My home village is a small one. It's in Yuxian County of Shanxi Province. It is small, but it's very beautiful.

There are many hills a    1    my home village and they are more beautiful than some big mountains. In spring, we can fly k    2    which are made by ourselves on the top of the h    3    . The kites fly very h    4    . In s    5    , the trees are green and the grass is green too. It is green everywhere on the hills. There are so many wild apple trees on the hills. The air is quite f    6    on the hills.

The wild apples are n    7    to eat. In autumn, the corn under and around the hills is ripe. So we eat it almost every day.

In winter, when it s    8    , all the ground is covered with snow. We can play w    9    snow and sometimes we eat the clean snow with sugar. In my hometown the sky isｂ    10    , the air is clean, the water is sweet and the people are very friendly. I love my hometown!

Have you ever noticed how you feel when you play with a dog or cat? Or maybe even some other     1     (animal), like a turtle or a rabbit. Of course, playing     2     pets is fun.     3     (spend) time with animals can also be good for our mental health（心理健康）.

“A pet can remind you that you’re not alone,” said life coach Desiree Wiercyski. She also     4     (say) that pets give unconditional（无条件的）love. This can be     5     (help) when you feel lonely.

I can speak from experience about this. I myself feel a bit sad or lonely from time to time, when I live by     6     (me).

But I recently had the chance to take care of my friend’s cats while she was away. Helping out her cats has made a big difference in my life.

When I come home, they always see me     7     (happy). When I’m tired or sad, they come to me and “ask” me     8     (pet) them. It’s almost like they can tell when I need someone to hang out with. So the next time you’re feeling a bit blue（忧伤的）, maybe you should find     9     dog or cat to talk to. Even something as simple as petting a cat can make you feel happier and     10     (healthy).

Many of us have our own ways to make us     1     (feel) better. This is referred to as “self-care”. One of the most popular self- care activities in China is “healing travel”. More Chinese tourists are going on meditation (冥想) or yoga retreats (瑜伽会所) in places like Japan, Bali and India. By     2     (take) these trips, people can learn more about local culture and the way people in these countries live. Without a tour guide or a     3     (detail) plan, they allow their bodies and minds     4     (relax) as they forget about daily stresses and noisy surroundings back home.

Having     5     pet can also help to improve our mental health. Research has shown that pets and humans can heal each other. Strong human-to-animal bonds make both pets and their owners happier and     6     (healthy). Chinese dog and cat owners     7     (spend) over 5,000 yuan on each pet on average in 2018.

More people are seeking out self-care activities simply     8     they can finally afford to.     9     fewer financial worries, they can slow down and take a closer look at     10     (they) own inner worlds.

【推荐1】One day, Mr. Arnold was explaining the story of mankind to his pupils. He said, Men used to be nomads（游牧人）. They would travel here and there in search of food. And when the food ran out, they would move somewhere     1     （其他的）.

Mr. Arnold said the     2     （发明）of farming and keeping animals played an important role in the     3     （发展）of mankind because by learning to cultivate（耕作）the land, and care for animals, mankind would always have     4     （足够的）food. It also meant that people could     5     （保持不变）living in one place. Suddenly, Lucy jumped up and said, “In that     6     （情况）, we have become nomads again. One day, I saw people cut the forest down. They told me when there was no more forest, they would go elsewhere. That's what the nomads did, isn't it?

Mr. Arnold     7     （点头）. The class spent the     8     （剩余部分）of the afternoon talking about what they could do to help the earth. The next day everyone     9     （参加）class wearing a green T-shirt, with a message that said "I am not a nomad!" From then on, they thought about ways to reuse things and tried their best mot to waste things.

And so, in this little town, those children     10     （设法完成）to give up being nomads again.

【推荐2】A student is playing a memory game with a chimp (猩猩). W    1     do you think would win? The student? Think again. Scientists have found that chimps have b    2     memories for numbers than us.

Memory is when we l    3     something, save it and use it when we need it.

Some people remember things better when they see t    4    . Others work better when they hear. Sometimes b    5     ways work together. Looking at the picture of a bicycle a    6     reading the word aloud may help you remember it.

Are you picky (挑剔的) about food? If so, maybe you could try to change the color of your bowl!

A new study shows that the color of a bowl can affect (影响) the     1     of the food inside. Scientists from the UK gave people potato chips     2     red, blue and white bowls. They found that the chips in red and blue bowls tasted saltier than those in white bowls.

Earlier studies tested strawberry cakes. People felt the cakes on white plates tasted sweeter than     3     on black plates.

Why is that? Scientist Charles Spence from Oxford University said the answer was in our brains (大脑). Over 50 percent of the area of the brain has to do with seeing, but     4     1 to 2 percent has to do with taste. Our brains depend (依赖) heavily on what color we     5     to organize our experiences of food.

But the “taste” of color depends on people’s earlier experiences. For example,     6     you have eaten a very sweet, white-colored ice cream, you may see white as sweetness. In the study above, scientists said that in the UK, salty food often came with     7     packaging (包装). That could be the reason     8     people thought the food on blue plates tasted saltier.