1 . At the foot of the Tianmu Mountain in Zhejiang, a homestay (民宿) is attracting travelers from far and wide, which has won architectural medal at the 2021 German iF Design Awards.

The owners of the homestay are a couple in their late 30s who decided to return to their hometown three years ago. Li Xiumei used to be in charge of a division at a company in Hangzhou, and her husband was a sales director. It was an ordinary situation where Li’s husband was on business trips a lot and Li still worked on weekends. City life sometimes is not easy.

In 2018, they quit jobs and went back to Dongtianmu village, which lies in a forest of bamboo. The first time they drove into the village was one late afternoon. The cooking smoke was rising from the foot of the mountain, which gave them a very different feeling from the city.

The homestay was built beside her husband’s old countryside house. The old house is preserved (保留), while a brand-new building was built on its side and the whole site is made up of four courtyards. It has been updated to have a hall, a tea room, a kitchen, a dining room. Japanese cherry trees are planted in the east courtyard. A swimming pool is placed in the west courtyard, with a bar located on one side.

Li and her husband love gardening and music, and their new home gives them enough space to continue their interests and relax in the heart of nature. Li wants to share the quiet country life, so she makes her new home a homestay. In 2019, the homestay became an online hit after guests shared their experiences on social media. “The longer I stay here, the more I feel it was the right choice to come back, and this is more meaningful than making money,” Li says.

2 . The Nobel Prize in Literature, which has been awarded annually almost every year since 1901, netted(净赚)the winning author 747,000 pounds, a medal and a certificate (证书), and the legal duty to deliver a lecture in Sweden at some future dates. The winner was selected, as usual, by the Swedish Academy, which also picked a second laureate (获奖者)this year to make up for the fact that no prize was presented in 2018 because of a scandal(丑闻).

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2018 was awarded to the Polish author Olga Tokarczuk (奥尔加·托卡尔丘克) for “a narrative imagination that with encyclopedic (百科全书式的)passion represents the crossing of boundaries as a form of life”. She won last year’s Man Booker International Prize for her novel Flights. Her representative works (代表作) include Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead and Primeval and Other Times.

The Nobel Prize in Literature for 2019 was awarded to the Austrian author Peter Handke (彼得·汉德克) for “an influential work that with linguistic ingenuity(语言的独创性)has explored the periphery and the specificity of human experience”. His representative works include A Sorrow Beyond Dreams and Slow Homecoming.

Before the announcement of the Nobel Prize in Literature winners, there were also two nominees(被提名者)who have attracted much attention. Chinese people were keeping an eye on the nominee Can Xue. Can Xue, whose real name is Deng Xiaohua, was born in central China’s Hunan Province in 1953. She had a tough childhood, working as a worker in a street factory for eight years. Her life experience has formed her own unique literary path. Can’s books have been translated and published outside China. Frontier, published in the US in 2017, won attention and applause of the West.

The other hot guess was the Japanese writer Haruki Murakami (村上春树) whose books and stories had been bestsellers in Japan as well as internationally, with his work being translated into 50 languages and selling millions of copies outside his native country. His work has received numerous awards. Internet users kept an eye on him in the Nobel Prize in Literature because he had become a hot guess for years. His representative works include Norwegian Wood, Kafka on the Shore and 1Q84.

4 . Find the perfect way to keep fit with these websites

www. activelife. co. uk

This site is perfect for those who like to combine living a healthy lifestyle with enjoying the countryside. You can get a list of locations that offer routes for cycling. There is also information on cycling competitions in Britain.

www. swavedon. com

Swavedon is a national park with a lake, which offers many different ways of keeping fit in the great outdoors. There are three cycle routes around the lake and several woodland walks.

www. fitnet. co. uk

Steve Amos started this site for busy people wanting to keep fit. Fill in a questionnaire (调查表) and Steve will create a fitness programme for you. Although Steve's fee is high, you can email him for advice whenever you want. Besides, Steve has designed many fitness clothes, which anyone can order.

www. fitnessonline. co. uk

This is a free government website that encourages people to keep fit. It gives diet advice, and allows you to work through a fitness programme without leaving your house. It also offers advice on equipment to buy and has a chat room, where you can compare experiences with others.

www. sportsarena. co. uk

This website tells you how you can keep fit at this group of London sports centres. You don't have to be a member—these centres run a pay-as-you-go system. They all have a pool and gym. The website includes information about locations, opening times and prices.

www. NAG. co. uk

The National Athletics Group is a site for people interested in athletics. It allows you to find out where your nearest athletics club is and provides information about races and other athletics events around the country. There is a popular chat room where athletes exchange (交流) suggestions and ideas.

It was the middle of the day with the bright sun, blue sky, green grass, and a soft breeze (微风). It was a great day to play outside and the best day of my life because I got a new ball and a new bike as my sixth birthday presents, and I was visiting my cousin, Kristy, at her house.

“Here I go!” shouted David while kicking my new ball. David lived next door and was older than me. I thought he was a wild child, but he was actually very kind. The ball went flying as if it were going to space. “That was high!” Kristy said in surprise and we went after the ball. We all had a great time.

Later we had supper and the food my aunt made was good. While Kristy was helping do the dishes, David and I ran outside to play. We started taking turns riding my bike. David suggested that we ride it to the forest. And I agreed. David and I got on the bike and David started riding fast.

As we rode through the forest, I felt the wind brushing my face. It felt so great and free. Suddenly the bike hit a fallen branch and we went flying off the bike. Lying on the ground, I felt dizzy (眩晕的). I checked myself for injuries and saw some but they didn’t upset me.

“David!” I shouted out anxiously.

“Hey,” said a voice. I turned my head and it was David, who was standing behind me, holding my broken bike. At the sight of my disabled bike, I was so sad that I couldn’t hold back my tears. It took David some time to calm me down.

When we realized it was time to walk home, we found ourselves lost.

It was completely dark when we saw fireworks (烟花) being set off in the distance.

7 . Fu Cong, a Chinese-born pianist, died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had lived for many years.

A lover of classical music from a young age, Mr. Fu began taking piano lessons when he was 7. He made his first stage appearance in 1952. The concert caught the attention of officials in Beijing, who selected him to compete and tour in Eastern Europe. Mr. Fu soon moved to Poland, where he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory (音乐学校) on a scholarship. To prepare for the fifth Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955, he practiced so hard that he hurt his fingers and was nearly cut from the first round of the competition.

Mr. Fu was one of the first Chinese pianists to achieve global fame when he took third place in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955. He also won a special prize for his performance of Chopin's mazurkas. Almost overnight, he became a national hero. To China, Mr. Fu's recognition in a well-known international competition was evidence that the country could stand on its own artistically in the West. Chinese reporters came to interview Mr. Fu, while many others went to his father, Fu Lei, for advice on child-raising.

In 1981, a volume of letters written by his father, was published in China. Full of advice, encouragement, life teachings and strict paternal love, the book Fu Lei's Family Letters became a best-seller in China. Besides influencing a generation of Chinese, Mr. Fu's words resonated (引起共鸣) long after his death with the person for whom they were intended.

“My father had a saying that 'First you must be a person, then an artist, and then a musician, and only then can you be a pianist,'" Mr. Fu Cong once recalled in an interview. "Even now, I believe in this order-that it should be this way and that I am this way.”

8 . Alice is a student who came to my class last year. Though she has already turned 60, Alice looks so fit and _________, with a bright smile and an enthusiastic attitude. I am Alice’s teacher in class, but I feel she is my teacher in life.

For my 2-hour class every Saturday morning, Alice has to take a 3-hour round-trip on the road. But she is never _________ for class. Alice is very passionate about learning English. She often says, “Don’t _________ me as a 60-year-old. I am just a new beginner who wants to learn anything _________. You know, I am very excited to come to the class!” So I feel a strong sense of _________ to make sure what I teach makes sense to her.

Alice came to me with very _________ English skills, but she turns out to be a very fast learner because she always puts English _________ on a daily basis. I _________ her homework before every class. Her homework is usually not what I _________ for the class, rather it is something that she __________ to put together. She makes various sentences using the important words and phrases she learned from our __________ class. I am always __________ by the quality of her work.

I feel fortunate to have a student like Alice. She has __________ me so much. Our __________ is a great learning experience for both of us. Though I have no idea why she learns English, I hope I can help her get closer to her dream, __________ it is.

9 . Technology has become a vital part in our life. It has transformed our lives in many ways.    1    . The things that seemed impossible in the past can now be done in just minutes.

Technology and Farming

Nowadays farmers use mobile apps to calculate the grass in their field.    2    . In the past farmers used pesticides(杀虫剂) and insecticides to protect its crop but now with the invention of BT Crops, the excessive use of pesticides have been decreased.

Technology and Our Lifestyle

    3    . In the past people were busy leading a normal life. They had time for everyone, they shared their feelings and moods with their loved ones, they loved nature and expressed their feelings and emotions. Today we only care for technology, and we prefer to spend our time on social media, using the internet, watching TV, playing video games rather than giving time to our families, playing out with our friends.

Technology and Communication

Nowadays we have social media, mobile phones, laptops, and internet with many videos that have made our communication far easier than before.     4    .

Technology in Education

Technology has totally changed our methods of education and learning. In the past, it was not easy to get information or knowledge as quickly as we do today with the help of internet.     5    . Now there are online schools, online education system where you can get educated.

I'm sure that the future of this world will be quite different from what it is today. It is quite more interesting and convenient.

10 . Cindy Soule is a teacher in Portland, Maine, an area known to have extremely cold and snowy winters. But cold weather doesn't stop Soule and her students from continuing with outdoor learning during the COVID-19.

Earlier in the school year, students in Soule's fourth-grade class had outdoor lessons. Then, the snow came. Wearing warm clothes, the students took their school supplies outside in buckets. Then, they turned the buckets over, put them down in the snow, took a seat and went to work. The lesson that day centered on snow and the formation of snowflakes.

Schools across the U.S. have pushed for outdoor learning to keep students and teachers safe. Infectious disease experts worldwide have noted that the virus spreads less easily outdoors. Now, with temperatures dropping in much of the country, some schools have made plans to continue outdoor learning during the winter.

Anne Stires is an outdoor learning expert in Maine. She said "the outdoors is the healthiest, safest place for us to be right now. Anything that we can do to get kids outdoors for longer periods of time is vital," Stires added. "This is only where we need to be right now."

In the neighboring state of New Hampshire, fourth- and fifth-grade students are still learning outside at James Faulkner Elementary School in Stoddard. The school created an outdoor classroom by clearing some trees and building an area for warmth by fire. In the western state of Colorado, elementary school students in the Lake County school district study in usual classrooms for half the week. For the other half, they learn outdoors.

For educators, outdoor learning is yet another period of change. Last spring, it was distance learning. Then came mixed learning methods. Now, educators are trying to keep their students warm enough to learn outside.