2 . At Denver, many passengers got on the train which travelled east. In one coach, there sat a very pretty young woman, who was richly and beautifully dressed. Among the newcomers were two men. The younger one was good-looking with a bold, honest face; the other was a sad-faced person, large and dressed in cheap clothes. The two were handcuffed (用手铐铐住) together.

When they reached the coach, the only empty seats were the ones facing the pretty young woman. Here the pair seated themselves. The woman quickly looked at them, and then with a lovely smile, she held out her hand. When she spoke, her voice showed that she was used to speaking and being heard.

“Well, Mr. Easton, if you will make me speak first, I think I must. Don’t you ever say hello to old friends when you meet them in the West?”

The younger man looked surprised to hear her voice. He seemed a little embarrassed, but immediately he held her fingers with his left hand. “It’s Miss Fairchild, he said, with a smile. “I’ll ask you to excuse the other hand. I can’t use it just at present.”

He slightly raised his right hand, which was handcuffed to the left one of his partner. The delightful look in the woman’s eyes slowly changed to doubt and fear. Easton, with a little laugh, was about to speak again when the other cut him short. The sad-faced man had been watching the young woman’s face with his sharp, searching eyes.

“You’ll excuse me for speaking, Miss. But I see you know the marshal (警官) here. If you’ll ask him to speak a word for me in prison, he’ll do it. It’ll make things easier for me there. He’s taking me to Leavenworth prison. I’m going to be in prison for seven years.”

“Oh!” she said, with a deep breath and returning color. “So, that is what you are doing out here. A marshal!”

3 . TikTok is making a mark on the world of publishing. Much of this is done through BookTok, the app’s community of users who comment on books. It is among the largest communities on the app; videos with this tag have been viewed 179 billion times, more than twice as many as BeautyTok. Whoever said books are dead has not spent much time on TikTok, nor in bookstores, which now have whole displays promoting titles “as seen on TikTok”.

Last year in Britain one in four book buyers used TikTok. Although the sales share is still very small, TikTok’s influence is significant and growing. The largest group of book buyers—women aged 54 and younger—are more likely to use the app than their male peers. TikTok recommendations influence their purchases, creating new literary stars and unearthing unlikely past ones, too.

One way to think about BookTok is as a book club for the Internet age. Just as stars like Oprah Winfrey and Barack Obama can cause copies to fly off bookstore shelves by updating their lists of recommended reads, BookTok does something similar. However, the tastemakers are not usually celebrities (名人) but attractive book girlies doing reading challenges, often in artfully lit bedrooms.

Some old-fashioned bibliophiles (藏书家) may suspect that BookTok is less about books than about people seeking attention by promoting them. But BookTokers are already swaying bestseller lists. For example, novels categorised as “romance” have enjoyed the biggest push due to the promotion of BookTok. In addition, because TikTok is so visual, the app has an outsize impact on sales of physical books in particular. E-books do not make such attractive visual props. BookTokers show off their notes and flick through pages. Filming themselves finishing a book in a single day against a backdrop of hundreds of them on shelves is all part of the performance, and viewers will be extra impressed if the book looks thick.

4 . You’ve heard it many times: first impressions are lasting. When an important first impression ends up with failure, this warning can feel like a death sentence.     1     It won’t be easy, but it is possible to cheer up after leaving a bad first impression. Or you can even turn it into a good one.

Firstly, there is no need to blame yourself. Actually, everyone makes mistakes, and, at some point in their life, everyone says or does something they wish they hadn’t.     2    

Honestly admitting the mistake and apologizing for it are the best choice. You can apologize in a formal language like, “I am sorry, but I didn’t mean to do that.”     3     Instead, you can send an email or a note.

What’s the most important is that you learn from your mistakes and avoid making them again. And make sure you won’t behave in a similar manner again.     4     Then it’s possible to make others trust you. After all, trust is the base of everything.

    5     Some sort of harmless self-deprecating (自我贬低的) humor will work. But make sure you don’t go too far in laughing at your shortcomings. It can make your impression even worse.

For Fang Rui, walking the streets of Nanjing and taking in the buildings and culture of the historical city is almost a     1     (day) routine. The 28-year-old landscape designer found that walking through the city while     2     (observe) cultural and historical sites gave her life new meaning.

The city-walk pastime of following     3     (plan) routes to explore a city’s history, culture and urban environment originated in London. The pastime is now attracting a growing number of followers in China, with many young people taking part. The scale of the trend is hard     4     (measure), but widely shared social media posts document different routes in various metropolises with vivid descriptions and pictures. For tourists as well as locals not     5     (full) familiar with a city’s history and culture, the organized walks are     6     authentic and immersive experience. Walk organizers have a more personalized and deeper understanding of their city,     7     goes beyond just visiting iconic landmarks.

In May, Fang organized a free city walk for around 50 people who came from all over the country to experience a deeper connection with Nanjing. She chose to walk in Cinna Lane, or Xinan Li, a tourist area not as popular or famous     8     other Nanjing landmarks like Fuzimiao Confucius Temple or Sun Yat-sen Mausoleum. In terms of its grand scale and layout, it     9     (believe) to be the largest and most complete ancient residential building compound in China. “One of the aims of our city walks is to also let     10     (participate) become witnesses to the transformation of the city itself,” Fang said.

6 . Boat Scuba Diving at Neil Island is more than just a usual shore diving experience. The reef here is superb and you may spot a turtle during your diving experience at Neil Island.

Your trip begins at a given allotted time from Bharatpur where you gear up with all necessary scuba jackets, oxygen masks and other equipment required for Scuba Diving. All necessary safety procedures are taught before the dive begins, including various signs and basics about how to use the equipment under water.

No swimming skills are required for this diving to take place. Maximum depth of the program is 8m—how deep you go will depend on your comfort level in the water and the instructor’s estimation. The dive duration depends on you, your air consumption and comfort level. This program lasts for approximately 30 to 40 minutes and the total Scuba diving experience including basic training and know-how is about 2 hours.

Use of Scuba Equipment

Certified Diver Accompany Underwater

Underwater Scuba Photos and Videos

Not recommended for travelers with spinal injuries

Not recommended for pregnant travelers

Not recommended for travelers with poor cardiovascular (心血管的) health

Travelers should have at least a moderate level of physical fitness

For a full refund (退款), you must cancel at least 24 hours before the experience’s start time. Any changes made less than 24 hours before the experience’s start time will not be accepted. If it’s canceled due to poor weather, you’ll be offered a different date or a full refund.

7 . “Do you mind if I join you?” A young man’s voice made me look up from my breakfast.

“That’s fine,” I said.

“It’s really crowded in here,” he said, flashing a nice smile.

Looking around, I realized there wasn’t one _________ table. As I watched the guy put hot sauce on his sausage, my mind spun with the _________ of my visit to a doctor the day before. I’d covered _________ through a snowstorm to see him, but he didn’t have answers to my problems.

My breakfast companion noticed me _________. “Traveling far?” he asked.

“Yes.” I hoped he didn’t have any more questions for me. He seemed nice enough, but I was in no _________ for small talk. I dipped my head back toward my plate and _________ my mouth with a bite of toast to signal the _________ of our conversation.

To my _________, the young man reached into his backpack and pulled out a notebook. He wrote as he ate. After a few moments of silence, I started to feel bad about _________ his words.

“Are you a writer?” I asked, __________ my voice.

“No ma’am,” he said. “I’m working on a list for my mom. She’s fighting lung cancer and I’m making her a smile list.” I could feel his __________ in the silence.

“I’m sorry to hear that,” I said, feeling even __________. “What is a smile list?”

“Oh, just little __________ to comfort her.”

“Would it be too __________ to ask you to read me some of your “smiles”?

“No, not at all,” he said. Then, looking down and scanning his notebook, he read:

● Watching the sunrise

● Finding a shiny penny

● Sharing a table at breakfast with a __________ lady

8 . When TikTok videos emerged showing “Taylor Swift” making a coin disappear and enjoying a lollipop, the account name was the only obvious clue that this wasn’t the real deal. The creator of the “deeptaylorswift” account on the social media platform was using “deepfake” technology to show a machine generated version of the famous singer performing magic tricks.

A new study published in the Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America provides a measure of how far the technology has progressed. The results suggest that real humans can easily fall for machine-generated faces—and even interpret them as more trustworthy than the genuine article. “We found that not only are synthetic (合成的) faces highly realistic, they are regarded more trustworthy than real faces,” says study co-author Hany Farid, a professor at the University of California, Berkeley. The result raises concerns that these faces could be highly effective when used for immoral purposes.

After compiling 400 real faces matched to 400 synthetic versions, the researchers asked 315 people to distinguish real from fake among a selection of 128 of the images. Another group of 219 participants got some training and feedback about how to spot fakes as they tried to distinguish the faces. Finally, a third group of 223 participants each rated a selection of 128 of the images for trustworthiness on a scale of one (very untrustworthy) to seven (very trustworthy). The first group did not do better than a coin toss at telling real faces from fake ones, with an average accuracy of 48.2 percent. The second group failed to show dramatic improvement, receiving only about 59 percent, even with feedback about those participants’ choices. The group rating trustworthiness gave the synthetic faces a slightly higher average rating of 4.82, compared with 4.48 for real people.

The authors of the study end with a conclusion after emphasizing that deceptive (欺骗性的) uses of deepfakes will continue to pose a threat: “We, therefore, encourage those developing these technologies to consider whether the associated risks are greater than their benefits,” they write. “If so, then we discourage the development of technology simply because it is possible.”