Meiyu, born in 1991, is from Turkey(土耳其). She is the youngest child of her family. After high school, many people learned English or Japanese, but Meiyu decided to learn Chinese in university. She learned Chinese for four years in Ankara University in Turkey, and got her name Meiyu there.

Meiyu fell in love with Chinese after going to university. She became more interested after she knew more about Chinese history. In the beginning many people did not understand her decision. But they all said Meiyu had made a right choice when she graduated from university in 2013. Since then, more Chinese have been visiting Turkey. The trade between the two countries also requires Chinese-speaking people. ＂Speaking Chinese means more job opportunities.＂ said Meiyu.

Now Meiyu has been in Wuhan, China for about two years. Besides going on studying Chinese, she shows great interest in Chinese kung fu as well, so she spends her free time on kung fu training with her coaches. Not only can kung fu help improve her health, but she is also fascinated by the history and culture behind it. Meiyu said, ＂The more I know about China, the luckier I feel to have been here. But the truth is that fun and pain go together in the process of learning.＂

Meiyu will graduate in June this year. Her friends want her to stay in China, but her parents hope she can come back home. Meiyu thinks it is difficult to decide. ＂Even if I go back to Turkey, I will choose Chinese language education as my job,＂ said Meiyu.

Many years ago, when I was working as a volunteer(志愿者)at a hospital, I got to know a little girl named Lisa. The poor little girl had a very serious disease and was dying. The doctor had done his best but no medicine really worked. The only chance to save her seemed to be a blood transfusion(输血)from her five-year-old brother. The little boy had the same disease before and had developed the antibodies(抗体)to fight the illness.

    The doctor talked to me little boy about what they planned to do, and asked him if he would be willing(愿意的)to give his blood to his sister. I saw him hesitate(迟疑)for a moment. He took a deep breath and said, "Yes, I'll do it if it can save Lisa."

    As the transfusion was going on, the little boy lay quietly in bed next to his sister. He looked at her and smiled all the time. When everything was done and the color returned to his sister's face, his smile disappeared and he looked a little afraid. He looked up at the doctor and asked, "Will I start to die now?"

    He was too young to understand the doctor. He thought he would have to give all his blood to his sister, but he agreed.

It's Friday evening. My daughters sighed (叹息) when I gently took the iPads away from their laps. One by one, our screens were turned off. We lit the candles and sat down to have a big meal.

We call it our "Technology Shabbat" (科技安息日), which lasts from sunset on Friday to sunset on Saturday.

I first understood the importance of "Technology Shabbat" in 2008, when my father had got brain cancer. Some days he would have only one awake hour, and the only thing I wanted to do was to be with him. When I looked after my father, I turned off my mobile phone.

During our "Technology Shabbat", time slows down. Our Saturdays now feel like mini-vacations. We drive cars or ride bikes. We work in the garden, play board games and cook meals with our kids. I feel like a better mother, wife and person.

Keeping a balance between the good and the bad of technology is important for my family. The technology helps us share knowledge and funny ideas all over the world. But the technology also takes something away from us. When we stay up late at night linking (连接) from website to website or sending messages, we click again and again until we have been overloaded (超负荷的).

Now we're rushing into the time full of high technology. We should pay attention to what we are doing online and when we should go offline.

I will always remember the most important thing in my family: Technology Shabbat.

Did you ever eat cartoon steamed buns (馒头)? If not, you can b{#blank#}1{#/blank#}them in Bi Chenggong's shop.

Bi is from Inner Mongolia (内蒙古), China. He looks a little heavy. You may wonder if he can make those lovely steamed buns. The a{#blank#}2{#/blank#}is yes, and he is really good at that.

About six years ago, Bi found many people liked to buy creative steamed buns to show their best wishes w{#blank#}3{#/blank#}they celebrate their children's 12th birthday. However, there were few creative steamed bun shops in Hohhot (呼和浩特). So he d{#blank#}4{#/blank#}to open one.

To learn h{#blank#}5{#/blank#}to make cute steamed buns, Bi read cookbooks and watched videos online. He even went to Shandong and Shanxi to learn f{#blank#}6{#/blank#}local people. He also tried and practiced really hard. "That's very important," he said.

Bi's steamed buns are lovely. They are in different s{#blank#}7{#/blank#}_ , such as Peppa Pig, Mickey Mouse and Snow White. Bi is s{#blank#}8{#/blank#}about the food materials (材料), too. Although his steamed buns are colourful, they are healthy. The colours are from v{#blank#}9{#/blank#}like spinach (菠菜) and carrots. Children like them very much and call him "Steamed bun man". Bi is g{#blank#}10{#/blank#}about that. He promises to make more cartoon steamed buns for them.

I grew up in a small town in Washington, US, and I want to be like my brother, Tim. He and his friends were in a gang. They often beat up people, and they didn't go to school much. I thought they were cool. 

On my thirteenth birthday, I told my brother I wanted to be in the gang with him. He said 'no', but I didn't listen. I went to ask his friends. Tim's friends took me into the back yard. They told me that if I joined the gang, I was in for life. Then, someone hit me in the face. I fell down. But I didn't cry. Each time I got up, they hit me again. Finally, they said I could be one of them. 

Tim was angry when he heard about it. But I stayed with the gang. After a few months, I began to beat up other people with the gang. Sometimes I wouldn't go home at night, and my mother would be worried. This went on for two years. I knew it was bad, but there nothing I could do. I was in for life.

One day, someone hit me in the head. I spent a day in the hospital. For the first time, I wanted out of the gang. One night after my fifteenth birthday, I went home. My mother was in the hospital. She had a nervous breakdown (精神崩溃) because she was so worried about me. That made me very sad. The next day, I told the gang that I wanted out. They began to beat me up, and my brother stopped them. I got up off the floor, smiled and said goodbye. But they didn't just stop there. Every time they saw me, they beat me up. This went on for about two months. But in the end, it stopped. I'm glad I'm out of the gang now. I don't have to be afraid all the time. I can talk to anyone I want. And most of all, I made my mum happy again.

Whenever we think about something, most of us have a feeling of words going through our minds. However, if you stop and try to listen to your own thoughts, you'll notice that they are not in order at all. It's easy to imagine that we think in the language that we speak, but this is completely wrong. Language can show the results of our thinking, but it's not the thinking itself. 

Getting the joke

Think about what happens when you "get" a joke: "I've decided to sell my Hoover (吸尘器). . . well, it was just collecting dust (灰尘). " Whether you laugh or not, you react (反应) at once. Then you try to put into words what the joke actually is. 

Another example is the thinking you need when playing a fast-moving video game. You might shout "Yes!"or "Got you!". But if you had to talk about all your plans aloud, your game play would slow down. Thoughts always come first and the expression of our thoughts in words comes later. 

Thinking in silence

Humans think about things without language all the time, and only report their thoughts in the language when they have time to do so. You can test this with a game. Read a word quickly, out loud or in your head. You'll find that while you're doing this, you won't be able to think with words, but you can still plan, reason and imagine, pretty much as normal. 

Smart minds

Just because humans don't need language to think, it doesn't mean that words don't help us. The real magic of language is that it allows people to share their thoughts with others. This means you don't have to face the world by yourself-you can learn from ideas created by the elderly. This lets humans develop science and technology, laws and stories. People can think without language, but language makes humans so smart.