1 . Do you have a cup of milk today? Are you the kind of person who always keeps one nearby? Many people enjoy sugar. But today, there are people fighting against sugar.

Many scientists believe the love of sugar may be an addiction (瘾). When we eat sugar, our mind makes us feel good for a short time. After the good feeling goes away, we may feel bad. And the mind tells us to eat more. Over time, we have to eat more to get that good feeling again.

Richard Johnson, a famous scientist, said, “347 million adults (成年人) in my country have diabetes (糖尿病). Sugar, we believe, is one of the main reasons.”

Our bodies live on very little sugar. Early humans often had little food, so the bodies learned to keep sugar as fat. In this way, we could use it as energy when there was no food. But today, most people have more than enough. The body can’t use all the energy right away, so the rest becomes fat.

Breaking a sugar addiction can be hard, but there are a few things to keep in mind. Eat three meals a day, get enough sleep and exercise often. So to enjoy good health, just try to eat less sugar.

Some people say they never forget a face. Is there really no limit (限制) to the number of faces a person can remember? A new study has found that usually people can remember as many as 5,000 faces.     1    

In the study, people spent one hour writing down as many faces from their personal lives as possible. At first, they wrote down their schoolmates, workmates and family members. Then they wrote down famous faces they knew.     2     But by the end of the hour, they found it hard to think of new ones.

People in the study were also shown lots of photos of famous people.     3     The results showed that people knew between 1,000 and 10,000 faces.

How do they explain such a wide range (范围)? Scientist Rob Jenkins said it could be because of different living environments.     4     So, they may know more people.

In today’s world, we meet lots of people.     5     They help us to deal with the many different faces we see on the screens, as well as those we know.

4 . Many people catch a cold in the springtime or fall. Although scientists can send a man to the moon, why can’t they find a way to stop the common cold? The ________ is easy. There are actually hundreds of kinds of cold viruses (病毒) out there. You never know which one you will ________, so there isn’t a cure (治疗) for each one.

When a virus gets into your body, your body works hard to fight against it. When you have a cold, blood (血液) rushes to your nose and makes it stuffy (堵塞的). You feel ________ because you can’t breathe well, but your body is actually “eating” the virus. Your temperature rises and you get a fever, but the heat of your body is ________ the virus. You may feel uncomfortable, but actually your wonderful body is doing everything it can to kill the cold.

Different people do different things to deal with colds. In the United States and some other countries, for example, people might eat chicken soup to feel ________. Some people take hot baths and drink warm drinks. Other people ________ medicine to stop the uncomfortable feelings of colds.

There is one interesting thing to note—some scientists say taking medicine when you have a cold is actually ________ for you. The virus stays in you longer because your body doesn’t have a way to ________ it and kill it. Bodies can do an amazing job on their own.

5 . Do you know the reason why we feel tired in the middle of a class? Maybe you would say it is because the teacher’s class is boring.     1     Perhaps this is something you have not paid enough attention to or not yet noticed.

Purpose of sleep.

    2     Sleep helps our body heal (修复), grow, and stay healthy. It also gives us energy, so we can be active all day. Doctors and health scientists say: When you close your eyes and need to rest, sleep is just the very best! This is more than advice.

Sleep time.

Enough sleep is important to us. How much sleep do we need? New-born babies sleep most of the time. They can sleep 20—22 hours a day. Children need 10—12 hours of sleep a day. Teenagers need 8-10 hours of sleep a day because they need lots of energy to grow into their adult (成人的) bodies. Grown-ups usually need 6-8 hours of sleep to keep active.     3     That is why old people sleep less than young people.

Interesting facts.

Almost everyone has their dreams while they sleep, but not all of them can tell their dreams clearly when they wake up.     4     More surprisingly, some may even get up in their dreams and walk around. This is called “sleepwalking”. Are you a sleepwalker? Or, is there a sleepwalker around you?

    5    

It’s not just people that love to snooze (打盹). In fact, many animals have unusual or surprising sleeping habits. Some animals, such as bears and hedgehogs, sleep all through winter. The swift is a very fast bird that can sleep while it flies! Cute koalas sleep around 18 hours a day. Giraffes don’t need much sleep at all. They usually sleep standing up.

6 . One of my grandchildren sent me a self-portrait (自画像) she created in an art class. The first half of the portrait shows her hair parted in the middle, with her big brown eyes looking through her glasses. The second half of the self-portrait is a blue mask (口罩) with colorful flowers. It is a clever art work using the mask as a cover. The mask can be taken off, but I received her picture with the mask on.

The child needs to work on her smize. A fashion model created the term “smize” several years ago. A “smize” is a word from smile and eyes, which means that you smile with your eyes. For example, models can make their eyes smile without moving their mouths.

Smizing is popular now. It’s hard to show friendliness when half of your face is covered.

Restaurants are even teaching waiters to perfect the smize behind face masks. You can smize by scrunching (使收缩) up your eyes and pushing your eyes up to create a smiling look. It’s hard to do, but you can learn how to do it by keeping doing it again and again in front of a mirror. Like most people, I can wear my mask and smile at the same time, but my eyes can’t smile without my mouth. They have a very close bond.

We would rather get close to each other by smile and kindness than the cold face behind the mask. Go ahead, smize or smile, whatever you can do.

7 . What time of day can you think most quickly? Are you a morning person? Or does it take you a few hours to get your brain (脑) going? A lot of recent research suggests that we should pay attention to our body clock. It can tell us what time of day we can perform best at.

Many people work best later in the morning. This is because the body’s temperature rises quickly.

But everyone’s body clock is different and some are special. Morning people will get up early and work better early in the day. Evening people will work later but work better towards the end of the day.

Research shows that we’re better at some activities at certain times of the day. Physical performance (体能) is at its best between 3 pm and 6 pm, so it’s better to exercise later in the day.

Between noon and 4 pm, people begin to pay less attention. This is because we think less quickly after a big meal. Research also shows we become sleepy around 2 pm. This is why people in Spain take a short sleep in early afternoon.

Finally, it is best to eat when we’re active. This allows our body to burn calories (卡路里) better and stops our blood sugar levels (血糖) from getting too high.

All over the world, families wash, cook, and clean their homes. When people have water in their     1     (house), they can wash with it, cook with it and sweep the floor with it. They don’t even think about it!

    2    , in many small villages in Africa, far away from the big cities, the houses don’t have water. In those     3     (village), it is usually women’s job to fetch (取) water for the family at home.     4     (child) help their mothers and older sisters with this important chore. But often lakes or rivers are far from home and water is heavy, so women and children can’t fetch enough water in one trip. It usually     5     (take) many hours and     6     (many) than one person to fetch water. That’s why children sometimes don’t go to school.

It is good news that Q Drum, a new invention (发明), is there to help. The Q Drum can carry about 50 liters (升) of     7    , and it is easy to pull (拉). That     8     (mean) a woman or a child can make only one trip to get enough water. This makes life much     9     (easy) for the families in those villages. And if children only carry water home once a day or once every two days, they can go to school     10    .

The “Kemusan” dance, or “Subject Three” dance has become the latest Internet event at home and abroad (国内外).     1     But what exactly is the “Kemusan” dance?

The “Kemusan” dance is widely believed to originate from (起源于) a lively wedding celebration in southern China’s Guangxi Zhuang Autonomous Region where local people danced together happily.     2     Including quick wrist-twisting moves (绕腕动作). They dance to music that sounds like a mix of western disco music and the traditional Chinese folk singing.

    3     They are singing folk songs as Subject One, slurping rice noodles (嗦粉) as Subject Two and dancing as Subject Three.

    4     To “unlock” the new service at the hot pot restaurant, guests have to say the secret word “Kemusan” to the waiters. In video shared online, some guests seem to enjoy it so much that they join stuff (员工) in the dance.

    5     The Russian Royal Ballet (俄罗斯皇家芭蕾舞团) performed the “Kemusan” dance at the curtain call (谢幕) of Swan Lake at the Shengjing Grand Theatre in Shenyang, bringing the house down (轰动一时).