1 . We live in a world increasingly dominated by science. Since elementary school, I have always _________ subjects like science and math. To me, these subjects, full of discoveries and _________, seem to play more significant role in human progress than humanities. And I always _________ thought of these subjects as more solid and serious than classes like English. If there was no right _________ I thought, why bother? But recently I had an _________ that taught me my academic interests are more flexible than I had thought: I took my first philosophy class.

Before I entered the classroom, I was _________. I waited outside with the other students and wondered what exactly philosophy would involve. I imagined getting into pretty long and boring conversations _________ intended to reflect on the meaning of life. But what I got was something quite _________.

A young man in jeans, Mr. Jones — “but you can call me Rob” — was far from the white-haired, buttoned-up old man I had _________. Rather than pulling us into dull arguments about difficult-to-understand philosophical points, Rob__________ us on our level. To talk free will, we looked at our own __________. To talk morals, we looked at dilemmas we had faced ourselves. By the end of class, I’d discovered that questions with no right answer can turn out to be the most __________ ones.

It __________ me that if I let go of my __________, I can actually get a lot out of the subjects I once thought little of. The class taught me — in more ways than one — to look at things with a(n) __________ mind.

3 . Lisa Gautier receives nearly a dozen parcels of human hair every day. With her San-Francisco-based non-profit organization Matter of Trust, Gautier turns donated hair into mats used to soak up oil spills on land, and booms(long tubes)used for spills at sea.

A standard way to clean up oil from land is to use mats made from polypropylene(聚丙烯). But polypropylene is a non-biodegradable plastic, and producing it ultimately means more drilling for oil. Hair, by contrast, is an environmentally friendly resource that can soak up around five times its weight in oil, according to Matter of Trust, and it is abundant.

Oil spills can pollute drinking water, endanger public health, harm plants and wildlife, and damage the economy. According to Gautier, the spills that hit the headlines only make up 5% of global oil pollution.

Megan Murray, an environmental biologist at the University of Technology Sydney, develops sustainable technologies to tackle oil spills. Her research indicates that as well as being biodegradable, human hair is often just as effective as polypropylene, and in some circumstances even better. “The hair mats are very beneficial to land spills,” says Murray but adds that when raw oil is spilled on beach sand, it is very difficult to absorb it using any of the materials she has tested. Another advantage of hair is that it costs less than conventional materials and is “globally available as a recycled material,” she says.

However, Murray cautions that hair mats are not a perfect solution, because they are single-use, and can only be dealt with by burning or by burying into soil which then isn’t suitable for growing food. She is now researching methods to extract the oil from a used hair mat, meaning both can be reused.

As the hair mat designs aren’t under patent, other groups have begun producing their own mats and booms. Gautier is pleased to see the movement growing. “Anyone can make a hair mat,” she says. “It creates green jobs, it cleans water, it reduces waste in landfill, and it’s promoting renewable resources.”

4 . I was eleven years old standing outside in just my underwear while I watched the house that I grew up in rapidly burn to the ground.

A few minutes earlier I had been sound asleep in my nice, warm bed when a scream woke me up. My grandmother’s bedroom was just next to mine and my brother’s. A fire had broken out there and awakened her. Hearing her, my older brother had sprung into action.

While I stumbled around in the smoke and darkness, he ran from room to room quickly waking everyone in the house. The house, however, was over 50 years old and made of wood. Before we could do anything the fire consumed it.

We all barely made it outside before the flames engulfed every room.

I stood there watching helplessly while my Mom cried and my Day swore. I wondered what was going to happen to us now that we had lost all of our things.

As I looked around, though, I realized something for the first time: The things that matter, aren’t things. I saw my older brother running across the swinging bridge by our house to get help. I saw my oldest brother who was on crutches (拐棍) from an earlier accident stand unsteadily on one leg. I saw my grandmother and Dad huddled together and my Mom holding our little dog in her arms. I realized at that moment that we were all alive.

Everything that was essential had survived the fire. We would survive without the “stuff” that was burning. We would all be around to love each other for many years to come. And that was all that mattered.

I still think of that the fire in the night that helped me to become who I am today. It helped me to learn that the love we share is far more important than the things we possess.

Live your life then for the things that matter, not for the things you own. Love other. Help everyone. Let the fire inside of you make this world a warmer place.

5 . Zero-emission (排放) large passenger aircraft powered by hydrogen (氢) will be technically available in five years, according to Airbus, but they will not enter service for at least a decade as the price of the fuel needs to come down.

The prediction comes from Glenn Llewellyn, vice-president of zero-emission technology at the European plane-maker. He said that while Airbus planned to demonstrate hydrogen-powered aircraft in 2025, over the next 10 years, hydrogen won’t be more economic than the fossil fuel. “To make real emissions free hydrogen-powered planes, which give out only water and heat, their fuel needs to come from hydrogen produced via renewable sources such as wind and solar,” he added. “Another barrier is building up the ecosystem that hydrogen aircraft will need.”

However, Mr. Llewellyn predicted that there was enough interest to make this happen. In an interview, Mr. Llewellyn said, “We already see massive increases in the amount of renewable energy being produced across the world. Wind energy production has multiplied by two over the last five years and solar energy production has multiplied by four.” He added, “There are a number of independent institutes that have mapped out how hydrogen costs can come down over the next decades. We see a 30% reduction in renewable hydrogen costs in 2030 compared to where it is today, and a 50% reduction in renewable hydrogen costs by 2050. They are exactly the kind of cost figures that are interesting for us, because it makes zero-emission aircraft commercially viable (可行的) in the 2030s.”

Last month UK-based ZeroAvia conducted the world’s first flight of a commercial-grade aircraft powered by hydrogen. A few days before, Airbus announced a series of design proposals for hydrogen-driven aircraft, including a “blended wing” concept that provides greater storage capacity. This design could be key to hydrogen-powered aircraft as the fuel is less energy dense (密度大) than conventional fuel and so requires more space to match performance of existing airplanes.

8 . People often plan to receive medical exam but don’t, resulting in increasing health care cost. A surprising number of citizens mean to complete tax forms in time but forget to, forcing them to pay unnecessary fines. Many families miss the government deadline to complete financial aid forms, losing out on aid available for child care.

How can policymakers help people follow through on important tasks? They use carrots and sticks: bonuses, late fees, or regulations. These methods can be clumsy, and often aren’t effective for the situation at hand. Reminding people to form simple plans. however, provides a low-cost, simple, and powerful tool.

Evidence is growing that providing prompts (提示), which push people at key times to think through how and when they will follow through, make people more likely to act on tasks of importance. In one early randomized(随机的) study on vaccination(预防接种) rates, for example, a team of social psychologists showed that 28% of Oxford University seniors got the shot after being encouraged to review their weekly schedules and to select a possible time to stop by the health center. They were also given a list of times when shots were available and a map showing the health center’s location. Only 3% of the seniors got the shot when simply informed about how effective the shots were.

People who make a plan gain an advantage from their psychological forces. Specifically, they can overcome the tendency to put off as well as the tendency to be overly optimistic about the time it will take to accomplish a task.

People mistakenly believe that their strong intentions are enough to push them to perform desired behaviors. These psychological research results stress the need for policy decisions that encourage plan making and improve social welfare.