1 . The village super league, or “Cun Chao” in Chinese, is a soccer game among different villages in Rongjiang county, Guizhou Province, and it is so down-to-earth but popular that it has attracted not only the attention of football legend Michael Owen but also millions of Chinese netizens (网民), who are paying attention to this non-professional football league.

The players come from a variety of backgrounds. They are vendors, drivers, students, carpenters, tilers, former butchers, and brick factory workers. Their ages range from 15 to over 40 years old. At the game site, representatives wearing various traditional national costumes play national musical instruments and enter the field with the players, and perform songs and dances.

“This kind of football game is natural and with ‘pureness’ and it is driven by the love of the ordinary people not the economic benefits. The game is providing not only values of sports, but also a way of socializing with low costs,” an expert noted. This kind of atmosphere is very rarely seen and is treasured, especially for people in urban areas who are getting increasingly busy and under great work pressure, and when they look at the fun, relaxing and down-to-earth way of life in the countryside, they will naturally be interested, experts said. There is at least one good effect brought by the “Cun Chao” to Chinese soccer—to make more people see the pureness of joy and encourage them to play soccer.

Today, more and more grassroots sports events are held in the mountains and are using sports as a medium to showcase the unique charm of the local area, reflecting an energetic lifestyle filled with agricultural activities and rural fun.

2 . An Urban Farmer’s Garden of Eden

Ivy Lawrence-Walls didn’t set out to choose farming. But it chose her. She grew up on a five-acre farm in Houston and credits many ______ life lessons to her childhood. She remembers observing a bird build a nest as an inquisitive seven-year-old. She learned ______ as the nest gradually grew bigger overtime.

She didn’t know then that many of those childhood lessons would be ______ to her life now as a full-time farmer and enterpreneur. Now at 27, she has ______ the farm into a farm and vegetable garden ______ creating sustainable, healthy food access for neighborhood communities.

The garden grows carrots, cabbage, pumpkin, peppers, and delivers for free to local residents. It also hosts various plant pop-up events at local schools to ______ the next generation of farmers.

“Starting the farm in the early stages of the pandemic was a leap of ______,” said Lawrence-Walls. Now her daily ______ is not working in the hospital but trading in her lab coat like a doctor to produce food full-time. ______, she is still ______ in public health. “Food is public health and we hope to ______ some of the issues that we do face in the neighborhood through food and community wellness, green spaces, and mental health awareness.” she stressed.

Lawrence-Walls said her biggest challenge ______ from her nine-to-five to a full-time business owner was ______ the news to her mom, who thought she was crazy to leave her corporate job to dig holes. Additionally, she had to mentally move past the ______ by which success traditionally gets defined in society. “It took a lot for me to realize that, yes, I am digging holes. Yes, I am dirty 90 percent of the time, but I’m happy and realizing that this work is ______” she said frankly.

3 . It was the most destructive wildfire in California history. It started in Paradise (天堂镇) and caused $16.5 billion in _______, destroying nearly 19,000 buildings and killing 85 in all. The beauty of this _______ named place was gone.

Grammer, working in Los Angeles, grew up there. When his friend Edwards posted pictures of his white chimney — the only part of his house to survive — he felt _______. And then he had an idea.

“I’ve got to _______ that chimney,” he says, “I’m not trying to say anything. I’m an artist. It was an opportunity for me to _______.”

Grammer spent three hours painting an image of a woman on the _______ — a reminder of the chimney, of the beauty of life, or even just of _______ itself.

Grammer posted the image on Instagram. Those who were affected by the fire, _______, could not calm down. Someone _______, “You bring beauty and hope.”

Greatly inspired, Grammer returned eight times. Outside one house, he found a photo of a girl, Eleanor. He painted a picture of her on the wall of her home left __________. It was a stamp that life was here and that life can __________ to be here. The painting has __________ meaning for the homeowner. Eleanor’s father, recalls how she used to play just feet away. Eleanor herself returned once to __________ the painting.

Ironically (讽刺的是) that first painting, on the chimney in Paradise, __________ only a few months — the bulldozer (推土机) is a cruel art critic. However, Grammer couldn’t be more delighted. It means that the __________ of Paradise is rising again.

4 . Francis Kere is the first African to win the Pritzker Prize, known as the Nobel Prize of architecture. However, his ________ to the peak of his field was far from smooth. Growing up in a village where there was no kindergarten, he was ________ into an extremely hot classroom with over 100 students. At the age of 7, Francis Kere had to leave his family home to attend school because his village didn’t have one of its own. This ________ of poor building facilities contributed to his vision of better educational lives of local children, using architecture. Thirteen years later, he boarded a plane for Germany on a scholarship to study architecture.

His early reputation came in helping ________ a school in his village after graduating from college. He ________ the whole village to provide ideas and drew the ________ on sand for all to see. ________, he involved them in constructing the school, using local wood and local clay (黏土).

The result of their hard work was a welcoming structure with a “floating” roof that ________ ventilation (通风) in a hot climate and wall openings that bring ________ for students to learn even without electricity. He showed the villagers that ideas to ________ climate or other challenges are always at hand.

In this process, local people learned ________ skills that they could later use to find work. By cooperating with them, Kere ________ the idea that climate solutions started with big institutions. He ________ that everyone could contribute to addressing the major issues related to education and climate and ________ a global impact by acting locally.

Adopted by architects in dozens of countries, his ________ is rooted in the “unique” aspects of each community now.

5 . Working with a stressed mind is like swimming with a jacket on, while a mind free from work stress is light like the wind and it can help you accomplish your daily tasks easily. To relieve (缓解) stress and lighten your mind, you must first understand the nature of stress and the reasons why it builds up. Then you can easily beat stress.

Talk it out

Talking to others helps relieve work stress especially when you and the person you talk to are in the same boat and under the same work stress. Your worries will be divided! If you are your own boss, you need some good advisers around you, who know your trouble and talk sense. If there is no such persons at your workplace, let there be one at home, who is a friend,a family member or a guide that you can talk to.

Let music calm your mind

Music has the power to take you into a new world, away from your worries. Taking a break to listen to some favorite music is also a great way to relieve stress.

Take a walk

If there is a park around, go and have a walk there. You can eat some snacks sitting on the grass. Move around, look at the world around you and forget your work for a while. Let your body get some exercise. A walk works as it also clears your thoughts. You can listen to music while going on a walk.

Have a life beyond the workplace

If you keep thinking about nothing other than work all the time, there is bound to be stress. So, throw away your thoughts about work after you leave your office and get a life beyond it. Have a life beyond the workplace, and you can relax after work.

6 . China has set new rules limiting the amount of time children can play online games. The rules limit children to just three hours of online game playing a week. That is one hour between 8 p. m. and 9 p. m. on Friday, Saturday and Sunday most weeks.

Li Zhanguo has two children aged 4 and 8. Even though they do not have smartphones, they enjoy playing online games. Like many other parents. Li is happy with new government rules. But experts say it is unclear if such policies can help prevent addiction to online games. Children might just get addicted to social media instead. In the end, experts say, parents should be the ones to set limits and support good practice.

There has been a growing concern in China about gaming addiction among children. Government reports in 2018 found that about one in ten Chinese children were addicted to the Internet. The new rules are part of an effort to prevent young people from spending too much time on unhealthy entertainment. That includes what officials call the “irrational fan culture”

Under the new rules, the responsibility for making sure children play only three hours a day as largely on Chinese gaming companies like Net Ease and Ten cent. Companies have set up real-name registration systems to prevent young users from going past game time limits. They have used facial recognition technology to check their identities. And they have also set up a program that permits people to report what is against the law. It is unclear what punishments gaming companies may face if they do not carry out the policies. And even if such policies are performed, it is also unclear whether they can prevent online addiction.

A specialist treating Internet addiction expects about 20 percent of children will find ways to break the rules by borrowing accounts of their older relatives and find a way around facial recognition. In his opinion, short-video alps such as Douyin and Kuaishou are also very popular in China. They are not under the same restrictions as games.

8 . The photographs that Scilla took as a 16-year-old girl on the streets of London in 1955 stayed largely in her album (相册) over the years. Scilla is now 83, and her self-developed black-and-white photos have been brought back to life after they were discovered by a teenage photographer.

Over the past year, Philip Loveday, 16, has been revisiting his grandmother’s path across the capital to carefully rephotograph the pictures. His journey through time with a camera has been especially moving, because his grandmother, Scilla, has Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔茨海默症) and has lost many of her memories.

Philip took new photos that looked like the ones Scilla took long ago, and put them in a new album. Each page of Scilla’s old album was copied and put in the new one, with Philip’s new photos on the opposite pages. Philip’s mother, Catherine Loveday, said Scilla had been happy with the new album, which had “put her back in her shoes” as a teenager.

Philip said his mother showed him the album she had found at her mother’s house. Greatly absorbed in how modern London would compare to the city photographed by his grandmother, Philip and his mother began to make trips into central London. During the trips, they had the idea of retaking the photos.

Some of the places are similar, like Big Ben. Others show how the city has modernized. Unlike Scilla’s view of St. Paul’s Cathedral from the Thames, Philip’s retake has the Millenium Bridge. When Scilla photographed the John Lewis store on Oxford Street, it was a one-storey building — now it has seven floors. Philip had to use his imagination to recreate other sights. Scilla has repeatedly returned to her new album since receiving it. Philip said: “It’s nice for her to see someone taking an interest in those photos and going back over them, and also good for her to connect her past to where we are now.”

9 . Hang your tongue out of your mouth while your eyes look upwards. Breathe loudly and use your hands to pull your head in every way. This is yoga (瑜伽) for your face.

Fumiko Takatsu, creator of the Face Yoga Method, has written six books on face yoga and has been practicing facial exercises for about 15 years. Takatsu, 50, said she came up with the idea of facial exercises after a car accident when she was 35 years old, which left her face out of its proper position. Around the same time, Takatsu said she began to notice signs of aging, but gave up using creams and beauty treatments after they became too expensive.

Koko Hayashi, 39, a face yoga instructor in Los Angeles, said she first heard of face yoga by discovering Takatsu’s work. Hayashi said she had a chin implant (下巴植入体) when she was 27 years old, but took it out because it misshaped her face. “That’s why I’m so interested in more natural beauty instead of plastic surgery (整形手术),” Hayashi said. Like others who practice facial exercises, Hayashi believes it can fix signs of aging and help reduce wrinkles (皱纹).

The question that often pops up when someone mentions face yoga is, “Does it actually work?” A study out of Northwestern University found that the exercises may help middle-aged women.

“This is a pilot study that suggests that there might be some factors of face exercise that can be helpful to at least certain patients in improving certain signs of aging,” said Dr. Murad Alam from Northwestern University.” But we need more studies to better understand exactly how much exercise is necessary to have any benefit, whether it works for men and women of different ages, and then how much exercise is needed to keep that benefit.”

Medical reporter Dr. Jennifer Ashton said that she is not sure whether face yoga works and that any benefits are most likely going to be up to the person trying it. “If you feel better after trying face yoga, it may be something you should keep doing,” she said.