors such as yellow and red are often used in this way. Nature, however, is very clever.

So, we can see that there may be many different reasons and uses for colors in the natural world. Some uses of color in nature are still unknown; (D) one thing is for sure, color not only makes our planet beautiful but it is also necessary for our planet to live on.

I’m writing to call on everyone to pay attention to the present traffic.

Yours,

Li Hua