2 . Switzerland is surrounded by three of Europe’s major—and most populous—countries: France, Germany and Italy. For thousands of years, the region has been a busy trade ________, both from east to west as well as from north, to south. Today, Switzerland is an indispensable part of the European transport network and ________ a superb motorway and railway infrastructure. Five international airports in Zurich, Geneva. Basel. Bern and Lugano offer direct ________ to destinations around the world.

Switzerland is a popular place to do business, a center of education and a favorite travel destination. At the heart of this success story lies a stable political system. The county has not gone through any major political changes since the foundation of the federal state inn 1848. This has created space for economic, social and artistic development. Federalism, the successful integration of different cultures, and the mechanisms of direct democracy are all means to increase the ________ of its citizens and residents. This process of forming unity out of ________ has often been seen as exemplary. And, of course, the country is small and ________, which also contributes to the high quality of life in Switzerland.

Political stability is also ________ in an economic system that manages to balance a free market economy with social responsibility.________ are very rare in Switzerland.________ its deeply rooted work ethic and high educational standards, this social harmony represents one of Switzerland’s key advantages as a place to do business and has made a major contribution to its economic development.

Stability, a well-developed sense of service and discretion, and a strong currency have turned Switzerland into a leading financial center. From a historical ________, the fact that the county was not involved in the two world wars has contributed to this development. It is a country with ________ natural resources, so the strength of its import industry has also played a significant part. Not being a member of the EU. Switzerland is also not part of the so-called Eurozone. For this reason, the use of the euro in everyday life is limited to Switzerland’s border and tourist regions.

In terms of income, assets and per capita gross national product. Switzerland ranks among the top in the world.

The ________ excellent standard of living is also based on the high level of education and corresponding work ethic.________, people work 42 hours per week. Taxes are comparatively low, both for business and for businesses and for individuals. Corporate taxation as well as the rate of value added tax are among the lowest that can be found anywhere in the world.

All these factors make Switzerland a safe country with a low crime rate. The Swiss ________ being tidy and clean, which is why recycling is popular .________ to this a rich cultural variety and beautiful scenery, and you get a quality of life that is hard to beat.

3 . One of the roles of the Nobel Prize for literature is to shine a light on someone who has been less visible than they deserve. That role was _______ this year in the announcement of Abdulrazak Gurnah as winner.

Unlike previous popular recipients living in Britain, he is not a _______. He could, as he said after the announcement, have reached more readers, but his publications _______ to grant him that. His publisher felt sorry for the fact that he “is one of the greatest living African writers; yet no one has ever _______ him,” but with this he did not agree: “I didn’t think I was ignored.”

There is a(n) _______ , here, that has to do with who is doing the looking, and what counts as officially being noticed. There is also a point of _______: calling Gurnah an African writer. In fact, while that seems to broaden horizons, it narrows and distances what he is doing. Gurnah was born in Zanzibar, and left for Britain when he was 18, _______ regional conflicts for what he hoped would be calmer waters, which turned out to be stronger dark current. He has lived in Britain ever since.

He began and stuck to writing to _______, to himself, of the shock -- of racism, rejection, poverty and loneliness. His ten novels return to it _______, which begins in 1996’s Admiring Silence. His work exists because of Britain as well as Zanzibar; it may ________ both or wholly neither. It arrives out of a(n) ________ of English literature (Gurnah is professor of literature at the University of Kent), and his first language, the rhythms and stories of Islam.

________, many of the UK's thirteen Nobel-winning writers were born elsewhere as by 2019, 14% of the UK’s population were born abroad. People might also be astonished at how many of those countries were once part of the British empire. Gurnah has spoken of how much of the world is still processing the wounds that colonialism ________, especially the experience of “losing your place in the world”-- where place is not just ________, but also belonging, status and culture.

In this sense, Gurnah’s work, which ________ those who might not have been remembered in history--shopkeeper, homemakers, students and refugees, could not be more British. But, more importantly, it could not be more universal.

5 . Women are still underrepresented in top academic positions. One of the possible explanations for this is the increasing importance of obtaining research funding. Women are often less successful in this than men. Psychology researchers Dr. Romy van der Lee and professor Naomi Ellemers investigated whether this difference also occurs at the Netherlands Organisation for Scientific Research (NWO) and examined potential explanations.

The researchers were assigned by NWO to carry out this study as part of the broader evaluation of NWO’s procedures and its gender diversity policy. The aim was to gain more insight into the causes of the differences in awarding rates for male and female applicants for research funding. The analysis addressed an important “talent programme” of NWO, the Veni grant. “Whoever receives this grant has a greater chance of obtaining an important appointment at a university, ” says Naomi Ellemers.

Van der Lee and Ellemers investigated all the applications submitted by male and female researchers over a period of three years: a total of 2823 applications. Under the direction of NWO these applications were assessed by scientific committees consisting of men and women. The results demonstrate that the awarding rates for female applicants (14.9%) are systematically lower than those for male applicants (17.7%). “If we compare the proportion of women among the applicants with the proportion of women among those awarded funding, we see a loss of 4%,” said Ellemers.

The study reveals that women are less positively evaluated for their qualities as researcher than men are, “Interestingly the research proposals of women and men are evaluated equally positively. In other words, the reviewers see no difference in the quality of the proposals that men and women submit,” says Romy van der Lee.

In search for a possible cause for the differences in awarding rates and evaluations, the researchers also investigated the language use in the instructions and forms used to assess the quality of applications. This clearly revealed the occurrence of gendered language. The words that are used to indicate quality are frequently words that were established in previous research as referring mainly to the male gender stereotype (such as challenging and excellent). Romy van der Lee explains: “As a result, it appears that men more easily satisfy the assessment criteria, because these better fit the characteristics stereoty-pically associated with men.”

In response to the results of this research, NWO will devote more attention to the gender awareness of reviewers in its methods and procedures. It will also be investigated which changes to the assessment procedures and criteria can most strongly contribute to more equal chances for men and women to obtain research funding. This will include an examination of the language used by NWO. NWO chair Jos Engelens said, “The research has yielded valuable results and insights. Based on the recommendations made by the researchers we will therefore focus in the coming period on the development of evidence-based measures to reduce the difference in awarding rates.”

6 . Last year, 138,000 San Francisco residents used Airbnb, a popular app designed to connect home renters and travelers. It’s a striking number for a city with a population of about 850,000, and it was enough for Airbnb to win a major victory in local elections, as San Francisco voters struck down a debatable rule that would have placed time restrictions and other regulations on short-term rental services.

The company fiercely opposed the measure, Proposition F, with a nearly $10 million advertising campaign. It also contacted its San Franciscan users with messages urging them to vote against Proposition F.

Most people think of Airbnb as a kind of couch-surfing app. The service works for one-night stays on road trips and longer stays in cities, and it often has more competitive pricing than hotels. It’s a textbook example of the “sharing economy”, but not everyone is a fan.

The app has had unintended consequences in San Francisco. As the San Francisco Chronicle reported last year, a significant amount of renting on Airbnb is not in line with the company’s image: middle-class families putting up a spare room to help make ends meet. Some users have taken advantage of the service, using it to turn their multiple properties into vacation rentals or even full-time rentals. Backers of Proposition F argued that this trend takes spaces off the conventional, better-regulated housing market and contributes to rising costs.

“The fact is, widespread abuse of short-term rentals is taking much needed housing off the market and harming our neighborhoods,” said ShareBetter SF, a group that supported Proposition F. Hotel unions have protested the company’s practices in San Francisco and other cities, saying that it creates an illegal hotel system.

San Francisco is in the middle of a long-term, deeply rooted housing crisis that has seen the cost of living explode. Actually, explode is a generous term. The average monthly rent for an apartment is around $4, 000. Located on a narrow outcropping of land overlooking the bay, San Francisco simply doesn’t have enough space to accommodate the massive inflow of young, high-salaried tech employees flocking to Silicon Valley.

As the Los Angeles Times reported, some San Francisco residents supported the measure simply because it seemed like a way to check a big corporation. Opponents of Proposition F countered that the housing crisis runs much deeper, and that passing the rule would have discouraged a popular service while doing little to solve the city’s existing problems.

8 . The Thai government intends to further deepen its digital cooperation with Chinese technology company Huawei, senior Thai officials said at a cloud event held in Bangkok this week.

During the Powering Digital Thailand 2022 on Nov 17-19, Thai deputy Prime Minister Prawit Wongsuwon said digital infrastructure (基础设施), such as5G, is crucial to Thailand’s _________ and social development, especially for the country’s post-pandemic economic _________.

Badly hit by the COVID-19 pandemic, the tourism-reliant nation registered an economic reduction of 6.1 percent last year, the worst in more than 20 years. However, the pandemic has significantly speeded the _________ of digital technologies in Thailand, where Chinese tech companies have _________ advantages.

During the pandemic, Huawei used its technology to help local hospitals implement systems for automated medical supply, AI-backed _________ and remote treatment, which greatly improved the _________ of hospitals and made healthcare more _________.

Fueled by Thailand’s digital roadmap, Huawei has focused on helping the country build 20,000 5G stations in the past two years. _________, Thailand has more than 4.2 million 5G subscribers leading in 5G adoption among ASEAN (Association of Southeast Asian Nations) countries.

Another strength of Huawei has been its cloud capabilities. Deng Feng, general manager of Huawei Thailand, said Huawei Cloud is the only cloud service _________ with local data centers in Thailand, considering that data localization is a key trend of global enterprises due to government regulations as well as security concerns.

He emphasized the Huawei will support Thailand’s low-carbon and digital development in the future in four areas, including expanding 5G coverage and usage, providing cloud services, creating low-carbon development with digital energy, and __________ industry talents.

Thai Minister of Digital Economy and Society Chaiwut Thanakamanusorn expressed his hopes for __________ cooperation between the Thai government and Huawei to __________ the country’s digital economy, which is targeted to __________ 30 percent of the GDP by 2030.

According to a joint report released by Google, Temasek and Bain & Company earlier this month Thailand’s digital economy is expected to __________ $30 billion this year, up 51 percent, making it the second-largest market in Southeast Asia after Indonesia.

Huawei’s Rotating Chairman Guo Ping said the company will continue __________ and building a tech ecosystem to facilitate faster digitalization in Asia-Pacific, and invest $100 million over the next three years to build a startup ecosystem in the region.