1. Frank is ________ independent boy who always makes his own decisions.

7. When the teacher got into the classroom at 6 p.m. yesterday, George ________ the floor.

8. Parents usually ________ their children ________ a comfortable living environment.

10. —China’s women’s soccer team won the AFC Women’s Asian Cup. I wonder ________.

—They have the spirit of never giving up when facing difficulties.

Have you ever complained (抱怨) why life isn’t so easy? Does the sky sometimes ________ dark to you? Are your lessons sometimes not successful? Well, my friend, ________ and smile all the time. If you see the world ________ your warm heart, you will find the whole world smiling at you.

Not long ago, a friend of mine decided to read a lot of books to get more knowledge (知识). So, he went to the ________ and returned happily with several books. But, after a few days, he felt ________. Finishing all of the books seemed difficult, because it wasn’t easy for him to sit ________ to read a whole book. He didn’t know ________ to deal with it. Then one day, he suddenly thought, “Why not try to change a little bit?” After that, he started to keep telling himself reading was fun and necessary in his life. And he tried to ________ more time reading books. In the end, he found reading was great and he could feel the writer’s happiness and sadness while reading.

Attitudes (态度) can make a great ________. Someone once said, “Although the situation is bad, people are free to decide their attitudes.” Don’t complain about the situation, ________ it is not useful. Attitudes decide everything. With an optimistic attitude, life is easy and happy. Let’s smile at whoever we meet and the whole world will smile at us.

Should children help with housework? And what kind of housework do students help with at home? Our school made a survey about the housework the students in Grade 8 did on the weekend. Here are the results.

Housework Done by Students in Grade 8 on the Weekend

542 boys and 405 girls

Jerry is a world-famous mountain climber. He climbed many high mountains in the world. Starting in 2015, he and his friends spent two years on an adventure (探险) in South America. In 2018, a famous geography magazine even named him Adventure of the Year.

Although Jerry achieved great success, he didn’t feel satisfied. He asked himself, “Is it enough to climb the highest mountains? Am I doing something helpful? How can I change my adventures into something that can help the world?”

Jerry learned that scientists need plants, rocks and water samples (样本) from the places far away to do research (研究). But scientists can’t get there themselves because such places are hard to reach—only the bravest adventurers can make it. Jerry thought he could do something to help. He then came up with an idea. He set up a team of top adventures to collect samples for scientists. By studying the samples, scientists could know more about the earth and find ways to protect it.

Recently Jerry and his adventurer friends have discovered a special plant life of Mountain Qomolangma. The samples they brought back have helped scientists how plants live in extreme (极端的) condition.

For Jerry, this kind of adventure is most satisfying. “Such adventures had made us see life in a different way. Now, being the best climber isn’t important for me. What matters is doing something helpful while climbing the mountains. There is still much more we can do.” Jerry said to a newspaper.

Hello and welcome to “Words and Their Stories”. We will research into some commonly used words and expressions (表达). American English is rich in expressions that come from animals. Today we will talk about the wolf.

Wolves are important animals in the traditions and stories of America. Before the Europeans arrived in North America in the 1500s, wolves often meant being brave to native (土著的) Americans.

However, people in England don’t always trust the wolf. That’s probably because wolves attacked (袭击) too many people or ate too many farm animals. Whatever the reasons were, wolves were killed in many places. So many died that they were almost endangered (濒危的). They also became known as bad animals.

To begin with, there is an expression lone wolf. If we call somebody a lone wolf, he isn’t a bad person, but he may like to do things by himself. In fact, he sometimes makes you think he doesn’t want to be around people because he dislikes them, but it’s not always true.

Now, let’s move on to the home. Parents tell their children not to wolf down their food. In other words, the child eats too quickly and without care. And if someone says a child was raised by wolves, that child has bad manners (行为) and is behaving like a wild animal.

A wolf call is the noise made by a man to show that he likes the way a woman looks. But a wolf call is not a nice thing. These men sound rude (粗鲁的). And trust me, most women really hate wolf calls. So, they don’t help a man in the game of love.

By the way, there is a popular expression about wolf from a very old story: A wolf in sheep’s clothing. A wolf in sheep’s clothing describes someone who acts and looks nice on the outside but is bad on the inside. It tells us not to be fooled by appearance.

①ChatGPT, a smart AI chatbot (聊天机器人) tool, has swept the education world in the past months. According to a US survey of more than 1,000 students, over 89 percent of them have used ChatGPT to help with a homework.

②Developed by US company OpenAI, ChatGPT is a powerful tool. You can ask it to write stories and e-mails, create recipes, translate languages, and answer all kinds of questions.

③However, some schools in the US, Australia and France don’t allow the use of ChatGPT. In the US, for example, New York City public schools will ban (禁止) students and teachers if they use it.

④A part from bans, teachers are making changes to their classes to stop the use of ChatGPT. Some college teachers in the US try to assign more speaking exams and handwritten papers instead of typed ones.

⑤ ▲ This comes from the worries that the tool will make it much easier for students to cheat (作弊) on their schoolwork. Some also worry that ChatGPT could be used to spread inaccurate (不准确的) information. “It does not build critical-thinking (批判性思维) and problem-solving skills, which are necessary for academic (学术的) and lifelong success,” said Jenna Lyle, the secretary of the New York City Department of Education.

⑥But not all educators say “no” to ChatGPT. Some Canadian universities are drafting policies (起草政策) on its use, for both students and teachers. They have no plans to totally ban the tool so far.

⑦Bhaskar Vira, from the University of Cambridge in the UK, said that bans on AI software like ChatGPT are not a wise thing. “We have to know that Al is a tool people will use,” he told the school newspaper of the university. “What we need to do is to change the way of learning, teaching and examing. That way, we can have integrity (诚信) while making good use of the tool”.

(①=Para. 1, ②=Para. 2, ③=Para. 3, ④=Para. 4, ⑤=Para. 5, ⑥=Para. 6, ⑦=Para. 7)