The Most Valuable Player (MVP) award(奖) was what I hoped to get. Yes, MVP — the best. Win this award and everyone thinks you are the best player on your team.

Back in Grade 6, football became my favourite sport. I wasn’t the best player on the team at the beginning of the year. But after a lot of hard practice, by the end of the year, I felt that I was the MVP.

As the football season went on, our team made it to the playoffs (季后赛). We finished second in the city. We were a very good team, and I was a big part of that. Kenny was the captain(队长), but I had the most goals on the team. Kenny would always pass the ball to all his players. At the end of the year, there was a sports dinner at school. People got awards for wonderful performances. Everyone felt that I would get the MVP. When the dinner almost finished, the coach stood up and announced(宣布) the winners for the awards. “The winner for MVP is ... Kenny!” he said.

I didn’t understand why. After the event, the coach came up to me and explained. He said, “You were the best player on the team, but you did not pass the ball. You were out there for yourself and not for the team. You have to realize that football is about the team, not about one individual player.” That night, I did receive a trophy (奖杯). It was called the Most Improved Player (MIP).

Now I’m in Grade 9 and the captain of the football team. I feel that I have learned that a team sport is not just “you”. It’s about “us”. I am both a better player and a better captain because of this.

Success is often considered to be the opposite of failure. To teenagers, it is the achievement of a goal or completion of something they really need, such as good grades and the ability to get along well with their classmates. Some schools used to agree with most parents who measured (判定) the success of their children according (根据) to grades, but now they pay special attention to moral (道德的) education and character-building to make sure teenagers achieve success in building human relationships.

Schools give chances to students to discover their hidden ability so that they can enjoy some form of success. For example, those good at speaking skills are advised to take part in speech competitions while those interested in arts are expected to perform in front of their classmates. Teenagers also get the pleasure of success when they join their favourite clubs.

Teenagers are often told that success is not easy to achieve and that success lies in hard work. Great efforts have to be put into project work. Doing things much later than planned should be avoided as this will lead to a mountain of work which finally makes them nervous. Another good quality (品质) is a sense of responsibility (责任) which makes them remember that a task has to be completed.

Sticking to moral values is the key to success too. Honest teenagers will win the trust of friends leading to good relationships. Self-motivation (自我激励) is another quality to be developed, for self-motivated teenagers will have the strong will and drive to perform a task and finally get to enjoy a sense of achievement.

Some of you may play Ant Forest. It is a game on Alipay. Users collect “energy” to make their “trees” grow. When the “energy” reaches a certain level, some organizations and companies will plant a real tree in a desert area of China. And now it seems that the nation’s efforts as a whole to make a greener world have paid off.

According to a study by NASA and published in the journal(杂志) Nature Sustainability in February, China and India are mainly responsible for making the Earth greener over the past twenty years. The study has found that since 2000 the Earth’s green leaf area has increased by 5 percent(百分之……), or over 5 million square kilometers. That’s an area equivalent(等同于) to the total area of the Amazon rainforest. It is mainly the result of big tree planting programs in China and intensive(精耕细作的) agriculture(农业) in both countries, according to NASA.“China and India account for(占比) one third of the increased greening but contain(包含) only 9 percent of the planets land area covered in vegetation(植被).” Chi Chen, the study’s lead author and a researcher at Boston University, US, told CNN. China was the major contributor(贡献者), adding 25 percent to this increase, while India added 6.8 percent.

Over the past 40 years, China has made great efforts to green the land. In 1978, China began a national-level forestation project—the Three North Shelterbelt Forest Program, also known as the “Great Green Wall”. The program has seen many trees planted in northern China to act as windbreaks, according to China Daily. By the end of 2017, the forest coverage rate(率) among the places of the project had reached 13.57 percent, compared to 5.05 percent 40 years ago.

For example, Kubuqi Desert, which is near the Yellow River in Inner Mongolia, is the seventh largest in the country. It was once the source(来源) of sandstorms in Beijing. But thanks to forestation efforts, about one third of Kubuqi Desert is now covered with trees, and sandstorms are less common, reported Xinhua News Agency.

In the light of China’s success in dealing with desertification, the United Nations Environment Program (UNEP) believes China is a good example for others to follow. “China is one of the most successful countries in greening the desert and has lessons to share with the world.” UNEP Executive Director Erik Solheim told Xinhua.

38. 假如你是李华，你的英国笔友 Peter 想了解你的偶像。请用英语给他写一封邮件，向他介绍你的偶像是谁，你的偶像具有什么品质，并介绍你偶像的一个故事。

I’m glad to know that you’re interested in my role model.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ _________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________     

That’s about my role model. Please feel free to ask for more information.   

Yours,

Li Hua

39. “世界是一本书，而不旅行的人只读了其中的一页。”—— 奥古斯狄尼斯。

My Journey

The world is so beautiful and I want to see it with my own eyes.________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________