1 . Clothes play a critical part in the conclusions we reach by providing clues to who people are, who they are not, and who they would like to be. They tell us a good deal about the wearer’s background, personality, status, mood, and social outlook.

Since clothes are such an important source of social information, we can use them to _______ people’s impression of us. Our appearance _______ particular significance in the original phases of interaction that is likely to occur. An elderly middle - class man or woman may be alienated (疏远) by a young adult who is dressed in an unconventional manner, _______ the person’s education, background, or interests.

People tend to _______ what certain types of clothes mean. Adolescent girls can easily agree on the _______ of girls who wear certain outfits, including the number of boyfriends they likely have had and whether they drive or drink. Newscasters, or the announcers who read the news on TV, are considered to be more convincing, honest, and _______ when they are dressed conservatively. And college students who view themselves as taking an active role in their interpersonal relationships say they are concerned about the _______ they must wear to play these roles successfully. _______, many of us can relate instances in which the clothing we wore changed the way we felt about ourselves and how we acted. Perhaps you have used clothing to gain confidence when you _______ a stressful situation, such as a job interview, or a court appearance.

In the workplace, men have long had ________ dress code and role models for achieving success. It had been otherwise for women. A good many women in the business world ________ the appropriate mixture of “masculine” and “feminine” (女性气质的) attributes they should convey by their professional clothing. The variety of clothing alternatives to women has also been more ________ than that available for men. Male administrators tend to judge women more ________ for managerial positions when the women display less “feminine” grooming - shorter hair, ________ use of make - up, and plain tailored clothing. As one male administrator confessed, “An attractive women is definitely going to get a longer interview, but she won’t ________ the job.” We need a change in this regard.

3 . The doctor examined Nuala’s leg. Nuala tried not to cry, but it was a (n) _________. Her leg really ached. “How did you _________ yourself?” asked the doctor.

“I jumped off a swing,” said Nuala. “Is it _________?”

“It sure is,” said the doctor, holding out the X-ray. “See right here?”

Two hours later, Nuala left the hospital on crutches (拐杖). Her leg was in a cast (石膏). “What will I tell Ms. Chang? I shouldn’t have…” She felt a deep _________.

Ms. Chang was Nuala’s dance teacher. The spring dance performance was _________ two weeks away. Nuala’s cast would be on for at least six weeks!

“She’s going to be so _________ with me!” groaned Nuala. But Ms. Chang wasn’t. She said, “We’ll think of something.”

Nuala felt _________ going on stage with her crutches. “I look stupid,” she _________. “I can’t dance with these.”

“Have you ever heard of the _________, ‘The show must go on?’” said Ms. Chang. Together, they __________ the dance. They thought of how Nuala could move to the music. They brainstormed ways for her to dance on __________.

The night of the __________, Ms. Chang almost had to __________ Nuala onto the stage. Nuala’s cast looked __________ and awkward, but she went out and danced. At the end, the audience went wild clapping. They threw roses at Nuala’s feet! The show did __________!

5 . In the history of language, words rise and fall. We make and remake them; they make and remake us. The story of a word is as complex as a hurricane. It is ___________ to know for sure how it catches on, meets new needs, and acquires new meanings. It is impossible to ___________ the decline of one word on the rise of another.

But in the destinies of two pairs of words is a suggestion of a turning in American ___________. It is a turning away from an idea of the natural worth of things: from “pleasure”, with its sense of a (n) ___________ condition of mind, to “fun” , so closely affiliated with outward activities; from “excellence”, an inner trait whose attainment is its own reward, to “achievement”, which comes through hard work and ___________.

“Pleasure” speaks of a state of mind that comes organically, that need not be artificially induced. “Fun”, though almost the same as “pleasure” for contemporary speakers, often ___________artificial inducement(诱导). You don’t feel fun; you do a fun thing. And “fun” has no hint of elitism, while “pleasure” does.

If “pleasure” comes from being, “fun” comes from doing and, often, switching off the brain. The transition of American usage from “pleasure” to “fun” perhaps partly accounts for the American___________ on activities for all occasions, rather than trusting pleasure to develop on its own. In “Eat, Pray, Love”, the best-selling memoir by Elizabeth Gilbert, she concludes that “Americans have an ___________ to relax into pure pleasure. Ours is an entertainment-seeking nation, but not ___________ a pleasure-seeking one.” Italians, ____________, have mastered “bel far niente (the joy of doing nothing)”.

Then there is the ____________ from “excellence” to “achievement”. “Excellence” has a hint of virtue. Anyone can achieve, in garbage collection or neurosurgery, but how many can truly be ____________?

“Achievement”, like “fun”, is outward in nature. It comes in doing specific things. It is more about checking boxes than ____________ inner potentials. The achievement culture influences every aspect of life today. From elementary-school testing to the continual pressure to over-schedule as a university student, educational culture emphasizes the accumulation of achievements over intellectual sparkle. Wall Street stumbled(绊跌) in part because so many chased achiever bonuses while neglecting the ____________ of excellence in their vocation. An American culture of immediate celebrity teaches young people that fame is a(n) ____________ in itself rather than an incidental symptom of excellence in craft.

6 . What are pillows really stuffed with? Not physically, but symbolically? The question occurred to me with the photos in the news and social media from the 50 cities around the world that staged public celebrations for International Pillow Fight Day. Armed with nothing more than bring-our-own sacrificial cushions, strangers struck heavily each other in playful feather from Amsterdam to Atlanta, Warsaw to Washington DC. But why? Is there anything more to this delightful celebration?

As a cultural sign, the pillow is deceptively soft. Since at least the 16th Century, the humble pillow has been given unexpected meanings. The Chinese playwright Tang Xianzu tells a famous story about a wise man who meets a depressed young scholar at an inn and offers him a magic pillow filled with the most vivid dreams of a seemingly more fulfilling life. When the young man awakens to discover that his happy 50-year dream has in fact come and gone in the short space of an afternoon’s nap, our impression of the pillow’s power shifts from wonder to terror.

Subsequent writers have likewise seized upon the pillow. When the 19th-Century English novelist Charlotte Bronte poetically observed “a ruffled (不平的) mind makes a restless pillow”, she didn’t just change the expected order of the adjectives and nouns, but instead she made unclear the boundaries between mind and matter — the thing resting and the thing rested upon.

It’s a trick perhaps Bronte learned from the Renaissance philosopher Montaigne, who once insisted that “ignorance is the softest pillow on which a man can rest his head”. On Montaigne’s thinking, intelligence and happiness confront each other forever in a pillow fight that only one can win.

With the words of Tang. Bronte, and Montaigne, we can perhaps more easily measure the attraction of the global pillow fight. Like a ritual of release, the annual international pillow fight amounts to a kind of cleansing, a brushing off of daily worries: an emptying of the world’s collective mind. Rather than a launch-pad for weightless rest, the pillow is a symbol of heavy thought: an anchor that drags the world’s soul down — one that must be lightened.

9 . There is hot, and then there is hot! Extreme heat is a period of high heat and humidity with temperatures above 90 degrees Fahrenheit for at least two to three days. Extreme heat is responsible for the highest number of annual deaths among all weather-related hazards (危害).

It’s not your imagination. Summers have been getting hotter and hotter with extreme heatwaves occurring earlier and more frequently. But why is this happening and can we better predict heatwaves in advance to give people time to prepare?

“Climate change is here and it’s already been changing human behavior and causing significant influence in the society. As global temperatures rise, historically excessive (过高的) temperatures are more likely to occur.” says Craig Ramseyer, an assistant professor who studies climate modeling in the department of geography at Virginia Tech.

Ramseyer says heatwaves are the most concerning because of the lack of attention they normally receive. “Hurricanes, tornadoes, and flash floods drive more media attention because of the natural attraction with the visual impact of those types of hazards. However, heat does not tend to be as attractive and it becomes very difficult to communicate the danger to the public,” said Ramseyer. “Around the world, more deaths occur due to extreme heat than from hurricanes, flooding, and drought combined. It impacts the most helpless of our citizens who do not have enough access to air conditioning, water, and other important resources.”

Since the Earth is running warmer than it used to, Ramseyer says that when these heatwave-related weather patterns take place, it results in higher extreme temperatures than we used to experience 30 years ago.

“As a global community, we need to decrease carbon emissions as soon as possible. We have rapidly developing technologies that are going to help advance the process, but the faster the better, there is no time to waste.”

10 . Besides “wow” and “great”, what else would you say when flying over the Earth in space? Samantha Cristoforetti, the first Italian female astronaut in space, posted several lines of a famous ancient Chinese composition on Twitter to share her joy.

She first wrote in Chinese, and then attached an accurate translation of the lines in both Italian and English to help more people understand. “Looking up, I see the immensity of the cosmos; bowing my head, I look at the multitude of the world. The gaze flies, the heart expands, the joy of the senses can reach its peak, and indeed, this is true happiness,” it says. Two days before she landed on Earth, the beauty of space and Chinese literature resonated on her Twitter account. Before long, her posts went viral on Twitter with thousands of retweets, likes and replies.

The text she quoted is from the Preface to Poems Composed at the Orchid Pavilion,a Chinese calligraphy masterpiece by Wang Xizhi (303-361) of the Eastern Jin Dynasty (317-420). She also attached three photos taken in space of China’s Bohai Bay and the day-night view of Beijing. “The poem and views are both magnificent as well as healing. If everyone could enjoy the same sight, a lot of pain in the world would be ‘dissipated’,” one user comments.

As the first Italian female astronaut in space, Cristoforetti carried out her first space mission on Nov 23, 2014. In 2022, she started the second mission in April and returned to Earth on Friday night after a 127-day stay in orbit.

Cristoforetti has also been active in Sino-European cooperation in the field of manned spaceflight. She was a working group member with Chinese counterparts to define and implement cooperation in the field of astronaut operations. When not traveling for work, she is an eager reader and has a great passion for languages. Speaking clear Chinese, Cristoforetti once told the media that the teams from China and Europe were working very well together in the field of astronaut training.