1 . When I was young, our family cat broke out in a rash (皮疹). But an examination at the vet’s revealed no answers. When asked, “Has anything ________ in your home?” my mom explained my leave for college, and the vet responded “That’s it!” He gave my cat medicine that she took in my ________, and curiously didn’t need when I was home.

Years later after marriage, I adopted a well behaved cat. Suddenly he decided to ________ all our house plants. As it could be a ________ of his not feeling well, I took him to the vet. When tests all came back ________, the familiar question was asked again, “Has anything changed in your home?” We thought hard but couldn’t get it until one day we ________ our cat unsuccessfully trying to get in the window. Ah-ha! We had replaced the old ________ with new wooden blinds. They clearly ________ him from sitting in his favorite spot. Then I ________ the blinds every morning. The digging stopped.

I had forgotten those two incidents. Until recently our dog started ________ not herself and became an absolute________ on our daily runs. It was right when I was taking her to the vet that I thought of the question I would most ________ be asked. After years of being at home, I had recently gone back to work. It was a difficult ________ for our family, but I never considered the ________ it would have on one particular member of the family. Suddenly, she was ________ all day long in a quiet house. Why hadn’t I realized it before?

3 . At 67, Joyce Faulkner thought she was looking for a holiday. Her husband, Jim, had recently died and exploring possible house swaps on the Home Exchange website felt less painful. In the end, it was not a vacation Faulkner found but a job. She left her home in Edinburgh to become mother’s help to seven-year-old twins in Varese, Italy.

“It’s halfway crazy,” she says. A house swap she was interested in didn’t work out, but the owner, Rachele, asked: “‘Do you know anyone who might help me with the children?’ I wrote back and said: ‘Tell me what that involves!’ She wrote me a little list, and I said: ‘I could do that!’ We seemed to believe in each other.”

Two months later, when Faulkner reached Varese, “the dad, Andrea, was walking towards me with the children hiding behind his legs, kind of shy, thinking: ‘Who is this woman in a long black coat?’ I don’t think it was quite Mary Poppins, but the atmosphere was immediately warm and friendly.”

Eighteen months on, Faulkner’s job no longer feels like a job. “I just feel like part of the family.” They joke: “You think you’re going back to Scotland? No, you’re staying here!” She gives English lessons, helps with the housework, meets the children from school, plays chess or table tennis with them, and takes them to the park. “It never feels like work,” she says. “It has been absolutely the perfect match.” Faulkner’s son, Steven, who lives in London, has visited her and they have cycled around the northern Italian lakes. She feels no more distant than when she lived in Edinburgh.

“You have to take the opportunity when it presents itself,” Jim once said.

“I’ll be 70 in January, but in my head, I’m 30. I still feel the same person, I have the same enthusiasm for life, the same interest in people and things. In that sense, I wish I had another 70,” Faulkner jokes.

5 . The memory of one particular summer evening is still burned in my brain as if it were yesterday. There was nothing but wide-open fields for miles and miles around our rural Minnesota home. We never saw strangers not ever and here on this hot evening was a real live one walking up our driveway.

A young man, a slightly-built hitchhiker (搭便车的人) approached our door. He knew there was a storm coming, and he desperately needed shelter. Not wanting to intrude on our home and family, he asked my dad if he could sleep in our basement for the night for protection from the rain. Instead of saying yes, my dad loaded us all up in the 1959 Chevrolet: five kids, my mum, and the man.

Our family consisted of three older children whose father had died young and three more children from the union of my mother and father. Our older brother Jerry was in the Navy, on a ship somewhere overseas. Our mum and dad worried about him.

We drove him 10 miles to the next town, where Dad bought the man a room for the night along with a hot evening meal. In the car after we dropped off the stranger, I heard my dad say to my mum, “I just hope that if Jerry ever needs anything, this kindness will be returned to him.”

Weeks later, Dad told my uncle about the young man. My uncle suggested that perhaps my dad shouldn’t have taken the risk of having a stranger in our car. My dad replied, “You are absolutely right. I should have invited him into our home.”

6 . When you hear the word “culture”, you may think of nations or societies.     1     What is family culture? It is the combination (结合) of values, expectations, and experiences that describes a family and shapes the way its members get along with each other.

Everyone has a unique culture that determines who they are as a person. Your family culture helps you understand your traditions and explains the reason for your behavior every day. It’s important to you.     2     A deeper sense of unity and togetherness is important for a family culture. The following will help you understand how to uncover your cultural story with your family.

    3     You can find out what your family’s values are and what they stand for by looking at the traditions around those values. You can do this by talking to people you respect in your family or by using some simple Internet searches. Through looking into your family’s history, you will understand the context of their culture.

After this, it’s time to write a detailed description of your family’s culture.     4     So you need to take your time with this step. In this description, you need to give a specific account of your family’s culture, traditions, values, and history.

The last step is to share it with people. You can talk to your family about their culture and let them know that you’ve written down what they are like. You can also talk to friends who know little about your family’s culture.     5    

Exploring your family’s culture is an exciting process that will bring new meaning to everything you’ve ever held dear. So start your journey of uncovering it right now!

9 . Wu Ming (Chinese name)is a young German born after 1995. Wu is a big fan of Chinese culture, such as the Shaolin kung fu. He has been learning traditional Chinese medicine (TCM)since 2016, almost seven years. Now he is studying for his master degree at Henan University of Chinese Medicine. And he hopes to solve medical problems and understand Chinese culture by learning TCM.

Studying TCM altered Wu’s mind and lifestyle. He used to be addicted to smartphones and stay up late every night, trapped in an unhealthy lifestyle. But now, according to the Yin-Yang theory in TCM, he lives a balanced and peaceful life, practicing good habits such as drinking tea and reading ancient books.

Wu also uses what he has learned to help his family. Previously, acupuncture(针灸)tools and Chinese medicine were necessities when he went back to his home in Germany. With acupuncture and Chinese-style massages(按摩)various physical disorders of his families have been well-treated. Over time, his family gradually began to understand his great love for TCM. Now, he always provides his family members with some advice about staying fit after he checks their skin or tongues online.

“In my opinion, there’s no big difference between China and Western countries. We are the same. Misunderstanding comes from being out of touch,” said Wu. He plans to run a traditional Chinese clinic in China or Germany after graduation, which could serve as a bridge between the two countries and promote TCM and its culture.