For the past 20 years, the Touching China Award has honored people across the country every year. They are people who warm our hearts with their actions. Let’s look at three of them. They all have something in common: they make a great difference to the country in their own way.

Name: Yang Zhenning Age: 99 Job: physicist Chosen for: making great contributions (贡献) to physics.	Main events: In 1957, he and another Chinese student, Tsung-dao Lee, came up with a physics theory together. Months later, the two won the Nobel Prize in Physics for their theory. Their achievement proved that Chinese scientists could be on the global frontier(前沿). Then, in 1971, Yang finally got the chance to return to China for a visit. Later, Yang sold a house in the US, giving away the money to Tsinghua University. In 2003, Yang returned to China and also taught at Tsinghua.
Name: Janis Chan · Age: 40 · Job: reporter and TV host · Chosen for: making a documentary to break bias (偏见) about China.	Main events: In 2021, Chan hosted a show called No Poverty Land. The show records how people in poor areas of China get rid of poverty. In the documentary, Chan spends three months reaching many poor villages in China. Chan not only talked with locals but also experienced their lives. She wanted to show the changes in these areas. In the end, the show was popular all over the world. Chan said she wanted to produce more shows to get more people to know China better.
Name: Su Bingtian · Age: 32 · Job: sprinter · Chosen for: challenging himself and breaking limits(极限)	Main events: On Aug 1 of that year, Su set a new record of 9.83 seconds in the Tokyo Olympics Men’s 100m semifinals (半决赛), making him the first Chinese runner to enter the final in the event. For a long time, there was an idea that Asian people were not physically built to succeed in sprinting. Su’s success broke this idea and inspired many people.

A teacher decided to let her class play a game. She told each child in the class to bring along a plastic bag with a few big potatoes. Each potato was given the name of a person that the child hated, so the number of potatoes that a child put in his or her plastic bag depended on the number of people he or she hated.

When the day came, every child brought some potatoes with the names of the people he or she hated. Some had two potatoes, some three while some had up to five potatoes. The teacher then told the children to carry the potatoes in the plastic bag with them wherever they went.

As days passed, the children started to complain because of the unpleasant smell let out by the rotten (腐烂的) potatoes. Besides, those having as many as five potatoes also had to carry heavier bags. After weeks, the children were relieved because the game had finally ended.

The teacher asked, “How did you feel while carrying the potatoes with you these days?” The children showed their frustrations (沮丧) and started complaining about the trouble they had to go through having to carry the heavy and smelly potatoes wherever they went.

Then the teacher told them the hidden meaning behind the game. “This is exactly the situation when you carry your hatred for somebody inside your heart. The unpleasant smell of hatred will pollute your heart and you will carry it with you wherever you go. If you cannot stand the smell of rotten potatoes for just a short period of time, can you imagine what it is like to have hatred in your heart for your lifetime?”

THE THIRD MONTH OF THE SCHOOL YEAR has now arrived. Have you noticed that when we talk about numbers, we naturally think of the number three?

In some ways, “three” is a number that has magical powers. You might have found that this number is all around us. Everything has a beginning, a middle, and an end. For example, we eat three meals a day. Traffic lights all over the world use three colors: red, yellow, and green. And there is the rule of three. It is an age-old writing skill. According to this rule, things can always become more satisfying to readers if they come in threes. Have you ever noticed how powerful ads use the rule of three to improve their marketing? Just do it. I’m loving it. Coke is it. These famous slogans(标语) are all three words long.

But what is it about the number three that makes it so magical? Well, it is because our brains enjoy thinking in patterns(规律). If there are no patterns, our brains will create them. And three is the smallest number needed to form a pattern. An audience member will usually only remember three things from a speech. Do you want something in your speech to keep in your audience’s minds? Put it forward to them in groups of three.

If we properly use the rule of three in our daily lives, we can make many things easier. For example, many people like to add lots of tasks to their to-do lists. Experts, however, suggest they should just make three tasks. These top three tasks should be hard enough to be challenging while still being achievable. And the next time you are making New Year’s resolutions, consider listing only three things to work on. The longer your list is, the less likely you are to keep it!

Governments around the world are pushing for an end to plastic straws (吸管) and bags. More and more businesses are changing to paper products. Using paper is considered to be better than plastic. However, it is harmful to the environment, too.

Firstly, paper bags and straws are made from trees. Trees, as you know, are good for the environment. They can slow down climate change. An increase in the use of paper bags can cause more deforestation (毁林).

Secondly, the production of paper things requires more energy and water. About 10 percent more energy and four times as much water is used to produce a paper bag than a plastic one. You might say that we can use recycled paper to save that energy and water. This seems to be a good idea. However, it takes even more energy and water to go through the recycling process (过程) than to make a newspaper bag. Products made from recycled paper are also often short-lived.

Furthermore, paper products are heavier than plastic ones. That means they require more fuel to transport. Seven trucks are needed to transport two million paper bags, while only one truck is needed to transport the same number of plastic bags. The increased weight also leads to a larger amount of waste once the bags are thrown away.

Paper products are actually a lose-lose for both the environment and businesses. They are more expensive than plastic products. A paper straw costs about 5 to 12 cents, while a plastic one usually costs only about 2 cents.

The most environment-friendly way is to avoid single-use things altogether. Products like glass water bottles and steel straws can be used over and over again. They are much better than either paper products or plastic products. By increasing the use of these items, you can greatly reduce your throwaway waste and truly make our earth a greener place!

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Some people believe that humans could live on the planet Mars by the year 2100. Here is what life there could be like.

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With the development of technology, by the year 2100, the journey might only take about 20 minutes in spacecraft that travel at the speed of light! However, the spacecraft would travel so fast that the journey to Mars might be quite uncomfortable. Many people would feel ill.

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Humans cannot survive without water, oxygen or food. So far nobody knows whether there would be enough water or oxygen on Mars. Moreover, scientists are not sure whether plants could grow on Mars. Food would probably be in the form of pills and would not be so tasty.

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Gravity could be another problem. The gravity on Mars is only about three-eighths of that on the Earth. People would have to wear boots that are specially designed to prevent themselves from floating off into space.

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Compared with life on the Earth, life on Mars would be better in some ways. People would have more space. They might live in houses with huge comfortable rooms. Also, robots would do most of their work so that they could have more time to relax.

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There would probably be no schools on Mars. Every student would have a computer at home connected to an interplanetary network. They would study at online schools with “e-teachers”. The “e-teachers” can help with their schoolwork at any time.