1 . Dave and I had just arrived home from his chemo-treatment (化疗) appointment. I should have noticed him_______ the door. When I opened it, he fell sideways out of the car onto the walkway. He lay there, too weak to_______ himself. I rushed to help, but he weighed close to two hundred pounds and was just _______. The slightest bump (碰撞) caused terrible pain, so this_______would be more than he could bear. I called “Dave.” He didn’t_______, and I wondered if he had passed out. I looked around in all directions_______.

Just then, a man_______ , pushing a baby carriage, with two children walking beside him. The man_______the baby carriage safely, gestured the children to wait and stepped forward. He lifted Dave’s arm over his shoulder and put his own arm around Dave’s_______to stabilize him. The two_______ for the house. Into the sitting room, slowly and gently, the man_______Dave onto our little sofa. He smiled as Dave tried to_______him and said he was glad to help.

He walked back out to the street where the children stood waiting for him. The little group slowly_______. There, in the shining sun, I watched, with_______. They were just like angles, emerging from nowhere and helping me_______ .

The International Workers’ Day, sometimes     1     (call) Labour Day or May Day, is not only a celebration of workers’ rights, but also a seasonal celebration in many countries. The holiday is a     2    （celebrate) of laborers in about 90 countries.

People     3     (observe) this holiday since 1920 to show their     4     (aware) of protecting the working class    5     exploitation (剥削). In China, people don’t need to go to work from May 1st until May 3^rd, many of     6    take this opportunity to meet up friends     7     go for short trips, with no specific public events during the holiday.

A recent report was issued by the China Tourism Academy,    8     (say) that the number of domestic (国内的) tourist trips will reach about 4.55 billion,    9     increase of 73 percent year on year. “China’s tourism market has embarked on a track of recovery this year. And we will see a     10     (continue) ‘travel frenzy (狂热)’ during the May Day holiday,” said Li Huigin, a tourism expert with the China University of Geosciences.

5 . 2024 Arts Illustration Competition

Enter the competition most respected and admired in the industry for creativity in illustration, the Communication Arts Illustration Competition. Selected by distinguished professionals, the winning entries will be distributed worldwide in the Communication Arts Illustration Annual and on commarts.com, ensuring important exposure of the creations. Each winner will receive a professionalized Award of Excellence and an award certificate. Communication Art’s Award of Excellence is one of the most desired awards. If chosen, winning places you in the highest ranks of your profession.

What To Enter With

Any illustration first published or produced from Jan. 2023 to Jan. 2024 is qualified. Entries may originate from any country. Descriptions in English are necessary for the judges to read.

Entries Can Be Submitted In The Following Formats

Digital Images: RGB images in JPG format with a maximum file size of 2 MB. GIF images may be livelier, but would be turned down, and so would the PNG ones.

Motion Entries: In MOV, MP4 or MPG format, with a maximum file size of 500 MB.

Illustration Competition Categories & Entry Fees

For more categories, please download the category PDF.

Late Fees

Entries must be registered no later than Apr. 13, 2024. Entries registered after that date will be charged a fee of $10 each. No entries can be registered after Apr. 27, 2024.

6 . Many people have the habit of sleeping with a dim (昏暗的) light like a television or nightlight. Yet it is enough to the raise blood sugar and heart rates of healthy people, according to a new study. Light helps our body maintain an internal clock, but artificial light at night can have a negative impact on the rest and repair that should happen during the sleep. New research suggests that even when our eyes are closed, a small amount of light can disrupt the way our bodies normally keep our blood sugar within a healthy range.

In the study published in Sciences on Monday, scientists asked 20 participants aged 19 to 36 to spend two nights in their lab. On the first night of sleep, the volunteers slept in a very dark room. For their second night of sleep, half of the group slept with streetlights through a window, and half spent their second night in a dark room.

During the trial, all participants were connected to devices that measured different markers of their sleep quality. They were each connected through a special tube, allowing researchers to collect samples without waking the individual. Researchers also recorded participants’ heart rates and brain waves.

When the volunteers awoke in the morning, the team tested their blood sugar and found that participants that slept in rooms with a dim light spent less time in deep sleep. In addition to having slightly worse blood sugar control, the group exposed to dim light had a higher heart rate on average. By comparison, those that spend two nights in the dark room had little difference in their blood sugar control. “They thought they slept well, but your brain knows that the lights are on,” says Zee,“ you should clearly pay attention to the light in your bedroom. If you can’t give up your night light, keep it dim and at floor level.”

Earlier work has linked exposure to light during sleep to an increased risk of obesity (肥胖) in women. Zee recommends, “Make sure that you start dimming your lights at least an hour or two before you go to bed to prepare your environment for sleep.”

7 . Every year about 40,000 people attempt to climb Kilimanjaro, the highest mountain in Africa. They bring with them lots of waste. The_________ might damage the beauty of the place. The glaciers (冰川) are disappearing, changing the_________ of Kilimanjaro.

Hearing these stories, I’m_________ about the place — other destinations are described as “purer” natural experiences.

However, I soon discovered that much has changed since the days of disturbing reports of_________ among tons of rubbish. I find a clean mountain, with toilets at camps and along the paths. The environmental challenges are_________ but the efforts made by the Tanzania National Park Authority seem to be_________ .

The best of a Kilimanjaro_________ , in my opinion, isn’t reaching the top. Mountains are regarded as spiritual places by many cultures. This_________ is especially evident on Kilimanjaro as climbers go through five ecosystems (生态系统) in the space of a few kilometers. At the base is a rainforest. It ends abruptly at 3, 000 meters,_________ lands of low growing plants. Further up, the weather__________ — low clouds envelope the mountainsides, which are covered with thick grass. I __________ twelve shades of green from where I stand. Above 4, 000 meters is the highland __________ : gravel (砾石), stones and rocks. __________ you climb into an arctic-like zone with__________ snow and the glaciers that may soon disappear.

Does Kilimanjaro deserve its__________ as a crowded mountain with lines of tourists ruining the atmosphere of peace? I found the opposite to be true.