人物类：
Talkative,comic actor, someone you haven’t seen before, interesting person, TV or film that made you laugh,A family business
I would like to introduce Guo Degang, who is famous and respected Chinese comedian. I’ve been watching his shows since I was very little.
Guo is one of the most influential Xiangsheng artists in China, which is an art form unique to China. It is kind of like stand-up comedy, you know, the artist tell jokes or tease people to make others laugh. The only difference is that it can be performed by multiple performers.
He’s not only a talented comedian, but also a great actor. He starred in a movie called......and his character as a host for a match-making show make the audience burst into laughter in the theaters. The reason why his performance is so well-received is that the character resemble his real life personality. As a comedian, Guo is very verbal and quick-witted, thus he is able to amuse his audience with his vivid expressions and quirky sense of humor. Not only that, I believe his humor and appeal is rooted in his deep understanding of Chinese literature and history, as well as of life of average Chinese people.
Since he is on a tour now performing in 30 cities in China, I’m looking forward to meeting him in person when he comes to Jinan. Maybe if I’m lucky enough, I can get a autograph or a picture taken with Ganggang.
Teenager, childhood friend, protect the environment,Interesting job
I would like to introduce one of my closest friends, who’s also my elementary school classmate. Unlike her peers whose only pass-time was to playing meaningless games,she showed her passion in photography at a young age. While others were hanging out playing hide and seek, she would take photos with old cameras used by her parents. Her pictures include various genres including figures, landscapes and objects. Although she was sometimes discouraged by the teachers due to the reason that her academic performance was not as good as her photography skill, she never let these voices interfere with her diligence in it. Finally,her persistence and talent has led her to winning numerous awards and (being elected as the chairman of the photography club as school) landing at her dream job as a photographer in a renowned press office/environmental organization. Her main focus is preserving natural environment and raising people’s environmental awareness. Sometimes her job would require her to go into the middle of nowhere to take pictures of endangered species, and also record how human activities are threatening these species. I remember her telling me about her experience in Tibet. In order to keep track of Tibetan antelopes, she had to live in a camp up the mountains for a month, which led to severe acute mountain sickness. Despite the hardships, she never regret her career choice because she’s doing what makes her passionate.
地点类：
A quiet place, a good place to study
I would like to introduce a grove on campus, where I spend most of my study time in. It is located at the south east corner of school and only a few minutes’ walk from my dormitory. It is a nice and tranquil place with tall birch trees which not only provide shade in the summer but also give off a nice refreshing smell. Some students feel birds chirping can be a big distraction but for me it is like a piece of soothing background music, helping me focus on my priorities. I go there to study mostly in the summer since I don’t like staying indoors in the study hall with so many people. In this secret little green corner, I can read out loud, which kind of gives me audio reinforcement on the materials I’m studying, and I wouldn’t have to worry about disturbing my fellow classmates. Not many people pass by this area so there’s not much ambient noise. All in all, it is the perfect place for me to study efficiently and effectively. There’s one drawback I have to mention though-- sometimes there can be many mosquitoes after a heavy rain, so I always remind myself to put on some bug spray.
Beautiful city, interesting part of your country, a place you plan to travel to,A building you like,Trip on public transportation, recent happy event
I would like to introduce Tianjing, a coastal city in Eastern China. It is a first tier city with strong economy and welcoming people. Not only that, the natural environment there is also admirable. Since I was born and raised in an inland city, the ocean has always have a fascinating appeal to me. Recently, a large Ferris wheel was constructed by the sea in Tianjing. I was so thrilled to know it since it felt like two of my favourite things had been combined together----ferris wheel and the ocean. It is said that visitors can overlook the entire city as well as romantic ocean riding on the giant wheel. (Another factor that attracts me is a breath-taking and futuristic library in the city, which has been a big internet sensation on several platform such as Douyin since it was opened to public last year. As for the design, it is not like the average, old-fashioned libraries because it has floor-to-ceiling bookshelves and thus can make full use of space. The library is anchored by a giant spherical structure in the center of the space. The surrounding bookshelves curve around the sphere, all the way to the ceiling. This gives visitors the sense that they are walking inside an eye, an illustion that has inspired the library's nickname: "The Eye of Binhai." As for the size, it takes an area of nearly 40,000 square feet can hold up to 1.2 million physical books. In my opinion, from an architectural perspective, it is a great idea; however, from a pragmatic perspective, it is not that practical. You know, the readers have to use a ladder to reach the very top of the shelves, which is time-consuming and even a bit dangerous. I would probably visit there again.)
事件类：
Helped a person,Looked for information from the internet, interesting animal
I used to work in a dog cafe, you know, the kind of coffee shop where you can sip your cappuccino while patting the pups. I applied to work part-time there since I’ve always been a dog person. My favourite dog in the cafe is a 10-month old Shiba Inu, his name is Alpha. He’s the youngest dog there and has a quirky character. Unlike most dogs, he is quite distant and independent. What he enjoys doing every day is to lie at the balcony, isolating himself from all the animal lovers who come to the cafe to play with dogs. Apart from that, he always attempts to escape from the cafe and actually he made it a few times, but of course was caught by people and sent back to the owner. One rainy day, he escaped again. Sadly, this time, nobody knew his whereabouts. After looking him over everywhere, we decided to post on some local pet groups on social media, trying to track where it went. I looked up at the city yellow page hoping to see if anyone had found a missing dog but in vain. I guessed it was because Alpha was too small to be noticed. Trying to locate a living thins can be extremely difficult since it moves at all times. In the end, I had to give up and left my contact information. Fortunately, three days later, Alpha came back to the cafe. I was thrilled to see him and picked him up to show my boss right away. To our surprise, he was clean, intact, and seemed to be well-fed. With his typical poker face, he followed me up the stairs to the balcony. It amazed me how such a tiny dog, who had never left home for long, managed to find shelter from the rain, navigated back home and looked for clean food. All the staff felt a relief upon his arrival and we felt lucky to have him back.
Shopping in a street market, Had to change your mind/plan, Important decision,Made complaint and satisfied，Something you made and gave to others
July 19th was my mom’s 50th birthday, so I planned to buy something special for her. She has a collection of bracelets and always wanted to add a crystal one to her collection. Several days prior to her big day, I went to Pearl market which is located within walking distance to my home, and it is known to be the largest of its kind in China. At first, I planned to buy a pink one because it was my favourite color. However, the salesgirl insisted that a mature woman like my mom wouldn’t like this color. There happened to be a lady around my mom’s age in the shop, and she sided with the salesgirl. After carefully thinking it over and comparing the pink bracelet with others, I decided to buy a green one that resembled emerald. The girls wrapped it up and I left the shop happily. (Before presenting it to my mom, I opened the package to check it up and spotted a tiny fracture on one of the beads. I immediately called the shop, complaining about the quality of the bracelet. They agreed to exchange it for a better one so we scheduled a time for me to pick up the new one. Upon my arrival, the salesgirl as well as the owner of the store kept apologizing and exchanged the bead. Not only that, they also gave me some coupons so next time I purchase something, I could get a discount. Although I had to return to the shop to change the bead, overall I was contented with my shopping experience.) At my mom’s birthday party, I handed it to her. She opened it up and the moment she saw the bracelet, she smiled from ear to ear, saying that all these years, she had been looking for a green bracelet with perfect shape and lustre, and this one was the best she had seen. She put it around her wrist instantly and I could tell she really loved this gift I picked for her. I was delighted that I had followed the salesgirl’s advice.
Party, Wore special clothes,Were scared, Borrowed something from family or friends, lost something important, something given to you that you really needed
Last week, I was invited to a Halloween party hosted by some of the international students in my university. As it was a Halloween party, I was supposed to dress up. Even though Halloween is a time when people normally dress up as supernatural figures such as ghosts, vampires, skeletons, witches and devils, I wanted to be someone cute and sweet, since I’m not into spooky stuff like horror films or haunted house. So, I made up my mind to dress up as Super Mario. I’ve got plenty of red shirts but I didn’t have any pants or hat like Super Mario’s. Initially, I planed to order the costume online, but it would take at least three days for it to arrive and it would be wasteful to buy some silly clothes which I knew for sure would be used only once. The party was approaching so I decided to ask my friend Zoe for help, who dressed up as super mario last year. I talked with Zoe two days prior to the party and she gave me a pair of dark blue dungarees/overall and and a newsboy cap. At the party, most people looked horrifying and when 4 smurfs blocked my way, I was literally scared stiff. Under the dim light, they looked so creepy with their skin painted in blue. I screamed and ran away as fast as I could. It was when I was about to dodge the party that I realized I lost my hat. I was a bit upset because I borrowed the costume from Zoe in order to save money, now I had to spend money on a useless hat!
Had medicine, important plant
I’ve always had sensitive skin and last spring I got serious allergy. My face was covered with little red rashes and I had to wear a facial mask even when I was even in the classroom because I felt embarrassed to let anyone see my face. Firstly, I went to the the hospital and the doctor prescribed some pills to relieve the symptoms. Sadly, after taking it for a few days, it didn’t work at all. My roommate suggested me see a Traditional Chinese Medicine doctor so I followed her advice. Rather than giving me pills, the doctor told me to go to the market to buy some figs, you know, the light green fruit with seeds in it, about the size of an apple, and to mash the skin of the fruit before applying it on my face before sleep. I was very suspicious at the beginning since I didn’t know figs had any medical use although I ate it a lot as a kid. To my surprise, after one night of sleep, my skin looked much better, most of the rashes had gone. I was amazed by it and did some researches on figs. I discovered that they could not only be used as fruit, but also a powerful treatment of skin problems, diabetes, and constipation. What’s more interesting was that I found many fig trees on campus. The gardeners told me that the trees in our school were a type of ornamental fig trees and the fruit were not edible.
A piece of equipment was broken, something you want to replace
I like photography and I bought a camera with a regular lens about two years ago. The resolution isn’t high and when I zoom in, the views would get a bit blurry. So normally I use it to shoot objects and figures, but not landscapes.
I would like to replace it soon. The reason why I wish to change it is that firstly, since it is a old lens, there are several scratches on it, so the photos I take sometimes have some obscure lines on them.
To make matters worse, last summer, when i went to the Tibet on a photography tour, one antelope I was filming suddenly ran toward me. I was so scared that I dropped my camera on the ground, and the result was I got a long fracture on the lens.
I’ve been saving up to get myself a new one for a while since a new lens would cost me a small fortune. What forces me to make up my mind to save is that I plan to go to a live concert of a famous band. And as a diehard fan of the band, I hope to take some panoroma photos that include all the members. However, my old lens wouldn’t allow me to do so. What I need is a wide-angle lens. If not for the incidence that I broke it, I would not be so determined to change the lens.
Something interesting you friend has done, A sport you watched and would like to try, A competition you want to take part in
Last spring, the school held a track and field day, which drew all the sport-lovers to compete in. At the end of the event, after all the “serious” sports, there was a so-called “slow bicycle race”. As its name suggests, the winner of this game would be the person who takes the longest time to finish the race. The rules include not touching the ground with any part of the body and keeping move forward at all times. My boyfriend signed up for the game and luckily he got the first prize and his award was a pin of limited edition with our school logo on it. All the competitors looked a bit clumsy on their bikes, and it was quite amusing to watch them trying hard to balance themselves while struggling to go forward. From my perspective, unlike other sport competitions, this game doesn’t require much training. Not only that, all you need to participate in the game is a regular bike, you don’t need to spend money on buying fancy equipment. It would be relatively easier for people who are not athletic, nor have much money to splurge, just like me. Maybe I will take part in it next time. I’ll probably have to train myself to balance better, for example, I can practice to stand on one foot. I hope I can get a pin next year.
Favourite song,Something that can help you to study
My favourite piece of music is one of Carpenter’s song named The end of the world. Not only is it my favourite, it is also the most helpful one for me. Before listening to this, I thought that music, the lively or fast-paced ones, could distract me from study. Since at that time, I mostly listened to rock music and those songs can be confrontational and make me hyperactive. But The end of the world totally changed my view and made me realized that music can assist learning as well.
I first heard it on the radio when I was a freshman in university. I remember I was walking back to my dorm when the peaceful melody reached my ears. The vocal part is calming and relaxing and the soundtrack is light and soothing. As soon as I returned to my dorm, I searched for it and downloaded it to my cell phone. After that, whenever I read a book or do my assignment in the library or study hall, I will put in my earplugs and listening to the song. It really helps me to better concentrate. With the music on, I can cut out all the ambient noised made by other students around me. In this way, there would be less distraction and I can study more efficiently.
A magazine you enjoy reading
I’m a big fan of a magazine called Easy Idol and I’ve been an avid reader since middle school.It covers the most trendy entertainment news and I remember the first time I read it was when one of my classmates brought it to school and shared it with me. I found the materials in it quite entertaining and interesting to read because it contains all kinds of information, such as their schedules, photographs of their shows, and even tidbits(花边新闻) their private life. At that time, we weren’t allowed to use cellphones in school. Besides, magazines were cheap to buy and easy to carry so me and friend bought it almost month to keep ourselves updated about the life of our idols. I still read it regularly since university life is kind of boring and I can kick back and relax from reading the lively-written articles in the magazine and gossip about celebrities’ lives with my friends in free time. Not only that, I’ve also been collecting the magazines. Every issue comes with a small gift and it is said if the reader has a collection of 12 magazines the reader can get a ticket to a special fan meeting.
A website，An interesting talk
I listened to a talk named Overcoming Hopeless by an Australian motivational speaker Nick Voikik. I first listened to this talk when my English teacher recommended a website called Ted.According to the teacher, it is a website where people post interesting talks with ideas that”worth spreading”. It covers a variety of topics such as science, culture and academics. I browsed the site randomly and clicked on the “discover” button. Then a picture of a man without limbs caught my attention. I opened the page and spent the next 10 minutes listening to Nick telling his story seeing opportunities in great hardships. When he was born,even his mother refused to see him or hold him when the nurse held him in front of her. But she and her husband eventually accepted the condition. Growing up, he has always been bullied and he even attempted several suicides. One day, Nick’s mother showed him a newspaper article about a man dealing with disabilities and Nick began to change his outlook toward life. He started to give talks in public and managed to graduate from college with double degrees. I learned from Nick that no matter what you have to go through in life, you can never give up on hope. After I watched Nick’s talk, I kept scrolling on the web page and found many other inspiring talks. For me, Ted is a great place for people to spread their fascinating ideas.
A useful skill in math class, Skill that took you a long time to learn
I would like to introduce Mental Math Skill, which is an extremely practical and essential life skill which most people do on a daily basis. To put it simply, mental math refers to the practice of doing calculations mentally or all in your head. You know, students learn to learn calculation early in school. For me, I started to calculate without the help of a pen and pencil when I was in grade 5 and it took me around one year to be good at it since for a young mind, dividing and multiplication is a bit tricky, especially when large numbers were involved. I remember the teacher asked me to do a lot of practices and memorize some tricks such as multiplication tables.
Mental math skill helped me in many situations as a little kid.I used mental math when I visited the convenient store and needed to figure out how many bags of potato chips or candy bar I could grab from the shelves with my pocket money. Growing up to an adult, mental math still serves as a useful tool. For example, I can easily know how to split the bill when drinking at a bar and find out how to get the biggest discounting when shopping online.
A book you recently read
I recently read a book called The Tokyo Zodiac Murders. The author, Soji Shimada, has been known to readers as The King Of Dismemberment in the realm of Japanese crime or detective novels. At the beginning of the story, on a heavily snowy day, a painter and womanizer named Heikichi is founded killed and his head has been smashed. The police first suspects seven girls who live in his house. They all have strong alibis. Mysteriously, the girls bodies are later found buried in different places with missing body parts. In Heikichi’s home, the detective found a book about a man with mental diseases wanting to combine body parts of different women in order to create a so-called “perfect woman”. The narrator says he would cut his 2 daughters, 2 of his 3 stepdaughters and his 2 nieces up. Any the missing body parts match the narrating in this book. In the end, one girl whose head is missing is proved to be responsible. She is the one Heikichi had with his ex-wife and has been mistreated by the family. Thus she used what is describe in her father’s book to take revenge. From this book, I learn that there is a fine line between right and wrong. A good person can be forced do commit wrongdoings if she has no other options.
A good law
A good law in my country and probably in most countries around is that if people are found impaired driving, they will be severely punished. I watch a piece of news about it earlier this year. If the blood alcohol concentration is over 0.8% , they will be held in custody for 15 days and they are forbidden to drive for 3 months at least.
This will raise people’s awareness of safety and responsibility and prevent drivers from posing a threat on others’ lives. This law applies to everyone who drives a vehicle in the street and surely will ensure road safely and benefit all the people.
With the prevalence of motorized vehicles, a large of of death and injuries are related to drunk driving. It is obvious that if the divers drink alcohol, they will be more likely to be involved in a crash because if would take them more time for him to analyse road condition and make clear judgement, compared to a sober driver. It is also worth noting that, in China, where people talk business sitting at the dinner table, drunk driving has always been a common occurrence. This results in 4 casualties every minute with in the country.
A language you want to learn
I always want to learn Korean since I’m a big fan of K-pop music and I have several favourite groups. I wish to to attend their album signing session so I can talk to my idols in private.
A few months back, I picked up some beginner level Korean text books and tried to teach myself. However, it was extremely hard because Korean letters are very different from what we use in Chinese or English. And as for the pronunciation, I couldn’t make sure that I weren’t saying the words correctly.
There’s a friend of mine, who is of Korean ethnic group and of course Korean is like her first language. I hope to learn directly from her. We can start from the basics, like how to greet people, how to express appreciation to people and so on. Since we have a lot in common, we can probably do a topic-based teaching. For example, we can select a topic we are both interested in and she can show me some related vocabulary and sentence patterns. In this way, I can have a solid foundation of Korean and improve my speaking skill in an effective way.
Received 1st cellphone, A game you played
When I was in primary school, cellphones were not as prevalent as they are now. There were around 40 students in my class and only two of us had cellphones. After class, the two of them would often take out their phone and play a game called Taitris, a popular tile-matching game made by the Russians. It is fun and easy to play. I was so jealous of them and begged my parents to buy me a cellphone. My parents didn’t agree of course since I was too young, instead they gave me one of their used phones. It was a small and old Philip phone with a 2*2 screen and some buttons under it. You can’t do much with an old phone like this, just making phone calls, sending text messages and playing games. After receiving the cellphone, I was so addicted to Tetris and I would spend hours on it. I enjoyed filling in the gaps and clearing out rows of colorful blocks. Apart from that, having my own phone was like a big achievement for a little kid since it made me feel special. I no longer need borrow from others, instead, I could lend mt phone to other kids to play, which enriched my life because we didn’t have many extra-curricular activities at that time.
Received money as gift
I would like to describe a time when I received 500 from my aunt. She’s the kind of person who always gives me weird presents on my birthday. So on my last birth day, she decided to give me money instead so that I could buy myself a gift that I liked. I remember when I was 18, she bought be a giant stuffed bear. I thought it was too childish for a mature lady like me. Besides, I couldn’t find any space for it in my tiny bedroom. When I was 19, I got a perfume from my aunt. The moment I spayed it on my wrist, I started to sneeze. It turned out the perfume has lily extract in it and it caused my allergy. On my 20th birthday, I was celebrating with my roommates at school.Then I got a package from my aunt--it was a pair of dark blue dungarees and a red T-shirt, which made me look like Super Mario. Finally, when I was 21, my aunt did something different and gave me 500. With the gift money, I bought the CDs I always wanted. I wish I could have received more money from people for my birthday.