Last year, students from Miller Mount School made a survey about “How do people spend their free time?” Here are the results.

WeRun (微信运动) is an app in WeChat. It lets users see their daily step counts. One of its most popular things is a leaderboard (排行榜) among friends that lets users see how their results compared with others.

As a growing number of people use WeRun, we wondered what we can learn about a person just from knowing their step counts. Here we take a closer look:

Fewer than 50 steps: Anyone who takes fewer than 50 steps in one day may be ill or sad. Or maybe he or she is just too lazy to get out of the bed!

50—500 steps: It’s easy to have a few hundred steps. Even going shopping on foot will be enough.

500—8, 000 steps: Most students and workers will take between 500 and 8, 000 steps a day. These step counts are often in the middle of the leaderboard. But your parents will always give your step counts a thumbs-up (It’s their job to care about you!).

8, 000—30, 000 steps: Salespeople and members of film workers are likely to take these many steps a day, as they are always on the move.

More than 30, 000 steps: Mostly, these step counts can be on the top of the leaderboard. They’re couriers, porters, cleaners and so on. They’re the people who help us live easy and comfortable lives and keep our environment nice and clean.

To some degree, a person’s WeRun data (数据) shows his or her character and personal life. But even when actions speak louder than words, we still shouldn’t jump to conclusions (结论).

At 27, I went back to college after a long break from schooling. I was taking a college math class, but I found it too hard to learn math now and was struggling (努力) to keep up.

I sat behind a young man. Upon first look, he looked like a thug. I didn’t like how he looked and believed that he would never be able to work out any math problem.

One day in math class, we were learning a new formula (方程式). We needed to make use of the formula to do some calculations (计算). I kept getting a number that was thousands off of the correct answer. I moved backward and forward in my chair and groaned (叹息).

The “thug” that sat in front of me turned around and said, “Let me see what you got.”

It turns out that he was very good at math. He explained the formula to me slowly. About 10 minutes later, I worked it out.

Thinking about how I misunderstood a classmate because of how he looked, I felt guilty. It was really a wrong judgment (评价) to make. Now I know that we should never judge someone because of how they look or dress.

①People use their mouths for many things. They eat, talk, shout and sing. In the English language, there are many meanings using the word “mouth”. But some of them are not so nice.

②For example, if you say bad things about a person, the person might protest (抗议) and say “Do not bad mouth me”. Another situation is that you thought someone said something bad about you, and you ask him. He might say, “Do not put words in my mouth!” Sometimes, people tell the person something they didn’t mean to tell. The speaker might say, “I really put my foot in my mouth this time.” In other words, he might feel sad for saying the wrong thing.

③Sometimes when one person is speaking, he says the same thing that his friend is going to say. When this happens, the friend might say. “You take the words right out of my mouth!”

④Some people have lots of money because they were born into a very rich family. There is an expression for this, too. You might say such a person “was born with a silver spoon (银匙) in his mouth.” This rich person is the opposite of a person who lives from hand to mouth. This person is very poor and only has enough money for the most important things in life, like food.

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Experts share some mental exercises to train our brains (大脑) to think in English. They tell us that it’s best to start small, little by little.

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Look around you. What do you see? In your head, try to name each thing near you. Charles Thomas, an English teacher tells his students to name the things that they see around them, wherever they are. Another teacher Andrew Hinshaw also finds this exercise helpful.

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Thomas says, “If you’re looking at your house and you see your garage, but you can’t think of the name in English.” You can describe it like this, “The place inside where I put my car” or you can say, “It’s next to my house. I keep things there.”

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For example, if you are sitting in a park, you can tell yourself by using simple sentences like, “It’s such a beautiful day” and “People are playing sports with their friends.”

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Thomas asks his beginning-level students to describe their everyday activities using the simple present verb form. So, they would think to themselves activities like, “I put on my shirt” and “He drives the bus.”

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This would need other verb tenses (时态). For example, you might tell yourself, “When I leave the house, I’m going to get an iced coffee. Then, I’ll take the train to class. I’m studying with Jenny today. She said she booked a study room at the library for 2 p.m.”

Do you worry that you might be wasting (浪费) food?     46     the COVID-19 pandemic, people around the world went hungry. But then people came up with ways to help. One was to put fridges (冰箱)     47     with food outside.

But this trend (趋势) started before COVID-19 began. Back in 2016, a restaurant owner in India thought of the idea late one night when she     48     a lady looking for food in a trash can (垃圾桶). She was really sad. Over in the UK, the charity (慈善组织), Hubbub, started the Community Fridge Network. Now, there are over 300 fridges in the UK. “A fridge is so often much     49     than a fridge,” said Hubbub’s official website.

Helping the hungry through street fridges.     50     food cuts down on waste and brings people together.

Spiderman is one of the most famous comic book heroes of all time. It is the story of Peter Parker, a child who     51     (lost) his parents in an accident at a young age and has to live with his aunt and uncle now. Peter is     52     shy, quiet boy wearing glasses and he has few friends. One day,     53     the way to a science museum, he gets bitten by a special spider. Soon Peter finds that he has amazing power. He is as strong and quick as a spider, and he     54     has a type of sixth sense (第六感). He no longer needs his     55     because he can see things clearly! Remembering something his uncle Ben has told him, “With great power, there must come great duty. “Peter decides     56     (use) his power to fight enemies (敌人) who do bad things to people. And so, Spiderman is born.

    57     Peter is a superhero, life is not easy for him. He is in love with Mary, but he can’t tell     58     about his amazing power. Besides, his best friend Harry hates Spiderman! Peter is always short of     59    . So he has to sell photos of Spiderman (himself) to a newspaper to make a living. And he keeps losing his other jobs because he’s so busy     60     (save) people!

61. 假设你是李华，计划组织一次郊游，请你给班级里新来的同学Jim写封邮件邀请他参加。根据以下提示完成邮件：

Long time no see! I’m going to have a trip ________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Anyway, I really hope that you can come with us. I’m looking forward to your reply.

Yours,

Li Hua