A long time ago, trees in forests kept their leaves all year round. That’s just the way it was. But one winter things _________, and would never be the same again.

The heavy winds were blowing and all the birds were flying south where it was warm except one small bird with a _________ wing.

As the injured bird watched its friends going south, it stood thinking, “It is hard for me to _________ this coming winter.”

The little bird hopped along with one wing hanging uselessly at its side. It came to a huge oak tree. “ Please, Mr. Oak, ” said the bird _________. “ May I take shelter on your branches? ”

The oak tree shouted loudly, “I am the king of the forest. I will never _________ you on my branches.”

And so, the bird came next to a white birch tree step by step. The birch tree thought it was the _________ tree in all the land. When the little bird asked for help, the birch tree said, “Go away from me! You will get _________ and eat my leaves. I must take care of my beautiful leaves. Move along.”

It’s getting colder and colder. The freezing weather was fast approaching. The injured little bird _________ came to a big spruce tree. “May I beg you to take shelter on your branches?” pleaded the bird. To its surprise, the spruce tree _________ “Come, little bird. I will do my best to keep you __________”

A pine tree noticed this and said, “I will stand here all __________, little bird. Do not worry. My branches will keep the __________ from you. You will be safe with us.”

Later, the cold north wind came to blow in the forest. It blew so hard that it knocked all the leaves from the oak and the birch. It was going to blow the leaves __________ the spruce and pine too, but its father said no, for he had seen the good work of these trees in __________ the bird.

And that, dear friend, is why some trees __________ their leaves in winter, and some do not.

There are many different ways to solve a problem. One way is to be creative. People often think creative thinking is just for artists and designers, but this is not true. Dr. Edward de Bono, an expert in creative thinking and problem solving, has shown the world that using creativity to solve problems is very useful in business and in our communities, and will continue to be so in the future.

One example of creative thinking is the solution to a parking problem in a town center. In the areas close to stores, people can only park for 20 minutes. There are parking meters where people pay to park in these areas. However, the problem is that many people leave their cars there for longer than 20 minutes. Dr. Edward de Bono’s solution is to make a rule that all cars parked in these areas must keep their headlights on. Of course, drivers will have to return to their cars before their car batteries（蓄电池）die.

According to Dr. de Bono, people will need to use creative thinking more often in the future. To help people think more creatively, he designed the “Six Thinking Hats” system. The system helps people think about a problem in different ways in order to find a solution. In the system, there are six imaginary hats of different colors. Each hat symbolizes a different way of thinking. For example, the white hat helps people consider the facts. The black hat is the most logical（有逻辑的）and helps people consider why a possible solution may not work. So, next time you have a problem in your community, think about it creatively, from different perspectives, and see what ideas you have.

Making velvet flowers（绒花）was an endangered folk art, but it’s now kept alive with more young craftsmen devoting themselves to the art. Murong Yi, 21, a senior studying at a university in Beijing, is one of them.

Recently, she posted her video about how to make velvet flower head—wear shaped like a golden phoenix on Sina Weibo. The artwork was made of 4, 000 pieces of cocoon fiber（蚕丝）in 12 days. Generally, it only takes two to three days to make a velvet flower. The video has received over 2. 4 million views on Bilibili.

Velvet flowers are called “ronghua”（荣华）in Chinese, it means great wealth. It was a popular decoration in festivals and weddings, but few people know about it now.         “I started to learn about it five or six years ago from some ancient Chinese costume historical dramas,” she said. She tried to learn from others but couldn’t find many online tutorial videos. Finally, she watched a one-hour TV program, in which an inheritor（继承人）showed how to make velvet flowers in detail.

Then, there was the problem of buying materials. Velvet flowers are made of silk and copper wires（铜线）. “However, it was difficult to buy these materials at that time,” Murong said.

Another key step is to choose copper wires in the proper size and type. “The hardness really do matter, ” she said. “Even 1-millimeter would lead to a different shape.” Without much experience, she had to learn from failures and tried again.

New ideas naturally came up when Murong grew as a skilled creator. She found a way to have ready—made fiber produced in a factory, which helped make the handicraft much easier. Now, people interested in this craft can simply buy the material from her Taobao store.

“By doing this, I hope it will help those who want to try ronghua,” Murong said. As a lover of Chinese traditional culture, she said “I’ll learn more about different handicrafts and help make them popular among young people by social media.”

We all pay more attention to rural education（乡村教育）nowadays. It has been a big s    64     problem recently. B    65     in a poor family in Hunan Province, 34- year-old Hou Changliang knew how hard it is for a child in a remote area to get good education. Therefore, he c    66     to volunteer to teach at Xiangyang primary school in Yunnan Province from 2017.

There were just three teachers for about 100 students across four classes in Xiangyang primary school. The government wanted to close the school. C    67     the school meant that the students would have to go to another school far from their homes. Hou’s arrival helped keep the school open.

It is the third village school that Hou has taught at s    68     he graduated from Hunan University in 2011. As a volunteer teacher, he receives a monthly salary of about 800 yuan. This has r    69     unchanged for the past 10 years. “The l    70     I stayed in the countryside, the deeper I understood the challenge in rural education. Rural schools need teachers, e    71     good ones.” Hou said, adding that a good teacher can make a real difference in a student’s life and can even change the village.

The good news for village teachers like Hou is that the government has taken action to improve rural education, i    72     sending more teachers to less-developed areas, improving the quality of rural teachers by training, and improving salary of rural teachers.

“There is still a long way to go to improve rural education. But I deeply b    73     it will be better and better.” Hou said.

Each different part of China has its own special forms of traditional art. These usually try to show the things that are important in life, such as love, beauty and family. The most common things, from paper to clay to bamboo, are turned into objects of beauty.

According to Chinese history, sky lanterns were first used by Zhuge Kongming. He sent them out to ask for help when in trouble. Today, sky lanterns are used at festivals and other celebrations. They are made of bamboo and covered with paper. When the lanterns are lit, they slowly rise into the air like small hot-air balloons for all to see. They are seen as bright symbols of happiness and good wishes.

Paper cutting has been around for over 1,500 years. Paper cutting sounds very easy but it can be difficult to do. The paper, usually red, is folded before it is cut with scissors. The most common pictures are flowers, animals, and things about Chinese history. During the Spring Festival, they are put on windows, doors and walls as symbols of wishes for good luck and a happy new year.

Chinese clay (黏土) art is famous because the clay pieces are so small but they look very real. The pieces are usually cute children or lively characters from a Chinese fairy tale or historical story. The pieces are carefully shaped by hand from a very special kind of clay and then allowed to air-dry. After drying, they are fired at a very high heat. They are then polished before being painted well. It takes several weeks to complete everything. These small pieces of clay art show the love that all Chinese people have for life and beauty.