Cathy and I met a few days after I first arrived in China. I was walking around the English academy which had 1me, introducing myself to my new colleagues, most of whom were Chinese. I entered Cathy's2 , saw her, and immediately felt some 3 and happy emotions. She 4 so kind, yet professional. I couldn't stop smiling like a (n) 5 . After introducing ourselves and exchanging6 questions, I asked whether she knew anyone who could7 me in Chinese. She said she could, and 8 to meet after work.

    We sometimes exchanged non-romantic texts in the evening. After a couple9, I invited her to my apartment. I was very nervous. Later, I asked if she would consider 10 me. She didn't immediately 11, but said she would tell me the next day. I found it very difficult to 12, but wait I did.

    This was a13 difference. In American culture, starting to date someone is not a bit important 14, but I think in Chinese culture it is. Well, she said “yes”, and so we spent lots of time together, and 15 love. I asked her to 16 me about 6 or 7 months later.

    We had a Chinese style 17 in Cathy's hometown. My parents came, and it was great. It went really 18. Everyone was very 19. It was a very fun and interesting 20 for me, very different from a Western style wedding.

    Eric Moussambani, a swimmer from Equatorial Guinea, won brief international fame at Sydney's 2000 Olympic Games for an extremely unlikely victory.

    Twelve months before the Olympics, Moussambani had never gone outside of his home country, an extremely poor tiny African nation. Having1his admission into the Olympic Games, Moussambani set about teaching himself to 2. The only pool that was3belonged to a local hotel, and they 4 him to use it between 5 and 6 am, three times a week. Before Sydney he had never set eyes on an Olympic 5, let alone practiced in one. Moussambani had no6, no lanes（泳道）, and no way of tracking his efforts. Worse still, he didn't know he had been entered in to the 100m race, not the 50m he had7.

    When the day came, events got 8. Of the three competitors in the first round, Moussambani was the9competitor who was not removed from the game for starting early. He now had to do it alone, against the 10, fighting for a chance to be in the final.11it seemed that he's not going to finish it in the second half of the race, he 12completed it with a time of 1＇5". It was the slowest time in Olympic history,13a personal best.

    International media 14him 'Eric the eel' and a real model of the Olympic 15that it's not the winning, but the taking part that 16. When he was17after the race, Moussambani said, “At first I got worried that I couldn't 18. Thinking of the dear people19me, I kept on and it happened.”

    Moussambani never gives up. He is now the head coach of the national team and thanks to his20, the country has built two 40m pools.

    It was Tom's first visit to England, and he was looking forward to his first journey on London's Underground Railway. And against his friends'1, he was determined to travel 2.

    He entered the station shortly after five o'clock in the afternoon. This is a 3 time to travel in London,4 crowds of people go home from work at this hour. He 5 to join a long line of people waiting for tickets. When at last his 6 came, he had some difficulty in making himself understood by the ticket seller. 7, he got the right ticket in the end and by asking people the 8, he also found the right platform. It was 9with people. He did not10 to get on the first train, but he was able to move nearer to the platform so as to be in a better 11to get on the next one. When this train came in, Tom was12 forward onto the train by the 13 of people from behind. The doors closed and the train moved off. He was unable to see the14  of the stations where the train 15but he knew that the station he wanted was the sixth 16 along the line. When the train reached the sixth station, Tom got off, feeling  17 that his journey had been so easy. But he suddenly realized that he had come to a station he had never

18 He explained his19 to a man who was standing on the platform. With a 20 on his face, he told Tom that he had caught a train going in the opposite direction.

    I was appointed to tend to this patient several weeks ago and began to grow closer to her. Communicating with her was1because everything she wanted to say to me had to be written on a notepad. As a nursing graduate, I was able to2her mind by observing even a slight 3 in a patient's facial expression.

    One day, when I was checking the patient, she4me on the shoulder to show me a note, "Do you think I could be let go5the hospital in a month to see my niece get married?" Taking her hand in mine, I told her that I could not6her, because I did not want to leave her a7sense of hope. 8, I made her believe that I would be there with her every step of the way on her journey toward9 Hearing that, the patient gave me a 10and a hug.

    Day by day, 1 built her11by walking around the floor with her. As I did this, I could see before my own eyes that her health was12improving and able to walk more steadily. On her last day in hospital, just before her niece's 13, she wrote me one last note, "I couldn't have done this14you; I love you." After kissing goodbye, I had a strong sense of achievement. I realized that moments like this were

    15I woke up early for16 in the hospital and spent long hours with her. I truly felt, and her17confirmed, that I was an18 part of this woman's recovery. My experience with this patient shows me that this career allows me to touch the19of people in ways that people in other20will never get to experience.

    It started four years ago. My wife would see a 1 man near where she worked. It was the week before Christmas and she said she wanted to purchase a new coat for him because his coat was 2. We don't have a lot of 3. We are really a step away from being homeless in rags most months but we try to 4 when we can.

    We talked and found a way to get some money together to 5 him a coat. I 6 that since we were giving a coat to him, we should look at what else he might 7. We decided to fill a 8 with some useful 9 things—a toothbrush, soap, clothes, a hat, gloves and some food. A small gift and Christmas card was put in it as well.

    We haven't had money to exchange 10 for birthdays or Christmas for many years, too. It feels wonderful to have someone 11 you at Christmas but I've always been a little 12 when friends ask "What did you get for Christmas?" It always makes my wife feel bad that she can't 13 to give me anything and I feel the same. So I would 14 and say she bought me this thing or that. But that year we could say we 15 something to others instead and that's 16 what happened.

    People asked and we said what we did. They also wanted to help the following 17 and we made ten more backpacks the following Christmas, and this year we really 18 the gifts.

    I still can't afford to buy my wife some gifts to 19 on Christmas day, but the 20 we feel makes up for it ten times!

AI-generated content has recently won big in the literary world. Japanese author Rie Kudan won one of Japan's most famous literary awards, the Akutagawa Prize, with the help of ChatGPT in The Tokyo Tower of Sympathy. 

The book is set in future Japan, where AI has become an important part of people's lives. The story centers around an architect who creates a comfortable prison but struggles with a society that she sees as being overly sympathetic to criminals. 

Kudan admitted at a news conference that "around 5 percent of the book's text was taken directly from generative AI," reported kyodo News. She added that there is a scene in the book where an AI chatbot answers the main character's questions and she used AI-generated text in the responses given by AI in the story. The word-for-word content generated by AI was applauded by committee members as "practically flawless", said CNN. 

This is not the first time that Al-related works have won prizes. In October 2023, The Land of Machine Memorieswas awarded second prize at China's fifth youth popular science and science fiction competition. The fiction was fully created by AI with the prompts (提示) given by Shen Yang, a professor at Tsinghua University. Surprisingly, just one judge among the six of the competition realized that what they were reading was the product of a machine. 

So will literature in the future be all about AI? Debates are still ongoing on the matter. Japanese literary critic Akira Okawada told Tyodo News that "it is difficult for AI to create work that addresses ethical themes in depth". However, Chinese writer Luo Ping holds the positive view. "Improvements in technology will not cause human laziness in creating, but rather will only make them involved in more heated competition. With the help of technology, the starting point of human thinking will only grow higher," Luo told Hongxing News. 

"I think this is only the beginning for AI in creating literature," Fu Changyi, a member of Jiangsu Popular Science Writers Association, told online news Guancha. "We will wait and see how the future goes," he added.