【推荐1】There are many holidays and festivals, such as the Spring Festival, May Day, National Day, Mid-autumn Festival and so on. Mums have Mother's Day. Dads have Father's Day. Children have Children's Day. Is there a special day for old people?

Double Ninth Festival is a special day for old people in China. It started long ago. The festival is on lunar the ninth of September. This year it is on the second of October. This day, people show love for their grandparents.

People do many different kinds of things this day. They enjoy flowers, eat special cakes and drink wine. It's very interesting. The best way to celebrate it is to climb hills or mountains.

People think that climbing will bring them good luck and help old people live long lives. Double Ninth Festival is also a good time for a family to get together. And young people give their presents and best wishes to the old.

The summer vacation is coming. During the vacation, you can do what you like and prepare yourself well for the future. You’ll enjoy your summer vacation with the help of the following suggestions.

Take exercise. After studying hard for months, you must be bored and tired. Taking exercise is the best way to get energy again. Swimming and walking are perfect choices for you. All kinds of exercise are good for your health.

Master some basic life skills. You will live an independent life one day. Therefore, you should learn some necessary and useful basic life skills such as washing clothes and cooking. At the same time you should help your parents with housework to express thanks to them.

Go travelling. The world is a book. Those who don’t travel only read one page. Travelling is so interesting. Have you made your own plan? If not, do it at once. During the trip, you will have a chance to get more knowledge. While learning about different cultures and customs, you will also make a lot of friends.

Enjoy the time with family members. Family members play an important role in your life. They give you love, care and support all the time. Don’t forget to spare some time together with them. You will find it great to stay with them, talking about dreams, hobbies or anything you like.

As long as you follow the suggestions mentioned above, you will have a wonderful vacation.

【推荐1】Almost everybody in America will spend a part of his or her life behind a shopping cart. He or she will, in a lifetime, push it many miles. But few will know—or even think to ask—who invented it.

Sylvan N. Goldman invented the shopping cart in 1937. At that time he was in the supermarket business. Every day he would see shoppers carrying the shopping baskets hard.

One day Goldman suddenly had the idea of putting baskets on wheels.The wheeled baskets would make shopping much easier for his customers, and would help increase more business.

On June 4, 1937, Goldman’s first carts were ready for use in his market. He was terribly excited on the morning of that day as customers began arriving. He couldn’t wait to see them using his invention. But Goldman was disappointed. Most shoppers gave the carts a long look, but hardly anybody would give them a try. After a while, Goldman decided to ask customers why they weren’t using his carts. “Don’t you think this arm is strong enough to carry a shopping basket?” one shopper replied. But Goldman wasn’t beaten yet. He knew his carts would be a great success as long as he didn’t give up. Later, Goldman came up with a good idea. He hired(雇佣) a group of people to push carts around his market as if they were shopping. His creative idea achieved a great success.

As Goldman had hoped, larger and larger numbers of customers came to his market after a short period. With larger, easier-to-handle baskets, customers bought a greater number of things than before.

Today’s shopping carts are five times larger than Goldman’s earliest model. Americans today spend more than five times as much money on food each year as they did in 1937—before the coming of the shopping cart. Perhaps the shopping cart is one reason.

Open your wardrobe!

Teenagers tell Teenage Magazine what’s in their wardrobes.

Sharon Choi of Central.

Sharon’s father owns several restaurants in Hong Kong.

In the wardrobe

“I’m very pleased to get this chance to tell you about my clothes. I’m crazy about them and can’t refuse the latest fashions. For important parties, I wear Jacques Fath. He’s the French designer who design for most of the princesses in Europe. His evening dresses are perfect. My day clothes are mostly DKNY and Ralph Lauren Polo Jeans. Some of my handbags cost $4,000 and some cost even more. Here, in my wardrobe, I have forty pairs of shoes and some Gucci wallets and sunglasses. I usually pay about $2,500 for a pair of shoes.”

She still needs:

“Oh, I still need a lot of clothes, don’t I? I don’t like wearing the same clothes twice.”

Carman Hung of Causeway Bay.

Carman’s family owns a bakery.

In the wardrobe

“Hi! I’m not really interested in clothes. I play tennis a lot. I’m in the Hong Kong girls’ team. I have three or four pairs of trainers and four tennis dresses. I also have three pairs of shorts but I prefer the dresses. I love wearing T-shirts and skinny tops. They’re comfortable. I have a pair of purple jeans and two pairs of trainers. I also have a purple velvet skirt for special occasions(场合).”

She still needs:

“I don’t need more clothes, do I? But, I need a new tennis racket!”

Perry Wong of Central.

Perry’s parents both work for the Star Ferry Company.

In the wardrobe

“What’s in my wardrobe? I don’t know! I hardly look. I don’t know where to buy clothes. Let’s see. Two pairs of trousers, a pair of trainers, a few pairs of socks and an old, green sweater with a hole in it.”

He still needs:

“Oh, I don’t need anything. I’ve got all the clothes I want.”

【推荐1】One can’t discuss Chinese music without mentioning the Chinese seven-string zither(七弦琴), also known as the guqin, one of the four arts of ancient China. The other three arts are go(围棋), calligraphy(书法) and painting. It first appeared over 3,000 years ago and represents China’s solo musical instrument tradition.

At first, the guqin had only five strings, representing the five elements of metal, wood, water, fire and earth. Later, in the Zhou dynasty, King Wen of Zhou added a sixth string for his son. King Wu of Zhou, added a seventh string to encourage his army to fight with the Shang.

Ambience(环境气氛) was important in playing the Chinese zither. Usually, it was practiced in a quiet setting and never for public performance. Ancient artists enjoyed performing by a stream in the mountains. The sound of the guqin mixed with the echoes(回音) from the mountains, until the musician found himself at one with nature. Playing it in snow was also a favorite pastime for ancient artists, who believed the instrument was the purest of its kind in the world. Also, a night with moonlight was considered ideal for playing the guqin.

Nowadays, there are fewer than one thousand well-trained guqin players. The original number of several thousand pieces has greatly reduced to only a hundred works by today. The guqin and its music were added to the list of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity(人类非物质文化遗产) in 2003.

In China, many public schools finish classes a few hours before the end of parents’ workday.

So parents can’t work full days or need others to help pick up their children.

To help out working parents, the Ministry of Education(教育部) wants primary and middle schools to close late to make time for working parents. Before parents pick up their children, there should be after-school activities in schools. Teachers can help students with their homework. Students can enjoy their hobbies in groups too. But students can’t have lessons after school.

In Nanjing, there are free after-school activities in all primary schools from 2017. In 2021 the schools change the time from 5:30 p. m. to 6:00 p. m. so that parents can pick up their kids. About 230, 000 children in primary schools do such activities. They are half of all primary school students in the city.

From this spring, Shanghai public schools also change their school hours from ending at 3 p. m. to 4:30 p. m. Teachers work for more hours to look after their students after school. “Teachers take turns to do the activities,” a 5th-grade teacher in Shanghai says, “and usually I look after the students every Wednesday and Friday afternoon.”

【推荐3】Scientists are not alone in the fight against the virus, as various products and apps are giving them a hand. Here are some examples.

Drones（无人机）

Drones have played a major role in disinfection（消毒）. Police officers also use them to spread the latest information. What’s more, they use drones to remind people to wear masks or warn them not to gather in large groups.

Robots

Robots are good helpers on the frontlines. They do many tasks in hospitals, including   sending medicine or meals, doing disinfection and measuring patients’ body temperature. This not only greatly reduces the burden for medical workers, but also prevents the cross-infection（交叉感染）.

Mini-programs

Different mini-programs, or apps that you don’t need to download but can use on Wechat, have also come to help. For example, you can check whether you have unknowingly travelled alongside infected patients. Community workers can collect information about people more easily with the help of mini-programs.

Health QR codes（健康码）

People in more than 100 cities can get their own health QR codes by applying through Ali pay or Wechat. This way, they don’t have to fill in information like their names, ages and living addresses over and over again when they enter public places.