Los Angeles is known as a driving town. As the Missing Persons’ song goes, “Nobody walks in L.A.” In the city, people are so busy driving to work. Even for the usual shopping, it’s hard to see people walking in the street.

Chuck McCarthy wants to change it! The actor gave up the job of earning money. And he has a new special job now—“people walker”. The idea for the business came when he wanted to make some more money. “I thought about walking dogs at first, but I didn’t want to pick up dog poop(粪便). That’s less interesting.” Many customers need the special service because they are lonely, or they enjoy the feeling of being safe. “My words are full of friendship and warmth, but I can tell you that they are conversations, not one-sided monologue（独白）.”

Just walking and talking and knowing that someone is listening can be helpful for most people. They were very pleased with McCarthy’s job because he listened to them. He walks with others for $7 per mile (around 50 yuan per kilometer).

McCarthy is happy to lend his ear to the people of L.A. and listen to what they have to say. He now has his own company that offers this walking service. He has about 35 walkers working for him. Would you like to try this service?

The FIVB World Cup Tournament was held in Japan from Sept.14 to 29,2019, and 12 teams played in a round-robin format. China won the gold medal with a perfect 11-0 record on Sept.29.

Though they had got their title with a 3-0 win over Serbia on September 28, China stuck to regular starters to play against Argentina. Gong Xiangyu scored a game-high 15 points. Yuan Xinyue added 13 to the 25-17,25-14,25-12,followed by Zhu Ting with 12 points.

“Every one of our team has made progress and we have greater teamwork,” team leading scorer Zhu told Xinhua.

Even the coach Lang Ping, who kept perfect calm from time to time throughout the match, couldn’t hold back her tears facing the camera in the mixed zone.

“Although the World Cup does not serve as Olympic qualification this year, it’s still a matter of the greatest importance to us,” Chinese coach Lang Ping said. “This is the best chance for us to prepare for the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2020.”

President Xi Jinping sent a congratulatory message on Sept.29 to the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team,after they got the World Cup title. “The Chinese team has successfully defended its World Cup crown with 11 straight victories, winning great honors for the country and the Chinese people,” said Xi. The players didn’t fear any opponents and fought hard with both style and skills, showing excellent teamwork and a hard-working spirit, added the President. “Therefore I would extend my warm congratulations and sincere greetings to you,” he said.

It is reported that the training of the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team started this year on February 10th. After more than 7 months of training and competition, the Chinese team ended up winning the year with the champion. This is the tenth “three-competition” champion of the Chinese Women’s Volleyball Team.

Few people today educate the children about the value of empathy（同情）. Most people feel so hard    26    their love and care towards others and to actually understand what they are going through.

When I was a child, I    27    to go out of my way to make someone else happy. My mum would tell me to say at least one kind word to someone else every day. I admit that it wasn’t very easy to do. But as soon as you see the look of thanks in that person’s    28    , you just want to do as much as you can.

I had an experience with a young man    29    people were always making fun of. Every time I saw that happening, I knew in my heart that it was wrong. I decided I would try to be his friend. I started walking with him and introducing him to people around    30    .

I was making him happy by just doing that. And I loved the fact that I was really making a    31     in his life.

After a while, I realized that he wasn’t the kind of person everybody thought he was. We are still really good friends today. People have almost    32    stopped making fun of him. But he is still what he was. What had changed was the attitudes of others towards him.

From this experience I    33    that I should be more loving towards other people already.

What I did for my friend was so easy, and at the same time I had a lot of fun,    34    I hope that everyone could say a kind word to someone else at least once a day. I can promise it will be the best feeling you can ever get.

One kind word could make someone’s day    35    . Why not do it from now on?

Competition is good for businesses. In the world of positioning systems, however, competition is also a must.     36     Now, China is building its own positioning system. It’s called Beidou.

China is only the third country in the world to own a positioning system. Only the United States and Russia have already developed their GPS or Glonass.

    37    With it, the country no longer has to rely on foreign systems. It also shows the world that China has made much technological progress.

Work on the Beidou project began in 1994. However, the first two Beidou satellites were not sent into space until 2000.     38    These satellites have formed a global network. They began operations at the end of 2018. To further improve the system, China will send ten more Beidou satellites into space. It plans to complete the system before 2020.

    39    It will provide a positioning accuracy of within ten centimeters for the Chinese military. The United States’ GPS only has an accuracy of around 30 centimeters.

The Beidou system offers services to ordinary users, too. In big cities like Shanghai, thousands of buses have been using the Beidou system.     40    

Moreover, most smartphones today can already receive Beidou signals. A phone salesperson in Beijing jokes, “Many people are used to saying, ‘I am using GPS.’ In fact, however, their phones have been using Beidou.”

We have only one earth. So    49    (protect) the earth is like protecting our eyes. People’s attention to recycling is increasing. From recycling plastic bags to using environment friendly products, there are many developments which can    50    (see) in almost every corner of the world.

Sweden is a worldwide leader in recycling. They open the world’s first mall for repaired and recycled goods. It’s called ReTuna, a two-story building in Eskilstuna, Sweden, about 70 miles west of Stockholm. The clever thing about this mall is its position. It’s right next to the city’s recycling center. So a stream of cars     51    （come）to drop off unwanted household things already. This produces a supply of things for the shops. There are 14 special shops. When goods arrive, a team sorts everything into categories. The mall only sells goods that are recycled or “upcycled”, meaning unwanted things broken down and reinvented as something new. By doing so, 50 new jobs were created in repair and retail(零售).

“You can come and just do sustainable(可持续发展的) shopping and Sweden loves it. And the world    52    （love）it, ”said Anna Bergstrom, the manager of the ReTuna Mall. “I think it’s fun    53    （find）something that people have used, and we can use further, ”said Cato Limas, a ReTuna customer. “If you look at the things they    54    （sell）here, they’re almost new. So actually, why do you need to buy new things?”

These unwanted things found new homes. In 2018, the mall    55    (sell) second-hand goods worth $1.3 million.

China has been practicing the rule that asks people to use their real names when registering(注册) for Internet service. The rules also ask Internet companies operating in China to remove the untrue information which the web users ever gave.

Chinese lawmakers passed the rule on December 28th,2012, at the end of a five-day meeting of the Standing Committee of the NPC.

The new rules say network service providers must well check up the information given by users. The providers have been ordered to stop the spread of illegal （违法的）information, and take steps to deal with the problem. The Xinhua News says those steps include removing the information from the Internet and then reporting it to the government.

Chinese officials say the rules are aimed at protecting the personal information of Internet users and stopping false information such as junk e-mail. However, some people say such new real-name rules will make people less likely to report illegal actions for fear of possible action against them.

Duncan Clark is an adviser to Stanford University’s Graduate School of Business. He lives in Beijing. He says, “For a long time we’ve seen the Internet being used to report illegal action, but the new rules seem to stop those reports.”

But the good news is through real-name registration the Internet crime among teenagers will be controlled.