1 . At six o’clock sharp the curtain rises at Southside Cultural Center, in Reno. Two hundred audience members, including the mayor of Reno, look to the stage. Dozens of actors break out into the first number of The Lion King.

But this is not your typical production. The gifted cast is made up of homeless children living at the Volunteers of America family shelter in Reno. The children have been given a chance to live their dreams onstage, thanks to volunteer acting coach Nasya Mancini. “I see so much of myself in these kids,” says Nasya. “I tell them their current circumstance doesn’t have to be their destiny (命运) . If they are determined, they can do anything they want.”

Determination is something Nasya knows all about. She was born prematurely and was given little chance of survival. But Nasya kept fighting. Her very name means “miracle” in Hebrew. Nasya was small, but quickly proved that her talents were as big as her will to survive. She started dancing at two. By six she’d been spotted by an acting coach, who encouraged her parents to enroll her in drama classes. “There was something about being onstage,” Nasya says. “It made my spirit come alive.” She decided that she was going to be an actor.

However, her enthusiasm didn’t sit well with some of her schoolmates. They teased (嘲) her, “You’re a shrimp. You’re not even pretty.” Nasya came home in tears. Her mother hugged her and told her to ignore it. By high school, Nasya was winning awards in theater competitions. She also provided community service by teaching drama to the children at the shelter. Nasya wanted the kids at the shelter to discover the confidence that acting could give. The best way to do that, she decided, was to put on a big play.

The production was a hit. The kids took several curtain calls. Donations to the shelter rolled in. Nasya reminds the kids of something she knows with every part of her spirit to be true: “Believe in yourself. The world is your stage.”

Chinese wine culture has a long and rich history, dating back thousands of years. One of the most famous traditional Chinese     1     (wine) is Baijiu, which is made from grains such as rice and wheat. People often drink it during important celebrations. Another popular type of Chinese wine is Huangjiu, also     2     (know) as yellow wine. Huangjiu is a fermented (发酵的) rice wine and has a     3     (soft) taste compared to Baijiu. It is     4     (common) used in cooking and is a popular ingredient in traditional Chinese dishes. Huangjiu is also enjoyed     5     a drink, with different varieties and flavors available across different areas of China.

In Chinese culture, wine is often associated with toasting (祝酒),     6     is an important gesture in Chinese wine culture and helps to create a warm and     7     (harmony) atmosphere. Furthermore, wine is often used in traditional Chinese medicine. Certain types of wine     8     (believe) to have health benefits and are used for medicinal purposes. In recent years, imported wines, particularly red wine,     9     (gain) popularity among Chinese. Wine appreciation and wine-tasting events have become increasingly common,    10     (provide) opportunities for both locals and foreigners to learn and experience different wine cultures.

7 . Team building activities can make a great difference when it comes to job satisfaction and organizational success.     1    The following tips will make your teamwork together more effectively.

Set the team’s goal

Studies have shown that teams work better when each member is aware of the goal. Before the team sets up, have a meeting to create a list of the goals that can help reach the end goal.    2    As a result, they will feel more involved, as they’ve been part of the whole process.

Solve problems immediately

Effective teambuilding requires an environment where problems are quickly dealt with. It’s wise to send a management team for solving problems. Furthermore, according to one social experiment, a “bad apple” can ruin a whole team. So it might be important to ensure one team member isn’t ruining the effort.    3    Unfortunately, letting the person drop out of the team can be the only choice in certain cases.

    4    

It’s useful to get the team from everyday surroundings and into somewhere unexpected. This can improve creativity, but also help build a closer relationship within the team. You could hold team meetings at a cafe, at the company lawn, or even at museums or amusement parks.

Bring humour to team work

The saying “Laughter is the best t medicine” definitely holds true in team building. Humor is a great way to relax team members. Bring humor to teamwork through fun cartoons, little jokes and even series of fun video clips.    5    Too much humor can a take the focus away from the real work.

8 . In the time before air-conditioning, southern China’s sky wells played a key role in keeping people’s homes cool. Could they do it again today?

A skywell, or “tian jing”, is atypical characteristic of traditional homes in southern and eastern China. Different from a northern Chinese courtyard, or “yuan zi”, a skywell is smaller and less open to the outdoor environment. Its size and design differ from place to place.

Skywells were designed to cool buildings at a time well before air-conditioning existed. When wind blows above a skywell house, it can enter the indoor space through the opening. Because outdoor air is often cooler than indoor air, the incoming wind travels down the walls to the lower stories and create airflows by replacing warmer indoor air, which rises and leaves through the opening.

Although skywell buildings have existed in China for hundreds of years, in recent times they have often been forgotten by people who prefer modern buildings. Over the past two decades, however, skywell buildings have been making a comeback.

Yu Youhong, 55, has spent more than 30 years restoring (修复) skywell homes in Wuyuan county of Jiangxi province, apart of the old Huizhou. One of the skywell homes restored by Yu is in the village of Yan, in Wuyuan county. The deserted 300-year-old house was bought by Edward Gawne, a former marketing director from the UK, and his Chinese wife, Liao Minx in, in 2015. The couple turned the three-storey house into a 14-room hotel with the help of Yu. They kept the spaces surrounding the sky wells in their original state: open and with natural airflow. Gawne says that even without air conditioning the skywell areas are very comfortable in summer.

Yu says he expects sky wells to be more and more popular among younger generations especially as sustainability (可持续性) becomes an important element for new buildings.