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The long-awaited return journey of female giant panda Ya Ya, who has lived in the Memphis Zoo in the US state of Tennessee for 20 years, finally started on Wednesday local time, according to media reports. The news resulted in heated cheers of Chinese netizens as they had been closely watching and looking forward to Ya Ya’s return for months over concerns about the giant panda’s health.

Ya Ya had left the Memphis Zoo in Tennessee, the US, starting her journey back to China on Wednesday morning, the Xinhua News Agency reported. When asked about the latest progress on Ya Ya’s return journey, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mao Ning said at the Wednesday press conference that Ya Ya would soon return to China as arranged. “Related parties in China and the US are actively promoting related preparations and arrangements,” Mao said.

According to information released by Chinese flight tracking platform Feichangzhun, FedEx special flight FX9759 would take off at 12:05 p. m. on Wednesday US time from the Memphis airport for the Shanghai Pudong International Airport. The flight duration is estimated to be nearly 16 hours. Many netizens volunteered to go to the Shanghai Pudong Airport to welcome Ya Ya and Le Le. “I am sure there will be a crowd of people there for them! We all want to see them land in the motherland safely!” said a Weibo user.

Ya Ya was born in the Beijing Zoo in August 2000. In April 2003, as part of a cooperation program on the protection and research of giant pandas between China and the US, Ya Ya and Le Le, a male panda from the Shanghai Zoo, were flown to Memphis.

Since the beginning of 2021, there have been continuous reports about the poor health conditions of Ya Ya and Le Le, with heart-wrenching photos surfacing online. After passing away of Le Le in February, pictures of the weak Ya Ya caused a stronger impact on the Chinese social media, leading many netizens to call for the early return of Ya Ya.

It was the men’s skating finals of the Winter Olympics when I was 16. Someday I’d be in the Olympics. In fact, it was my dream.

That night I lay on our living room floor excitedly watching the battle between the Brians: American Brian Boitano facing Brian Orser in Canada. Both of them had been world champions. Both of them deserved to win. Naturally I was for Brian Boitano, a northern Californian like me. We had skated on the same ice. I held my breath in amazement. Boitano performed successfully. The gold medal! I jumped in the air when his score went up.

But what happened next is what I’ll never forget. Brian Boitano sat in front of the camera with his coach, surrounded by a group of journalists. He was talking about his career and his medal, talking to the whole world. A terrible sinking feeling went through me. I could never be in the Olympics, I thought. I could not talk in public like that. Just the idea of a press conference terrified me.

I loved skating partly because I didn’t have to talk. I could express myself with my jumps and dances better. I didn’t have to stand up and give a speech like some teachers expected. I could feel the blood rush to my face if I thought a teacher was going to call me. I stared at my shoes. I was sure I’d make a fool of myself.

The next day I was at the rink (溜冰场)as usual. I was practising a combination of jumps that had once seemed impossible. I worked very hard the next few years — on the ice and especially off. After journalists talked to me and although my heart pounded every time I spoke to them, I got to know them. They became familiar faces. And they got to know me. So when my big moment came four years after Brians, I was ready. Sometimes I think my biggest accomplishment was not winning the gold but talking to the press afterwards. When you do the thing you fear most, you put an end to fear.

Fear can stop you dead in your tracks. Fear can kill a dream. What are you afraid of? What scares you more than anything else? This year, walk right up to it and conquer it, step by step.

Some started to run. A woman sobbed beside me, her husband dragging her along by the arm. Families begged for a _______ in vehicles(车辆) with no space, and cried when they were _______ .

Finally _______ it to the slightly higher ground of the evacuation(撤离、疏散) zone, it took me a few minutes to find Lauren among the crowds. Holding me and crying, she told me of her own walk twenty minutes _______ . Somehow, she had _______ to get back inside the airport before it was locked down, throwing our bags onto a trolley(手推车) and pushing it all the way to where we stood.

She was extremely tired, physically and emotionally, _______ finally calmed down enough to ask a simple question: “what happens now?”

I had no idea. Rumors(谣言) were flying around the crowd; _______ being spread far and wide. A six-meter tsunami was _______ our way. We were safe? No, we weren’t. People would be trapped in their hotels for days.

In short, nobody had a clue. The authorities(官方) were doing their best, _______ water-and later, food —to everyone, but they couldn’t provide the one thing people were most ________ for: information.

Finally, an announcement was made that the ________ had passed, and if there were no further quakes, we would be free to go in two hours. The airport would not reopen that ________ and buses would turn up at some point to take us to Phuket Town.

Suddenly, another announcement was made. Four hours after it closed, the airport was going to reopen in half an hour and our flights would ________ at some point after that. Some of the airport staff got into minivans(小型货车) and headed away.

Happy to be alive, we almost ________ back through security and into the terminal(航站楼). We found a slightly comfortable piece of floor, and prepared to wait it out.

Afterword: After I started queuing at 4 am, we were ________ enough to get on the first flight to Chiang Mai the next morning.

I believe that we get out of this world what we put into it. Usually, the rewards are indirect and sometimes hard to _________，but usually what you _________ comes back to you there and then!

A couple of days ago my step-son, Josh, was preparing for an event. Children from his primary school were going for their first trial day at the secondary school，so that they could know what they would meet after the summer holidays. A big _________ for a student!

I was in the middle of softie stuff when I noticed him _________ in a pot where we keep pens and pencils. In primary school they use pencils, _________ secondary kids get to write with pens. And Josh was looking for a pen. He came out with a(n) _________ pen that was missing a piece off the end. His _________ day deserved a pen better than that. So I _________ what I was doing and went to the drawer where my _________ pen lived. I would __________ that pen, but this was a special occasion.

“Josh,” I said in a deep，serious voice. “I __________ my pen which I like best to you, the next generation. Protect it well and cherish it. ” He smiled and said thanks. And I went back to go on __________. Coincidentally, that day was __________ my birthday, but we were just back from a weekend away and I wasn’t expecting any more gifts. Moments after the pen ceremony, Josh walked to me with a smile on his face and gave me a prettily packed box. __________, I opened it—and was even more surprised! Inside the box was a beautiful, brand new pen!

Almost like someone had planned it! It is so __________.Give and you will receive!

Every year in May, museums prepare shows to honor Leonardo Da Vinci, who died in France on May 2,1519. He is remembered as one of the greatest artists and creative thinkers of all time. His most famous paintings are The Mona Lisa and The Last Supper.

Recently, researchers have been studying a painting, Landscape8P which they think is Da Vinci’s earliest-known artwork. They used special lighting to study the artwork and discovered there were two images (图像), not one. One drawing is on the back of the piece, which dates back to August 5, 1473.

The drawing on the front was painted when Leonardo was 21 years old. It shows a river valley and a castle outside the city of Florence. There is little left of the drawing on the back, perhaps because it was wiped off. Only a bridge over a river can be seen. But there is writing on both sides.

The writing on the front gives the date and goes from right to left. Some people would call this “mirror-writing”. It’s a way Leonardo often wrote in his notebooks. The writing on the back goes from left to right and tells about an agreement, probably to produce a work of art.

Cecilia Frosinini is an art historian. She said, “Leonardo was born left-handed, but was taught to write with his right hand from a very young age. By looking at his writings, including from this drawing, we can see his right-handed handwriting is educated and well done.”

Experts compared the two handwriting samples (样本) and said they were both made by Leonardo. They show he could write well using his left hand or his right hand.

The drawing is known as Landscape 8P from its number in an art list. It will be part of an exhibit at Italy’s Uffizi Gallery. The museum director, Eike Schmidt, said by studying the drawing researchers gave us a new way of looking at Leonardo’s drawing techniques and his abilities in writing.