Green is an important color in nature. It is also the color of most growing plants. Sometimes the word green means young, fresh and growing. Sometimes it describes something that is not yet ripe(成熟的) or finished. For example, a greenhorn is someone who has no experience, who is new to a situation. In the fifteenth century, a greenhorn was a young cow or ox whose horns had not yet developed. A century or so later, a greenhorn was a soldier who had not yet had any experience in battle. By the eighteenth century, a greenhorn had the meaning it has today—a person who is new in a job.

    Someone who has the ability to grow plants well is said to have a green thumb. The expression comes from the early 1900s. A person with a green thumb seems to have a magic touch that makes plants grow quickly and well. You might say that the woman next door has a green thumb if her garden continues to grow long after your plants have died.

    The Green Revolution is the name given some years ago to the development of new kinds of rice and other grains. The new plants produced much larger crops. The Green Revolution was the result of hard work by agricultural scientists who had green thumbs.

    Green is also the color used to describe the powerful emotion, jealousy(嫉妒). The green-eyed monster is not a frightening creature from outer space. It describes the unpleasant feeling a person has when someone has something he wants. A young man may suffer from the green-eyed monster if his girlfriend begins going out with someone else. Or, that green-eyed monster may affect your friend if you get a pay raise and she does not.

The fear of the novel coronavirus（新冠病毒） has turned into discrimination (歧视) against certain groups of people, {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(include) people from Wuhan, Chinese people or Asians in general. However, the outbreak of the disease can't be an excuse to isolate these groups. What we should do is {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(get) rid of (消除) discrimination and show sympathy (同情) instead.

Since the outbreak of novel coronavirus pneumonia (NCP), many people {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(live) in fear. This is normal, as the disease is infectious (传染性的) and dangerous. However, some people turn pale at the mention of "people from Wuhan or Hubei province", the center of the outbreak.

    Ding Baixing, a doctor at Huashan Hospital in Shanghai, has seen this himself. He treated a suspected (疑似的) patient {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(name)Chen Hui who traveled from Wuhan to Shanghai. Chen appeared desperate (绝望的) and avoided {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(keep)in touch with other patients, as he worried that they would be afraid of him.

    Chen is not alone. Chen Xue, an editor {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(work) in Beijing, went to Chongli in Hebei for a ski trip on Jan 23. Though her temperature was fine and she hasn't been to her hometown – Hubei province – since October last year, the hotel she was in told her that it {#blank#}7{#/blank#}(will not) receive Hubei guests from the next day.

    However, the real enemy is the virus – not the patients or people from Wuhan or Hubei province. Singaporean Prime Minister Lee Hsien Loong echoed this idea in a speech at the Chinese New Year dinner. "Even though the virus started in Wuhan, it doesn't respect nationality or race (种族). It does not check your passport (护照) before it goes into your body. Anybody can be infected," he said.

    It is not the {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(patient) fault that they have been infected. There is no reason to blame them. If patients didn't go to the hospital for fear of discrimination, the virus {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(spread) to more people. "Protecting them is just as important as protecting ourselves," Ding said. 

Poem that inspires

At the CCTV Spring Festival Gala (春节联欢晚会), six hosts read a poem to inspire people across the country. It called for greater respect for medical workers, as well as called on everyone to work together to fight the virus. One of the lines – "we isolate (隔离) the virus, but we don't isolate love" – has been {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(wide) posted online.