What do you usually do in your spare time? Chatting online is now a nationalpastime in China, especially among the post-90s and post-00s generation. To somepeople, however, online chats can seem like a kind of polite conversation. Yet hiddenrules and standards do exist, as long as you take the time to look for them.

   Get to the Point

   When sending a friend request, include your real name and any other identifyinginformation. Remember, everybody's time is precious. If there's something you want,cut right to the chase. Never send an "Are you there?" without any follow-upmessages. The quicker that you get to the point, the more likely the other personis to reply.

   Send the Right Things

   Please send texts, not voice messages. It might be easier for you to speakthan type, but what about the person on the other end? They may be unable to listento a 59-second message right now. Also, never send personal information by voicemessage—it is hard to note down. Emojis, GIFs and memes can save the daywhen you find yourself in an embarrassing conversation, or words fail you.

   Try to Understand

   You can always judge a person's mood by their text messages. If the personyou're talking to says "Good night" or "I'm going to take a shower."that's probably not what they're actually going to do, it is just an excuse to stoptalking to you. If someone hesitates for longer than three seconds before saying"Yes", they probably really mean "No". If you receive theseemojis from friends who are older, read them literally (照字面地) (as a smile, a waveor a laugh). For the post-90s and post-00s generation, however, they could be speechlessness.

    XBOX 360 Kinetic, RoboSapien, WiiParty, theseare just a few of the modern toys sold in recent years. But some of the most populartoys are actually quite old.

Gameshave been around for thousands of years. In 4000 B. C, Babylonians played a boardgame that was similar to chess. Yo-yos made of stone were first used in ancientGreece around 1000 B C. And kites appeared in China around the same time.

    Another famous game is Scrabble. It was inventedby an architect in the 1930s, but it didn't get popular until 1953 And since then,more than 100 million sets have been sold worldwide.

    As you can imagine, toys and games are a multi-billion-dollarindustry. Mr. Potato Head, the first toy advertised on TV, grossed more than $4million in its first year. Play-Doh made its inventor Joseph McVicker a millionaireby his 27th birthday, while Mattel sells 1. 5 million Barbie dolls each week (that'stwo dolls each second!).

    Some toys go out of fashion, but then becomepopular again, such as Rubik's Cube. Research says parents are increasingly choosingto buy toys they remember from their own childhood.

    These days, toys are not just for fun. RoboSapienis a remote-controlled robot that was launched in 2004. He can walk, turn aroundand do other poses. RoboSapien was designed by Mark Tilden, who once created robotsfor NASA space missions. He expected the toy to be used mostly by and scientists,but almost 2 million RoboSapiens have been sold worldwide since its launch as atoy?

    Fancy a game anyone?

Have you seen new plants starting to grow? Have you noticed the days are getting longer? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It tells us that no matter how dark or cold things might be, better days are on the way.

What is hope? Bernadette Russell, who wrote the book How to be Hopeful, says, "Hope, on one hand, is the knowledge that things can get better. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}" Russell speaks of people who have got over very difficult moments, such as firefighters (消防员). Once one firefighter said, "{#blank#}3{#/blank#}" explains Russell.

However, hope is also about taking action. "From winning the World War II to people traveling thousands of miles away to build a new home, there is a long history of taking actions with hope," says Russell. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Scientists say that having hope in difficult moments can help you worry less, feel calmer and improve your feelings.

How to be hopeful? Being disappointed and feeling bad are part of life. If it's possible to see hope in those moments, you should. If it isn't, don't worry. Try to keep eyes on good things. For example, you can't change the fact that someone is bad to you. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Even in the most terrible situations, you can decide what you say and do to each other.

"Do you know Macao was never my real name? I have been away from you for too long, mother..."

Song of the Seven Sons-Macao, written by Wen Yiduo in 1925, is still in the hearts of Macao's teenagers today. The Basic Law of Macao Special Administrative Region (《中华人民共和国澳门特别行政区基本法》) came out in 1993 and started to work on Dec. 20, 1999, as Macao returned to China. From then on, it has become much easier for young people to build a closer relationship with their motherland.

Chan U, an 18-year-old, is studying at the University of Macao. She said "Traveling to the Chinese mainland (大陆) has become easier. Visits to Zhuhai have become a part of the daily life of some people." Kun Lot U, 25, studies at the South China University of Technology. She said "Many local people go to Zhuhai to buy vegetables as they are fresher and cheaper than those in local markets. Young people often go to Zhuhai to play jubensha, a role-playing game."

The number of trips out of Macao in January was 2.23 million, and most of them went to the Chinese mainland. Cities like Chongqing, Changsha and Hangzhou are popular places for young people, according to Chan. Guangdong is also a good choice since the language and food are similar.

"Young people in Macao care a lot about what's happening on the mainland," said Kun. Like the young people on the mainland. they also use apps from the mainland to know the hot issues(话题). They have learned many mainland Internet catcbphrases (流行语). "1know about the most popular ones such as ‘yyds'," said Kun. "They make us understand more about people and life on the mainland."

More than half of the people in Macao use online shopping apps from the mainland.Kun said that it's because they can find almost everything they need at good prices on the apps. The products are first shipped to a collection station in Macao. It usually takes about three to seven days for local people to get the products. "The connection between Macao and the motherland is getting stronger and stronger," said Chan.

July 17, 2022 was the ninth World Emoji Day. This holiday is to celebrate all the emojis and it's a big day for emoji-lovers. The founder(创始人) of Emojipedia, Jeremy Burge created it in 2014.

The first emojis came out in the late 1990s on mobile phones. They are some small symbols showing ideas or feelings, but today emojis are a useful communication tool. There are over 3,000 thousand different emojis. Five billion emojis are sent every day just on some social medias, such as WeChat. They're appearing in some surprising places too. One court judge in England even used a smiley face emoji in a document to make it easy to explain the court's decision to children.

Now new emojis are invented every year and added on Emojipedia, including A Yellow Face with Three Hearts in 2018, A Face with Medical Mask in 2020, Hearts on Fire in 2021 and A Shaking Face last year. If you want to send someone a message using emoji, check Emojipedia for more. And you can find out what each emoji means and how to use it.

People like emojis because they can show feelings, and are quick and easy to use. With a smiling or sad face added to a message or text, your reader can "see" your facial expression while reading your words. In the Internet Age, emojis help us better understand something, communicate faster, and even may help build successful relationships.

But not everyone thinks the use of emojis is a good thing. Jonathan Jones, a reporter said that the success of emojis is "a step back for humans", hurting people's ability to use languages. But for now, maybe it's best that we just enjoy using them.