3 . As the new snow season starts, enthusiastic skiers and snowboarders can’t wait to hit the trails. Among them is 11-month-old Wang Yuji, who can barely walk. A video of the girl standing on a snowboard and sliding down a hill in Zhangjiakou, Hebei province, went viral on the Internet recently.

Fan Xueyin, Yuji’s mother, said it was her daughter’s first time to try snowboarding. She said she and her husband were both born in the 1980s, live and work in Beijing, and love outdoor sports such as cycling, camping and running. They hope Yuji will learn to share those interests.

“As China will host the Winter Olympics soon, we are really encouraged to try ice and snow sports,” Fan said. Recently, we learned to snowboard for the first time, so we also brought our child, with the mentality of trying something new.

“Our family’s philosophy has always been that we encourage our child to do whatever sports we do. We don’t choose sports that we don’t know how to do ourselves. I went snowboarding with her dad, so we got her a little snowboard too.”

They initially considered waiting until Yuji was a little older, but Fan said “she really loved it”. Fan said the family has visited Thaiwoo Ski Resort in Zhangjiakou’s Chongli district many times. “Yuji has got along very well with the staff and neighbors,” she said. “Unlike living in the city, it’s wonderful for her to be able to play outside three or four hours a day here.”

China is the home of pandas, which lend themselves adorably to mascot (吉祥物) use. Bing Dwen Dwen, mascot of the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympic Games, has become all the rage.

    1    (reflect) this Olympic Games held in winter, the official mascot for Beijing 2022 was designed as a panda     2    (wrap) in a space suit of ice. The     3    (inspire) came from traditional Chinese snack tanghulu—candied hawthorns (山楂) on a stick. This new mascot served as     4     ambassador for winter sports, bringing joy to those     5     participated in and watched the Olympic Winter Games. “Bing” means ice and also     6    (symbol) purity and strength, while “Dwen Dwen” means strong, lovely and lively. The mascot     7    (intend) to represent the strength and willpower of athletes and helped to promote the Olympic spirit.

The Panda Bing Dwen Dwen was     8    (wide) praised. In just a few days, this panda mascot with a full-rounded figure was already out of stock. Fans were waiting     9     lines for hours or even a whole night in cold weather to purchase one. To ensure every fan had one, manufacturers motivated their workers to end the Chinese New Year holiday in advance,     10    (struggle) to produce the panda mascot.

6 . With the completion of the Beijing Winter Games, the city has become the first in the world to host both the Summer and Winter Olympic Games.

As Beijing normally doesn’t have much snow in winter, artificial snow has been used at venues for the Beijing 2022 Olympic winter Games.

“If you want to wait for nature ensured the smooth running of the Winter Games, provide you with all of the required materials to ski on, you risk not being able organize a competition, ”the former International Ski Federation (FIS) freestyle coordinator Joseph Fitzgerald told Xinhua.

Artificial snow has been commonly seen in the Olympic Winter Games for decades ever since its first use in Lake Placid, New York, in 1980. Artificial snow has many benefits. It’s fairer and safer for athletes, competing during each event Competition snow requires a higher density (密度) than recreational snow in order to meet the requirements of the FIS. Different from natural snow, certain characteristics of the artificial snow can be easily changed to meet the qualities and needs of different competition venues (场地).

Snow machines at the Beijing 2022 Winter Games all ran on renewable energy. “We have designed the latest in snow-making. It’s very efficient in terms of energy consumption and the use of water,”Davide Cerato , an Italian mountain operation expert in charge of snow-making in Zhangjiakou, told China Daily. “Water used for snow-making only comes from rainfall and surface run-off, and it can be recycled, Wei Qinghua, the mountain operation manager at the Zhangjiakou, told Shine, a Shanghai-based news platform. A sewage (污水) treatment station has also been established to process the sanitary (卫生的) sewage from the competition zone into recycling water for plant-watering and toilet use, Sun Xianghui, an engineer from Beijing Beikong Jing’ao Construction Corporation, told Xinhua.

Opening Ceremony Shows Difference

Still remember what was different on 4^th February this year?     1     (put) the Olympic torch in the middle of a giant snowflake-shaped cauldron (大锅), the two persons saw it rise to the top of the National Stadium at 2022 Winter Olympics opening ceremony. “The Olympic spirit is not necessarily shown through a big flame; the fire of one torch can be a symbol,” said Zhang Yimou, chief director of the event. The giant “snowflake” was made from 91 smaller     2    , each with the name of a participating country or region. According to Zhang,     3     (combine) the smaller snowflakes symbolizes people’s joint efforts to build a community with a shared future for humanity and only through such efforts     4     man overcome the pandemic (流行病).

The 2008 ceremony boasted large-scale performances displaying traditional Chinese culture, while this year’s was centered around natural performances from ordinary people,     5     Zhang sought to deliver Chinese style in a different way. None of the performers at this opening ceremony wore ancient clothes as were seen 14 years ago. 76 participants     6     different countries walked shoulder to shoulder through the performance zone in a program that greeted all the people around the world. This specific area was set against a background of images     7     (feature) past Olympic competitions and the global fight against COVID-19. This part     8     impressed most viewers aimed to show that ordinary and diverse individuals can reflect the slogan—together for a bright future.

Under the guidance of “green Olympics”, the use of fireworks this time was only 10 percent that of the 2008 Games. Moreover, the creative approach     9     only a single torch was placed inside the cauldron highlighted China’s low-carbon and environmental protection efforts. So far, the total amount of carbon emitted     10     (find) only one 5,000th of that at the 2008 Summer Games.

A grand ceremony     1     (hold) on Feb 20 in Beijing to mark the closing of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games. The ceremony at the National Stadium, also     2     (know) as the Bird’s Nest, began with children dancing while holding snowflake-shaped lanterns. A traditional “Chinese knot” pattern     3     (appear) over the stadium before athletes entered the venue. The red Chinese knot was projected digitally into the sky,     4     (mark) not only the connection of China with the world, but also the Olympic spirit of togetherness.