1 . Vitamin C for a cold? A good dose of Vitamin D on a sunny day? We all know that vitamins are critical for our health, but how did they get their names and when were they discovered in the first place?

American nutrition scientist Elmer McCullum conducted a variety of feed experiments with different animal populations and discovered that an “accessory” substance contained in some fats was essential to growth. That fat-soluble (脂溶的) substance became known as Vitamin “A” for “accessory.”

McCollum and others also conducted further experiments with rice-bran-derived nutrient, naming it Vitamin “B” after beriberi, which can cause heart failure and a loss of sensation in the legs and feet. Eventually, it turned out that the substance known as Vitamin B was a complex of eight water-soluble vitamins, which were each given individual names and numbered in order of discovery.

The custom of naming vitamins alphabetically in order of discovery continued. Today, four fat-soluble vitamins (A, D, E, and K) and nine water-soluble vitamins (Vitamin C and the eight B vitamins) are considered essential to human growth and health. Only one vitamin bucked the oh-so-logical naming system: Vitamin K, discovered by Danish researcher Carl Peter Henrik Dam in 1929. The substance should have been in line to be called Vitamin F given its discovery date. But Dam’s research revealed that the vitamin is essential for blood coagulation (凝固) — known as Koagulation in the German journal that published his research — and his abbreviation for the vitamin somehow stuck.

It’s been decades since the last essential vitamin — Vitamin B12 — was discovered in 1948. It now appears unlikely that scientists will ever discover a new essential vitamin. But even if there’s no Vitamin F or G in our future, that doesn’t mean nutritional discovery has stopped completely. If the golden age of vitamin discovery was an appetizer (开胃菜) of sorts, scientists are devoted to the main course — a rapidly evolving understanding of the ways food shapes our lives, one microscopic substance at a time.

2 . Putri Prihardinni, a freshman at the Gansu University of Chinese Medicine, is amazed at how traditional Chinese medicine (TCM) has continued to develop since she began studying it a year ago.

When she was 10, she _________ from constant headaches. So, her mother took her to see a TCM doctor near their home in Indonesia. After several weeks of _________ the bitter herbal medicine, her symptoms disappeared.

“His medical skills were like magic,” Prihardinni recalls. The _________ of being cured by TCM encouraged her to _________ TCM study.

Also from Indonesia, 21-year-old Banon Sayekti is one of Prihardinni’s _________. As she has never been _________ to TCM therapy before, Sayekti found it _________ to understand this branch of medicine at the beginning of her first semester.

“Chinese people believe that good health requires a _________ of yin and yang, and TCM doctors not only _________ a patient’s symptoms, but also to his or her __________ physical condition.” Sayekti says.

Many overseas students, __________, face difficulties in fully understanding the meaning and function of TCM medical terms __________ cultural and language barriers. To help them, the university offers various training courses for freshmen.

“People in my country are becoming increasingly interested in TCM. Numerous social media vloggers(视频博主) in my country are __________ their experiences with Chinese medicine,” Sayekti says. She plans to open a TCM clinic after graduation. “I want to tell my friends Chinese medicine is a __________ choice.”

As for Prihardinni, she wishes to obtain a postgraduate degree. “TCM study is a lifelong __________. I know it is not easy to persist, but I would like to give it a try.”