2 . It is a blue, cotton shirt. The shirt belonged to my _________ David. On his birthday before he left college, his mother bought him the shirt. _________ I gave him free use of my bike, he let me wear the shirt, occasionally.

We shared the shirt, and as days _________, we shared more of our _________. David was in school by scholarships and grants (助学金). He _________ to keep his scholarships, because without even one of them, he would have to _________ and back on the farm. And in David’s home, there was always only enough money to cover the expense. His father died when he was twelve.

At times David also talked about his father. Usually it was late at night, in the dormitory just before bed, and the _________ always ended with tears that flowed from a river of memories and longings: memories of a father suffering from _________ when his son was just a teenager; longings for opportunities to cure his father’s disease missed, because disease does not understand about the _________ between father and son. Nor does it care.

Time passed and we had to say goodbye to each other. After lots of hugging, and words of thanks, we eventually __________. It was on my __________ trip upstairs to our dorm that I saw a package on my bed. I __________ the wrapping paper. It was the blue cotton shirt in a box with a card __________ to it, reading “Thomas, I can’t thank you enough for your friendship. This has been tough years and you have been __________ a friend. Thank you for listening. Thanks for everything. —David”.

I put aside the note, with __________ tears dropping on the shirt. I still have the shirt today, though it has faded and wrinkled with age.

4 . “Woman reading book, under a night sky, dreamy atmosphere,” I type into Deep Dream Generator’s Text 2 Dream feature. In less than a minute, an image is returned to me showing what I’ve described.

Welcome to the world of AI image generation, where you can create what on the surface looks like top-rank artwork using just a few text prompts (提示). But closer examination shows oddities. The face of the woman in my image has very odd features, and appears to be holding multiple books. And, while there’s an initial thrill at seeing an image appear, there’s no creative satisfaction.

AI image generation could influence everything from film to graphic novels and more. Children’s illustrators were quick to raise concerns about the technology. They say AI-generated art is the exact opposite of what art is believed to be. Fundamentally, art is all about translating something that you feel internally into something that exists externally. Whatever form it takes, true art is about the creative process much more than it’s about the final piece. And simply pressing a button to generate an image is not a creative process.

Beyond creativity, there are deeper issues. To create images from prompts, AI generators rely on databases of already existing art and text. This could lead to the creation of images that are intentionally meant to imitate the style of other artists, without their agreement. There is an argument that AI generators work no differently to humans when it comes to being influenced by others’ work. However, a human artist is also adding emotion and nuance (细微差别) into the mix. AI doesn’t do the same — it can only copy.

The increasing use of AI will also lead to a devaluing (贬低) of the work of artists. There’s already a negative prejudice towards the creative industry. People will begin to think that their “work” is as excellent as that created by someone who has spent a career making art. It’s nonsense, of course. You can use your mobile phone to take a nice picture of your daughter, but you are no match for professionals.

7 . Betty Sandison was having lunch with some friends when the subject of wish lists came up. Although she had spent more than 30 years working as a registered nurse, Betty told her friends that she regretted never finishing the bachelor’s degree she’d started more than 67 years earlier.

Betty was the first person in her family to pursue higher education. With a dream of becoming a nurse, Betty enrolled at the University of Minnesota. But when she was just 25 credits short of getting her degree, for some reason, Betty dropped out of school and soon got married. Her career was put on hold as the couple moved around for her husband’s job, spending time living in different places.

Many years later, Betty returned to community college to become a registered nurse. She worked as a nurse for more than 30 years before retiring in 2013.

But in 2018, she still felt regretful over her unfinished degree. Encouraged by her friends, Betty decided to return to university to complete her bachelor’s degree. She chose to live in the dormitory and got on well with her roommates. She enrolled in classes and started working on those last 25 credits. However, she was discouraged by the new technology used when taking online courses during the coronavirus pandemic. Even so, Betty persevered.

At age 84, Betty got her bachelor’s degree in Multidisciplinary Studies from the College of Continuing and Professional Studies. She described the accomplishment as “pure joy, pure satisfaction”. Betty may even audit (旁听) college classes now that her degree is complete. She is not sure what’s next, but there’s one thing she does know: Life’s too short to live with regrets!

8 . My husband and I always wanted to go to the Caribbean but didn’t know much about the islands or how we were going to afford it. By chance, a friend of ours in Australia mentioned “pet sitting” and that it is something you can do all over the world.

We quickly created an account on a pet sitting website and began searching for options. There were only a couple of sits available in that part of the world, but we tried our luck, sent a request, and to our surprise landed a three-month job in Grenada, so our year was going to be taken up with Caribbean pet sits.

Inspired by a Canadian couple, we decided to start our own travel blog. We began by writing about the Virgin Islands, highlighting the beautiful beaches. However, for every photo album of a beautiful beach, there were 10 photos of trash. It was hard to ignore the plastic pollution issue, especially on such primitive and remote beaches. So, we began to share photos of the trash we saw and how much we could pick up on our daily dog walks.

The more we looked into plastic pollution, the more we realized the severity of the global plastic pollution. From that point, we used our platform to create awareness and highlight ways to say no to plastic and travel plastic-free. We changed our daily routines, our way of living, and even our diets to accommodate more organic foods and little to no plastic packaging.

It’s been over three years now and we continue to do what we can. This journey has led us to some amazing places, working with great brands and even organizing a country-wide beach clean-up campaign in Grenada.

Our aim now is to keep on going. We love connecting with like-minded people. It’s been amazing few years that was sparked by a conversation about pet sitting. Who would have guessed?

9 . Humans eat an astonishing amount of meat every year — some 800 billion pounds of it, enough flesh to fill roughly 28 million dump trucks. Our desire for meat, particularly in industrialized countries like the United States, is one reason why the planet is warming as fast as it is. Raising animals consumes a lot of land that could otherwise absorb carbon. Cows, sheep and goats give out heat-trapping methane (甲烷). And to grow the corn, soy and other plants that those animals eat, farmers use fertilizer (肥料) that gives off nitrous oxide, another planet-warming gas.

Cutting out meat sounds like an effective approach. But what would happen if everyone actually stopped eating meat tomorrow? Such a quick shift probably wouldn’t cause the sort of turmoil that would come if the planet immediately abandoned fossil fuels. But still, the consequence could be quite a mess, causing different problems.

Researchers say the economic damage caused by the sudden disappearance of meat would fall mainly on low-income countries with farming economies, like Niger or Kenya, where farming and raising livestock (家禽) are important sources of income. Getting rid of livestock overnight would not only deprive many people of essential nutrients, but also threaten food security, especially in regions like South Asia and sub-Saharan Africa. Besides, there’s the issue of cultural damage. Taking away meat, according to Wilson Warren, a history professor at Western Michigan University, would do more than just deprive Americans of hot dogs and hamburgers and Italians of salami.

Rejecting meat entirely, let alone immediately, isn’t an ideal solution to the climate crisis. Dutkiewicz, a political economist at the Pratt Institute, suggested using guidelines established by the EAT-Lancet Commission, an international group of scientists who have designed a diet intended to give people the nutrients they need without destroying the planet.

10 . We all need to spend time alone once in a while. But Beatriz Flamini took things to a whole new ___________. The Madrid Spain resident spent 500 days in a 230-foot (about 70-meter) underground cave, ___________ from the world. Flamini was 48 years old when she went into isolation (隔绝) and 50 when she ___________ from the cave on April 14, 2023. The extreme athlete ___________ the challenge of testing her mental strength. She also wanted to help scientists explore the ___________ of isolation on the human body and mind.

Flamini entered the cave in November 2021. She carried two cameras to ___________ her stay. A team of volunteers supported the ambitious adventure by ___________ dropping off food, fresh clothes, water and other ___________ near the cave’s entrance. They also used the daily video recordings to ___________ Flamini’s physical and mental condition.

Flamini spent her days exercising, cooking, reading, and drawing. She says she experienced ____________ loss of her sense of time after about two months and was ____________ when a support crew member came to ____________ her after 500 days. “I said, ‘____________? No way. I hadn’t finished my book,’ ” she recalls.

Flamini may have ____________ a new world record for the longest time spent in a cave alone. But the achievement has not been ____________ by the Guinness World Records.