1 . Two teenagers from Montgomery Blair High School, Dhruv Pai, 16, and Matt Casertano, 15, were both buying groceries(食品杂货)for their grandparents in early March, as coronavirus(冠状病毒)cases started to appear in the Washington area. That’s when Dhruv realized the greater need — and a possible way to solve the problem.

The two created Teens Helping Seniors, which connects older people with volunteers who will deliver(递送)groceries right to their doorstep for free. They developed the idea in March just before schools closed because of the outbreak, which suddenly gave them and their classmates a lot more time to help out. Matt said they planned for Teens Helping Seniors to be a network for classmates at their high school at first, but within a week they started to develop because of the high demand(需求). By the end of the second week, Matt and Dhruv already had their first chapter outside Montgomery County, in Albany, N. Y. The group now has more than ten chapters in the United States and one forming abroad in Montreal.

Regula Guess, who lives in Potomac, heard about Teens Helping Seniors from a neighbor, when the area started to shut down in mid-March. Guess, 65, said her husband is at risk because of his age, and she was afraid of going to the store.

Teens Helping Seniors connected Guess with Jacob Kaplan-Davis, a junior at Wootton High School. Guess said Jacob would call her from the store if he had questions. “I was just so thankful for what these young people were doing,” she said. “It’s just amazing how this brings out the good in people.”

Jacob, 16, said he spends six to eight hours a week buying groceries. Usually, he makes two deliveries a week.

“The first time I went, it took me forever to find everything. But soon I started to learn the layout(布局)and got faster,” said Jacob, who seldom went grocery shopping before volunteering for Teens Helping Seniors. “It’s given me a greater understanding of my mom when she goes grocery shopping,” he said.

Earlier this month we celebrated our son’s first birthday. We prepared several objects for his Zhua Zhou,     1     is an activity held on a child’s first birthday. In the activity, objects     2    (place) on a plate and the object a child picks can show something about his or her interests or careers(事业)in the future.

The tradition,     3    (say) to have started during the Three Kingdoms period, arose following the     4    (die) of Sun He, the prince(太子)of the Eastern Wu Kingdom. His father, the emperor(皇帝)Sun Quan, grew worried about which of his grandsons would succeed him, so a person suggested he place some objects on a plate and ask each of them     5    (pick) something. Sun Hao     6    (take) a bamboo slip — an ancient form of Chinese paper — in one hand, and an imperial(帝王的)belt in the other. Both     7    (choice) led to him being chosen as the new emperor.

Our son picked up a microphone first and played with a few other objects     8     a short time. No matter what object he started playing with, he always went back to the microphone. Although my mother-in-law tried to get him to hold the yuanbao long enough for a photo, he always threw     9     aside to take the microphone. It was so     10    (interest)!

3 . “You are about to experience something very special,” the card on my bed reads.

I’m about to start one of the most _________ evenings of my life: a night spent in a transparent dome(透明的穹状建筑物)_________ a few feet away from Asian elephants in the bush(灌木丛)of Thailand’s Golden Triangle. Although I’m one of the first people to _________ it and I should be nervous, honestly, I could not be more _________!

It’s been my longtime _________ to visit the conservation area of the Golden Triangle to get closer to the elephants here. When I discovered the Jungle Bubbles, I _________ the chance to spend sundown to sunup with these great animals.

I’m as _________ as a kid opening presents as I take picture after picture of the elephants standing nearby. It’s very _________ here. The only thing I have to do is _________ elephants. No phone, no news. I watch as the three elephants that will be my __________ tonight play in a mud(泥)hole.

The elephants finally __________ the mud as it gets dark, blowing hard to clear the mud out of their noses.

The stars begin to look through the sky, and it’s very peaceful. The three elephants are __________ enough that I can hear them breathing and snorting(打响鼻).

I drink my coffee and __________ while they are munching(用力咀嚼)leaves. There can be no __________ way to ever spend a night. The Jungle Bubbles are truly a __________ into the great world of these fantastic animals.

4 . Around 250 students from 23 countries at East China Normal University, who are staying in Shanghai during the winter Vacation, celebrated this year’s Spring Festival ahead of time on its campus.

Many wore traditional Chinese clothes, and tried writing Chinese calligraphy (书法) and Spring Festival couplets, a pair of poetry lines pasted (粘贴)on both sides of a front door and a four-character horizontal scroll (横幅)pasted above, to express happiness and wishes for a better life in the coming year.

Some learned to make Chinese dumplings, a traditional Spring Festival food.

Nilab Oppal from Uzbekistan said she loved Chinese calligraphy as a way of learning Chinese and relaxing. She had learned calligraphy for six months, but had little time to practice because of her busy study schedule. “I’m glad to have the chance to write calligraphy here today,” she said.

Zain ul Abdin from Pakistan spent almost the whole afternoon writing calligraphy and finished his first Spring Festival couplets. He said he would like to paste them on the door his dorm (宿舍)room to add some Spring Festival atmosphere.

In the evening, teachers had dinner with them and gave them hongbao, the red envelopes with money that families give to children and old people on Chinese New Year’s Eve.

“It’s my first time to get a hongbao.” said Nurriia Sulaiman Kvzy, a Kvreyzstan student majoring in teaching Chinese as a second language. “It’s only 10 yuan, but I’m very glad to experience Chinese culture. It will be helpful for me to teach Chinese language and culture to my students in the future.”

She said it was the fourth year she had spent the winter vacation and celebrated the festival at the university, in Shanghai.

“The Chinese New Year is very interesting; everything is in red and people all go back home to celebrate it together. I’m looking forward to a chance to spend some days in a Chinese family to see how they celebrate the festival,” she said.

7 . Have you seen the cartoons of two penguins(企鹅) on the Internet? They sit on either side of a small boat. They are friends, but each does something selfish(自私的)which causes their friend “ship” to sink(沉没).

    1       It shows how much people value friendship and sometimes worry they may lose their friends.       2     A friend is someone to talk to about your deepest feelings. And with a good friend you will never be alone.

    3       The key to protecting your friend “ship” from sinking comes down to three simple things: sharing, caring and communicating. Good friends like to share everything with each other. They share their snacks, they share their knowledge about schoolwork, sometimes they even share their clothes!     4    They do whatever they can to make their friends happy. But the most important part of friendship is communicating.

    5         It also means that you keep in touch with your friends even though they may be in different schools or live far away. Without communication it is sure to send your friend “ship” to sink into the sea.

9 . Four Animation Studios(动画工作室)

1.Pixar Animation Studios

Location: California, USA

Pixar was bought by Steve Jobs in 1986. Later in 2006 it was bought by Disney. The studio has produced many successful animated films including:

Toy Story             Finding Nemo

2.Walt Disney Animation Studios

Location: California, USA

Walt and Roy founded the Disney Brothers Cartoon Studio in 1923. After years, Disney Animation has become the most famous animation studio in the world. Its best-known films include:     

The Lion King          Big Hero 6

3.DreamWorks Animation

Location: California, USA

In 1994, Steven, Jeffrey and David founded DreamWorks. It now belongs to Universal Pictures. It has made films like:

Shrek                 Kung Fu Panda

4.Studio Ghibli

Location: Tokyo, Japan

Ghibli is one top animation studio in Japan. Eight in 15 top animated films produced in Japan are created by Ghibli. These works make it famous all over the world. You must have heard of the following films:

Castle in the Sky     My Neighbor Totoro

10 . Peter Whittle helps people get their time back. From behind the counter(柜台) of his repair shop, he brings to life1th-century pocket watches, old European clocks, and modern Rolexes.

Digital watches and cell phones may have replaced traditional timekeepers for many, but in the 20 years since he opened Whittle’s Watcn Works, the demand for his services has only grown. Open three days a week, Whittle’s shop takes in more than 1,000 watches a year, sometimes 10 in one day.

Sixty years ago, there were more than 50,000 independent watchmakers in America. These days, the number has dropped to fewer than 6,000, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

“People say no one wears watches anymore,” Whittle said. “But at home, somewhere in a drawer, you might have your mother’s watch or your grandfather’s watch. And one day, you might find that you want to get it repaired.”

Whittle said he’s been busy since the day he opened. He doesn’t advertise, and seldom has an online presence, but people knock on the door even when the closed sign is up. During office hours he wears a long white coat that makes him look like a doctor, which he is, in a way. Whittle’s services can cost very little, or hundreds. Working on Rolexes, each with about 225 pieces inside, costs an average of $700.

Joseph Caprara, a watch collector, has been coming to Whittle’s for more than ten years. Of the dozens of timepieces he’s brought to Whittle, one of the most memorable was an inexpensive watch his mother wore. “What he’s really doing sometimes is restoring memories, Caprara said. “Sometimes a watch is worth a lot more to a person than what you’d think.”

Though the great increase of cell phones has led to fewer people wearing watches, Jordan Ficklin, executive director of the American Watchmakers - Clockmakers Institute, sees hope for the industry in newer devices like Apples watches, which he says are bringing back that sense of a physical connection with a watch. And like traditional timepieces, the marketing around computerized watches often links the device to emotional experiences: a non-athlete training for a first marathon, a parent monitoring a child’s illness, people whose watches have become a basic part of their life.