【推荐1】A strange thing happens to nearly everybody at night. They turn off the lights, pull up the covers and ______ their eyes. Several hours later, they ______ again. Strange, isn’t it?

Sleep puzzles science. Scientists and doctors would rather talk about why one can’t fall asleep. They are not so sure ______ causes sleep.The best conditions for sleep are good health and meal which is______   too big nor too small. No worries and a comfortable place can help you fall asleep______.They don’t think it’s good for two people to sleep in one bed.Strange things happen during sleep. For example, you move often. You would feel ______if you didn’t. You also dream. Parts of your brain are still ______when you dream. Dreaming happens when the ______and imagination parts of your brain are still awake. In your dream, you can see things that happened _______or people you met before and you might even see things that never happen or people you never meet in your real life. Many scientists say ______ have shown that most of us dream in colour. Bad dreams may be caused by a stomachache. Don’t worry if you dream. Some great stories and poems were begun while the writers slept.

【推荐2】The benefits of a bilingual brain

Hablas espafiol?Parlez-yous francais? 你会说中文吗?If you answered, “sí,” “oui,” or “会” and you’re watching this in English, _________ are you belong to the world’s bilingual and multilingual majority. And besides having an easier time traveling or watching movies without subtitles, knowing two or more languages means that your brain may actually look and work _________ than those of your monolingual friends.

So what does it really mean to know a language? Language ability is typically measured in two active parts, speaking and writing, and two   _________ parts, listening and reading. While a(n) _________ bilingual has near equal abilities across the board in two languages, most bilingual around the world know and use their languages in varying proportions. And   _________ their situation and how they acquired each language, they can be _________ into three general types. For example, let’s take Gabriella, whose family immigrates to the US from Peru when she’s two-years old. As a compound bilingual, Gabriella develops two linguistic codes simultaneously (同时地), with a single set of concepts, learning both English and Spanish as she begins to   _________ the world around her. Her teenage brother, on the other hand, might be a coordinate bilingual, working with two sets of concepts, learning English in school, while _________ to speak Spanish at home and with friends. Finally, Gabriella’s parents are likely to be subordinate (次要的) bilinguals who learn a secondary language by filtering it through their mother_________.

Because all types of bilingual people can become fully proficient in a language __________ accent or pronunciation, the difference may not be apparent to a casual observer. But recent   __________·in brain imaging technology have given neurolinguists a glimpse into how specific aspects of language learning affect the bilingual brain. It’s well known that the brain’s left hemisphere is more dominant and analytical in __________ processes. while the right hemisphere is more active in emotional and social ones, though this is a matter of degree, not an absolute split. The fact that language involves both types of functions while lateralization (脑部的偏侧性) develops gradually with age，has led to the critical period hypothesis. According to this theory, children learn languages more easily, because the plasticity of their developing brains lets them use both hemispheres in language acquisition, while in most adults, language is lateralized to one hemisphere, usually the left.

But regardless of when you acquire additional languages, being multilingual gives your brain some__________ advantages. Some of these are even visible, such as higher density of the grey matter that contains most of your brain’s neurons and synapses, and more activity in certain regions when engaging a second language. The heightened __________ a bilingual brain receives throughout its life can also help delay the onset of diseases, like Alzheimer’s and dementia by as much as five years.

So, while bilingualism may not   __________ make you smarter, it does make your brain more healthy, complex and actively engaged, and even if you didn’t have the good fortune of learning a second language as a child, it’s never too late to do yourself a favor and make the linguistic leap from, “Hello,” to, “Hola,” “Bonjour” or “你好’s” because when it comes to our brains a little exercise can go a long way.

【推荐1】One of my students once expressed a personal concern to me: He said he talked to himself. That _______ him. As a self-talker in my own right, I had words of _______ for him; People who talk to themselves are geniuses.

First, it shores up my _______. Take shopping for example. I’ve found that I can _______ paper and ink by reciting my shopping list over and over, from my house to a _______. Second, it keeps me _______. Many a time I have left the house with the _______, say, of dropping a letter off at the post office. I _______ place the letter in the visor(遮阳板) of my car, and to _______ myself to stop at the post office on the way to my ultimate destination, I keep __________, “The letter is in the visor, the letter is in the visor, the letter…”You get __________. Last, talking to myself helps me to __________. Recently. I was changing an electrical outlet(插座). something I’m somewhat __________ with but I do not do on a regular basis. The __________ is, I tend to forget which is the hot wire and which is the neutral wire(零线). And so I repeat. “Black is hot，white is neutral.” I’m __________ to report that the project was a success.

【推荐2】A skywell, or "tian jing", is a typical feature of a traditional home in China. ________ a northern Chinese courtyard, or “yuan zi”a skywell is smaller and less exposed to the outdoor environment. They are________ seen in homes dating to Ming and Qing dynasties, which were designed to________different generations of relatives.

Although a skywell's size and design vary from region to region, it is always rectangular and located in the Core of a house, either________by rooms on four sides or three sides plus a wall. Skywells were designed to cool buildings before air-conditioning existed. When wind blows above a skywell house, it can enter the indoor space through the opening. Because outdoor air is often cooler than indoor air, the ________breeze travels down the walls to the lower storeys and create air ________ by replacing warmer indoor air,   which rises and leaves through the opening.

The main purpose of a skywell is to allow in light, improve ventilation (通风) and ________ rainwater. In Huizhou, a skywell is small but tall, and the rooms around it can ________ sunlight on hot days, enabling the bottom of the skywell to stay cool. ________ hot air inside the house can rise and escape through the opening above the skywell, which“works just like a ________”

As a(n) ________ space between indoor life and the outdoor environment, a skywell acts as an effective heat buffer(缓冲)to shield residents from the hot air outside. But the largest part of skywell's cooling effect actually comes when there are bodies of water in the enclosure.

Evaporated water cools hot air, a process known as evaporative cooling which is ________ in Huizhou skywells. In the past, Huizhou families collected rainwater in their skywells because they believed this could safeguard and boost their wealth. Skywells therefore have channels around them to ________ rainwater coming from the roofs.

Though existing in China for hundreds of years, in recent times they have often been forgotten by people who prefer modern________. Over the past two decades, however, due to a ________ of traditional Chinese architecture, skywell buildings have been making a comeback.