“If I leave Shanghai, I’m afraid I’ll never find another hairdresser (理发师) as good as him”, said one of Li Menghua’s customers.

Li was born in Zhoukou, Henan Province. He began learning to be a hairdresser at the age of 14. Two years later, he came to Shanghai. The city, he believed, would offer him better opportunities. Later, after a trip to Thailand, Li decided to study English. He then started learning with English movies and TV series (电视剧).

Later, Li worked at two hair salons (发廊) owned by foreigners. One was run by an Italian and the other by a Russian. At the salons, he practiced both his language and hairdressing skills.

In 2019, Li and his partner opened Martin & Jin in downtown Shanghai. Although the salon was small, it attracted a growing number of foreign customers. Li later moved the salon to Laowaijie in the Minhang District. Business has been good at the new location as well.

Today, more than 90 percent of Li’s customers are foreigners. “Their hair is very different from ours,” he said. He often travels to Hong Kong to buy imported hair products. He also listens to his customers’ needs. Some Muslim (穆斯林的) women, for example, don’t want their hair to be seen by others. He even has a special room for them.

In addition, Li often lends a hand when his customers need help in their lives. “I’ve become good friends with many of my customers. Working with them has broadened my mind,” said the hairdresser. “I can accept new things easily and have new dreams.”

China sent a new X-ray astronomical satellite in space, Einstein Probe, on Jan. 9, 2024.

According to Yuan Weimin, a researcher of the satellite project, the satellite is expected to find the first light from supernova explosions (超新星爆炸) in the universe, monitor high-energy transient (瞬态) objects in the universe, which are now poorly understood by scientists.

When developing the satellite, a new generation of detection equipment (探测设备) with large fields of view and high sensitivity (灵敏度) was needed. But the important question was how to make such equipment.

Lobsters (龙虾) are a kind of sea animal which can be found around the world. Scientists discovered early on that lobsters’ eyes are different from other animals’. Lobsters’ eyes are made up of lots of tiny square tubes, pointing to the same center, which allows light from all directions to reflect in the tubes and meet on the retina (视网膜), which gives lobsters a large field of view. Scientists then simulated (模仿) the lobsters’ eyes to create a telescope to catch X-rays in space.

Through working together with other organizations, the X-ray Imaging Laboratory began the research and development work on lobster-eye X-ray imaging technology in 2010 and finally made a breakthrough.

“Thanks to the lobster-eye telescope technology, the Einstein Probe is able to monitor the poorly known soft X-ray band with a large field of view and high sensitivity,” Yuan said.

Global e-waste reached fifty million tons in 2019. Only 17.4 percent of it was recycled. Many old electronics were burned or ended up in landfills (垃圾填埋场). The problem keeps getting worse. Do you have a broken computer mouse or an old e-reader in your drawer (抽屉)?     17    

Try to use your devices (设备) longer.

Ask yourself if you truly need an upgrade (升级). Consider using a device a little longer.     18     Turn your old e-reader into a digital clock, for example.

Pass your devices on.

Ask family members, friends and neighbors if they have any use for your old devices. Don’t let these devices just sleep in a drawer.

Try repairing old devices.

Repairing old devices is always a good choice. The website iFixit (www. ifixit. com) is a good place to start. It has more than 90,000 step-by-step repair instructions for phones, computers and cameras. You can also find many useful repair videos on sites like Bilibili. If you’re worried about doing it yourself, you can find a good local repair shop by reading online reviews.

    19    

Check if the manufacturer has a recycling plan. Most major manufacturers, including Apple, recycle old devices. They even take old Lightning cables if you’re switching to USB-C.

Sell old devices.

You can make some money by selling old devices.     20     Of course, you can always ask for a better price if you clean and repair them first.

Hank, a two-year-old white cat, is now a homebody (恋家的动物)—and for good reason. The one time he got out of his yard, he got stuck in an 18-meter-tall tree for five days and four nights with no food or water.

Hank’s big ________ started on November 6, 2021. His 75-year-old owner, Delores Bushong, had just returned from the market when she realized Hank hadn’t come in for lunch. She kept calling his name. As it grew dark, she began to ________. Then she heard mewling (呜咽声) , looked up, and saw Hank in a tree. How did he get there? And how was she going to get him down? Bushong felt ________, but her neighbors soon showed her that she wasn’t alone.

The tree belonged to Bushong’s next-door neighbor Ed Baptiste. Baptiste let the old woman sit in his yard and call Hank. Another neighbor ________ a can of sardines (沙丁鱼) . She hoped it would attract the hungry cat to come down. A third neighbor borrowed a ladder (梯子) from his factory. ________, the ladder was too short to reach the cat.

None of these kind ________ worked, however. The turning point didn’t come until day five. That was when another neighbor, Lydia Krassensky, ________ how her sister had once gotten her cat down from a tree. Together, she and the other neighbors created a pulley (滑轮) system. Then, they raised a basket with some of Bushong’s personal items. Hank was attracted by the familiar ________ and jumped into the basket. Finally, the neighbors slowly lowered him.

Bushong was thankful for her kind neighbors. “I can’t ________ how many people went out of their way to help me with this cat,” she said. “I feel ________ to be living in such a neighborhood.”

The Horse-Face Skirt

Have you heard of the horse-face skirt? This Chinese skirt dates back to the Song Dynasty (960-1279). The skirt has folds on both     31     (side). The two smooth panels (饰片) in the front overlap (交叠) each other, and so do the two smooth panels in the back. These overlaps leave openings in the front and back of the skirt.

In 2022, French fashion brand Dior     32     (copy) the design of the skirt. Many hanfu lovers began to spread the knowledge of the skirt. This helped more people learn about     33     (tradition) Chinese clothes. “For us, wearing the skirt is not just for fashion,” said Mao, one of the hanfu lovers. “It also shows our love for Chinese culture.” Mao said     34     (proud).

Recently, more attention     35     (give) to the skirt. Many famous Chinese people have worn it to international events.     36     during this past Spring Festival, lots of young people wore the skirt when they went on trips.

People in other countries like this skirt, too. Chinese clothing companies have gotten a lot of orders for it from abroad.     37     report studied how popular the skirt was among foreign users of Chinese short video platforms. What did the report find? Last year, users from more than 90 countries and regions shared content about the skirt! This is a good example of Chinese culture going global (走向世界). And it is also a good way     38     (spread) Chinese culture.

Besides the skirt, “new Chinese-style clothes” is also a hot topic. These clothes add traditional Chinese elements (元素)     39     modern designs. They have won the hearts of many. All this shows that we are becoming much     40     (confident) in our own culture.

Imagine you are a great basketball player. You are returning home after a big game. As you enter the airport, you are suddenly stopped by many strangers. Some of them are taking pictures of you. “We’re your fans!” one shouts. “We love you!” How do you feel now?

Chinese basketball player Yang Shuyu (杨舒予) recently found herself in this situation (处境). So did table tennis player Wang Chuqin (王楚钦) and some other athletes. None of them welcomed the sudden attention. “Don’t meet me at the airport. I don’t like that. Meet me at the stadium. Thank you,” Yang said.

Many of us have favorite athletes. We get excited when they have a great performance. But some people have gone too far. These “superfans” think about their heroes all the time: What are they doing now? Where are they going next? Why do they look tired today?

Are you one of these “superfans”? If so, you may ask yourself two questions. First, why do you love this person? Some so-called “fans” only care about the looks of their heroes. They know little about their careers (职业). In a recent diving (跳水) competition, Quan Hongchan (全红婵) won the silver (银牌). During the interview, one of her fans shouted angrily from the stands (看台), “The judges were unfair! They gave Quan a low score on purpose (故意地)!” In sports, nobody can win them all. But that person didn’t seem to know that.

The other question is: How do your heroes influence you? A middle school student once wrote to us about his hero, Kobe Bryant. The boy decided to work harder in school after learning how hard the basketball player had worked. If you love your heroes, do not wait for them at the airport. Instead, try to make improvements along with them.

45. 学校英语校报准备出一版专栏，主题是“How to Choose your most Suitable Sport”。请你用英语写一篇稿件，谈谈你的看法。开头已给出，不计入总词数。要点如下：

How to Choose your most Suitable Sport

As teenagers, we need to do sports.

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