There was once a lonely girl who wanted love very much. One day while she ________ in the forest, she found two birds. She took them home and put them in a small ________. She was happy to have two “friends”. She ________ them with love and the birds grew strong.

One day the girl happened to leave the door of the cage open. The larger and the stronger of the two flew out of the cage. The girl was ________ that it would fly away. She caught it quickly. She felt glad that she caught the bird before it could fly away. Suddenly she ________ hear a sound from the bird. When she opened her hands, the bird was already dead. Her love killed the bird! Then she noticed ________ bird jumping up and down ________ the cage. She could feel its great need for the freedom. It wanted to fly into the clear, blue sky. So she lifted it from the cage and let it fly away ________. The bird circled once, twice, and three times. The girl watched as the bird flew. She didn’t care about losing the bird any more. She wanted it to be happy. Suddenly the bird flew closer and landed softly on her shoulder. It sang the sweetest ________ she had ever heard.

The fastest way to lose love is ________ on it too tightly, and the best way to keep love is to give it wings.

Who is the greatest teacher in Chinese history? Many people would think of Confucius, whose birthday was September 28th. Although he lived over 2,500 years ago, people still remember and respect him for his contribution to the education today. Chinese look upon Confucius as the greatest thinker and also the greatest teacher.

Confucius lived in the Kingdom of Lu, which lies in Shandong. He lived during the Spring and Autumn Period. He had a hard childhood. His father died when he was only 3. His mother brought him up. As he was a child, he had to work to help his mother, but young Confucius never gave up studying. He visited many famous teachers and learned music, history, poetry and sports.

Later, he became a teacher and started the first public school in Chinese history. At that time only children from noble families could go to school, but Confucius believed everyone should go to school if they wanted to learn. He had about 3,000 students in his lifetime.

Today, people still follow Confucius’ lessons. He told us that we all have something worthy to be learned. “When I am with three people, one of them must be better than me in some areas. I choose their good qualities and follow them.”

He also taught us that thinking is very important in study. “All study but no thinking makes people puzzled (困惑的). All thinking but no study makes people lazy.”

Confucius’ ideas have been around in people’s everyday lives. Now they have gone far into Western countries and South Asia. His most important teachings are about kindness and good manners. “A person should be strict with himself, but be kind to others.” he said.

Nowadays, many people are looking for fun online. Watching live-streaming (直播) shows has become part of their lives. At the same time, traditional culture has found a bigger stage online. Many traditional artists are starting to live-stream like Douyin and Bilibili. Some of them sing Peking Opera, some make paper cutting, while others perform Chinese classical music. A growing number of young people are starting to become more interested in traditional culture because of live-streaming.

Li Jun is a Peking Opera performer from the Shanghai Jingju Theater Company. The 59-year-old took up his smart phone and started to live-stream. Unlike performing on a real stage, Li uses common places as his stage, including his office and study room. Except singing, Li also teaches viewers about Peking Opera. People can ask him questions and get answers directly.

“Live-streaming has brought this traditional art down to earth.” One viewer said, “it gives young people an easier way to learn more about the traditional art,” Li has more than 70,000 fans on Douyin, while one of his videos got 42,000 views on Bilibili.

March third in the lunar calendar is China Huafu Day. On April 22nd this year, Bilibili live-streamed a huafu show on the fifth China Huafu Day. Performers showed clothes in traditional Chinese styles, including those from Wei, Tang and Ming dynasties. During the show, viewers not only enjoyed looking at the clothes, but also watched how performers used ancient styles of make-up.

As Guangming Daily said, live-streaming has come to a new stage through which traditional culture can be kept alive.

Type in “A cat wants to go to space” and ask the robot to write a bedtime story. Just one second later, you’ll get the story of the cat, who was on his way past many difficulties to sing among the stars.

This robot writer is real. It’s called ChatGPT. From writing Shakespeare-style poetry to making music, ChatGPT has amazed the world since it came out in later 2022 by the US company OpenAI. It can translate languages, talk with people and write songs, poems and even jokes. It’s one of the most powerful AI of its kind, with the complete writing abilities of a real person!

People around the world have tried ChatGPT and posted their results on social media. Some used it to write history reports, some asked it to take notes of speech, and some even made suggestions on how to communicate with people at a party.

The power of ChatGPT lies in its speed and understanding of complicated (复杂的) matters. We may spend hours researching, understanding and writing an article on the theory of evolution (进化论). But ChatGPT can produce a well-written one in seconds. Another good thing about it is that if you ask dark, harmful questions, such as how to make weapons (武器), it will not give you an answer.

There is no doubt that ChatGPT is a powerful tool because it can do many creative tasks. However, some schools in the US, Australia and France have stopped the use of ChatGPT, because they think it may make it easier for students to cheat on homework. Some also worry that ChatGPT could be used to spread improper information.

The Chinese people say “qin”, “chess”, “book” and “painting”, among which “chess” refers to Weiqi. As a traditional and meaningful board game, Weiqi was invented in China more than 2,500 years ago and it is still played today.

As we know, the playing pieces are divided into black and white, it is the basis of Chinese culture, yin and yang. There are 181 black pieces and 180 white pieces. One player uses the white pieces and the other uses the black ones. Black pieces go first. The players take turns to play the pieces on the chessboard. The board surface has 361 cross points, they are said the lunar calendar 361 days.

Weiqi is also called Go by westerners. Learning it can not only improve people’s logical thinking ability, but it can also develop their calm character. That’s why it is more and more popular with modern people.

During the Sui and Tang Dynasties, Weiqi traveled to Japan, and then to Europe in the 19th century. Now it has grown into an international competition event. So far, people from over 40 countries have played it. Among them, players from China, Japan and South Korea have the highest level of Weiqi.

The pieces that made in Yunnan are famous all over the world, they are called Yunzi. The history of making Weiqi in Yunnan can be traced back to the Tang Dynasty, in which the verified history was more than 1,200 years.

On February 19, 2021, Chinese-English Dictionary of Weiqi Term (术语) came out in Beijing. It’s the first professional dictionary about Weiqi in China. As a symbol of Chinese culture, Weiqi has its special language. It also has its own way of thinking and the method of communicating. The dictionary will serve as a necessary tool and bridge for spreading Weiqi culture.

Courage is often thought to be one of the important spirits everyone needs. Then what is courage?     41     One isn’t necessarily born with courage, but one is born with potential (潜力). Kids build courage as they are growing up.

    42     Courage always stands side by side with fear. If there is no fear, there is no need for courage. That is to say, courage is the ability to do what makes you feel afraid. Courage doesn’t only mean great actions such as saving one’s life or taking a big risk.     43     For example, we show courage when we raise our hands to answer a hard question during class or try a new sport.

Courage is in everyday choices we make. Can you be kind to the new kid in class? Can you listen to the new person in your group?     44     Often, these things don’t come with praise, but they need courage.

When we become brave enough to face failure, we’ll be more willing to try new things and try again after we fail.     45     Sometimes courage is the little voice at the end of the day that says, “I’ll try again tomorrow.”

56. ________ changed me

提示：人的进步和发展源于不断的变化，不论何时、何地，总有某个人、某件事、某样东西……或大或小或多或少地改变了你的学习、你的生活、你的观念或你的态度，让你的人生得到了升华。请以“________ changed me”为题，写一篇英语短文，叙述你经历过的一次改变，并谈谈你的感受。