2 . Early spring can be a tough time in the Midwest. It can ________ both people and animals with its unexpected snowstorms.

Every spring, migratory(迁徙的) birds camp out in a large pond near my house on the way to their summer ________. This year, besides geese, scaups, a type of diving duck spent days hanging out ________ eats. Then a snowstorm hit, followed by a very ________ night.

The next morning, I was shocked to see that all birds had ________ overnight — except one lone female, who was diving ________ and dynamically in the circle of open water. Her movement and body heat had kept the ________ from coming close as I ________ her from my warm house.

However, as the temperature dropped, the open water got smaller, and her movements slowed. I watched with ________ as she eventually stopped moving, fearing that something might happen.

And then it happened: Two more ducks appeared, ________ next to her still body. More ducks came and the circle of water came alive with their splashing and diving. Slowly, the circle of water ________ in size. Within minutes, the lone female was revived by her friends’ presence.

This little duck wouldn’t have ________ another night without her friends. She, in turn, had kept that area of water ________, so her friends had a place to stop and ________ themselves. Sometimes, a tiny action — even our mere ________ — might brighten one’s day, and even save one’s life.

3 . Voices offer lots of information. It turns out that they can even help diagnose an illness. The National Institutes of Health is funding a massive research project to collect voice data and develop an AI that could diagnose people based on their speech.

Everything from your vocal cord vibrations(声带振动)to breathing patterns when you speak offers potential information about your health, says Dr. Yael Bensoussan, a leader on the study. “We asked experts: If you close your eyes when a patient comes in, just by listening to their voice, can you have an idea of the diagnosis they have?” Bensoussan says. “And that’s where we got all our information.” Someone who speaks low and slowly might have Parkinson’s disease. Speaking unclearly is a sign of a stroke. Scientists could even diagnose depression or cancer.

The team will start by collecting the voices of people. “We were really lacking large what we call open source databases,” Bensoussan says. “Every institution has their own database. But to create these networks was really important to then allow researchers from other generations to use this data.” The ultimate goal is an app that could help bridge access to rural or underserved communities, by helping general practitioners refer patients to specialists. To get there, researchers have to start by collecting data, since the AI can only get as good as the database it’s learning from. By the end of the four years, they hope to collect about 30,000 voices, with data on other biomarkers — like clinical data and genetic information — to match.

There are a few roadblocks. HIPAA — the law that regulates medical privacy — isn’t really clear on whether researchers can share voices. “Let’s say you donate your voice to our project,” says Yael Bensoussan. “Who does the voice belong to? What are we allowed to do with it? What are researchers allowed to do with it? Can it be commercialized?”

4 . If you’ve followed dieting advice and experienced significant weight loss, only to have it return; you’re not alone. It’s also not your fault. The human body is designed to maintain balance as much as possible. In a restricted calorie environment, the body adapts to using fewer calories each day to function. This leads to a slowing in metabolism, which makes it even. more difficult to lose weight and ultimately leads to gaining weight again. Muscle is more metabolically active than fat, which means it burns more calories at rest than fat does. If your body starts breaking down muscle to fuel its basic functions, that can further slow your metabolism and make losing weight and keeping it off long term difficult.

Because the body wants to preserve weight, a slow approach to losing extra pounds is healthier than sharply cutting calories. It’s better to pace your weight loss by eating just enough calories to keep you at insufficiency while still meeting most of your body s energy needs. This will help keep your metabolism working efficiently.

Determining the number of calories you need to eat to meet that rate of weight loss will depend on several factors, including your age, starting weight, activity level and sex. Candace Pumper, a staff dietitian with the Ohio State University Wexner Medical Center in Columbus, says, “The Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics position statement on adult weight management recommends 1,200 to 1,500 calories per day for women and 1,500 to 1,800 calories per day for men to support weight loss.”

She notes, however, those guidelines are “not meant to substitute for professional nutritional advice or treatment. It’s recommended individuals follow the advice of their dietitian’s guidance regarding appropriate calorie intake, as many factors affect calorie needs.” She also notes that if one is looking to lose weight quickly, he has to work with and be supervised by a health care provider.

7 . I am seven years older than my twin cousins. When I was 8 or 9 years old, they just learned how to _________. I liked them and they really liked me as well. However, sometimes they would _________ a lot. It was a little disturbing. _________, I only saw them for the final two weeks of the year over school _________ because I lived in New York and they lived in Los Angeles.

One night, it was a bit late so they had been _________ and crying for a bit before coming to play with me and my brother. Next, one of them fell off a chair onto the hard floor and began to _________ uncontrollably. I remember I felt the _________ for a short moment and then I went to pick her up. To my and my grandmother’s _________, she stopped crying immediately. I was kind of _________ and amazed. I didn’t expect I could do it.

I didn’t know why, but I looked at her and she __________ and I saw her happiness of just being held had overpowered the __________ she must have felt from falling. This is my earliest and strongest memory of my __________ happiness out of sadness for someone else. It had been a __________ of mine ever since. Doing something to make someone else feel joy will lift your __________ and make you feel pleased, and that is why __________ is a core belief of mine.

8 . Some scientists have traced the increase in earthquakes, especially in areas not known for the presence of fault lines or past seismic (地震的) activity, to human actions. The idea of humans causing earthquakes may seem strange at first. After all, you can run around your backyard and jump up and down as you want, and the ground isn’t going to start shaking. However, scientists have identified a variety of large scale human activities that can result in earthquakes.

Scientists have confirmed over 700 places where human activities have caused earthquakes over the last century. While many human-related earthquakes are mild and don’t cause much damage, some of them can be serious and dangerous. In fact, scientists believe human activity has caused earthquakes with magnitudes as high as 7.9 on the Richter scale.

Scientists believe most human-related earthquakes are the result of mining. As companies drill deeper and deeper below Earth’s surface to get natural resources, holes left behind can cause instability that leads to collapses that cause earthquakes. Another human activity leading to earthquakes is fracking (水力压裂) for oil and gas, including the high pressure waste water processing that usually goes with fracking. In this process, water, sand and chemicals are pressed underground under high pressure to break rocks to release natural resources.

Building large dams can also cause earthquakes. For example, about 80, 000 people died in China in 2008 as a result of a 7.9-magnitude earthquake caused by 320 million tons of water that had been collected in the Zipingpu Reservoir after a large dam was built over a known fault line.

These aren’t the only human activities that can result in earthquakes, though. Scientists point out that earthquakes can also be caused by other human activities, such as construction of skyscrapers and nuclear explosions.

9 . There are many apps out there that claim to help us organize our lives, but finding the really useful ones is not easy. Here are some great apps that get you on the way to start organizing your life.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or simply want to keep an eye on day-to-day food, My Fitness Pal is a must-have tool. In addition to giving you the calorie count of any meal you plug in, the free app will also give you its protein, fat and carbohydrates. It also allows you to input water intake, track your daily exercise and weight, and get a clear graph to visualize progress.

People today are juggling(同时应付)more than ever before. Enter Microsoft To Do to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Thanks to this free task management app, it’s extremely simple to create to-do lists and reminders. For example, flag an email, and it’ll then be automatically added to your to-do list. Or, highlight part of an email and the same thing will happen. No referring back and forth between multiple platforms to stay organized!

Everything seems to require a password now, and the passwords required get more complicated, thus difficult to remember. LastPass is an app that stores all your passwords in one place. Actually this storage space is itself password-protected, which means you only need to remember one master password to access LastPass. LastPass works everywhere, even across browsers and operating systems.

The basic plan is free, but there are paid options that allow multiple users and more storage.