Do you raise silkworms these days? For thousands of years, people in China have been watching the     1     (wonder) life of silkworms.

It is s    2     that the silkworm’s silk was first invented by Leizu, the wife of the Yellow Emperor. The idea first came to Leizu     3     she was having tea under the tree. A cocoon     4     (sudden) fell into her tea and she picked it out. She noticed that the cocoon was actually made from a long thread that was     5     [strɒŋ] and soft. So the secret about silkworms was     6     (discover) and she taught this to the people. Many families started to raise the worms for silk.

For ages, the empresses (皇后) held the silkworm-raising ceremony every     7     [sprɪŋ]. They picked the     8     (leaf) and fed the silkworms. At the same time, the emperors held the farming ceremony, Silkworm raising and farming were     9     most important things in ancient Chinese life.

Silk was p    10     not only in China, but also in the rest of the world. It traveled through the Silk Road and was loved by people in foreign countries. Over the years,silk has always been a symbol of China. It plays an important role in our culture and economy (经济).

【推荐2】Spending just 20 minutes in a park every day will make you     1     (happy) and less stressed, no matter whether you’re exercising or not while you’re there.

Two new studies have explained the benefits of spending time in parks. The latest, from University of Michigan, suggests spending at least 20 minutes strolling or     2     (sit) in a place where you’re close to nature     3     (high) reduces stress hormone (激素) levels.

A separate study from University of Alabama at Birmingham (UAB) researchers found people who visited their local urban parks     4     (feel) happier. “Overall, we found park visitors reported an improvement in emotional well-being after the park visit,” said lead researcher Hon Yuen. “We did not find levels of physical activity are related to improved emotional well-being. Instead, we found time     5     (spend) in the park is related to improved emotional well-being.”

Meanwhile a separate study by King’s College London researchers found being outdoors, seeing trees, hearing birdsong, looking at the sky, and feeling in contact with nature     6     (connect) with higher levels of mental well-being. In some cases, these beneficial effects influenced people     7     (active) for up to seven hours afterwards.

Much of the world’s population now live in cities and the World Health Organization (WHO) estimates more than 450     8     (million) of the global human population suffer from a mental disorder, a number that is expected to increase.

All of these studies stressed the need for designing greener cities for the future and protecting our existing parks. “There is increasing pressure on green space within urban settings,” said Gavin Jenkins, co-author of the urban parks study. “Humans     9     (turn) green space into residential and trade property over the past decades. The challenge facing cities is that there is an increasing evidence about the value of city parks but we continue to see the     10     (dead) of these places.”

【推荐1】Soon computers and other machines will be able to remember you by looking at your eyes. The programme works because everyone’s eyes are     1    . So in the future you won’t have to remember a group of numbers when you want to use a machine or take money out of a bank. You’ll just have to look at the machine and it will be able to tell you who you are.

The eye-recognition(眼睛识别) programme has already been tested in shops and banks in the USA, Britain, Spain, Italy and Turkey. Soon it will take the place of all other ways of     2     out who people are. However, scientists are working on other systems. Machines will soon be able to know you from the shape of your face or hand or     3     your smell. We already have machines that can tell who you are from your voice or the mark made by your finger.

Eye-recognition is better than other kinds because your eyes don’t change as you get older, and don’t get     4    like hands or fingers. And twins’ eyes are not the same. So the eye-recognition programme can be up to 94 percent correct. In Britain, it was found that 91 percent of the people who had     5     it said that they liked the idea of eye-recognition.

In the future your computer will be looking you in the eyes. So smile!

【推荐2】When we discuss inventions, many of us think of some important things such as planes, trains and computers. In fact, many inventions are c    1     and they are often used in our daily life. However, we even don't know w    2     invented them.

There are a lot of things in our schoolbags, i    3     pencils, rulers, books and so on. None of them grow in the field. People make them in factories. They look common today, but hundreds of years ago no one knew about them. Who invented them? Where were they invented? We aren't sure. However, we should thank the inventors. Their inventions are so important to us. We couldn't e    4    such a wonderful life without their inventions.

Some of the inventions have changed not only our life but also the w    5    world, such as the telephone, the TV and the computer. We use them every day, but most of us don't know the names of the inventors. Should we remember the inventors? We can remember so many movie stars and pop stars. Why don't we pay more attention to the scientists and inventors? We should look on them as stars in our eyes!

On January 27, in order to win the new pneumonia Resistance War (抗击新型肺炎战), the Ministry of Education issued (教育部公布) a notice on putting off the start time of school in spring 2020. It was said that school should not start b    1     March. The exact start time of school will depend on situations and further notices. However, many parents are very w    2     that putting off the start of school may affect children’s studies. If they have such a long winter v    3    , children will not learn any knowledge, read books or study at all, and they may f    4     what they have learned. Staying at home for a long time will make them keep eating, sleeping and playing, which will affect their physical and mental health s    5    .

In short, the close of school influences learning and develops bad habits, so how should we a    6     these problems? Local education departments have also issued a notice, that is, to organize online teaching and create a network platform (平台), where necessary courses will be shown every day, and online teaching will be given by excellent teachers, and students can learn at home t    7     computer or mobile network.

It is said that such a method is very good. It can not only keep students indoors without worrying about the infection (感染) of the disease, but also make them study at home, i    8     their learning ability, and truly achieve “no suspension of classes”. Both the platform itself and the recorded lesson resources are very u    9    , and are welcomed by parents and teachers.

Of course, except for learning at home, it is also necessary to teach children about health knowledge, e    10     on how to keep away from touching virus. It is also necessary for children to do some physical exercise or some games, which is good for physical health at home.

China is giving f    1     vaccines (疫苗) to all Chinese people. You might want to know how the vaccines w    2    . Is it OK for you to get o    3    ? Let’s take a look at several things you need to know about the COVID-19.

The vaccines China is now u    4     are called “inactivated vaccines” (灭活疫苗). They have “dead” virus (病毒）inside. They won’t make you sick, but your body will learn w    5     the virus looks like. When your body sees a “living” virus, it can k    6     it right away. China has tested the vaccines in three different a    7     groups: 3 to 17, 18 to 59 and 60 above. The vaccine is given by injection (注射). You need to have two doses. You should wait about two weeks after the first dose to get the s    8     one.

It t    9     a few weeks for the body to become immune (免疫的). This means a person could get sick just after vaccination. So you’d better k    10     wearing masks and washing your hands after getting a vaccine.

They say the bad times are almost over. After 3 years of being     1     (stick) inside, people finally can return to a more normal life. However, the fight     2     COVTD-19 isn’t completely over yet and we still need to be very careful.

Getting back to “normal” should be     3     (relax), but it may turn out to be more difficult than people think. Since you have lived in fear for so long, it will take, you some time to become “unafraid.” Being in a crowded mall may feel     4     (terrible) strange and, perhaps even unsafe. It may take some time for us to be able to fully trust others once again.

There are stories of people “staying away from” their neighbors or friends who     5     (sent) to quarantine(隔离)hospitals. They were afraid that, although their friends or neighbors had fully recovered (修复), they were still in       6       (dangerous) of getting infected (传染). They may have felt that anyone who had been infected must have done something wrong and not followed the rules. As a result, they     7     (plan) to stay away from these people.

This is exactly the result of fear. As     8     matter of fact, however, people who have fully recovered cannot infect others. Those who “followed the rules” still not infected. In both cases the enemy was COVID-19, not the people who     9     (they) were also its victims (受害者).

Staying away from people is never a good idea, whether it’s because of COVID-19 or just because we think someone is different.     10     China continues to recover, we should open our hearts and minds, and try, over time, to lose our fear.