4 . If you like to put on your earphones (耳机) and listen to your favorite music, your parents must have told you that “Turn that down before you go deaf!” Well, they have a point: loud noise from your earphones can hurt your hearing. It may cause hearing loss. Hearing loss means a person can’t hear clearly any more. For some people, that even means not being able to hear at all.

If the noise around you is so loud that you have to shout to make other people hear you, you may get your ears hurt. Temporary (暂时的) hearing loss can happen after you listen to some loud noise for 15 minutes. If you have temporary hearing loss, you won’t be able to hear as well as you did before. Luckily, these signs will usually go away and your hearing is likely to return to normal. But if someone listens to loud noise for too long every day, permanent (永久的) hearing loss can happen. This means the person’s hearing won’t be as good as it was before. That’s why some factory workers need to wear ear protection. Listening to loud music a lot can cause ear damage, especially if you use earphones.

However, you can help keep your hearing good, if you’re going to a concert and you know the music is going to be loud, consider wearing earplugs to protect your ears from the noise.

5 . In different countries and different cultures, people celebrate their birthdays in different ways.

At China’s birthday party, family and friends eat long noodles to wish a long life.

It is an old custom that many people in Spain will be pulled（拉耳朵） on their birthdays, once for a year.

In Denmark, if there is a national flag flying at the door of a family, it marks the birthday of someone in the family. While the birthday child is asleep, the gifts will be quietly placed beside his bed. The first thing the child sees when he wakes up is the gifts.

In Finland, a mother prepares a table for her child the night before her child’s birthday. The table is decorated with flowers, birthday cakes and gifts from relatives and friends in the middle. And the table is put in the child’s bedroom. The next morning, the whole family come to the child’s room and sing the birthday song “Happy birthday to you” to wake up the sleeping child and celebrate for him.

In Australia, the whole family is going to swim in the sea on the day of their child’s birthday. After swimming, the whole family have a picnic on the beach to celebrate their child’s birthday.

Russian children don’t eat birthday cakes on their birthdays, they eat birthday pies instead.

Irish children have the custom of “head hitting on birthday”. Birthday children are carefully picked up head down, gently hit the floor, once for a year. In general, they will be hit once more for good luck.

7 .

Traditional Chinese painting, an important part of traditional Chinese culture, has a long history and fine traditions in the field of art in the world.

To draw a Chinese painting, you need a writing brush, ink, rice paper, and ink stone. Especially, rice paper (xuan paper), is the best tool for Chinese painting because it allows the writing brush, wet with Chinese ink and held in a well-trained hand to move freely on it.

There are three main subjects of Chinese painting: human figures, landscapes (风景), and birds and flowers. For example, the painting of ladies, the painting of mountains, and the painting of fish. Figure painting became highly developed during the Tang dynasty, and landscape painting reached its height during the Song dynasty.

There are two main techniques (技艺) in Chinese painting. One is gongbi. This style of painting pays close attention to detail (细节). It’s often used to draw people or animals. The other is xieyi. It pays more attention to expressing an artist’s feelings. It is often used in landscape paintings.

Chinese paintings do not try to draw the look of a subject, but its nature or character (品质). Every area of the painting is interesting to the eye.

8 . International Women’s Day has been around since 1911. Today it is celebrated on March 8th around the world and even is a public holiday in some countries. It has a different theme each year. The theme of 2023 is “Digit ALL: Innovation and technology for gender equality(数字包容: 创新和技术推动性别平等)”.

Women play an important role in our society. Carolyn Ruth Bertozzi, an American scientist, created a new field of chemistry that changes healthcare and cancer treatment. Finally she became one of the three winners of the Nobel Prize in Chemistry in 2022. Zhang Guimei, an educator, founded a high school that offers free education to girls. She has changed the life of thousands of girls and she received the July 1st Medal in 2021.

International Women’s Day is about women’s equality(平等) in all its forms. On this day, people hold all kinds of events, like concerts, to celebrate around the world. Students in schools take part in special lessons to learn about the importance of women in society. In some countries, school children make gifts for their female teachers and women receive small presents from friends or family members.

9 . Honeybees (蜜蜂) are great dancers, but they don’t just dance for fun. Dancing is also their way of communicating. The bee dance is called the “waggle dance” (摇摆舞).

Waggle dance helps bees find food. If a bee finds something to eat, it will start dancing. First, the bee’s position shows other bees which way to go. Second, if the bee shakes a lot, that means the food is far away. Less shaking means the food is closer. Third, if the bee dances for a long time, it means the food is very delicious.

A research team studied honeybee dance moves. The scientists are from the Xishuangbanna Tropical Botanical Garden of the Chinese Academy of Sciences(中国科学院西双版纳热带植物园). They found out how bees learn the waggle dance. Young bees learn from older bees.

The scientists recorded videos of bees in a laboratory. Then they compared two groups of young bees. The bees were only 10 days old. In one group, young bees could watch older ones dance. These young bees became good dancers. In the other group, young bees could not watch older dancers. These young bees could not dance as well as the first group.

This study changed how scientists think about bees. They used to think all bees could do the waggle dance without having to learn it. Now they know young bees learn it by watching the older ones.