2 . Spring Festival is one of the most important traditional festival s in China. It comes on the first day of the first Lunar month. It is the day for family reunion（团圆）. Here are some folk customs（习俗）for the Spring Festival.

One custom is putting up red couplets（对联）on the doors. And you can see Chinese “fu” on the doors and the windows, too. Both of them show the best wishes to the life for the new year. People also set off fireworks on Spring Festival eve in the yard. It is said that people in the past wanted to send the monster “Nian” away by doing it.

In north of China, duplings are necessary. They are really delicious. People think the more dumplings you eat on Spring Festival, the more money you will have in the new year. And the shape of dumplings is just like the ingots（元宝）, a form of currency made of gold and silver that was once used in China.

Although with the development of the society, some traditional customs for the Spring Festival have dissappeared, the festive atmosphere（年味）will not change.

3 . Worry about the climate? There’s plenty to do to help your local environment. And small actions can make a difference.

Getting closer to nature by becoming a citizen（公民）scientist is the most useful way. You could count birds, butterflies or even flowers in your garden. There are lots of citizen science projects to take part in. It’s a fun group activity, and your data（数据）can help scientists better understand our environment. Soil and water are the most important resources on our planet. Planting more fruit and vegetables can create a local food supply（供应）. Eating locally can reduce carbon emitted. It’s easy for us to shop online. But what will happen next? First it will clutter（凌乱地塞满）your house, then it’ll clutter the planet.

In addition, reducing car pollution is one of the ways we can reduce CO₂ emissions and improve air quality. Getting more people ride a bike is also a great way to reduce pollution.

4 . Zibo, a city in east China’s Shandong Province, has gone viral（走红）on Chinese social media for its local food, Zibo barbecue. It suddenly went viral after a group of college students sharing the videos of themselves enjoying a meal on social media in late February.

Zibo barbecue offers a special dining experience. On each table, there is a small stove. Customers can roast（烤）meat themselves and then wrap a skewer（串肉扦）of meat in a thin pancake, usually with a spring onion and some sauce inside. It offers a sense of participation（参与）and free time for diners. On several streets, lines can be seen outside barbecue restaurants, which stretch（延伸）for more than 100 meters on weekends.

Behind Zibo’s sudden fame are the efforts and services of the local government, as well as a good reputation（声誉）of businesses in the city, with good review s from visitors who share their experiences online. In order to encourage people to visit the city, Zibo added 21 new barbecue bus lines, so that tourists can “get on the bus to rest, get off to eat”. Zibo barbecue is bringing more and more people to the city.

6 . Finding nutrition（营养）in wild plants was very important in ancient times. But nowadays, edible（可食用的）wild plants are delicious food on the tables of people living in cities. Russians have gotten a lot of experience in looking for a bite（一口）of nature.

In the old days, Russian farmers dried or pickled（腌制）wild vegetables in the winter, since the cold made it difficult to grow crops. In hard years, for some poor families, quinoa（藜麦）, nettles（荨麻）, burdock（牛蒡）and other wild plants, which are common in the mountains, became the main food.

Wild vegetables are also found in Russian literature. In A Sportsman’s Notebook by Ivan Turgenev, the author mentions making soup from burdock.

The days when most people feared starvation（饿死）are gone. Today, looking for vegetables in the wild has become an adventurous（冒险的）social activity in the country. In the spring, many Russians might bring their tools to gather wild vegetables with their families, noted the Global Times.

Among them, mushrooms（蘑菇）are some of the most popular.

“Calling yourself a mushroom hunter is like calling yourself a pizza eater. You just do it,” Julia Schelkunova, a Moscow-based Russian translator and guide, told The New York Times.

According to Nicolas Courtois, the chef（厨师）at the Ritz-Carlton Hotel in Moscow, one can explain the Russian love of mushroom hunting by the simple fact that the mushrooms found there are some of the best in the world. For him, mushroom hunting season is “one of the things that make Russia worth living in,” he told The New York Times.

On a hot summer day in 2019, Li Xinze and his friend He Liantianze walked A. _____ a small pond(池塘) B. _____ (fill) with smelly algae(水藻), the two 17-year-old boys from Hefei No. 8 High School in Anhui set their minds on creating a robot to deal with this problem.

On Aug 19, the 18th Song Ching Ling Award for Children’s Invention was announced(公布). Li and He’s invention of a water surface cleaning robot(水面垃圾清理机器人).

C. It took them about four years to finish the robot. The robot moves like a boat and can be controlled from far away on the waterside. To collect garbage, the robot has two plates as “hands”. Then a conveyor belt(传送带) is used for D. _____ (send) the garbage(垃圾) to a basket. “There is also a heating sheet(加热片),” said Li.

E. Compared to other robots, their robot is small and smart. “It has a solar panel(太阳能电池板) set on top,” said He.

The journey to build their robot was full F. _____ difficulties. But they worked hard to deal with these problems. One challenge was the balance(平衡) of the boat. “It used to be heavy and easy to turn over. On the advice of our teacher, we changed the top part from steel(钢) to alloy(合金) to make it light,” said Li.

As for their next step, they hope to make the robot work on its own. “We will continue to learn programming skills to make our dreams come true,” said He.

A newspaper reporter is interviewing some people about their favourite food. Here are their answers.

Phil, England

My favourite food is Okonomiyaki, which comes from Japan. It’s similar I guess to an English pancake but it involves different kinds of cabbage and meat and an egg. And they’re mixed together and then in the restaurant you would cook it in front of yourself and it’s very delicious and usually you have barbecue sauce and mayonnaise（蛋黄酱）on top. I also like paella, which is Spanish food. It has yellow rice and lots of different types of seafood and sometimes it can be spicy.

Barbara, Australia

Well, these days I really love fruit, especially grapes. I don’t really like green apples though. They usually taste too sour. In the past I liked Italian food but these days I’m trying to be healthier so I cut that out.

Skip, The United States

I suppose I would have to say curry, but I don’t have one curry especially that is my favourite. Thai curry is very great. I love all Thai food too. I like spicy food in general. I guess if I have to say one it will be curry. That’s it. Thai curry especially.

Simone, Sweden

What’s my favourite food? Well, I don’t really have any favourite food. I like gyoza. It’s the Japanese dumpling. I can never stop eating that. I guess that’s my favourite food.