These years, people show all kinds of things on the Internet—good food, nice clothes, wonderful vacations and so on. Now showing the number of steps is becoming popular.

People are finding it important to be in good health. To keep healthy, many people go to work on foot. When they start walking, they open the counter app on their phone to record (记录) how many steps they walk. After a day’s walk, some people show the number on WeChat or Sina. We can make them learn from each other and keep exercising.

“This helps me to exercise much and develop a good habit,” Miss Liu said. “I can also talk about how to keep healthy with my friends on WeChat. We are in the same group to encourage (鼓励) each other to keep exercising.”

Mr. Wu likes to exercise. But in the past he was kind of lazy and didn’t want to exercise every day. “After I use the step counter app, everything is different. It’s great to exercise with my friends. Sometimes there are prizes for those who walk more steps. I really like it,” he said.

Walking is a relaxing and useful way to exercise. Both the old and the young like it. Recording the steps helps people develop a good habit of walking. The number can make people more interested in walking. But don’t take the number too seriously.

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The Lion took them on his back to jump across the ditch (沟), he was tired after his five big jumps. Later in the afternoon they came to a wide river. They could see a beautiful county on the other side of it. There were green fields and a lot of flowers. They could also see the yellow brick (砖) road.

“How can we cross the river?” Dorothy asked. “There isn’t a tree tall enough to fall across this river.”

“Easy!” the Scarecrow (稻草人) said. “The Tin Woodman (锡木人) will use his axe (斧头) to build a raft (木筏).”

And this is what the Tin Woodman did. And while he was busy making the raft, Dorothy found some wild fruit and nuts, she ate hungrily. Then, because it was taking the Tin Woodman a long time to finish the raft, Dorothy lay down and went to sleep.

The night passed without any problems, and the next morning the raft was ready. They all got on the raft. The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow had very long poles (杆子). They pushed their poles into the mud (淤泥) at the bottom of the river and the raft moved. But the water was flowing (流动) very fast. It took them down the river and far from the yellow brick road on the other side. The Tin Woodman and the Scarecrow couldn’t touch the bottom with their poles any more.

“This is very bad,” the Tin Woodman said. “We’re going towards the land of the Wicked Witch of the West” “We must go back and find the yellow brick road”, the Scarecrow said. He pushed his pole very hard into the mud but it got stuck. He couldn’t pull it out again! The raft moved away and he was still holding his pole in the middle of the river.

“Goodbye!” Scarecrow shouted to the others. They looked at him sadly. They don’t want to leave him there. “We must rescue (营救) him,” the Lion said. “I have an idea! Hold my tail, Woodman!”…

—from The Wonderful Wizard of OZ (绿野仙踪)

Did you remember the first space lecture (讲课)? It’s amazing that three astronauts from the Shenzhou XIII crew—Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu hosted the lecture.

At 00: 23     32     October 16th, 2021, the Shenzhou XIII spacecraft rose into the space. As People’s Daily reported, it takes all the Chinese astronauts hundreds or even thousands of hours of flight time     33     they are able to work in space. They also receive hundreds of classes to     34     space travel.

The 41-year-old Wang Yaping was the first woman astronaut to enter Tiangong     35    . Wang’s space dream started in 2003, when China     36     its first astronaut Yang Liwei into space. After having safe flights for 16,000 hours over nine years, Wang was a strong one to become an astronaut in 2010.

She pushed herself hard, getting     37     training as men. “The space environment is the same for both men and women,” Wang said. One of the most tiring exercise is the underwater. She had to wear a 200-kilogram suit and do tasks in 10-meter-deep water     38     eating or going to toilet.

    39    , her strong mind made her dream come true in 2013. She joined the team for the Shenzhou X mission. Wang said that as astronauts, women may be     40     and can better do with loneliness. She carries the spirit of every young woman who     41     something big. And She hopes that more and more students will be able to explore the space in the future.

Do you like the song Trouble is a Friend? Trouble will find you no matter where you go. No matter if you are fast, no matter if you’re slow. Troubles, problems or worries are normal in our daily life. Students these days often have a lot of worries with their schoolwork or friends? What can they do about this? Should they keep them to     42     (they) or talk to people? Vince, a teenager from London gives us the answer.

Vince once had problems with his studies. He often made     43     (care) mistakes in his homework. And he thought it was difficult for him to understand the teacher in class most of the time. As a result, his grades     44     (become) the worst in his class and he lost interest in studies. He was worried, but he was afraid to talk to his parents. He just kept thinking, “If I tell my parents, they     45     (be) angry!” But in the end, he had to talk to his parents because his teacher told him to ask their parents to school. To his surprise, they were really     46     (understand). They helped him to find better ways     47     (improve) his studies. Also, they spent more time discussing the problems together. Later, he became better and better, and he did a good job in his grades. “I think talking to someone helps a lot.     48     I talk to someone, I will certainly feel worse. I will remember to share my problems in the future!” Vince says.

Robert Hunt agrees     49     Vince. “It is best not to run away from our problems. We should always try to solve them.” He thinks     50     first step is to find someone you trust to talk to. This person doesn’t need to be an expert like himself. In English, we say that     51     (share) a problems is cutting it in half. So you’re halfway to solving a problem just by talking to someone about it!

Chinese New Year

On December 22nd, 2023, Chinese New Year, or Spring Festival, has been officially listed as a UN floating holiday (联合国假日) in its calendar of conferences and meetings as from 2024. Chinese New Year not only bears the ideas of the Chinese civilization (文明) of peace and harmony (和谐) but also carries the common values of humans.

Many countries list the Spring Festival as a national holiday. Every year, about 1.5 billion people celebrate (庆祝) this festival in the world, mainly in east Asian countries like China, Japan and Singapore.

How do people around the world celebrate Chinese New Year? People celebrate it differently in different countries. For example, people usually have a 2-day holiday in Singapore. They visit friends with 2 oranges as a gift. That is to show “good things come in pairs”. People in Japan buy each other a “lucky bag”. They believe the bag will bring good luck in the coming year. In China, people usually do many fun things before the festival, such as going shopping, cleaning houses and so on. People usually put spring couplets (春联) and on both sides of the front door.

On New Year’s eve, families get together to have a big dinner with traditional food, like dumplings, fish, rice cakes and so on. Dumplings are the most traditional food for Spring Festival. They carries people’s best wishes to their families they love. On Chinese New Year’s Day, people always play firecrackers (鞭炮) to keep off evil spirits (年兽). And parents take their children to visit their relatives (亲人) to say “Happy Chinese New Year!”. Grandparents and parents always give children lucky money to wish them health and happiness.

How do people decide the date of Chinese New Year? In China, it usually starts between January and February, lasts for 15 days, and ends on the day of the Lantern Festivals (元宵节).

Chinese New Year is the most important festival for Chinese people. It means reunion. How will you spend it this year? Will you make dumplings?