Patients and doctors have long understood the power of telling and listening to personal narratives. Whether among patients in peer support groups or between doctors and patients in the exam room or even between doctors during consultations, stories are an essential part of how we communicate, _______ experiences and add new information to our lives.

_______ the existence of storytelling in medicine, research on its effects in the clinical setting has remained relatively thin. While important, a vast majority of studies haven’t been based on _______, offering up neither data nor statistics but rather stories to _______ the authors’ claims. Now The Annals of Internal Medicine has published the results of a provocative（煽动的）new trial examining the effects of storytelling on patients with high blood pressure. And it appears that at least for one group of patients, listening to personal narratives helped control high blood pressure as effectively as the addition of                    more _______.

“Telling and listening to stories is the way we make sense of our lives,” said Dr. Thomas K. Houston, lead author of the study. “That natural tendency may have the potential to alter people’s behavior and improve health.”

Experts in this emerging field of narrative communication say that storytelling _______ fights against the initial denial that can arise when a patient learns of a new diagnosis or is asked to change deeply fixed behaviors. Patients may react to this news by thinking, “This is not directly related to me,” or “My experience is different.” Stories help _______ that denial by engaging the listener, often through some degree of identification with the _______ or one of the characters.

“The magic of stories lies in the relatedness they promote,” Dr. Houston said. “_______ have known this for a long time, which is why you see so many stories in advertisements.” Dr. Houston is currently involved in several more studies that will examine the broader use of story telling in patient care.

Nonetheless, he remains certain of one thing: Sharing narratives can be a powerful tool for doctors and patients. Storytelling is human,” Dr. Houston said. “We learn through stories, and we use them to make sense of our lives. It’s a natural __________ of traditional medicine that we could use stories to improve our health.”

There are desert plants which survive the dry season in the form of inactive seeds. There are also desert insects which survive as inactive larvae(幼虫). In addition, difficult as it is to believe, there are desert fish which can survive through years of drought in the form of inactive eggs. These are the shrimps(虾) that live in the Mojave Desert, an intensely dry region in the south-west of the United State where shade temperatures of over 50℃ are often recorded.

The eggs of the Mojave shrimps are the size and have the appearance of grains of sand. When sufficient spring rain falls to form a lake, once every two to five years, these eggs hatch. Then the water is soon filled with millions of tiny shrimps about a millimeter long which feed on tiny plant and animal organisms which also grow in the temporary desert lake. Within a week, the shrimps grow from their original 1 millimeter to a length of about 1.5 centimeters.

Throughout the time when the shrimps are rapidly maturing, the water in the lake equally rapidly evaporates. Therefore, for the shrimps it is a race against time. By the 12th day, however, when they are about 3 centimeters long, hundreds of tiny eggs form on the underbodies of the females. Usually by this time, all that remains of the lake is a large, muddy patch of wet soil. On the 13th day and the next, during the final hours of their brief lives, the shrimps lay their eggs in the mud. Then, having ensured that their species will survive, the shrimps die as the last of the water evaporates.

If sufficient rain falls the next year to form another lake, the eggs hatch, and once again the shrimps pass rapidly through their cycle of growth, adulthood, egg-laying, and death. Some years there is insufficient rain to form a lake; in this case, the eggs will remain dormant for another year, or even longer if necessary. Very, very occasionally, perhaps twice in a hundred years, sufficient rain falls to form a deep lake that lasts a month or more. In this case, the species passes through two cycles of growth, egg-laying, and death. Thus, on such occasions, the species multiplies considerably, which further ensures its survival.

The tourist trade is booming. With all this coming and going, you’d expect greater understanding to develop between the nations of the world. Not a bit of it! Superb systems of communication by air, sea and land make it possible for us to visit each other’s countries at a moderate cost. What was once the “grand tour’’, reserved for only the very rich, is now within everybody’s grasp. The package tour and chartered flights are not to be sneered at. Modern travelers enjoy a level of comfort which the lords and ladies on grand tours in the old days couldn’t have dreamed of. But what’s the sense of this mass exchange of populations if the nations of the world remain basically ignorant of each other?

Many tourist organizations are directly responsible for this state of affairs. They deliberately set out to protect their clients from too much contact with the local population. The modern tourist leads a cosseted, sheltered life. He lives at international hotels where he eats his international food and sips his international drink while he gazes at the natives from a distance. Conducted tours to places of interest are carefully censored. The tourist is allowed to see                    only what the organizers want him to see and no more. A strict schedule makes it impossible for the tourist to wander off on his own; and anyway, language is always a barrier, so he is only too happy to be protected in this way.

The sad thing about this situation is that it leads to the persistence of national stereotypes. We don’t see the people of other nations as they really are, but as we have been brought up to believe they are. You can test this for yourself. Take five nationalities, say, French, German, English, American and Italian. Now in your mind, match them with these five adjectives: musical, amorous, cold, pedantic, native. Far from providing us with any insight into the national characteristics of the peoples just mentioned, these adjectives actually act as barriers. So when you set out on your travels, the only characteristics you notice are those which confirm your preconceptions. You come away with the highly unoriginal and inaccurate impression that, say, “Anglo-Saxons are hypocrites’’ of that “Latin peoples shout a lot’’. You only have to make a few foreign friends to understand how absurd and harmful national stereotypes are. But how can you make foreign friends when the tourist trade does its best to prevent you?

Carried to an extreme, stereotypes can be positively dangerous. Wild generalizations stir up racial hatred and blind us to the basic fact—how trite it sounds! That all people are human. We are all similar to each other and at the same time all unique.

When a consumer finds that an item she or he bought is faulty or in some other way does not live up to the manufacturer’s claims, the first step is to present the warranty, or any other records which might help, at the store of purchase. In most cases, this action will produce results. However, if it does not, there are various means the consumer may use to gain satisfaction. A simple and common method used by many consumers is to complain directly to the store manager. In general, the “high up” his or her complaint, the faster he or she can expect it to be settled. In such a case, it is usually settled in the consumer’s favor, assuming he or she has a just claim.

Consumers should complain in person whenever possible, but if they can’t get to the place of purchase, it is acceptable to phone or write the complaint in a letter.

Complaining is usually most effective when it is done politely but firmly, and especially when the consumer can demonstrate what is wrong with the item in question. If this can’t be done, the consumer will succeed best by presenting specific information as to what is wrong, rather than by making general statements. For example, “The left speaker does not work at all and the sound coming out of the right one is unclear" is better than "This stereo does not work.” The store manager may advise the consumer to write to the manufacturer. If so, the consumer should do this, stating the complaint as politely and firmly as possible. If a polite complaint does not achieve the desired result, the consumer can go to a step further. She or he can threaten to take the seller to court or report the seller to a private or public organization responsible for protecting consumers’ rights.

Beijing’s annoying smog s    56     to have hurt the city’s appeal to tourists. Last year ，Beijing Youth Daily reported that the number of visitors to Beijing   had   fallen   50   percent since January. It’s said that the city’s bad air q    57     was responsible for the decline. It’s also more difficult to a    58     high-end employees to work in Beijing, especially those with children.

H    59    , the blanket of poisonous smog hasn’t hurt Beijing’s office market, which has jumped up quickly on a g    60     ranking to become the fourth-most-expensive location to rent office space in the world. According to a recent research, office space in Beijing’s Central Business District c    61     on average $1,412 per square meter per year.

That’s more expensive than No. 5-ranked central Tokyo or No.6-ranked Madison & Fifth Avenues in New York. The research took into c    62     both published rental rates and “additional costs”，which i    63     agent fees and other costs to make the deal happen.

London remains the world’s most expensive city in w    64     to rent office space. Hong Kong, home to the priciest office space in Asia, comes in second globally. The cities experiencing the highest annual g    65     in office rental rates are both in South Africa with 40 percent rate for Durban and 44 percent for Sandton.

It’s     66     that 300 million people in China are studying, or have studied, English. That’s an impressive number and I can’t think of any other country in the world where one quarter of the     67    , so dedicated to learning a second language. But some people are questioning whether this “craze”for studying English is worthwhile.

Professor Zhang Shuhua of the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences says that too much emphasis is placed on learning English and that it is a waste of education resources as well as a threat to the study of Chinese. He says that having English as a compulsory course in university “has distracted much of students’ attention from specialized subjects, ”and that some students have been denied     68     to postgraduate education because they failed English. Others have     69     that studying so much English has made them poorer Chinese speakers.

Both of these criticisms are legitimate, but they beg the question of why so many Chinese still want to learn English. English, they recognize, is the lingua franca of the modern world. It is the language of business and has become the language of international       70     and culture. When people from different countries get together, they     71    speak   in   English   rather   than   try   to   translate   their   native   languages.   It   seems   that   everyone everywhere can speak at least some English.

For China to be part of that international conversation, it is     72     that some level of English proficiency should be achieved. But what, you may ask, about those who will never speak a word of English once they leave school? Well, for good or ill, they will still be surrounded by English. It is there in signs, in music, in movies and in the casual conversations they overhear of the     73     number of foreigners on the city streets. To know English is to be included in the rest of the world, even if your world is     74     to China

I agree with Professor Zhang on one point, through. English should not be a compulsory subject in university. For most, passing the CET is just the endless drudgery (苦差事) of memorizing word lists. There is little emphasis placed on communication. And if you can’t communicate in English after years of study in primary school, middle school and high school, a few more years in university     75     won’t help.

A shark was killed after     76     (drag) to shore at Yalong Berth beach in Sanya, South China’s Hainan Province, on Sunday afternoon. It was the first time a shark     77    (catch) in the beach area, a popular tourist site in Hainan.

Local fishermen said they caught the 3-meter-long, l-ton shark by chance when they     78     (fish) in sea water 1,000 metres deep near the beach. The police temporarily protected the shark while oceanographers decided whether it was a species     79     (belong) to State protection. Fishermen later killed and sold the shark after oceanographers     80     (confirm) that it was a whale shark and therefore not under State protection.

The shark was believed to     81     (drift) into the area from the deep sea due to strong waves caused last week by Typhoon Imbudo. It had no open injuries but experts said they believed   it suffered from internal     82     (bleed).

Local police officer Fu Chenggeng said beachgoers should not feel     83     (threaten) by sharks because the fish never attack human beings on their own initiative. Fu said he     84     (never hear) of any shark attacks at the Sanya beach since he first started work there eight years ago.

However, police said they     85     (improve) the security system to safeguard tourists’ safety on the beach in the next few months.

99. Fear is the common emotion people have when they are afraid or worried that something bad will happen. Learning how to overcome fear is particularly important for us. What was your fear and what happened to you? What did you do to overcome your fear? Please write an experience of overcoming your fear in about 100-120 words.