As a country with a history of more than 5, 000 years, China is the home of tea. Last summer, I took a trip to Huangshan Mountain in Anhui, China, with my parents. I will never ________ the Chinese tea culture there.

On a sunny afternoon, we arrived at the foot of the mountain, tired but ________ . After a short rest, the ________ took us to a big farm where we learned about tea processing (加工).

We were told that Shen Nong found out ________ as a drink in ancient times. In the evening, we paid a visit to a tea house. We watched a tea art show and drank the ________ green tea. We saw a young woman in a traditional Chinese dress who showed us ________ a cup of tea is made with tea sets. We really enjoyed it and ________ ourselves when we were listening to pieces of traditional folk music. There is no doubt that the ________ are the ones who best understand the nature of tea.

Time went so fast there. I learned a lot about tea culture ________. Through this journey, I have developed a better understanding of the country. I am ________ to the next trip to China.

Bringing chess to all

Can middle school students be “teachers”? How will they teach? Li Ziqi, a 13-year-old boy from Chengdu Xichuan Middle School, Sichuan, volunteered to teach primary school students in a village.

Li joined a teaching activity in Xichang county, Sichuan, last summer. “I read the news that teachers were not enough in the village, so I wanted to give some classes to the kids there,” said Li. His teacher introduced him to the school.

“My third-grade students have subjects like Chinese and English every day, so I wanted to teach them chess,” Li said.

Li carefully gave 10 chess lessons with rules and real games. “Chess can help with kids’ logical (逻辑的) thinking. They love the chess classes very much,” said Li. “They now know that there are many ways of learning, not just learning from books. I feel so proud!”

Doing research at the poles

On Sept 5, China’s 13th scientific expedition (考察) to the Arctic

Ocean reached the North Pole region (北极点区域). You may want to know: What’s the difference between doing research in the Arctic and Antarctica (南极)?

Research in the Arctic is more difficult than in Antarctica.

Antarctica is mainly land. So scientists can set up research stations on the land. However, the Arctic is mainly an ocean. Scientists can only set up drifting (流动的) stations or stations on boats in the Arctic.

There are also other differences between the two poles.

The Arctic is at the north end of Earth. Canada, Norway, Russia and five other countries have land there. Antarctica is at the south end of Earth. There are no countries there. People from all countries and regions can go there.

They are both cold, but Antarctica is colder. The winds at the South Pole are very strong. They blow away the winds from warmer places. But winds at the North Pole are not that strong. They mix with air from warmer places.

In 1972, Richard Sears, a young American began learning Chinese because of his interest in traditional Chinese culture. He was drawn to the ancient language so much that he went to China to study Chinese in the 1990s.

In 1994, Richard Sears decided to put the ancient Chinese characters online. Then, in 2002, he did it. That is the beginning of the Chinese Etymology (汉字字源) website. “My website did not get much attention during the first few years. Until one day in 2011, it suddenly got a lot of attention. I got a few thousand emails, and a few million visitors and people started calling me ‘Uncle Hanzi’,” Sears said with a smile. Hanzi means Chinese characters. He has put more than 96, 000 ancient Chinese characters onto the website. “When I study each character, I wonder what the ancient Chinese thought,” said Sears.

After visiting many Chinese cities, Sears learned more about China and ancient Chinese culture. He said when he came to China in the last century, few Chinese could speak good English. “However, you can hear English in many places in China now. Chinese language and culture were mysterious and not known by people in most countries then, but now, more and more people in the world are learning Chinese, even Chinese history, traditional Chinese medicine and so on,” Sears added.

Now, the 74-year-old American has made his home in China. “I believe my website will live on after I die, and I’m planning to write a book about my research. This will be my gift to China,” he said.

On October 12, 2022, the students from all over the country had the third live class from China’s space station. Shenzhou-14 members Chen Dong, Liu Yang and Cai Xuzhe gave the class to the students on the earth.

The astronauts did several experiments in the spaceship to show what happened in space microgravity (微重力). Liu Yang tried drinking mango juice with a two-meter straw (吸管) and she made it! Another experiment showed that a water ball became “lazy” after a small steel ball was put inside it…The astronauts also invited the students to do the experiments on the earth. The students found the differences between space and the earth. “How interesting!” they said.   

The astronauts also answered questions from the students like “how to become an astronaut” and “what kinds of plants they will grow in space in the future”.

It was the first science class from the Wentian lab module and the third “Tiangong Class”. The first and second were given by the Shenzhou-13 members in the station Tianhe core module. The classes made a lot of young people love space science.

Do you ever find yourself standing in front of rubbish bins, not sure whether the piece of waste in your hand is recyclable or not? To s    56     this problem, four Hong Kong high school students have i    57     a smart rubbish bin that uses AI to sort (分类).

Connected to a computer, the bin uses a camera to tell the kind of the waste it receives and sorts it into plastic, paper, or o    58     kinds. To make sure the bin can sort waste correctly, the team tested every product in the school shop and t    59     at least 500 pictures of each one, so the AI system has a better rate of accuracy (精准度).

The i    60     of the smart bin was born two years ago, when the students were in Grade Ten. At that time, people from the city crowded into their village because of the COVID-19. They left behind a lot of rubbish and c    61     more pollution. “All the bins were full, and there was even rubbish on the mountain. We had to pick up the waste every weekend, “the students recalled.

The students decided to develop a special recycling bin that would encourage people to protect the e    62    . They worked hard. The team would continue to work on their invention until 6 or 7 p. m. at school, a    63     school ended at 2 p. m. From time to time, they met and worked together online.

“Our bin is now in its third generation (代). Before graduation, we h    64     it can be widely used in the city,” The students said. “Then it will be e    65     than ever for people to recycle waste.”

66. 为了进一步增强中学生的安全意识，提高自我保护能力，学校即将开展以“安全”为主题的英语演讲比赛。请根据以下要点提示写一篇演讲稿。

As students, we should always keep safety in mind. But how can we keep safe?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

That’s all.

Thank you.