【推荐1】Bad Dreams Are Good!

Most of us dream, whether we remember them or not. What are dreams for? A handful of _______ dominate. Sigmund Freud famously maintained that they reveal hidden truths and wishes. More recent research suggests that they may help us process intense emotions, or perhaps sort through and strengthen memories, or _______ random neuron（神经元） activity, or prepare responses to threatening situations. Others argue that dreams have no evolutionary function, but simply _______ personal concerns.

Despite being largely unsupported by _______, Freud’s view maintains a strong following around the world. Researchers found that students in the U.S., South Korea, and India were much more likely to say that dreams reveal hidden truths than to accept better _______ theories. In the same study, respondents said that dreaming about a plane crash would cause them more _______ than an official warning about a terrorist attack. Even if dreams can't foretell the future, they seem to _______ our shared fascinations. The majority of dreams occur during REM sleep （深度睡眠） cycles, of which the average person has four or five a night.

A study of Canadian university students found the most common dream topics include school, falling, being chased, and arriving too late for something. For all the commonalities dreams _______, they vary across time and culture — people who grew up watching black-and-white TV are more likely to dream in black and white. A 1958 study _______ that compared with Japanese people, Americans dreamed more about being locked up, losing a loved one, finding money, being ________ dressed or encountering a mad person. Japanese people were more likely to dream about school, trying repeatedly to do something, being paralyzed with fear, or “wild, violent beasts.” If human dreams sound ________, bear in mind that even negative ones can have positive effects.

In a study of students taking a French medical school entrance exam, 60 percent of the dreams they had beforehand ________ a problem with the exam, such as being late or leaving an answer blank. But those who reported ________ about the exam, even bad ones, did better on it than those who didn’t. So the next time you dream about an education related experience in which you are unable to answer the questions or solve a problem, don’t __________: It’s probably totally meaningless. Then again, your brain might be practicing so you'll be ________ if such an event ever comes to pass.

【推荐2】You’re walking down a quiet street and suddenly you hear some footsteps. _______ , it means that there’s someone around. But have you ever wondered why it _______ to us that it’s someone else’s footsteps rather than ours?

According to a new study published in the journal Nature in September, this phenomenon results from a function in our brain to _______ the noises we make ourselves.

In order to _______ how our brain does this, a group of scientists from New York University in the US carried out an experiment with mice at Duke University. In the experiment, researchers _______ the sounds a group of mice could hear, reported Science Daily.

During the first several days, the mice would hear the same sound each time they took a step. This was just like “running on a tiny _______ with each key playing exactly the same note”, senior study author Richard Mooney, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University, told Live Science.

Scientists found that their auditory cortex(听觉皮层)—the area of the brain that processes sound—became active at first but _______ its response to the sound after two or three minutes when the mice became familiar with it.

“It’s almost like they were wearing special headphones that could _______ the sound of their own movements,” David Schneider, an assistant professor at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, told HuffPost. But once the sound changed, their auditory cortex was _______ again.

This suggests that the “sensory filter” in a mouse’s brain could help it detect ________ sounds or abnormal noise in the environment easily after tuning out familiar sounds, according to Science Daily.

“For mice, this is really important,” said Schneider. “They are prey(猎物)animals, so they really need to be able to ________ for a cat creeping up on them, even when they’re walking and making noise.”

As important as it is for mice’s survival, the ability to ignore ________ noises is also useful for humans when it comes to complex tasks, such as playing an instrument.

According to Schneider, “The ability to ignore the ________ consequences of our movement gives us the extra-cool ability to detect when we’ve got it wrong. So if I play the piano just right, I hear it, but my auditory cortex is pretty silent. But when I play it wrong, I get a(n) ________ response.”

So, our ________ could be telling us, “Hey, that didn’t sound right, maybe I should move my fingers a little differently next time,” Schneider told HuffPost.

【推荐3】It is widely believed that adolescents engage in risky behaviors because of tolerance for risks by nature, but a study by researchers at New York University Yale’s School of Medicine, and Fordham University has found this is not the case.

Their findings show adolescents appear to________their older peers in the taste for the uncertain. When faced with situations that have highly uncertain outcomes, most________groups react with dislike; adolescents, ________ , often find these uncertain situations quite tolerable. Rather than having a taste for risk, as is commonly thought, the risky behaviors of adolescents originate from their________with the ambiguous(模棱两可的).

These findings, which are reported in the journal the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences, point to basic differences between adolescents and adults and offer new________into how to communicate about risk to teenagers and pre-teens.

“Our findings show that teenagers nowadays enter unsafe situations not because they are drawn to dangerous or risky situations, but, rather, because they aren’t________ enough of the possibility of the consequences of their actions,” explained Agnieszka Tymula, one of the study’s co-authors. “Once they truly________a risky situation, they are, if anything, even more unwilling to take risks than adults. The study also offers new possibilities for communicating with this age group -providing adolescents with statistics________the risks of dangerous behaviors or training that allows them to learn about risks in a safe way, which may be effective in________them.” “What we found was that when risks were clearly stated, adolescents________them at least as much, and sometimes more, than adults, ”added Ifat Levy, one of the study’s co-authors at the Yale School of Medicine.“ Adolescents were, however, much more________of ambiguity.________this makes a lot of sense: young organisms need to be open to the________in order to gain information about their world.”

Studies have previously established that adolescents are more________ than their older and younger peers are to engage in behaviors that, on rare occasions, lead to terrible consequences. “It is not that adolescents actually choose to engage in risks, but, rather, they are willing to gamble when they________complete knowledge,” the researchers wrote.

【推荐1】Trees have always held much attraction for people. They are the_________and biggest life-forms on our planet and one of the most beautiful. As a direct_________with thousands of years of history, trees appear in many religions and have inspired artists over the years.

When I was a child I_________a science fiction story that made me think about trees in a new way. In the story,_________ from an advanced civilization come to our planet and their spaceship lands in the middle of a forest.

The aliens (外星人) have a long_________with the trees of the forest and then leave, happy to think that the inhabitants (居民) of Earth are noble, intelligent and peaceful.

Trees_________a lot about being part of a community and how cooperation is better for a society than_________. Scientists are only just beginning to understand how it all_________ but we now know that trees growing together share all of the available resources (资源) with each other. So, strong trees in a good _________will share food and water with__________trees that receive less sunlight. By__________a community of trees makes itself stronger. The roots of giant redwood trees, for example, grow together under the ground. It’s as if they are__________hands. This means that they are__________stronger when there are heavy winds or floods.

We all acknowledge that trees are__________for the environment and the survival of our planet. Perhaps they have even more to__________us in the future.

【推荐2】Some fifteen years ago, when smartphone apps were new and few truly understood their potentials, retailers (零售商) _________knew that consumers could browse in stores while comparing prices and_________from other item providers through certain apps before_________making the purchase online. Ten years ago, brick-and-mortar (实体店) retailers had to acknowledge that showrooming existed and appeared to be a _________. That’s the year when retailers were up in arms as online giant Amazon released an “evil” promotion that encouraged consumers to visit_________stores and use Amazon’s Price Check App at the same time. Any purchase completed through the app was given_________ discounts, which significantly stimulated sales and_________many shop owners to the edge of bankruptcy (破产).

From the point on, retailers began launching strategies to combat showrooming including releasing exclusive items for sale so that no_________prices from other sources are available for comparison.

“Media have reported showrooming as a big threat to physical stores.” says Casey Carl, a retailer. “However, less _________is the fact that it is also the greatest opportunity for us.” Retailers need to accept that the act of showrooming is not_________and any sensible buyer tends to compare prices. As there’s nothing you can do about it, you might as well offer conveniences like in-store internet access to_________these consumers. With caring services combined with good prices, the store might actually improve the likelihood for consumers to close the deal_________.

And a showrooming study indicates that it’s wise for retailers to limit the item price to at most 5 dollars_________than what online stores charge. After all, for the majority of consumers, getting the absolute lowest price is not their_________. Many of them, instead, are willing to pay _________in exchange for favourable shopping experiences, such as the pleasant store atmosphere, agreeable staff attitudes or even the merry music played, with a reasonable price_________, of course.

_________, adopting a strategy of_________channels is also essential. With many sale channels under control, retailers are sure to have access to the lowest price possible for an item. Therefore, when a customer_________a mobile device in store, retailers can be spared the_________that was unavoidable for them some ten years ago.