What are the things that first come to your mind when you think of the UK? Are they nonstop rain, polite manners, boring food and tea drinking?

Some of the UK’s     1     stereotypes are true, a new survey has found. For example, British people do have a (n)     2     to drink lots of tea.

The research polled 1, 402 foreigners living in the UK on their opinions about the British way of life. Unsurprisingly, the majority of them, almost 70 percent, said they enjoyed living in the country—good manners, especially UK people’s extraordinary ability to queue, are the main reasons for foreigners’     3    . More than one-third said they liked British people’s restrained     4     to emotion.

However, there are aspects of British culture that are     5     of. The heavy alcohol drinking culture ranked as the least favorite trait, followed by the British sense of humor and the country’s bad weather.

It may not be too hard to understand why heavy drinking and bad weather are     6    , but what’s wrong with the British sense of humor?

British humor is known for being dry and satirical (讽刺的), so it is generally more     7    . When it comes to making the British laugh, there is nothing more effective than a     8     inappropriate joke, noted the BBC. “Britons are more comfortable with life’s losers,” wrote English actor Ricky Gervais in an article published in Time magazine.

“The majority of nationalities have stereotypes     9     around them and Britons don’t escape this,” said Liam Clifford, the founder of Global Visas, the website that conducted the research. “People probably come here with a stereotype-based preconception of what to expect. It’s good to see from our survey, though, that, in the majority of cases, this reputation is actually     10     upon living here.”

Rongjiang county, tucked away in the rainy hills of south-west China, has little going for it at first glance. The grey tiles covering houses in the county sea give it a rather drab feel. Locals often have to find work elsewhere, travelling to distant factories and construction sites.

Yet this summer it was Chinese from far-off cities who flocked to Rongjiang. They came to watch an amateur football league involving 20 of the county’s villages. It started in May and quickly became a       1    . Weekend matches between teams made up of butchers and farmers drew crowds of nearly 50, 000, straining the local stadium. Millions more watched on Weibo, a Twitter-like platform, and Douyin, the Chinese version of TikTok.

There are many reasons behind the popularity of the Rongjiang league, which is men only. Start with the     2     of professional football. Despite decades of investment, the country’s players are not very good. The men’s national team, made up of players from China’s top league, ranks 78th in the world (the women rank 14th). It has only qualified for the World Cup once, in 2002, when it failed to score a single goal.

The Rongjiang league, by contrast, has an authentic, even wholesome feel. Football in the county dates back to the 1940s, when it was     3     by university students who were fleeing China’s cities during the invasion by Japan. Today the games are free to watch and feel enjoyably low pressure. Players     4     off their missed shots with smiles. After a penalty shoot-out in the semi-finals, fans swarmed the pitch waving China’s national flag. The winners of this year’s tournament, from a village in Chejiang township, walked away with a cow. The two runners-up won three pigs and three goats, respectively.

The league’s cultural diversity is another     5    . The players come from several minority ethnic groups, of which the biggest are the Dong and the Miao. During breaks in the matches, villagers in traditional silver headdresses often dance for the crowd.

To the delight of officials at all levels, the league appears to have stimulated the local economy. During the Dragon Boat festival in June tourism spending     6     up, much of it coming from football fans. Vendors at the hundreds of stalls set up by the local government outside the stadium     7     a brisk trade. A man hawking barbecue skewers says he has doubled his income.

But there are concerns that the success of Rongjiang may be fleeting. Attracting crowds to this part of China is not easy. The city of Zibo, in the northern province of Shandong, provides a     8     tale. It became a social-media phenomenon when word of its delicious kebabs began making the rounds earlier this year. Tourists flocked to the city, where officials turned arenas into makeshift dining halls. But after a few months of this barbecue craze, interest in Zibo slumped.

Still, officials think they have found a winning strategy for the countryside. A new football league began this month and will     9     until October. It involves nearly 300 amateur teams from all around China. Each is named after a food. On August 13th a team called the Sour Soups from the nearby city of Kaili beat the Bamboo Shoots from the southern province of Guangdong. The stadium in Rongjiang was still     10    .

After-school tutoring to change course under new regulations

Zhong Kaitong, a fourth-grade pupil at a primary school in Guangzhou, enjoys a much more energetic summer vacation this year. Instead of English or mathematics courses she used to attend, her vacation is     1     with fun and laughter, playing badminton and basketball in the playground.

Chinese authorities have in recent months     2     out a series of strict regulations to deal with after-school training and ease the burden on primary and middle school students. In late May, authorities ordered the comprehensive     3     of off-campus training institutions and a tougher crackdown on unqualified operations, false advertising, and so on.

Last month, central authorities     4     a guideline to ease the burden of too much homework and off-campus tutoring for young students. It details requirements in areas such as the     5     of homework and improving quality of education and after-class services provided by schools.

A(n)     6     to several training centers around a primary school in Shenyang, found empty classrooms. Such tutoring has been suspended for about a week and will not be     7     for the whole summer vacation, they say.

Some tutoring institutions are actively seeking transformation under the new guidelines. A manager in charge of one major tutoring company says 70 percent of their business has been affected, and that they are     8     new service areas to adapt to the new policy.

All these moves have sent a very clear     9     to bring education back as a public welfare, and guide the educational training industry to develop in a direction of improving students’ comprehensive     10    , says Chen Xianzhe, a professor at South China Normal University.

9 . Please stop ruining children’s summer camp

Teslie Conrad is the director of Clemson Outdoor Lab in South Carolina, which runs several different youth summer camps. Clemson _______ cell phones and other electronic devices in summer camps. And according to the American Camp Association, most sleep-away camps in the United States _______ access to cell phones.

This makes sense. We traditionally think of summer camps as a place where we get to swim in a lake, camp under the stars and make new _______ over campfires and outdoor adventures, not one where we text and play video games.

Researchers say that campers develop invaluable social skills, while facing risks and working their way through their feelings of homesickness — all _______. “It’s kind of like letting go of everything and coming to a different world,” says Alexa Sherman, an 11-year-old camper. Many of the campers there say they _______ YouTube and Snapchat, but they quickly come to appreciate the hands-on activities and in-person friendships.

The people who have the _______ time letting go, camp directors say, aren’t necessarily the campers themselves, but instead their parents.

Barry Garst studies youth development at Clemson University. He said that whether you call them “helicopter”, “snowmobile” or “lawnmower” parents, over-involved parenting is having a negative overall effect and is _______ the types of positive interpersonal experiences these camps are meant to provide for youth. Not weather, not water safety, not dangerous bears. It’s parents who call every day demanding _______ on their kids and who expect to hear from the camp director about every skinned knee.

Meg Barthel, the lead girls’ counselor at camp Echo, carries a device with access to Wi-Fi around camp. “I have to _______ the mothers who are used to having constant communication with their daughters,” she says. How many ________ a day? “Up to 100.”

Some camps address parents’ ________ for updates by posting pictures and videos online. But sometimes this can have the ________ effect. In response, they’ll often receive the following phone call: “Hello, camp director, I was on your ________ and I don’t see them. Are they OK? Were they sent to the hospital?”

Research on over-parenting, says Garst, shows that when parents behave this way, the development of a child’s sense of ________ can be slowed or can become altogether halted. The parents are sending the message that they don’t think their kids can get through tough moments on their own, and the kids pick up on this attitude. “Children are not really learning how to ________ for themselves.”

10 . In modern cities, it is now time as much as space that separates urban functions, as people’s lives are lived not only to different timetables, but also at wildly different rates. The mass timetable of the industrial city, with 9-5 office hours and silent Sundays, has gone. In its ______ is flexi-time, part-time working, Sunday shopping and the 24-hour city.

European cities are ______ these changes perhaps faster than British cities. In at least half a dozen cities in Italy, ______, you will find the Uffici Tempi--the Offices of Time. What they do is try to reorganise time more flexibly in the city, in order to meet new needs. This is particularly relevant for Italian women, an increasing number of whom have to ______ two timetables: work and home. Usually located in the Mayor’s office, the Uffici Tempi bring together transport providers, shop-owners, employers, trade unions, the police and other services to see how their efforts might be better ______. The main aim in all this is to increase the efficiency and productivity of the city. This can mean delaying the starting tunes in schools, offices and factories to avoid rush hours, or having shops opening later in the day but closing later too. One further ______ is that there can be more police about in the evening, patrolling the streets when people most need them.

In a number of German cities, people have been ______ whether the timetable of the future city should be 6x6 or 4x9--working hours, that is. Apparently male workers favour a four-day week, while women workers, on the other hand, favour ______ shorter working days. This would give employees more time in the afternoon to be with children or to get the shopping.

The ______ for public services to adapt to our changing lifestyles has been quite difficult for some of the staff involved. ______, who likes working evenings or Sundays? Nevertheless, many city centres are now open for shopping seven days a week, and a number of them now promote themselves as ‘24-hour cities’, where those with money can drink, eat, dance and even shop the whole ______.

Time is flexible, but buildings aren’t. The ______ between the structure of the city and its uses, over time, is a serious architectural and planning problem. ______ has become the key skill. We are slowly ______ the terms of dormitory suburbs and industrial districts, in favour of mixed- use areas, out-of-town retailing and working from home. There is no doubt that planning theory is being ______ by the changing nature of time in the modern city.