Starting from the end of 2023, all drinks sold in Singapore must put a Nutri-Grade label (标签) on the drinks, according to sugar and saturated fat levels. The more sugar and saturated fat a drink has, the less healthy it is. The label can help customers pick healthier drinks at a quick look. Here’s what the label means.

Nutri-Grade Label
	A	B	C	D
sugar (g/100ml)	≤1 and No sweetener (甜味剂)	1~5	5~10	>10
saturated fat (g/100ml)	≤0.7	0.7~1.2	1.2~2.8	>2.8
examples
	·Only Grade A and B drinks will be awarded with “Healthier Choice” label . ·If sugar level and saturated fat level are in different grades, the LOWER one will be put on.

A．

B．

C．

D．

Dragon Head-raising Day is celebrated on the second day of the second Chinese lunar month to show respect to Dragon King and wish good weather for a big harvest. It is considered the start of spring and farming.

After the cold winter, spring comes and animals are awake, but because of the winter, the weather is dry and farming needs water. The story goes that after this day, the Dragon King who controls clouds and rains would wake from his winter sleep and bring rainfall for the crops.

On that day, there are lots of traditional celebration activities. First, in the early morning when it’s still dark, families go to a river or a well with lanterns to get water and then carry it back home. Then they light candles, burn incense sticks (香柱) and offer a sacrifice (祭品). This ritual is named Yintianlong (lead the field dragon). People believe the actions can bring wealth and health to their homes.

The most well-known tradition on the day is having a haircut. It’s a sign of good luck and energy in the whole year. However, it is very bad luck to get a haircut during the first lunar month.

Eating “dragon” food is another important part of celebrations. Chinese are best at connecting certain food with luck so food eaten on this day also gets special names. Noodles which are long and thin are called “dragon beard (long xu).” Dumplings are called “dragon ears (long er).” Spring rolls are “dragon scales (long lin)”, and people call popcorn “dragon seeds (long zi)”.

Those celebration activities may be different in the south and the north, and some activities are remained to nowadays, while some are just kept in the past. But the wish for a good year ahead is the same despite the change of time or space.

A．

B．

C．

D．

Smart transportation is leading to the birth of new apps for smart cities in China. In recent years, technology companies have worked hard to speed up the use of robotaxis and Baidu is one of the pioneers.

In June 2019, Baidu started to test its driverless robotaxis in certain areas in Changsha. In 2020, its Apollo Go robotaxis, also known as “Luobo Kuaipao” in Chinese, officially began its service in certain areas in Changsha, Cangzhou and Beijing, with a safety officer sitting in the driver seat who would monitor (监视) the drive and deal with accidents. In March 2022, Beijing allowed Baidu to test fully driverless robotaxis on certain roads, which meant a further step forward. In June 2023, Baidu carried out its driverless taxi service in Shenzhen across an area of 188 km² from 7 am to 10 pm daily.

Booking a ride on Apollo Go is as simple as a few taps on your phone screen. Passengers just need to tell the app Apollo Go or Baidu Map where they are and where to go. Then, a car will appear. With sensors (传感器) and cameras all over the car, a computer takes full control of the drive. A screen on the back seat shows customers the information of the ride and how the robotaxi “looks” at the space around to see other cars, humans, and anything else that might get in its way.

“The robotaxi goes at about the same speed, providing a good riding experience,” a user posted online. By September 2023, the number of orders has reached four million. The user satisfaction rating for the Apollo Go app has reached 4. 9 out of 5 and 97.12% of the reviews are five-star ratings. So far, Apollo Go robotaxi service has covered 11 cities and by 2025, it plans to test its robotaxis in other 65 cities.

However, safety is the key in the development of driverless robotaxis. Didi and AutoX both had cases (事例) when the safety officer inside had to take over control of the drive. In the future, Apollo Go and the other companies should take more time to improve the system in order to provide comfortable and safe rides.

To this day I still remember my mom’s letters. It all started in December 1941.

Every night she sat at the table and wrote to my brother Johnny, who joined the war that summer. We hadn’t heard from him for months. I didn’t understand why mom kept writing when he never wrote back.

“Wait and see. We’ll get a letter from him one day,” she believed.

I don’t know if she said that to calm herself, dad or all of us down. But I do know that it helped us stick together, and one day a letter really arrived. Johnny was alive somewhere in the Pacific.

Whenever she finished a letter, she gave it to dad to post it. Then we sat down and talked about the good old days when we had been a family of ten: mom, dad and eight children. Now they had all moved away from home to work, serve in the army, or get married. Except me. Sometimes she needed to write three different letters at a time.

Little by little words about mom and her letters spread. One day a woman came. Her voice trembled (发抖): “Is it true you write letters?” “I write to my sons.” “And you can read too?” whispered the woman. “Sure.” The woman pulled out a pile of letters. “________________________”

The letters were from her son, a soldier in Europe. The woman’s eyes welled up with tears as mom read the letters one by one. Later mom took the pen and began to write back. She knew exactly what the woman wanted to say.

Days later the woman returned with a friend, then another one and yet another. They all had sons fighting in the war, and they all needed letters. Mom had become the correspondent (通讯员) in our town. Sometimes she would write letters all day. I saw those mothers’ faces brighten up in smiles when they posted their letters.

One day the woman came again. All hope disappeared from her eyes and mom immediately knew what had happened. They stood hand in hand for a long time without a word.

“All people were born with one purpose,” mom told me. Clearly, mom’s is to write letters. A letter unites (联结) people like nothing else. It can make them cry. It makes them laugh. It makes the world small.

Today all her letters are lost. But those who got them still cherish the memory of her letters in their hearts.