【推荐2】I’m Mike. I’m from Toronto. I study in Beijing now and my parents work in Beijing, too. My summer holidays are coming soon. My mother and I would like to take a trip to Qingdao. My mother says Qingdao is a beautiful city near the sea. So the weather is not very hot in the day. The sea food is very delicious. It’s different from ours in Canada.

It’s about 800 kilometers away from Beijing to Qingdao. We can go there by bus, by train or by plane. Planes are expensive (昂贵的). Buses are too slow. So we want to go by train. We need to take a camera, a pair of sunglasses and a tent. And we need ________. It can help us find the right ways.

We plan to stay there for four days. We will swim in the sea and visit some places of interest, I think we can enjoy ourselves.

In August 2023, the National Freestyle Roller Skating Championship was held in Zhejiang. Qin Yuqing got the first place in the competition. It was amazing for people to see Qin’s excellent performance and her special clothes. Her clothes draw inspiration from the flying apsaras (飞天女神) of Dunhuang’s Mogao Grottoes. She put dance and Chinese traditional clothes into her performance.

Born in 2004, this young girl is a fan of roller skating and Chinese traditional culture. Qin said, “I fell in love with the sport when I saw it for the first time.” So she began her roller skating journey in 2010.

She felt a special connection with roller skating. Her parents noticed her interest and encouraged Qin to learn the sport. From then on, she put herself into daily practice.

Qin also faced lots of challenges. She remembered a moment when she fell in the middle of a competition. It was really embarrassing for her. But she quickly made herself calm. “Failure is okay. What matters isn’t whether you stumble, but whether you stand up again,” she said.

Since 2015, Qin has put herself to protecting and spread Chinese culture. She hopes to show great Chinese traditional culture to more people. To make sure that the beauty of Chinese culture is properly shown in roller skating competitions, Qin has spent a lot of time and energy.

After entering university, Qin’s understanding of Chinese culture became deeper. “I want to be more than just a roller skater. My goal is to be an ambassador (大使) of Chinese culture so that I can play a part in protecting and promoting national culture,” she said.

【推荐1】Last Friday was my birthday. On that day, my friends came to my birthday party. I am not a good-looking girl. Usually I like wearing black clothes. But on that day I wore a red skirt. So I looked beautiful. After singing the birthday song, we ate the birthday cake and many kinds of food. We played games. Then someone told funny jokes (笑话). Everyone was very happy. Because my friends needed to return home before 10:00 p. m. The party was over at 9: 00 p. m. Before they left, they gave me some birthday cards with their wishes. What a great time we had! At that time, I felt love. I felt really happy that day.

I want to say to my friends, “Thank you very much.” I will not forget this birthday.

I thought today was going to be really bad. To start with, it was cloudy and grey, and cloudy days made me unhappy. And this was the day we would get our exam results back, but I didn’t answer the exam questions very well last week. That made me upset. I walked to school with my best friend Holly. She didn’t say much to me. That made me a little angry. In class, the teacher handed back our exams. That made me nervous. But I found out that I didn’t do too badly. That made me very surprised. Then things got even better. Holly bought me my favorite lemon drink and a turkey sandwich for lunch, and we talked a lot. That made me relaxed.

【推荐3】Barbara Marks, 69, is a retired(退休的）schoolteacher. When she developed early symptoms(症状）of Parkinson’s disease(帕金森氏病）in 2018, she didn’t feel safe driving without somebody else in the car. Marks also needed help with some everyday tasks. “I don’t have any family close by. My son is working. There is no way he could have helped,” she said.

In 2019, Marks saw an advertisement for Papa on social media. It is a service that allows elderly people to hire (雇用）college students for help with daily tasks. Marks decided to give it a try.

Alan Golan was paired with Marks. The 24-year-old started working full- time for Papa when he failed to find a sales job. He spends about six hours helping Marks every weekday. He earns $ 12 for the first hour and $ 10.2 per hour after that.

On a typical day, Golan helps Marks out around the house. Sometimes, he goes out with her, like driving her to the doctor’s office. He has also taught Marks how to use shortcut keys on the computer. With those skills, Ms. Marks now has a quick way to start a computer program.

“Barbara and I get along so well, ” Golan said. “We have a lot of fun chatting together. I care about her. She's like a new friend.” It might sound crazy hiring a stranger to act as a grandchild. However, these young people are a great help to old people who live alone.