1 . I began to grow up that winter night when my parents and I were returning from my aunt’s house, and my mother said that we might soon be leaving for America. We were on the bus then. I was crying, and some people on the bus were turning around to look at me. I remember that I could not bear the thought of never hearing again the radio program for school children to which I listened every morning.

I do not remember myself crying for this reason again. In fact, I think I cried very little when I was saying goodbye to my friends and relatives. When we were leaving I thought about all the places I was going to see — the strange and magical places I had known only from books and pictures. The country I was leaving never to come back was hardly in my head then.

The four years that followed taught me the importance of optimism, but the idea did not come to me at once. For the first two years in New York I was really lost — having to study in three schools as a result of family moves. I did not quite know what I was or what I should be. Mother remarried, and things became even more complex for me. Some time passed before my stepfather and I got used to each other. I was often sad, and saw no end to “the hard times.”

My responsibilities in the family increased a lot since I knew English better than everyone else at home. I wrote letters, filled out forms, translated at interviews with Immigration officers, took my grandparents to the doctor and translated there, and even discussed telephone bills with company representatives.

From my experiences I have learned one important rule: almost all common troubles eventually go away! Something good is certain to happen in the end when you do not give up, and just wait a little! I believe that my life will turn out all right, even though it will not be that easy.

2 . To raise money for restaurant workers who had to stay at home during COVID-19, two brothers, Aiden and Louis Ardine, decided to walk 3,200 miles across America to raise money.

Having just arrived on the sands of the Pacific Ocean, Aiden and Louis Ardine have now completed their five-month walk which started on the Asbury Park boardwalk in New Jersey. They hoped to raise $30, 000 for some charities (慈善组织) that were helping restaurant workers waiting for lockdown (隔离) to end, but ended up making $70,000 — which they gave away to the COCO Fund and the Restaurant Workers’ Community Foundation.

“This would not have been possible without the help of a huge community of people, whether people were donating or helping us guide our way across the United States,” said Aiden Ardine. “This was surely an adventure full of hope, and it proved people are born good and want to help their neighbors.”

Just like cross-country trips in this nation, their journey was characterized by amazing views, long roads, and helpful strangers: like a man who passed them in the extreme heat of summertime Iowa, before doubling back and giving them a cold Gatorade; or a Nevada campground manager who left them stay for free.

In Utah they had what the naturalist John Muir would have described as an “interview” with a black bear, when rounding a corner in the path, they found themselves within a few feet of it.

When they reached San Francisco, their supporters were waiting for them on the beach. Afterwards they flew home along with their mom who had been there to meet them. After their adventurous stay away from home, we can only imagine she was really feeling proud of her sons.

3 . As a teenager in the 1960s, growing up in suburbs south of Boston, I fell under the control of the very pleasantly ________ mysteries (谜) of the Chinese language. Someday, I told myself, I would ________ the meanings of the mysteries.

So, entering college, I decided to ________ the study of Chinese. But my small college in Maine offered no courses in that language. Following graduation from college, I entered an evening course at a language center for adults, and thus ________ my personal journey in the study of Chinese. That journey ________ George Washington and Georgetown universities, the Department of State’s Foreign Language Institute’s early mornings classes… and after a 15-year ________, restarted in tutoring classes starting in 1999 and later in independent study at George Mason University without ________ From 1983 and through the following decades, a dozen business trips to China ________ my study of Chinese, I experienced the amazing change of China.

In 2012, I retired. I began to attend weekly presentations about Chinese affairs sponsored (主办) by George Mason’s Confucius Institute, where by late 2014 this casual (偶然的) contact had led to the ________ of a Chinese Reading Club. By mid-2016 six experienced Chinese learners could read and discuss difficult, ________ literary shorter works of such ________ Chinese authors as Mo Yan, Liu Zhenyun, and Su Tong.

Under the teachers’ guidance the ________ and joys of the group meetings to understand the secretes of the short stories I read, in Chinese, have brought me to a deeper understanding of China. I am personally ________ for the opportunity provided. I can only suggest George Mason Confucius Institute consider ________ the model of this reading group to others, as the world’s most spoken and read language is ________ popular among the Westerners who have started the wonderful voyage to it.

5 . Friday and Saturday were full of surprises for Chinese, as two places in China were listed as UNESCO World Heritage sites. The first, a World Natural Heritage, is made up of a series of migratory bird sanctuaries (候鸟保护地) along the coast of the Yellow Sea in Yancheng, East China’s Jiangsu Province. The second, the Liangzhu Archaeological Site in Hangzhou, East China’s Zhejiang Province, was listed as a World Cultural Heritage site.

China began the application process for the bird sanctuaries in 2017. It only took two years to successfully complete the process. The migratory bird sanctuaries are the central point of the East Asian-Australasian Flyway and many endangered species, especially threatened migratory birds including red-crowned cranes and flamingos, go there to hunt for food during the migration season. The birds usually take a month to finish their migration. At about 10 days into their migration, they must stop and find food in order to have the energy to continue their journey.

Compared to the short period for the World Natural Heritage’s application, the Liangzhu application was far more challenging. The application team spent six years making their dream a reality. The site in Liangzhu is evidence of the existence of an early regional state in the lower reaches of the Yangtze River during the late Neolithic (新石器) period in China, which helps fill in the gaps in the history of the rice-cultivating (种植) civilizations of China and East Asia more than 5000 years ago. The site was one of the 20th century’s most important archaeological discoveries in China.

With these two new additions, China now has 55 World Heritage sites, the highest number in the world. The successful application means greater responsibility and duties. Protecting these places is much more important and is our future work.

6 . According to related new research, tropical cyclones (热带气旋), from hurricanes to typhoons, are moving more slowly across the globe than they did decades ago, meaning that they get more destructive power and last longer.

It may seem like a good thing that cyclones pace at a slower speed, but in fact it’s not the case. Although the cyclones are moving slower across the ground, they still get high wind speeds inside, which makes hard rains stay longer over communities.

“Nothing good comes out of a slowing storm,” says James Kossin, a climate scientist, “It can increase the amount of time that buildings are suffering strong wind. And it increases rainfall.”

According to Kossin’s findings, changing storm patterns (模式) is causing greater destruction in another way. He noted that the speed of global tropical cyclones slowed by an average of 10 percent from 1949 to 2016. The pace of the storms slowed even more as they made landfall in some regions (地区). In the western North Pacific, it slowed down by nearly a third. That means there will be more time for a storm that may already contain large quantities of water to give off more of it in each place.

Basing his research on the details of nearly 70 years’ worth of storms, Kossin did not try to determine the cause of the slowdown. Even so, the change is the expected result of climate change, just as he and other cyclone experts said.

Kossin’s work was considered to be “important and new” and “pretty reasonable” by Christina Patricola, who has been studying this issue.

It is Kossin’s hope that a model (模型) showing which communities are likely to be at the highest danger could be developed by scientists. Given that in some areas, the storms are moving poleward (极地) and gaining in strength as well, places not normally passed by could be affected by unusually heavy rainfall as a result. “These are not good things to be put together,” he says.

7 . Russ Miller, 36, from Ohio, was first found ill with a serious disease when he was just 26. The condition attacked joints (关节)，making it more and more difficult for him to do everyday tasks.

“My hands are not shaped properly and I can’t manipulate them normally,”said Miller in a letter to the company. “I can no longer use normal computer keyboards and it’s hard for me to even hold a pen anymore.”

Russ’ condition worsened at fast speed, which resulted in him living on the streets in Florida for 4 years —but in 2018, he started trying to turn his life around.

“I was trying to get help and get myself out of my situation. I had a phone, but I had difficulty typing on normal keyboards... So I started looking for different smartphone keyboards. I found Typewise by accident.”

Russ thinks much of the Typewise smartphone keyboard for it enables him to “get his life back”by giving him freedom to communicate with people, get help, get an apartment and even get a job.

“Because I was able to type on my phone again, I was able to use social media to reach out to an organization that helps people with disabilities.”

It’s the specially designed keyboard that Russ finds a lot easier to use. “I can move my fingers around and don’t mess things up as often.”

“Now I have a part-time job where I take care of dogs and cats. I can’t work full-time because of my physical problems, but at least I have something to do and something to look forward to.”

8 . Four famous classic Italian writers

When speaking of Italian literature, many people come up with Dante. But there are many other famous Italian authors. Below are four recommended writers and their masterpieces.

Ludovico Ariosto (1474-1533)

Ariosto is best known for his epic (史诗般的) poem Orlando Furioso, which was published in 1977. As a poet always with new ideas, Ariosto invented the way of “singing the poem to the audience”. The poem presents a rich variety of characters, which has been an encouragement for many paintings and musical works.

Italo Calvino (1923-1985)

Calvino was the author of If on a Winter’s Night a Traveler published in 1979. The novel differs from others for its unique description of a frame story - a unifying story within which several tales are related. It has encouraged musicians like Sting to create their works. At the time of his death in 1985, Calvino was one of the world’s most translated Italian writers.

Umberto Eco (1932-2016)

Eco wrote The Name of the Rose, a historical murder mystery (神秘) novel published in 1980. In the story, he skilfully applied the use of signs and symbols to it. A number of his books deal with the meaning and understanding of communication.

Alessandro Manzoni (1785-1873)

Manzoni is most famous for his novel The Betrothed published in 1827. The novel was regarded to be connected with Risorgimento, the Italian unification movement(统一运动) in the 19th century. Probably we can say, without this great novelist and this masterpiece of world literature, Italy wouldn’t be Italy.

10 . A study from the University of Montreal and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, published in Frontiers in Medicine, found that regular virtual visits to museums could help seniors stay mentally active and come with a host of additional health benefits. That’s because these digital connections can make retirees feel less lonely and isolated (孤立的).

Social isolation has been associated with the risks for heart disease and the decline of recognition abilities in seniors and the pandemic (疫情) increased the risks due to the need for seniors to stay home and isolate, according to a press release from the university.

The researchers investigated the potential benefits of weekly virtual visits for a three-month period. The participants were people aged 65 and older who lived in Montreal. Half of the participants took part in online visits and a discussion afterwards, while the control group did not participate in any cultural events at all. The group who participated in the virtual visits showed improvements in their quality of life. “Our study showed that art-based activities may be an effective intervention,” lead author Dr. Olivier Beauchet, a professor at the University of Montreal, said in the press release. “On a global scale, this participatory art-based activity could become a model that could be offered in museums and arts institutions worldwide to promote active and healthy aging.”

The initiative reflects approaches recommended by the World Health Organization to manage certain diseases, according to Beauchet. For instance, the WHO launched the Aging and Health Program in 2015 that included using community-based organizations to promote culture as a key component of improving health. Traditionally, these sorts of preventive health activities have taken place in schools, community centers, and workplaces. “While these are suitable locations that reach a great number of people, there are additional organizations and sectors that could become partners in public health research and practice development,” Beauchet said. “Museums are among such potential partners. They are aware of the needs of their communities and are consequently expanding the types of activities they offer.”