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Three years ago, there was a story between my father and me which let me learn a lot. One day, my father gave me two cups, filled with sand and asked me to put them by the window and watered them every day. Two weeks later, three young leaves appeared in one of the cups. I couldn't ________ to tell the good news to my father. He asked me, “You watered ________ of them and spent the same time on them. Why do new leaves grow in one cup but nothing in the other?” I didn't have any idea. Then my father ________ that it was because he put a bean in one cup but nothing in the other. This bean means the dream in life. Without dreams, you’ll have no ________. No matter how much pain you pay, there will be no ________.

Five days later, my father gave me two pots (陶盆 ), which were also filled with ________. This time, I was asked to water only one of the pots. Ten days later, new leaves appeared ________ in the watered pot, while nothing grew in the other. My father asked me ________ it happened like this. I seemed to know the reason. We’re supposed to have dreams, but it's not enough if there are only dreams in life. We must know how to work for it and try to achieve it. There is no doubt that a ________ dream is the first step to success. Without time and effort, dreams will never ________. Remember success needs time and hard work.

Space tourism (太空旅游业) is no longer a thing of science fiction. There are lots of companies planning to send people into space in the next few years. Space X is one of the most famous companies offering trips to space. So far, it has had over 100 customers. And in April, 2022, it sent 4 people into space. Now what can space tourists do while in space? Here are some examples:

With the industry rapidly developing, space tourism is around the corner, and it might come much faster than we think. Who knows what the future might be like? Will you be the next person to travel to space?

There is a little weed (野草) that grows in a field. All around it stand tall, beautiful flowers. The weed didn’t like them in the past, for its own flowers were tiny and common.

Children like to play in the field all year round, but spring is their favorite, because they can pick beautiful flowers! They come and go, singing and laughing.

One day, two sisters came to pick flowers for their grandma! They picked many and soon almost all the flowers were gone.

“What about that one?” one said, pointing at the weed. “Forget it!” said the other. “That’s just a worthless weed!” Hearing this made the weed feel sad. “Am I really worthless?” it asked itself. “Why was I even put on this Earth?”

With all the nearby flowers gone, the little weed felt lonely. Even though it didn’t like them, it liked having them around.

The winds of autumn blew over the field, and they were soon followed by the snows of winter. The little weed stood alone in the wild.

Just then, it noticed some birds flying high above the field.

“We are hungry!” they said. “Where can we find food?”

The weed felt sorry for the poor birds and called out to them, “Down here! I have tasty seeds (种子) that you can eat!” The weed scattered (撒播) its little brown seeds across the snow.

The birds ate the seeds and thanked the weed politely. “You are so kind!” they said as they flew away.

This made the little weed very happy. It was glad to help its new friends!

From then on, the birds have often come to visit the little weed.

“I have found out what I am good for!” the weed said. “Next year, I will make more seeds, so I can feed all those hungry birds!”

So it is now happy to be a weed!

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Now, primary students learn cooking at school. It has been discussed by teachers and parents. Some think that it is a useful skill for students, while others think it’s a waste of time, some even think it’s just a show. But do they really understand cooking?

It’s been said that good cooking is an art form. The truth is that it’s much more than that. Then talking about different foods from all around the world, or cultures and histories of dishes, students are connected to the world and learning history and culture in a new field. Then learning cooking, students measure (称量) materials from time to time, or find oil and water don’t usually mix. Students are also learning maths and science in practice.

The importance of failures in making food is as much as successes. Li Mei, 11, was crazy about the yummy cakes made by her father and wanted to make one on her own. But when taking her cake out, she was frustrated (沮丧的) to find that the cake was hard and black at the bottom. Her father told her when he was 13, he tried to make cakes, but wasted boxes of eggs. Then together with father, Li Mei found out what had gone wrong and succeeded in making one. Li Mei learned in the failure of cooking, and could be braver to face failures.

Apart from the practical skills, cooking builds character. It encourages kids to work with others. It also encourages them to be open to foods they might not have tried. Though being good to our health, carrots were hated by 12-year-old Xiao Lei. But he started to love them after he made a salad with them. By cooking, students put down their phones and work together with family members in the kitchen. By cooking, students form the habit of doing labor work. As a part of labor education, cooking is a way to teach kids vital 21st century skills, such as creativity, teamwork and so on. If these skills aren’t taught to today’s students, they might hardly survive in the future.

In ancient China, there were “four treasures of the study”—the writing brush, ink, paper, and the ink stone (砚台). The ink stone was already very popular in the Han Dynasty. The Ming and Qing dynasties saw the appearance of the Four Famous Ink Stones—Duan Ink Stone, She Ink Stone, Tao Ink Stone and Chengni Ink Stone. Among all the ink stones, the Chengni ink stone was one of the most famous and was widely loved.

The Chengni ink stone first appeared during the Western Han Dynasty, but the skills of making it were lost during the late Ming Dynasty and early Qing Dynasty. Thankfully, today the traditional skills have been revived (恢复) with the help of Lin Yongmao and his son Lin Tao.

In 1984, Lin Yongmao began working at the museum in Xinjiang, Shanxi Province. There he read some books about the Xinjiang Chengni ink stone, and then decided to revive the lost skills.

It was easier said than done. It took the father and son two years to find proper materials to produce the Chengni ink stone. That was just the first step. After failing many times, they finally succeeded in making two Chengni ink stones in 1991. Three years later, their Chengni ink stones won a gold prize at an expo (博览会) on China’s famous ink stones.

But the father and son did not stop there. While improving the skills of making the Chengni ink stone, they set up a workshop in the hope of passing the skills on to young people. They also worked with universities and colleges to make the Chengni ink stone more popular. At the same time, Lin Tao has created special Chengni ink stone products and brought them to competitions at home and abroad to expand the influence of the Chengni ink stone.

Confucianism (儒家思想) has been followed by Chinese people for more than two thousand years. To help people understand how to behave towards others, Confucianism teaches the Five Constants (五常). These are ren, yi, li, zhi and xin. They are general virtues (美德) around the world. The most important two are ren and li.

Ren is the feeling of care and love we should have for others. Confucius explained ren could best be understood as loving others. He is famous for teaching people “What you do not want done to yourself, do not do to others”. It is quite similar to what is known in the West as the Golden Rule (treat others as you wish to be treated).

While the meaning of ren is easy to understand, li is a little harder to express. It can be thought of as duty or even respect. Generally, li is the way we should connect with people in our everyday life. In Confucian writings, discussions about li include the proper way to drink tea and how to remember ancestors (祖先). While ren is mostly about our opinions and feelings, li is about how we express our opinions and feelings towards others and towards the world around us.

Perhaps the most well-known Confucian virtue is xiao. This is the duty children have to their parents. Xiao means loving, respecting, obeying and taking care of one’s parents in their old age. In Confucianism, xiao is important for a harmonious (和谐的) society: Without it, the whole world would fall into a mess.

The 2024 Spring Festival box office (票房) in China has reached past 3.5 billion yuan ($492.7 million) within three days at the beginning of the holiday. After Hi, Mom, Jia Ling returned to the Spring Festival silver screen with her     61     work, YOLO. The comedy film YOLO continues     62     China’s daily box office.

It tells the story of an unemployed woman in her     63     who still lives with her parents. After     64     a boxing coach, her life is changed.     65     the film has caused an online controversy (争议) due to Jia’s weight loss, she once explained that the film was not related to weight loss. It tells how a kind person learns to love     66    .

In order to make movies, Jia Ling once gained weight and then lost weight to show a     67     different image (形象) from the past. Losing weight is     68     test for many people, which requires a lot of effort and time. Her success is not only due to her talent, but also because     69     her courage. Her achievement is quite     70    . We should learn from Jia Ling’s spirit and dare to challenge ourselves.

Hunan, a province in Central China, is the birthplace of China’s greatest thinkers, scientists and leaders.

Wei Yuan (1794-1857) was born in Shaoyang, Hunan. He was the first Chinese thinker in modern times to open his mind to the outside world. In his best-known work Haiguo Tuzhi, Wei Yuan began to look at what could be learned from western countries.

Mao Zedong(1893-1976) was born in Shaoshan, which has become one of the country’s most popular red tourism spots (景点). Mao spent his childhood in Shaoshan. He went on to join and lead the Communist Party (共产党) of China. He played a central role in the founding of the People’s Republic of China in 1949.

Yuan Longping (1930-2021) was a scientist. He began to research the rice production after graduating from college. He was the first person in the world to develop hybrid rice. And the hybrid rice increased the rice production. This helped solve the problem of worldwide hunger. Yuan and his team successfully developed technologies for producing indica rice, helping China become the world’s leading rice producer.