2 . Gui Haichao is not only an astronaut but also a teacher of a university. On May 30th 2023, he took the Shenzhou-16 Spacecraft with Jing Haipeng, Zhu Yangzhu and flew to space. They will work in Tiangong Space Station for about five months.

Gui was born in a village in Yunnan in 1986. His interest in space began at the age of 17 when he got the news of Yang Liwei’s trip to space on the radio. The news inspired (激励) him. At that time, he dreamed of being an astronaut like Yang. Gui trained hard for his dream.

In his free time, he likes doing some sports, such as running, riding bikes and swimming. He also enjoys keeping a diary and calligraphy (书法). He often writes something before going to bed.

In the eyes of his students, Gui is hardworking. “During his training, he keeps reading our essays (论文). Sometimes during dinner time, he would call me to give advice on my essays. He is really a helpful teacher and I like him.” one of his students says. Gui is also popular with his coworkers. “He is always out-going and we never see him worry about anything.” his coworkers say.

Gui sets a good example for everyone. It is said that some teachers often tell their students about Gui’s story. They encourage them to dream big and study hard.

4 . 74-year-old Yang Weiyun doesn’t sing, dance or sell things on Douyin. She teaches pinyin. And many of her students are adults (成年人).

Yang worked as a Chinese teacher in a primary school for 30 years. Later, she went to work in a kindergarten (幼儿园) and she worked there for 20 years. Several years ago she left the kindergarten. However, she still wanted to do something meaningful. So in May 2021, she began to teach kindergarten kids pinyin on Douyin.

However, she found that many of her students online were adults. Because they are illiterate (不识字的), they feel inferior (自卑的). They feel they are not as good as the others. They are afraid to go to new places and worried that they can’t teach their children. So Yang added special classes to meet their needs.

There are over 37,000,000 illiterate adults in our country. Yang offers an easy and private (个别教授的) way for them to learn to read and write. Now she has about 350,000 students online.

Zhang Mei is one of Yang’s students. She grew up in the countryside and had never been to school. She moved to the city years ago. However, illiteracy made her life very hard. She couldn’t find a job. After taking Yang’s classes, she can read pinyin and knows how to write her name. She has also found a job.

Giving classes online is not an easy thing for Yang, but she tries her best to make her students learn in an easy and interesting way.

What a great teacher!

5 . Long long ago, there was a young man who made his living by making tofu. One day, the tofu was not sold out. In order to keep the tofu fresh, he cut the tofu into pieces and mixed some flavor (香料) in. Then he put it into a crock (瓦罐). A few days later, he opened the crock and found that the smell was terrible. Then he tasted a piece. To his surprise, the taste was nice. An idea came into his mind-maybe his smelly tofu (臭豆腐) would be a kind of special food. As expected, the smelly tofu became popular with local people. Soon it was well-known all over the whole nation.

Now smelly tofu is the most special food in Hunan. And it is recommended (推荐) to all the people around the world.

6 . Li Qiang and Li Gang are brothers. But their living habits (习惯) are quite different. Now let’s go to Li Qiang’s room. Li Qiang cleans his bedroom every day and puts everything in the right place. Look! There is a computer on the desk. There are two balls under the bed. A guitar and a kite are on the wall. Some books are on the shelf. So he must be a careful boy. Now let’s go to Li Gang’s room. The room is in a mess. Can you see his clothes on the desk? Oh, yes. We can see a fork (叉子) and a knife on the desk, too. Li Gang never does any cleaning on weekends. So his room is in such a mess.

What do you think of Li Qiang and Li Gang? Li Qiang is a good boy. Li Gang should (应当) learn from his brother.

7 . Mr. Robin (知更鸟) had his house in a tree. His four baby robins lived in it. They grew very fast. Soon the house was too little for them. “It is time for you to fly,” said Mr. Robin.

“Oh, we can not fly,” said the baby robins.

“You can, if you try,” said Mr. Robin.

A robin tried. He flew into a tree.

“Oh, how interesting!” said the little robin. “I like to fly. See me go!”

Then the other robins tried.

In a little while they could all fly.

The robins could fly, but they could not sing.

“No, Dad, we can not sing.”

“You can, if you try. Hear the other birds sing. Look at the pretty flowers and the blue sky. Then you will want to sing. Hear me sing to you. Now sing for me.”

One little robin sang.

Then they all sang.

A little girl came by. “Wow, hear the birds sing!” she said. “How happy they are!”

8 . When I first come to America, I live with a family. In the family there are Mr. Brown, Mrs. Brown and three little kids. They go to the school close to their house. I help them do some housework for 15 hours from Monday to Friday. I get three meals and a room to live in. My work is to walk the kids to school in the morning, pick up (接) the kids from school in the afternoon and do some work around the house. Most of the time I work inside (在……里面) the house doing some cleaning and washing. I don’t help with garden work, but only when Mr. Brown and Mrs. Brown get very busy in the garden.

One day, they are busy with the new swimming pool in the garden. I am on the second floor cleaning the floor. When I hear a call from the end of the swimming pool, I run out of the door and hear Mr. Brown say, “Jane, do you have time?” “They must need some help.” I say to myself. Then I run quickly to the end of the swimming pool and ask Mr. Brown, “How can I help?” Then Mr. Brown says, “Do you have the time?” I begin laughing at myself (笑自己) and tell him the time. I don’t hear the word clearly and don’t get what he says at the beginning.

Now I am very careful when people are saying “have time” or “have the time”. Then I can give the right answer.

9 . A man likes old things very much. He is looking for things of old times. One Saturday morning, he comes to a small village and finds a blue ceramic bowl there. It looks nice and old. It is on the ground and a cat is eating breakfast from it. An old woman, the owner of the cat, is sitting near the bowl. The man wants to get the bowl, but he doesn’t want to spend much money on it. So he asks the woman, “The cat is very cute. I want to buy it. Can you sell it to me?”

“How much money can you give me?” the woman asks. The man says, “Twenty-five yuan. Is it OK?”

The woman says, “OK.” Then the man gives the money to her and runs away. After ten minutes, the man goes back and says, “My cat wants a bowl to drink with. Can you give this bowl to me?” But the woman answers, “I am sorry I cannot give it to you. Thanks to the bowl, it helps me sell many cats a day.”

10 . My name is Dale. This is my community. There is a big supermarket near my house. My mother goes shopping there once a week. There is a school across from the supermarket. It’s our school. It is small but nice. There is a library next to the school, I like reading books there.

I’m Scott. My community is busy. There are a lot of stores and restaurants in my community. My father likes to take me to the restaurants for dinner when I do well in my study. My house is on the street corner. There is a post office near it. And next to the post office is a parking lot.

My name is Helen. There is a big park in my community. Lots of people go there to have fun. I also like to play there. There is a restaurant across from the park. A bank is next to the restaurant. And some clothes stores are near it.