Long long ago, there was a monster (怪物) called “Nian”. At the end of the winters, he often appeared in a village and ate the animals and villagers. The monster seemed very strong and nobody could fight him. So the villagers had to hide in the mountains.

One day, a smart old man came to the village. He told an old woman how to sear (把……吓跑) Nian away. That evening when Nian arrived at the village, he saw only the old woman’s house was bright. Nian got close to the house. Suddenly, he heard the noise of firecrackers (鞭炮). The monster felt afraid and jumped. And then he found the house was covered in red paper. This scared him even more and he ran out of the village quickly. When the other villagers returned, they saw that the old woman didn’t die!

The villagers later learned that Nian was afraid of red colors, light and loud noises. They decided to put up red couples (对联), set off (点燃) firecrackers and stay up late when it was time for Nian’s visit at the end of winter. That is the legend (传奇) of how the Spring Festival celebration began.

My Favorite Story

The winner of the 2018 World Cup was France. But many people thought the true winner was actually Iceland, the team from the small and cold country in the northern Europe. The spirits of the Iceland team and their excellent soccer skills helped to win a great deal of popularity around the world when they drew Argentina（阿根廷）in 1-1. It meant that Iceland could compete with the second prize winner from the last World Cup. It was unbelievable when the Iceland goalkeeper successfully kept Messi’s penalty kick（点球）out of the soccer gate.

After the match, people found some information about the Iceland soccer team on the Internet and they became more interested in how the team overcame difficulties and threw all of themselves into soccer training.

Most of the team members are not full-time soccer players. Some are directors, cooks, workers, dentists and so on. What’s more, they are not able to get proper training all year round. They can only practice for a few months each year because the weather is very cold in the country.

No matter how difficult it is, the team members never stop fighting and they become one of the most shining black horses in the 2018 World Cup.

Difficulties are salt in life. They help us to grow and taste the real taste of life. I remember that

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Chinese TV drama Awakening Age (觉醒年代), which tells the story of how the Communist Party of China (CPC) (中国共产党) was founded in 1921, ended several months ago, but it remains a hot topic on social media, where the discussion shows that it has played a positive role in educating young people about China’s revolutionary (革命的) history.

The TV series celebrating this year’s 100th anniversary (周年) of the founding of the CPC has won high praise online. The stories of the young people in the drama—who devoted (贡献) everything, even their lives, to the revolution—have touched a large number of people. The storytelling in the show has also been praised for successfully showing the depth of the CPC’s history and spirit, as well as the warmth of China and every family in the country.

Many people who have seen the TV series thought the story was so moving that they began to find background information about it and said that this was their first time to learn the history about the founding of the Party and the country.

“I read many of Lu Xun’s novels such as A Madman’s Diary for the first time when I was in primary school, but I couldn’t understand why he wrote them or the angry feelings hiding in the characters. After watching the drama, I read them again and found that I could understand what they wanted to tell the readers,” said Li Lin, an 18-year-old student.

《觉醒年代》塑造了一批具有“正能量”的青年形象，他们在战火纷飞的年代克服重重困难，为国家的发展贡献力量。你身边也有 “正能量” 的人吗? 是疫情中一线的医护人员，还是自然灾害中负责救护的消防员、解放军、警察，抑或是身边敢于面对困难、笑对生活的同窗好友。学校现在举行以“正能量”为主题的演讲比赛，请你写一篇演讲稿。

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. It’s my honor to be here to share my speech. In our lives, there are always some people with positive energy (正能量). Today I would like to introduce _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________