Confucius was born on September 28th, 551BC in China. He was a great teacher at that time. Confucius is also known as Kong Qiu. 【小题1】 However, some people describe him as being born poor.

Confucius’s ideas were based on the concept (观念) of self-discipline (自律). He believed that a leader needed to exercise self-discipline. His teaching idea focused on the “Six Art”. To Confucius, the main goal of being a teacher was to teach people to live with honesty. 【小题2】

【小题3】 He wrote some of the most famous traditional Chinese works, and one of them is The Spring and Autumn Annals《春秋》. Confucius’s students wrote The Analects of Confucius《论语》according to his sayings. It teaches everyone in China how to behave well and be a good man.

Confucius died on April 11th, 479 BC in Qufu, China. 【小题4】 He is also an important symbol of ancient Chinese culture.

I’m Angela Liu, a junior high school student in Beijing. My classmates and I were really excited to learn that you were not only the first Chinese woman in space, but also the youngest astronaut from China. That makes me admire (钦佩) you very much.

Life at school is busy, but as soon as I get home, I like reading books. My favourite books are about space. When I read them, I imagine (想象) that I’m an astronaut and I’m in a spaceship. I want to be an astronaut in the future, too.

It must be very exciting to live in space. I want to know what your life was like there. What did it feel like to be in space? What did you see? What did you eat? How did you sleep? What did the stars look like from space?

My classmates and I admire you very much. All of my classmates will work harder and do our best to realize our dreams, just like you.

I hope to hear from you.

Yours,

Angela Liu

Welcome home! On April 16th, astronauts Zhai Zhigang, Wang Yaping and Ye Guangfu safely came back to Earth from the Tiangong space station after six months’ space travel. There are many interesting facts about their landing. Let’s take a look!

When the Shenzhou XII came back from the space station last year, on October 17th, 2021, it took about 28 hours. This time, Shenzhou XIII took just 9 hours to return! Its number of orbits (绕地圈数) was 5.

The re-entry capsule (返回舱) landed upright (直立的). This landing position is not usual in China’s space flight history. Only Shenzhou VI and Shenzhou XIII have successfully done so. To achieve this, astronauts must let go of the parachute (降落伞) with exact timing. Landing upright makes sure that astronauts have the softest landing.

The astronauts felt good after landing. But they still needed to sit on chairs. The long space journey changed their bodies. Their muscles (肌肉) and bones became weaker. In the next few months, they have to keep taking exercise.

The astronauts said they missed food on Earth! A tasty and healthy meal was waiting for them. They had noodles, porridge, Sichuan sausages and yogurt.