John, an ESL tutor of a community college, moved to New York City with all the members of his family. John is a remarkable teacher, so     1     (be) his students for several years, we all missed him very much since he left. It was not long     2     John came back to North Carolina to handle some rounding-off (结束) affairs, ESL teachers and we students held a small party for him.

At the party,     3    people walked around and talked with each other cheerfully, I certainly would not lightly give up that good opportunity to learn English. Then I tried to think of all sorts of topics to converse with Monica, another ESL teacher.

Just before I was about     4     (run) out of my topics of conversation when I heard John said to others loudly, “I dig New York!” I immediately asked Monica seriously, “Is it really difficult to find a job in New York? Why does John, such     5     outstanding ESL teacher, have to do laborious work?”

Looking puzzled, Monica asked, “Why do you have such a feeling?”

“Haven’t you heard him say that he     6     (dig) New York? Is he building a tunnel?” I replied. When she finally understood     7     I said, Monica laughed so hard as to narrowly escape spewing (喷出) her food in her mouth. Wearing a broad smile, she gestured to us to stop talking, and then asked us, the ESL students,     8     we knew the meaning of “I dig New York.” All of us shook our heads and said no. Monica then requested John to explain it to us.

    9     turns out that, in American slang, “I dig New York” means, “I love New York.” Though few people say like that nowadays, we can still find it     10     (use) in literary works.

2 . Chances are you’re quite bored of your home by now. Oh sure, you know how lucky you are, if you have a warm and comfortable place to live when so many don’t. But a person could live in a full-on palace and still, at this point in a generation-defining global pandemic, think, “If I have to spend one more day looking at this cornicing (榐板) and those enormous wall sconces (壁式烛台), I will genuinely hurl myself off the balcony.” So allow me to share the greatest tip of all time for making your home more fun: get some wallpaper.

People are very cautious about wallpaper, especially the patterned type. I didn’t fully understand this until my partner and I were house–hunting half a decade ago, after we found out I was expecting twins. Off we went to look at family houses and, while the prices were horrific, the houses were, to my mind, even worse. That’s not fair: they were perfectly fine, but there was something about them that sent me plunging into a low-grade depression. I tried to explain it to the increasingly frustrated estate agents: maybe they were dark? Or they just had a bad atmosphere? Were the ceilings too low? At last, I understood: every house I looked at was painted all white or–worse!–dull grey. Literally, every single one, and I assume the people who lived in them thought they looked fashionable and safely neutral. To me they brought back memories of teenage years spent in a psychiatric unit (精神病病房).

“Safely neutral”: has there ever been a more depressing template (样板) for a home? “Safely neutral” is timidity, the decorating equivalent of a fear of letting yourself have fun in case people laugh at you, or a refusal to state an opinion in case you get it wrong. How so many people can bear to live like that is beyond my comprehension. I know not everyone is a maximalist, but I find it puzzling that people won’t commit to patterned wallpaper because they worry they’ll get tired of it, yet paint their home in the most boring shades possible. Be your fearless self! Make your stamp! If not on the world, then at least on your walls.

By the time we moved into our (entirely white, God help me) house, I was a month away from giving birth to two surprisingly big boys. I could no longer walk, but this in no way broke my stride when it came to sorting out the wallpaper. This was a home I hoped to live in for the next two decades, so I went all out and spent so much on wallpaper that we couldn’t really afford furniture for a while.

3 . In Dad’s Army, a British sitcom (情景喜剧) about a home-defense Force, Sergeant (中士) Wilson would often cast doubt on his commander’s various orders with the phrase “Do you think that’s wise, sir?” His doubt, although often ignored, was usually ________.

Many employees must be tempted to imitate Sgt. Wilson when they see their bosses head down the wrong track. But caution often leads workers to keep silent for fear of appearing foolish and offensive and ________ being at high risk of losing their jobs.

A culture of silence can be dangerous, argues a new book The Fearless Organization, by Amy Edmondson, a professor at Harvard Business School. Some of her cases are from the ________ industry, where staff felt too powerless to make any changes due to their ranks. One was its deadliest accident: a crash between two Boeing-747s in the Canary Islands occurred in 1977 when a co-pilot felt unable to ________ his captain into changing the decision to take off. Another case was that of the Columbia space shuttle in 2003; an engineer who may have diagnosed damage to the shuttle’s wing before the flight felt unable to speak as he was “too ________” at NASA.

In a corporate culture based on ________ and obedience, it may appear that targets are being achieved. But in the long run the effect is likely to be counterproductive (适得其反的). Studies show that fear ________ learning. And when faced with a problem, scared workers find ways of ________ it or getting around it with inefficient practices.

The solution is to create an atmosphere of “psychological safety” whereby workers can speak their minds. It does not mean that workers, or their ideas, are ________ criticism, or that they should complain continuously. In a sense, this method is the ________ of Toyota’s “lean manufacturing” process, which allows any worker who spots a problem to stop the production line.

Pixar, the production firm, created what it called a “Braintrust” to give ________ to film directors. The rules were that advice should be constructive and about the idea, not the person, and that filmmakers should not be ________ in response.

And psychological safety is not about whistleblowing (检举). Indeed, if an employee feels the need to act as a whistleblower by speaking to external ________, it suggests employers have not created an environment within the firm where criticism can be ________. Nor is such a culture only about safety or avoiding mistakes. As mundane (单调的) tasks are automated, and workers rely on computers for data analysis, the added value of humans will stem from their ________. But as Ms. Edmondson’s book demonstrates, it is hard to be either constructive or creative if you are not confident about speaking out.

Walmart has a plan to tackle the climate crisis. Can it pull it off?

Every day a seemingly never-ending stream of toothbrushes, toilet paper, tape, thumbtacks, toys and     1       products criss-cross the globe from a network of suppliers to Walmart's more than 10,500 stores.

The retailer, which was for many years     2     (big) in the world until Amazon took

    3     crown in August, has a supply chain almost unfathomably complex. And it comes with a huge carbon-footprint. In 2019 the company emitted 17.56m metric tons of greenhouse gases.

Walmart has declared its mission     4     (tackle) these climate impacts, which means focusing on every part of the chain-from the electricity sourced in its stores to the palm oil in the candy bars sold on its shelves. But     5     some experts celebrate the scale of the retailer's efforts, others wonder whether they go far enough.

Over the past years, Walmart     6     (come) out with a slew of climate promises. In 2017, it launched "Project Gigaton", pledging to cut 1bn metric tons of carbon emissions from its supply chain by 2030. Last year it announced a goal to reach zero emissions from its global operations by 2040 without relying on carbon offsets - where companies "cancel out" some of their impact by funding projects that reduce carbon emissions. It's also promised to be a 100% renewably-powered, zero waste and "regenerative" corporation that does more good than harm.

"It's extraordinary," said Michael Vandenbergh, co-director of the Climate Change Research Network at Vanderbilt Law School,     7     we're talking about is one of the largest and most conservative companies in the world     8    (make) a range of commitments     9       government is not requiring them to make."

Yet it's an uphill task for a retail giant with a business model based on providing tens of millions of low-priced products to a growing number of customers. The big question will be     10     this type of business model can persist in a way that aligns with climate science, said Simon Fischweicher, head of corporations and supply chains for environmental nonprofit CDP North America.

5 . The internet has transformed the way people work and communicate. It has upended(颠倒) industries, from entertainment to retailing. But its most profound effect may well be on the biggest decision that most people make -- choosing a mate.

In the early 1990s the notion of meeting a partner online seemed freakish, and not a little pathetic. Today, in many places, it is normal. Smartphones have put virtual bars in people's pockets, where singletons can mingle free from the constraints of social or physical geography.

Digital dating is a massive social experiment, conducted on one of humanity's most intimate and vital processes. Its effects are only just starting to become visible.

The greater choice of meeting one Mr/Mrs. Right makes the digital dating market far more efficient than the offline kind. For some, that is bad news. Because of the gulf in pickiness between the sexes, a few straight men are doomed never to get any matches at all. On Tantan, a Chinese app, men express interest in 60% of women they see, but women are interested in just 6% of men; this dynamic means that 5% of men never receive a match.

For most people, however, digital dating-offers better outcomes. Research has found that marriages in America between people who meet online are likely to last longer, such couples profess to be happier than those who met offline. Online dating is a particular boon(好处、益处) for those with very particular requirements. I date allows daters to filter out matches who would not consider converting to Judaism, for instance.

The fact that online daters have so much more choice can break down barriers; evidence suggests that the internet is boosting interracial marriages by bypassing homogenous social groups. But daters are also more able to choose partners like themselves. Assortative mating already shoulders some of the blame for income inequality. Online dating may make the effect more pronounced: education levels are displayed prominently on dating profiles in a way they would never be offline.

But even if the market does not become ever more concentrated, the process of coupling (or not) has unquestionably become more centralised. Romance used to be a distributed activity which took place in a profusion of bars, clubs, churches and offices; now enormous numbers of people rely on a few companies to meet their mate. That hands a small number of coders(编程员) tremendous power to engineer mating outcomes. Competition offers some protection against such a possibility; so too might greater transparency over the principles used by dating apps to match people up.

Yet such concerns should not obscure(使模糊) the good that comes from the modern way of romance. The right partners can elevate(提升) and nourish(滋养) each other. The wrong ones can ruin both their lives. Digital dating offers millions of people a more efficient way to find a good mate. That is something to love.

Inaugural (就职的) Address by President Joseph R. Biden, Jr.

THE PRESIDENT: Chief Justice Roberts, Vice President Harris, Speaker Pelosi, Leader Schumer, Leader McConnell, Vice President Pence, distinguished guests, and my fellow Americans:

This is Americans day. This is democracy’s day. A day of history and hope. Of renewal and     1    . Through a crucible (磨炼) for the ages America has been tested a new and America has risen to the     2    .

Today, we celebrate the     3     not of a candidate, but of a cause, the cause of democracy. The     4    of the people has been heard and has been heeded. We have learned again that democracy is precious. Democracy is fragile. And at this hour, my friends, democracy has prevailed.

So now, on this hallowed ground where just days ago violence sought to shake this Capitol’s very foundation, we come together as one nation, under God,     5     to carry out the peaceful transfer of power as we have for more than two centuries. We look ahead in our uniquely American way — restless, bold, optimistic — and set our     6     on the nation we know we can be and we must be.

Over the centuries through storm and strife, in peace and in war, we have come so far. But we still have far to go. We will     7     forward with speed and urgency, for we have much to do in this winter of peril and possibility. Much to repair. Much to restore. Much to heal. Much to build. And much to gain.

Few periods in our nation’s history have been more challenging or difficult than the one we’re in now. A once-in-a-century virus silently     8     the country. it’s taken as many lives in one year as America lost in all of World War IL Millions of jobs have been lost. Hundreds of thousands of businesses closed. A cry for racial justice some 400 years in the making moves us. The dream of justice for all will be     9     no longer.

A cry for survival comes from the planet itself. A cry that can’t be any more desperate or any more clear.

And now, a rise in political extremism, white supremacy, domestic terrorism that we must confront and we will defeat.

To overcome these challenges—to restore the soul and to     10     the future of America—requires more than words. It requires that most elusive of things in a democracy: Unity.