【推荐1】It was the morning before I was presenting a paper at an academic conference in Paris. Unexpectedly, the babysitter I’d _________ for to watch my daughter texted to say she couldn’t _________ it. Worried I’d have to cancel the _________, I asked the organizers, two men, if they knew of any last-minute babysitters.

“_________ her!” they said. “We’ll watch her well.”

So, with uncertainty and anxiety, I did. While I presented my _________ in a theater hall, they entertained my daughter by letting her draw on the whiteboard and _________ on the walls. During the Q&A, my daughter demanded to be _________. As she sucked, her diaper (尿布) leaked onto my trousers. Afterward, several people came up to me to _________ me for my bringing her. A woman said that one of her favorite _________ was bringing her daughter to her workplace.

Unfortunately, my experience is not the ____________ practice. For most working women, bringing their children to work or having a flexible ____________ is not an option. When flexibility is offered, it comes with a huge ____________: advancement to higher positions is less likely for parents, usually mothers, who ____________ flexibility. In 2016, only 200 companies had official ____________ allowing children to ____________ at a workplace during working hours. ____________, bringing children to work is a rising phenomenon.

__________, in bringing this generation of children to working events or offices, I’m sure we’re teaching them a valuable lesson about work-life ____________. My hope is that, when these children become leaders, they’ll ____________ we didn’t shut them out of work spaces. ____________, they will build the policies for a fairer and more enjoyable workplace.

【推荐3】Lawmakers in New Jersey recently advanced a bill that would ban businesses from going cashless—a move that would put the state at odds with the global trend toward electronic payments but would ________ resistance from local officials who see no-cash policies as unfair.

Almost 1 out of 3 Americans in 2018 say they don't use cash during a typical week of purchases, according to the Pew study released this week. The findings reveal that Americans are becoming less reliant on paper currency, mirroring ________ in Sweden, India and China. But state and local officials say that restaurants and shops that adopt cashless policies have left some members of the community behind— individuals without the ________ to open a bank account or who lack access to the mobile apps that power digital payments.

The New Jersey measure, which would apply only to face-to-face sales and would________Internet and phone purchases, comes as officials push ________ efforts to bar no-cash rules in New York and Philadelphia. ________ cashless policies offer consumers the promise of convenience and provide businesses greater protection against theft, they also can exclude low-income consumers or undocumented immigrants,critics say. "Cash-free businesses are discriminatory by design and pose ________ to low-income communities that may not have access to credit," New York Council member Torres said on Twitter when he introduced a bill that would ban the practice.

According to the Pew study, the decline in the use of ________ currency is uneven among the population when race, age and income are accounted for. Pew found a significant ________ in cashless adoption tied to annual household income, with adults making at least $75,000 more than twice as likely to make all their purchases without using cash in a typical week, ________ with people who make less than $30,000. The Pew findings suggest that the ________ of going cashless may come with a cost that only some groups of people will bear. Americans with lower incomes are roughly four times as likely as higher earners to make almost all of their purchases with cash, according to the study.

As has been noted, business leaders have ________ cashless policies by referring to higher security and ________ customer service and efficiency. Some advocates have focused on providing people who are underserved by the ________ banking system with more affordable options, attacking the root cause behind the ________ of cashless payments.

【推荐2】Digital Heaven

If you had the opportunity to live forever, would you take it? The ________ to keeping your body alive indefinitely still seem unbeatable, but some scientists think there is another ________ opened up by digital technology: creating a digital copy of your “self” and keeping that “alive” online long after your physical body has ________ to function.

________, the proposal is to clone a person electronically. Unlike the familiar physical clones — offspring that have ________ features as their parents, but that are completely separate organisms with a separate ________ life — your electronic clone would believe itself to be you. How might this be possible? The first step would be to map the brain.

How? One plan ________ the development of nanotechnology. Ray Kurzweil — one of the prophets (先知) of artificial intelligence — ________ that within two or three decades we will have nano transmitters that can be ________ into the bloodstream. In the capillaries of the brain they would line up alongside the neurons and ________ the details of the cerebral (大脑的) electronic activity. They would be able to ________ that information to a receiver inside a special helmet or cap, so there would be no need for any wires extending from the scalp (头皮).

As a further step, Ray Kurzweil also consider the nano transmitters being able to connect you to a world of virtual reality on the Internet, similar to what was depicted in the film ‘Matrix’. With the nano transmitters in place, by thought alone, you could log on to the Internet and instead of the pictures coming up on your screen they would play inside your mind. ________ sending your friends e-mails you would agree to meet up on some virtual tropical beach.

For Ray this would be, quite ________, heaven. Once you upload the brain onto the Internet and log on to that virtual world the body can be left to rot while your virtual self carries on playing Counter Strike forever.

Generations of Christians believed in Christ partly because his rebirth held out the ________ that we too might be able to enjoy life after death. But why wait for the Second Coming when you can have a shot of nanobots and upload your brain onto the Internet and live on as an immortal virtual surfer?

Who needs faith when you’ve got ________?

【推荐3】Next week, as millions of families gather for their Thanksgiving feasts (大餐), many other Americans will go without. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 12 million households _________ enough food for everyone in their family at some time during the year — including _________.

Hunger is surprisingly widespread in our country — one of the world’s wealthiest — yet the government estimates that we waste almost 100 billion pounds of food each year, more than one-quarter of our total supply.

Reducing this improper distribution of _________ is a goal of America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Last year, it _________ nearly 2 billion pounds of food to more than 23 million people in need.

America’s Second Harvest is a network of 214 inter-connected food banks and other organizations that _________ food from growers, processors, grocery stores and restaurants. _________, the network distributes food to some 50,000 soup kitchens (施食处), homeless _________ and old people’s centers in every county of every state.

A great deal of work is involved in distributing tons of food from thousands of _________ to thousands of small, non-profit organizations. Until a few years ago, America’s Second Harvest lacked any _________ way to manage their inventory (存货). Without accurate and timely information, soup kitchens were sometimes empty while food was left to __________ in loading places.

In 2000, America’s Second Harvest began to use a new inventory and financial-management system — Ceres. It is a __________ designed specifically for hunger-relief operations. It is used by more than 100 America’s Second Harvest organizations to __________ food from donation to distribution.

Ceres has helped __________ the spoiling of food and improve distribution. An evaluation found that the software streamlined (精简) food banks’ operations by 23 percent in the first year alone.

With more accurate and timely reports, Ceres saves time, frees staff members to focus on finding new donors, and __________ more efficient use of donations.

Hunger in America remains a(n) __________ social problem. Technology alone cannot solve it. But in the hands of organizations such as America’s Second Harvest, it is a powerful tool that is helping to make a difference — and helping more Americans to join in the feast.