Traveling to foreign countries     1     (consider) exciting and educational. Not only can you pick up new languages and have a taste     2     local cuisine, but you can get to admire some of the world’s most beautiful art and architecture.

Since the coronavirus pandemic     3     (go) viral, traveling has become quite difficult. Very early in the first lockdown, museums, theatres, and zoos started hosting virtual tours,     4     (bring) the exhibits and performances into peopled living rooms through their high-speed internet connections.

According to Forbes, Google     5     (search) for the term virtual tour reached 1,300 in February 2020. In March that year when the first lockdown began, the number increased to     6     (approximate) 10,000. And it kept rising as people continued to stay at home.

Currently, the pandemic     7     prevents people from going abroad is still prevailing throughout the world. So     8     your heart wants to enjoy the live concert in Sydney, wander through the     9     (crowd) alleys in Beijing, or check out the magnificent fountains in Rome, you can take     10     virtual city tour to explore to your heart’s content.

2 . I am a reporter and I feel privileged to have been a witness to history being made. Every time I watch taikonauts salute as the rocket carries them thunders away and flies toward the skies, my heart beats faster and my eyes begin to moisten.

When Yang Liwei, a former fighter jet pilot, displayed the flags of China and the United Nations together during the Shenzhou V mission in 2003 and wrote, “To make use of outer space peacefully and for the benefit of all humankind, the Chinese came to outer space.” He was remembered in the history of China as the person who fulfilled the nation’s l,000-year-old dream of “flying to the heavens”.

In the years that followed, I saw Zhai Zhigang floating out of his spacecraft and waving a Chinese flag among the stars; Jing Haipeng entering China’s first space lab; Wang Yaping demonstrating the beauty of physics to 60 million students far outside the Earth’s atmosphere; and Nie Haisheng creating the China’s record for the longest stay in space.

However, few people realize how taikonauts prepare themselves to be qualified. They need to study advanced mathematics, aerodynamics, astronomy, space science and technology, English, environmental science, medicine, psychology and many other theoretical courses, all in one year, a superhuman task equal to shortening a normal college student’s four-year study plan to 12 months.

Apart from theoretical study, taikonauts must undergo a large amount of physical training. In a pressure chamber, they go through a simulated ascent from ground level to an altitude of 5,000 meters in five minutes, with all the dizziness, sickness and even shock. While training for spacewalks in a weightless environment, they wear a suit weighing over 160 kilograms and stay underwater for four hours at a time, losing two kilograms or more in each period.

I have once interviewed Huang Weifen, who is in charge of taikonauts training. ''Without exceptional perseverance, they don't make it," she said. “Our space knows no boundary, and our exploration will never end.”

4 . Dr. John Nkengasong, head of the Africa Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, warned against a “vaccine war” among nations. He said on Thursday at a WHO meeting that he “truly feels helpless that this situation is going to greatly influence our ability to fight this virus.” He added, “There is absolutely no need for us humans to go into a vaccine (疫苗) war to fight this pandemic (疫情). We will all be losers.”

It is reported that the Serum Institute of India is delaying major exports of AstraZeneca COVID-19 vaccine to meet the rising demand within India. This institute produces the AstraZeneca vaccine being sent to Africa through the COVAX program. It is an international effort to make sure poor countries receive enough vaccines.

South Sudan received its first shipment of 132, 000 doses (剂) of the AstraZeneca vaccine on Thursday. The WHO called the arrival a “big step” toward equal availability of COVID-19 vaccines worldwide. At least 28 of Africa's 54 countries have received over 16 million doses through COVAX.

But COVAX has been facing delays related to the limited worldwide supply of the vaccine. Africa has received limited doses and much later than the rest of the world. At least 10 African countries have not yet received any vaccines.

Officials hope to vaccinate (注射疫苗) 60 percent of Africa's 1.3 billion people by the middle of next year to help Africa reach herd immunity (群体免疫), which means when enough people are protected through infection or vaccination, it will be difficult for a virus to continue spreading. But that goal will not be reached without the widespread use of the AstraZeneca vaccine, which is less costly and easier to store than many others.

Expel warn that until vaccination rates are high worldwide, the virus remains a threat everywhere.

5 . University educators largely think highly of the wonders of teaching through technology, but skeptics question whether something is lost when professors and lectures rely too heavily on electronic media or when interaction with students takes place remotely — in cyberspace rather than the real space of the classroom. Hans Ulrich Gumbrecht, the Professor of Literature at Stanford University, is one such skeptic. “I think this enthusiastic and sometimes childish and blind pushing toward the more technology the better, the more websites the better teacher, and so forth, is very dangerous — is, indeed, suicidal,” he indicates.

However, Gumbrecht warns that there are few, if any, studies either supporting or rejecting the hypothesis that traditional ways of teaching are superior to teaching via the Internet. He says that he could point only to his “intuition that real classroom presence should be maintained,” and emphasizes the need for educators to examine critically where technology serves a useful pedagogical (教学法的) function and where it does not.

Yet, Gumbrecht allows that, for courses in which knowledge transmission is the sole purpose, electronic media probably can do the job well enough. Indeed, given the 20th century’s knowledge explosion and the increasing costs of higher education, using technology as opposed to real-life teachers for the transmission of information is probably inevitable, he admits. In any case, knowledge transmission should not be the core function of the university, he maintains, noting that universities should be places where people confront open questions, places for “intellectual complexity” and “riskful thinking”.

“We are not about finding or transmitting solutions; we are not about recipes; we are not about making intellectual life easy. Confrontation with complexity is what expands your mind. It is something like intellectual gymnastics. And this is what makes you a suitable member of the society.”

Moreover, discussions in the physical presence of others can lead to the intellectual innovation. “There’s a qualitative change, and you don’t know how it happens. Discussions in the physical presence have the capacity of being the catalyst (催化剂) for such intellectual breakthroughs. The possibility of in-classroom teaching — of letting something happen which cannot happen if you teach by the transmission of information — is a strength.”

6 . After months of expectation and secrecy, the official mascot (吉祥物) of the 2022 Winter Olympic Games－a giant panda-inspired cartoon character－made its first public debut with cheers at Beijing's Shougang Ice Hockey Arena.

The panda is named “Bing Dwen Dwen” in Chinese. Bing means “ice” in Chinese, while Dwen Dwen suggests “health and cleverness”－characteristics also shared by pandas. Pandas are perhaps the most recognized animal species in China, organizers said.

“Pandas combine China's traditional culture and its modern appearance together with winter sports elements in a fascinating image (形象) that shows our great expectations for the Games and shows that we welcome the world,” said Beijing Mayor Chen Jining, who also serves as an executive president on the organizing committee.

“I have already seen the mascot and from what I've seen, it’s a wonderful choice,” IOC President Thomas Bach said before introducing the character.” “The mascot really takes in the best elements and characteristics of China and the Chinese people. It will be a great ambassador (大使) for the country and the 24th Winter Olympics.”

The ring of light surrounding the mascot’s face is suggestive of ice and snow tracks, as well as the flowing “ribbons” of the National Speed Skating Oval. The oval is one of two new competition sites in downtown Beijing expected to become a landmark of the Games, according to its chief designer Cao Xue.

The introduction of the mascots marks the key point of a journey that began in August 2018, when Beijing organizers started a global design competition for the mascots. A total of 5,816 designs were received from 35 countries, and were reviewed by Chinese and international experts in a comprehensive evaluation and selection process.

The new mascot will serve as spirited symbol of the Games that will take place in the three zones of downtown Beijing, the suburban district of Yanqing and co-host city Zhangjiakou in surrounding Hebei province.

The Chang’e 5 spacecraft launched from the island of Hainan on Nov. 24 and     1     (land) in China’s Inner Mongolia region on Dec. 16,     2     (bring) back as much as 4.4 pounds of rock and soil samples from     3     volcanic plain known as Mons Rümker. China became the third nation in history to return a space probe to Earth with samples from the moon.

The China National Space Administration said the lander used a drill and robotic arm     4     (get) samples back from the moon’s surface and more than 6 feet underground. Scientists said that the lunar samples could provide insight     5     the formation and history of the moon.

On Wednesday, China joined the United States and the     6     (form) Soviet Union(前苏联) in returning such samples to earth. The United States returned 842 pounds of moon rocks in the Apollo program from 1969 to 1972 and the Soviet Union deployed (展开) three robotic sample return missions in the 1970s.

China may have been a latecomer to the moon.     7    , when its capsule (太空舱) full of lunar rocks and soil returned to Earth early Thursday, it set the stage for a new space race over the coming decades,     8     highlights the progress of China’s space program. And the nation plans to send     9     (astronaut) to the moon by 2030 and     10    (eventual) set up a permanent research station on the lunar surface.

8 . India faces various major challenges on the COVID-19 front. There are over 300,000 new cases every day — the largest number of daily cases ever experienced by any country. India’s health system can no longer cope. There are not enough beds, and hospitals are turning away people with the virus. They have also run out of oxygen.

With a huge population of 1,380 million, India is densely populated: 464 people/km². Social distancing without total shutdowns is unthinkable, especially in the big cities with crowded streets, trains, buses and offices. The latest data from the government survey says that only 36% of Indians wash their hands with soap before a meal. Even worse, 160 million Indians do not have access to clean water to wash their hands. The research suggests that diabetes and other diseases worsen COVID-19 outcomes. The awareness about disease dynamics is very poor, even among the wealthier and more educated population. After the national voluntary “people’s curfew” called by the prime minister on 22 March, which was by and large a success, people came out on the streets and celebrated with no attention to social distancing.

Many countries around the world are sending oxygen to India. Singapore and the UK have sent much-needed oxygen cylinders to India. A Singapore Foreign Affairs spokesperson explained how urgent it was to help India, “We have all witnessed in the past year how this pandemic is a trans-boundary threat. It gives no regard for country, nationality, or race. This is exactly why we must work collectively to support each other.” The WHO said the situation in India was “beyond heartbreaking”. It said, “The WHO is doing everything we can, providing critical equipment and supplies, including thousands of oxygen concentrators, mobile field hospitals and laboratory supplies.” It added, “The growth that we have seen in case numbers is really, truly astonishing.”