I remember the first time I got on a horse. I was two years old and we were watching a friend of the family ride. My mom agreed to let me take a short ride around the ground with the friend and that was it' I became crazy about having a horse. From then on, I drove my parents mad beg­ging for a horse. Whenever I saw a horse, I would beg even harder.

    When I was four years old, problems appeared in my life. I had Selective Mutism (选择性缄默症). This is an unusual childhood disorder (失调) in which children stop speaking in certain social situations, many times at around the age of four. I spoke to my parents as usual, my brother and certain other people, but was silent at school and in social situations. I went days, weeks, months without a sound at school. At most, I might very quietly speak to a friend.

    My parents looked for a cure. One psychologist (心理医生) had an idea. Having discussed his plan with my parents in advance, one day I was asked by the psychologist what I wanted more than anything in the world. He explained that I was going to be given a chance to work for what I wanted. I couldn't believe my good luck, but I could not answer. I just stood there. Finally, I was allowed to whisper (低声说) the answer in my mother's ear. "A horse," was all I could say.

    I was to get a little horse, but before we could even start looking, I had to try to talk. I had a chart of weekly tasks I had to finish. I had to answer the phone five times every week, something I had never done before. I did everything that was asked of me and the day came when my parents found the perfect horse. His name was Sequoia, a strong little chestnut (栗子马). He was perfect, of course, and I fell in love immediately. It truly was a dream come true. When I was with Sequoia, I forgot all about my problems and felt strong and life.

    By connecting with them, I have learned to hug what I was once not able to do and I found my voice back.

One day, you open the fridge and find some moldy (发霉的) food. But before you can throw it away, your mother stops you. She doesn't want to waste it, so she cuts off the moldy part and eats the rest. Is it safe to do this?

Mold can grow on almost all kinds of food. It is usually green, white, black or gray. Mold makes food soft and changes its color. Moldy food tastes quite bad and it's not safe to eat.

If you find mold in soft food, just throw it away. Soft food, such as bread, tomatoes or hot dogs, usually contains(含有) water, which allows mold to grow easily below its surface. Bacteria (细菌)can also grow along with it.

But it's easy to remove mold from hard food because mold can't grow very deep inside this kind of food. According to BBC news, you should cut about 2.5cm around and below the mold to remove it. It's OK to cut the moldy parts out of hard food and eat the rest. But if the food is completely covered with mold, you should still throw it away.

Most kinds of mold are bad for us. But some kinds of mold can be used to make food. For example, penicillin(青霉菌) can be used to make many types of cheeses , such as blue cheese. These cheeses are safe to eat and they're quite delicious as well.

Yu Chuanya is a ballet（芭蕾舞）dancer from Shenyang. She began learning ballet at the age of 4. With a strong interest in it, she took dance classes three times a week. "In fact, my physical condition was not good. But I loved ballet, and I never thought of giving up. My mother always supports（支持）me. She encourages me to face challenges and have confidence in myself. My father is also supportive of me," Yu says.

In 2005, Yu went to study at Beijing Dance Academy. She put a lot of hard work into learning and practicing ballet. After she graduated（毕业）, she returned to Shenyang and joined Liaoning Ballet Troupe.

Since then, ballet dancing has become an important part of Yu's life. She has performed the lead roles in many ballets. She has also been invited to perform in Russia, Canada and South Africa.

Eight Heroines is one of Yu's favorite ballets. It is a story of eight women soldiers（士兵）who gave up their lives to protect our country. Yu performed the lead role, Leng Yun. To do her best to show the feelings of the character, Yu read lots of information to learn about the story of Leng. Eight Heroines has been staged（上演）many times since 2014. In 2017, it was staged in Russia and people there said it was great.

"Performers are the communicators of culture. I believe we Chinese ballet dancers will perform more ballets in the future to better tell the stories of China on the world stage," Yu says hopefully.

It may surprise you to know that at every Olympic Games, some sports are added and others taken away. For example, did you know that tug- of- war was once an Olympic sport? It was dropped long ago though. In London2012, women's boxing was added. In Rio 2016, golf and rugby sevens were included. Baseball and softball were dropped after Beijing 2008. but returned for Tokyo 2020. Another sport that got approyed for Tokyo 2020 was climbing. One sport that isn't on the list of Olympic Games, is trampoline dodgeball(蹦床躲避球). Both climbing and trampoline dodgeball are popular with teens. That's because you don't need to invest in lots of expensive equinment. The following is more related information about them.

Dodgeball is a team game in which players throw balls at each other. The objective is to beat the opposing team's players by hitting them with a ball, catching a ball( the thrower is out), or forcing a player out of the court. In trampoline dodgeball, the game is the same but takes place on a court made out of trampolines. The court has a bouncy floor and high bouncy walls. It's surrounded by nets to catch the balls. The action is fast and fun, and you'll always have a soft landing if you fall!

When might trampoline dodgeball be an Olympic sport? Nobody knows! New sports must fulfil many strict rules before they're accepted. For example, trampoline dodgeball will need to have one set of rules that everyone follows. This includes playing in the same- sized court using the same type of ball.

 Many years ago, two friends, Mike and Jim, were walking through the desert. Somehow they began to quarrel(争吵) about small matters. Suddenly, Mike hit Jim in the face. Jim was hurt, but he said nothing. He just wrote in the sand: Today my best friend hit me in the face. 

 They kept on walking, and at last, they found a river. So they decided to take a bath. Suddenly, Jim got stuck in the mire(陷在泥里). At that moment, Mike saved him. After Jim felt better, he wrote on a stone: Today my best friend saved my life. 

 Mike saw this and asked, "After I hurt you, you wrote in the sand. After I saved you, you wrote on a stone. Why?" Jim answered, "When someone hurts us, we should write it down in the sand. Thus winds of forgiveness(宽恕) can blow it away. But when someone does something good for us, we must engrave(铭刻) it in a stone. Then no wind can ever blow it away. "