My husband’s grandmother, aged 75, has been living with us in Beijing for a month now. Full of energy, she ________ to cook meals for us every day. The food she prepares is very delicious. That’s not all. Granny helps us with chores in our house. When we go out for a walk, I try hard to keep up with her.

________, what surprises me most is how excitedly she accepts the latest progress in high technology life. Mind you, she had received only primary school education.

When she joined us, we bought her a Beijing transportation card ________ she could use city buses and subways. One day, she came back ________ an e-card fixed on her smartphone. “It’s far more convenient. I saw others walk into the subway station just by scanning (扫描) their ________. I asked one for help to set it up on my phone,” she said with a big smile.

Later, we taught her how to watch videos, buy clothes and vegetables on smartphones, and even play mahjong (麻将) online. It quickly became her ________ smartphone app (应用软件). Though she was unable to understand well at first, our ________ help a few times and some encouragement helped her overcome the troubles. Most importantly, such communication has made ________ family relationship deeper. As for me, I’m very ________ to play mahjong online with Grandma. The other day, she knocked on my door and said, “Come, we need a fourth player to play mahjong together.”

We realize an elderly-friendly society means the old people can get great satisfaction and ________. When grandparents turn to their grandchildren for help with smartphones, a little more patience from the young can go a long way in encouraging the old to move further in high technology life.

The 21-year-old student from the college of Special Education of Changchun University, Jilin Province, Zhan Junyi has been deaf since birth. But he has overcome great difficulties to achieve his dream of becoming a professional dancer, and is now able to hear music through an artificial cochlea (人工耳蜗).

When he was 2, his parents took him to some training courses, and he learned to understand people by reading lips (嘴唇). During the slow and hard process, not only his parents but also some teachers from the training center offered great help to him. Thanks to their lasting efforts and help, Zhan had the chance to achieve as much as someone who can hear. Zhan had an artificial cochlea implanted (移植) when he was 4 years old. Then he was able to better understand people with its help.

In the summer of 2008, Zhan watched a dance show of Avalokiteshvara Bodhisattva (千手观音) by the China Disabled People’s Performing Art Troupe (剧团) at the closing ceremony of the Beijing 2008 Paralympic Games (残奥会) on TV. Deeply moved by their excellent skill and energy, he began to watch videos of performances and competitions, learned to copy the movements and dreamed of becoming a dancer like them.

After graduating from primary school in 2015, Zhan passed the exam for the troupe and began to learn dance with the other members. To help him keep up, his teacher repeatedly played the drum and told him where the beats and rhythm (节奏) points were. Then, the teacher also guided him by using sign language. What’s more, as his artificial cochlea could easily fall out, he had to wear a headband to help keep it in.

Through lasting efforts and hard work, Zhan came to be perfect at dancing and entered Changchun University to study dance in 2021. In recent years, Zhan has built up lots of experience performing at events such as the opening and closing ceremonies of the Beijing 2022 Winter Paralympic Games and the 2023 Spring Festival Gala (春晚).

After he graduates, Zhan wants to return to the troupe and become a national-level dancer. He hopes to help other children like him to learn how to dance and feel its joy.

Enjoy Nature with Foraging (搜寻)!

Do you enjoy walking in nature? Do you like learning about trees and plants?     31    . Foraging is a lot like looking for a treasure. You look around in places like forests and lakes to find different kinds of plants that you can eat.

Foraging is a lot of fun.     32    . Some of these plants are dangerous. Some of them are good to eat. You can spend many relaxing hours walking around in the wild, looking for good plants to eat.

    33    . It is exciting and challenging to find plants that you can eat, but do not eat them until you are very sure of what they are. Before you go foraging, take a class about it. Learn how the different kinds of plants that you can eat look in the wild. Practice finding them with your foraging teacher. Then join a group of foragers.     34    . Never eat anything until you are 100% sure of what it is. Some people have become sick by accident because they ate a wild plant that was dangerous.

Foragers follow some important rules. They do not collect all of the plants in one area. If you take all the plants from one area, no more will grow there.     35    , like by a road or parking lot. If the area is very dirty, the plants there will not be good to eat and may make you very sick.

People in the countryside are used to having unexpected visitors—wild animals like frogs and snakes. But what if the visitor is an elephant?

Pu Cuifen, a villager from Yunnan Province, experienced that two years ago. “I’ve only seen elephants in a zoo before, not expecting a wild elephant would appear at my doorstep,” said Pu. The elephants were harmful to no one, but had corn and beans on the farm. The villagers lost up to(A)50,000 yuan. Earlier than that, villagers would drive away the elephants to protect their crops(庄稼), which made the animals angry and led to human injuries(伤害) or deaths.

Now the government has helped to pay the money for the crops damaged(破坏) by elephants. Such things will help protect the interests of farmers, and at the same time avoid the wild animals being hurt by humans. The government has also created “dining halls” for the wild elephants to grow their favorite food, such as elephant grass and bamboo. Villagers now simply leave the elephants alone. “Our corn might get damaged, but we treat them with care and accept them with love.” said Pu.

Yunnan Province is not the only example of protecting wild animals. In Tibet, Migmar used to be a hunter(猎人), but now has become a rescuer(营救者) at the wildlife rescue station of Qomolangma. He and his friends take turns to go around to check there’s no trouble or danger for wild animals every day. The wildlife rescue station was set up in (B) 2019. From then on, they have saved (C) 17 wild animals. During this period, they learned to bandage the animals and clean their wounds, and set them free into the wild when they got well again. “Animals don’t talk, but I can feel their trust. We have the responsibility to protect them,” said Migmar.

Examples of taking care of wild animals appear more around us. From damage to protection, people see more changing human-wildlife relations. Even the simplest change and action can make a difference to the world.

Chinese writing has a history of six or seven thousand years. Calligraphy(书法), the art of writing, is almost as old as writing itself.

In ancient times, written Chinese was first symbols and pictures. Then, they gradually became characters. Later, characters and even full sentences were written on animal bones or shells for communication.

With time passing by, a number of written forms appeared. Each had its own local style. In the 3rd century BC, the First Emperor, Qinshihuang, set the same standard for the written characters— “small seal” script. It was first used in his own state of Qin, then in the whole nation. That writing system was very important in uniting(联合) the Chinese people and culture. At the same time, Cheng Miao developed another style called “clerical” script. It used short, straight brush strokes (笔画) to write quickly. By Han times, calligraphers had created a new style known as “regular” script. From the Tang Dynasty, it became the standard form used in government exams.

Over the centuries, Chinese artists and people with knowledge saw beauty in the forms of their written language. They turned calligraphy into one of the fine arts, in which calligraphers expressed themselves. In the Tang Dynasty, calligraphy was helpful for a person to get a place in the government.

The tools of calligraphy were simple enough. What we needed were the Four Treasures of the study: a brush, ink(墨), an ink stone and a writing surface. Students of calligraphy practiced the main types of script and improved their skills by copying the works of past masters. With the increase of their knowledge and practice, they slowly developed their own styles.

The art of calligraphy reached a high point in the 4th century. At that time, calligrapher Wang Xizhi was often regarded as the greatest master. Calligraphy remains a living art form to this day. It has become part of the school courses to pass on the Chinese culture.