【推荐2】On May 22, a man saw a truck _________ with hundreds of dogs on a highway. He posted a message on his blog and asked animal lovers to help _________ save the poor dogs. More than 100 people showed up on the highway, _________ the truck and saved the dogs. The truck was going to send the dogs to_________ where they would be killed for food. “The truck was crowded (拥挤的) and I saw some dogs get _________,” said Mei Li, an animal lover. She _________ the rescue (营救).

The dogs were stolen (偷) from their owners. They stayed in the truck for two days _________ enough food or water. Hours later, the company who owned the truck agreed to _________ the dogs for 100 thousand yuan. Two animal rights (权利) groups and some volunteers raised the money.

The rescue shows Chinese people are beginning to _________ animal rights and more and more people care ________ about animals.

_________, Fang Hao, a law worker, said that when we do something for animals, people must act according to the law. “The animal lovers had no right _________ the truck. Their action might put many people on the highway in _________ ,” Fang said.

Fang also said that when people see animals being treated _________, they should call the police to _________ no one is breaking the law.

【推荐3】Most of us may often take no notice of ants. But this is not the case for Huang Yifan, a 17-year-old ________ from Shandong. He likes ants and has discovered many ________ secrets behind their behavior. It helped him ________ a national high school science competition.

He found that though ants live underground for a long time, they can still find out whether other ants ________ the same nest (窝) by looking at, smelling and touching them.

To test his ________, Huang made a nest with about 100 ants, using a plastic bottle. He took one ant out and painted its abdomen (腹部) blue. Then he put the painted ant back into the nest and ________ to see what would happen to it. “After the ant which was painted blue goes into the nest, the other ants try to attack (攻击) and ________ it out of the nest with difficulty.” Huang said. “But when the ants discover the painted ant belongs to the same nest by using their sense of ________, they stop attacking.”

Huang ________ further with instruments like cameras to learn about the ants’ ability to tell their own nestmates. “Social insects such as ants and bees have a(n) ________ ability to do that. It’s especially fun that ants are ________ to humans in some ways. They also know how to work together,” Huang said.

Huang’s achievements don’t depend on luck but on his great ________. Huang has ________ about 1,000 ants since he was ten, using his ________ of the needed temperature and light. Even if most people think the tests are boring, he sticks to doing them ________. And he will go on doing more scientific projects in the future.

【推荐2】Furniture company Ikea is offering to help parents find baby names. Choosing a new ________ name can be challenging, and many parents ________ about several names before finally putting their mind on the name their child is likely to ________ for life. With the baby booms(婴儿出生率极高的时期) in several countries after the epidemic(疫情), lots of parents are going to ________ some ideas in daily life.

If you go to the website of Ikea, you will find a list of products on it. The names on the list are in alphabetical order. Ikea, a giant ________ and home-decorating company from Sweden, often ________ its furniture after Swedish towns, as well as names that are traditionally given to people.

The ________ includes the names of furniture models from as far back as the 1950s, like Balder, up to 2022’s Eirik. Some of the names, for example, Vanessa and Billy, are ________ names among English speakers.

We are not certain that parents ________ name their children after the names on the list of Ikea. But we can find plenty of parents ________ pencils and paper to mark down the words from Ikea’s. Ikea gives them some ideas without money in return.

The 24 solar terms (节气) on the Chinese lunar calendar have been around ________ about 2500 years. But do you know which solar term was the ________? It’s Winter Solstice(冬至).

It’s an important one too, ________ it was once a traditional holiday. People ________ celebrate it in many parts of China.

Winter Solstice marks when the sun ________ its lowest point in the sky in the Northern Hemisphere(半球). After that, the sun rises ________ and sets later each day until Summer Solstice.

It’s also a time for Chinese ________ to get together. There was a ________ that “Winter Solstice holiday is greater than the Spring Festival”.

Dumplings are necessary and the most popular food, especially in ________ parts of China. In the south, rice balls (汤圆) that symbolize(象征) family reunions. In Tengzhou, Shandong Province people eat mutton soup. In Suzhou, Jiangsu Province people drink rice wine with osmanthus flowers (桂花), while in Jiaxing, Zhejiang Province the locals prefer eggs with longan (桂圆).

According to Traditional Chinese Medicine, Winter Solstice is a good time to eat delicious ________. Many types of food are good for you during this period such as lotus seeds(莲子), gorgon fruit(芡实), red beans(赤豆) and Chinese dates(大枣).