Traveling to a new country you have little knowledge about can be a recipe for awkwardness. However, if you do your homework before you travel, you prepare yourself for the unknown, spend less, and enjoy more.

Traveling to areas where civil unrest (骚乱) or natural disasters are occurring can put you at risk, so research current events in your destination. Set an alert on Google Alerts for your destination at least two weeks before your trip. This will provide you with relevant news stories about your destination on a daily basis. You can also:

√ Check your government's travel advisory website.

√ Ask local residents via social media or online forums.

√ Contact the hotel's manager or the owner of the place where you are staying.

Before traveling, know the weather you’ll encounter there. Poor weather upsets travel plans every day. For international trips, that impact can be more far-reaching. Take this situation for instance. A thunderstorm delays your international flight. That delay causes you to miss your connecting flight to your destination city. Now, you won’t be able to arrive until a day later, which means all of your reservations, hotel, rental car, event tickets, etc., must be changed or cancelled. However, since these reservations are often non-refundable (不可退款的), you could be stuck paying for things you cannot use.

Luckily, a travel insurance plan can allow you to be compensated for covered expenses you are not able to use, protecting your wallet from the uncertainties of international travel.

Tourists are easy targets for thieves. Carrying originals of your important documents can allow them to get stolen or lost. Keep scanned versions of these documents handy: photocopy of your passport, proof of financial support for your trip, your plane tickets, details of the purpose of your trip, application fee and travel insurance.

In America’s retirement crisis, women get the short end of the stick. While women have a lifetime to build up their wealth, there are several factors that impact their ability to achieve economic security into retirement.

Retirement is a gender (性别) issue. Wealth is accumulated by saving and long-term investing, but women are at a disadvantage compared with men. A TIAA report found that if two recent college graduates, a man and a woman, want to have the same amount saved for retirement, it would take about 18% of the woman’s salary to equal 10% of the man’s salary. The reasons are simple. Women are usually paid less and tend to receive fewer salary increases. And women usually retire relatively earlier, so this gives them less time to accumulate wealth. Women have longer life expectancy. As a result, they often face financial instability in retirement.

Investing is another issue. While the investing industry would tell you we’re gender-neutral, 99% of investment dollars are managed at companies owned by white men, 98% of mutual (互助) fund dollars are managed by men, 90% of traders are men, and 86% of financial advisors are men. Maybe the reason women aren’t investing as much is that it is dominated by men.

The pandemic has a greater impact on women. Women who are privileged enough to work from home have lost productivity by double-digit percent, while men have gained productivity, like gains of 50%. The promotions that have occurred during the pandemic had gone something like 3-to-1 to men. A large number of women work in industries that have been deeply affected by the pandemic, including hospitality, retail, restaurants and caregiving, occupations that require in-person work. With these businesses having to either lay off employees or temporarily shut down, and with domestic and caretaker responsibilities, many women have opted to leave the workforce altogether.

How can the retirement risks women face be relieved? That’s what the government should take into consideration.

A draft of a new bill aimed at fighting food waste was approved by a country’s Council of Ministers in Spain, and will now proceed to Parliament. Once approved, the law could take effect in early 2023.

The goal is to reduce the amount of food that goes to waste, which is currently estimated to be around 1,300 tonnes (公吨) annually. That works out to roughly 68 pounds per Spaniard, valued around €250. While more than half of that waste (54%) takes place at home, the bill is aimed more at the retail and hospitality sectors.

The law is the first of its kind in the country, modeled on similar laws in Italy and France. It would allow the government to deal with inefficiencies in the food chain.

Medium-scale and large-scale retailers and restaurants will be required to present plans for food waste prevention and disposal, outlining what happens to surplus (过剩) food. Donating to food banks is encouraged, as long as the food is still safe for consumption. If it’s starting to go bad, the bill suggests changing it slightly in safe ways, such as making juice or jam. If it’s not good for human consumption, then the item can be used for animal feed or in the production of biofuel or fertilizers.

Bars and restaurants must provide free packaging for guests to take food home if they have not finished it. While it is a standard practice in North America, this is not common in Spain for cultural reasons.

When supermarkets have food nearing expiry (到期), they must sell it at discount or donate it before it goes bad. All companies in the food chain are required to encourage sales and use of in-season, local and organic produce as much as possible.

There will be serious financial fines for businesses that fail to obey, ranging from €6,000 to €150,000. Second offenses cost even more, as much as half a million Euros.

It is impossible to outline a perfect approach, but any measures to inform and encourage to action are an improvement. Reducing the waste could go a long way toward checking emissions and fighting the climate crisis.

When Dr. Henderson was assigning project mates for his psychology class, I never expected he would assign me to work with the fiercely competitive, extremely serious fellow who always wore _________ clothes and apparently had a _________ to match.

When I went up to him, he looked at me _________ I weren’t there. He wasn’t _________, but he just gave me the impression that he could do better whatever project we dreamed up if he did it _________.

The project required each team to develop a hypothesis (假说), set up an experiment to _________ the hypothesis, do the statistical analysis and _________ the findings. Whatever grade the team received would be _________ by both students.

When we met to discuss our project, I felt _________. He had a reputation for single-mindedness and __________ grades-the exact opposite of me. I was outmatched. I even considered dropping out, but __________ because I didn’t want to give him the satisfaction of my __________ out.

After long discussions we somehow agreed to do a study on the __________ well-being of teenagers. We started to meet regularly to draw up our plans. He kept his brain __________ in the project, leaving me standing by as if I were a __________. “What a dull project it is!” I murmured to myself. However, something changed gradually as I knew more. Thanks to the serious fellow, the project went close to the final stage __________.

One day he was __________ to hospital for a disease. Without delay, I packed up my school bag, took all the statistics and __________ to the hospital. Seeing the pale fellow wearing pure white clothes instead of the annoying dark clothes, I felt a sense of __________. With his guidance, I finished the project and presented the findings. It turned out to be such an amazing and persuasive study that we won the best grade. Now, we have been the most reliable cooperative __________ ever since!

China’s third aircraft carrier, the Fujian, has been launched. Having a displacement (排水量) of more than 80,000 tons, the Fujian is the country’s first carrier     41     (equip) with electromagnetic catapults (弹射器) and arresting devices. It is believed to be     42     (significant) more powerful than the country’s first two aircraft carriers.

From a technology development point of view, China should aim for world-class equipment     43     can defend itself and safeguard peace. It should also have more aircraft carriers. While the US has 11 aircraft carriers, China will not have an     44     (arm) race in terms of aircraft carriers with the US. China will develop aircraft carriers     45     its own proper pace.

China’s development and improvement of weapons and equipment are not aimed at any country or specific target, and will not pose     46     threat to any country or region, as they only serve the purpose of safeguarding national sovereignty (主权),     47     (secure) and development interests. History     48     (prove) and will continue to prove that China is a constructor of world peace and a contributor to global development, a protector of international order and a provider of public goods.

If China is to build another aircraft carrier, it would likely be based on the design of the Fujian. A 100,000 ton-class, nuclear-powered aircraft carrier like those of the US would be more powerful, but also more expensive, so a choice must be made     49     (regard) whether     50     (have) more but inexpensive carriers, or have less but expensive ones.