1 . Chinese traditional culture is made up of many customs and traditions passed down through generations (世代).

One important value is “filial piety”, which means ________ and caring for elders. This is really important in Chinese families and communities, and it means having good ________ with family and others in the community.

In China, people celebrate lots of traditional festivals around the year. The most important one is the Lunar New Year, also called the Spring Festival. Families ________ for big dinners, give lucky money in red envelopes, and set off fireworks (烟花) to ________ the new year. There are also other festivals like the Dragon Boat Festival, Mid-Autumn Festival, and Double Ninth Festival. These festivals have special customs, food, and ________ that show Chinese culture.

Art is also important in Chinese tradition. Calligraphy (书法) and brush painting are very valued ________ of art. Calligraphy is a way of writing that is also beautiful and ________. Brush painting often shows nature, ________ Chinese people like to respect and enjoy nature.

Traditional Chinese medicine is a very old way of keeping the body ________. It uses things like acupuncture (针灸), herbal remedies (草药), and qigong to prevent sickness and help the body get better ________. In Chinese culture, people think that the mind, body, and spirit are all connected, and that is ________ they use these methods to stay healthy.

Chinese food is famous all around the world for its delicious taste. There are many different styles of Chinese food, _______ hot food in Sichuan and delicate (精致的) dishes in Guangdong. Each place has its own special cooking ________ and Chinese food reflect the country’s geography and diverse (不同的) population.

Today, people in China are working hard to ________ their traditional culture. They want to make sure the customs are passed down to future generations. These efforts help keep Chinese traditions ________ and make people proud of their cultural heritage (遗产).

I don’t like doing chores, but I have no choice ________ doing chores is a ________ in our family. Whenever I come back from ________, you always says, “Could you take out the rubbish?” or “Could you help me ________ the cooking?” I know you are just trying to make me ________ and teach me how to ________ myself. But ________ don’t you let me watch my favorite TV show first and then do the housework? It’s not ________ for me. I know I am the ________ and I should ________ the chores. My younger sisters are too young to do it.

Yesterday I did the chores again. You went to visit grandparents with my sisters in the morning. You left me ________ at home because I had to do my ________. After I finished my homework, I found it was really a ________ at home. So I cleaned the rooms, washed the dishes and watered the garden. I felt tired but ________.

I realize that you are very busy and exhausted, and it’s not easy for you to support a single family. I hope you can allow me to do the things I ________. It’s better for my development.

Yours,

John

4 . Getting Your Sleep Cycle (周期) Right

Warning: this article may make you want to yawn (打哈欠). Why? It’s because we’re looking into the world of sleep cycles.

Our bodies sleep in 90-minute cycles, experiencing five to six each _______. At first, you enter a light stage (阶段) of sleep when your muscles (肌肉) _______. Then, the body temperature drops, and the heart beat slows.

Next comes _______ sleep. It’s difficult to wake up this stage. This is when your body repairs _______ and builds up energy (能量) for the day ahead. _______, you get into the rapid eye-movement (REM，快速眼动) sleep stage. It is when most dreaming happens. _______ REM sleep, the cycle repeats.

Waking up in the morning in the “wrong” stage can make you feel especially _______. An app called Sleep Calculator can help you avoid this. It’s a tool made to work out the _______ bedtime for you based on your wake-up time.

Developed by the UK company Hillarys, this smart calculator considers the _______ cycles our bodies go through each night. Whether you’re an early bird or a night owl (猫头鹰), simply input your wake-up time , ________ the calculator will work its magic, suggesting the perfect bedtime to make sure that you ________ and shine with a spring in your step.

It’s also worth noting that you shouldn’t just ________ your sleep cycle whenever you want. Many young people go to bed ________ and get up late, such as sleeping from 2 a.m. to 10 a.m. They ________ as long as they have 8 hours of sleep, everything will be fine.

But in fact, our bodies can tell the ________, especially by using light and temperature. If we wake up too late, we may feel a bit like a zombie (僵尸). That’s why sometimes we feel even more tired after oversleeping.

5 . Wang Jibing is a delivery (投递) man living and working in Kunshan, Jiangsu Province. One day in 2019, Wang had a(n) _________ experience. A customer left a wrong _________ for the order. He searched three buildings and climbed eighteen floors before he finally delivered the food to the _________, who scolded (责骂) Wang for arriving late.

“If I had argued with him, I might have got negative feedback (差评) and lost my _________. I had no choice but to say sorry all the time,” recalled Wang, who makes about 6, 000 yuan a month _________ delivering food.

On his way home that day, Wang wrote a poem, Man in a Hurry, to _________ his feelings. Actually, Wang has been writing poems for many years. Wang’s poems are simple and real. He often _________ them with his friends.

In 2022, one of Wang Jibing’s friends posted Man in a Hurry online. It _________ became popular and was viewed over 20 million times. The next year, Wang _________ a collection of more than 180 poems, under the same title. His poems and stories deeply touched people who share similar struggles in _________ lives.

In April, 2023, Wang published his second poetry collection, titled I Love This World Clumsily, which _________ about 130 poems.

So far, Wang has written about 5, 000 poems. “Those poems came to me _________ and I enjoyed writing them very much,” he said. “However, the most important thing for me is to _________ my family. So I will _________ with my present job. Poetry is like a break from stress and away to record my life. _________ there is pain, stressful situations and struggles in life, poetry makes me confident and happy.”

Most people will remember the excitement of receiving their first letter from a pen pal. The ________ of receiving those letters is beyond description.

Chen Man-lin, a 15-year-old Hong Kong student, was very happy. Her pen pal was orbiting in the Tiangong Space Station when he wrote inspiring words to her. When Chen ________ the national letter-writing activity named “Sending My Dream to Tiangong” to write to the ________ on Tiangong, she wrote a letter the same evening. In her letter, she detailed every moment of her own planned ________ toward contributing (贡献) to national aerospace (航天航空) development, and what she knew about astronauts and the national aerospace development program. Chen’s ________ to write the letter was more than just an impulse (冲动). Her ________ in space had begun at the age of six ________ she watched the live broadcast from orbit (轨道) of a science lecture. She poured that passion for space into her letter, as well as some of her problems over her studies in life.

The three-page reply from Shenzhou XIV astronaut Chen Dong, ________ about a month later. As one of the 30, 000 students from all over the country to take part in the activity, Chen was ________ chosen to receive a reply, the only one in Hong Kong. To encourage the students, Chen Dong recalled ________ he became an astronaut step by step. He also shared his tips for overcoming the difficulties when studying physics and other ________ necessary to achieve his goals. He hoped that young Hong Kong people could follow ________ dreams and make contributions to the country.

The arrival of a letter from space was also a ________ gift to mark the 25th anniversary of Hong Kong’s return to the motherland. “I’ll do as he ________ in the letter; study harder and ________ to stay healthy. I look forward to contributing to national aerospace development in the future,” said Chen.

You may have played Ant Forest. It is a game. Users collect “energy” to grow _________ “trees” online. Amazingly, when this “energy” reaches a certain level, real _________ are planted in deserts by some organizations and companies in China! It seems that our country’s effort, along with India’s, has made a _________ world.

A _________ by NASA in February showed that China and India have made the Earth greener over the past two years. Since 2000, the Earth’s green leaf area has _________ by over 5 million square kilometers. That’s as _________ as the Amazon rainforest! NASA said this is _________ due to big tree-planting programs in both countries.

“China and India cover only 9% of the planet’s land area in vegetation (植被), _________ they did one third of the increased greening for the whole world,” said Chi Chen, the study’s lead author and a researcher at Boston University. China was the _________ contributor (贡献者), adding 25% of the increase, while India added 6.8%.

__________ the past ten years, China has done a great job of greening the land. Since 1978, China has had a national forestation (植树造林) project __________ as the “Great Green Wall”. Trees have been __________ in thirteen provinces in northern China to act as windbreaks (防风林).

With China’s success in forestation, the United Nations Environment Program __________ China is a good example for others to follow. “China is one of the most __________ countries in greening the desert. It also has __________ to share with the world,” said UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim.

Did you hear of “comfort zone” (舒适区)? It is like a place where you feel comfortable with yourself and do things without feeling _______.

For example, you feel very comfortable and relaxed to speak in front of ten people, however it _______ you feel uncomfortable and stressed when you have to give the speech to more than ten people. Then ten people would be the comfort zone for your public (公共的) speech.

When Lisa started in eighth grade with new classmates, she thought she was not going to have a wonderful school life. She only had three friends. And she was _______ afraid to speak in front of class. She had a lot of negative (消极的) ideas when she noticed people _______ her. She was thinking about if people liked her or if they thought she looked cool today.

This all changed when she went out of her comfort zone and started to _______ more with her classmates. _______ she found surprised herself. Her classmates actually liked her and enjoyed playing with her. Now she has become more outgoing and she is _______ than she ever was before. She says she wishes she has done it earlier.

Going out of the comfort zone and trying some new things could be difficult for some people at first, like Lisa. That’s because they are afraid to fail and dislike getting uncomfortable. If they always stay _______ their comfort zone, they will stop making progress (进步). So let’s be brave enough to take _______ in life and challenge ourselves. ________ we push ourselves to change, we can’t be who we want to be. Remember progress begins at the end of our comfort zone. Life begins at the end of your comfort zone.

9 . In a small Chinese town lived a poor young man named Liang.He loved _______. One night, an old man with a long beard _______ Liang in a dream.He gave Liang a paintbrush.

“Use this magic paintbrush to _______ the poor,” he said, “but don’t use it to help people who are _______ and greedy (贪婪的), or the skill will _______ your fingers and you will never paint again.”

When Liang woke up, he _______ the paintbrush on the table by his bed. He painted a butterfly and was _______ to see it fly off the page and out of the window.

Liang ran out of his little house and started painting things for people. He painted a buffalo (水牛) to help a farmer, food for _______ people and clothes for people who were cold.

A rich man, however, _______ about the paintbrush and asked Liang to paint some gold for him, ____________ Liang refused.

“If you don’t paint for me, I’ll cut your fingers off,” the rich man said.“Then you will ____________ paint again.” So Liang painted an island of gold in the middle of a blue ____________ .

“ ____________ will I get there?” asked the rich man.

Liang painted a ____________ for the rich man, who got in it and went on his way toward the island.

But when the rich man was halfway there, Liang painted a hole in the side of the boat.The boat sank(沉)into the water and ____________ ever saw him again.