2 . Eating out in the United States is not much different than eating out in other parts of the worlds. There are still fast-food chains such as McDonalds and KFC for those hamburgers. However, what makes the restaurants in the US unique is that there is a cultural diversity of restaurants serving food from almost every part of the world. When you arrive in Irvine, and travel around the city, you will find many restaurants of many different cultures, ranging from European, to the Middle East and Asia. So, when you first arrive, there are always restaurants close by that offer the food you prefer.

Now how do you find those restaurants and know if they are good or not? The most common way is through the Internet. In the US, most restaurants can be found through a smartphone app called Yelp. It is a commonly used search engine for restaurants and it is very convenient to use! All you need is to enter the cuisine you want such as “Indian, Sichuan, Sushi, Vegetarian, etc.” In addition, each restaurant on there is also rated and reviewed by some of their past customers. At some restaurants, you can also sign up for the waiting list through the app to economize time!

If you don’t have time to go out and eat, there are food delivery services available. Traditionally, pizza is the most common food for delivery. Some delivery services you can try are DoorDash, UberEats, or Postmates. All you would need to do is just make free account, select the restaurants on their webpage, order from the menu, and enter your address to have the food delivered to your home. They usually have a delivery discount the first time you sign up for an account, so make sure to take advantage of that!

3 . Get up at 6 am, arrive at the hospital one hour earlier to help patients check in, and accompany patients during consultations ...In recent years, “patient escorts (陪护)” has emerged as a new industry, and those who have taken on this career are known as “people who sell time”, 26-year-old Zhang Tian is one of them.

September 4 was a lucky day for Zhang Tian. On this day, Zhang Tian saw a video about patient escorts on a short video platform. The daily routine of patient escorts shown in the video fascinated her and gradually inspired her to take this on as a business. She looked through many platforms and read multiple information and found there indeed exists a certain demand for patient escorts, especially for the elderly, children, and pregnant women. Since she had never engaged in this kind of work before, she spent two days in major hospitals in Wuhan, in order to familiarize herself with all the departments on different floors, as well as the processes of medical consultation and preparation for surgery.

After preliminary preparatory (预备的) work, Zhang Tian posted a video of myself-introduction on major social platforms, talking about the help and services a patient escort provides, as well as some tips for a quick and convenient medical consultation. At first, she was a little worried that her video would go unnoticed. However, after she uploaded the video, it got over 100 likes and she received her first ever offer as a patient escort.

The memory of her first task is still alive and fresh in her mind. She received a phone call on September 9 from a man whose father was seriously ill and might need surgery. He wanted Zhang Tian to accompany his father through his consultation and treatment. Zhang Tian made full preparations before meeting her first client (客户) and did a very good job despite her nervousness.

“Later, the family expressed their gratitude to me over and over again, which warmed my heart and gave me a sense of achievement,” Zhang Tian said.

Yours,

Li Hua

It is cold and     1    (wind) in Moscow and snow is still on the ground. But none of that discourages visitors to the famous Moscow Zoo. They want to see     2     zoo’s two biggest stars: Ru Yi and Ding Ding.

During the summer, more than 30,000 visitors come here on an average day. Even during off-peak parts of the year, there is always a crowd     3     front of the Panda House. Since     4    (they) arrival, the two pandas have been the stars of the Moscow Zoo, attracting thousands of visitors interested to see them, which are among the     5     (rare) animals in the world.

Pandas’ reproductive rate is     6    ( extreme) low. Females normally give birth     7     one or two cubs(幼崽). If twins are born, the mother may only raise the stronger of the cubs. A newborn panda baby only     8    (weigh) about 0．1 percent of the weight of a fully grown panda,     9    (make) its survival very difficult.

China and Russia agreed     10    (let) both pandas stay here until 2034, part of a 15-year scientific program. Very soon, Ru Yi and Ding Ding that have been kept in separate suites will be introduced to each other. And the people of Moscow Zoo hope nature will take its course and that baby pandas will be born here soon after.

7 . For many years I always invented excuses for either picking this or gathering that on my trips outdoors. My reward from these adventures goes beyond just _______. Each trip adds another level of knowledge. And trips to the _______ take me back to the pleasure of my youth — enjoying time in _______ on family outings. Growing up on the farm, I would walk into the woods late in the day, at first only to _______ that I could find my way back. I _______ the silence, but listening more carefully brought the woodland _______ of squirrels or wood ducks chattering to protest (抗议) my presence.

The wind _______ through pine needles made quieter and more _______ sounds than through oak leaves. The woods became _______ with sound when I finally stopped to __________.

Then my eyes began to see more. Wildflowers only hardly __________ at first as a mass of color were later admired for their beauty and occasional scent (芬芳). Animals became __________ after my eyes were __________ to notice small movements, patterns out of place with leaves, or just the __________ sound that did not fit with the forest floor.

Understanding nature has been a lifelong pursuit (追求). Each visit to the woods is a __________ for me to appreciate life.

8 . Do you think you’ve lost your inspiration? Maybe the ups and downs of life and work have affected you.     1     The majority of people across the world are trying newer and easier ways to get inspired. But they give up along the way gradually. They start thinking to themselves that they are no good. And only a handful of people can stay inspired for life. You can get inspired for life anytime you want. That’s the potential of being human.

Alone time is just as important as socializing time. It is important to stay alone for you to understand your thoughts and emotions at a deeper level. Inspiration comes from inside.     2    

Do you have goals? If you don’t, now is the time to write them down.     3     And he or she can never know if he or she is making progress or not. Create your life goals and then break them down to yearly goals, monthly goals, weekly goals and daily goals. You can even go deeper to hourly goals. Having a sense of direction will keep you inspired.

When socializing, listen to the stories of other people. You’ll be happy to realize how fortunate you really are. Most of the people around you have gone through things you might never imagine. And there they are standing in front of you.     4     You can also read an inspiring book or watch a movie to get the inspiration you need to move forward.

Everyone needs inspiration to succeed in life. If you’re lost your inspiration, you can put to practice these tips any time.     5    

9 . While most musicians work with other artists when creating their music, Holly Herndon, an American musician and sound artist who is now based in Berlin, takes a different way, working with the machine learning software called Spawn. The software uses artificial neural networks modeled after the structure of the human brain. These networks learn patterns from databasets (数据集) during the training process. Based on the data, the networks create new material that includes Herndon’s own voice.

When producing her album, PROTO, Holly trained databasets to write new music. The process requires the input data of music written by people or by artificial intelligence (AI). The neural networks then produce variations (变奏曲) of that music. “Computers surprise you in a way that an instrument doesn’t,” Holly said. So what does music sound like when composed by what is essentially a robot? It sounds like music from the future!

But Holly Herndon isn’t the only one exploring AI in composition. Machines have played an increasingly important role in music over the last century. The godfather of computer science, Alan Turing, developed the first computer-generated music in 1951. Then in 1980, David Cope from the University of California, Santa Cruz developed EMI — Experiments in Musical Intelligence, a system that analyzes existing music and produces new pieces based on it.

AI might not take over the job of the “pop star” anytime soon, or will it? Miquela Sousa is a computer-generated artist with over one million followers on Instagram. “I’m a model and singer. And I’m a robot,” Miquela said. This then raises the question: Can we reproduce creativity using a computer?

Though those questions are not easy to answer, I believe the next frontier of music lies somewhere in between. I can see the path forward with a new dawn of creativity that combines human inventiveness with AI. And the next chapter of music will certainly become wonderful as music and AI become even more closely connected.

10 . Over the last century, engineers all over the world have spared no effort to achieve the unachievable in bridge design.

Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge

No bridge is as long as the Danyang-Kunshan Grand Bridge in the world. The 164.8-kilometre-long bridge built in 2011 in China serves as part of the Beijing-Shanghai High-Speed Railway. The trip from Ningbo to Jiaxi ng that previously took 4．5 hours has been reduced to two, thanks to this bridge.

Rio-Niterói Bridge

Completed in 1974, the Rio-Niterói Bridge in Brazil is the second-longest bridge in all of Latin America connecting the cities of Rio and Niterói across the Guanabara Bay. The Rio-Niterói Bridge is technically known as a “box-girder (箱形梁)” bridge, made of special concrete. It receives an astonishing 140,000 (or more) vehicles per day.

Hartland Covered Bridge

The Hartland Covered Bridge is the world’s longest covered bridge. The 1,282-foot-long bridge was opened in 1901 and has been on Canada’s list of National Historic Sites since 1980． Although it was originally built without a roof, the bridge was capped with wooden materials during the repairs in 1921.

Jiaozhou Bay Bridge

The newly-built Jiaozhou Bay Bridge in China was named “world’s longest bridge over water” by Guinness Book of World Records in 2011, a title previously held by the Lake Pontchartrain Causeway. The dispute was settled when the title of “longest continuous bridge over water” was given to the causeway, with the Jiaozhou Bay Bridge receiving the title of “longest bridge over water”.