1 . Whether yellow, red or white, the onion is a vegetable that you may not know well. The list of its uses in cooking is endless. People have used onions to add flavor (味道) to their foods for thousands of years. Besides onions’ great taste, they are very good for you. They have special chemicals that improve your ability to fight off sickness and you have fewer chances of getting a disease.

No matter how good onions are for you, it is difficult to cut an onion without your eyes filling with tears! When you cut into an onion, irritating (刺激性的) chemicals inside the onion will get into the air. They touch your whole eyes and cause pain. Your eyes make tears to wash away the chemicals and protect your eyes.

Luckily, cooks and scientists have discovered some ways to keep you from crying when you cut up onions:

●Cut the onion under running water. The water will wash away the chemicals before they can reach your eyes.

●Use a fan to blow air over the onion as you cut it. The air will blow the chemicals away from your eyes.

●Put the onion in a fridge for an hour before cutting. This helps make the chemicals in the onion move slowly, so they may not ever reach your eyes.

If you try out these good ideas and still cry while cutting onions, don’t worry. Scientists think if you cut more onions, your body will become more resilient (适应的) to the onion’s chemicals. So the tears will not last long. If you think about how healthy onions are, you might even call those tears“happy tears”.

2 . It’s Li Ming’s turn to make the Blackboard Newspaper for his class this week. Here is his work. Let’s have a look together.

3 . Alibaba showed its latest Chat GPT—like artificial intelligence (AI) model product—Tongyi Qianwen on Tuesday.

The large-language AI model product can manage various types of office communications, intelligent voice assistance, turn text into pictures and short videos, and make individual work plans. Zhang Yong, chairman and CEO of Alibaba Group, said that all Alibaba products will be connected to Tongyi Qianwen in the near future.

Recently, there has been a sudden increase in popularity of large AI models triggered (引起) by OpenAI’s ChatGPT. Chinese search giant, Baidu, officially released (发行) its large language model andAI product, the ERNIE Bot, on March 16. He Xiaodong, vice president of JD. com Group, said that its new large-scale model Chat JD is set to be released in 2023. Huawei also recently announced the progress and applications of its Pangu AI model. 360 AI, developed based on the 360 GPT large language model, was first used in search engines. Other AI products by the companies of Tencent and Byte Dance are expected to be shown soon.

Supported by China’s massive Internet users, Chinese companies have moved faster for the development of large AI models—from computing power to application. At the same time, Chinese companies still face many challenges from issues relating to talent, algorithm (算法) and model quality, to business model and security issues.

The Chinese people have already presented their interest in AI models, and we hope we can achieve our dream in the near future.

5 . When Oxford University Press chose “rizz” as its 2023 Word of the Year, many young English speakers said, “Jeepers (Oh, my god)! That is unbelievable!”

“Rizz” means the ability to attract a person. Are you good at making friends? Do your classmates often laugh loudly at your jokes? If your answers to these questions are all “yes”, you probably have “rizz”. As in the phrase, “rizz up someone”, “rizz” is used as a verb. The word first appeared on social media as teen slang (俚语). Similarly, in China, words, like “xianyanbao” and “qimengle” are used by young people in a humorous way.

These changes show that both English and Chinese are alive. A healthy language, researchers said, should always have, new words being created, new words borrowed from other languages, and old words given new meanings. The changes also show that people born this century have more influence on society. The differences in lifestyles and ways of thinking have also played a role in the language.

As we look back on 2023, one thing we can’t miss is AI. AI systems have “rizzed up” many users around the world with their ability to write articles, draw pictures and sum up (总结) books. However, it’s hard to imagine an AI system coining a new word without any instructions and then influencing the way we human speak and write.

You should be proud of your ability to play with words. But before you go and create another hot slang word, always remember to be polite. Also, don’t use slang in your exams because it won’t “rizz up your teachers”!

6 . Camera shots mean photographs or a particular sequence (一系列) of pictures in a movie. When a movie is made, different kinds of camera shots are used to create a mood for the story.

Close-up shot

A close-up shot is taken of a person’s head from just above the head to his chest. It can also be used to film a person or a thing closely. It has little or no background. Since it is taken closely enough to see a person’s feelings, a close-up shot is often used to show a new character.

Long shot

A long shot is taken from a distance (距离). It shows the whole person and other characters, but background takes up almost the whole picture. A long shot allows the viewers to know clearly about the relationship between the characters and their environment.

POV shot

A POV shot shows the point of view of a character so that we can see what he sees. In this shot, you’re expected to see yourself in the mirror or people watching over you. It makes the viewers see the world through the character’s eyes.

Top shot

Also known as “a bird’s eye view” shot, a top shot. is, taken from a high angle (视角) as if something is seen by a bird in flight. A top shot looks down directly on the subject. This shot does, however, put the viewers in a godlike position. In this way, they can get a better idea about the whole situation.

A．

B．

C．

D．

7 . Recently, an online video maker Jiang Wei used AI technology to “talk to” the greatest poet Li Bai in his video, he asked Li Bai how he became the greatest poet in history. He also told Li Bai about the movie “The Longest Day in Chang’an”. After that, he shared this experience on the Internet and some students showed their own ideas online.

I think using AI to talk with people who lived in the past is fantastic. It gives people a way to know about the life in the past. What’s more, when talking with them, we may get some encouragement and hope so that we can improve ourselves.

—Xin Chengji, 14, boy

For me, if we could use Al to make a call with some loved ones who died, it would be really meaningful. I think this idea is great because I really miss my grandma and want to talk with her again.

—Shi Kejiaer, 15, girl

The idea may sound great, but in fact, the person we talk with through AI could never be the real person. The talk is made up! So I think it’s meaningless.

—Zhang Qingwen, 14, boy

8 . Suppose you want to write the sentence: “I must run or I’ll miss the last bus”. You are not fully satisfied with it because the word “run” is not enough to describe how hurried you felt at that moment. But where can you find a more suitable word? In a situation like this, you might need a thesaurus (同义词典). It can help you find the most suitable word to express your ideas. As for the sentence above, “fly” might be a better choice than “run”: “I must fly or I’ll miss the last bus”. With the help of a thesaurus, you can easily improve your writing.

However, you must be careful when you are using a thesaurus. Very few words are freely interchangeable (可互换的). Take the word “good” as an example. If you look up “good” in a thesaurus, you will get words like “superb” and “acceptable”. However, “a good meal” is different from “a superb meal” or “an acceptable meal”. “A superb meal” is far better than you would have expected. “An acceptable meal” is not bad, but it’s not good enough.

Just as Mark Twain once put it, “The difference between the right word and the almost right word is the difference between lightning and a lightning bug (虫).” You’d better have an English dictionary on hand whenever you are using a thesaurus. Carefully study a word before you use it in your writing.

Using different words to get your point across will make your writing more interesting. It will also help you communicate with your listeners more clearly. As long as you use it properly, a thesaurus can be a great tool.

9 . How much do you know about the food in your hometown? No.1 Secondary School from Chengdu asked its students to do something different with the food.

Lin Tingyue, 14, traveled with her dad in western Sichuan during 2022 summer holiday. She tasted so many delicious foods along the way. So she drew a food map. There is mutton, beef and bread pieces in soup in Dawu, diced pork in the pot in Hailuogou and more. Her favorite dish is the fish hot pot in Ya’an.When she finished eating the fish, she got a gift from the restaurant: a fish bone sword(鱼骨剑) which is believed to be able to drive away bad luck! “After drawing the map, I felt proud of my hometown and its food culture!” Lin said.

Another student, 14-year-old Tang Zihan, made Paocai. He put in carrots, apples and pears together. Then he boiled them with sugar, salt and wine. Finally, he put all these things into three pots. People say Paocai can be unhealthy because there is nitrite (亚硝酸盐) in them. So Tang tried three different ways of fermentation (发酵法): using DVS (发酵剂) , recycled pickle water (老窖水) and natural fermentation. It turns out that the pot with recycled pickle water is the best! It has the least nitrite in the first days and tastes better than the other two!

Do you have any special experiences with the food in your hometown? If you do, why not share with our readers!

A．

B．

C．

D．