4 . Many old people in China exercise in parks, dance in squares or spend time with their grandchildren. But 65-year-old Zhao Wenying from Zhejiang, has a different life. She is a Rubik’s Cube (魔方) player.

“After 30 years of teaching, I didn’t know what to do then,” Zhao says, “The Rubik’s Cube gave me a new start.” She learned about the game from her 8-year-old granddaughter. Zhao was very interested, so she stared to learn it. At first, she learned it very slowly. She watched the lessons online and spent over four years learning it by herself.

When watching Super Brain on Jiangsu TV, Zhao fell in love with blindfolded cubesolving (蒙眼解魔方). However, it’s difficult for people in their 60 to learn it. Zhao asked a Rubik’s Cube teacher for help. Although she ran into a lot of difficulties, she never gave up. Now she keeps the world’s fastest record (记录) for blindfolded cubesolving for people over age 60.

Many people think Zhao will stop to have a rest, but she wants to pass BI level (水平) first. “You must have dreams and keep learning to make them come true through hard work,” she says.

At first, some of Zhao’s friends asked her to live an easy life and her family also worried about her health. But now they all support her after they see that the Rubik’s Cube brings happiness to her life.

5 . Jessie is the only child in her family and sometimes she felt bored at weekends. One day she wanted to do something different. It was mowing the lawn (修剪草坪) in her back yard, but her mother disagreed. “I’m fourteen years old and know how to do it,” Jessie said. “Besides, it would help Dad out, and he won’t have to worry about it over the weekend.” Mom thought for a while and then decided to let Jessie have a try. After all, she was at home and would keep an eye on her. Jessie already knew how to start the lawn mower (割草机) from watching her dad. She checked the electricity to make sure the machine could work well, and put on her old clothes and gloves. Mom watched her from the kitchen window. Jessie really knew how to mow the lawn. She was very careful around the flowers and trees. When she finished, she felt so good, but she was so hot. Mom brought her some ice tea and said, “You sure did a great job. Dad will be very surprised.” Later that day, Dad came home and said to Jessie’s mom, “You didn’t have to mow the lawn. It’s my job. But it looks great. Thanks.” “I didn’t mow it. Jessie did.” “Wow, our little girl is growing up!” Dad told Jessie what a great job she had done.

“It was fun, and I will do it again next week,” said Jessie.

The neighbor next door came by and asked Jessie if she wanted to mow his lawn and make some money. “Sure!” said Jessie. Jessie began mowing his lawn. Two other neighbors asked so, then another three. Jessie was now mowing lawns for them all and making some money. “It’s really an interesting job,” she said to herself.

6 . Wen Xionghui is a calligraphy (书法) teacher who works at Dongyuan Senior High School in Heyuan, Guangdong Province. Every Friday afternoon, he travels to rural (农村的) areas in Heyuan to teach students calligraphy.

Wen started working as a volunteer calligraphy teacher in rural schools in 2014. For the past few years, he has taught in several schools. “It takes me at least 1.5 hours to reach the nearest school by bus, and over 3 hours to get to the farthest school,” Wen says. The journey is harder if there’s bad weather, but Wen has never missed a class. “I’m glad when I see students make progress. I feel tired but happy,” he adds.

Most of Wen’s students are left-behind children (留守儿童). Wen says that although rural children start to learn calligraphy later than children in cities, this doesn’t mean that they aren’t excellent students. In fact, he always finds students with a talent for art in rural schools, and some have become quite skilled because they keep practicing.

Wen not only teaches students calligraphy in rural areas, but also spreads a love of traditional art and culture. “Teaching art is really meaningful in rural areas because there aren’t enough art teachers there,” Wen says.

Li Zhihong, an expert in calligraphy, thinks that Wen has set a good example for his students. “He has taught them that learning calligraphy requires perseverance (毅力), just as what he has worked hard with for years,” Li says.

7 . Peter is an 8-year-old boy. After he does his English homework, he wants to play soccer with his dad, but his dad isn’t at home. He is working in the hospital (医院). He wants his mom to teach him to sing, but she is cooking (做饭). Peter walks into his grandma’s room. He sees his grandma playing with her dog Coco. Peter doesn’t like Coco. So he walks into his sister’s room. He sees his sister eating oranges. He says, “Gina, I ask you some math questions. If (如果) you can answer (回答), you eat an orange. If you can’t, I eat one. ”

“OK!” says 3-year-old Gina.

“What’s 5 and 6?” asks Peter.

Gina shakes her head (摇头). Peter eats an orange.

“What’s 10 and 10? ” ____▲____ Peter eats an orange again (又).

There is no orange on the table. Gina cries (哭了).

8 . In April this year, lots of bags full of small change (零钱) were seen at bus stops in Tianjin. They were made for passengers to turn their notes into small change. And such an idea came from four students from Zhongbei Middle School, Tianjin.

“People will surely feel worried when they take a bus without coins. We just want to do something to help them,” said Wang Yongcun, 15, one of the four students.

The four boys spent their whole weekend making the change bags. After that they went to see the number of the passengers at each bus stop near their school, and then chose the top six stops to put the bags,

Many people think that the four boys have really done a good job. But, things didn’t go as the boys thought. Two days later, they found that the money was gone, and that even the bags were taken. It really made them sad but they would not give up. Their classmates and teachers came to help them in time.

They put their pocket money in bags, again. And the teachers also taught them to make better change bags. They tried their best to do it.

The four boys feel very happy because they have done something good for the passengers. Their warm hearts are moving. More and more people are beginning to join in the activity.

9 . Basketball is a young game. In the year of 1891, a famous college was having some trouble with its boy students. When the weather was bad, they couldn’t play outside. So they were unhappy. Sometimes they even got into fights.

Finaily, some teachers asked Dr. Naismith to invent a game so that the students might have something to play indoors.

Dr. Naismnith thought for a few days and invented a kind of ball game. It was an exciting game with much moving and passing of the ball. It was played between two teams.

In order to make a score, the ball had to be thrown into a basket ten feet above the floor on the wall.

At first, Dr. Naismith had planned to have the ball thrown into a box. As he couldn’t find boxes of the right size, he had to use a fruit basket instead. That is how the game got its name basketball. The history of this game is over 100 years.

10 . I’m Thomas. I have three good friends in my class. We all like sports very much. My favorite (最喜欢的) sport is basketball. I have three balls. I think playing basketball is fun. Jim and Tim think it is boring to play basketball. Their favorite sport is soccer. They play soccer in the afternoon. They have four balls. Mary is a nice girl. Her favorite sport is volleyball. She plays it very well. It’s relaxing for her to play volleyball. But she has only one ball.

Sports are good for us.