【推荐1】National medals and honorary titles (荣誉称号) are usually awarded every five years. As a part of the celebration of the 70th anniversary (周年) of the founding of the People’s Republic of China (PRC), 42 people are awarded the Medal of the Republic, the Friendship Medal and national honorary titles. They come from different backgrounds, including scientists, lawmakers, educators, artists, model workers and six non-Chinese people. All have made big contributions to the nation’s construction and development. Here are some of the people well know.

Chinese scientist Tu Youyou is one of the eight who were awarded the Medal of the Republic. Tu, who won the 2015 Nobel Prize for her discovery of the malaria drug artemisinin (抗疟药物青蒿素), is the first Chinese citizen to win a Nobel Prize in Physiology or Medicine. She has saved millions of lives worldwide. She has also made important scientific innovations (创新) in traditional Chinese medicine.

Nan Rendong, before his death in 2017, led the research and development of China’s Five-hundred-meter Aperture Spherical Telescope (FAST, 500米口径球面斑电望远镜) , the world’s largest radio telescope. He worked on the project for more than 20 years. His contributions to Chinese astronomy earned him the title, “the people’s scientist”.

Thanks to the great efforts made by these great people, we can live in a peaceful country.

Zu Chongzhi (429-500) was a famous mathematician and astronomer in the Southern and Northern Dynasties. From an early age, Zu was smart and fond of learning. He was taught natural science, astronomy, maths and so on. The little boy was interested in all of these subjects, especially in maths, and later became a world-famous scientist.

Zu was best known for his calculation of pi (π). He worked out an accurate value (精确值) of pi around 1,500 years ago. After calculating more than 1,000 times, he worked out the value of pi, which is between 3.1415926 and 3.1415927. No one at that time was able to do better than him. It was about 1,000 years ahead of Europe.

Zu was not only good at maths, but also astronomy. He worked out that a year should be 365.24281481 days long and created the Daming Calendar, the best at that time. It is said that Zu was also an inventor. He once made a vehicle (车辆) that carried a pointer (指针). No matter how the vehicle turned, the pointer always pointed to the south. He also invented a long-distance boat. It was really great and it could travel over 50 kilometers a day.

In memory of this great ancient scientist, Tsu Chung Chi (祖冲之环形山) is named after him on the moon.

【推荐3】“Please don’t travel to Wuhan unless it’s absolutely necessary,” Zhong Nanshan, a famous respiratory (呼吸科的) expert, reminded the public when the novel coronavirus first hit Wuhan. But despite the danger, he, 84, rushed on an overnight train to Wuhan to fight the disease.

Zhong Nanshan is known as the hero who defeated SARS in 2003. His image and messages are flooding ( 遍 布 ) social media. Many people say they “trust every word of Zhong”. He has given Chinese people confidence in winning the battle.

A great doctor and honest scholar (学者)

Growing up in a family of doctors, Zhong lives by a simple motto (信条): save lives and always be honest. In 2003, when SARS hit China, he volunteered to treat patients and asked his colleagues ( 同 事 ) to send their most serious cases to him. After months of work, his treatment plan for SARS was adopted ( 采 纳 ) by China and then the whole world, saving thousands of lives, People’s Daily reported.

Zhong is also known for being an honest scholar. In 2003, when authorities (官方) said that the SARS virus was under control, he publicly refuted their claim. “I couldn’t help myself. I said it’s not all under control,” Zhong said in a later interview. His honesty won widespread praise from the Chinese public.

Back to the frontlines

Seventeen years later, Zhong is once again leading an expert team to study the novel coronavirus. Although this new virus is known to be more dangerous to the elderly, Zhong doesn’t seem worried about his own safety.

On January 18, he took a high-speed train from Guangzhou to Wuhan. Two days later, he became the first expert to make certain that the new virus can be spread between humans. On January 29, he and his colleagues spent over four hours online checking five patients who were in serious condition. The next day, he chose the treatment for those patients. Under his guidance, his team developed a rapid test kit (快速检测试剂盒) for the disease that can show results within 15 minutes.

As People’s Daily wrote, “the 84-year-old Zhong Nanshan shows his professionalism as a scholar, courage as a soldier, and a sense of duty as the backbone (脊梁) of our nation.”

【推荐1】My friend Peter has got a restaurant in a big city. It is near a supermarket. He gets ten robots for the restaurant. He bought them from a foreign company（公司）in America when he decided to open a restaurant last month. The price of each robot is 20,000 yuan. The restaurant is not big, but very popular in that city. Now more and more people come here for dinner.

The robots have different jobs in the restaurant. Two robots cook different kinds of food; one washes the dishes; one cleans the floor and the others give food to the guests. Although all the staff（员工）are robots, it is not expensive to eat in this restaurant. Because Peter doesn’t need to pay for the robots every month!

Robots do most of the jobs in the restaurant, but Peter is still very busy. He must do many things to keep the robots working well. Luckily, Peter is good at studying robots and he knows robots very well. I think in the future, there will be a lot of robot-themed restaurants（机器人主题餐厅）around the world.

【推荐3】On Friday afternoon, Mr Tian, the Chinese teacher asks his students to write an article（文章）. The topic（主题）is My Beautiful Mother. Mr Tian says to the students，“You can go home after you finish it. ” All the students except（除了）Xiao Hong begin to write. They want to go home early. Xiao Hong is sitting there and thinks of her activities on weekends. She usually plays basketball on Monday afternoon if it is sunny. She plays volleyball on Tuesday afternoon. On Wednesday she plays tennis. She often plays ping-pong on Thursday. And she likes playing soccer on Friday afternoon.

She raises her head and looks around. There are only five students except her in the classroom. Forty students hand in（上交）their articles and leave for home. She is a little worried.

She thinks it over, and then, she has a good idea. She writes down the words on the paper: My mother is a tall and healthy woman. She is really beautiful. If you look at her daughter, you can know all about her.