Everyone loves toys. But do you know how toys are designed and produced? A visit to Yottoy, a toy company in New York, can show you how to do this. Yottoy _______ toys that are based on children’s books. These toys _______ Padington Bear, The Little Prince and Mary’s Little Lamb.

Peter Doodeheefver, who designs the toys, took us around his shop to see _______ the toys are created.

We _______ a sewing (缝纫) station. People there were busy sewing some toys together. Later, we saw another station where a woman was painting pieces of a Paddington Bear toy set. Here, we learned how they use clay and molds to _______ toy parts. The molds are painted to look like characters from children’s books.

Throughout the toy- creating process, the creators _______ the writers of the books.

They need to make sure the toys perfectly _______ the images the writers describe in their books. Sometimes changing the color of the fabric (织物) or the length of the arms can make the toy more accurate (精确的). It can be something as _______ as making the hole in a doughnut (甜甜圈) just a little bit bigger or making the eyes look smaller.

Once their toys are created, they send them to a lab for _______ tests. At the lab, they make sure all the parts are put together perfectly. For example, they make sure the eyes can’t be ________ by a baby, or that pieces of the toys won’t fall off. After the lab says the toys are ready, they can be sold.

You might be surprised to learn that India produces about 800 movies a year, and that number continues to grow. Just as the movie capital of the United States is Hollywood, the movie capital of India is Bombay (孟买), but it is usually called “Bollywood”, a combination (结合) of the words Bombay and Hollywood.

No Bollywood movie is thought complete without a few songs or dances. In fact, music is an important part of Bollywood movies. Even a bad movie can still do well if the music is good. Music directors are sometimes more popular than the film stars. A Bollywood movie has five to six songs with at least three songs to show what the dances mean.

Bollywood may be different from Hollywood in music, but it is very like Hollywood in several ways. If Tom Cruise can hold a gun, so can the Bollywood hero Shahrukh Khan. Bollywood stars are followed by news reporters just as often as Hollywood stars. The personal lives of actors and actresses catch the headlines (头版头条), just as they do in the United States.

The Oscars are a very exciting time of the year for actors and actresses in America. Bollywood has its own form of the Oscars, and they are also very exciting.

I used to see a guy on my train to work every morning. He always sat alone, never spoke to anyone and never listened to music.

About eight days ago, I noticed he was doing a video call with a friend and using sign language (手语). After he ended the call, he looked so sad. I thought I should say something to comfort him or just ask if he was okay, but we wouldn’t be able to understand each other. The only thing I could do was put my hand on his shoulder and smile. I felt so helpless. It started eating away at me how lonely and isolated he must feel.

From then on, I started staying up a few hours a night after work learning American Sign Language from some videos I found online.

This morning, I “said” hello to him for the first time and asked him how he was by using sign language. The shocked smile on his face made all the late night and tired days worthwhile. Needless to say, it wasn’t a big deal, but he happily got his phone out, typed in a message and handed me the phone. It just said “thank you”.

It was the last encounter (相遇) we had on the train and I haven’t met another person who uses sign language since. However, I really appreciate how he helped me become a better person.

It happened in a New York classroom. Sixteen-year-old Taylor Engler came face to face with a cow. But it was all in her head.

She was trying out a virtual reality (VR, 虚拟现实) headset. It took Berkeley Carroll School junior students to a farm 400 kilometers away.

Students across the US are taking VR “trips”. They are swimming in the deep sea. They are watching medical operations. They are even “walking” through the human body. Teachers say this helps students understand their learning material.

“It grabs (吸引) the students right away,” Colin Jones, a science teacher from Plainview—Old Bethpage Central School District, told AP News. He uses a VR system called zSpace to cut up cells (细胞). “It’s something that can be done in 40 minutes,” he said. “But it could take even a week when you’re doing a lab.”

“It’s different than watching video because you can have more than one perspective (视角), You can actually move,” Taylor said during her “trip” on the farm.

According to neuroscientist (神经学家) Richard Lamb, VR can give people experiences that are similar to the real world. Our bodies even react (反应) the same to VR as they do to real life situations. “Heart rate (心率), brain activity, breathing, everything,” he said.

But there are not many classrooms that can use this technology. VR systems are very expensive. Experts hope that more students can use it in the future, especially for doing dangerous science experiments.

A student stuck a note on his classmate’s back while they were in the classroom at noon one day. The note said “I’m Stupid”. He asked the rest of his classmates not to tell the boy. The other students started laughing at the boy, but wouldn’t say why.

Soon, it was time for their afternoon math class. Their teacher wrote a difficult problem on the blackboard. No one was able to solve it except the boy with the note on his back.

Ignoring the laughter, he walked toward the blackboard and solved the problem. The teacher asked the class to clap (鼓掌) for him and took the note off his back. She told him, “It seems that you didn’t know about the note your classmate put on your back, but you didn’t seem to care anyway.”

Then the teacher looked at the rest of the class and said, “Before I punish you all, let me tell you two things. First, all of you will be labeled (贴标签) at one point or another by other people who don’t want you to succeed. All you have to do is ignore these labels. You have to take every chance you have to learn, grow and improve.”

“And it seems that none of you are friends with this boy, since none of you were kind enough to tell him about the note. If that’s true, then you’d better hope that you have some good friends yourself. Otherwise (否则), you might be the one with a note stuck on your back someday with no one to tell you.”

Much of what we know and believe has been taught to us by others. We often accept information without spending much time     54     it over ourselves.

Nowadays, we are presented with lots of     55     ideas and beliefs (信念), but many of them are often contradictory (自相矛盾的). Psychologists (心理学家) tell us that if we hear about a specific belief enough times, or if it comes from someone we respect, we will probably decide that the belief is true. In these cases, we base our opinions on the opinions of     56    . If we don’t come to our own conclusions, we become nothing more than parrots.

Some people believe whatever they read and then share the story     57     the internet without thinking about the facts. All it takes is one quick click of the “share” button and the story travels on its     58     to influence more unthinking readers. This can cause serious problems.

If we think more about     59     we see and try to form our own opinions, we will be more thoughtful, independent and creative. But     60     of us take the time to do this. Becoming aware of this fact is the first step toward changing our behavior. Hopefully, we can learn to judge what we read     61     hear on our own and make more reasonable decisions.