【推荐1】Anyone who has ever travelled on airplanes knows how annoying delays (延误) are. Not only do they _________ us from getting where we need to be _________, they are also really boring. That’s why some Southwest Airlines employees tried to _________ their passengers when they were hit with a two-hour delay by holding a(n) _________ driver’s license photo contest (比赛)!

Kristen, a passenger, was _________ at first when her flight was delayed for several hours. However, her anger _________ when the gate agent announced the start of a(n) _________ game called “Win a prize for the worst driver’s license picture”.

“My flight to Washington, D.C. had been delayed for almost two and a half hours and I was getting heated until this gate agent _________ playing games with everyone waiting to pass the time, after which I started thinking I’ll be willing to _________ here all night if you keep this up,” Kristen wrote in her post, adding the game was ____________.

Kristen, who was ____________ to Washington, D.C. from Orlando to visit friends, praised Southwest Airlines in her post, and someone from the company quickly ____________.

“I’m glad our agent was able to make the delay a little more ____________ for you all, Kristen! We ____________ to have you on your way as soon as possible,” the spokesperson said, adding when Kristen asked the company to ____________ the prize to the Orlando-based team, “send over your confirmation, and I’ll be sure they get the recognition they deserve!”

When Kristen later described her ____________ to reporters, she said ____________ for the worst photos included Southwest products and $25 vouchers (代金券) toward future flights.

“I was really annoyed that the flight kept getting delayed,” Kristen said. “Once he started playing games, I was ____________ and having a great time and didn’t even ____________ that the flight was delayed.”

No wonder so many people ____________ Southwest!

【推荐3】Commuting has long been a problem for urban residents worldwide, especially for those living and working in big cities _______ Beijing, Shanghai, New York City and Tokyo. For commuters, _______ subways and traffic jams during rush hours are nothing short of a nightmare.

Forty years ago when I came to Beijing to work for China Daily, people had the same _______ as they have today, but for different reasons. _______ Beijing had just one subway line, Line One, which _______ a little more than 20 kilometers. And since it was the only subway in China, I was told that it was built more as an air raid shelter than a _______ of public transport.

On the ground, _______ were few and narrow but had little traffic, for there were no _______ cars in China four decades ago. Apart from buses and a few government cars, horse-pulled carriages that transported daily necessities also _______ the roads. And when a bus ________ came, it was more likely than not to be already ________, and one had to struggle to ________ it.

________, most people commuted by bicycles earning China the ________ of a "country of bikes". Each day, I pedaled for hours, commuting between dorm and office, ________ news conferences and interviewing people for the ________.

When I traveled on the subways of New York City, Tokyo and West Berlin in the 1980s, I was ________ by their spider-web-like network and ________ that China would one day have as fast, reliable and convenient a subway system.

Chinese cities, ________, have even better subway systems today. 40 Chinese cities have subways with more than 6,000 km of tracks while about a similar number of cities are building new ones. The subway today is the ________ mode of public transport in Beijing with nearly 10 million commuters using it on any working day.

【推荐1】We must face the fact that there are many aspects of the Information Ages. All information makes us anxious. Over some of these, we have little or no control. On the other hand, there are steps we can take to eliminate much of _________. We might say, then, that survival in the information Age is a challenging yet _________ task.

To some extent, we are all receivers and givers of information. Our brain, however, receives and processes information in different ways. One way involves the amazing capacity of the brain to process information subconsciously.

Another way involves _________ processing of information such as during conversation,we ve a great deal of control over this type of information processing—both as givers and receivers. If we indulge (任凭) ourselves talking about tiny things or even harmful information, valuable time and _________ can be wasted. Meanwhile this can make us and others anxious. You may lose opportunities to absorb and distribute information that is truly useful for _________ in this troubled world.

Information gathered by reading is processed consciously and _________ takes longest. The written word is still the most powerful way of _________ imagination and conveying information, ideas, and concept.

How can we _________ so much information from various sources, such as reading material, TV program, computer games, and other _________ activities? The answer is screening. Screening, sorting out or prioritizing what we need to hear, see, say or read may __________ much information anxiety.

To cut through confusing information, __________ this basic rule: keep it simple! The secret to processing information is narrowing your __________ of information. Simplicity is __________ in many Asian cultures and is even recognized in Western cultures as a superior way of living. Writer Duane Elgin __________, “To live more simply is to live more purposefully and with a __________ of needless distraction.”

【推荐2】Health Care Workers Getting Panic Buttons

Hundreds of health care workers at Cox Medical Center in Missouri will soon be equipped with personal panic buttons, following over a year of increased violence against staff members. The pandemic (流行病), the medical center said, has greatly ________the rise of the number of attacks and the very device comes at the right time to the rescue.

A medical worker, once experiencing an attack, can press the button attached to his working ID card to activate a personal ________system and warn the security department—an instant pop-up ________will appear on hospital computers, showing the worker’s exact location.

The panic buttons are being ________among scores of staff members working in “high-risk areas” of Cox Medical Center. The hospital promises, if there are positive results, to ________the program to hundreds of employees. And the system is expected to be ________at the end of the year.

Those buttons are ________backed by the Skaggs Foundation, a charity in Missouri, which has offered the hospital a big grant. “This project helps maintain our No.1 resource—our health care workers, the number of whom has ________so much,” Nita Jane Ayres, Chairman of the foundation, said.

Alan Butler, Cox Health’s system director, agreed the buttons were a(n) ________tool in the battle to keep the staff safe. The entire number of attacks on staff by patients has risen from 40 in 2019 to 123 in 2020, and total injuries rocketed from 17 to 78.

________ , even those numbers scarcely paint the full picture. Angie Smith, the medical center’s patient safety facilitator, said that many workplace violence events went ________because “staff don’t feel like they will be supported or don’t feel like they will be able to do anything about it.” “The ________parts of being in health care now are not only being able to give excellent care to your patients”, she said, “but also feeling ________yourself as their caregiver.”

________, workplace violence in medical centers deserved our attention even before the pandemic. A survey of thousands of emergency physicians found that nearly half of the participants had undergone attacks while working, and roughly ninety-seven percent of those were ________by patients.

【推荐3】The recently concluded 19th Asian Games were _______ the most spectacular sporting event of the year, with 15 world records broken.

The Games featured 11, 830 athletes from 45 Asian countries and regions who _______ in Hangzhou, Zhejiang province, to _______ for 481 gold medals in 40 sports at 56 competition venues.

These 45 countries _______ 55 percent of the world’s population. Notably, the total number of participants exceeded (超过) the 10, 000 athletes registered for the Paris 2024 Summer Olympics.

Meanwhile, as the first significant carbon-neutral sporting event, the Asian Games _______ environmentally friendly guidelines into all aspects of planning and operations. The Games put green theories into _______ throughout, from construction and transportation to energy sourcing and waste management.

Similar plans were carried out. in the Asian Games Village, where athletes and officials could earn low-carbon points by adopting-nearly 20 green behaviors, such as _______ food wastage, practicing green travel and sorting garbage. These points could be _______ or low-carbon souvenirs.

Hangzhou provided _______ memories for all Asians. The Asian Games Village and catering and cultural services received widespread ________ from athletes, who frequently expressed their admiration for the accommodations and restaurants.

Moreover, competitors rated ________ the atmosphere and sportsmanship displayed among athletes. The Asian Games showcased China’s organizational capabilities and ________ its spirit of fair play and diversity and the unity of Asian cultures.

President Xi Jinping ________ for collective efforts to make Asia “an anchor of world peace”. He also ________ that the Asian Games should represent “the Asian people’s shared ________ for peace, unity and inclusiveness (兼容并蓄)”.