2 . Do you know which social app is popular with Chinese young people now? “Short videos” are certainly the most popular. A large number of young people use Tik Tok and Kuaishou. They think it is fun to share their lives by short videos, while others have other purposes as well A 12-year-old user named Elsa has about 2.7 million fans on Tik Tok. The girl has shared her dancing studies on TikTok since last July. One of the videos won her about one million fans. “1 feel really glad to share happiness with people by short videos,” said Elsa.

To some other young people, they use short videos to have a quick look at the hot programs. “Because I don’t like to spend many hours watching a whole program, I hate waiting for a program to end, and I prefer to watch short videos of wonderful parts of hot. programs, said Wang Zhihao.

However, some young people feel bored with short videos. “Killing time is the main reason for me to watch short videos, and many short videos are almost the same, so I think they are not so useful or interesting. What’s more, I really don’t like the videos about strange and dangerous things,” said Wen Nan, another college student.

Recently, something else has appeared. Some videos are telling people what commodities are wort buying. Some short videos even sell bad commodities, and it’s hard for customers to get their money back. So we should think twice before we want to buy the commodities by short videos.

3 . Have you ever paid for educational podcasts (播客) or live videos? Ask some people and most of them will say yes. “Pay-for-knowledge” has been a fashionable thing these years. Everything you think of can be found online, skills of talking, designing, computer programming — you name it!

Why is “pay-for-knowledge” industry (产业) developing so rapidly? First, its development is based on the Internet. With a fast network and a smart phone, anyone who has passed the identity (身份) check can be an online teacher, and anyone with an online account can buy “pay-for-knowledge” products that he or she wants at a good price. Second, people are afraid to miss any information. They hope for more useful information which is usually at the hands of experts. Moreover, the need to learn new skills in today’s job market also pushes people to learn on such educational podcasts.

The industry of “pay-for-knowledge” has proved to be a great way of making money. It promises possibilities of turning information into money. It is good for the development of our country and it can help sellers make lots of money. Besides, buyers can enjoy self-growth from it. What’s more, this is a reflection (反映) of people’s respect for knowledge and talents.

However, “pay-for-knowledge” also causes a few problems. For one thing, the market is full of eye-catching words such as “How to be an Industry’s Expert?” which sounds like if you pay for it, you are sure to succeed. For another, a large number of customers buy them just for showing off. That means, with or without these products, they can make it anyway, because they are those who have the ability to learn by themselves.

In general, the best is the one that suits you most. “Pay-for-knowledge” may be used as a good start for self-growth. But be careful when you make a choice, or your dream of success may not come true.

A．

B．

C．

D．

4 . With the Year of the Rat coming up, I remember going out for Chinese food when I was a kid in the US. In Chinese restaurants, there are always plates with pictures of the zodiac animals (十二生肖). For most people in the US, this might be the deepest impression of Chinese culture. One time, we started to laugh after we learned that my aunt is a rat.

We laughed because in our culture, rats are animals of very low position. They eat rubbish and cary diseases, so we think they are dirty. Because rats are sneaky (鬼鬼祟祟的), we think of them as untrustworthy. Calling semeone a rat is very rude. It means we cannot trust him or her easily, or we will be cheated.

As a kid, this caused me to feel bad for people born in the Year of the Rat. I wondered whether they would be looked down upon by others. I did some research and found that although Chinese people also see rats as dirty animals, they added them to the zodiac for some reasons.

Rats are thought to be animals that can bring people wealth. They are also able to give birth to lots of babies, which makes them a symbol of good luck—traditionally, Chinese people prefer to have large families with many children. Rats are believed to have intelligence as well. It is believed that sneaky animals must be clever.

So now, I’m entering the new year with a fresh way of looking at rats. Perhaps I need to find a new understanding for other things—-animals, ideas or even people!

6 . Every artist knows in his heart that he is saying something to the public. Not only does he want to say it well, but he wants it to be something that has not been said before. He hopes the public will listen and understand what he wants to teach them, and what he wants them to learn from him.

What visual (视觉的) artists like painters want to teach is easy to make out but difficult to explain, because painters translate their experience into shapes and colours, not words. They seem to feel that a certain selection of shapes and colours, out of countless billions of, is exceptionally interesting for them and worth showing to us. Without their work we should never have noticed these particular shapes and colours, or have felt the delight which they brought to the artist.

Most artists take their shapes and colours from the world of nature and from human bodies in motion and at rest; their choices indicate (指示) that these aspects of the world are worth looking at, that they contain beautiful sights. Contemporary (当代的) artists might say that they merely choose subjects that provide an interesting pattern, that there is nothing more in it. Yet even they do not choose entirely without reference to the character of their subjects.

If one painter chooses to paint a decaying (腐烂) leg and another a lake in moonlight, each of them is directing our attention to a certain aspect of the world. Each painter is telling us something, showing us something, emphasizing something-all of which means that, consciously (有意识地) or unconsciously, he is trying to teach us.

7 . Life is competitive, some kids can do something faster or better than other kids. This might not seem fair, but all people are different and how well you can do something is different from others. This means there are “winners” and “losers”, and lots of people are neither winners nor losers but in-between. You can choose to be a good winner or an even better loser whether you are competing against others or yourself.

Being a “good” winner

No one likes a “show off”.

No one likes someone who takes all the praise for the efforts of a team. No one likes people who put others down to make themselves look good. To be a good winner you need to:

◆ Be modest (谦虚的).

◆ Thank those who helped you for their efforts.

◆ Keep trying to improve your skills.

◆ Aim for the next step up in whatever you are doing well.

Being an even better loser

Of course it's disappointing to lose, especially if you are close to winning. Behaving badly or angrily, complaining about things being “unfair” won’t change the final result and will only make you look like a bad sporter. And no one likes bad sports either.

To be an even better loser you need to:

◆ Behave politely, nicely and kindly.

◆ Congratulate the other team.

◆ Keep any negative thoughts to yourself - at least until you are away from the game.

It's all right to let out your negative thoughts to your best friend or parents later. And if you don’t do very well in a game, try harder to learn for the next one. Improving yourself makes you a winner too.