1 . Recently my friend invited me to her residential hall, which is an African-American themed hall. They have lots of meetings and outings there. So I thought it would be fun. On this particular day they were having a pancake breakfast, just a time to mix. I was excited to be there, too.

I walked in at a time when the mini-party was at its peak. I found my friend; excitedly, we hugged and she led me to a seat in the back. We sat there for some time. I sensed some sort of discrimination. I wondered, were we just isolating ourselves or were we facing discrimination?

My friend’s breakfast came in first, and it was a plate full of colors. My mouth watered. I have always liked rainbow dishes: they make me hungry. She let me pick pancakes and fruit; we ate and only then began to talk.

The black American contemporary music was extremely loud. Some boys and girls were beating the tables and some guys on the stage were dancing in what looked like a kind of competition.

We talked about various subjects: hair, boys, shoes and books. And then we got to it. “What do African Americans think of Africans?”

We argued. I told her I thought African Americans were haughty. Why did they sideline us? When we met in a narrow passage and our eyes met, they quickly looked aside before we greeted. Why? Weren’t we all black? I mean, wasn’t this exactly the reason why there was an African-American themed house to begin with?

Did they look down upon us because they grew up in America and we in Sub-Saharan Africa? Oh yes, I felt this was it! They believed that we were HIV-positive and that the giraffes were right behind our huts.

My friend uttered, “No!” And then she continued：

“I also thought so at one point but after living with these guys, I got to a different conclusion altogether. These guys are not from Africa. They were not born there and may have never been there. We can’t expect them to naturally like us or bond. We are different. Skin color is the skin color.”

2 . I am standing next to a five-year old girl in Pormpuraaw, a small native community in northern Australia. When I ask her to point north, she points exactly and without hesitation. My compass (指南针) says she is right. Later, back in a lecture hall at Stanford University, I make the same request of an audience of excellent professors. Many refuse; they do not know the answer.

A five-year-old in one culture can do something with ease that great scientists in other cultures struggle with. This is a big difference in cognitive (认知的) ability. What could explain it? The surprising answer, it turns out, may be language.

Around the world people communicate with one another using a variety of languages—7,000 or so all told—and each language requires very different things from its speakers. For example, suppose I want to tell you that I saw Uncle Vanya on 42nd Street. In Mian, a language spoken in Papua New Guinea, the verb I used would reveal (显示) whether the event happened just now, yesterday or in the distant past, while in Indonesia, the verb wouldn’t even give away whether it had already happened or was still coming up. In Russian, the verb would reveal my gender (性别).

Research in my lab and in many others has been uncovering how language shapes even the most basic concept (概念) of human experience: space, time, and relationships to others. Unlike English, the language spoken in Pormpuraaw does not use relative spatial (空间感的) terms such as left and right. Rather speakers talk in terms of absolute directions. Of course, in English we also use direction terms but only for large spatial scales (标度). We would not say, for example, “They set the salad forks southeast of the dinner forks!” But in Pormpuraaw, absolute directions are used at all scales. This means one ends up saying things like “the cup is southeast of the plate” or “the boy standing to the south of Mary is my brother.”

3 . The music world lost a rock and roll superstar this week when guitarist Eddie Van Halen passed away. He was only 65 years old.

Eddie Van Halen was a founding member of the band Van Halen. He formed the group in 1974 with his brother Alex, who played the drums. Van Halen released (发行) its most popular single, the song Jump, in 1983. Jump rose to the top of Billboard Magazıne’s list of Hot 100 songs and stayed there for five weeks. The Rock and Roll Hall of Fame in Cleveland, Ohio lists Jump among its “500 Songs that Shaped Rock and Roll”. Eddie Van Halen released at least 15 record albums with his band over the years, selling more than 80 million around the world. In 2007, Van Halen entered the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame.

The Van Halen brothers were born in the Netherlands. Their father was a professional musician. Their mother was from Indonesia. In the 1950s, some Netherlanders did not support the mixed-race (混种族) marriage, so the family moved to the United States. They settled in southern California. Eddie and Alex Van Halen had to learn English in their new land. Both brothers studied piano for years before getting interested in rock and roll.

As a child, Eddie was considered musically gifted. Eddie told a reporter he did not learn to read music. He said he would watch his teacher play and memorize his moves. He also said that he never took a class on playing the guitar, although he studied under Eric Clapton for a time. His father was among the first to recognize Eddie’s guitar skill. “You’ve got it, kid,” Eddie’s father said to him early on.

Eddie’s guitar playing was hard and fast. He was energetic while performing, often jumping like an acrobat (杂技演员) as he played. He was known for the way he tapped on the guitar strings with both hands. It influenced many musicians that followed.

4 . When I was a college student, I did a lot of traveling abroad. That was because a professor _________ me to do so. She said, “Now is the time for you to travel around the world, _________ your knowledge through actual experiences and have fun!” I _________ her.

Since I started to work for a food company, _________, I have done most of my traveling through the Internet. By using the Internet, I have seen the _________ of many cities on my computer screen. And I have really made business _________, too. With the help of the Internet, I have also got _________ about food from different countries.

Therefore, I was beginning to feel that actual trips were _________ necessary when I happened to read a famous chef’s comment on the Internet. He said, “It is very difficult to have real Italian food in a foreign country, because we enjoy food and the _________ around us at the same time.” Those words __________ me of my professor’s advice. With information technology advancing, you might be able to do without making some real trips. But this also means that you will miss the various __________ you can get from traveling.

Today, people __________ direct communication with others and spend much of their time on the Internet. I do not think that they are taking good advantage of information technology. We should use information technology as a tool to make our daily communication more __________. Besides, we should never let it __________ our time for face-to-face communication. Let’s make use of information technology more __________ and have great fun in experiencing the actual world.

5 . I had just finished my dance class, and it was a disaster: I started on the wrong foot and couldn’t get the steps that other students seemed to do easily. I began to _________ my talent for ballet.

Just then, my big sister Julissa arrived. She took one _________ at me and asked, “What’s wrong, Lakeisha?”

“Nothing,” I said _________.

“Uh huh,” Julissa replied. “Looks like a (n) _________ ‘nothing’ to me, so tell me what happened.”   

“Well,” I mumbled (咕哝) , “maybe I shouldn’t be taking _________ classes? It felt like I was the only one who couldn’t land her pirouettes (单脚尖旋转) today.”

“Listen,” she said, “not every day is a (n) _________ one, and not everything you try is going to _________ the way you want. The point is to keep _________. Remember that and you’ll be fine.”

“I tried my best, but …” I replied.

Looking at me seriously, Julissa said, “Maybe ballet is not your _________ yet, but dance is. I see how you shake and move all the time. There are all kinds of __________ to dance, so maybe you just need to __________ your own style. Why not stick to jazz dance? You are so good at it.”

I thought about her __________ and my performances carefully. Yes, why had I never __________ that? I wanted to be a ballet dancer, but it may not be a good __________ for me. It seemed as if I suddenly saw the light. “You’re right,” I replied. “Thank you. I’m so __________ to have you to guide me!”

6 . The latest data shows the population of wild Asin elephants in southwest China’s Yunnan Province has increased from around 150 to more than 300 from the 1980s to the end of 2021, according to the National Forestry and Grassland Administration.

With the growth in the elephant population, conflicts between humans and elephants have become frequent. In order to fundamentally and peacefully solve the issue and protect the elephant’s habitat at the same time, construction of the Asian elephant National Park is picking up speed. Experts suggest that national parks are not intended to be entirely free of people. Instead, they should offer a method for coexistence.

Asian elephants play an important role as engineers of the rainforest, said the expert. Their migration (迁徙) can speed up the replacement of forest ecosystems along the way. Elephant waste remains not only food for insects, but also attracts insectivorous birds, allowing plant seeds to spread. Therefore, protecting the elephants and their habitats guarantees the shelter to other wildlife in forest ecosystems.

To cope with human-elephant conflicts, Yunnan took the lead in introducing a commercial insurance model into its compensation (补偿) system: local residents will be paid with the amount of money for the crops destroyed by the elephants by the insurance company. In the past 10 years, Yunnan has paid a total of 173 million yuan for losses caused by Asian elephants.

“The standard of compensation is constantly being adjusted, and the amount of insurance coverage for compensation is also increasing,” said Yang Hua from the Forestry and Grass Bureau of Yunnan Province. “At present, the insured amount in Pu’er City and Xishuangbanna Prefecture alone has already gone beyond 50 million.”

10 . Liverpool, my hometown, is a unique city. It is so unique that in 2004 it became a World Heritage Site.

I recently returned to my home city and my first stop was at a museum on the River Mersey. Blanketed in mist, Victorian architecture rose from the banks of the river, responded to the sounds of seabirds, and appeared unbelievably charming. When I headed toward the centre, I found myself surrounded by buildings that mirror the best palaces of Europe. It is not hard to imagine why, on first seeing the city, most visitors would be overpowered by the beauty of the noble buildings, which are solid sigs of Liverpool’s history.

As if to stress its cultural role, Liverpool has more museums and galleries than most cities in Britain. At Walker Art Gallery, I was told that it has the best collections of Victorian paintings in the world, and is the home of modern art in the north of England. However, culture is more than galleries. Liverpool offers many music events. As Britain’s No. 1 music city, it has the biggest city music festival in Europe, and its musicians are famous all over the world. Liverpool is also well-known for its football and other sports events. Every year, the Mersey River Festival attracts thousands of visitors, making the city a place of wonder.

As you would expect from such a city, there are restaurants serving food from around the world. When my trip was about to complete, I chose to rest my legs in Liverpool’s famous Philharmonic pub. It is a monument to perfection, and a heritage attraction itself.

Being a World Heritage Site, my home city is certainly a place of “outstanding universal value”. It is a treasure house with plenty of secrets for the world to explore.