One day a young man named Gary went to see a wise old man. He wanted to know why he wasn’t able to ________ all of his life goals.

He found the old man reading in a small house by the river. With a smile, the wise man listened to Gary’s ________ and told him, “First come help me boil a kettle of water!”

Gary saw a big kettle standing in the corner next to a small stove, but he didn’t see any wood. So he went out to ________ some.

He came back with some dry wood, filled up the kettle with water and put it ________ the stove. Then he put some wood in the stove and started a fire. However, ________ the kettle was too big, when the wood burned up, the water did not boil. So he ran off to get more.

When he returned, the water had ________ turned cold. This time he learned his ________ and prepared more wood in advance. This time the water boiled very quickly.

“If there is not ________ wood, how would you boil the water?” the wise man asked.

Gary thought for a moment, but didn’t know the answer, so he shook his head.

“Well, then just pour out some water from the kettle!” the old man said.

Gary nodded ________, but still had no idea what the man meant.

“At first, you had so many ________ and set too many goals,” the old man said. “It’s just like the big kettle full of water. You didn’t have enough wood, so you couldn’t boil the water. If you want to make the water boil, then you will have to either pour some out or prepare more wood!”

I have always been fascinated by the animal world. Recently, I read a novel about animals called A Lion’s Traveling. Chinese writer Shen Shixi wrote it.

The book tells the story of five male lions. They are driven out of their home and begin their adventure. Unluckily, one is hurt by a giraffe. Another is killed by a hunter. The third one dies during a fight for water with a rhino(犀牛). The fourth lion drowns(淹死). Only the youngest one, named Red Ribbon, is still alive. After going through many difficulties, he finally becomes the lion king.

The story shows the love and care between friends, the life and death faced by brothers, the determination(决心) to deal with challenges, and the passion for life. The fact that the young lion finally becomes the king teaches me a great lesson: Those who cannot defeat you will make you stronger. Everyone will face lots of difficulties during their lifetime. We should learn to stay strong and continue to find our better selves.

The book is filled with exciting details about the lives of lions. Together with vivid pictures, it gives readers an immersive(沉浸的) experience. You can not only read the great story but also learn a lot about the animals in the real world. I highly recommend(推荐) it!

On a recent evening, my host father was preparing food in the kitchen. This rarely happens, as we normally don’t cook dinner, but just eat bread and cold meat. I helped my host sister set the table by placing a red tablecloth, plates and candles. While my host dad was preparing the chicken and pork steaks, we girls made a salad.

That day was my host parents’15th wedding anniversary（纪念日）. Unlike any other wedding anniversary that I’d ever seen before, my host parents didn’t hold a big party to celebrate. Instead, they just had a normal evening with delicious food and with the whole family together. During dinner, I was told that they were in the same class during high school. My host mom went to Germany for three years after their graduation. After she came back to the Czech Republic, my host dad started to hang out with her. I was touched by their story. It made me think that those who truly love you will never leave you.

When all the kids went to sleep after dinner, I was talking with my host mom and looking at her wedding album. Then my host dad came into the living room with a bunch of colorful chrysanthemums in his hands. They were both wearing simple night robes and there was no music playing, but my host mom was so happy and surprised to receive her favorite kind of flower. They hugged with the candlelight shining on their faces. Their lives are simple, but with love, I believe that their happiness will last forever.

Thousands of runners did up their running shoes and poured out from the starting line while crowds cheered along the course. Marathons in China are picking up the pace again. According to the Chinese Athletics Association, a total of 133 marathons across the country have been registered（注册）for the first six months of the year. On March 26, more than 300,000 runners took part in 26 marathon events nationwide, reported China Daily.

Teenagers have also taken part in marathons. Xu Qian, a 15-year-old from Suqian, Jiangsu, loves running. He got first place in the 5-kilometer Happy Run of the Jingdong Suqian Marathon held on April 2th. For Xu, it meant months of training and preparation. He runs about 30 to 40 kilometers in local stadiums each week ahead of the run.

“Unlike the 800-meter run at school which is more about speed, a marathon tests a runner’s endurance and mental quality,” he told Teens. When he felt tired during the race, he told himself not to give up. “In long-distance running, the only opponent you have to beat is yourself,” Xu added.

Apart from one’s willpower, kindness from the audience also plays a big part in helping runners get to the finish line. Li Zhouzi from Shanxi took part in a 3-kilometer Kid Run of the Berlin Marathon in Germany in 2019 when she was 10. The support from the people cheering along the way really encouraged her.

“When things were hard, people from across the world cheered me on. Even if it was just the words, ‘keep it up’, it meant a lot to me and I was inspired to keep going to the end,” Li told Teens. She believes that running a marathon is about staying focused on the final goal, not the suffering along the way. “Likewise, our life is also a marathon,” Li said.

A giant “ancient city” appeared on the surface of a lake. But after about half an hour, the “city” was gone.     46     But it’s believed that the “city on the lake” was actually a mirage（海市屋楼）.

    47     Normally, light travels in a straight line, but it can bend（弯曲）and change direction depending on what it passes through. This bending is called “refraction”. If different layers of air are at different temperatures, light will bend at different angles（角度）when passing through them.     48    

Take the “city on the lake” as an example. The layer of air near the lake is colder than the higher layers, as the lake absorbs（吸收）most of the heat.     49     But their image showed up above the lake after light refracted in different layers of air.

Mirages happen not only over large bodies of water, but anywhere where the ground can absorb a lot of heat.     50     The next time you think you see a pool of water on the road on a hot summer day, you will know it’s just a mirage—an image of the sky caused by bending light.

Every year, the Touching China Award recognizes people who have made significant contributions to society through their work and actions. This year, a group of retired professionals in China won the award for their efforts in     61    （share） knowledge through short videos.

There     62     former teachers, scientists and engineers in the group. They created videos on a range of topics, such as literature and science.

Wu Yuren, for example, is a retired     63     /'fiziks/teacher. She became known as “Grandma Wu” on social media f    64     her humorous and easy-to-understand experiments. “I made these videos to arouse young people’s curiosity about daily life     65     use everyday tools to experience the wonder of science, ” Wu told People’s Daily. Wu is in her     66    （ seventy） but still writes her scripts and looks for help from other teachers.

    67     /ə'nʌðə/ award winner is Wang Pinxian. He is an 87-year-old marine geologist（海洋地质学家）and teacher at Tongji University’s School of Ocean and Earth Science. Over the past two years, Wang has used his videos to share his knowledge of the ocean     68     viewers. He looks at things like the secrets of the Bermuda Triangle（百慕大三角）and whether sea monsters really exist.

The popularity of these videos has been well-tested. Thousands of viewers have watched and shared the group’s content. Many followers expressed their thanks for the opportunity to l     69     new things and stay in touch with the world around them.

According to CCTV, their     70     are like “classrooms without walls and universities without barriers（障碍）”. In the words of the Touching China Award jury, “The popularity created by gray—haired people has created real energy.”