2 . LANZHOU-When an international olive oil competition announced its winners in Greece in late June, excitement spread across the village of Daoqi in Northwest China.

“The award-winning olive oil was made from our fruit,” said Ru Ciming, 50, an olive planter from the village under the city of Longnan, Gansu province. The variety of olive trees in Ru’s orchard (果园) was introduced from Spain. In the eyes of locals, the foreign trees have not only pulled the city, once among the least-developed regions in China, out of poverty, but they have also brought them international fame.

Olives originated in the Mediterranean (地中海地区) and their oil, often called liquid gold, is used widely in food, cosmetics and medicine. In the 1960s, the Albanian government gifted China more than 10,000 olive saplings (树苗), which were then planted in many parts of the country on nationwide trials. Longnan began to plant olive trees in the early 1970s and experts concluded that the region was ideal for the resettlement of the olive trees due to its climate and soil condition. After years of experiments and promotion, it is now the largest olive cultivation (栽培) base in China.

In recent years, the local olive oil industry has continued to expand as Longnan has improved cooperation with Mediterranean countries that have a long history of olive planting, including Italy, Greece and Spain. The improved cooperation aims to introduce better varieties and initiate technical exchanges.

Pedro J. Rodriguez Sanchez, a Spanish olive seedling expert, was one of the early contributors to olive exchanges. He arrived in Longnan in 2009, when only half of the local olive tree seedlings had survived. His technical guidance helped raise the survival rate to over 90 percent.

Zhao Haiyun, an official in charge of promoting the olive industry in Longnan’s Wudu District, said that many more European experts have arrived since Sanchez. They have visited orchards to offer guidance to farmers, and helped companies improve their processing and storage procedures.

They have helped the district, as well as the city of Longnan, to jump on the bandwagon of China’s rising demand for high-quality olive oil, especially among well-off urban families, said Zhao.

3 . Would you believe it, Bangladesh is the happiest nation in the world! The United States, on the other hand, is a sad story: it ranks only 46th in the World Happiness Survey. That's far behind India, the fifth happiest place in the world, and others including Ghana and Latvia, Croatia and Estonia.

The research was led by London School of Economics professors into the link between personal spending power and the quality of life. It has proved that money can buy everything but happiness. The study revealed that people in Bangladesh, one of the poorest countries in the world, act far more happiness from their small incomes than, for example, the British (32nd on the list) do from their relatively large bank balances. In fact, people in most rich countries are much unhappier than poorer people in countries like the Domini can Republic and Armenia.

Most unfortunate, however, are Russians and people in some other parts of the former Soviet Union. They are neither rich nor happy, indicates the World Happiness Survey.

The study shows that although the British have twice as much money to spend in real terms compared with 40 years ago, their quality of life has not improved. Earlier surveys showed that many Britons thought money could bring happiness. The new study shows that such a link still exists in poor countries because a small increase in income can mean large improvements in lifestyle.

The researchers have concluded that although Britons are rich compared with most other countries, many suffer from an emotional poverty caused by consumerism (消费主义) and the breakdown of family life. “We are being seduced by a huge economic power and our personal needs are not being met,” said nip Marks, a social sciences researcher at survey University who also worked on the report.

4 . Smartphones are perhaps one of the things we like most or least. While they create a shared and communicative digital(数字的) experience，their use also greatly reduces the amount of direct communication we have. So, while we feel closer than ever through smartphones，research shows that we’re actually lonelier than ever.

We see this situation most commonly among the youth who were born into the digital age. Phones have increased the level of isolation (孤立). Janet Behrens, principal of Iowa Valley Junior-Senior High School, noticed it in the lunchroom, where students had their heads down looking at their phones and had little conversation with each other.

Then, she created a lunchroom policy, which requires all students to leave their phones behind during Friday lunches and sit at a table with students they may not know. During Friday lunches, kids pick a card that shows which lunch table they will be sitting at that day. Each table provides ideas for conversation starters. in case students have trouble thinking of things to talk about with kids they might not know

Anyone who knows teens knows that they are likely to refuse to follow this kind of forced socialization(合群). So they may not quickly agree with such an idea. However, the new program is different. After taking a few weeks to get used to the new program, kids are kinder to each other and they actually look forward to Friday lunch hour. Sahara Kanke, a ninth grader, said, “I think it’s fun I was a bit confused when I first knew the program. But I like doing it now. People are nicer to each other now because they got to know each other at lunch”

Policies like this are important. ABC News reported that students who use phones and computers less during class scored half a grade higher than students with smartphones. Due to the advantages of reducing smartphone use among the youth, schools around the world have been testing different methods to help students overcome the difficulties

5 . “I think kawaii, or cute feelings, can remind us of human connection that we sometimes forget,” says Hiroshi Nittono, director of the Cognitive Psychophysiology Laboratory at Osaka University.

“Viewing cute images of baby animals gives us a desire to act tenderly and responsibly to protect them,” he explains. “This idea holds that weak and defenseless but cute things set off caregiving behavior in the beholder.” Cute things make us feel protective, and when we’re protective, we might be naturally more focused.

Engineers, advertisers, and developers have taken advantage of this phenomenon, using kawaii to control user experience and consumer behavior. Researchers call it cute engineering. It’s a way to harness positive feelings and emotions to motivate (激励) and shape the user’s behavior in a positive way.

Sometimes cute engineering is subtle (微妙的), but it’s often quite obvious. Engineers use kawaii in the field of robotics, for instance—the cuter the robot, the more humans will want to engage with it. There’s also the iMac, which over the years, Apple designed to be subtly adorable (可爱的). It persuaded traditionally non-computer users to buy into the world of computing so that they could sell more units.

There’s also “cute filtering (萌物滤镜)”, a component of cute engineering that allows consumers to personalize their kawaii experience, just like the way iMac users could choose the color of their units. In this way, users can create their own kawaii experience. Using a “cute filter”, users can freely choose the cuteness parameters (参数) such as color, size, motion, smell, and taste to adjust their desired cute output.

Nowadays, an increasing number of young Chinese spend money because they are “lazy”. According to a report issued in December by China’s e-commerce platform Taobao on China’s “lazy economy”, Chinese people spent 16 billion yuan on products and services online in 2018. The post-1995 generation was the “laziest” as its consumption increased by 82 percent, compared with that in 2017.

The so-called lazy economy refers to a new type of consumption of products and services which are designed to save time and labor. According to the report, many people of the post-1995 generation buy high-tech electronic devices such as floor mopping robots and automatic window cleaners, which save the trouble of doing household chores. Meanwhile, take-out food delivery services are also popular among people born after 1995.

Young people are willing to spend money on such products because they want to enjoy hard-earned leisure time after a busy and stressful day at work or school, reported Global Times. Because they need to focus on their studies or jobs, these so-called lazy people tend to use their leisure time more efficiently. For example, Wei Duo, a 21-year-old college student, is a frequent user of take-out food delivery services. “I once had a birthday cake delivered to my friend who lives far from my home. It cost me 50 yuan but it saved me almost half a day that would have been needed to deliver it myself My friend was also happy because she got to eat the cake instantly.” Wei told the Global Times.

While the “lazy economy” might be convenient for young people, it might also create problems. The lazy economy’ on campus is expressed in things like people buying food or other things without leaving the dormitory. As a result, they stay in their dormitories all day long, playing on computers and smart phones. According to Jinan Daily, this situation could lead to young people becoming less sociable and even developing problems of communicating with others. Young people should be alert (警觉的) to it.

The eight-day 2021 Cloud ACG Industry Trade Fair concluded in Hangzhou on May 5,     1     (draw) 5981 insiders and traders from 46 countries and regions.

    2     (consider) as a key platform to boost international exchanges when the world is still battling COVID-19 spread, the fair announced over 80 projects, with     3     (they) total finance reaching nearly 2 billion yuan. Deals, about games and animated works from 103 Chinese and foreign companies and organizations     4     (sign) during the event, reaching     5     total value of 100 million yuan, more than twice of the 40 million yuan contracted last year.

In addition     6     the online activities which involved 20 international festivals and renowned     7     (studio), the event also launched an online campaign to encourage tourists to wear traditional-style costumes to places of interest during the May Day holiday, aiming to promote young people’s rising     8     (prefer) of traditional culture and history.

The trade fair was created last year as an alternative plan     9     (support) the 17th China International Cartoon & Animation Festival,     10     influence has already reached far and wide across the globe.