Dragons, a famous     1     (imagine) beast born from fantasy, are often present in stories in the west and east. In both cultures, dragons are     2     (general) recognized as massive creatures capable of flying. They have great power with magical abilities. However, due     3     their different cultural roots and images, there exist significant differences in the way dragons     4     (regard) in the west and east, particularly in China.

In traditional Chinese culture, a dragon is a symbol of luck, power and high ‘status. They can cause weather changes and bring rainfall to the fields     5     (ensure) rich harvests. They are considered divine (神圣的) creatures,     6     hold an important position as the head of the four spirits. Therefore, to symbolize their power, ancient Chinese     7     (emperor) decorated their clothes with dragon patterns. These clothes are known as dragon robes. Many Chinese view the dragon as a national symbol, proudly     8     (refer) to themselves as “descendants of the dragon”. In the west, however, a dragon symbolizes     9     evil creature that spreads violence and terror throughout the land. They are believed to be transformed by the devil, with the ability to breathe fire or spit poison.

Today, dragons continue to evolve, exceeding traditional boundaries and finding new significance in global culture. No longer     10     (associate) with evil or good, they are more as complex characters with their own unique personalities and motivations.

7 . Social media can lead to mental exhaustion (疲惫). And when mentally exhausted, you are more likely to be influenced by a high number of likes on posts - even to the point of clicking on ads for products you don’t need.

As a professor of advertising, I have studied social media behaviors for years. In late 2022, my colleague Eric Haley and I conducted three online studies on Americans aged 18-65 to test how people under various mental loads respond to ads differently.

The control group in each study were given no introductory task- we just had them look at an ad. A second group had to memorize a nine-digit number and then look at the ad. The third group looked through the Internet for 30 seconds and then looked at the ad. Participants randomly saw an ad with a few hundred likes or tens of thousands of likes. After viewing the ad, each participant rated how willing they would be to buy the product, and how much mental effort it took to think about the information.

The group that used the Internet first were the most likely to want to buy the featured product when there were lots of likes or comments, and they also reported using the most mental effort to assess the ad. Researchers refer to this mentally exhausted state as “cognitive (认知的) overload”. Using social media puts them in this state because they are constantly evaluating different types of texts, photos and video posts from so many different people. All of this evaluating leaves them feeling frazzled.

Imagine asking your roommate if they want to get pizza. Under normal conditions, the roommate might consider several factors such as cost, hunger, timing or their schedule. Now imagine asking your roommate the same question while they are on the phone with a sick relative. They no longer have the mental energy to logically consider whether pizza for dinner is a good idea. They might just yell “Yeah, sure!” while running inside to clean their shoes.

By understanding how social media influences them, consumers can be more thoughtful in regulating their use and hopefully will not buy yet another water bottle they don’t need.

8 . Have you seen the incredible guitar playing of man born with no arms? The musician who was born without arms is being _______ for his greatest guitar-playing skills in a short documentary (纪实的) video which shows him playing the instrument with his _______.

Mark Goffeney, 46 of San Diego, who is _______ as “Big Toe” because of the way he plays the guitar, shows how he became a talented performer despite his _______ in the inspiring video. “I first _______ the instrument when I was nine, after my father brought home a beat-up _______ with only four strings. My first guitar came from some place like a landfill (垃圾场),” says Mark, who adds that he became “_______” about becoming a musician at age 12.

Mark devoted every waking hour to searching his town and trying to join a _______, but ran into _______ because of his disability. Therefore, he started his own rock band, called Wicked Misfit, and began booking gigs (特约演奏) in California.

Things were ________ professionally for Mark because of his disability. But everything ________ when he started playing music from the heart. “When I ________ pursuing this fantasy dream of being a rock star and just started playing music to make whatever milk money I could to support my family, everything started feeling good and ________ out for me,” he shares.

Today, Mark ________ with his band, Big Toe, and also becomes a street-performer in California, where he makes quite good money ________ by passers-by.

10 . Polar bears normally need sea ice to hunt seals, but an isolated (孤立的) group of polar bears living on the mountainous coast of southeast Greenland have figured out how to make a living, even though the sea ice there melts away early in the year.

These bears have found a way to supplement (补充) their limited sea ice supply by hunting on freshwater ice that comes from glaciers on land. The glacial ice falls off in pieces into fjords (峡湾), where the pieces get together into a floating platform that the polar bears use to catch seals, according to a report in the journal Science.

Climate change is making sea ice less and less. “Loss of sea ice is the primary threat to polar bears,” says Kristin Laidre of the University of Washington, lead author of the new study. But, she says, this new work suggests some bears might be able to deal with a decreased amount of sea ice - at least for a while - in places like Greenland where they can take advantage of floating glacier ice.

While local people have long known that bears live in southeast Greenland, it’s a remote, challenging environment that’s not frequented by humans. “It’s a coastline with huge mountain peaks, lots of winds, extreme conditions and plenty of fogs.” says Laidre, who has spent years working with colleagues to survey polar bears living on Greenland’s 1,800-mile-long east coast.

To see what they could find in southeast Greenland, the team had to take helicopters from the nearest settlement and fly for two hours in a straight line to the coast. “We arrived in these fjords, very isolated fjords, and there’s essentially no sea ice or very poor sea ice offshore,” says Laidre, explaining that the researchers expected to find few bears. “But there were a lot of bears in these fjords,” she says. “It was clearly just a unique habitat.”

The sea ice continues to exist in these fjords for only around a hundred days a year, she notes, meaning that bears don’t have much time to use it as a hunting ground.