I must have always known reading was very important because the first memories I have as a child deal with books. There was not one night that I don’t remember mom reading me a storybook by my bedside. I was extremely inspired by the wonderful way the words sounded.

I always wanted to know what my mom was reading. Hearing mom say, “I can’t believe what’s printed in the newspaper this morning,” made me want to grab it out of her hands and read it myself. I wanted to be like my mom and know all of the things she knew. So I carried around a book, and each night, just to be like her, I would pretend to be reading.

This is how everyone learned to read. We would start off with sentences, then paragraphs, and then stories. It seemed an unending journey, but even as a six-year-old girl I realized that knowing how to read could open many doors. When mom said, “The C-A-N-D-Y is hidden on the top shelf,” I knew where the candy was. My progress in reading raised my curiosity, and I wanted to know everything. I often found myself telling my mom to drive more slowly, so that I could read all of the road signs we passed.

Most of my reading through primary, middle and high school was factual reading. I read for knowledge, and to make A’s on my tests. Sometimes, I would read a novel that was assigned, but I didn’t enjoy this type of reading. I liked facts, things that are concrete. I thought anything abstract left too much room for argument.

Now that I’m growing and the world I once knew as being so simple is becoming more complex, I find myself needing a way to escape. By opening a novel, I can leave behind my burdens and enter into a wonderful and mysterious world where I am now a new character. In these worlds I can become anyone. I don’t have to write down what happened or what technique the author was using when he or she wrote this. I just read to relax.

We’re taught to read because it’s necessary for much of human understanding. Reading is an important part of my life. Reading satisfies my desire to keep learning. And I’ve found that the possibilities that lie within books are limitless.

For many, traveling is a way to escape the worst parts of daily life. But what if a travel destination(目的地) witnessed terrible events, like war, genocide (大屠杀) or nuclear fallout? Would you still want to visit?

There’s a growing phenomenon called “dark tourism” – people visit sites to do with death and human suffering. “It’s living on the edge almost – if you go to a place where people have really died,” Karel Werdler, a senior lecturer in history at InHolland University in the Netherlands, told CNN.

When people go to traditional tourist spots, like Disneyland, or some wonders of the world, they may feel happy to enjoy something interesting or new. Dark tourism, however, not only provides that newness but also can make them feel lucky that their problems are so small in comparison. According to the Guardian, “Dark tourism to some extent depends on the reverse (颠倒) of the old equation (方程式) of more familiar tourism.”

For many people, these sites offer a way to think about the mistakes of the past and the lessons we can learn from history. For example, Chernobyl, in the Ukraine, is one of the most popular dark destinations. When its nuclear reactor (核反应堆) blew up in 1984, it released a radioactive cloud so devastating that the surrounding area will remain uninhabitable (不适宜居住的) for 20,000 years. Despite the destruction and danger of the still present radiation, nearly 72,000 people visited the area last year, reports the BBC. One of these was Li Yimeng, who went on a tour of the Chernobyl Exclusion Zone. During the tour she saw the homes of the power plant’s former workers, deserted classrooms, and an abandoned playground.

“I experienced a whole range of emotions as I saw the area where they used to live, which is now a wasteland,” she told China Daily. She also stressed the need to show respect when visiting places like Chernobyl. Though dark tourism is related to death and dying, “it tells us more about life and the living”, The Sun said.

Compared to dogs, cats are often considered to be aloof (冷漠的)with respect to their human owners. It is usual for them to be indifferent (无动于衷的)when humans call their names. Are we sure that they don’t understand human voices at all?

A recent study published in the journal of Scientific Reports suggests that we’ve been fooled. Japanese scientists found that cats can recognize their names if their owners regularly use them. In the study, scientists recruited 78 domestic cats. They played recordings of voices of their owners saying five words: the first four words were random nouns that sounded similar to their names while the final word was the cat’s name. Then they observed the cats’ responses, if there were any.

Most of cats moved their ears or heads when they heard their names, while they made no response to other words. That suggested, “cats were paying attention to you, what you say and what you do,” John Bradshaw, an expert on human-animal interactions (互动) at the University of Bristol, UK, told The Times. “And cats were just as good as dogs at learning,” she added.

In the study, when people called their names, cats often associated   (联系)   the words with rewards, such as food or play, or with “punishments” such as having a bath or going to the vet . This made cats sensitive (敏感的) to words. After the cats had been called several times, they could respond to the words. But the scientists added that while dogs have evolved (进化) to follow their owners’ orders, cats have not. Although cats appear to be aloof, they do have special relationships with their owners.

According to study co-author Atsuko Saito, cats have evolved not to show their emotions as a survival method. One example is illness, which they tend to hide because “in the wild, no one can rescue them” and predators (捕食性动物) are more likely to pay attention to them, Saito explained.

However, technology may help bridge the communication gap between cats and us. There are now mobile apps available to explain what their meows mean. So, the next time you hear “meow, meow”, your cat may be telling you: “Hi, you haven’t cleaned my litter box recently.”

Happiness has become a big deal in the past ten years. Hundreds of books, lectures and even the media tell us that happiness is within our reach. All we have to do is follow some simple steps, like meditation, living in the moment and doing yoga.    31     In fact, feeling deeply sad is a normal part of the healing(治愈)process.

It's said that if you are going through a hard time, it's important to do what you can to feel better.    32     Perhaps they can work for you too.

    33    But if you're not anywhere near an ocean, lake or river, looking at images of moving water on TV can make you feel peaceful.

We have to get our happiness where we can find it. If you have lost the ability to find any pleasure in your daily life or the people around you, something deeper is going on.    34    .

Think about the times you were at your happiest. That may sound a little strange.    35    

We can't allow natural and normal emotional low points rule our lives, but we can't ignore them either. They must be processed, so we can move on.

One day last June, Clifford Luther served a burger and fries to a man passing through his restaurant, Old West Express, in Saskatchewan, Canada. Two ____ later, the man returned and wrote him a ____ for $500,000. “I thought, they were good burgers and fries, _____ they weren’t that good,” Luther told CTV News.

The ____ man was Bob Erb of British Columbia, who won Canada’s $25 million Max jackpot (累计赌注) in November 2018 and has been giving money to people ____. He’s donated his_____ to food banks, the old people, and some organizations, and he ____ 20 people in Terrace, his hometown, to get necessary care they couldn’t _____.

While giving the burger that first afternoon, Luther ____ Erb that his 25-year-old daughter had just got cancer in Vancouver, about 1,000 miles away. “He and I had a _______ experience. One of my children had cancer, too. But he died four years ago. So, I know the ______ a parent has,” says Erb. “I ____ on the way home I’d ____ him some money so he could go to see his _____.”

Two days later when Erb was on his way back to British Columbia, he ____ the restaurant for another burger, which Luther ____ to buy him because Erb had tipped him well just two days ago. Erb said “no way” and asked the restaurant owner for a ____, then wrote the check and left it on the table. “Luther looked at the check and couldn’t _____ anything. He just held his arms out,” Erb says.

Erb, 60, ____ works on a building site part-time and hasn’t ____ twice about the $7 million he’s given to his family, friends, and society. “If you have enough to feed yourself, you help others out,” he says.

The British policeman has several nicknames, but the most     56    (frequent) used are “copper" and “bobby? The first name comes from the verb “cop”    57     (mean) “to take” or “capture”，and the second name comes from the first name of Sir Robert Peel, a 19^th century politician,     58     was the founder of the police force. An early nickname for the policeman was "peeler", but this name has died     59    

    60    (visit) to England are always attracted by the English police. In fact,     61     has become a joke that travelers to Britain, when     62    (ask) for the views of the country, will always say, "I think your policemen are wonderful."

Well, the English bobby may not always be wonderful, but he is usually    63    very friendly and helpful character just    64     a song describes, "If you have any difficulty, turn    65    a policeman.”