1 . A 23-year-old woman has achieved an unbelievable feat that many of us dream of —visiting every country on Earth.

Lexie Alford was born into a family of travel agents, which gave her the opportunity to _______ places such as Cambodia, Dubai and Egypt during her childhood, according to Forbes magazine. She began saving up at age 12 to _______ her goal of visiting all countries. By her 18^th birthday, she had traveled to 72 nations. In October, 2016, she realized she could see the _______ nations on her list in time to set an official record. Many people _______ her travel on social media platform Instagram, so she decided to chase the world record partly to _______ others. “Honestly, at the beginning, I _______ wanted to push the _______ of what I thought I could do with my life and see as much of the world as possible in the _______,” she told Forbes. “It wasn’t until things started getting really _______ that I realized I was inspiring people around me, especially the ____________.”

“I also loved visiting Northern Pakistan, for the natural beauty of the mountains and kindness of the locals were astonishing,” Lexie Alford said. “The most pleasant surprise about traveling to all these misunderstood areas of the world was that the countries that I had the ____________ expectation for ____________ being the most incredible.”

“My ____________ for young people is to believe that you can do anything you set your mind to do. If you want to travel, you have to ____________ sacrifices to travel around the world. And it’s only a matter of ____________ until you can make it a reality.”

3 . Erin Alexander’s sister-in-law recently died, and she was having a hard day. A barista (咖啡师) was too. The coffee machine had broken down and she was clearly stressed. Ms. Alexander ordered an iced green tea, and told her to hang in there. After picking up her order, she noticed a message on the cup: “Erin,” the barista had drawn next to a heart, “your soul is golden.” “I’m not sure I even necessarily know what ‘your soul is golden’ means,” said Ms. Alexander, who laughed and cried while recalling the incident. But the warmth of that small and unexpected gesture, from a stranger who had no idea of what she was going through, moved her deeply. “Of course, I was still really sad,” Ms. Alexander said. “But that little thing made the rest of my day.”

New findings, published in the Journal of Experimental Psychology, prove just how powerful experiences like Ms. Alexander’s can be. Researchers found that people who perform a random (随意的) act of kindness tend to underestimate how much the receiver will appreciate it. And they believe that miscalculation could hold many of us back from doing nice things for others more often.

A recent study consisted of eight small experiments that varied in design and participants. In one, for example, people were told they could give a cupcake away to strangers, and were asked to rate their own mood as well as how they believed the receiver would feel. The researchers found that those who got a cupcake as a result of a random act of kindness felt better than the person on the giving end thought they would. “People tend to think that what they are giving is kind of little; maybe it’s relatively unimportant,” Dr. Kumar, an assistant professor of marketing and psychology at the University of Texas, Austin, said. “But receivers are less likely to think along those lines. They consider the gesture to be significantly more meaningful because they are also thinking about the fact that someone did something nice for them.”

If you are not already in the habit of performing random kind acts—or if it does not come naturally to you—Marisa Franco, a psychologist, said to start by thinking about what you like to do. “It’s not about you being like, ‘Oh man, now I have to learn how to bake cookies in order to be nice.’ It’s about: What skills and talents do you already have? And how can you turn that into an offering for other people?”

4 . In a post shared on Twitter last Monday, the woman, Amy Clukey, explained that her dad, Rick, a beekeeper, died of lung cancer about nine years ago. But, before passing away, he wrote a note that he hoped one of his children would later find, and finally after so long, her little brother, who is now 16 years old, found it in his father’s beekeeping clothes.

The note said, “I hope one of my children is curious about beekeeping. Beekeeping is actually pretty easy and you can learn everything online. Bees make more products than just honey; it can be a source of extra income. So don’t be afraid, have courage. Good luck. Love Dad.”

The bee population in 2019 consisted primarily of wild bees, and North Dakota has the highest honey production with over 38 million pounds.

Clukey explained that her father bought a farm when he was in his 40s, and it was then that he took up beekeeping and other hobbies like raising cattle and horses. She added, “When he was diagnosed (诊断) with stage 4 lung cancer, the doctors told him that he had 18 months to live. He was a fighter: He lived 5 years and a week after his diagnosis.”

The post has attracted a lot of readers on the platform and has received over 42,800 likes, 2,333 comments, and 749,000 re-shares in less than 24 hours, and in the comments, the woman added that while she doesn’t do beekeeping herself, two of her brothers are interested in it.

One user commented, “I lost my dad in 2018. This post makes me cry.” And another user said, “My dad is in the last few weeks of his life battling cancer. I’ll come back to the post in a couple of months when I need it again.” And one also shared the story of her personal loss, writing, “I lost my husband half a year ago. He used to leave little notes all over the house. I can’t bring myself to move anything.”

There are various reasons why people compose poetry. Some poems tell a story or describe a certain image in the readers’ mind. Others try to convey certain f    1     such as joy and sorrow. The distinctive characteristics of poetry often include economic use of words, descriptive and v    2     language, integrated imagery, l    3     devices such as similes and metaphors, and arrangements of words, lines, rhemes, and rhythm. Poets use many different forms of poetry to e    4     themselves. Now we will look at a few of the simpler forms.

Some of the first poems a young child learns in English are nursery r    5    . They are usually the traditional poems or f    6     songs. The language of these rhymes, like Poem A, is to the p    7     but has a storyline. Many children enjoy nursery rhymes because they rhyme, have a strong rhythm, and often repeat the same words. The poems may not make s    8     and even seem contradictory, but they are easy to learn and r    9    . By playing with the words in nursery rhymes children learned about language.

7 . Have you ever thought about what determines the way we are when we grow up? Remember the TV program Seven Up? It started following the lives of a group of children in 1963. We first meet them as wide­ eyed seven­ year­ olds and then catch up with them at seven ­year intervals (间隔): nervous 14­ year­ olds, serious 21 year ­olds and then grown ­ups.

Some of the stories are inspiring, others sad, but what is interesting in almost all the cases is the way in which the children’s early hopes and dreams are shown in their future lives. For example, at seven, Tony is a lively child who says he wants to become a sportsman or a taxi driver. When he grows up, he goes on to do both. How about Nicki? She says, “I’d like to find out about the moon.” And she goes on to become a space scientist. As a child, soft­ spoken Bruce says he wants to help “poor children” and ends up teaching in India.

But if the lives of all the children had followed this pattern, the program would be far less interesting than it actually was. It was the children whose childhood did not prepare them for what was to come that made the program so interesting. Where did their ideas come from about what they wanted to do when they grew up?Are the children influenced by what their parents do, by what they see on television, or by what their teachers say?How great is the effect of a single important event? Many film directors, including Stephen Spielberg, say that an early visit to the cinema was the turning point in their lives. Dr Margaret McAllister, who has done a lot of research in this area, thinks that the major factors are parents, friends, and the wider society.

9 . Although I love watching Olympic diving, I’ve never understood why athletes hurry off to the showers and then proceed to relax in a hot tub (热水浴池) after each dive. They’re already wet. They’re only in the pool for a handful of seconds, so it’s not like they need to get cleaned up. And doesn’t taking a shower serve the same purpose as sitting in a hot tub?

Actually, that’s what Olympic divers usually do between dives as they know very well about the importance of warm-ups and cool-downs. So, what’s the actual reason?

As it turns out, showers and hot tubs are used pretty interchangeably by the swimming pool. However, there is a need for both. First, let’s start with why divers need to take a shower between dives. It has to do with body temperature and keeping their muscles relaxed. As you can imagine, practicing dives in the pool, then having to keep your body warm in a shower, and then jumping off a 10-meter platform and into cold water couldn’t be comfortable for anyone. Going back and forth between these warm and cool temperatures can cause a diver’s muscles to tense or cramp up (痉挛), which can lead to injuries to the muscles. Showers allow an Olympic diver to recover and prevent that.

In that way, showers and hot tubs serve the same purpose. A hot tub is generally used if you have a bit more time between dives and have already stretched. The shower walls on the pool deck can typically provide enough space for more divers at the same time, and they’re especially helpful for athletes who need to stretch or who only have a few minutes between dives. Just like Olympic swimmers depend on thick clothes to keep their muscles warm, Olympic divers rely on these methods to stay loose. If you ask me, it’s not a bad way to pass the time!