My dad often said he knew I would be a singer. When I was young, I was always singing _______. Dad was a big sports fan, but he was happy I loved music.

After dinner, Dad would often ask me _______. He always said I sang I Will Always Love You _______ than Whitney Houston! At every school concert he _______ me on. The look of pride on his face made me _______. My life was _______ concerts, singing lessons and laughter. Though my mum and brothers helped me, they did not share the love for music _______ us.

Our lives changed when Dad _______ that he had cancer. We always hoped that something would happen and he would get better, but the doctors told us that they could not save him.

About a week before my dad died, he fell into a coma(昏迷). The nurses said _______ Dad could not reply, he could still hear me. The nurses said I ________ sing him a song. I sang one of our favorites. As I sang, my dad gave a big smile, and clapped. I was so ________ and I will always remember that smile. And I knew that Dad wanted to hear me sing ________ song.

My dad died ________ May 14, 2000. I love him and I don’t know ________ how much I miss him.

Now I have all the memories of him and his beautiful smile deep inside my heart. I will always know that he is listening from his front row seat in heaven.

He ________,“Sing from your heart.”

My dad has been and will always be my hero.

Are you hungry? Open an app, place your ______ and wait for your food to be delivered(递送) to your home-this is ______   many people eat in China these days. According to the latest data(数据), 421 million Chinese people use online food delivery   

Which group of people is ordering food online the ______? Unsurprising, it's mainly young people. A recent report showed that 86.3 percent of the service's users are between 20 and 34 years old.

______ families depend greatly on food delivery services. According to the National Bureau of Statistics(国家统计局), Chinese families have changed in ______ over the past ten years. In 2002, only 7.7 percent of families were single-person households. But this number increased to 15.6 percent in 2017. The percentage of two-person families rose from 18.4 in 2002 to 27.2 in 2017. For these families, cooking is relatively(相对) ______ time and resource-consuming(耗时耗材), ______ ordering food online has become more popular.

The improvement of China's food delivery services has also attracted more customers. According to Meituan's report, the average time takes to make a food delivery   ______ from 38 minutes in 2016 to 29 minutes in 2019. Many delivery platforms are also offering more services, delivering ______ such as fruit, vegetables, medicine and flowers. As its services continue to improve, it's likely that the food delivery industry will keep growing.

During the two sessions(两会), people around the world talk about China. Have you ever wondered what topics Generation Zers (people born 1995—2009) are most interested in? In March 2022, China Daily did a survey on topics of the two sessions to see what interests Generation Zers most. Let’s take a look.

Among all topics, “mental health” got the most votes. “Spreading traditional culture” (83%) followed closely. The top choice is not unexpected. Reports on mental health problems of teenagers have increased in recent years. The rate of depression (抑郁) among them was nearly 25%. The attention they give to mental health shows that they care for their own well-being. When they don’t feel well, they dare to speak out and ask for help.

Although Generation Zers are young, they understand the power of traditional culture. Zhao Yan, a Junior 2 student 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 workshop and a hanfu club. It has not only helped me practise my handwork skills but also let me know the beauty of art. It’s our duty to pass this great art to future generations.”

Instead of only focusing on themselves, Generation Zers also set their eyes on social problems. Kevin Xu, a 16-year-old boy from Shenzhen, told the reporter. “I care about the prevention and control measures of COVID-19. I’m now studying in the UK. In February, the UK government ended quarantine (隔离) rules. It means that COVID-19 patients can go out. This would never happen in China! I think China’s ‘dynamic zero-case’ (动态清零) policy sounds more responsible. A country should protect its people in a pandemic.”

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.

As one saying goes, where there are Chinese people, there are kung fu legends.

Jin Yong, also known as Louis Cha Leung-yung, was regarded as one of the greatest kung fu fiction writers in China. And for many people, Cha built a magical kung fu kingdom that they could escape into every now and then. But this kingdom is falling apart now, because Cha passed away on Oct 30, 2018, at the age of 94.

Cha wrote all of his 15 wuxia novels between 1955 and 1972. While the values and tastes of readers have changed greatly in recent decades, his books continue to attract people. His works have been filmed into movies and TV series so many times in Hong Kong, Taiwan and the Chinese mainland that the comparison of these versions (版本) is of great interest to his fans.

There is always a knight (大侠) with a spirit that is sincere in love, friendship and patriotism (爱国精神) at the center of his stories. Such characters move both men and women. For example, in The Return of the Condor Heroes (《神雕侠侣》), the young knight Yang Guo waits for his lover Xiaolongnu faithfully for 16 years, believing that she is still alive, even if she has jumped from a mountain into a valley. And in Demi-Gods and Semi- Devils (《天龙八部》), powerful Xiao Feng treats his friends with sincere feelings, ready to die for the peace of his homeland.

Cha has an excellent ability of using language. He has a theory about writing an attractive plot: “To make a lie believable, it’s better to tell 10 truthful things along with it.” This theory works well for Cha’s writing. His stories are always full of rich history; the rules of martial arts (武术) are described in detail. As a result, he achieves a sense of realism with his martial arts heroes.

Cha’s books bring readers joy, and Cha himself has equal fun creating them. “Writing gives me space for imagination, just like a director.” Cha once said.

However, Cha’s real aim in writing novels is to show traditional Chinese values and qualities. “Kung fu novels must describe justice and honesty. The good fight the wicked. Traditional values are shown through the characters and their stories, not by lecturing readers,” he said.

Imagine this. There's an apple and a piece of cake on a table. Which one would you like? The delicious cake or the healthy apple? A bestseller, Willpower: Rediscovering Our Greatest Strength, suggests that willpower(意志力)is the ability to make decisions that are better for us in the long term, rather than in the short term.

Here is a famous experiment in the book: The Marshmallow Test. In 1972, Professor Walter Mischel tested the willpower of 600 four-year-olds to six-year-olds. In the experiment, each child was left alone in a room for fifteen minutes with a marshmallow(棉花软糖）on a table in front of them. They were given two choices: they could either eat it or, if they waited fifteen minutes, they'd be given a second one(and then they could eat both).

So, what did the kids do? Well, as you can imagine, 70% ate the first marshmallow within the fifteen minutes. But the other 30% showed willpower—they controlled themselves and waited for the second marshmallow. But then Mischel discovered something really interesting. Twenty years later, he got in touch with the children, who, by then, were in their early twenties. And he found that those who'd shown strong willpower were getting better marks at university and were more popular.

Willpower is like a muscle（肌肉), and the more you exercise it, the stronger it gets.

So, if you do daily "self-control exercises", such as making your bed or brushing your teeth, you'll improve your overall willpower. And daily willpower exercises will help you with those bigger goals, such as studying for an exam or training for a marathon.

Be careful though. Just like any muscle, your "willpower muscle" can get tired. If you've had to do lots of things that require willpower, take a break or give yourself a treat.

That way, you’ll build up your willpower again.

And one last thing, the writer mentions people who learn foreign languages usually have a lot of willpower. So, congratulations!

School systems（制度）are different from country to country.

Unlike us, students in Singapore, where I am studying, have a flexible（灵活）timetable. My friend Amanda is a science student. She chose Chinese literature and language, chemistry and economics.     41     On Friday, Amanda only has one PE, one general paper and one economics lesson. On Thursday, however, she has six lessons. “Gloomy （郁闷的）Thursday,” she said humorously.

    42     On Tuesday, Amanda has lunch at 10:30 a.m. because she has a PE class at noon. On Thursday since the first four lessons take up the whole morning and the noon, she has lunch at 1:00 p.m. The different lunchtimes solve the problem of long queues（排队）in the student canteen.

    43     Walking in the school, you always see students rushing toward the next classroom, with their schoolbags on their shoulders. Sometimes the ten-minute-break seems to be too short. I remember on the first day that no sooner had Amanda and I arrived in the classroom than the bell rang. No time to go to the washroom or for snacks.

And another discovery surprised me.     44     The students in Singapore calculate everything using calculators. They even use a calculator to find out the sum（总和）of 200 and 300!

    45     I hope the schools in different countries can learn from each other and the world’s education make progress.

56. 学校决定以“Doing Housework, Improving Myself”为主题向中学生开展征文活动。请你根据以下提示，用英语写一篇短文投稿。要点提示：

Doing Housework, Improving Myself

Do you think doing housework is something that your parents have to do?

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