1 . Every time Oksana Chusovitina competes in a gymnastics event, she catches the audience’s attention. The Hangzhou Asian Games proved no exception. When the 48-year-old Uzbek gymnast took part in the event on Monday, thousands of audiences cheered for “Qiu Ma”, which translates to “Mother Chusovitina”.

“I’m touched by Chusovitina’s story. She tried to save her son and just never gave up. She is beautiful both as an athlete and as a mother,” said Zhang Anqi, a Hangzhou local who attended the event.

After completing her competition, Chusovitina blew a kiss to the audience and formed a “heart” shape with her hands. “It is the love and support of the people that keep me going and give me the strength to achieve more,” Chusovitina said. “I am not very satisfied with my performance tonight. Actually, I was a little over-excited. I will increase the difficulty in the final,” she added.

Chusovitina has a storied history at the Asian Games, having won eight medals, including two golds in 2002. Her Olympic journey began in 1992, representing the former Soviet Union. She later stood for Uzbekistan. When Chusovitina’s son got a serious illness in 2002, she chose to take German citizenship (国籍) to compete at global events for a higher income and better medical treatment. She took her Uzbek citizenship in 2013 again.

Her heartfelt feeling, “I dare not grow old until you are well,” has moved many. After her son’s recovery, Chusovitina continued her gymnastics journey simply out of love for the sport. Though she announced her retirement after the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, she decided to return shortly after. “The biggest power is my desire. I want to perform. I love gymnastics, and it brings me great joy. I’m just doing what I love, so why should I stop?” Chusovitina said.

4 . The sun was shining brightly over our heads and sweat (汗水) was pouring off our backs and faces. We stood still without ______ any noise, all hot and tired. But everyone kept standing as straight as trees.

It was ______ most high schools give to new Senior One students-military training. We ______ four days in a closed environment. Although we couldn’t go home at night and the training was ______ and difficult, our humorous young drill sergeant (教官) with a funny accent was a real ______ of our days. We laughed at his jokes, sat in rows singing different songs and ______ him telling true stories about his life. He gave us the feeling that ______ and sweat were not the only things that military training ______ .

After this journey, we were more ______ than we had imagined and we were much braver than we had ______ . Girls who looked pale rested for a little while, then right away came back to the team. Boys who were being punished ______ to the playground at once and began to run. Sweat flowed down our faces when we thought about how to shout ______ than other classes.

Military training taught us perseverance (不懈) and determination. On the last day of our training, the confidence could be ______ on our faces. We shouted so loud that our ______ could be heard across the heavens. With eyes like burning torches (火炬) , we walked into the future. Now the sun is ______ at all of us.

6 . Putting more green space around a school may help students develop some mental abilities, a study suggests. Researchers tested students repeatedly over the course of a year on attentiveness (专注力)and working memory, which is the ability to keep something in mind temporarily for performing a task. On the whole, students whose schools were surrounded by more green space improved more than pupils from schools with less green space.

The study tracked more than 2,000 students in 36 primary schools in Barcelona, Spain. The pupils were in the second to fourth grades when the study began. Green space may help mental development by reducing air pollution from vehicles, according to an article by the researchers that included pollution data from the schools. It may also help by reducing noise and encouraging physical activity, researchers said.

Policy makers should know that “more green around the school is better for cognitive development and that they should make sure that kids can see and play in green areas,” one author Mark Nieuwenhuijsen said. “Existing urban schools should think about replacing concrete or other hard surfaces with green space,” he suggested, “and even a few trees may help.”

The researchers used satellite images to group schools according to how much green space appeared on the school grounds and within about 55 yards of the school property. Their analysis showed that differences in socio-economic factors between schools did not account for the study outcome.

Sally Augustin, a psychologist, said the results made sense to her. She said the results fit with previous findings that views of nature help children and adults lower stress and perform mental tasks better.

7 . If you are a party animal in Guangxi, join us to explore some of the popular festivals in Liuzhou.

Temple Fair Day

It is believed to be the oldest and the largest temple fair day celebrated in Fengshan, Liuzhou. It is an event known to easily attract more than 30,000 people to take part in the parades. It is a day for enjoying temple wishes, dancing to non-stop ethnic songs, and tasting lots of local dishes.

Time: February       Price: Free

March 3rd Festival

This is an annual event that takes place every March in Sanjiang county. The festival features a lot of ethnic minority homemade food. You can also expect to enjoy live ethnic music and dances performed by famous local dancers.

Time: March 3rd       Price: 3 RMB

Liuzhou Marathon Festival

This event started more than 10 years ago. Currently, it is an attractive weekend that sees attendance go way past 12,000 people. During the festival, participants take part in exciting activities, with the major ones like funny marathon, and food sales.

Time: April            Price: 12 RMB

Dragon Boat Show

Longtan park is usually the place of Dragon Boat Show—a festival for boating lovers that occurs in May. It is the largest dragon boat show in Liuzhou. A great deal of people will be there at that time. Welcome to join the show.

Time: May            Price: 5 RMB

9 . If you think of the jobs robots could never do, you would probably put doctors and teachers at the top of the list. But, in some cases, they already perform better than doctors at diagnosing (诊断) illness. Also some patients might feel more comfortable sharing personal information with a machine than a person. Could there be a place for robots in education after all?

British education expert Anthony Seldon thinks so. And he even has a date for the robot takeover of the classroom: 2027. He believes robots will do the main job of transferring information and teachers will be like assistants. Intelligent robots will read students’ faces, movements and maybe even brain signals. Then they will transfer the information to each student. It’s not a popular opinion and it’s unlikely robots will ever have empathy (共情) and the ability to really connect with humans like another human can.

One thing is certain, though. A robot teacher is better than no teacher at all. In some parts of the world, there aren’t enough teachers and 9—16 percent of children under the age of 14 don’t go to school. Teachers all over the world are leaving because it is a difficult and lower-paid job and they feel overworked. That problem could be partly solved by robots.

Perhaps the question is not “Will robots replace teachers?” but “How can robots help teachers?”. Teachers waste a lot of time doing non-teaching work, including more than 11 hours a week marking homework. If robots could cut the time teachers spend marking homework and writing reports, teachers would have more time and energy for the parts of the job humans do best.