In summer, it’s common on the street to see many Chinese women holding umbrellas to protect     1     from the sun. But when Amy, an exchange student in Beijing from the US, first saw this, she found it strange, even impossible to understand. She wrote on her blog (博客), “Unlike Chinese women, American women prefer to     2     on their tank tops (背心) and sunglasses during summer.”

This may be caused by the different standards (标准) of beauty     3     the US and China. Many Americans don’t want white skin. They would rather be tanned (晒黑). Amy also wrote, “Having darker skin is quite popular     4     many women and men in America so that they would like to pay for fake tans (假晒黑). They can keep their sun-kissed appearance during the winter months, too.”

Why do they like tanned skin? Michelle Louis reported in her research, “    5     the process of tanning can help make people’s skin smooth and hide marks.” She further explained, “Tans make people’s skin appear healthier and make them appear thinner     6     when they have pale skin.”

Perhaps there is no real ideal standard of beauty. In     7     cultures and at different times of history, the standards change. On Amy’s blog, she also gave two examples: Some women carried umbrellas around trying to keep their white skin in the US 150 years ago; During the Tang Dynasty in China, heavy women were thought beautiful. But now, Chinese women prefer to be slim.

In a word, different standards of beauty should be respected. People may grow up with only one idea of     8     beauty is, but it doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily the correct or the best idea.

Do you know about International Tea Day (ITD)? It was named by the UN     1    Nov.21,2019. It     2     (try) to improve the working conditions of the farmers and workers. It makes the public know the     3     (important) of tea all over the world.

Tea is the world’s     4     (two) most popular drink (after water). Tea was     5     (discover)in 2727 BC in China. When the ruler Shen Nong was boiling water over an open fire, some     6     (leaf) from a tea plant fell into the water. Shen Nong then fell in love with the drink that followed, and that is     7     tea became a common drink in Chinese culture. There are many kinds of tea, such as tea for breakfast, tea     8     break time, tea when visiting a friend's house, tea to wake up, tea to relax. For Indians, tea is also a huge part of     9     (day) life.

Help     10     (you) to some tea when you are free.

Jia Wei, a 14-year-old from Jilin, is feeling down these days. “From the Ukraine crisis (危机) to the crash (坠机) of flight MU5735 to another rise in COVID-19 cases, pieces of bad news come on the heels of one another,” Jia said. “I feel sad and scared.” What Jia said shows     1     people can be influenced by terrible events, even when events didn’t directly happen to them. The situation can become much     2     if they see media reports very often. How can we deal with stress after such news?

It’s normal to feel scared or upset after getting bad news. Some may have difficulty sleeping.     3    may see disaster-related images (灾难相关的画面) flashing in their minds during the daytime. These are called “acute stress responses” (急性应激反应). They can be     4     by seeing pictures or videos of things like blood or dead bodies. However, they normally disappear (消失) within a month.

We can try to     5    seeing things that make us feel uncomfortable to deal with our bad feelings. Get information by reading text or talking with people.    6    the same time, we need to understand that things that are uncertain or not perfect are parts of the world. Only by facing them can we deal with our feelings     7    .

If we can’t help checking our phones, we should learn about time management. For example, spend half an hour reading news and then put the     8     away. Focus on things like exercise and studying so that we won’t be affected by bad feelings for too long.

With the development of economics (经济), the problems of the left-behind children (留守儿童) have become an important problem. More and more     1     (people) have realized we should do something to help them.

The biggest problem is that the children     2     (be) all hungry for the love from their parents. Many of them can just get a call or a letter from     3     (they) parents half a year, a year or even several years. So some children can’t remember what their parents     4     (look) like. When they meet their own troubles, they     5     (have) no one to talk with. Nobody gives them enough care.

The left-behind children’s study is the     6     (two) biggest problem. From a survey about their study, only two percent of the children     7     (get) good results, while ten percent of them are common and eighty-eight percent of them are     8     (poor). What a pity!

There are also many other problems of the left-behind children, such as having no ability     9     (protect) themselves, unhealthy lifestyles, spending too much pocket money and too much time on the Internet and so on.

In a word, to solve all the problems of the left behind children needs the government,     10     (family) and schools to try their best together.

China is a country with many colorful festivals. The Dragon Head Raising Day is one of them. This special day is on the second day of the second month in the Chinese lunar calendar. It s    1     for the start of spring and farming.

The dragon is     2    [ɪm'pɔːtnt] in China. We Chinese people call     3    (我们自己) the “descendants(传人) of the dragon”. So people     4     the Dragon Head Raising Day with many customs about dragon. On the day in a    5     times, people put ashes in the kitchen. This was to “lead the dragon into the house”. People believed that with the     6     of the dragon, they could have a good     7    (收获) in autumn.

Also, people eat special foods on that day. The foods usually named a    8     dragon. For example, people eat “dragon whisker” noodles and dumplings called “dragon teeth”.

Today, many customs have disappeared. But one that has     9     is the cutting of hair. It was said that a haircut during the first lunar month may bring bad luck to the     10     of a family—mother’s brothers. So many people have their hair cut on the Dragon Head Raising Day.

Sitting on the couch in front of the television may be relaxing,     1     spending too much time in front of it may take years off your life.     2     less television may help you live a longer life

Australian researchers collected information from more than 11,000 people over the     3     of 25. The study found that people who watched an average six hours of TV a day lived an average 4.8 years less than those     4     didn’t watch any television. Also, the participants lost 22 minutes of their life for each hour of TV they watched after age 25. Most people know that sitting in front of the television isn’t healthy. The more TV you watch, the     5     physically active you are. And the less exercise you get, the more chances you have of developing diseases such     6     diabetes and heart problems.

The study came out in the British Journal of Sports Medicine. Lennert Veerman is the main author of the study.     7     thinks that the habit of watching TV for a long time can lower life expectancy. Besides, the poor diet of on-screen junk food advertising also plays     8     role in lowering people’s life expectancy.

Veerman also thinks people who care about their health can simply turn     9     the TV and get off the couch to get some exercise. “Exercise is good,” he says, “Even light physical activity improves     10    .”