Breakdancing is a street dance style that develops as part of the hip hop culture. It started in the Bronx in New York City in the 1970s. Breakdancing has become known to more people in China in recent years, especially after it was announced (被宣布) in 2020 that it would be a new event at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games.

The people who perform this style of dance are known as b-boys or b-girls. Liu Qingyi is one of them. In 2022, she rose to fame (声名鹊起) at the age of 16 when she won a gold medal at Outbreak Europe. That gold medal also made her become the first Chinese b-girl to ever win the top-level breakdancing competition. Then more and more people knew about the young dancer.

Liu first saw street dance in her hometown, when she was only 10 years old. She felt deeply attracted (被吸引) by the performer’s cool dance. Liu also learned guitar, taekwondo (跆拳道) and boxing during her childhood. “I’ve tried many sports and hobbies, but found that breakdancing is my truelove after I started learning it,” Liu said.

Liu believes that dancing will be her lifetime career (终身事业). “I’m super lucky already as it’s not easy to turn one’s hobby into a career. I will never stop exploring,” Liu added. “I hope I will be able to keep my love in this sport and continue to dance as long as I can.”

Liu will represent China at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Liu said, “I am so proud to compete for my country. I hope to win a medal for China. I will work hard toward that goal.”

Reading with The Fingertips (指尖)

Louis Braille was born in France in 1809．When he was three, he injured an eye in an accident in his father’s workshop. The infection (感染) from the wound spread to his other eye. Within a year he couldn’t see anything. When he was ten, he was sent to a school for the blind. Students there learned by listening to their teachers.

One day, a visitor came to the school. His name was Charles Barbier. He was to have a great influence on Braille. Louis was then twelve years old. Barbier had invented a new way of writing. He had hoped the French army would adopt (采纳) his method. This writing was designed to be used at night. Soldiers could read it without showing a light. Barbier hoped the head of the school whose students lived their lives in darkness could use his way of writing.

Louis Braille stood out among those students. His mind was quick. He was eager to learn. The head of school invited him to meet the visitor. Barbier began to show how his writing worked. Braille’s interest was aroused. Barbier took a sheet of thick paper. Using a pointed instrument, he punched a series of holes to make raised dots (点) on the other side of the paper. These dots were grouped together in cells (单元格). The cells could be placed in any of twelve positions. Each group stood for a different sound. By running a fingertip over them, a person could read a message.

Braille was excited by Barbier’s invention. But he knew that it needed to be simpler. He started working on it at once. Instead of twelve positions for each unit, he decided to work with six. This let a reader make sense of the raised dots more quickly and easily.

Braille remained at the school all his life, He taught there. He also helped to print books that used his method. Braille was a very good musician. He showed people how to write music in his way.

Charles Barbier did not sell his method to the army. But he played a part in changing forever the way blind people read. Because of what he started and Louis Braille completed, people everywhere who cannot see are no longer limited by blindness.

What is it like studying chimps (黑猩猩) in a forest? British scientist Jane Goodall can tell you all about it. In March 2023, this 90-year-old woman shared the experience with students at an American university.

When Goodall was young, she loved to read and spend time in nature. She dreamed of seeing the habitats (栖息地) of her favorite animals.

In July 1960, Goodall was 26 years old. She traveled to the forests in Tanzania, East Africa. To watch the chimps there up close, she spent months winning their trust. Goodall thought the chimps’lives were a lot like ours. In the past, scientists had numbered the chimps. But Goodall did not want to do that. Instead, she gave each of them a human name kindly.

In October of the same year, Goodall was watching two chimps. She had named them David Greybeard and Goliath. She watched as they made tools from plants. Until then, people thought humans were the only animals that used tools. Because of Goodall’s discovery, chimps are now considered smart animals.

In 1977, Goodall set up the Jane Goodall Institute (珍·古道尔研究会). It works to educate people on environmental protection. In the late 1980s, Goodall began to fight against the loss of natural habitats. She has been encouraging young people to join the fight. “If we all do our part to help,” she said, “the world will be a better place!”

A 16-year-old girl from Changsha, Hunan Province, successfully reached the top of Mount Qomolangma on May 15, last year. Since then she     1     the youngest Chinese female to conquer (征服) the world’s highest mountain from the southern slope. Xu Zhuoyuan was a first-year high school student in Hunan then. On April 15, she left Changsha for Nepal. On April 21, she     2     her trek (徒步旅行) from Lukla. On April 28, she arrived at the base camp and started her training. At 10 pm Beijing time on Sunday, Xu     3     off from Camp 4 at an altitude (海拔) of 7,950 meters on the southern slope of Mountain Qomolangma. After a hard and tiring 10-hour climb, she successfully reached the top of Mount Qomolangma.

Xu Zhuoyuan’s father, Xu Jianglei, was the first person from Hunan Province to reach the top of Mount Qomolangma. Xu Zhuoyuan     4     by her father. She has reached remote (偏远的)areas with him since she was very young.

Although she was young. Xu Zhuoyuan has already climbed five mountains over 5,000 meters in China. When she was 12 years old, she bravely said on Hunan TV, “I     5     Mount Qomolangma.” Four years later, she made her dream     6     true.

Xu Zhuoyuan has rich climbing experience, but she also keep     7     hard to conquer Mount Qomolangma. Two year ago, she climbed mount Muztagata, which stands 7,546 meters.

“Human beings are small in the face of nature. We     8     nature and get closer to Mount Qomolangma,” said Xu Zhuoyuan.

After finishing her university studies, she hopes     9     climbing. Facing a mountain, climb or look up? It     10     on your faith and courage! In life, there is no mountain that cannot be climbed. Never stop trying to be the best you could be.

6 . Dr Joseph Dituri, also known as “Dr Deep Sea”, had an amazing adventure. For 100 days, the University of South Florida teacher lived underwater. He set a new world record, beating the old record of 73 days.

Dr Dituri began the project on March 1, 2023. His goal was to stay for 100 days at a special underwater hotel called Jules’s Undersea Lodge. The hotel is 22 feet (6.7 meters) under the ocean surface in a protected area in Key Largo, Florida, US.

The farther you go below the ocean’s surface, the greater the pressure. Dr Dituri wanted to learn how this pressure affects the human body over time. In his undersea room, Dr Dituri was living with pressure that was about 66 percent greater than the pressure on the surface.

Dr Dituri believes that high pressure could help people live longer and stay healthier as they get older. It could also help doctors treat different medical problems, including brain injuries. Dr Dituri’s room was only 100 square feet (9.3 square meters). But it had somewhere to sleep, a small living room and a kitchen.

While underwater, Dr Dituri stayed busy. He often exercised in the morning. He taught his college classes and had online chats with over 5,500 students from 15 different countries and regions.

On June 9, 2023, Dr Dituri returned to the surface where he could finally see the sun again. Doctors quickly checked that he was okay. “The human body has never been underwater that long,” Dr Dituri said. “This experience has changed me in an important way.”

Miss Zhang Guimei (张桂梅) used to live a happy life, but her happiness turned to sadness after her husband’s death from illness. Heart broken, she packed up and left her past behind. That was a great decision, because it has changed the future of more than 2000 girls ever since.

Later, Miss Zhang chose to move to Huaping, a quite poor countryside where so many teenage girls drop out of school early and get married in order to support their brothers and families. The girls’ bad situations made Miss Zhang half sad, half angry. She was such a loving teacher that she made up her mind to help change it. She poured all her energy and money into setting up a free high school just for girls. She believed, “When you educate a girl, you change the lives of three generations (三代人). An educated mother won’t let her daughter drop out of school.”

No one knows exactly how hard the work was. Miss Zhang started with no money, no land, no teachers, and nothing but a full heart. However, she never gave up. She even went to the streets of Kunming to ask for help. Her hard work paid off, and she opened Huaping Senior High School for Girls, the nation’s first free school for girls only. Although Miss Zhang’s life is full of illness, she still keeps rewriting lives of the mountain top girls.

Thanks to her efforts, Miss Zhang was named the 2020 National Person of the Year of China by CCTV.