1 . In recent months, the U. S. media and politicians have launched fierce attacks on China’s new energy industry, claiming that China has flooded the world with too many clean products, including solar power, new energy vehicles and lithium-ion batteries, which have lowered market prices and hurt American workers and factories. However, experts’ data and analysis overturned the Western argument about overcapacity (产能过剩).

Exports do not mean overcapacity. In a global economy with a high division of labor and specialization, it is normal for a country’s productive capacity to go beyond its domestic demand. For example, about 80% of the cars produced in Germany are exported. Commercial aircraft giants Airbus and Boeing export most of their planes to other countries. While Chinese clean technology accounts for only a small fraction of China’s exports, about 4.5 percent last year, far less than Germany. In fact, the Global Electric Vehicle Outlook, released last year, claimed that the global demand for new electric vehicles will reach 45 million units, which China’s new energy products do not go beyond.

America’s new energy industry falls behind due to underinvestment in green technology and infrastructure (基础设施). Take wind energy for example. A recent report from the Global Wind Energy Council (GWEC) shows that the United States is struggling in its development of wind energy. Building a wind farm requires huge turbine blades (涡轮叶片) and a lot of custom engineering to produce huge towers and foundations, which makes wind energy difficult to trade between countries, so the supply chain needed to run a wind farm smoothly faces great trouble.

China is the only country with enough supply chains to keep wind energy growing without difficulties. Chinese Vice Finance Minister Liao Min said green technology products in China will help the country meet its carbon emission targets and contribute to the global response to climate change and green development.

3 . Robert van Gulik was born on August 9, 1910 in the Netherlands. His mother came from a family of musicians and piano makers, a fact that greatly influenced Robert’s life. His father was a physician in army, a position which required frequent foreign postings (派驻). The family lived in various areas of the East Indies for most of Robert’s youth. This experience contributed to his appreciation for cultures and mastery of several languages.

He was an eager academic, collector of art and manuscripts (手稿), and translator of ancient writings. He studied and trained to become a master musician on the Chinese guqin and eventually wrote two books on the instrument. Similarly, his skills as an artist in the traditional Chinese style and knowledge of calligraphy were extraordinary. He wrote and published a number of non-fiction, scholarly articles and books on Chinese music, art, and literature, as well as Chinese culture and traditions.

Although he also wrote essays and short stories, Robert remained best known for his Chinese mysteries. In 1940, Robert came across an 18th-century Chinese novel that would take his career down an unplanned pathway and result in the public fame he never expected. The novel, titled Four GreatStrange Cases of Empress Wu’s Reign, was a fictional account of the deeds of Judge Dee, one of the heroes of traditional Chinese detective fiction, and was set during the 7th-century Tang Dynasty. Interested, Robert not only translated the novel into English, but he explored the history of Chinese Penal Code (刑法) and other legal literature of the period. It was not until 1949 that Robert was able to publish his translation Dee Goong An (狄公案): Three Murder Cases Solved by Judge Dee. Robert’s Chinese mysteries include over 10 novels and short-story volumes, recording the career of Chinese detective called Di Renjie. Interestingly, the tales first found fame in oriental (东方的) editions, before being translated into English in 1957.

TikTok will soon be banned in the United States if its parent company ByteDance     1     (refuse) to sell the platform, according to a bill     2     (pass) by the White House on Saturday (April 13).

An earlier version of the new bill, which was attempting     3    （give）the China-based company a six-month deadline to sell the app, was passed in the Senate (众议院) last month, even after both Democrats (民主党人) and Republicans (共和党人) voiced concerns over national security.

The revised bill has now been combined     4     a larger package of international policies, including support for Israel and Ukraine, and is being presented to the Senate where it again waits for     5     (approve).

Over the past month, ByteDance     6     (push) back against the bill, and encouraged its 170 million U.S. users to contact the government and express     7     protest to the ban.

“We will not stop fighting and advocating for you, with     8     we together build this amazing platform,” TikTok CEO Shou Zi Chew said in a video uploaded in March. “We will continue to do all we can, including using our legal rights, to protect this platform.”

Once the bill passes successfully, it will extend the deadline for ByteDance to sell to nine months, with an     9     (addition) three months available if a sale is     10     progress.

7 . An increase in a country’s working-age population is a blessing. Lots of workers support relatively few children and retired people. So long as the labor market can absorb an increasing number of job-seekers, output per head will rise. That can boost savings and investment, leading to higher economic growth, more productivity gains and developmental speed-up. Yet for countries that fail to seize this opportunity, the results can be tough.

Consider Thailand. It is rapidly aging. In 2021, the share of Thais aged 65 or over hit 14%, a figure that is often used to define an aged society Soon Thailand will, like Japan, South Korea and most Western countries, see a decreasing supply of workers and flagging productivity and growth without extraordinary measures. Yet unlike Japan and the rest. Thailand is not a developed country. It has got old before it has got rich.

This is a big barrier to Thailand’s future development. To protect its aging citizens, many of whom are poor, Thailand’s government will have to spend more on health care and pensions (养老金). This will make it harder to invest in productivity-boosting skills and infrastructure (基础设施). And where Thailand goes, many developing countries will follow.

One conclusion is that countries with a working-age burst need seeking more economic growth out of it. India may never have a better chance than the present. It is widely accepted that privatization and looser foreign-investment rules could raise its growth rate.

Another conclusion is that developing countries need to start planning for old age earlier. They should reform their pension systems, including by raising retirement ages. They should encourage financial markets, providing options for long-term saving and health insurance. And they should try harder to increase female participation in the labor force. Getting more women into jobs would help deal with the fact that women live longer than men, but tend to have less savings and pensions, leaving them in difficult situations in old age.

8 . If we want to define grit, the correct way to put it is as a non-cognitive trait (非认知特性) based on someone’s ability to insist despite many challenges and obstacles to achieve a given goal. It is the trait that tells you to keep trying at something when everyone else has given up on you. It is a measure of emotional intelligence and well-being.

New research revealed that students with grit tend to gain a higher grade point average than their less gritty classmates. They are also more likely to win in spelling contests even with a lower verbal IQ.

Grit is equally important as intelligence. One of the most famous stories in science is how Isaac Newton came up with the concept of universal gravity. An apple fell from a tree, and this sparked the genius that later revealed the secret of why things keep falling back to Earth. Such narratives are very appealing stories but discouraging. There is no hard work, just a new concept produced by a gifted man. The apple story then proved wrong. It took many, many years of labor and failures before he came up with the concept. The purpose of this article though is not to undermine intelligence. Newton was clearly a genius, but intelligence alone would not have made him reach their goals.

“Nobody is talented enough to not have to work hard, and that’s what grit allows you to do,” says Angela Duckworth, the foremost researcher on the field of grit study. In her study, Duckworth isolated two qualities that seem to define gritty people. The two important qualities separated are:

To end this post, I leave you with a quote from Kahlil Gibran, “Out of suffering have emerged the strongest souls; the most massive characters are burned with scars.”

9 . Lobb, a 24-year-old banker from Toronto, has been sharing everything with his friend, an artificial intelligence engineer Jafri.

One day, the two were _______ in a lunchtime workout on Pier (码头) 15, overlooking the East River, when Lobb froze. “Somebody’s in the water,” he said. _______ Jafri could respond, he climbed over the rail and jumped into the cold water without any slightest _______. Seeing this, Jafri also swan-dived towards him even without _______ his shoes.

_______ the unconscious victim, Lobb saw that it was a big, middle-aged man. He was 3 feet _______ the surface by the time Lobb reached him. The rescuer dove, _______ the man and kicked upward until they both appeared above the water. With great efforts, the pair _______brought him back to Pier 15 where a crowd had gathered.

Both men, extremely _______ from 20 minutes in the water and bleeding from numerous cuts, watched as rescue workers loaded the nearly drowned man into a(n) ________ and drove away. They even ________ learned who he was, what became of him or how he’d fallen into the river.

In place of that knowledge, they have a story they get to tell now, another experience that has further ________ their bond. Lots of people were on the piers that day,________ only the two of them jumped in the water — because, they say, they were the fittest people there and, so, had a moral responsibility.

“If I know I’m ________,” Lobb says, “why wouldn’t I help?”

Jafri ________, laughing, “People always say, ‘If your friend were in danger, would you reach out to him?’ I think I answered that one.”

As the pursuit of health becomes an important hobby for many young people, a trend known as “New Chinese-style Wellness” has taken over social media     1     (platform). Health is no longer a term typically to the middle-aged and elderly. Faced with intense     2    (compete) in education and their careers, those born in the 1990s and 2000s have already embarked on a journey     3     (safeguard) their health.

The concept of “New Chinese-style Wellness” emphasizes the idea of a light and nutritious diet.     4    (addition), it promotes mental health by combining traditional Chinese medicine theories to regulate emotions and achieve     5     balanced development of physical and mental health. Furthermore, it advocates for light exercise, such as tai chi, to     6    (strength) the body and achieve the goal of wellness and fitness.

The information from the Z Generation Nutrition Consumption Trend Report, published in 2022, also     7     (show) that young people are becoming the main drivers of health-related consumption, among     8     the 18 to 35 age group accounts for 83. 7 percent.

According to data from Meituan Waimai, a major Chinese food delivery platform, since September 2022, the weekly search volume for “healthy milk tea” nationwide has doubled. Consumers     9    (age) between 20 and 30 account for over half of the searches, with young people in Shanghai leading the trend,    10     (rank) first in the country for using the search term.