1 . Handwritten Chinese characters (文字) can be beautiful. I still remember looking at Chinese and not understanding anything it said and yet feeling a strong attraction. In fact, some students start learning Chinese because of the characters. After having studied Chinese for a while, I realized that handwriting in Chinese takes a very long time to learn.

Living as we do in a digital era (数字时代) with smartphones and computers, most students sooner or later ask themselves this question: Is it really necessary to learn how to write by hand in Chinese? When using smartphones or computers, we can use phonetic input (语音输入) systems, which choose the characters we want for us as long as we can remember how they are pronounced. Since we enter different characters, we seldom need to be able to recognize the difference between characters in detail; the computer makes the right choices for us. Do we really need to write Chinese by hand at all?

I think most people agree that you should learn to write at least some characters at some point as a student of Chinese, although not necessarily straight away and not necessarily all the characters that you can say. But unless you don’t care about written language at all, you should learn the basics of handwriting. Without it, it will be very hard to understand characters. You don’t need to be a calligraphy master (书法大师), but you do need basic handwriting skills to do this. Simply looking at things is, as usual, a bad way of learning.

I think learning the most common 500 characters or so is a good idea for all students. If you actually want to write by hand, increase that to 1, 000. Then learn to handwrite characters outside of the 1, 000 most common on a need-to-know basis.

2 . When I was seven, my family and I were coming back from a T-ball game. In our driveway, we spotted two adult geese and a small gosling. The adults were frightened by our return and flew away, but their baby was still too young to fly and couldn’t follow.

Hours passed and night fell. The tiny little thing was wandering around our yard, unaware of what could happen, and it was clear that the gosling needed protection, warmth and food to make it to the morning. At that point, we had to bring him into our backyard.

We all pretty much slept with one eye open for several days. Each morning, we would try to rush the goose over to his parents, who kept coming back to our yard. He wouldn’t go to them, though, and they wouldn’t come close enough to claim him. The young goose had clearly decided we were his new family, and my twin sister Joanna called the little guy Peeper.

Almost a year passed and we settled into a routine filled with feathery hugs and company. One evening my uncle came over, and my dad threw Peeper up into the air to show he could fly around the house, but this time, Peeper just flew off. Everyone was very sad. Twenty years passed, and Peeper became a fond memory for my family.

In 2019, an aging adult goose made his way back to my home. At first, I assumed it was just another Canada goose. After two weeks of the goose coming back repeatedly, it became clear to me that this wasn’t a random goose. He did all of the same things Peeper used to, like trying to come in through the front door and sleeping in our enclosed pool area. Besides, this goose responded to the name Peeper. Much to my amazement, my old best friend had returned, 20 years later.

3 . A spacecraft carrying Nie Haisheng,Liu Boming and Tang Hongbotouched downsafely in the Gobi Desert in Inner Mongolia today (Sept.17) at 1:34 a.m. EDT (1:34 p.m. Beijing time) today, bringing the historic Shenzhou 12 mission to an end.

Shenzhou 12 launched on June 16 and arrived seven hours later at Tianhe ( “Harmony of the Heavens” ), the core module of China’s Earth-orbiting space station. The Shenzhou 12 crew, commanded by Nie, spent 90 days aboard Tianhe, staying aloft about three times longer than any previous Chinese crewed spaceflight.

Shenzhou 12’s return to Earth was a multiday affair. The spacecraft detached from Tianhe Wednesday (Sept.15) at 8:56 p.m. EDT, according to a statement released by the China Manned Space Engineering Office (CMSEO). Shenzhou 12 then performed a rendezvous test with Tianhe, which was complete by 1:38 a. m.EDT Thursday (Sept.16), CMSEO officials said in another update.

During their time in orbit,the Shenzhou 12 astronauts snapped some amazing photos of Earth and carried out a variety of scientific experiments. They also performed two spacewalks designed to help get the 54-foot-long (16.6 meters) Tianhe fully up and running and ready for future visits, which will be frequent over the coming months.

For example, China is expected to send the robotic Tianzhou 3 cargo spacecraft toward Tianhe around Sept.20. And the next crewed mission to the module, the six-month-long Shenzhou 13, is apparently scheduled to launch in mid-October. (Exact target dates are hard to come by with Chinese missions, because the nation tends not to announce many details of its spaceflight plans in advance.)

5 . Do you often go out for shopping? How to avoid germs (病菌) when shopping in the grocery store?     1    .

Firstly, go to the grocery store bright and early when they’re just opening. This might be your best option. By avoiding large groups of people,     2    , as the virus is mainly spread through close contact with other people.

One of the easiest ways to spread the virus is by touching a contaminated (被污染的) surface and then touching your face, eyes, nose, or mouth.     3    . This is a lot harder than it sounds, because people touch their faces more than 20 times in a single hour. While a mask can help prevent you from touching your mouth and nose, it is strongly recommended to wear one.

    4    . This may be as simple as avoiding a crowded aisle (过道) and circling back a few minutes later. Since other shoppers might not be as mindful as you are about maintaining social distance, be polite in your request that they keep their distance with a polite “excuse me.”

Just as you’re being thoughtful about your own health, be thoughtful about the health of others, suggests Dr. Larkin. “    5    , see if you can shop for them or teach them to use an online and delivery option,” she says. “Be patient and kind with one another, especially the workers keeping the stores open and functioning — and of course, if you are ill, please stay home and don’t expose others.”

I am an out-going boy. I am write to apply to be a volunteer for the nucleic test campaign(核酸大检测) where will be held in Ruili. I think I am qualified for the job, so I have learned Burmese(缅甸语) since in childhood. Equally importantly, I was fluent in both Chinese and Burmese, so I have no difficulty in communicate with the Burmese. If I am lucky enough to be chosen as volunteer, I can help the Burmese for their tests and answer their question. I would be gratefully if you could offer him the opportunity. I’m looking forward to your early reply.

As of June, China had about 285 million Internet users living in rural areas,     1     (account) for over 30 percent of the country’s total, according to a recent report on China’s Internet development. The number of rural Internet users in China     2     (grow) by over 30 million in the last few months.

The report said the Internet is playing a     3     (great) role than ever in the country’s poverty reduction efforts, with the public’s participation     4     recognition of relevant campaigns on the rise. It said as of June, online promotions of     5     (agriculture) products from remote areas had reached more than half of the Chinese Internet users, and that more than one third     6     netizens had bought such products via online platforms.

Meanwhile, the report shows that e-commerce livestreaming (直播) grew increasingly active in the first half of the year. China saw over 10 million livestreaming marketing     7     (activity) during this period. The report said the Internet can contribute     8     (significant) to China’s anti-poverty goal by providing jobs, social security and medical service information for     9     poor and allowing children in poverty-stricken areas     10     (access) better education.

9 . Four years ago, I felt great joy after freeing myself from one of those 2-mile gym fitness runs. I once _________ running with a passion; it was just something that never came_________to me. At that time, I never _________ that I would one day run a marathon.

Things began to _________ when I met my new neighbor Mrs.Gray. She was fifty years old, going through cancer, and still _________ to run 30 miles a week. I _________ myself that if Mrs.Gray could run 6 miles at a time, I could run at least one or two. In February, I started to walk a 2-mile _________ and would try hard to run for a few minutes. Two months later, I finished the whole route, _________, for the first time. I felt _________, but I felt great.

Over the next several years, I continued to push each run for a few extra minutes. Those last few minutes would often be __________, my mind fighting against my body, saying it was time to __________. The fight between my mind and body never stopped, __________I loved every minute of these runs.

A(n) __________ was born; my heart was in it completely. I didn’t need to compete against other runners. For me, the most important competitor was myself.

Slowly, I started entering some local road races. After continuing to __________ myself and finishing two half marathons, I __________ I would train for the Detroit Free Press/Flagstar Bank Marathon. My summer was filled with many long 6 AM runs to __________ the summer heat. I loved my __________. I knew I was finally on the road to success.

Race day finally came, and I was filled with __________. It was hard, but the experience ended up being __________. As I crossed the finish line, I experienced the strongest sense of __________ I’d ever had in my life.