4 . Jenny used to get angry when meeting problems.

One day, her father took her to the ________. Then he poured water into two pots and put them on the fire. When the water ________, he put a potato in a pot and tea leaves in the other.

“Why are you doing this?” Jenny asked.

“Just be ________ and wait for fifteen minutes.”

When time was up, Jenny’s father took the potato out and poured the tea into a cup. He asked Jenny, “Have you learned anything from them?”

“No.”

Her father said, “The potato was hard before; now the water has turned it soft. ________, the tea leaves changed the water and created something new.”

Jenny then knew what her father ________. Both objects were boiled, but they reacted differently, just as people could deal with the same situation with different attitudes (态度). Then Jenny decided to change her attitude towards problems.

Imagine you can have phone calls with your favorite star. Is it, exciting? AI humans might help with it. Today, AI humans become quite popular among people,     1     attention at home and abroad.

In February 2022, the first digital idol Xi Jiajia     2     by Chinese technology company Baidu came into everyone’s sight. She can change her make-up and do livestreams (直播) even     3     than people. We’re certain that digital humans today     4     in many ways already. They can be idols, vloggers, reporters, and more.

“    5     virtual idols could do something that people cannot do in the real world, such as time travel,” said Liu Qian from Baidu. Liu took the digital guides as an example. They can appear to be in different places and from different times in history.

But AI humans have their     6    . Take Xi Jiajia as an example, she still doesn’t have much human touch and EQ. Although virtual workers show the power of AI, they can’t take the place of     7     human workers. There is something that only a real human can have. For example, virtual people can’t work and communicate with others in real time.

In some people’s eyes, the     8     people use AI humans, the more ethical (伦理的) problems there might be in society. Wu Liu from Shanghai, recently used AI to make his grandmother     9     again and talk to “her”. The video he posted soon got over 670,000 views on Bilibili. People argued a lot about it. Some said that they were deeply moved. But others said that technology like this should     10    .

8 . McCormick Place in Chicago is the largest convention center in North America. It’s covered in glass, which is enjoyable for humans but deadly for birds. On Oct 5, nearly 1000 birds were found dead after having collided (碰撞) with the building’s glass walls. Most of them died on the spot because of broken bones in their heads.

One key reason is the glass. The birds get fooled by it. During the day, the birds fly toward it as it reflects (反射) a perfect image of the sky and nearby trees. As night falls, the bright light from glass buildings attracts (吸引) the birds, who are usually guided by the light of the moon and stars. The recent collision occurred between the night of Oct 4 and early next morning, when the lights in the building were on for an event.

Every year, nearly one billion birds collide with glass in the US, according to the US Fish and Wildlife Service. In China, bird collisions are also common. In the autumn of 2022 and the spring of 2023, the National Anti-bird Collisions Action Alliance reported a total of 190 cases of bird collision, which included several types of birds listed as second-class protected wildlife.

These sad stories could have been avoided if action had been taken. Many countries and regions have put forward building design ideas to help keep birds safe. These include using less glass in building walls and adding bird-friendly materials and stickers (贴纸) onto the buildings’ walls. Turning off lights at night also helps avoid bird collisions.

Apart from regulations (规定) for bird-friendly building design, we can also do our part to save birds by putting stickers on the glass windows in our homes and closing the curtains (窗帘) at night.

Thanks to Earth, we have fresh air to breathe, clean water to drink and warm sunshine to enjoy. In fact, our earth is facing lots of environmental challenges. But it seems that we may not realize that our planet is getting sick.

Among all the environmental challenges, climate change sits at the top. Global temperatures have risen by more than 0.5 ℃ since 1992. A half-degree temperature rise is a big deal. It means that heat waves can last around a third longer and rainstorms will be about a third stronger. The increase in sea levels will be much higher, according to NASA. Countries like Singapore and Tokyo that are at low altitudes (海拔) may be covered by the ocean in the future.

But this is not the only problem people are facing. It’s getting harder to get fresh water. Ocean pollution has become serious. Since 1992, the human population has grown by 2 billion, while the populations of all other animals have dropped by nearly 30 percent. Scientists say that we are experiencing the sixth mass extinction (物种大灭绝) in history. More than two thirds of the world’s wildlife could be gone if action isn’t taken soon, according to the WWF.

However, we have made some progress by making the hole in the ozone layer (臭氧层) smaller. That’s because we gradually stopped using chemicals that can break down ozone. This shows that when we make quick and strong decisions, we can make positive changes.