5 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.

“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.

You can see the irony (讽刺) here.

Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.

The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.

So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.

In December, 2021, a draft revision (修正草案) to the Law on the Protection of Women’s Rights and Interests     1     (submit) to the Standing Committee of the National People’s Congress (NPC) for the first review.

Over the past 30 years, the law,     2     (mark) the first major revision to the law since 1992, has played a big role in helping ensure equality between women and men nationwide. “But women’s rights in some areas haven’t been     3     (effect) guaranteed, and some old problems still exist,’’ said He Yiting,     4     official from the NPC’s Social Development Affairs Committee, when explaining the draft to lawmakers.

The revision adds a definition       5     “discrimination (歧视) against women” and stipulates (规定) that the country shall take necessary measures gradually     6     (improve) the protection of their rights and interests. One of the     7     (propose) is to ask local governments at all levels to ensure that public spots have more women’s toilets than men’s,     8     has led to heated online discussion on Sina Weibo. Studies show that women use the restroom for 249 seconds on average, far     9     (many) than the 170 seconds     10     (spend) by men. Yet the square footage (建筑面积) of men’s and women’s public restrooms is the same, the Beijing News reported.

With the rapid development of the Internet, more and more teenagers make friends online nowadays. Some people say it's good to do that, while others think it's     1     (harm) especially to school pupils.

Some consider that making friends online is a modern way to share friendship     2     others. They can express their thoughts     3     (free) to improve social skills and fluency in English. On the contrary, some strongly believe it is     4     waste of time to make friends through online communication and what's worse, those so-called “friends” are likely to cheat you after     5     (gain) your trust.

In my opinion,     6     the Internet is good or not depends on how we use it. If it     7     (use) properly, we can communicate with people that come from every corner of the world, and share life experiences. Of course, however, since the Internet was born, many bad men     8     (make) use of it to do something bad. So we must learn     9     (determine) true or false and avoid being hurt.

In conclusion, every coin has two     10     (side). So does the Internet. If used in a proper way, the Internet has more advantages in seeking friendship.

9 . Fu Cong, a Chinese-born pianist, died on Monday at a hospital in London, where he had lived for many years.

A lover of classical music from a young age, Mr. Fu began taking piano lessons when he was 7. He made his first stage appearance in 1952. The concert caught the attention of officials in Beijing, who selected him to compete and tour in Eastern Europe. Mr. Fu soon moved to Poland, where he studied at the Warsaw Conservatory (音乐学校) on a scholarship. To prepare for the fifth Chopin Competition in Warsaw in 1955, he practiced so hard that he hurt his fingers and was nearly cut from the first round of the competition.

Mr. Fu was one of the first Chinese pianists to achieve global fame when he took third place in the International Chopin Piano Competition in Warsaw in 1955. He also won a special prize for his performance of Chopin's mazurkas. Almost overnight, he became a national hero. To China, Mr. Fu's recognition in a well-known international competition was evidence that the country could stand on its own artistically in the West. Chinese reporters came to interview Mr. Fu, while many others went to his father, Fu Lei, for advice on child-raising.

In 1981, a volume of letters written by his father, was published in China. Full of advice, encouragement, life teachings and strict paternal love, the book Fu Lei's Family Letters became a best-seller in China. Besides influencing a generation of Chinese, Mr. Fu's words resonated (引起共鸣) long after his death with the person for whom they were intended.

“My father had a saying that 'First you must be a person, then an artist, and then a musician, and only then can you be a pianist,'" Mr. Fu Cong once recalled in an interview. "Even now, I believe in this order-that it should be this way and that I am this way.”

10 . More students than ever before are taking a gap year (间隔年) before going to university. It used to be called the “year off” between school and university. The gap-year phenomenon originated (起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.

This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by the University and College Admissions Service (UCAS).

That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible.” he said.

But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students (NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student hardship—young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to £ 15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and more students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree. NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,” he said.