Do you like to drink hot water? Compared _________ people in most other countries, Chinese people especially like to drink warm water. Do you know why?

In the old days, people drank water from the _________. The bacteria (细菌) in it could make them _________. Ancient people around the world used different _________ to kill the bacteria in the water. For the Chinese, they thought drinking boiled water was the easiest way to protect _________ from the harmful bacteria.

What’s more, in traditional Chinese _________, “yin” and “yang” mean cold and hot energy. It was believed that the power of your body _________ “yang”. And drinking hot water could nourish (滋养) the “yang” energy. That’s _________ traditional Chinese doctors always suggest people should not drink cold water.

Besides this, before people in northern China had central heating (中央供暖), it was hard for them _________ the cold in winter. Drinking hot water helped them keep warm. Another reason is that since the early 20th century, the Chinese government has __________ people to drink more warm water. It has also helped the Chinese to form this special habit.

Humans have many organs（器官）, but you can enjoy lots of things because of your ears. Do you know how the ears work?

The ear has three parts: the outer ear（外耳）, the middle ear and the inner ear（内耳）. The outer ear is the part you can see. It collects sounds around you. The sounds then travel down to the middle ear, the inner ear and then to your brain.

Your ears never stop working, even when you are asleep! In other words, your ears continue hearing sounds, but you can’t hear the sounds just because your brain ignores them.

But ears do more than hear. They help you keep balanced（平衡的）, too. In the inner ear, there are organs that are filled with liquid（液体）and covered with small hairs. When you move your head, the liquid and hairs move, too. They send messages to your brain about the position of your head.

More surprisingly, ears even help to taste food. Of course, you don’t actually taste food with your ears. But there are nerves（神经）running through the middle ear that connect the tongue（舌头） to the brain. If something happens to your ears, you might have a hard time telling different tastes.

The ears are truly important organs. We should protect our ears well.

In China, Teachers’ Day was first celebrated on September 10,1985. Now people celebrate it on September 10 every year. On this special day, students usually give their teachers thank-you cards, flowers, fruits and other small gifts to show their respect（尊重）and appreciation（感激）.

In the United States, Teachers’ Day is known as “National Teacher Day”. It’s on Tuesday during the first full week of May. The day is celebrated by students to show their appreciation for their teachers with flowers, thank-you cards and other gifts.

In India, Teachers’ Day is celebrated on September 5 in honor of（纪念）the second president of India. September 5 is his birthday. Traditional songs are sung, poems are recited（背诵）and dramas are performed by both junior and senior students.

In Russia, Teachers’ Day was celebrated on the first Sunday of October between 1965 and 1994. Since 1994, the day has been celebrated on the 5th of October, the same day as World Teachers’ Day. Students usually show their respect and appreciation with games, competitions, dramas, dance or little presents. Besides the activities, some schools reward（奖励）their teachers for their efforts.

Teachers’ Day is celebrated in Vietnam（越南）on November 20th. It was first celebrated in 1958. Since 1982, the day has been named “Vietnamese Educators’ Day”. Students hold the Teachers’ Day parties at their schools to celebrate it.

247 graduate students of Fudan University have volunteered to teach the children in Xihaigu region（地区）of Ningxia for the past 22 years. The region used to be poor because of its terrible natural environment. “We expect to make a difference to the children’s life by sharing our knowledge in different fields,” one of the volunteers says.

The students have different abilities, so the volunteers have used different teaching methods to help them develop good study habits. “Local children had never learned English before, so we started with basic knowledge like English letters and pronunciation, ” says Li Lianshuo, a Fudan volunteer. The volunteers help the students remember English words, read articles and deal with their study problems.

“We visit the students’ homes in our free time. We communicate with their parents so that we help the parents understand the importance of children’s education, because the parents didn’t care much about it years ago, ” explains Yang Chenhaotong, who was the leader of the volunteer team in 2019. According to Yang, the parents give their children a lot of support in their studies now.

The volunteers have helped the local children with their studies. They have also set up football clubs and held many ball games to make the children’s life colorful. The Fudan University has also given away more than 10 million yuan to the region to build playgrounds（操场）and other buildings over the past 22 years.

“Thanks to my volunteer teacher, my life has changed a lot. I will study hard and become an excellent person like her,” Li Sumei, a local student, says excitedly.

Yuan Longping, “Father of Hybrid (杂交) Rice”, was born in Beijing. He is a famous
51．. He spent most of his life
52． rice in the fields. In 1974, he and his team
53． in developing a set of technologies for producing hybrid rice. The yields (产量) of the “Super Rice” are 30 percent
54． than those of common rice. By his achievement, China can feed her 1.4 billion (十亿) population. Since 1979, his technologies for hybrid rice have been introduced into many countries around the world. Yuan Longping has helped solve the food problem not only for China but also for the world. We Chinese are
55． proud of him. We’ll remember him forever.

On December 26th, 2020, China passed a new law to protect the Yangtze River, the “mother river” of China. It is Yangtze River Protection Law. It took effect（生效）on March 1st, 2021. It's the first law to protect a waterway in China.

The 6,397-kilometer Yangtze River is the longest river in Asia. It covers an area of about 1.8 million square kilometers, about one fifth of the national total. The Yangtze River provides one third of the country's freshwater resources（淡水资源）, but it has met lots of environmental problems in recent years, such as heavy pollution and overfishing. Especially, the river's Chinese paddlefish（白鲟）has died out. So the “mother river” is in great need of protection. To solve these problems, China put a 10-year fishing ban（禁令）at the beginning of this year to protect fish resources.

According to a report of the government, the fishermen said they would give up fishing along the Yangtze River to protect the “mother river”. Chinese officer Han Zheng said that more support should be given to the fishermen to help them find new jobs and places to live.

Yangtze River Protection Law includes resource protection and green development. The government says the purpose of the new law is to strengthen（加强）environmental protection, use resources well and make the development sustainable（可持续的）.

   近来，为了进一步加强学生在校的管理，许多学校制定了新的校规。假如你是李华，请你根据下面表格的内容提示，用英文给你的笔友Mark写一封信，介绍你校的新校规，并谈谈你对新校规的看法。

How’s it going? I'm glad to share my new school rules with you.___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

What about your school rules? Please write soon.

Yours,

Li Hua