1 . As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.

In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.

In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called “transactive memory (交互记忆)”

According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn’t mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.

2 . Student loan (贷款) debt has become a worldwide problem. In America, the country's overall student debt reached a record of $1.6 trillion in 2019. The average person with student loan debt owed between $20,000 and $25,000. A recent Japanese government report says it has been lending over $9 billion yearly to students since 2010. Similar conditions exist in Africa and South America.

Several factors account for high student loan debt. One is that employers everywhere have increased their demands for skilled workers, making higher education a requirement for many jobs. The students, however, after graduation, often find that their country's economy is not strong enough to support their financial needs, so their ability to pay back the loan becomes a problem.

To solve the problem, many countries are seeking their ways. Australia has developed a system where students do not have to pay anything back until they are earning at least $40,000 a year. In America, several candidates running for president in the 2020 election have offered more extreme solutions that all or at least some of these loans will be forgiven.

Some professors in several universities recently studied what the effects of debt forgiveness might be. They found that, overall, sudden debt relief greatly improved the borrowers' lives. Not only did they have more money, but they were more likely to move to a new area and seek better paying work.

Yet the professors' research doesn't include what might happen to financial institutions or the overall economy if debt were totally forgiven. It only looks at how debt forgiveness would help the borrowers. They warn of some other possible negative effects. If a borrower knew that if he ran into any trouble he would be saved because he could get the debt relief, then he might actually become more reckless (轻率的) with his borrowing in the future.

No matter what, the professors agree that if countries do decide to approve some student debt relief the neediest students should be helped first.

5 . Life is filled with challenges. As we get older we ____ realize that those challenges are the very things that ____ us and make us who we are, it is the same with the challenges that come with____.

When we are faced with a challenge, we usually have two ____. We can try to beat it off, or we can decide that the thing___ the challenge isn’t worth the___ and call it quits.

Although there are certainly___ when calling it quits is the right thing to do, in most __ all that is needed is___ and communication.

When we are committed to something, it means that no matter how___ or how uncomfortable something is, we will always choose to____ it and work through instead of running away from it. Communication is making a ____ for discussion and talking about how you feel instead of just saying what the other person did wrong. ____ you can say to a friend, “I got my feelings hurt.”___ “You hurt my feelings,” you are going to be able to solve the problem much faster.

In dealing with many challenges that friendship will bring to you, try to see them for___ they are: small hurdles you need to jump or ____ on your way through life. Nothing is so big that it is ____ to get over, and hurt only ____ to make us stronger. It is all part of growing up, and it ____ to everyone, and some day you will ____ all of this and say, “Hard as it was, it made me who I am today. And that’s a good thing.”

6 . Are you interested in working with animals? Now here comes the CHANCE. Kirby Wildlife Park has set up the unique Keeper Experience package. The fantastic experience is available to anyone over the age of 18 who is reasonably fit. We regret that for health and safety reasons, participants who are pregnant, in a wheelchair or suffering from illnesses cannot take part.

A typical day

9:15 Arrival 9:30 Health and Safety Briefing

10:00 Apes and Monkeys

While cleaning out the enclosure (围场) you will find out about how enclosures are enriched with novel items and new smells to stimulate the animals′ senses and imitate their natural environment.

12:00 Lunch 14:00 Big Cats

As one of the highlights of this volunteer experience, you will feed the cats and learn about their nutritional needs. The keeper will give you an introduction to how cat behavior can be read to get an idea of their welfare and health.

16:30 Meet the Team

Meet more of the staff and learn how you can get further involved with work at the park. Learn about our animal adoption plan, what it takes to be a good keeper and where to obtain the right qualifications for a career in animal welfare.

Booking and cancellation

The Keeper Experience is available on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays throughout the year, and must be booked at least two weeks in advance. Full payment is needed when booking.

Cancellations must be made more than fourteen days before the event. Otherwise, you won′t receive a full refund.

8 . Sitting in my school cafeteria, I looked around, slowly taking in everything. Student after student passed my _________ carrying that day’s lunch, but if you looked deeper, there was more to _________. There was more than just the uniform they were wearing, or the way they had styled their hair. There was a lot more hidden under the _________.

Catching the eye of a girl in my grade sitting at a nearby table, I waved _________. She smiled weakly and then continued to pick at the spaghetti in front of her. If I hadn’t _________ recently that her mother was dying of leukemia, I would have never _________ anything was wrong and I may not have been as _________ and sympathetic, either. It suddenly _________ me that we judge others too quickly without knowing the whole story.

I have an incurable lung disease. No one at our school knows—I don’t show any noticeable _________ except for a few coughs. I go about my day like any other kid, __________ with the realization that I have a __________ and terrifying future.

Before that day when I decided to __________ the world with a new perspective, I __________ myself almost every day. I thought only about myself and my heavy __________. But I’ve now realized no one is __________—we just need to accept the way we are.

There was something in the elderly woman’s grace that caught my eye. Although slow and unsure of her steps, the woman moved with deliberation (从容), and there was no hesitation in her gestures.

It was a few years ago, and I had taken a part - time holiday - season job in a video. store at the local shopping mall. From inside the store, I could see the people outside rushing by.

The elderly woman entered the store, along with her daughter, who was displaying a serious case of impatience, rolling her eyes, sighing and checking her watch every few seconds. I guessed if she had possessed a rope, she would have fastened it to her mother to drag her along to keep step with the rush of other shoppers.

The elderly woman separated from her daughter and began to seek through the DVDs on the nearest shelf. After the slightest hesitation, I walked over and asked if I could help her find something. The woman smiled up at me and showed me a title written on an old piece of paper.

Rather than rush off to locate the DVD for the woman, I asked her to walk with me so I could show her where she could find it. Looking back, I thought I wanted to enjoy her company for a moment.

Something about her deliberate movements reminded me of my own mother, who’d passed away the previous Christmas. I missed my mom and still felt regretful about the moments when I’d used my impatience to make her life unhappy.

As we walked along the back of the store, I introduced its floor plan: old television shows, action movies, cartoons, science fiction. The woman seemed glad of the unrushed company and casual conversation.

We found the DVD and she thanked me, saying that it was the one she’d enjoyed when she was her daughter’s age. Unwillingly, I accompanied her to the cash register, realizing I had to return the elderly woman to her daughter, who was still tapping her foot at the front of the store.