Bursting into the classroom from recess, 15 children take their seats and face the woman they know as Ms. Yang.

    “What day is it today?” she asks, in Mandarin Chinese.

    “Confucius' birthday!” the fifth graders shout in Mandarin.

    “Why do we celebrate Confucius' birthday?”

    “Because he's the greatest teacher in the history of China!” exclaims a brown-haired girl. She is speaking Mandarin.

    English is rarely heard in Lisa Yang's class at the Chinese American International School(CAIS), despite the fact that few students are native speakers of Mandarin.

    The United States is actively trying to increase the group of students in “critical languages” such as Mandarin. The students at CAIS are way ahead in such a trend.

    Founded 25 years ago, this small private school in San Francisco, USA, does what few other American schools do: It produces fully fluent speakers of Mandarin Chinese, by far the most commonly spoken language in the world.

    Mandarin Chinese is suddenly hot in American schools. As China becomes the world's leading economy sometimes this century, schools in the U. S. are scrambling to add Mandarin to their list of foreign languages or expand Chinese programs already in place.

    “It really is almost unprecedented. People are looking at China as a force to be reckoned with… And to ensure that the U. S. has the ability to conduct trade, and to work with the Chinese. Certainly having an understanding of Chinese language and culture is an advantage,” said Marty Abbott of the American Council on the Teaching of Foreign Languages(ACTFL).

    To develop Chinese-language programs has not been smooth. A shortage of trained teachers has made it difficult for some schools to join the race. When schools do get teachers, they often hire them straight from China, and the teachers usually suffer culture shock when they come to the U. S.

    Robert Liu remembers his first two years in an American classroom It was not an easy adjustment. “In China, students respect their teachers,” he said. Liu found that American students, however, expect an active teaching style. He had to use games to engage them rather than lectures.

    To avoid many of the problems with foreign teaching styles, the CAIS has been working with the Chinese government to improve training of teachers who are sent to the U. S.

    When did you last see a polar bear(北极熊）? On a trip to a zoo, perhaps? If you had attended a winter activity in New York a few years ago, you would have seen a whole polar bear club. These "Polar Bears" are people who meet frequently in the winter to swim in freezing cold water. That day, the air temperature was 3℃,and the water temperature was a little higher. The members of the Polar Bear Club at Coney Island, New York are usually about the age of 60.Members must satisfy two requirements. First, they must get along well with everyone else in the group; this is very important because there are so many different kinds of people in the club. Polar Bears must also agree to swim outdoors at least twice a month from November through February.

    Doctors don't agree about the medical effects of cold-winter swimming. Some are worried about the dangers of a condition in which the body's temperature drops so low that finally the heart stops. Other doctors, however, point out that there is more danger of a heart attack during summer swimming because the difference between the air temperature and water temperature is much greater in summer than in winter.

    The Polar Bears themselves are satisfied with the benefits of cold-water swimming. They say that their favorite form of exercise is very good for the circulatory system(循环系统）because it forces the blood to move fast to keep the body warm. Cold-water swimmers usually turn bright red after a few minutes in the water. A person who turns blue probably has a very poor circulatory system and should not try cold-water swimming.

    The main benefits of cold-water swimming are probably mental. The Polar Bears love to swim all year round; they find it fun and relaxing. As one 70-year-old woman says," When I go into water, I pour my troubles into the ocean and let them float away."

    The quick action of Nick helped five people escape a fire on Hope Road. Nick said he usually left his house about 5:30 a.m. to do morning exercises, but that day he decided to stay at home to get his daughter ready for school. As he looked at his neighbor's house, he realized that it was on fire. “I saw smoke and flames and ran over and started beating on the side of the house shouting, 'Your house is on fire! Your house is on fire!'” Nick remembered it was at about 9 a.m. that the firefighters put out the fire.

    Beverly Penny and her husband, Clark, along with their younger daughters, were sleeping in the living room, next to the kitchen, when they heard Nick beating on the walls. She opened the bedroom door and black smoke came in. She managed to get her kids out. Her dog tried to hide under the bed, but Penny caught it by the leg and threw it out of the door. However, chickens in one of the rooms weren't so lucky.

    Firefighters got the call at about 7:05 a.m. “When we arrived with our fire trucks, there were heavy flames outside on the house,” Jerry said. He called Nick a hero, saying that without his quick responses(回应) the result could have been much worse. “The firefighters were fast,” Nick said. “They arrived here within about three minutes.”

    “They did a great job, and I can't thank them enough,” Penny said, then looked at what remained in the house and shook her head as tears rolled down in her eyes. “Everything I have is gone. Luckily nobody was hurt in the fire.” She said the fire could have been caused by an electrical problem. “We've been having problems with mice, so that we could have had something to do with it,” she added.

    A science teacher from rural Kenya who gives away most of his salary to help poorer students has been awarded the world's best teacher and $ 1 million, beating 10,000 nominations from 179 countries. Peter Tabichi, 36, a maths and physics teacher at Keriko secondary school in Pwani Village, has won the Varkey Foundation Global Teacher Prize 2019.

    Tabichi gives away 80% of his income to help the poorest students at the poorly-equipped and overcrowded school who could not otherwise afford uniforms and books. More than 90% of his students are from poor families and almost a third are orphans or have only one parent. Drug abuse, teenage pregnancies, leaving off their studies, young marriages and suicide are common. Students have to walk 7 km along roads that can become impassable in the rainy season to reach the school and the area can be affected by drought and starvation.

    Despite only having one computer, a poor Internet connection and a student-teacher ratio of 58:1, Tabichi started a "talent nurturing club" and expanded the school's science club, helping students design research projects of such quality that many now qualify for national competitions.

    His students have taken part in international science competitions and won an award from the Royal Society of Chemistry after using local plant life to generate electricity. Tabichi and four colleagues also give struggling students one-to-one tuition in maths and science, visiting students' homes and meeting their families to identify the challenges they face.

    Accepting the prize, Tabichi said Africa's young people would no longer be held back by low expectations." Africa will produce scientists, engineers and entrepreneurs whose names will be one day famous in every corner of the world." he said.

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