Food in China and western countries is different. Chinese people choose food very carefully. They only use fresh materials (原料) to make food. For example, they only eat fresh fish. Chinese have a lot of ideas for cooking. They can cook a chicken in over ten ways.     1    

Western countries, like England or America, don’t have fresh food because they buy their food from supermarkets which only sell stored materials. Western people also prefer fast food like hamburgers and chips.     2     Besides, western people do not have many skills for cooking, and mostly they only boil, steam (蒸) and bake the food.     3     They can make very good cakes and chocolate.

In China, the person who invites other people for meal would pay for the meal, but it’s not the same way in western countries. In western countries, people will think you only invite them.     4     Because they think they can afford (负担) them by themselves.

    5     Chinese people use chopsticks but western people use knives and forks.

3 . Rice is a kind of main food in many parts of Asia. It grows in more than 100 countries in the world. According to a study, people first grew it in southern China 7,000 years ago and later in India around 4,500 years ago. Rice growing was brought from China to Japan around 2,000 years ago and from India to southern Europe in the 15th century.

Different countries cook rice in different ways. In some countries, such as Spain, people cook rice with water or soup. In others, such as India, people eat rice with sauce or curry. In China, people even use rice to make wine, and they usually drink it to celebrate or relax. And Japanese make Sake almost in the same way.

Though rice is common in the world, it’s not easy to grow rice. The land for growing rice should be of good quality (质量) . It grows well in the southeast Asia with rainfall above 100 mm and temperature about 24℃ or above. As a result, it is usually planted in a flat field with water. In the past, farmers let lands rest for 1 to 2 years in order to make the land get better.

Today we don’t need to worry about production (产量) of rice any more. However, the food waste is still a serious problem. It’s not easy to grow rice so we need to save food.

4 .

MBTI is a personality (性格) test. Many people in China are interested in it now. “Am I an ‘I’ person or an ‘E’ person?”     1    

Many people find the test helpful. It groups people into 16 types. So they can make decisions more quickly. “I’m an ‘E’ person. I should go to the party and make more friends.” “    2     I’d like to work by myself. I could be a writer in the future.” They may think like this.

    3     Some people take the test for a second time and get different results. Some people find it hard to answer some questions. “I like watching TV by myself. But I also enjoy playing with my friends. Am I an ‘I’ or an ‘E’ ”?

Personalities can change with time, and they are not black-or-white. You may be introverted now but become extroverted when you get older.     4     Don’t label (标签) yourself!

When you take a personality test, you may think, “Oh, that’s me.” That’s because the descriptions (描述) are generic (通用的).     5     So, don’t take it too seriously.

Pi Day celebrates the wonder π(pi)in math on March 14th. This special day brings fun to math lovers around the world. From classrooms to kitchens, people enjoy the fun of pi with activities like singing pi songs and making π cakes. On Pi Day, some students enjoy keeping its digits (数字) in mind, while others simply taste a delicious piece of pie. Pi is very fantastic. The exact digits of pi is difficult to calculate (计数). We only know it starts with 3.14159265. The number goes on and always changes. People have worked on the exact digits of pi for thousands of years. In the fifth century, Zu Chongzhi exactly calculated pi to seven decimal places (小数位). For 900 years after him, nobody succeed in calculating the number any further, That’s why pi is also known as “Zu’s ratio”.

In 2021, some Swiss scientists calculated pi to 62.8 trillion (万亿) decimal places. It took them 108 days, but it was a new world record.

In fact, we hardly need more than 15 decimal places of pi. Then why did scientists work out the 62.8 trillionth digit?

Jan de Gier is a mathematician in Australia. He says that calculating pi is like the Olympic Games. It is not useful in itself, but it teaches us about what is possible. We may never finish calculating pi.

Pi mirrors life itself, as our lives are also full of unknowns. We don’t know what’s going to happen. We’ll face many problems, but many surprises are waiting for us, too.

8 . Are you a happy person most of the time? Or do you easily get angry sometimes? Everyone has a different temperament (脾气). It is usually believed that both genes (基因) and environment may affect people’s temperaments in different ways. But now scientists have found that the season of birth also plays a role.

Scientists from Budapest, Hungary, studied 400 university students. In the study, the students needed to finish a questionnaire (问卷). The purpose of it was to find out which of four kinds of temperaments they most had. From the questionnaire, scientists found that the students always answered something like “My mood often changes for no reason” and “I love to deal with new projects, even if it is risky”. These answers were then matched with their birthdays.

They discovered that people born in summer easily change between sad and happy moods compared to people born in winter. Those who always feel positive are mostly born in spring and summer.

The study also found that those born in autumn less probably had a mood of depression which may easily drive them to cry, while those born in winter were not easier to be angry.

Scientists said that this was probably because the seasons had an influence on certain chemicals in the human body. And the chemicals (化学药品) are important to control people’s moods even in adult life.

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“It seems that when you are born may increase or decrease your chance of developing certain mood disorders (紊乱),” lead scientist Xenia Gonda told The Telegraph.

Grain Rain is the sixth solar term (节气) in the twenty-four solar terms, which is from     1     old Chinese saying — Rain helps the growth of grain. This means the rain is very important for the growth of grain at this time of year. The Grain Rain signals the end of cold weather. It     2     (/brɪŋz/) an increase in temperature and rainfall, so the grains grow faster and     3     (strong).

Grain Rain falls     4     the end of spring and the beginning of summer, with infrequent cold air moving to the south and keeping continuous cold air in the     5     (/nɔ:rθ/). From the end of April to the beginning of May, the temperature gets much higher than it does in March.

People in the south of China drink tea on the day of Grain Rain. Spring tea during this time is     6     (/rɪtʃ/ ) in vitamins. It helps to remove heat from the body     7     is good for the eyes. It is also said that drinking tea on this day would prevent bad luck.

Grain Rain marks the start of the fishing season. More than 2,000 years ago, people     8     (believe) they should thank the gods for giving them a good harvest and     9     (protect) them from the stormy seas. People would worship (朝拜) the sea on the Grain Rain festival, and pray for a good harvest and a safe trip for their loved     10     (one).

10 . With the development of technology (科技) and the Internet, audiobooks (有声图书) are becoming popular in reading. More people are choosing to listen to audiobooks these days, according to this year’s national reading report.

The report shows that audiobooks become quite popular among most readers. In 100 adults (成年人), more than 30 listen to audiobooks. They mainly use popular audio sharing platforms like Ximalaya.

Kids are also main users in the development of audiobooks. Ximalaya said that in 2023, teenagers spent 4.3 times as much money on audiobooks as they did last year.

What’s more, around 26.8% of children under eight years old listen to audiobooks. Most of them listen at least once a week. “Stories for kids” and “poetry reading” are their favorite.

Why do audiobooks become so popular? One of the reasons is that people hope not to waste their free time, China News Service reported. Whether they are at the gym, on a bus or in bed, people can enjoy reading without a heavy paper book or e-reader. Faster Internet speeds mean one can download a whole book in just seconds.

Another reason is that audio app designers invited broadcasters (播音员) to join in their production (制作). Both the quality (质量) and number of audiobooks improved a lot. More people can find audiobooks they like, the report says.