The 24th Beijing Winter Olympics was held on 4th February, 2022. Let’s learn more from the introductions of the mascots (吉祥物)!

I’m Bing Dwen Dwen. I’m the mascot of the 2022 Winter Olympics. I am a black and white panda wearing a full – body “shell”     41     of ice, meaning the winter events and modern technology. The red heart shape in my left palm means welcoming the friends     42     other countries. The bright colors of the circles around my face stand for ice and snow sport tracks. I look like a(an)     43    , making full use of new technologies for a future with all kinds of possibilities.

Shuey Rhon Rhon is here! I’m the mascot of the 2022 Winter Paralympics (残疾人运动会). What do you think of me     44     you see me? Does a red lantern come into your mind? That’s what I look like. Lanterns are coloured by “Chinese red” which     45     the atmosphere (气氛) of the 2022 Chinese New Year. The mascots represent friendship, courage and strength, meaning the fighting     46     of the Winter Paralympics athlete. Take a look at my head. There are paper cuttings of doves. They make up a circle.

Have you ever heard of a girl of 15, who set up a company of her own? Wendy Wong is the girl. She founded the ________ two years ago. She has already written several ________ computer games. They are so popular that over half a million games are ________ every year. Now all of her family work in her business, and she is still at school.

She gets up ________ in the morning, and then she talks with her family about the business over breakfast. Every day she goes to school in her own car with a driver, for she is not ________ enough.

She enjoys her school, but some of the schoolwork is too ________ for her to feel interested. She usually gets ‘A’ grades in all her ________, so the other students often ask her ________ help.

She finished her homework in half ________ hour after her driver takes her home. After dinner, she goes to her ________ and goes on working on her computer in the company, writing games until 2 a. m. She does not usually need so much sleep as other children.

Drones (无人机) can do a lot of things for us, taking photos, delivering things from packages to pizzas to beer and following wild animals. But they have other uses now.

Can you believe it? Drones can serve people coffee. US company IBM has made this kind of drone. It can serve coffee to sleepy people. The drone can know when to bring a cup of coffee by studying a person’s data. Then, the drone will fly to the person. There is a special device (设备) under the drone. It helps the drone to give people coffee. The drone can also learn about someone’s coffee-drinking habits and estimate when someone needs their next cup of coffee.

Drones can also save lives. One company in Africa use drones to deliver medicine and blood fast and save many people’s lives. The drones are able to fly at speeds of up to 60 miles per hour and when they are within a minute of the destination (目的地), the doctors receive a text and wait nearby. The drone drops off the package and then return to its home.

A 92-year-old hunter in Virginia was lost and had to spend a night in the woods. The police searched for him all night but failed to find him. Luckily, the drone tracked him down in 20 minutes. Also, drones helped the firefighters know about the fire in the wildfire fight.

Dragons are not real animals, but look like a combination (组合体) of many animals such as snakes, fish and deer. They have two horns and a long moustache (胡子) with fantastic powers, they fly in the sky or swim in the sea. They can make rain, too. The Chinese dragon is a symbol of strength and good luck. The emperors of ancient China loved dragons. Their clothes were covered with pictures of dragons.

We are proud to call ourselves the “descendants (传人) of the dragon”. In Chinese, “excellent” people are often called “dragons”. A number of Chinese sayings talk about dragons, for example, “Hoping one’s child will become a dragon,” which means hoping he or she will be successful.

It is said that people born in the Year of the Dragon have certain characteristics. They are creative, confident, brave and quick-tempered. There are some famous “dragons” who have done excellent things, for example, Deng Xiaoping and the famous businessman Li Jiacheng. They are all very successful.

There are also some traditional festivals which have something to do with dragons in China, such as Dragon Head-Raising Day and Dragon Boat Festival. We have different kinds of activities to celebrate them. These two festivals come every year, but the Year of the Dragon comes every twelve years.

The dragon is very important in Chinese culture. As the “descendants of the dragon”, it is necessary for us to know the views on dragons in our culture. It can help us understand why our parents always want us to be “dragons”.

It’s hard to make friends if you stay at home alone all the time. Get out of the house and do things that will put you in touch with other people.     70    

Don’t be afraid to show people what you’re really good at.     71     People will be interested in you if there is something interesting about you.

    72     It’s natural for us to get eye contact when talking with others. They’ll find it easier to talk to you, or people may think you’re not interested in them and may stop being interested in you.

Be a good listener. You need to let people talk about themselves before talking about “me, me, me”. What you should do is to ask people lots of questions and show an interest in their answers.     73    

Try to make friends with the kind of people you really like, respect, and admire—not just with those who are easy to meet. Be positive, respectful and friendly with a lot of people.     74     And you will have more chances for making friends.

Humans have always been interested in the moon.

2,000 years ago, people had already known that the moon moves around the earth and where it would be in the sky at different times of a year. In old times, everything about the moon was learned by watching it carefully at night.

When scientists could use telescopes (望远镜) to study the moon more clearly, they found the moon was made of rocks. Most scientists thought moon rocks would be different from those on the earth. This was because they believed the moon had once been a planet that was caught in the earth’s gravity millions of years ago.

In 1969, Moon rocks were finally brought to the earth and studied. Much to their surprise, scientists found that, except for water, the moon and the earth were made of the same things. Once again, new ideas were needed for this new study.

After years of study, most scientists now think that the moon was once part of the earth. They believe very early in its history, maybe 4 million years ago, something that was about the size of Mars hit the earth. This sent billions of rocks into space around our planet. These rocks slowly joined together and after many years became the moon.

Human’s steps of exploring (探索) the moon will never stop. In the future, even though our ideas about the moon may change again, we’ll still show an interest in it.