2 . Whom should you marry? Where should you live? How should you spend your time? For centuries, people have relied on their gut instincts (直觉) to figure out the answers to these life-changing questions. Now, though, there is a better way. We are living through a data explosion, as vast amounts of information about all aspects of human behavior have become more and more accessible. We can use this big data to help determine the best course to chart.

There has long been overwhelming- and often surprising- evidence that algorithms (算法) can be much better than people at making difficult decisions. Researchers have collected data on various kinds of choices people make, the information they base those choices on, and how things turn out. They have found, for example, that a simple data-driven algorithm would have been better than judges at deciding whether a defendant should stay in jail (监狱) or be released; better than doctors at deciding whether a patient should get a procedure; and better than school principals at deciding which teachers should be promoted.

The power of data analysis has been proved in the sports and business worlds, too. As made famous by the book and movie Moneyball, baseball teams found that algorithms were better than scouts (物色优秀运动员的人) at picking players, and better than managers at picking strategies. In finance, the hedge fund (避险基金) Renaissance Technologies dramatically defeated competitors by seeking out patterns in stock market data and using them to inform its investment strategy. Tech firms in Silicon Valley have found that data from experiments provides better insights into how to design their websites than designers could.

These are the early days of the data revolution in decision-making. I am not claiming that we can completely outsource (外包) our lifestyle choices to algorithms, though we might get to that point in the future. I am claiming instead that we can all dramatically improve our decision-making by consulting evidence mined from thousands or millions of people who faced dilemmas similar to ours. And we can do that now.

3 . Gardeners who use pesticides are contributing to the decline of British songbirds, a study suggests. Scientists have urged people to stop “spraying their gardens with poisons” in order to halt bird decline and adopt instead wildlife-friendly practices. The results of the University of Sussex study, which researchers call the first of its kind, were published in the journal Science of the Total Environment.

The experiment, which surveyed 615 gardens in Britain, found 25% fewer house sparrows when glyphosate (草甘膦) was used regularly. This is an ingredient found in commonly used herbicide (除草剂) brands such as Roundup or Gallup. Slug pellets (鼻涕虫杀虫剂) also seemed to have an impact on bird sightings; in gardens where Slug pellets were used, house sparrow numbers were down by almost 40%.

Prof. Dave Goulson, of the school of life sciences at the University of Sussex, said, “The UK has 22 million gardens, which collectively could be a fantastic refuge for wildlife, but not if they are overly tidy and sprayed with poisons. We just don’t need pesticides in our gardens. Many towns around the world are now pesticide free. We should simply ban the use of these poisons in urban areas, following the example of France.” The Royal Horticultural Society, the UK’s leading gardening charity, said the use of pesticides and herbicides should be avoided if possible and they should only be used, if ever, in small and targeted applications.

The research also found that those who adopted wildlife-friendly practices such as planting native shrubs and flowers, or digging a wildlife pond, saw more birds than those who did not. Cannelle Tassin de Montaigu, a PhD researcher within the school of life sciences and an author of the study, said, “It’s encouraging to find that simple measures, such as planting native shrubs and trees and creating a pond, together with avoiding the use of pesticides, really make a measurable difference to the number of birds you will see in your garden.”

4 . The Munfords were moving into a house they bought. They wanted to see if all the furniture was in good condition before they used it. James Munford was_________ the built-in drawers in the closet last month, when he found two cases holding 46 gold Liberty $5 coins and 18 Morgan silver dollars that were made in the 1800s. They looked really old, like they were really worth a lot of _________.

James and his wife, Clarrisa, who are both retired thought the coins are _________a family heirloom (传家宝), so they went ahead and made sure the owner _________them back. James texted pictures of the _________to the home’s former owner and made plans to _________them.

“We really didn’t know anything about the _________of the coins. We really didn’t _________, to be honest with you. We knew they were not ours,” said Clarrisa Munford, who runs a restaurant business.

The home’s _________owner, who asked not to be __________, estimated (估算) that the coins were worth about $25,000. He said he’d put the containers in the back of his sock drawer a few months ago for safe keeping and didn’t see it in his__________ to get packed up and moved out of the house. The rest of his coin collection was in his safe. He didn’t realize the coins were __________until the Munfords contacted him. He added that he would never have known if they had __________to sell the coins and keep the money for themselves.

The Munfords are still unpacking and their furniture just arrived last week, so they haven’t had a __________to see if there are any other __________.

7 . Wonderful trip around the Mediterranean

You’ve got a full day to get to know this British territory (领土), home to many cultures. Choose to ride the cable car (缆车) for great views of the Rock of Gibraltar or discover the beautiful lighthouse.

Enjoy a full day discovering all that Provence has to offer — flower fields, fishing boats or Roman ruins (遗迹). City or countryside, you decide.

Get to know this busy town by walking through the wonderful streets and piazzas (public squares, especially in an Italian town).

Choose to visit wonderful wineries (酒庄) in Tuscany or the famous Leaning Tower of Pisa on your last day in Italy.

Go to the airport for your flight home.

9 . I was traveling in Spain with my sister who was living there. I went into a bakery to order a couple of pastries(点心). There were different kinds of bread on a shelf, but only one kind had a little sign hanging from the shelf that said “something something borrachos”. I didn’t necessarily want that kind, but it was the only labeled one, so naturally I waved the guy behind the counter and ordered “dos borrachos por favor”.

I was pretty timid about my Spanish, so I whispered it. The men sitting near me all stopped talking and looked at me. The guy, very seriously, said, “que? quieras? (What do you want?)”

I shyly said again, with less confidence, “dos borrachos por favor.”

All the men around me started snickering(偷笑).

The guy again asked me what I wanted, and he was getting louder. He was raising his voice over the noise of the whole shop. He told me to speak up. Most of the tables now were also quiet.

I was getting a bit embarrassed. I thought he was making fun of my accent or I was pronouncing it wrong. I looked hard at the sign, made sure to pronounce correctly, and shouted “quiero dos borrachos! (I WANT 2 BORRACHOS!)”

He shouted, “aaaah, quieras dos BORRACHOS!” This time, he couldn’t keep a straight face and started guffawing(狂笑), and the rest in the shop followed.

I had no idea what was happening, so I just ran out, empty-handed and ashamed.

I came back and told my sister the story. She started laughing and explained “borrachos” means “drunk men” and the sign probably said that “drunk men were not welcome here” and that sign happened to hang under the shelf.

I had just shouted to a full shop that I WANTED a couple of drunk men.

10 . Can you imagine what life would be like if there were no_________? You could not call _________ your friends on the phone and talk to them. If fire _________ out in your house you could not _________ the fire department. If somebody were _________, you could not call a _________.

In our daily life we need to communicate with _________. We do this _________ by speaking to other people and listening to _________ they have to say to us, and when we are __________ to them we can do this very __________. However, our __________ will

not travel very far even when we __________, and it is thanks to the __________ of the telephone that we are __________ able to communicate with each other cleary __________ we were in the __________ boat.

The man who __________ this possible was Alexander Graham, a Scotsman, born in Edin-burgh in 1847. Bell, a teacher of visible speech who later moved to Canada. __________ all his spare time experimenting.  __________ enthusiastic（热情的）was he in his research for a means for sending speech by electricity that he left little time for his day-to-day work and at one time was almost penniless.