Liu Wenwen is the first suona player to study for a doctor’s degree in China. On social media platforms, Liu’s name is often followed by a video of her    1    (perform) at a concert in Sydney. The audience    2    (impress) by the unfamiliar instrument and the music.

Both of Liu’s parents’ families     3    (play) suona for generations. But it takes time and hard work    4    (become) a musician. “To avoid disturbing the neighbors, my parents would take me to a park to practice at 4 a.m. everyday.” Her primary school classmates laughed at her,    5    (say) her whole family was engaged only in “weddings and funerals”. These are the two major     6    (occasion) where the instrument is played in China.

She found suona music beautiful    7    the first time in 2008, when entering Shanghai Conservatory of Music to learn the instrument systematically from Professor Liu Ying,    8    top player. “The music played by Professor Liu was amazing,    9    was quite different from what I’d heard before,” she said.

Speaking of the popular video, Liu said, “I felt my hard work paid off. I trained for over 20 years,    10    (probable) just to win cheers for traditional Chinese music on the international stage.”

3 . Cheap and even free volunteering programs are everywhere. Don’t worry about a budget that may stop you from volunteering abroad! Kindred Spirit Elephant Sanctuary (保护区) is the right place for you.

Volunteer with elephants and bring them back into their natural habitat.

Make a difference in the conservation efforts to save elephants living under awful conditions.

Help teach English to the communities and raise awareness about the captive (圈养的) elephant situation.

Wander the forests and observe elephant’s natural behaviours in their home environment.

Our sanctuary has rescued 5 elephants from the tourism industry and we have now brought them home to live out their lives in the forest, in semi-wild conditions. We need volunteers to help us keep these elephants happy and healthy in their natural habitat. With volunteer support. we hope to return more elephants to the forest soon.

Performing research on the natural elephant behaviours and the surrounding forest.

Taking part in community projects such as teaching English at the school and to other locals.

Carrying out litter pick-ups with the kids to educate on waste management.

Day 1: Pickup from Chiang Mai at 9 am. Travel through a national park and stunning mountains until you arrive in our unique village. Meet your homestay family and the other volunteers, and immerse yourself in hill tribe culture.

Day 2: Wake up early to hike in the forest and find our elephants. Spend the morning recording and learning about these amazing animals and their natural behaviours. Return to the village in the late afternoon and take part in our community & teaching projects.

Day 3: Another early start to like to observe our elephants one last time. Return to Chiang Mai in the afternoon.

4 . FitzGerald is a 16-year-old long-distance runner from Devon, England, who has set a national record in the under-17s 3, 000 meters, but now she’s getting noticed for her commitment to saving the planet.

FitzGerald finished fourth in the under-20s race at the European Cross Country Championships in Italy last December, but her journey to get there made it even more impressive. To reach Turin in Italy, FitzGerald could have taken a quick flight. However, flying releases carbon dioxide. Instead, she took an overnight coach to Lille in France, then trains to first Paris, then Turin, cycling between stations. Despite her tiring journey, she beat athletes three years older than her.

FitzGerald turned down the chance to compete at the World Athletics Cross Country Championships in Bathurst, Australia. She told Athletics Weekly magazine that the decision wasn’t easy but that travelling fills her “with deep concern”. “To have the opportunity to compete for Great Britain in Australia is a privilege,” FitzGerald said. “However, I would never be comfortable flying in the knowledge that people could be losing their livelihoods, homes and loved ones as a result. The least I can do is voice my solidarity (团结一致) with those suffering on the front line of climate breakdown.”

FitzGerald’s refusal to fly has led people to compare her to the climate activist Thunberg, who once travelled to New York by boat. FitzGerald could travel by ship to Australia, but it would take her more than a month to get there. FitzGerald knows her choice to put the needs of the Earth first could affect her athletics career, but she has to act as if it’s an emergency.

Champions for Earth, an organization for environmentally-friendly athletes, said: “She is looking for sponsors and supporters who can help her with the more expensive public transport, accommodation and eco-friendly kit that she requires. It is clear that FitzGerald has the steely determination and focus, combined with the courage and clarity to face a reality quite different to athletes of previous generations.”

On March 27, the final match between Team Qiandongnan and Team Zunyi at “Village Basketball Association” or “Village BA” basketball tournament     1     (hold) in Taipan Village, Taijiang county, Southwest China’s Guizhou province.     2     (organize) by local residents, this event has gained     3    (popular) over the years and draws a large crowd of spectators and participants alike.

For this year’s     4    (prize), the winners received national intangible cultural heritage Miao silver hat and local agricultural products. The first runner-up won a Tajiang sturgeon (鲟鱼) and a wooden dragon boat. The     5     (two) runner-up won local agricultural products such as “Sansui sesame duck” and embroidery pieces.

During traditional festivals such as Chixin Festival     6     falls on the sixth of June in the Chinese lunar calendar, local villagers will organize basketball competitions to celebrate a good harvest. The bonus gifts are agricultural products     7     (include) rice, fish and duck.

There were no superstar players, no advertising, and no tickets. But     8     single match among ordinary villagers could attract over 10, 000 people to sit in the stands. The cumulative number of views on live-streaming platforms reached hundreds of millions. Apart     9     free entrance to the game, the village has also set up more parking lots and snack streets in surrounding areas. Taipan Village     10     (go) through a major renovation (恢复活力) for boosting tourism in the past few years.

6 . Conflict is an unavoidable part of life. So how can we save meaningful relationships after a fight with our loved ones?     1     If you are currently struggling to seek forgiveness, consider these crucial steps to apologize effectively.

Say the words. After hours of quarreling, many people struggle to summon up the courage to say “I am sorry.” To some it is almost equal to admitting defeat, and no one likes to lose.     2     Instead, they may buy flowers or offer a back rub, convinced that surely this must be enough. But is it? Words are actually quite useful.

    3     It is easy to think you are the victim in a fight. We tend to minimize our own errors while exaggerating the mistakes of others. This is the way we rationalize (合理化) our actions in conflicts. Simply put, we make excuses. But if earning forgiveness is your ultimate goal, then attempt to be less defensive the next time you find yourself in a fight. Stop making excuses for yourself and your behavior and own up to your actions.

Ask for the chance to make up or pay for your mistakes. This gesture is even more effective if it comes at some personal cost to you. So pay for that broken window with your allowance, buy your sister a new pair of headphones after a quarrel, or offer to help your partner with extra housework after arguments.     4    

Apologies do work, but be mindful that how you apologize also matters.     5     When you need more than it, extra work is needed to develop the relationship, like seeking professional advice from experts.

7 . Cancer is caused by gene mutations (突变) that accumulate in cells over time, yet long-lived animals that have lots of cells, such as elephants and whales, hardly ever get it. Why?

For elephants, at least, part of the answer may be the gene commonly known as p53, which also helps humans and many other animals repair DNA damaged during replication (复制). Elephants have an amazing 20 copies of this gene. Those copies, each with two variations produce a total of 40 proteins, compared with humans’ (and most animals’) single copy producing two proteins.

In mammals, p53 plays a crucial role in preventing mutated cells from turning into tumors (肿瘤). It works by pausing replication and then either initiating repair or causing cells to self-destruct if the damage is too extensive. Without action from p53, cancer can easily take hold: in more than half of all human cancers, the gene’s function has been lost through random mutations.

The scientists virtually modeled and studied carefully elephants’ 40 p53 proteins, finding two ways the gene could help elephants avoid cancer. First, the fact that elephants possess multiple copies lowers the chance of p53 no longer working because of mutations. Additionally, elephants’ p53 copies activate in response to varying mutations and so respond to damaged cells differently, which likely gives an edge when detecting and getting rid of mutations.

These “remarkable” results imply that elephants have a series of means though which p53 can operate, says Sue Haupt, a cell biologist who was not involved in the work. This points to “exciting possibilities for exploring powerful new approaches to cancer protection in humans,” she adds.

Study co-author Robin Fahraeus and his colleagues are now following up on these results using blood samples from an African elephant at the Vienna Zoo. They are exploring how its p53 proteins interact with damaged cells and plan to compare those findings with results from human cells.