学进去

When Gao Li bought a notebook on sale in 2015, she didn’t know how to use it properly. 1． So she searched on YouTube and found a lot of videos about turning the notebook into a planner.

2． Creating planners is a popular hobby across the world.

Gao found that making a planner was an perfect way to view life from a different way. “I began to imagine people’s lives from their planners, and compare their lives with my own. 3． but I didn’t find them so interesting when I experienced them. It made me put things down and view them from the other ways. In this way, I can make things more interesting and meaningful,” she says. 4． Using a planner required her to record how she spent her 24 hours every day, she was surprised to find her schedule included a lot of time that she has ever wasted.

Making planners gradually became a main part of her life, until she started working as a full-time planner blogger. 5． The job has won her many opportunities she had never imagined before.

Today, we’ll know about a rural educator Lin Mao. He uses special methods to help his students put their best foot forward on the path of life. From time to time, Lin Mao makes a point of checking a special folder (文件夹) that has been front and center on his computer’s desktop for years. The 37-year-old junior high school teacher named it “Happy Homeland”, and it contains more than 40 files (文件), each one named after students he has taught. Each of them includes photos and communications between him and the student. “If a file has very little information, it means that I have not paid enough attention to that student,” says Lin, who has spent the past 14 years teaching at a rural school in Beichen district, North China’s Tianjin.

He will remind himself to catch up with such students and make sure that they are doing OK. “Many teachers might put most of their time to the top students, while those who are not doing as well do not get as much attention,” Lin says, adding that organizing the Happy Homeland folder helps him to provide equal care to all his students.

Over the past 14 years, Lin has kept up the good work and developed a four-step motivation method.

He believes that good teachers should first accept all children as they are and create a happy classroom atmosphere.

“I am just an ordinary teacher who loves education. I hope I can be a good guide and use my profession to lead more rural students in the right way on the path of life,” he says.

Should fashion design (时尚设计) be modern or traditional? For Longhong Ziwei, it can be both. The Chinese designer does well in adding traditional culture of the Yi ethnic group (彝族) to her work.

Longhong was born in Yunnan Province. (1)______ she was young, the Yi culture has been part of her life. Traditionally, the Yi people wear silver accessories (配饰). Longhong saw her mother and grandmother make and wear beautiful silver accessories from an early age. As she grew up, she fell in love (2)______ design. Later, she studied art design in London, the UK, and created her own fashion brand Soft Mountains in 2017. After that, Longhong returned to her hometown to develop her brand. (3) She visited local history museums and looked for stores selling silver accessories on the street.

During the process, Longhong asked some local artisans (手艺人) to work with her. With their support, her works became more and more popular. In May 2019, Longhong appeared in Vogue, a famous fashion magazine. In 2020, she brought her designs to London Fashion Week and won high praise. Now she plans to bring (4) them to France, Spain and the US.

Longhong believes traditional ethnic culture can play a big role in fashion with the help of local artisans, “There are 56 ethnic groups in China and each of them has its own culture and traditions. What I want to do is to keep traditional skills alive,” she said.

你的好朋友Peter要来中国做交换生。他特别想了解一下中国的风俗习惯。请你给Peter写一封信，从初次见面礼仪，拜访礼仪，餐桌礼仪三个方面，告诉他应该怎样做，不应该怎样做。

I’m glad to know you’ll come to China. ______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What’s a person to do on a winter afternoon when it’s cold and grey outside? Well, if it’s Pancake Day, you can make some pancakes! “Let’s ask Angel to come over. She’s a really good cook!” suggested Cindy. “Well,” said Michael. “But Angel always tells people what to do in the kitchen...” “Oh, don’t be a baby!” said Cindy. And before long, Angel was on her way—with all the ingredients (材料) to make soft, fruity, strawberry pancakes！       

When Angel arrived at Cindy’s house, she gave everyone strict instructions. “Have you washed your hands? Is the kitchen clean? OK—let the lesson begin!” She put her bag on the table. “Michael, weigh the sugar. Cindy, get a bow for the flour (面粉). I’ll break the eggs, because that’s a bit difficult to deal with!” Everyone did as they were asked and got to work. But the orders didn’t stop! “Michael, stop eating the sugar. I saw you! Take care of that mixing, Cindy. And oh, we can’t have pets in the kitchen!” Her shout just made the little dog and cat more excited. The cat ran after the dog on to the table. The bag of flour went flying on to the floor and a big white cloud rose up. Angel backed away and sat down on the box of eggs!

At the same time, Michael was ready to flip the first pancake. “Here we go,” he said and he flipped his pancake high into the air. Can you guess what happened? It landed on Angel’s head! Poor Angel was sitting in a mess of broken eggs, her face all flour and her head wearing a pancake for a hat! Luckily, Angel had a sense of humor, and she had to laugh, “As every cook knows, the first pancake never turns well!” The second pancake was delicious, though, and so was the third, and the fourth... “We did it,” said Angel.

Can plants talk? Modern research has found something amazing: they do communicate with each other.

It has been known for some time that plants use chemicals to communicate with each other. This happens when a plant gets attacked by insects. The plant gives out chemical from the leaves that are being eaten. This is like a warming, or a call for help: “I’m being attacked! When another plant gets the chemicals, it starts to give out its own different chemicals. Some of these chemicals drive insects away. Others attack the wasps（黄蜂；蜜蜂）! The wasps kill the insects that are eating the plants. Scientists hope to learn more about this plant warning system, so that we can use it to grow more crops.

More surprisingly, pants also use sound to communicate. People can’t hear these sounds; but plants are making them. Some plants make noises with their roots. Corn and chili plants do this. Some trees make clicking noses when there is not enough water.

Most surprisingly of all, plants have an amazing system of communication that can link nearly every plant in a forest. Scientists call this system the “wood wide web”. The wood wide web is linked underground by fungi（霉菌）. It links the roots of different plants to each other. It is in some ways similar to the Internet we use. Using the wood wide web, plants can share information and even food with each other. However, it may lead to bad effects. Plants may use it to steal food from each other, or spread chemicals to attack other plants. Perhaps one day scientists will learn how to create a “firewall” to help prevent these attacks within the wood wide web.

Scientists are learning more everyday about the secret ways in which plants talk to each other. Maybe one day we will know enough about plant communication to be able to “talk” with them ourselves.