1 . Spending time outdoors has long been linked (联系) to better health. Gardening goes beyond just beautifying outdoor spaces—it can have a deep effect on our physical and mental (身心上的) health.

Gardening involves physical activity that works all the main muscle (肌肉) groups, which is helpful for overall health. “Activities such as digging, planting, weeding and harvesting require movement and can help to improve strength,” said Clayton, CEO of an online lawn care company. “Performing these activities regularly can help burn calories, and keep a healthy weight.”

Beyond burning calories and building muscle, lots of studies have shown that gardening can improve the immune system (免疫系统). The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) recommends that people get at least 150 minutes of exercise each week, and gardening is listed as a suitable activity. Doing garden work for that time each week can reduce the risk of obesity, high blood pressure and heart disease. Additionally, spending time outdoors makes us get close to natural sunlight, which is important for vitamin D synth.

Gardening provides a chance for social connection, too. It can be a shared activity among family members, friends or neighbors, building relationships and a sense of belonging.

Gardening also offers cognitive (认知的) benefits. It excites the senses, improves focus and encourages problem-solving and creativity. It provides a chance to learn about plants, ecosystems and the environment, developing a deeper understanding and appreciation for nature.

3 . ChatGPT, a new chatbot model developed by US-based AI research laboratory OpenAI, has quickly become a hit globally due to its advanced conversational capabilities,

It can write emails, computer codes, even academic papers and poems, and has passed a number of tests within seconds. Academicians worldwide are discussing whether AI should be used in education. Some universities have banned it. The New York City’s Department of Education, for example, banned the chatbot from its public school devices and networks, with some people warning that it could encourage more students to cheat, especially in exams.

Many more welcome this app, claiming that, like most technological advances and groundbreaking innovations in history, ChatGPT is a powerful tool for the development of higher education.

Embracing AI as early as possible is advisable. Higher education institutions should make preparations for including AI in their syllabus (教学大纲). They can start by offering related courses, because by understanding how it works, they can make better use of it. Besides, students with good knowledge of AI are more competitive when it comes to getting a good job, as an increasing number of jobs are being done by computer programmes-some in cooperation with humans, AI-powered education technologies can be adopted to make the learning experience more suitable for each student based on his or her strengths and weaknesses. As for professors, AI can free them from doing some dull tasks so they can concentrate on teaching and interacting with students.

Since we cannot avoid ChatGPT and other AI-powered applications from entering the field of higher education, we should make collective efforts to ensure they have a positive impact on society and the future of education Despite AI helping make learning much more interesting and enjoyable, humans need to work very hard to win the race with technology.

4 . My mom loved to pass her wisdom to me: ”Nothing beats a good bite that bites back.” She was referring to her bitter-taste foods like dill pickles and rhubarb (大黄叶). But I was not a big fan.

Three years ago, I finally decided to ask if I could ________ out her rhubarb while weeding the garden. “________ not!” Mom gasped, throwing me a(n) ________ look. Clearly, I had underestimated her________ for it. However, as I continued ________, I thought about how rhubarb is one of the first to appear in spring. It ________ the snowy ground before the arrival of other plants. How can anyone fail to ________ it? When those first sprouts (嫩芽) appeared, Mom would count them like a ________ counting a newborn’s fingers and toes.

When I was a kid and my mom gave me that pie, it made me ________ to try. In my teens, it made me complain about the bitterness. Even ice cream or candies did not ________ the deal for my young taste buds (味蕾). Rhubarb was something to be ________ at all costs.

Then, last summer, I came across the ________ for her rhubarb pie in an old drawer. So I decided to give it a ________. A few attempts later, I served rhubarb pie to family and guests. All agreed, including me, that it tasted incredible.

Since then I’ve come to a ________ about rhubarb. Rhubarb’s taste may be lost on children, but adults can________ it. Like my wise mother, I now understand that “Nothing beats a good bite that bites back.”

5 . My 5-year-old daughter Kai walked around a bus stop, picking up candy wrappers and plastic bottles and throwing them in the waste bin. We were a visiting family here, but she was cleaning the sidewalk, which didn’t shock me, nor was I _________ when strangers looked at us.

Our cleanup project began when we drove past an empty field one day and Kai _________ the field was covered by _________ balloons. We had read about how animals could _________ balloons for food. “Stop,” Kai said, and I _________. Surprisingly, we found the field was full of much trash _________ the balloons. “Can we come back and clean it?” Kai asked. Then each Friday, we returned to have a(n) _________ cleaning.

However, it seems we can never _________ the trash completely. I feel something close to _________! Why are we making kids clean up our __________? It has everything to do with the planet we adults are leaving for kids. Plastic pollution is globally distributed and microplastics have even been discovered in human blood. It is not a __________ story that we have created trash but our next generation cleans up them.

Now Kai hopes to become a marine biologist to protect sharks one day. She still has many years to __________, if adults get serious about solving plastic pollution. We shouldn’t leave our next generation a __________ planet and expect them to save it.

The last time our family was at the beach, we still picked up plastic bottles. Most __________, though, we saw an octopus (章鱼) playing around our feet, a __________ of a harmonious habitat worth protecting.

6 . From sleep machines to Al-controlled house cleaning robots, a wide variety of advanced technologies and products are being exhibited at the 4th China International Import Expo (CIIE) in Shanghai. Here are some products you don’t want to miss.

Electric bicycle Brina 2

For many people,a daily commute (通勤) is often a source of headache. Emove Inc, an exhibitor from Argentina, has presented electric bicycle Brina 2 as a solution. Running on long-ange batteries, the e-bike has a maximum speed of 25 miles per hour. Almost all the components are designed within the carbon fiber frame. Its scientific design makes the ride more stable and comfortable than other conventional e-bikes.

AI robot — a right-hand assistant for life and production

AIrobot from AgileRobotsAG, a leading intelligent robotics company from Germany, helps make life and work easier. With the ability to synthesize (综合) and adjust motion tracks in real-time, the robot is a great assistant. For instance, it can aid humans in tasks like loading and unloading, polishing and quality inspection.

Power-PROXT — a reliable stretcher bed

Power-PROXT is an electric ambulance stretcher bed designed by Stryker Corporation from the U.S.Compared with traditional stretchers, Power-PROXT is driven by a high-speed motor that enables it to easily lift or lower a load weighing 318 kilograms within 2.4 seconds. More importantly, it can smoothly and safely lift and move, providing greater safety for patients.

Sleeping cabin — a night guard for sound sleep

A recent study found that more than two-thirds of surveyed university students in Brazil are experiencing poor sleep quality.The sleeping cabin made by The Dow Chemical Company from the U.S. can provide its users a better sleep. As a combination of great material and technology, the cabin can provide customers with a deeper and more refreshing sleeping experience.

7 . In my childhood, my family struggled to make ends meet. With three children to feed,my father worked as a janitor(看门人) and farmed our small field until dark. Despite our________difficulties, my parents always did their best to________for us.

One day, Mrs.Harper,   my headteacher, brought a box of toys to school to give to ________children. Everyone was________to contribute some of their own toys, but I hardly had any toys of my own. Glued to the toys in the box, my________got wide with excitement. Mrs. Harper________my expression and allowed me to choose two toys for myself. I was so________feeling like the luckiest girl in the world.

Upon my arrival at home, I couldn’t wait to________them to my mother. But she gently explained that I couldn’t________the toys because there were many other children who were less________than us. Although I was________, I was proud to________them to the box because they were for those who needed them more.

Despite our financial struggles, my mother taught me to see myself ________and make me believe that we were rich in________. My mother’s________has remained a constant source of inspiration,reminding me of the importance of empathy(同感能力),generosity，and sympathy.

8 . Diplomacy (外交) is an art. It requires not only strategy, but also other aspects, including intuition, persuasion, and even tricks, human skills that have long been unreachable to even the most powerful artificial intelligence (AI) approaches. Now, an AI algorithm (算法) from a high-tech company has shown it can beat many humans in a game of diplomacy, which required both strategic planning and negotiations with other players. The work, researchers said, could point the way toward virtual exercise coaches and conflict mediators (调解员) .

AI has already beaten humans in some games of strategy. It is also proving powerful at natural-language processing, in which it can generate humanlike text and carry on conversations. In the game of diplomacy, seven players vied for control of Europe. On each turn, players issued orders regarding the movement of army and naval units, following discussion with other players, whom they could attack or support.

There are two technical innovations noted by Jonathan Gratch, a computer scientist at the University of Southern California who studies negotiation agents. First, the Al agent’s com-munication is grounded in multistep planning. Second. the Al agent keeps its remarks and game play within the range of human common practice.

To test its skill, the researchers had the Al agent play 40 online games against humans. It placed in the top 10% of players who’d played at least two games. “In a game that involves language and negotiation, that agents can reach human equal level is very exciting,” said Yu, a computer scientist at Columbia University.

According to Brown, a computer scientist at the company who co-authored the paper, the work could lead to practical applications in fields that now require a human touch. One specific example is that virtual personal assistants might help consumers negotiate for better prices on plane tickets. Gratch and Yu both see opportunities for agents that persuade people to make healthy choices or open up during therapy.

9 . The maker of ChatGPT recently announced its next move into generative artificial intelligence. San Francisco-based OpenAI’s new text-to-video generator, called Sora, is a tool that instantly makes short videos based on written commands, called prompts.

Sora is not the first of its kind. Google, Meta and Runway ML are among the other companies to have developed similar technology. But the high quality of videos displayed by OpenAI — some released after CEO Sam Altman asked social media users to send in ideas for written prompts-surprised observers.

A photographer from New Hampshire posted one suggestion, or prompt, on X. The prompt gave details about a kind of food to be cooked, gnocchi (意大利团子), as well as the setting — an old Italian country kitchen. The prompt said: “An instructional cooking session for homemade gnocchi, hosted by a grandmother — a social media influencer, set in a rustic (土气的) Tuscan country kitchen.” Altman answered a short time later with a realistic video that showed what the prompt described.

The tool is not yet publicly available. OpenAI has given limited information about how it was built. The company also has not stated what imagery and video sources were used to train Sora. At the same time, the video results led to fears about the possible ethical and societal effects.

The New York Times and some writers have taken legal actions against OpenAI for its use of copyrighted works of writing to train ChatGPT. And OpenAI pays a fee to The Associated Press, the source of this report, to license its text news archive (档案) . OpenAI said in a blog post that it is communicating with artists, policymakers and others before releasing the new tool to the public.

The company added that it is working with “red teamers” — people who try to find problems and give helpful suggestions — to develop Sora. “We are working with red teamers-express in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias — who will be adversarially testing the model,” the company said. “We’re also building tools to help detect misleading content such as a detection classifier that can tell when a video was generated by Sora.”

10 . Although Cuban built a tech company that would finally make him extremely rich, he never showed off that. “I never, ever thought about _________,” he said. Instead, Cuban said his drive was something else _________. He said, “I always think about time. That’s always been my driving force. How can I control my own _________?”

At the beginning, when Cuban sold his first company for 6 million dollars, he never thought he’d have to _________ again. It made him so _________. He saved most of his _________ so he could live freely without worrying about future job. When he did _________, he spent on traveling with friends and family.

Five years later, the stock (股票) he had was highly _________ at the time. However, he hadn’t _________ most of his stock just months before the bubble (泡沫) ________________, and then the share (股份) price dropped quickly. “It taught me a ________________: When you just go after money, it never ________________ well,” Cuban said. “However, if you value time, it can work out quite well. The most valuable fortune we can ________________ is our time. The only thing we can do is ________________ time and make full use of it. In that case, we can get amazing results.”

I couldn’t agree more with Cuban’s views. A person’s life is short. We should make the best use of time to do meaningful things, so that we won’t ________________ a thing before death.