文中应包含以下内容：
1.你是否支持动物表演；
2.你支持或反对的理由。
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Does Reading Improve Health
When thinking about our well being and taking care of ourselves, some things that we should do are harder than others. Reading is one of the easier ones. What follows are a number of ways in which reading can help maintain and improve health.
Reading allows you to de-stress by unplugging and escaping. In one study, reading was found to be as effective as yoga and humor in reducing subjective feelings of stress over a 30-minute period, as well as blood pressure and heart rate. Note that a good old-fashioned book or a dedicated eBook reader is the best way to do this.
Readers may live longer than non-readers. One study found that this was supposed to be due to the effect that reading has on maintaining cognitive abilities over time. In another study of individuals aged 64 and over, those who read at least once a week were less likely to experience cognitive decline than those who did not. At the 14-year mark of the study, and regardless of educational level, those who read more enjoyed greater protection. This effect is maintained into readers’ 80’s.
Bibliotherapy, or the use of various reading materials for the promotion of psychological health, is a well-known aid to mental health treatment. Bibliotherapy can consist of any type of literature and may include self-help books, focused readings, first-hand accounts of others’ experiences, and even relevant fiction. This can be a powerful strategy and has been used successfully to reduce depression, suicidal thinking, anxiety, stress and etc.
The benefits of reading are innumerable and reading is a low to no-cost activity. Cheap and no-cost books are everywhere. Public libraries continue to be one of the most amazing resources. If you aren’t a natural reader, you have nothing to lose by giving it a try.
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Drawing High Schoolers to Science
A group of educators and plant scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) are connecting to reshape science classes. And this particular partnership isn’t just helping students get a better understanding of biology; it’s turning them into young scientists, even if only during class.
It doesn’t take long to see that the curriculum born from this collaboration makes for a much different experience than the traditional high school biology classes. For starters, it has a comic book for a workbook. Secondly, students are getting their hands dirty growing plants. MSU researchers are also studying the plant. The high schoolers are asking some of the same questions professional plant scientists are trying to answer.
“We’re getting them engaged with science in science practices, not just having them learn about science,” says Hildah Makori, a researcher at MSU. “They learn to look at things differently. That’s a life-time impact.”
The main characters of the comic book are a pair of young field scientists. They invite the high school students to help with plant research inspired by a real project at MSU. By growing their own plants, the students learn about genetics, evolution and how these interact with the environment.
The team has seen how this practice could keep students in the driver’s seat of their learning. To help the characters out, students set up different experiments to test their ideas.
The program is working. “This comic personally gave me a click that sparked my curiosity,” reads one student’s survey response. “The comic book put a lot of creative atmosphere into the story instead of just looking at words, instead of just listening to the teacher talk,” says another.
Teachers also had positive reviews. In a survey, one remarked how helpful it was to have the comic to refer to. The students could see the comic’s characters doing something in the lab and realize, “I’m able to do this right here at my table and I can do the same thing,” the teacher says.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Do you have a favorite podcast? That can be a difficult question to answer for some as there are so many options. That is because the world is full of interesting topics and thoughts about them. If you feel you have something engaging and valuable to share, start a podcast.
A podcast is a series of audio episodes that cover a particular subject. The first step to creating a podcast is to find your topic. It’s believed that the best topics are ones that you know a lot about and love.
Another important step is to make sure you have the right equipment. While podcast equipment can be complex and expensive, it doesn’t have to be. For your first podcast, you can simply rely on your phone and computer. You can record all of your audio on your phone. Then with your computer — and the right software — you can mix the audio. This is the process of putting your audio together into one perfect-sounding file.
After you have your topic and equipment, you’ll want to choose your format. Your podcast could be one person speaking, two people talking, or many people offering their opinions. Your podcast could also include more than one of these options.
Once you’ve decided, you can start drafting your episodes. However, whatever format or formats you choose, maintain the same structure for each episode. The next step is to find a quiet place and do your recording.
When you’ve completed your recording and audio mixing, you’ll need to find a platform for your podcast. Luckily there are plenty of free and paid platform options on which to upload your podcast. Before uploading, make sure you have an interesting title and good tags for your show. Be sure to post about your show on social media. Get your podcast listed in a podcast directory, too. You want to get the word out about your podcast to grow your audience. Your podcast just might become someone’s new favorite.
_____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How to Be a Better Boss
Workplaces have changed dramatically over the past few years. Teams have become more isolated owing to remote work. Technology has brought great benefits but also constant interruptions, from endless Zoom calls to message flows on Slack. With each shift, the job of the manager has become harder. Many report feeling burnt-out, overloaded and confused.
Yet in real life everyone suffers when management is bad and benefits when it is good Research based on a long-running survey of management techniques has found that well-managed firms tend to be more productive, export more and spend more on research and development.
So the prize for better management is big. But how to obtain it? Read enough management books and you might conclude that managers need to change their personality thoroughly, becoming either Machiavelli’s prince or a Marvel superhero. However, study successful managers, and more practical lessons can be drawn.
One is to be clear about a firm’s processes. Managers should make clear the purpose of a team, what a meeting should achieve and who will take a decision. Meeting agendas at GSK, a British drugs firm, clearly say whether an item is for awareness, to gather participants’ input or intended to make a decision. Such clarity means that everyone knows what they are doing, and why.
Management isn’t all about piling up tasks, meetings or processes. A second lesson is that managers can add value by deleting. Sparing workers from pointless meetings, emails and projects frees them to concentrate on the work that fattens the bottom line. At the start of the year, Shopify, an e-commerce firm, deleted 12,000 repeated meetings from its employees’ calendars. The useful ones were eventually added back. But the firm says that meetings are down by 14% since the mass deletion while productivity has gone up by a similar amount.
________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________假设你是美国一所中学的学生Sam，最近你班要召开一次主题为“不让霸凌成为青春的一道疤”的班会。根据主题内容，写一篇发言稿（所给材料可供参考）。
| Here are the national statistics about bullying in the USA About 20% of students aged 12-18 experienced bullying nationwide. Students aged 12-18 who reported bullied said they thought those who bullied them: -- had the ability to influence other students’ perception of them (56%). -- were physically stronger or larger (40%). -- had more money (31%). | |
| Word box: bully v/n 恐吓；伤害；/ 恃强凌弱者 | |
Why Should We Read Literary Classics?
Many have grown up on a healthy diet of literary classics. Some literary classics have been inspiring readers in many ways. In this age of fast-turners, how does investing our time in a timeless literary classic change us for the better?
Many literary classics from yesteryear, which got little or no success when published, are considered invaluable. These books offer a window through which we can experience histories rooted in different cultures. One can always ask, “But we can do so by reading our history books too. Why do we need to read classics?” The simple answer is that these literary classics are not just a retelling of history. They allow us to have a more individualized experience, where they show us other ways to look at history.
It is common knowledge that reading as a habit helps us improve our command of the language. But literary classics have an edge: the enriching writing style is something that sets them apart. Fascinated with the amazing wording and phrasing, we’ll surely pause and wonder about what we read. For instance, when we read Shakespeare, we naturally begin to consider how to better express our ideas just like his far-reaching “Have more than you show; speak less than you know.”
One more benefit is that after reading classics, we won’t see non-classics as just other stories: we’ll become interested in them. Maybe we’ll realize that some details we ignored last time are actually worth appreciating, or we’ll discover literary devices that bring a whole new meaning to the story. Literary classics offer us more perspectives to dig deep and enhance our ability to think and reason, which will inevitably spill over into our reading of other works. We finally fall in love with non-classics as well.
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Call a Physical Therapist
You get up from the sofa and - ow! Back pain takes your breath away. Do you reach for the pain pills? No! Call a physical therapist instead!
More and more, physical therapy, or PT, is a common go-to for treating aches and pains. A physical therapist can treat almost any injury to give a patient a better quality of life. When it comes to treatment, one size does not fit all. A physical therapist personalizes a treatment plan based on their observations and the patient’s concerns. The goal is to help injured or ill people improve movement and manage pain, so they can live life to the fullest. These therapists work with patients who suffer from back or neck injuries. They help people recover from broken bones and surgeries as well as work- or sports-related injuries. Physical therapists also teach people how to stay in shape and prevent further injuries. Their hands-on (动手的) therapy includes strengthening or stretching exercises, ice or heat and more.
No one can become a physical therapist without getting a doctor of physical therapy degree. After completing it, a person must pass a professional license exam before beginning to practice. Further, being a physical therapist can be mentally and physically draining because of the hands-on, personalized patient care required. A successful physical therapist needs to have great communication skills and an eye for detail. They should also be creative problem solvers as well as resourceful.
For those looking for a satisfying career, PT is one to consider. The demand for the profession is growing faster than that of many other careers. Private clinics and hospitals hire physical therapists. Sports facilities and professional sports teams also employ them. Therapists may work in skilled nursing facilities or visit patients in their own homes. If someone wants to see the world, they may want to become a travel physical therapist.
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9 . Directions: Read the following passage. Summarize the main idea and the main point(s) of the passage in no more than 60 words. Use your own words as far as possible.
Will Plant-based Protein Continue to be an Appetizer in Food World?
A good vegan milk needs to look like milk and taste like milk, whether it’s a fatty version, preferred by bakers, or a skimmed one, favored by the health-conscious. For years, manufacturers of plant-based protein have had trouble hacking this delicate imitation game and it seems that they are winning back a bit. The global revenues (收益) from alternative proteins could reach $290 billion by 2035 and that is a cautious estimate. However, can it last?
Unlike those early products, which were neither terribly tasty nor particularly nutritious, cleaver (剁肉刀) processing improves textures, additives boost taste and a pinch of specially engineered peas and beans adds nutrient in the latest products. Still, ultra-processed substitutes seldom match animal proteins in nutritional value. Animal products, including milk, are better for children’s bone development, though lab- grown versions of meat or dairy are becoming more nutritious. Meanwhile, green-minded consumers are realizing that plant-based does not necessarily mean sustainable in that it still takes a lot to obtain raw materials. Farming almonds (杏仁) to make a milk-like drink, for example, uses huge quantities of water.
Plant-based proteins are also a tough sell in giant markets like India, where diets are already rich in plants and vegetables, or Nigera, where meat-eating is a sign of wealth. That limits their global appeal.
All these suggests that alternative proteins have far to go to replace the animal kind. The limitations may be weighing on the firms involved. Oatly’s market value has fallen by about 80% since its listing, partly because of production difficulties. That of Beyond Meat, whose burgers feature in McDonald’s latest menu, is down by 90% from its peak. Plant-based foods may no longer be only an appetizer in diets, but their maker remain one in food business.
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Reading Is Important For Your Brain
You can take fish oil pill or go to a language class, puzzle books, or a few hours of exercise every week. There are countless methods to improve your memory and cognitive (认知的) functioning. But the cheapest and easiest way to sharpen your brain is right in front of your face. It’s called reading.
The most basic impact occurs in the area associated with language reception. Processing written material—from the letters to the words to the sentences to the stories themselves—puts our brain to work. That happens when we process spoken language, too, but the very nature of reading encourages the brain to work harder and better. And the benefits of reading continue long after you’ve put down that great book. A small study at Emory University found that some of those benefits lasted for five days. “We call that a shadow activity, almost like a muscle memory,” says Gregory Berns, PhD, director of the Center for Neuro-policy at Emory. In fact, this is how reading in a certain font can improve your memory.
However, not all reading is created equal. Results from a study conducted at Stanford University indicate that close literary reading in particular gives your brain a major workout. MRI scans of people who are deep into a Jane Austen novel showed an increase in blood flowing to areas of the brain that control both cognitive and executive function, as opposed to the more limited effects that come from more leisurely reading.
The ability to read closely is something that needs to be cultivated. An author notes that even she, someone who reads for a living, has found her ability to concentrate on the written word fading as more of what we read is on a screen. “Unfortunately, this form of reading is rarely continuous, sustained, or concentrated,” she writes.
Of course, there’s an easy solution: Turn off your phone and your computer, set aside a good hour or two—and just read.
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