The Ruler Was Broken in Two

It was the art class and the teacher had placed Henry beside me. Suddenly he jogged my elbow and made me blot (把墨水溅到) my painting, a two-week work for my little sick sister. With great anger, I said something ____ to him. “I didn’t do it purposely,” he calmly replied, which ____ me a lot.

I paid him back by pushing him to mess his work. “You did that on purpose!” Henry shouted and even raised his hand. The teacher saw it, which made Henry stop and ____ his hand back quickly. “I shall wait for you outside!” he said angrily. At that moment, I felt uneasy and ____ what I had done to him. Henry couldn’t have meant to do it. In fact, he was always so nice and I remembered him being ready to help me whenever I had difficulties. What should I do?

My father’s words rang in my ears, “If you do something wrong to someone, you should beg his pardon.” But I was just ashamed to apologize. I tried to find ____ , but the words “excuse me” stuck in my throat.

He looked at me doubtfully, more sad than angry. “We shall meet again!” he said. I agreed, trying to show him I was not afraid. I told myself I would just defend (防卫), not fight.

After school, while walking back home alone, I discovered Henry ____ me. I stopped, waiting for him, a ruler in hand.

He stepped forward. I raised my ruler.

“No, David,” with a kind smile, he waved my ruler aside. “Let’s be friends as before.” I stood still in amazement.

“We’ll have no more quarrels, will we?”

“Sure, never again!” I said in ____ , holding Henry’s hands tightly with a quick nod of my head.

Looking at the ruler in my hand, I broke it in two. I shouldn’t have raised it at Henry who was more upright (正直) than I!

The broken ruler will forever be a ____ for me not to misunderstand a friend.

What’s Your Favorite Bookstore?

Four students are talking about their favorite bookstores in the city.

11 Fuzhou Road	Foreign Language Bookstore Foreign Language Bookstore is my favorite bookstore. This three- story bookstore on Fuzhou Road has a lot of novels, textbooks, travel guides, magazines and so on. There are a large number of very cheap classics. Most of the books are in English, but I also have many good choices of Japanese, French and German books. Holly
36 Shanxi Nan Road	Book Traders Bookstore Book Traders Bookstore is my favorite place in town! It’s pretty tiny, but it’s well worth visiting! It’s a good place for book lovers to buy cheap English-language magazines. It also sells lots of secondhand books including modern novels and travel diaries. Sometimes I can get a good deal at 5 yuan! Jerry
Lane 32 Tianping Road	Mix Paper My favorite bookstore is Mix Paper. Mix Paper is a good choice! Full of popular types, the two-story store has a lot of books on art and literature. The first floor offers literature both in Chinese and in English, while the second floor homes art, design, and photography titles. Whatever I am looking for, I can find it here! Rick
25 Changle Road	Garden Books I always go to Garden Books to search for interesting books. It sells the best classics of Chinese literature in translation, and offers a wide variety of modern literature and international bestsellers. I like it best because I can find all kinds of children’s books there. Besides, the store holds talks every weekend, which is really fun! Carmen

My Dad, a Superhero

When I was only seven, my family took a road trip to San Francisco. My father was driving our family car along the highway. The rain was pouring down so heavily that each drop of rain felt as if it were going to break the windshield (挡风玻璃).

I wasn’t scared. The downpour fascinated me. However, my brother, who is only one year younger than me, was annoying me with his unfriendly hits. I tried hard to stop him but failed. I could only complain to Mom and our sister about the fighting in the backseat, but it was useless.

My father, who was driving, knew the way to stop us from fighting. So he said, “Boys, do you know that I have learned magic?”

My brother and I stopped immediately. “What?”

My father replied, “Do you want me to show you some magic?”

I felt so excited that I jumped out of my seat. Even my brother was curious about what Dad was saying. It was every child’s dream to have a superhero father.

“I have the ability to stop the rain from falling. It’s only for short periods of time, so you have to pay close attention,” he said.

I was speechless. This seemed to be an impossible trick, even for a superhero. I could only stare at him through the rearview mirror (后视镜), wondering if the magic could really stop the rain.

“Are you ready?” he asked. “Yes!” we both answered.

“Okay. Let me collect my powers.” There was a short pause. “Okay. First, I have to say the magic words ‘Abra Cadabra’. Here we go ... Abra Cadabra!”

And just like that, for one second, the rain stopped! It was a miracle! I was shocked. My dad really was a superhero. How could I not have known? For years, he must have hidden his magical weapons in the garage. I bet his old car was just a cover so that the bad guys wouldn’t know who he really was.

“Wow!” I said to my brother, who seemed to be just as amazed as I was. “Wow...” was all he could say, too.

Then our car drove under another overpass.

Sometimes the challenges of life can seem so big that it is hard to deal with them all. While some adults find comfort in talking with a friend or professional, many teens find relief (缓解) in the form of a simple journal.

Generally, journaling is to keep a diary or journal that explores thoughts and feelings about the events of your life. It allows people to gain valuable self-knowledge. It is also a good problem-solving tool. Oftentimes, one can find out a problem and come up with solutions more easily on paper. More importantly, as a stress management and self-exploration tool, journaling works best when you keep doing so, but even occasional (偶尔的) journaling can be stress-relieving.

To reduce pressure effectively, journaling can take several forms, and here are multiple choices that can work for you.

Gratitude Journal: To keep a daily gratitude journal, you can list three or more aspects of each day for which you are grateful. It helps you to focus on what you have in your life already and create a more positive mood at that moment. An added benefit is that if you are feeling down in the future, you can cheer yourself up with a few pages of the things you have to appreciate in life.

Emotional Release (释放): You may also write about your emotional responses to events that have happened throughout the day as a way of dealing with the stress. This is a great way to enlarge the positive and manage the negative things that happen in your life, increasing your positivity ratio   (比率).

Bullet Journal: You can simply keep bullet journals to record what you need to do each day, goals you have, memories you create, and other things you do not want to forget. It keeps your mind clear and helps you remember what is important to you.

The journaling method you choose can depend on your needs at the time and your personality — just do what feels right. If you already have a favorite journaling habit, by all means, keep it up! But if you are new to journaling, remember — any day is a good day to get into the habit.

A new research published in Nature Machine Intelligence suggests that teaching materials science, mechanical engineering, computer science, biology and chemistry as a combined discipline(综合学科) could help students develop the skills they need to create lifelike artificially intelligent(AI) robots as researchers.

Known as Physical AI, these robots will be designed to look and behave like humans or other animals. At the same time, they will own intelligence(智力) normally connected with biological organisms(生物有机体). These robots could in future help humans at work and in daily living, performing tasks that are dangerous for humans and helping with medicine, caregiving, security, building and industry.

However, today’s robots and biological beings exist separately and the intelligence of the two have not yet been combined. Co-lead author Professor Mirko Kovac said, “The development of robot ‘bodies’ has greatly fallen behind the development of robot ‘brains’. Unlike digital AI, which has been studied deeply in the last few decades, breathing physical intelligence into robots has remained relatively unexplored.”

The researchers say that the reason for this gap might be that no systematic educational method has yet been developed for teaching students and researchers to create robot bodies and brains combined as whole units.

This new research suggests a way of overcoming the gap by combining scientific disciplines to help future researchers create lifelike robots with abilities such as developing bodily control, autonomy and sensing at the same time.

Professor Kovac said, “We picture Physical AI robots being developed in the lab by using unusual materials and research methods. Cross-disciplinary cooperation and partnerships will be very important.”

The researchers also advise strengthening research activities in Physical AI by supporting teachers on both the institutional and community level. They suggest hiring and supporting university educators whose priority(重点) will be cross-disciplinary Physical AI research. “Creating lifelike robots has been an impossible task so far, but it could be made possible by including Physical AI in the high education system,” Kovac said.

We hope that the researchers’ work will encourage active discussion of the topic and will lead to combination of Physical AI disciplines in the educational mainstream. The researchers intend to carry out the Physical AI methodology in their research and education activities to help build human-robot ecosystems.

People in Cliff-top Village Moving to New Homes

So far, many people from poor areas have benefited from the government’s poverty relief policies (脱贫政策). As part of the nation’s poverty relief program, eighty-two families in the cliff-top village of Atuleer in Sichuan are preparing to move to new apartments. “The government has bought new furniture for each new home. Our new apartments have kitchens and toilets with running water. We only need to take clothes and quilts there,”

Mou’se Subure, a young man from Atuleer said. “We used to live in adobe (土坯) houses and have never seen such nice apartments.”

The village is at the top of a 1,400-meter cliff. Villagers used an 800-meter rattan ( 藤 ) ladders with no railings (栏杆) to reach the nearest market several kilometers away once a week to sell peppers and walnuts, and to buy necessities. The ladders were their only way to the outside world. The villagers were very poor, with an income of about 3,000 yuan per year.

Three years ago, the village caught the attention of the government. Soon the government spent one million yuan on a steel ladder with a handrail that has cut travel time to the nearest town from three hours to one. Now, a total of 84 families—most of the villagers—will settle in their new apartments 75 km away. The members of two families were so excited about their new homes that they moved on Monday, one day ahead of schedule.

In 2016, a newspaper published some photos showing students climbing rattan ladders, so more and more tourists went to see the rattan ladders. And some even tried to climb them.

After the 84 families move, Atuleer will see new tourism development. A cable car will be used to transport tourists to the village and nearby canyons (峡谷) will be developed. Some 30 better-off families will remain in the village and work in the tourist industry, running rural inns, showing tourists around and carrying bags to make money.

Shaking off poverty is not the finish line, but the starting point of a new life.