1 . Family quest brings joy and tears

Li Yong reunites with his family in Liyang, Jiangsu, on Dec 31, 2023.

When Li Yong took the train to the Inner Mongolia autonomous region, more than 1,500 kilometers away from his hometown — Liyang, Jiangsu province, he was just 2 years old. He was among about 3,000 children from the southern China, who were adopted by herdsmen in the late 1950s, when the country was _________ by natural disasters and the government of Inner Mongolia took the initiative to take care of these children.

Over the past six _________, these adoptees learned to adjust to their new environment and families, but they haven’t stopped digging into their past and exploring their _________. Li _________ learned that he was adopted when chatting with villagers. After his foster parents (养父母) passed away, Li _________ the idea of looking for his biological mother. _________, it was not easy for him as he didn’t know his biological family or even his birthplace.

Although _________, the journey for some has been realized _________ the application of the DNA technology. The _________ point came in 2021, when Li’s daughter told him that the Ministry of Public Security was helping people find their parents through DNA comparison with the __________ of a national DNA database. After having a blood sample taken at the local police station, Li waited for two years. Late last year, he got __________ that his mother had been found.

On Dec 31, Li finally reunited with his mother, 97-year-old Shi Bamei, in a village in Liyang. Bursting into tears of __________, Li hugged his mother, who kept __________ for the long separation. At Shi’s home, Li served his mother a spoonful of tangyuan, a sweet dumpling symbolizing reunion, on Dec 31.

“With the support and cooperation between the police and __________ groups, I believe there will be more good news for people with long-lost relatives. There will be new reunions and new __________,” he says.

2 . Imagine living in a cool, green city alive with parks and threaded with footpaths, bike lanes and buses which transport people to shops, schools and service centers in a matter of minutes.

This fancy dream is behind the idea of the 15-minute city, where all basic needs and services are within a quarter of an hour’s reach, improving public health and lowering vehicle emissions.

Artificial intelligence could help urban planners realize that vision faster, with a new study from researchers at Tsinghua University in China demonstrating how machine learning can generate more efficient spatial layouts (空间布局) than humans can.

Automation scientist Zheng Yu and his colleagues wanted to find new solutions to improve our cities which are fast becoming blocked. They developed an AI system to tackle the tough tasks of urban planning and found it can produce urban plans that outperform human designs by about 50 percent in three aspects: access to services, green spaces and traffic levels.

Starting small, Zheng’s team tasked their model with designing the urban area only a few square kilometers in size (about 3×3 blocks). After two days of training, the AI system searched for the ideal road designs and land use to fit with the concept of the 15-minute city and local planning policies and needs.

While the AI model has some capabilities that could extend its use for planning larger urban areas, designing entire cities will be more complex. Drafting a neighborhood consisting of 4×4 blocks contains twice as many planning decisions as designing 3×3 blocks, the researchers said. But automating even a few steps in the planning process can save huge amounts of time: the AI model can compute in seconds certain tasks that take human planners between 50 to 100 minutes to work through.

Rather than AI replacing people, Zheng and his colleagues think their AI system can work as an “assistant” to urban planners, who could generate concept designs optimized (优化) by the system, and reviewed, adjusted and evaluated by human experts based on community feedback.

10 . Successful people have a few common characteristics that make them great. Now look at the following common traits exhibited by successful people that I have observed across various fields including sports, business and arts.

I put this at the top of the list simply because without self-discipline nothing is possible. Self-discipline is a quality that can be developed by having a clear idea on what we want and then ensuring the desire to succeed is greater than the consequences of not doing it. If we want to exercise 5 times a week, then we can imagine the enormous benefits of exercise and visualise that while trying to keep the end goal in mind.    1    It is resolving to do what we have set out to accomplish in both our personal and official lives.

Angela Lee Duckworth says that grit is the single quality that guarantees success, based on her groundbreaking studies. There are going to be setbacks, like we may not get the promotion we wanted, but having patience and perseverance never goes out of fashion. Talent will not take the place of persistence and resilience.    2    

    3    We can look no further than Tiger Woods to understand the value of passion. Tiger Woods who had already reached the apex (顶点) of sporting achievement actually changed his style of swing because he wanted to get the extra edge. This was after winning the Masters tournament by a record of 12 strokes in 1997. Passion can ignite reservoirs of resilience that may lay latent (隐藏的). Tiger Woods didn't play golf for the money though that helped, he played it for the love. Passion can happen when we do something we love,but as a beginning, we should start loving what we do and giving our very best every single day.

One of the best kept secrets of the highly successful is the ability to keep learning something new every day in their field or related fields. The hallmark of learning is curiosity. Peter Drucker, the father of modern management, is an excellent example of someone who kept learning till the end of his life.    4    When we learn something everyday, it keeps our mind sharp and it also gives a sense of accomplishment as we are using our time wisely. There is no end to this journey of continuous learning.