①If a person wants to be a gentleman (君子), he should focus on (关注) what he does and says. Then what are the rules for a gentleman on words and actions? Let’s find out the answers from Confucius, one of the greatest teachers in ancient China.

②In the West, some people believe that how someone says something is more important than what he says. However, Confucius didn’t think so. He believed that gentlemen should choose their words carefully, even if that may make people feel bored.

③Confucius believed that words are important so they should follow rules. But he also thought gentlemen should work hard. He said that gentlemen should not be lazy and need to focus on their work to improve themselves.

④These rules for gentlemen’s words and actions have influenced (影响) Chinese people for a long time. Today, many Chinese people still like to have practical spirit (务实的精神) than saying beautiful words.

⑤Of course, as culture has developed over time, we should also think of his words critically (批判地). Choosing our words and actions according to the situation is also a form of wisdom (智慧).

What’s the first thing that comes into your mind when you think of straw (稻草)? Most people would probably just see it as a pile of waste in the field. However, Wu Cui, an intangible cultural inheritor (非遗传承人), can turn the straw into life-like artworks. She’s practised straw plaiting (草编) since she graduated from college. Straw plaiting is a skill of making daily items or artworks out of straw. It was added to the national intangible cultural heritage list in 2008.

Straw plaiting used to play a significant role in common (普通的) people’s daily life. When Wu was a child, straw items like straw shoes or straw hats could be found in every family in the countryside. “Because of the development of industry (工业), goods made by machine have taken the place of straw-plaited products (产品). Now there are only about 100 people working on straw plaiting across the country,” Wu said.

However, in today’s fast-paced life, people have a strong wish to get close to nature and find pleasure in it. Straw plaiting can meet people’s spiritual (精神上的) and cultural needs.

“_______ When I’m invited to teach students about the history of straw plaiting and show straw plaiting skills, students are willing to learn about straw plaiting. We also display works that are popular in the market, which always draw people’s attention (关注).” Wu said. “Thanks to the government’s attention to folk skills, straw plaiting is known to more and more people.”

“The world has changed, and straw plaiting should meet people’s needs and preferences. We should create (创造) new products to help straw plaiting pass down and develop. By winning the hearts of consumers (消费者), more people will understand the culture behind straw plaiting, and more craftsmen will be encouraged to work on it as a lifetime job,” Wu said.

Three men have lunch together. After the lunch is over, the men disagree on who should pay for the food. So, like little boys, they play a game called rock-paper-scissors. Around the world, when people want to decide on something or someone, they play this fun game.

In this game, a closed hand means a rock, an open hand means a piece of paper, and a hand with two fingers out means scissors. We all know how this is played. Paper can cover a rock, so rock loses to paper; scissors will break if they try to cut a rock, so scissors lose to rock; and scissors can cut paper, so paper loses to scissors.

It seems that everyone plays this game, but many people do not know where it came from.

People first started playing a game like rock-paper-scissors in ancient China. During the Han Dynasty, people played a game called shoushiling（手势令）. In this game, people used hand gestures like in the modern rock-paper-scissors game, but their gestures meant different kinds of animals. In the 17th century, this game was brought to Japan. The modern form of rock-paper-scissors was developed in Japan in the late 19th century. From Japan, it became known in Western countries, and even today many people think that it is a Japanese game.