【推荐1】My brother Gene was four years older than me. By the time I turned four, I was upset that he could read but I couldn’t. I burned with ______ to read a book like my brother. I begged: “Teach me to read, Mom! Please, please?!” Finally, Mom set aside time after lunch ______ reading lessons, and soon after my fifth birthday, I was reading.

I longed for my father, who was a great storyteller, to read me the books that I couldn’t yet read on my own. But my father worked three jobs to feed the family. He didn’t have the time or ______ in the evening to read to me.       ____, every Sunday morning, my brother and I lay next to him in bed, waiting for him to tell stories about his   ____. I can still hear my father’s voice ______ the cold winters on the family farm in Poland. His family didn’t have enough money to burn wood in the fireplace all night. He told us that he always volunteered to help with ______. I can smell the soup made by my grandma and ______ my father cutting onions, carrots and tomatoes for salad, and when no one was looking, putting a piece into his mouth. “I was always ______,” he explained. Hearing my father’s stories   ______ me closer to the books and the stories they held.

One Saturday afternoon when I was seven, we walked two blocks to the small ______ in our neighborhood, and my dad filled out forms for a card. That Saturday ______ my life: I met Mrs. Schwartz, the librarian, and my dad said, “You’re ______ enough to walk to the library yourself.” And so I did—almost every afternoon.

In my mind, Mrs. Schwartz was “the keeper of books and the guardian of stories.” Some days she read aloud to a small group of us ______. Most of time, Mrs. Schwartz let me ______ myself with books I pulled from the shelves and look through them to see which ones I’d ______ out. I remember that sometimes she’d ______ a book and tell me a part of the story. But she always let me choose. Books became my ______ who were my comfort when I felt lonely.

Yes, reading changed me. It gave me the _____ to study hard so I could become a teacher, and share my _____   of reading with my students. And inside my head, I can still hear the voices of my mother, father, and Mrs. Schwartz, which are with me every time I open the first page of a new book.

【推荐2】My 7-year-old daughter always has her nose in a book. She even continued reading in the car on the long drive to summer camp, where she lost the book. This is the first lost _______book in my life. In my childhood, my family had always been expected to be _______, but we were poor, and I didn’t own books. I had to borrow books. My library books lived on a _______shelf while they were mine, and it _______me when I had to return them to the library on the due day.

However, my daughter has more books now than I owned during my whole childhood. So it’s probably my _______that she didn’t cherish the books. “Sorry. I can’t find it.” My daughter said with a shrug, “We just pay $ 20 for the book. What’s the big _______?” The missing library book just met with a cold _______from her, but it met with nail-biting _______from me. I walked into the library in a deep _______as if I had lost the book.

Feeling the need to make her feel responsible for the book, I asked her to do the chores. She agreed to clean up all the pets’ houses _______my paying the library book. I’d meant the chore to be _______!

Surprisingly, she was enjoying herself. I took a picture of her lovely back. So, was I winning or losing at _______? Did I teach her the _______of keeping a library book if the picture I took shows she is working _______?

To my _______, my little girl knew what matters in her life. She could devote herself to the chores as much as books.

【推荐3】You may already be familiar with recent findings that suggest children as young as six months who read books with their parents several times a week show stronger literacy skills four years later, score higher on intelligence tests, and land better jobs than nonreaders. But recent research argues that reading may be just as important in   _________ . When practiced over a lifetime, reading and language acquisition (习得) skills can support healthy brain functioning in big ways. Simply put: _________ power increases brain power.

To _________ why and what each of us can do to get the most out of our words, start by asking the same question the Yale team did: What is it about reading books in particular that increases our brain power while reading newspapers and magazines doesn’t?   For one, the researchers assume, chapter books encourage “deep reading.” Unlike skimming a page of headlines, reading a book forces your brain to think critically and make _________ from one chapter to another, and to the outside world. When you make associations, so does your brain, literally building new pathways between regions in all four lobes (脑叶) and both hemispheres. Over time, these neural networks can promote quicker thinking and may provide a greater _________ against the worst effects of cognitive decay (认知衰退) .

_________ , reading books, especially fiction, has been shown to increase empathy (共鸣) and emotional intelligence. One 2013 study found that participants who read just the first part or chapter of a story showed a noticeable increase in empathy one week later, while _________ readers showed a decrease. These findings may sound _________ , but they’re not; developing social tools such as empathy and emotional intelligence can lead to more (and more positive) human interaction, which _________ can lower stress levels—both of which are proved to help you live longer and healthier.

That’s not to say that magazines, newspapers, and Web articles are without __________ . Reading anything that fills your mind and exposes you to new words, phrases, and facts seems to carry __________ benefits. New research indicates that a large __________ may lead to a more flexible mind by fueling what scientists call cognitive reserve (认知储备). One way to think about this reserve is as your brain’s ability to adapt to __________ . Just as your blood cells will help to cover a cut on your knee, cognitive reserve helps your brain cells find new mental pathways around areas damaged by stroke, dementia, and other forms of decay. This could explain why, after death, many seemingly healthy elders turn out to harbor advanced signs of Alzheimer’s disease in their brains despite showing few signs __________ . It’s their cognitive reserve, researchers suspect, that may allow some seniors to __________ hidden brain damage.

【推荐1】More than any other aspect of the climate crisis, it is the over-production of carbon dioxide that has been valued. But nitrogen, and its _________ use in commercial fertilizer, also leads to air pollution and climate change. Evidence suggests their use also contributes to air pollution, increases the rates of cancer and _________ biodiversity, as well as releasing gas (laughing gas).

But nitrogen helps _________ around half the world’s population and remains essential for the foreseeable future. With prices of fertilizer rising, many developing countries don’t _________ it, with resulting threats to food security. The global nitrogen _________ involves both reducing fertilizer use, and getting it to where it’s needed most.

A team of scientists has come up with a five-step plan to solve this _________ problem. Benjamin Houlton, the leader, explains that only by undertaking a _________ approach and combining solutions can the problem be solved on both levels.

The five steps identified involve _________ agricultural practices, getting fertilizer to the places it’s needed, reducing nitrogen pollution and finally, both reducing food waste and promoting a change in diet. The _________ two are essential because approximately one-quarter of all global food produced is wasted along the __________ chain, which means that a large portion of the nitrogen fertilizer __________ to crops is ultimately wasted.

Benjamin admits that adding nitrogen to the list of existing climate woes might cause a sense of exhaustion. __________ he has an encouraging message. “The truth is, nitrogen is a blessing and a __________,” he says, “But if you can reduce the spill-overs of nitrogen, you can quickly get systems to return to the __________ state. That makes it very different from CO₂. We lock in 30 to 50 years of climate impacts every time we send out a molecule of CO₂ into the air. But with nitrogen you can get __________ returns on investment.”

【推荐2】When women do become managers, do they bring a different style and different ______     Are they better, or worse, managers than men? Are women more highly motivate committed than male managers?

Some research ______ the idea that women bring different attitudes and skills to management jobs. such as greater ______, an emphasis on attachment, and a willingness to involve ______ factors in making workplace decisions. These differences are seen to carry advantages for companies, because they expand the range of techniques that can be used to help the company ______ its workforce effectively.

A study undertaken by the International Women’s Forum discovered a management style used by some women managers that differs from the command-and-control style ______ used by male managers. Using this “interactive leadership” approach, women encourage______, share power and information, enhance other people’s self-worth, and get others excited about their work. All these things reflect their belief that ______ employees to contribute and to feel ______ and important is a win-win situation -- good for the employees and the organization. the study’s director predicted that “interactive leadership might emerge ______ the management style of choice for many organizations.”

【推荐1】What seemed impossible is possible nowadays. One spring afternoon last year a group of _______ attacked a 15-year-old girl in the Berlin district of Köpenick. They hit her in the face and pushed her to the ground. When the victim _______to hand over her money, some of them held her down and _______her arms with a lighted cigarette. The _______were not a gang of boys, but of 13- to 15-year-old girls.

While men are still responsible for the _______of crimes in Germany, _______violence is on the rise. Young girls and women of all _______groups are becoming more violent, and that has been a _______trend for several years. Last year in Berlin, the _______of female suspects of violent crime under the age of 21 increased by almost 8%, while that of male suspects ________slightly. Violent crimes like ________and serious bodily harm have even shot up by 18% and 25% among young women.

Why are ________women becoming more violent? Gender (性别) ________may have something to do with it. Today’s females are drinking and smoking more, and raising all sorts of ________things. Girls and young women are generally less held back in adopting male forms of behavior. ________, the same goes for the ________of violence. The members of all-female gangs tend to be especially ________. When particularly humiliating methods like burning or undressing are involved, the ________will usually be girls. It seems to be all about showing the ________, “Hey, we can do ________than you.”

【推荐2】As the world changes, our language changes with it. That's why Merriam-Webster recently added more than 250 new words to its online dictionary, ___________ changes in fields from lifestyle to politics and from business to technology.

“These new words have been added to the dictionary because they have___________ themselves in the English language, and are part of the current, active vocabulary of America.” Merriam- Webster associate editor Emily Brewster said in a press___________ .

Here our newspaper has chosen three of the dictionary’s new entries. Let’s take a look.

Froyo(冻酸奶)

While ice cream has been around for more than 100 years, froyo or frozen yogurt--is comparatively new. Even though it was first invented back in the 1970s, it only started to gain___________recently, which is why the shorter version"froyo"is entering people’s daily vocabulary.

Compared to ice cream, the main___________ point of froyo is that it's healthier. It takes away people's___________while still allowing them to have the satisfaction of eating something sweet. As The Huffington Post put it, froyo is"starting a___________ in the healthier dessert industry".

Word salad(文字沙拉)

It was first used to refer to a series of words said by people with mental illness. Just like the vegetables in a salad bowl, each word makes perfect sense by itself, but when put together, they become hard to ____"Dogs moon purple monkey dishwasher," for example.

Now the phrase is more often used to refer to the words of a politician, although this refers to the speaker's logic rather than their mental state. US President Donald Trump,'s interviews are often referred to as word salad.__________ , he told an AP reporter in April:"But he said, will be the greatest president but I would also accept the other. In other words, if you do your job, but I accept that.

Troll (网络喷子)

The __________meaning of "troll" (巨魔) is a mythical __________ that is huge, ugly and angry and lives in places like caves. Now it's also used to refer to the kind of Internet user who __________posts comments, some of which seem___________to hurt other people.

Other phrases and usage have also been__________from"troll" , including "Internet trolling" --the act of unleashing(发泄) unfriendly remarks online, and"being trolled"--which means to fall__________to a troll.