【推荐3】Do you sometimes ignore your mom while chatting with friends? If you’re a teen, that’s fairly _______. And new research may explain why so many _______ tune out their mom’s voices.

Young kids’ brains are very tuned in to their mothers’ voices. But as they grow up, everything _______. Teenagers’ brains are more tuned in to strangers’ voices. Researchers scanned the brains of 7- to 16-year-olds as they listened to things said by their mothers or by unfamiliar women. The words were purely_______ : teebudieshawlt, keebudieshawlt and peebudieshawlt. As the kids listened, certain parts of their brains became _______. This was especially true in brain regions that help us to _______ rewards and pay attention.

This _______ usually happens between ages 13 and 14. The brain seems to_______ new needs that come with youth. As we _______, our survival depends less and less on mom’s support. ________, we rely more and more on our ________-friends and others closer to our own age.

However, these areas in the youthful brain don’t stop ________ mom. It’s just that unfamiliar voices become more ________ and worthy of attention. Mothers’ voices still have special power, especially in times of stress. Studies also showed that levels of stress hormones (荷尔蒙) ________ when stressed-out girls heard their moms’ voices on the phone.

So while both teens and their parents sometimes feel frustrated by missed messages, that’s okay. “That’s the way the brain is ________, and there’s a good reason for it.”

【推荐1】The New Technology and Travel Revolution

Technological advances have changed the way we travel, and these new developments promise an even more _______ and exciting experience. Do you want to know what it has _______ for us in the not-too-distant future?

Today, nobody _______ that technology and travel are the perfect combination. This _______ force also plays a crucial role in the way we travel. According to a Google Travel study, it is so _______ that 74% of travelers plan their trips on the Internet, while only 13% still use travel agencies to prepare them.

The cell phone has become our tour guide, travel agency, best restaurant locator, map, and more. It’s _______ during the entire purchase journey. In fact, according to TripAdvisor, 45% of users use their smartphones for everything having to do with their vacations.

This is why there’s a need to _______ corporate services and communications to these devices. KLM, for example, has already created an information service for passengers using Facebook Messenger. This system, once someone has made a _______, sends the user information regarding their ticket through Facebook Messenger as well as their boarding pass or updates about the _______ of their flight. This way, the user has all the relevant information about their trip in the palm of their hand using an app that they already use, ________ the need to download anything else.

Augmented reality (AR) or virtual reality (VR) have also entered the travel world, and the truth is that it’s a trend ________ all the possibilities they can offer. More and more companies use it to show users a cabin on a cruise ship or transport them, for a few seconds, to the Great Wall of China.

In addition, we’re all familiar with Siri and Alexa, the ________ assistants that meet all our needs: what’s the weather like today in my city, turn the radio on, open my email, and more. Hotels are now starting to ________ this “help” thanks to the arrival of virtual assistants that are ________ designed for this environment. IBM recently ________ Watson Assistant, an AI-powered virtual assistant that creates an interactive and personalized experience for consumers. This is the open technology that firms can employ and adapt to their needs. This way, the virtual assistant won’t be called Watson but instead, have the name that the hotel chooses.

【推荐2】Farmers in southern Italy are cultivating tropical fruits like avocados and mangos. Tropical creatures such as the rabbitfish are ____ in Mediterranean nets. And the winemakers in southern France are worried that their grapes may become extinct. Fifty years ago all this would have been _____ , but since the early 1980s rising temperatures have forced some farmers to ____ grapes for some tropical fruits.

Italy and France have long been proud of their cuisines. Both countries jealously ____ the rules that say   only ham made in Parma, a province in northern Italy can be called “Prosciutto di Parma”, and only fizzy wine made in Champagne can be called champagne.

Roquefort, that most ____ of blue cheeses, was given special protection by the parliament of Toulouse in 1550. The fact of having been grown somewhere famous has traditionally been seen as a guarantee of ____ .

But climate change could ____ that. Take polenta(意大利玉米糊), a popular Italian dish consisting almost entirely of ground corn. High temperatures and drier weather have already reduced corn yields in southern Italy.

If this pattern continues and spreads ____ , will Italian polenta-makers have to order their corn from elsewhere? And what about durum wheat, which grows ____ in Mediterranean lands and is used to make pasta, flatbreads and couscous? Modelling suggests that durum yields will sharply fall there if the temperature keeps on rising.

So should we worry about the future of spaghetti? Gabriele Cola, a researcher at Milan University, is   ___ about the short term. “I don’t see crops at serious risk, because farming is more ____ and technologically capable, so it can always respond to changes,” he says.

Increased irrigation(灌溉) can ____ the effects of drought. Scientists may also breed more resistant varieties of crops. But ____ deeper change seems likely. If temperatures continue to rise, farmers in northern   Europe may find they can grow southern staples( 主食 ); polenta may ____ northern Europe. Meanwhile, the Italian southerner may also have to ____ if tropical fruits continue to spread there.