🎧 英文美文 · 第十八辑 🎧

On August 2, a huge crowd filled Shanghai Stadium. Nearly 50,000 people came to see Times Youth League, one of China's hottest boy bands. Here is the surprising part: one in four fans was a teenager. Tickets cost up to 1,680 yuan, and they sold out in seconds. Fans made signs, wore matching clothes, and screamed every song. Many parents waited outside the stadium for hours, holding water and snacks. 'I do not really get this idol thing,' one mother said, 'but she is happy, so I am happy too.' For these teens, the concert was not just music. It was a memory they will keep forever.

It is 40 degrees outside. The playground feels like an oven. But thousands of high school freshmen are still marching in the sun, in thick uniforms and heavy boots. This is military training — a tradition every Chinese student must go through before starting a new school. Some students felt dizzy. Some nearly fainted. Parents are worried. 'We are not against training,' one father wrote online. 'We just do not want our kids to get hurt in this heat.' The debate is growing: should military training be moved to cooler days, or is suffering in the heat part of the lesson? What do you think?

There are only two weeks of summer left. And for many students, this is the hardest time. A study found that 67 percent of students have what people call 'end-of-holiday blues.' Their body clock is broken. Their homework is not finished. They feel nervous when anyone says the word 'school.' And here is the funny part: parents are even more anxious than the kids. Some mothers cannot sleep, worrying about whether their child is ready. But the truth is simple. The holiday is ending. That is okay. Slow down, fix your sleep, and finish one small task at a time. School will be fine.

It is midnight. A teenager opens an app and starts typing. 'I had a bad day,' she writes. The reply comes in one second — warm, patient, never judging. She is talking to an AI chatbot, not a person. This is called an 'AI tree hole,' and it is becoming a quiet habit for millions of young people. Why do they do it? Because an AI never gets tired, never gets angry, and never tells your secrets. Some say it helps them relax. Others worry: if we only talk to machines, will we forget how to talk to people? The question is still open.

Loving an athlete is fine. Following them home is not. Recently, some fans have gone too far. They wait outside gyms. They take secret photos. They even follow athletes on the street. This is called 'chasing in private,' and it has become a real problem. On August 14, China's sports authority spoke out: this behavior breaks the law, hurts athletes, and disturbs public order. They asked fans to stay reasonable. Think about it — if you truly admire someone, the best gift is to let them breathe. Cheer from the stands. Keep your distance. That is what real love looks like.

A boy in Guangzhou scored 699 on his high school entrance exam. That is an amazing score — high enough for the best academic schools. But he quietly changed his choice to a vocational school instead. The internet exploded. Why would a top student give up a famous high school? His answer was simple: he loves making things with his hands, and the vocational school has the program he dreams of. Some people praised his courage. Others said he was wasting his talent. But maybe this is the real lesson: a good score gives you choices. Using it to follow your heart — that is the brave part.

If you are under 18, your gaming time just got shorter. Tencent, China's biggest game company, has made its anti-addiction system even stricter. Now minors can only play online games from 8 to 9 p.m. on Fridays, Saturdays, and Sundays. That is three hours a week in total. The system also uses voice recognition and AI to catch kids using their parents' accounts. Some kids complain. 'Only three hours? That is too little!' But parents are happy. The message is clear: games are fun, but your eyes, your sleep, and your schoolwork matter more.

Outside the concert hall, a mother stood waiting in the rain. Her 15-year-old daughter was inside, waving a light stick and singing. The mother could not understand why her daughter loved this band so much. 'I do not get the music. I do not get the screaming. But I respect it,' she said. This scene repeated thousands of times this summer. More and more parents are choosing to support their kids' interests, even when they do not understand them. They buy the tickets. They wait outside. They drive their kids home late at night. Because they remember what it felt like to be young, and to love something with their whole heart.

On August 12, a little kid was playing on a beach in Qingdao. He picked up a stick and wrote four characters in the wet sand: 'I do not want school to start.' Then something funny happened. A wave rolled in — and washed away only the first two characters, 'do not want.' The last two characters, 'school starts,' stayed. The photo went viral. 'Even the ocean is pushing you back to school,' joked one netizen. For every student who wishes summer could last forever, this little wave is a gentle reminder: school is coming, whether you like it or not. So maybe it is time to pack your bag.

This summer, a survey asked parents one question: how happy are you with your child's screen time? The average score was just 6.4 out of 10 — barely passing. The reason is simple. For many kids, the whole holiday can be summed up in two things: short videos and online games. A mother from Henan said, 'He picks up the phone and cannot put it down. If I stop him, he gets angry. If I do not, he plays for hours.' Sound familiar? The screen is not evil. But when two apps swallow an entire summer, something is wrong. The last weeks of holiday are here. Maybe it is time to look up from the phone.

Something strange is happening in China's schools. Top students are now lining up to enter vocational schools — the schools that used to be seen as a last choice. In Shanghai, a girl who scored 702 on her entrance exam chose a vocational school instead of the city's best high schools. Why? Because vocational schools now offer a special path: study three years, and you are guaranteed a place in a university. No high-stakes exam. Free tuition. Plus real job skills and real companies waiting for you. For a long time, people thought vocational school was for those who failed. Now, it is becoming a smart choice. The spring of vocational education has arrived.

On August 18, in Tokyo, a small flame came to life. It is the torch for the 20th Asian Games, which will open on September 19 in Aichi and Nagoya, Japan. The flame was lit in a special ceremony, and from now on, it will travel across Japan, carried by runners hand to hand. For athletes, this is the moment they have been waiting for. For fans, it is one month of countdown. The Asian Games is the biggest sports event in Asia — 45 countries, hundreds of events. Four years ago, the Games were in Hangzhou. Now, the flame is moving again. Let the games begin.