1 . Everyone wants to reach success in their life, don’t they? Even as a teenager, you can be successful in your life; it really isn’t that hard. Here are some steps that help you.

*    1     Try your best for excellence at school: listen to the teachers and follow their advice to get good grades. Doing so will help you get into a better university.     2    

* Volunteering can improve your experience.     3     Find volunteer chances that interest you. For example, if you love animals, volunteer at an animal centre. If you love helping the environment, plant trees or pick up litter.     4    

* Love your parents and learn how to get on well with your parents. They’re there to help you be the best that you can be.     5     Share your happiness and value your parents’ opinions. Keep in mind that they do the things because they care about you.

3 . Jim and Jack came from a small town. They were ceramic (陶瓷) artists and good at making pots (罐子).

They heard city people liked pots, so they decided to sell their pots to a big city. Through more than ten years of hard work, they made the best pots in the town. They hired a ship to take all the pots to the city.

Unluckily, the ship met a strong storm on the way. After the storm, the ship landed. All the pots were broken into pieces. The two men’s dream of becoming rich was broken along with the pots.

Jim suggested that they should stay in a hotel for the night and walk around the city to enjoy the sights the next day. Jack looked at Jim in pain and asked, “You still want to go around the city? Don’t you show any care to these pots? We worked so hard to make them!” “We are unlucky enough to lose the pots. We will be more unlucky if we lose happiness,” Jim said calmly.

Jack thought for a while and nodded. The next day, he followed Jim around the city and had a good time for a few days. During their stay in the city, they found by accident that people there decorated their walls with things that looked like what they used to make pots. So Jim and Jack used the broken pots to make mosaic tiles (马赛克瓷砖) and sold them to the city people. In this way, they made much money and returned home happily.

Duffy, StellaLou, LinaBell…     1     Disney made them during the last 20 years. This year is the 100th birthday of the big company. It tries to stay fresh by making new characters. The Duffy series is a good example.

The series has seven characters. Most of them first came out in Asia. Many old Disney characters like Mickey and Snow White have their own films or TV shows.     2    

However, they are like pop idols—each even has their own personality. StellaLou dreams of becoming a dancer, while LinaBell is a curious explorer.

These characters follow today’s pop culture.     3    

Meet the Duffy family!

● Duffy is a cute bear. He came out in Tokyo DisneySea in 2004.

● StellaLou is a purple rabbit. She came out in Tokyo DisneySea in 2017.

● LinaBell is a pink fox. She first showed up in Shanghai Disneyland in 2021.     4    

6 . Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm were two young men from Germany who loved a good story. As university students, they became interested in folktales—traditional stories that people memorized and told again and again. They began to collect traditional folktales from storytellers all over Germany. Many were similar to stories told in France, Italy, Japan, and other countries. Between 1812 and 1814, the brothers published two books in German. These included stories like “Snow White” and “Little Red Riding Hood.” The collections became known in English as Grimm’s Fairy Tales.

Darkness and Magic

The Grimm brothers’ tales reflected traditional life and beliefs. For example, forests are everywhere to see in Germany, and this image often appears in the Grimms’ stories. In the past, many people believed forests were dangerous places. In the Grimms’ stories, a forest is the home of evil witches, talking animals, and other amazing things.

Children’s stories?

Most people today think of these stories as fairy tales for children, but the brothers first wrote them for adults. Many of their early tales were dark and a little scary. Later, the brothers changed the text of some of the original stories. They “softened” many of the tales and added drawings. This made them more fit for children. Like the early tales, though, each story still has a moral: work hard, be good, and listen to your parents.

7 . What is the best virtue (美德)? What can we learn from water? Laozi, a famous Chinese philosopher (哲学家) who lived around 2, 500 years ago, might give us an answer.

Laozi tells us that the top character is just like water. All life in the world cannot live without water, but water never asks for anything in return. It just keeps giving quietly. Also, water often stays where people don’t like, such as low-lying wetlands and deserted valleys (山谷). This kind of low profile (低调) makes water the closest to the law of the universe. It seems that we have always taken qualities like bravery and strength as great virtues, but we should not forget what water has taught us.

In dealing with people, we can act as water. Do our best to help others without trying to get fame. At the same time, stay humble (谦虚的). It’s unwise to always talk about the favors you gave to others. Even if no one cares about you in a difficult situation, you need to stay cool. After all, water will not choose where to be, it just runs to where it is needed.

As we all know, the Chinese nation has always valued Laozi’s ideas about water. In 2014, President Xi Jinping mentioned it at the welcome dinner of the 22nd APEC Economic Leaders’ Meeting in Beijing. He said APEC members are brought together by the water of the Pacific Ocean and have a shared responsibility (责任) to make the Pacific an ocean of peace, friendship and cooperation (合作).

8 . Do you like travelling? If you are interested, come to our travel service as soon as possible. We provide the following travel lines for you to choose from.

When winter comes, Siberian cranes migrate (迁徙) from northeast Siberia in Russia to Poyang Lake in Jiangxi province, China.     1     However, climate (气候) change brings danger to the birds’ living areas.

In some years, the Poyang Lake met floods and droughts. These natural disasters led to little food for cranes there. To work out the problem, the local government built a large area of lotus roots (莲藕) in Nanchang.     2     So there are more and more birds living near the Poyang Lake.

China keeps working hard to protect migratory birds. These years, the government build about 1,140 places for animals to have babies, including wintering grounds and migratory stops.     3     Known as the Earth’s kidneys (肾脏), wetlands play an important part in cleaning water, preventing floods, and offering a perfect home to different wildlife.

    4     It stops any building work on national wetlands and says no to any harmful activities, such as pouring dirty wastewater to wetlands.

Thanks to all the hard work, more birds like to spend winter in the national wetlands. In December 2022, Shanghai Chongming Dongtan Bird National Reserve recorded over 2,900 tundra swans.     5     It’s believed that if we act to protect the wetlands well, we will watch more endangered animals and enjoy nicer nature.