4 . What are the foods that you can only taste in memories? Your mother’s biscuits? The mud (泥) pies you made as a child? And what are the recipes that bring those memories to mind?

This morning, for the first time in more than a year, I made Dutch Babies. From scratch. And I didn’t burn them. Yes, I’m the kind of cook who’s always amazed to pull anything out of the oven that isn’t burnt. But sometimes, I get lucky.

What are Dutch Babies? Picture a cross between a pancake and an omelet (煎蛋饼) that tastes better than both. They’re easy to make, and you can make a lot of servings (一份食物) in one pan (平底锅) at the same time.

Making Dutch Babies brings to my mind some of the happiest memories of my life. I was given the recipe by a dear friend Sally, a cook who knew a great dish when she tasted it.

I’ve made Dutch Babies a few thousand times for sleepovers (夜宿的客人) and houseguests and Sunday suppers. They were always a hit, even if I burned them.

After my kids grew up, I didn’t cook much for years, except for holidays or other big occasions. But if I had a full house, I’d make Dutch Babies for breakfast.

I can’t recall the last time I made Dutch Babies, before today. I know it was more than a year ago, before life as we knew it was shut down for COVID-19, and we stopped having guests.

So why did I make them this morning for only my husband and me? It’s been a hard year for all of us, filled with things we couldn’t do. I was hungry to celebrate being alive.

I mixed up the ingredients and stuck it in the oven. While it baked, I thought of all the family and friends I’ve baked it for over the years.

Good food can feed a hungry crowd. But if it’s made with love and seasoned with memories, it can fill a soul with hope of better days to come. Add your own memories. And say thanks to my friend Sally.

During the COVID-19 virus outbreak, many people    1    (force) to stay inside are looking for new hobbies. Some of them are even learning to cast spells with Harry Potter-related websites.

In early April, Harry Potter author J.K. Rowling announced the launch of Harry Potter at Home. The new website aims     2     (cure) boredom during the long days of     3    (stick) indoors. It’s particularly designed for students and teachers     4     seek relief from the long days of lockdown. Super fans can test their Potter knowledge through various quizzes. Meanwhile newcomers to     5    magic world can read interviews with some of the film series’ actors. The project is a cooperation between Rowling and several on-line     6     (company). Audible, Bloomsbury, OverDrive, Pottermore Publishing and Scholastic are involved.

Rowling has also lifted copyright restrictions for educators as well. Teachers can now    7    (free) share the Harry Potter series with their students online. They may record videos of themselves reading the books aloud. The e-book for Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone is also     8    (access) to users of Harry Potter at Home website, free     9     charge.

Rowling’s first book    10     (publish) in June 1997. Almost 23 years later, the world is very different. Still, the attraction of magic remains. It feels especially needed in times of great difficulty, like today.

7 . This week, four COVID-19 vaccines have appeared highly effective in preventing the COVID-19 disease and will roll out to market soon.

On November 17, Sinovac, a Chinese biotech company, published its promising results from Phase(阶段)1 and 2 trials in the medical journal The Lancet. The data shows that the vaccine, Corona Vac, has produced a very quick and strong immune response and did not cause any severe side effects among the 700 people tested. Sinovac has already started the Phase 3 tests in UAE, Brazil, Indonesia and Bangladesh since July 3. Initial Phase 3 data is likely to be available within the next month. (Update: the Phase 3 tests in UAE have shown that Corona Vac is 86% effective and UAE has officially approved it for nationwide use.)

One day earlier, Moderna reported that its vaccine is 94% effective and strongly protects against serious COVID-19 illness. On November 18, Pfizer announced that its vaccine is 95% effective. Britain's Oxford-AstraZeneca group said on November 23 that its vaccine is up to 70% effective.

However, Corona Vac may have a series of potential advantages over the mRNA vaccines produced by Moderna and Pfizer and Oxford-AstraZeneca group's DNA vaccines, since there hasn't been any mRNA or DNA vaccines approved by the Food and Drug Administration (FDA) before, while Corona Vac is based on a tried-and-true method that uses weakened or dead COVIE-19.

Another big advantage for Corona Vac is the storage temperature as it can be stored between 2℃ and 8℃ for up to three years, while the mRNA vaccines have to be kept between -20℃ and -70℃. It would make their storage and distribution really challenging, especially in the developing countries.

Although we are seeing lights by the end of the tunnel, it's important to remember that an effective vaccine is not enough to end the crisis quickly, because it will take months to produce enough vaccines and distribute them. Therefore, measures like social distancing, washing hands and wearing face masks will remain essential to control the spread of COVID-19.

8 . If businesses are to get workers back into the office, finding ways to keep social distancing will be important. An Israeli company thinks it can help, using smart sensors installed on workplace ceilings.

PointGrab developed its technology before COVID-19 to help workspace managers optimize(优化) how employees use office space. About the size of a smoke alarm, the sensors can record the exact number and location of people in buildings including offices, hotels and restaurants. One of the company's first clients was Deloitte, which installed the system at its London office last year. PointGrab's sensors were connected to screens in the building to show the availability (利用率) of desks and shared areas in real time. PointGrab CEO Doron Shachar says it was one of a series of innovations(创新) that helped Deloitte fit 30% more people into 3% less space.

Now to prevent the coronavirus spreading face to face, PointGrab has modified the technology to some degree so the sensors can also monitor social distancing by keeping track of how far apart people are, and whether they're traveling in one direction around a building. Workspace managers can set up alarm for when two people are closer than two meters for more than 30 seconds, for example. The sensors have been included in the “six feet office” concept created by a company Cushman & Wakefield to encourage employees to practice social distancing. They are currently being used in this way at a university in the Netherlands, and at an innovation centre in Belgium. While the social distancing innovation is new, PointGrab has installed more than 10, 000 sensors for workspace optimization, including in the offices of Coca-Cola, Facebook and Dell.

Workers might not like the idea of being monitored, but PointGrab says no images or identifying features are recorded. Instead, each employee is represented as a dot on a screen. “The sensor does not violate people's privacy.” Shachar says. This is extremely important in the workspace.

9 . A doctor named Chepurnov from Siberia conducted a controversial coronavirus immunity test after surviving COVID-19 in March. The 68-year-old Russian doctor spent time with coronavirus-positive patients without wearing a mask to see if he could get a second COVID-19 infection. The doctor was infected a second time and experienced a worse COVID-19 case than he had previously.

This unusual coronavirus immunity test can easily be filed under the “only in Russia” section of COVID-19 news. Only in Russia was a coronavirus vaccine approved for mass use before any scientific research was shared with the world and before the drug cleared the Phase 3 trial. The story gets even crazier, considering the doctor’s age. At 68-years-old, Alexander Chepurnov happens to be the kind of COVID-19 patient most at risk of developing a severe case.

Even so, Chepurnov’s controversial experiment isn’t without worth. It’s certainly the kind of experiment that others wouldn’t necessarily approve of, especially in western countries. But it’s the kind of experiment that can yield results — and Chepurnov did get his wish. He was reinfected with COVID- 19 within six months from the first bout. Chepurnov and his research team started to monitor his antibodies. He discovered that they vanished after three months. “The observation showed a fairly rapid decrease,” he told the paper. “By the end of the third month from the start of the disease, they ceased to be determined.” This falls in line with other studies about COVID-19 antibody life.

Chepurnov’s story also seems to fall in line with other studies that say immunity can last for at least 5-7 months. The story also proves that immunity lasts even after the antibodies are gone and suggests that other immune system components are indeed involved in providing prolonged protection. Others theorized that T cells would extend immunity beyond the life of the first batch of antibodies. Chepurnov’s empirical findings are also important for vaccine research. If immunity lasts less than a year, more booster shots (加强针剂) might be needed after the initial doses.

But Newsweek points out a problem with the experiment. Because his first case of COVID-19 hasn’t been diagnosed via a PCR test. Also, Chepurnov’s experiment hasn’t been published in a scientific journal, and it’s unclear what scientific rigors were applied. Still, if his findings are accurate, Chepurnov is actually right to warn against using a herd immunity approach to beat the pandemic.

10 . When 19-year-old Chloe Mitchell's senior trip was canceled due to the pandemic, she knew she couldn't just lie around the house. Not only is she a ________ volleyball player with an active lifestyle, she's also a teenager. Being ________ in the house all day with your parents isn't ideal—no matter how much you love them.

“I was bored. I was really depressed because quarantine（隔离）had taken away my senior year," she explained. “I needed something to ________ worries in my mind. I needed ________ labor. I needed space ________ my family."

As a self-described DIY obsessive（痴迷者），Mitchell saw the shabby shed （破旧的棚屋）in the yard, a relaxing space to call her own. Unfortunately, as she set about ________ the forgotten shed into a stylish vacation home—'She Shed', Mitchell was upset that social-distancing rules meant she couldn't invite her friends over. So she decided to share the ________ with her 34 followers on TikTok, ________ close friends, letting them know every step she did during the following days .

Over the next 10 days, Mitchell began to ________ the contents of her small shed used as a storage bam （仓库）so that it could be cleaned easily. After that, she wiped down the original wooden beams （横梁）before giving them a fresh layer of white ________. Once the paint had dried, she hung fairy lights, ________ the space with plants and added a television and refrigerator donated by neighbors. She ________ built herself a daybed （躺椅）and purchased a little bed for her dog, Lilly.

Happy to be out in the sun, putting her DIY skills to good ________ and sharing the experience with her friends, Mitchell could never have ________ what happened next. Known as “she shed girl”, Mitchell now has a（an）________ 2.7 million followers on TikTok, ________ she shares DIY tips and snippets （片段）of her life as a freshman at Aquinas College in Michigan. ________ by the success of her first project, Mitchell turned her attention to the family's pool house, imagining it as a charming pub shed.

Commenting on Mitchell's ________ shed renovation （翻新），the experts at My Tool Shed DIY said,