3 . Do you like Chinese traditional painting and dance? They are two important parts of the traditional Chinese art. But what about when they meet each other?

This year, a dance drama titled Poetic Dance: The Journey of a Legendary Landscape Painting (《只此青绿》) was staged on CCTV’s Spring Festival Gala and became popular.

According to CCTV, this poetic dance program was inspired by the 900-year-old Chinese painting A Panorama of Rivers and Mountains (《千里江山图》), created by Song Dynasty painter Wang Ximeng at about 18. The painting is amazing in its sweeping size, rich coloration and the expressive details, reported by CCTV. It shows a Chinese blue-green landscape: mountains and groupings of infinite (无限的) rise and fall between cloudless sky and rippling (涟漪的) water.

When the dancers moved elegantly, audiences seemed to be looking at the moving mountains and rivers. “It brings me a pure experience of beauty. It is not only a drama but also an exhibition. Vast mountains and rivers are coming to life!” Internet user Mo Weisha wrote in a review. “More than a thousand years later, green mountains and rivers still impress people as they did long ago.” Some people even decided to watch the dance again when it was staged in the theaters later. In fact, in recent years, more and more modern shows have featured Chinese traditional culture and received warm welcome. As for the reason, it is due to people’s great love for traditional culture.

“The younger generations have grown up with a more open mind. They accept Chinese culture and are proud of it,” Yao Wei, director of Henan TV Station’s Innovation Center, told China Daily.

5 . It is difficult for a teacher to decide whether to allow students to listen to music in the classroom. Every time students need to write an essay or work on a problem, they say, “Can I put my headphones on? I think better that way.” But is that really true? Does music help concentrate?

Research offers little to back up the idea that listening to music improves concentration. In one small study, 133 students performed reading tasks while listening to either light music, hip hop, or no music at all. Students who performed the reading tasks in silence scored the highest. Music with a higher intensity (强度) like hip hop was more distracting and had a bad effect on task performance.

Volume (音量) plays a more important role than the type of music. The study found that the louder the music, the worse the performance in concentration. The type of music didn’t matter. Data from the study showed once again that silence was the best environment to improve concentration.

However, music has a positive effect on work performance. Studies have showed that listening to music leads to positive changes in mood, as well as creativity. In fact, in music-listening cultures, which students are certainly part of, there’s actually a change in mood when the music is taken away.

It’s hard to convince my students that music doesn’t help with their concentration. Taj, a senior told me, “I wouldn’t be able to concentrate if I were listening to music and trying to read. However, when I write, I feel like music helps me concentrate deeply. I don’t have writer’s block. It’s easy for me to put my words on paper.”

“Maybe not with reading, but when it comes to math, listening to music certainly helps,” Danela told me. “You could actually be singing along with what you’re listening to and doing well in math.”

6 . Teenagers’ fitness is now a major concern, to which physical exercise is very important. It reduces stress and improves fitness. Exercise makes your body strong, and helps you to keep the right body weight. Sports scientist Dr.Helen Lopez offers the following advice to teenagers: “Firstly, you need to find out your present level of fitness. Then you can design a programme that will help you become healthier.”

Dr Lopez suggests that there are three levels of fitness that need a change of lifestyle. “Overweight” means that the person gets very little exercise and often has a serious weight problem. “Inactive” means that the person does not join in many physical activities, but is not seriously overweight. “Active” refers to people who take part in sports and other physical activities, but do not have a high fitness level.

According to Dr Lopez, overweight teenagers should keep active to keep healthy. Ride a bike, play volleyball or basketball for a while, and go for a twenty-minute walk each day. All these will help to burn up calories. Inactive teenagers should do similar activities, but add some bending and stretching exercises, such as push-ups and sit-ups, starting with twenty of each a day. “Inactive people can take a little more exercise than overweight people because their bodies are stronger,” said Dr Lopez. The same principle applies to active teenagers.

Dr Lopez suggests one hour a week or more on running and other forms of intensive exercise, together with fifteen minutes a day spent on stretching and bending activities. “These are really important in order to prevent injuries,” Dr Lopez said. Some weight-training and other body-strengthening exercises could also be planned in the programme in order to increase the personˈs strength.

7 . Online jobs have opened the door for many people to earn a living (谋生) or make some extra money from the comfort of their homes. This includes teens as well. If you’re looking for such a job, here are some choices you can consider.

Customer Service

If you are 16 years old and over, you have a chance to work with Uhaul as a customer service person. You just need to have a good pair of head-phones and high-speed Internet in order to do this job. Basic pay starts at $7.50an hour.

Sell Items Online

Selling items online is one of the easiest ways to make quick cash. Teens can turn it into a good business by selling things on Bonanza. You need to start sorting through (分类) items at your home that are no longer being used and list them for sale.

Take Surveys

Another easy task teens can do to earn money is to take surveys online. You don’t need any work experience to do this and can be as young as 13 years old to get started. Survey sites like VIP Voices, Swagbucks, Harris Poll, E-Poll, and Paid Viewpoint allow teens to start taking surveys for cash and gift cards. And your opinions should be expressed clearly in English.

Etsy

Do you love to make new things? You can open up an Etsy shop to share your works. Etsy is great for DIYers who can create new products. If you are under 18, you just need a parent who is willing to help manage your shop.

Peru is a country on the Pacific coast of South America,     1    includes three main areas: narrow, dry, flat land     2    (run) along the coast, the Andes Mountains, and the Amazon rainforest. In the high plain area is Lake Titicaca, the highest lake in the world, on which boats can travel. Peru has abundant plants from desert grasses     3    vast areas of jungle.

Peru     4    (rule ) by Spain from the 16th century to 1821. So Spanish is     5    (official) spoken in Peru. The ancient Inca capital, Cusco, is a popular destination for the     6    (tour) as it is close to the famous Inca ruins of the city of Machu Picchu.

There are two especially interesting things for us     7    (admire) about the Inca civilization. The first is the roads and paths they built to connect     8    (they) important cities. Second, the Inca built wonderful cities,     9     there were no markets in these cities. One of the interesting     10    (question) of history is how the Inca lived without shopping.

The use of chopsticks has been    1     big part of Chinese food culture for   centuries. When cooking food or picking it up, a pair of chopsticks always comes for use.

So how did chopsticks come into being? It’s said that Dayu, a legendary ruler of ancient China     2     helped his people fight floods, invented them. In those days, people    3     (eat) only with their hands. But Dayu was busy in    4     (prepare) for flood control work and often had his meals in the wild. Mostly, he hurried to deal    5     unexpected (意外的) accidents and didn’t want to wait to eat. The meat     6     (cook) in the pot was too hot to pick up with his hands. So one day Dayu picked up some twigs (细枝) to help him hold the meat. Later, the twigs    7     (gradual) became the chopsticks we know today.

But     of     course,     this     is     just     a     story. The     8     (early) chopsticks archaeologists (考古学家) have found so far are more than 3,000 years, dating back to the Shang Dynasty. The six bronze chopsticks     9     (find) in 1934 in Yinxu, one of China’s oldest archaeological    10     (site) in Anyang, Henan Province.