In the past few years, more than half of bookstores in China have closed down,     1     is the result of the     2    (compete) with online bookstores. But the success of Sisyphe Bookstore, one of the     3    (big) privately-owned bookstore chains in China, may serve     4     a great example .

    5    (found) in 1993, Sisyphe started to transform and upgrade its business in 2009 to seek its profitability. Now, it not only devotes itself to     6    (sell) books , but combines the functions of the bookstore, cafe and the sale of     7    (create) cultural products. Sisyphe opens its bookstores in shopping malls in order to take advantage of the large number of consumers of shopping malls to sell its books, and it also     8    (able) people to enjoy spending time reading and drinking coffee. In return, bookstores have improved the cultural atmosphere of shopping malls, so     9     is mutually beneficial to have such cooperation.

So far, the government     10    (offer) tax reduction for bookstores to encourage the development of physical bookstores. Perhaps it is early to say the boom of physical bookstores has come, but definitely, we see the turning point to them.

2 . You might think of it as a scene from martial arts movies when you see people performing graceful moves down the river, all standing on a bamboo strip, but actually it is a form of intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产): bamboo drifting.

Over 2,000 years ago, the high-quality wood, nanmu, in Guizhou was in great demand by the royal court more than 2,000 kilometers to the north. With no better transportation, people had to stand on one log to drift down the river. Later, local people began to compete along the way and the game of wood drifting was born. In the Qing Dynasty, wood drifting became bamboo drifting because of bamboo’s lower price. Due to the great strength and balance it takes for one to master this act, bamboo drifting was included in the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2021.

Yang Liu, a 25-year-old inheritor of bamboo drifting, learned it at seven. “Usually, the bamboo under your feet is about 9 meters long, and the bamboo in your hands is about 5 meters. If the length or diameter of the bamboo is not long enough, it will not be buoyant (有浮力的) enough to float. Keeping our feet firmly positioned on the narrow bamboo pole is the key, so we should fight against the current by constantly changing the angle. I lost my balance and fell in the water many times while practicing. Once I fell, I gave it another try until I knew how to handle the most difficult part,” she said.

The love for the ancient skill keeps Yang going. In the past 18 years, she has drifted all year round, in cold winter and hot summer. As hanfu culture has been on the rise, Yang started wearing hanfu while performing, creating a more beautiful scene. In 2020, Yang began to post her videos on social media. “I’m extremely proud to get responses from viewers that bamboo drifting makes the line between what is possible and impossible unclear. It’s my mission to keep it alive and known to more people,” Yang Liu says.

3 . A young man went to a farm and asked for a job. When the old farmer asked what the young man could do to help the farm, he just said ,“I can sleep when the wind blows.”

This short answer puzzled(迷惑) the farmer. But he liked the young man and said OK anyway. Everything went well until one night when there was a heavy storm. The old farmer and his wife quickly woke up and started checking to see if everything was safe.

The farmer and his wife checked their things. They found that the farm tools had been put away safely in the house. The truck was parked in the garage. They found that the doors of the farmhouse were closed. The barn(谷仓) was properly locked. Even the animals were calm. All was well.

After checking everything, they went to the young man’s room and found that he was sleeping. The farmer and his wife then understood the meaning of the young man’s words — “I can sleep when the wind blows.”

Because the young man finished all of his work while the skies were clear, he was prepared for the storm before it came. So when the wind blew ,he was not afraid. He could sleep in peace.

5 . San Francisco Fire Engine Tours

This delicious tour goes through the city on its way to Treasure Island where we will stop at the famous Winery SF. Here you can enjoy 4 pours of some of the best wine San Francisco has to offer.(Included in tickets price)

This tour transports you back in time to one of San Francisco’s most fantastic periods, the 1950s! Enjoy fun history as we take you through San Francisco for a free taste of ice cream.

Join us for a ride through the historical Presidio district. Authentic fire gear(服装) is provided for your warmth as our entertainers take you to some of the most thrilling parts of San Francisco.

This attractive tour takes you to some of San Francisco’s most cheerful holiday scenes. Authentic fire gear is provided for your warmth as you get into the holiday spirit.

8 . Every day, millions of people surf the Internet, and there are countless websites for them to visit. Here are four popular websites for online users.

https://www. cracked. com

If you’re old enough, you might remember Cracked, the monthly magazine that was founded in 1958. Although the magazine is no longer printed, the website hutps://uwww. crached. com is still alive. The content(内容)of Cracked is humorous and tries to tell readers something new and unexpected.

https://www. buzzfeed. com

Are you looking for links to big news on the Internet? Look no further than hutps://www. buzafeed. com. Each day the website offers the latest stories and pictures that are crazily spread. BuzzFeed covers different topics and its articles are written by staff members, site users, and partner sites like The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.

https://www. reddit. com

Reddit calls itself“the front page of the Internet”, and that is exactly what it is. Just as many people used to read the newspaper while eating breakfast, one to two million Internet users read Reddit every morning to get their daily news. The content of this website comes entirely from the public, with users uploading(上传) videos, links, stories, pictures, etc.

https://imgur. com

Do you know many of the funny pictures, GIFs and emojis(表情符号) that hit your Facebook come from Imgur? It’s a free website where users upload 1. 5 million pictures each day. Imgur users are especially fond of pictures of cute animals and beautiful natural wonders. And it is free to read and use. You can download any photo you like.

9 . When I was a boy growing up in New Jersey in the 1960s, we had a milkman delivering milk to our doorstep. His name was Mr. Basille. He wore a white cap and drove a white truck. As a 5-year-old boy, I couldn’t take my eyes off the coin changer fixed to his belt. He noticed this one day during a delivery and gave me a quarter out of his coin changer.

Of course, he delivered more than milk. There was cheese, eggs and so on. If we needed to change our order, my mother would pen a note — “Please add a bottle of buttermilk next delivery” — and place it in the box along with the empty bottles. And then, the buttermilk would magically (魔术般) appear.

All of this was about more than convenience. There existed a close relationship between families and their milkmen. Mr. Basille even had a key to our house, for those times when it was so cold outside that we put the box indoors, so that the milk wouldn’t freeze. And I remember Mr. Basille from time to time taking a break at our kitchen table, having a cup of tea and telling stories about his delivery.

There is sadly no home milk delivery today. Big companies allowed the production of cheaper milk, thus making it difficult for milkmen to compete. Besides, milk is for sale everywhere, and it may just not have been practical to have a delivery service.

Recently, an old milk box in the countryside I saw brought back my childhood memories. I took it home and planted it on the back porch (门廊) . Every so often my son’s friends will ask what it is. So I start telling stories of my boyhood, and of the milkman who brought us friendship along with his milk.

When Beethoven was only four, his father decided to make him a musician. Beethoven was made to practice     1     (play) different musical instruments hour after hour. Whenever he did not put his heart into his practice, his father would be strict     2     him.

    3     (fortune), the boy loved music very much and learnt so fast that he was able to go around and give     4     (concert) when he was only 11. When he was 17, he received high praise from Mozart,     5     great Austrian composer. A few years later, Beethoven went to Vienna     6     ( study) under Haydn, another great Austrian composer. Then he     7     (write) a great deal of music, even at his most difficult time. But after one illness, he suddenly found     8     (him) deaf at the age of 31.

However, this didn’t stop Beethoven. During his life, he composed about 30 pieces of music. It is     9     (amaze) that he wrote some of his best pieces after he became deaf, many of     10     are well known and loved all over the world.