1 . On a recent afternoon, dozens of elderly farmers were playing chess in a courtyard, a common scene at the Madongchuan Township Zhaotai Village Mutual Support Nursing Home in Yan’ an, a hilly part of Northwest China’s Shaanxi province.

There are no caregivers in sight. Instead, the residents look after one another at the self-service nursing facility, which was rebuilt from a deserted primary school in Madongchuan township. The younger ones grow vegetables in a small path of land nearby. They cook outdoors using a shared kitchen, and the food is delivered to those with mobility issues. After meals, many play chess or chat at their leisure. Local authorities also hired a retired village doctor to oversee the facility so that the residents no longer have to go to the hospital for less severe health problems such as cold and fever.

“They were enjoying themselves in the moment, and leading rather independent lives,” Zhao Liwen, secretary-general of Taikang Yicai Foundation, said of her first impression about the residents during a visit in 2019. The Beijing- based charity offered help by donating 1 million yuan to the nursing home. When she arrived, the seniors, all empty-nesters who are either childless or have children working in big cities, were wrapping dumplings together.

The scene was a sharp contrast from life in the area more than a decade ago. Village elders used to live lonely lives, scattered (分散) among the remote area and unable to access hospitals and other public services. Then in 2013, a flood washed their homes away, forcing them to move into the nursing facility.

The nursing home in Yan’ an is one of the best examples of China’s increasing efforts to take advantage of the strength of “relationship - based communities” in rural (乡村的) areas to ensure fast-graying residents are cared for. Compared with a more commercial or rule-based society in cities, rural communities in China are known to operate through personal connections and mutual trust. The self-sufficient, interdependent culture displayed by the nursing home is being supported by authorities to deal with aging in the countryside.

3 . It was meant to connect us, make us smarter and our lives easier. And it has. But there’s at least one comer of life where the Internet has made things so much more difficult: gift giving.

Once upon a time, if you were struggling to find a present for a loved one, there were easy options to fall back on-DVDs, CDs, video games and other physical media. This wasn’t even that long ago, but now it’s been snatched from our grasp by the Internet offering us the chance, at a relatively low cost, to watch, listen to or read whatever we want, whenever we want. With everything already watched, listened to, or read, buying a present has become near impossible.

Therefore, we all have to work at becoming perfect gift givers, taking all factors into consideration and searching high and low to seek out the ideal present. If we go the extra mile, there’s less chance that the person we have in mind has already bought what we’re considering online.

But as I now consider this exact plan of action, I’m thinking perhaps it’s not all that bad. Maybe the Internet is delivering us a lesson, firm but fair: the era of half-baked present purchasing is over and it’s time to go hard or go home.

In this era of immediate satisfaction, if you want to give someone a useful present, you do have to actually go to the effort of sourcing something nice for them. Perhaps that’s making for a more rewarding gift experience for all involved. And perhaps it also means fewer gifts that are given as an excuse and end up being unused.

4 . People these days are posting about their lives on social media. But what if you’re a private and introverted person like me? What if you want to live in the moment instead of sharing every bit of your life? To be honest, it’s nobody’s business but your own.     1    

I’ve been a public person as a jazz vocalist for years. It exposed me to stalkers who felt they knew me, just because I was present everywhere. Needless to say, it brought me much anxiety and stress. At some point I asked myself-is being visible more important than my peace of mind?     2     The answer is a clear NO. I just want to spend life doing what I love with the people I love.

    3     I need alone time to process what I’m struggling with and honest real talks with the people I trust. I might share a lesson learned from an experience, but now I won’t. I know that by keeping my life private on social media I may miss out on some connections, but I honor and respect the people in my life who value their privacy, so I am being mindful and protect that.

Another reason I keep my life private is that I prefer to be in the present moment and appreciate it fully. To be on your phone constantly, or to film everything you do, can be quite disrespectful to the people you spend your time with. You lose out on those spontaneous(自发的) moments and a deeper connection. I choose what I share and when I share it, and the rest is for experiencing life without expectations.

Live your life fully, regardless of whether the world knows it or not!     5     I just want you to know it’s OK if you don’t.

5 . Falling birth rates are a major concern for some of Asia’s biggest economies. Government s in the region are spending hundreds of billions of dollars trying to reverse the trend. Will it work?

Japan began introducing policies to encourage couples to have more children in the 1990s. South Korea started doing the same in the 2000s, while Singapore’s first fertility (生育) policy dates back to 1987. China, which has seen its population fall for the first time in 60 years, recently joined the growing club.

While it is difficult to quantify exactly how much these policies have cost, South Korean President YoonSuk-yeol recently said his country had spent more than $200bn (£160bn) over the past 16 years on trying to boost the population. Yet last year South Korea broke its own record for the world’s lowest fertility rate, with the average number of babies expected per woman falling to 0.78. In neighbouring Japan, which had record low births of fewer than 800,000 last year, Prime Minister Fumio Kishida has promised to double the budget for child-related policies from 10tn yen ($74.7bn; £59.2bn).

Having a bigger population who can work and produce more goods and services leads to higher economic growth. And while a larger population can mean higher costs for governments, it can also result in bigger tax revenues (税收). Also, many Asian countries are ageing rapidly. Japan leads the pack with nearly 30% of its population now over the age of 65 and some other nations in the region are not far behind. Compare that with India, which has just overtaken China as the world’s most populous nation. More than a quarter of its people are between the age of 10 and 20, which gives its economy huge potential for growth. And when the share of the working age population gets smaller, the cost and burden of looking after the non-working population grow. “Negative population growth has an impact on the economy, and together with an ageing population, they won’t be able to afford to support the elderly,” said Xiujian Peng of Victoria University.

6 . Released on Aug 30, a three-episode web series titled Escape From the British Museum has gone viral online for its touching and innovative narrative (叙事). The series follows the journey home of a Chinese jade teapot that has come to life as a girl. She runs away from the British Museum and comes across a Chinese journalist who helps the artifact return to China. The series, created by two Chinese vloggers, aims to raise broader awareness of Chinese artifacts that were stolen or looted (掠夺) from China and are displayed or stored in the British Museum.

The video series echoes the Chinese people’s call for the British Museum to return these Chinese artifacts. However, some UK media outlets said that the video series promotes nationalism (民族主义). In fact, every country whose artifacts are displayed or stored in the British Museum wants them back. These countries, such as Greece, Nigeria and Sudan, have already issued their demands for the return of artifacts. It’s fair enough to say these demands are shared. They can correct centuries-old wrongs by having the UK return artifacts to their rightful homes.

An opinion in the UK newspaper The Telegraph said that if the British Museum gives back its collection of artifacts, then nationalism will win over humanity’s common heritage. It also said that the artifacts were “lawfully acquired (合法取得)” by the UK. By “lawfully acquired”, does the writer mean the artifacts were acquired with the “help” of machine guns and warships? Or does he mean that the cultural artifacts of African, Asian and American countries should be kept in the hands of looters, rather than in their land of origin?

9 . Ambition is a necessary quality in life. It is the ________which drives us on to use whatever talent we have got. If we haven’t got some degree of ambition, these talents will not be used for our own and others’ ________.

Ambition,________ , can have several faults. First of all, it can be________. We may not be able to see the limits of our own abilities, so we do ambitious things that are completely beyond us. Our career masters can see our good qualities and our limitations________. They may tell us that we haven’t the ability to deal with people and would not make good businessmen. We refuse to take their ________. We keep on trying. Many years and many ________ later we are forced to accept their judgement. But what a waste of time our ill-founded ambition has caused us!

Secondly, our ambition can be too concentrated. Our attention is devoted to one   ________aim, such as getting distinctions in a science subject. Everything that may draw us away from this aim is cut out of our lives. In the end we get our distinctions. But what   ________we have caused ourselves in the process! We are isolated beings only caring about a particular examination. And we probably won’t make good scientists. We________the breadth of vision necessary for success at a higher level.

Thirdly, our ambition can be limited to lifeless objectives. We want to gain money, or power, or membership of some circles. Persons who feel inferior try to________by seeking the respect of others through possession of these artificial signs of worth.

Fourthly, our ambition may be ________. Instead of directing some of our ambitions towards community improvement, we may exploit members of the community in the interests of self-advancements. In later life we may be ambitious for the success of our children but we regard this success as only a further ________of our own success.

Ambition is necessary in the lives of individuals—necessary for their own improvement and for the improvement of the community in which they live. But, like all blind forces, it must be ________ if it is not to cause disaster. It must be tightly controlled by the head and the heart. Otherwise ambition may demand too high a price ________human qualities.