Well, it's time for WORDS AND THEIR STORIES. Today we have some expressions offered by Francisco Carlos, a listener in Brazil.

    The first is "face the music". One story says the expression began in the theater. New actors, shaking with fear, were told that their only way out was to go out and face the music. The music was played by the musicians seated in front of the stage.

    A similar expression is "face up to". It means to accept something difficult or painful. For example, a man must face up to the fact that he lied about a business deal and will lose his job.

    A child was told off by his mother at home because of his bad grades in study, but he put a good face on it before his friends.

    Meeting someone face-to-face can be exciting, especially if the other person is famous. It is an expression one might use after visiting the White House and meeting the president face to face. Or a teacher might ask for a face to-face meeting with the parents of a student in trouble.

    Almost 500 years ago, William Shakespeare also used some words about music in his play Two Gentlemen of Verona. Valentine secretly loves Lady Sylvia. His servant jokes that Valentine's love for her is as hard to see as the nose on a man's face, thus creating another expression: as plain as the nose on your face. Of course, a man's nose can't be hidden.

Since 2011, the Shanghai Peking Opera Company has held two seasons of "Youth Runway", a long-term opera development project hoping to find young opera talents (天才). 118 young performers have successfully showed 200 plays and classical (经典的) pieces. Most of them were born between 1995 and 2000, making them the company's newest p{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. They will show both classical and new plays in many different styles (风格).

"The Butterfly Lovers", one of the plays this spring, is changed from a s{#blank#}2{#/blank#} love story between a young poor man, Liang Shanbo, and Zhu Yingtai, the daughter of a rich family. They return as butterflies after their death (死亡). Another one, "Twelve Roles", which was shown in the summer, largely gets its i{#blank#}3{#/blank#} from an American film "12 Angry Men". Yueju opera, which developed around 1906 in Shengzhou, Zhejiang Province, is one of China's most famous operas. In the o{#blank#}4{#/blank#} days, people loved it because of its styles of singing and melodies (旋律) . Now, it is getting a new life. The performing season for young performers is held in its fifth year and has its own characteristic. Moreover, the project worked with BesTV to c{#blank#}5{#/blank#} a Yueju opera short video series (系列) about the 24 solar terms (节气) of the traditional Chinese calendar.

Every year, the China Shanghai International Arts Festival p{#blank#}6{#/blank#} chances for traditional opera performers like Yueju talents to perform. Many traditional opera performers have got fans among students and young performers in recent (最近的) years by showing how they prepare for a concert (演唱会) and behind-the- scenes stories with mobile apps on video websites.

They t{#blank#}7{#/blank#} many ways to make traditional art forms attractive (有吸引力的) to today's youth, including (包括) the creation of short opera films and the use of popular melodies. "We believe that Xiqu (traditional opera) like Yueju can attract today's young people because it can be mixed with different art forms," says Chen Daming, a theater critic.

There is a Chinese idiom(习语)" taolimantianxia", referring to a teacher who has taught so many students that they spread across the country like peach and plum(李子) trees. Why are students compared to these two types of trees?

The id iom comes from Zizhi, an official( 大臣) who lived in the state of Wei during the Spring and Autumn Period(BC770-BC476). Zizhi was a knowledgeable person. But he was not well liked by the king at the time, so he had to leave his state. To make a living, he opened a private school and started to teach students.

As a teacher, Zizhi was kind and wise. He chose students regardless of(不论) their wealth or social status(社会地位). He often pointed at a peach and a plum tree in his yard when asking his students to work hard." You should become a useful person and do work to benefit(使受益) society, just like when the peach and plum trees bloom and yield(产出) fruit," he said.

Keeping these words in their minds, many of Zizhi's students went on to different places around the country, achieving great things along the way. They would plant peach and plum trees to show their respect for their teacher.

When Zizhi traveled around the country and saw his students and the trees they planted, he was very pleased." My students are like peach and plum trees. They are everywhere, and they have achieved great results."

Since then," peach and plum trees" has been used to refer to students who have been successful in their post- study careers.