1 . What would it be like to live on the moon? Students in the 2021 Future City competition were challenged to find out. Nine middle school students from Houston, Texas, took the grand prize home in the international competition.

Middle school teams from 37 regions in the United States, as well as Canada, Nigeria and China, took part in the 29th annual competition, which began last fall. The students used their STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) skills to create a lunar habitat 100 years in the future.

“In our city, we make full use of our SLR-MAP system, which stands for Smart Lunar Resources Management and Processing System,” said Mohammad Ali Rizvi, one of the winning students.

Extracting minerals and other resources on the moon helped the team with organic solutions to maintaining life on the planet, including providing enough oxygen and water, as well as hydrogen for fuel. When asked if they would like to live in their lunar city in the future, the students were excited and passionate about the potential relocation from the earth. They state “Living on the Moon” was the theme of this year's Future City competition, an annual event designed to encourage middle-school students to develop STEM skills.

Syeda Batool, the team teacher, encouraged the students to use their brains and provided practical advice for their project. The students then elaborated on their ideas in a 1,500-word essay. They created a model of their city with recycled materials and a brief video presentation. They also took part in an online Q&A session with technical judges.

“The most important thing we learned from this experience was teamwork,” said Mohammad Hani Mirza, who is a seventh-grader. “That's one thing we were missing because we all came from different backgrounds with different ideas, and we worked together to create one beautiful city.”

5 . Watching a young, 21-year-old Jordan Spieth win the US Masters today, I could not help but think of the great qualities he displayed to win the most famous golf event on the calendar against the greatest players in the world.

Jordan Spieth has learned to keep himself in check. There is a great proverb: “A fool shares all his or her feelings while a wise man keeps them in check.” As I watched Spieth playing, I noticed a constant calm around him. Whether he hit the shot he wanted or not, he was the same and kept his emotions steady (稳定的) and strong. He never blamed the crowd, clubs or wind.

He knows which club he is going to drive with on every hole; he knows which side of the fairway (高尔夫球道) to land and exactly where he wants to be standing on every green when he is putting; he has played it through his minds for months. He is the person who makes things happen by planning in advance. Winning is not a fluke (侥幸击中); it’s a by-product of months and years of planning. Nothing happens by chance.

If there is an event that every golfer dreams of winning, it’s the US Masters. So, how would Spieth have felt in 2014 getting so close to winning but coming second? As good as second was, he only wanted to be first. The difference between great shots and poor shots at the Masters is only inches. In that 2014 final round, Spieth was standing on the 8th hole with a 2-shot lead, but through a number of small misses he lost it and never recovered it. However, he never stops learning. As a great person once said, “While you’re green, you’re growing; when you’re brown, you’re dying.” He stays green. He is always reading, learning, and he understands that the greatest teacher of all is failure.

6 . Reading out loud is one of the most useful ways to practice when you are learning a foreign language. If you want to improve your fluency, you should read a lot, and not silently but out loud!

This competition is designed to encourage all the Chinese learners to read Chinese out loud. And we hope to introduce the importance of reading out loud when learning Chinese. Also, we have brilliant prizes for the top three competitors! We look forward to hearing from you reading Chinese stories, poems, tongue twisters, lyrics, etc. We would post the recordings on our official account anonymously (匿名) and ask everyone to vote online for the recordings.

The top six will get the prizes below:

First prize (1 person): 5 hours one-to-one Chinese lesson

Second prize (2 people): 3 hours one-to-one Chinese lesson

Third prize (3 people): one 200 RMB voucher (代金券) for our course

Timeline

Please choose one from the ten materials given to you at the bottom of this web page, from 6 to 10 are lyrics, you can read or sing.

Sign up before 11 p.m., 16th of February.

Record the name: your file with your name and nationality (eg: Mike+US)

Send your recordings to hanlinmandarin@163.com, before 7 p.m., 19th of February.

We will post the anonymous recordings on HLC official account on the 21st of February. Vote online from 21st of February to 25th of February.

The result would be posted on HLC official account on the 26th of February.

If you don’t know Chinese characters, you can copy them and change them into pinyin on the following website https://www.pinyinzi.com/hanzipinyin/.

8 . Kite surfing is a sport that takes place on the surface of the water, on top of boards that are similar in design to wakeboards (尾波滑水板), with the surfer pulled by a kite. The popularity of kite surfing has grown, although it is rather difficult to master. Kite surfing uses the same equipment as kite boarding, but is generally given more to riding on top of waves, rather than on smaller lakes or other calm bodies of water.

Early experiments in kite transportation took place through the 19th century, and at the dawn of the 20th century Samuel Cody crossed the English Channel using kites and a small boat. Kite surfing itself, however, wasn’t really born until the late 1970s. Beginning in that decade, more people became involved in using kites for personal transport and sport. Kite technology itself advanced enormously during the 1970s, with kites becoming much more controllable.

The early kite surfing was rather accidental, but innovators continued to develop the technology to make it easier to control and safer. By the late 1990s, kite surfing was becoming popular off the coast of Maui, France and throughout the world. In 1997, a special kite system was built specifically for kite surfing, which helped kite surfing into the mainstream.

Because of the high speeds and the dangers, it is generally recommended that would-be kite surfers take at least a few basic classes to learn the fundamentals. The main attraction of kite surfing is the potential for amazing tricks. The kite allows the surfer to experience enormous jumps, flying through the air for large distances before hitting the water in a controlled fashion. Like skateboarding, kite surfing makes use of a number of board grabs, with complex tricks possible due to the long period of time the surfer can remain in the air.

9 . Every racehorse has different abilities．Like humans，some are short- distance runners，while others are marathoners． Figuring out which is which and how to pace them can be the difference between failure in the finish and taking the award home．Jockeys （赛马骑师） and trainers have traditionally relied on centuries of experience and data from previous races to plan their races．

Amandine Aftalion，a mathematician in Paris，thought she could add to that．Since 2013，she has been analyzing the performances of world champion runners like Usain Bolt．She has found that short-distance runners tend to win when they start strong and gradually slow down toward the finish line．But in medium-distance races，runners perform better when they start strong，settle down，and finish with a burst of speed．

Her model shows how those winning strategies maximize the energy output of muscles reliant on two different pathways：powerful aerobic（有氧的）ones that require oxygen，which can be in limited supply during a race，and anaerobic ones，which don't need oxygen but build up waste products that lead to tiredness．

Aftalion wondered which strategy would be best for horses．So she and Quentin Mercier，another mathematician， took advantage of a new GPS tracking tool inserted in French racing saddles（马鞍）．

The two studied patterns in many races at the Chantilly racetracks north of Paris and developed a model that accounted for winning strategies for three different races：a short one(1，300 meters)， a medium one (1,900 meters)， and a slightly longer one (2,100 meters)，all with different starting points on the same track．The model takes into account not just different race distances，but also the size or friction from the track surface．

The results might surprise jockeys who hold horses back early for bursts of energy in the last finish．Instead，a strong start leads to a better finish，the team found．“That doesn't mean those jockeys are wrong，though．If the start is too strong，it can be devastating as well，leaving the horse tired by the end，” Aftalion says．