1 . Recently, there were two pieces of sad news. An old gorilla (大猩猩) called Sentai was seriously ill because some visitors fed it food. Another poor animal, a deer, died with 3.5 kilograms of plastic bags in her stomach. The two poor animals remind people of the most basic rule in a zoo again: Do not feed animals.

Visitors often throw food like peanuts and bread to animals. They think it’s kind for them to feed the animals. However, it’s not good for the animals and may cause them to become sick.

“Imagine if someone often gives your children snacks and sweets. Would your children have healthy food as usual? This act can lead children to ignore (忽视) the healthy food. This is the same to animals,” Zhang, an animal expert in Beijing, told the Global Times.

Poor Sentai’s condition makes many people feel angry, and some people advise zoos to do more than just stop visitors when they feed animals. Some even advise the zoos to make a “blacklist” to keep those visitors out. However, it is very difficult for a zoo to do this job. A worker in Shanghai Zoo says that workers in the Zoo will correct people’s mistakes and try to improve public awareness (意识) to stop this act.

Some people said that after hearing the news, they felt sorry for feeding animals at the Zoo. Others said they were surprised to find that their “kind acts” could actually harm the animals.

We human beings can express our feelings when we feel ill or uncomfortable, but this is impossible for animals. So it’s important for visitors to protect the animals by not feeding them.

2 . A magazine asked over 1, 000 women in Britain about everything from their eating habits to their relationships and family values, in order to find out what they really think. Here are some of the results.

Eighty percent of women say that losing their health is their greatest concern (关注), the following is putting on weight 52% and losing their jobs 24%.

The biggest challenge for modern women is balancing family life and work 82%, followed by bringing up children 56% and finding time for themselves 52%.

As for their love lives, nine percent of women aged 45~54 met their husbands through the Internet, and forty-nine percent of women believe that the best age to get married is between 25 and 29.

What about the relationships between men and women? Fifty-nine percent think fathers should take more responsibility (责任) for their children. These women are also not so happy with their husbands’ efforts at home. Fifty-one percent say they now do over seventy-five percent of the housework.

What about their heroes? The woman they like best is ex-Prime Minister Margaret Thatcher 7%, then the Queen 5% comes after her.

3 . It’s a sunny day today. A hungry fox (狐狸) is walking on the grass and looking for food. Soon, he sees a fat chicken playing near a farm. He says to himself, “Wow, great! This is my breakfast. It must be really delicious!” He comes up to the chicken and says,“Good morning, Miss Chicken. I know you can sing very well. All my friends like your songs very much. Can you sing one for me?” The chicken is happy to hear that. She closes her eyes and begins to sing a song. At the moment, the fox sees that and takes her away quickly.

On the farm, there are some farmers working. They see the fox and shout, “Look! The fox is taking the chicken away.” Hearing this, the chicken says to the fox, “Mr. Fox, can you hear that? The people say you are taking their chicken away. Tell them I am your chicken, not their chicken.” The fox opens his mouth and says, “Yes, you are right.” Then he shouts, “This is my chicken, not your chicken.” Just then the chicken runs away from the fox and flies into the tree.

People all need friends because nobody wants to be lonely and a friend can help you in your good and bad times. You’ve made friends since childhood, but you still don’t know who your true friends are.     1    

Always honest

Honesty is important to keep a relationship alive.     2     It may be hard sometimes but lying can destroy a friendship. It is important that your friend speaks honestly and never makes up stories.

Always there for you

There are always periods in your life when you have problems or difficulties.     3     It may not be able to solve your problems but the fact that your friend makes time to listen is a sign that he cares about you. Your friend is not a true friend if he can never make time for you when you are in trouble. You also need to accept that your friend also has other things to do so he can’t always listen to your problems at once.

Always respectful (尊重人的)

A true friend will always respect your opinion no matter whether he or she agrees or not.     4    

Always understanding.

    5     A true friend will always be understanding and forgiving (谅解的), even if it isn’t his or her fault. We are all different people and we all make mistakes. A true friend is always understanding and forgiving because he or she doesn’t want to take the risk of losing his or her best friend.

The world is getting bigger, or at least fatter. Recent studies show that more and more people are living an unhealthy life.     1     . Sofa potatoes are people who spend too much time in front of the TV and eat too much junk food. Now, there is also a new kind of people, namely the “mouse potato”.     2    . Why are we becoming potatoes?

    3    . We don’t have as much time to prepare and eat food as we used to. Fast food restaurants are everywhere and supermarket shelves are filled with ready-made or prepared dishes.     4    . But they make it more difficult for us to control what we eat.

    5     . In this way, we will be healthier and have more energy to enjoy the good things in life. A healthy diet should give us the calories we need but not contain too much fat and sugar. A balanced diet with exercise is the recipe for a healthy life. And remember, it is better to eat a potato than to be one.

7 . Take a look inside a middle school classroom. You will most likely find a teacher at the front of the class and students sitting at their desks. Yet, look closer, and you might notice a familiar scene: some of these students are not paying attention to the teacher.     1    

Today, many middle school students do not get enough sleep.     2     They come to school early, spend hours listening to teachers and taking tests, then run off to practices and meetings, and come home to be faced with much homework. And the homework load is not light.     3    

Most kids need at least nine hours of sleep per night.     4     When kids get older, the body’s internal clock changes so that it is difficult for teens to fall asleep before 11:00 p.m. So even if a student falls asleep at 11:00, they would need to sleep until at least 8:00 a.m. to get a full night’s sleep. Considering the time at which most middle schools in this country begin, those nine hours are clearly being shortened. Few high schools start after 8:00 a.m.

However, there are schools that have paid attention to this research.     5     In schools where the start time is after 8:30 in the morning, the teachers believe that there has been a real change in their students. They note that the students miss class less, pay more attention in class, perform better in class. The researchers of these studies say that the results are quite important and that more schools should consider pushing backward their start time of their school day.

8 . It’s very important to know yourself. It’s helpful to choose your own jobs in the future. Everyone goes through changes in your mind and body during adolescence (青春期). If you know yourself, you’ll deal with different kinds of stress more easily and you’ll be more successful as well. Although adolescence is difficult, it’ll be much easier if you try to manage your feelings better. Here are a few skills for you to deal with your feelings.

Know about your feelings. What feelings are you experiencing? For example, are you sad, stressed, angry, joyful or excited? You must know your own feelings now.

Accept your feelings. Many people don’t want others to know their feelings. They always hide their true feelings. They think these feelings will go away over time. But they aren’t right. Remind yourself that it’s OK to feel your feelings.

Be familiar (熟悉的) with your feelings. How to understand your own feelings better? You can record how you’re feeling in the morning, afternoon and at night on a notebook. And you should also write down the changes in your body at different times.

Express your feelings. Expressing your feelings in the right way is one of the best ways to make them vanish. You can cry, exercise, go shopping or talk to someone you trust. But no matter how you express your feelings, you can’t hurt yourself or others.

In your life, you may experience many different feelings. But as long as you deal with these feelings in the right way, you’ll be able to live comfortably.

9 . AI is becoming more popular these days, used for almost everything. But can it be as funny as a human? And if it can, will it take the place of comedy writers in the future? This is something performers have been exploring (探索) at the 2023 Edinburgh Festival Fringe (爱丁堡边缘艺术节) , which ran from August 4 to 28.

①__________

Anyone could put on a show at the festival, and this year even robots joined it. One of the festival’s big shows used a small robot to create jokes based on suggestions from the audience (观众) , which were then performed by humans. While the results could be very funny sometimes they weren’t funny at all. “That is an interesting part of the show,” said Piotr Mirowski, the show’s co-maker.

Comedy’s Last Laugh?

Comedian Pierre Novellie believes it will take a long time for AI to become good at creating comedy. “Comedy is the last thing that AI is going to get near,” he told Sky News. “Even human comedians have difficulty telling their jokes for the right people at the right time.”

②_________

However, Comedian Peter Bazely at the festival said he’s using AI to create jokes for him because he’s out of ideas. “In today’s world, many artists are worried that AI could end up doing their jobs for them, but I actually hope that AI will do exactly that one day.”

③_________

The reasons for people wanting to use AI are understandable (可理解的) , but the dangers they bring to many people’s jobs are becoming more and more real, and that’s not very funny. From worries in schools and colleges about students using ChatGPT for their work, to writers and actors worrying that AI could be used to replace them, fears about the dangers of AI are a hot topic in the world.

a. AI as Comedy Partner.                 b. Robots Join the Festival.                 c. The Dangers of AI.