1 . My mother spent at least 12 hours every day rolling country cigarettes to support our family. One day she showed me her wage book, _________ me how much money she had earned. She has never been to school-she knows nothing about calculating and she uses her thumbprints to _________ a record of her earning. At the moment, I wanted to _________ her how to hold a pen to write things.

As I watched her finally _________ to write her name correctly, and her hands trembling with _________, I had a dream that I wanted to receive better education and make a _________ to this world. But my _________might be too big for a girl in a poor village, because in rural India, girls are generally considered _________and to live a life of no voice and no choice.

When I was 13, I read the autobiography of Helen Keller. I _________ her spirit and I wanted to have a college degree like her. So I fought with my father and my relatives to be sent to __________, and it worked five years later. I __________ to join in a fellowship(奖学金)program in Delhi University. After many rounds of interviews, I got into the __________ with a full scholarship. I was going to __________ of my village for the first time to study in the capital! By the time my fellowship program ended, my life had __________. Not only had I traced my lost voice, but also had a choice to make myself __________.

At the age of 22, I came back to my village to set up an institution that __________ rural youth by providing them with education, life skills and career opportunities. My work involved working with families and communities to help them understand why getting __________ is useful for everyone.

Of course, to change people’s mind is challenging. The quickest way to __________ them is by doing. When they see their kids getting a real education, getting a real __________ , they begin to change. The best example is what happened at my home -__________ education has helped me to find my voice, my self-worth and my freedom.

2 . The world has faced a food crisis of unprecedented(前所未有的) proportions in 2022—the largest in modern history, as conflict, the COVID-19 pandemic, climate crisis and rising costs have combined to pose great risks for hungry people across the world. As many as 828 million people go to bed hungry every night. The number of those facing acute food insecurity has risen from 135 million to 345 million since 2019. A total of 49 million people in 49 countries are suffering hunger, according to figures from the United Nations’ World Food Programme.

“We are facing an unprecedented global food crisis and all signs suggest we have not yet seen the worst. For the last three years, hunger numbers have repeatedly hit new peaks,” WFP Executive Director David Beasley said. He warned that things can and will get worse unless there is a large-scale and coordinated(协调一致的) effort to address the causes of this crisis.

There are many reasons for prevailing high levels of food insecurity. These reasons include conflicts, climate changes and weather extremes, economic slowdowns and downturns. In addition, these drivers often do not act alone. For instance, conflicts are often accompanied by economic downturns, which affect livelihoods and the ability of people to earn resources, leading to increasing poverty levels and higher prevalence(流行) of food insecurity.

Unfortunately, the main reasons for high levels of food insecurity have not improved this year. People in the Horn of Africa are facing a fifth consecutive(连续的) failed rain season in parts of Ethiopia, Kenya and Somalia, which will constrain their production, and is likely to push many people deeper into food insecurity.

Moreover, there is uncertainty about the weather. And climatic shock affecting any major producer or exporter will introduce additional uncertainty into production and consequently prices, which in turn impact the ability to purchase food, particularly of the most vulnerable people.

7 . Researchers at CU Boulder have developed a wearable device that changes the human body into a biological battery. The device is stretchy(弹性的) enough that you can wear it like a ring, sport band or any other thing that touches your skin. It also taps into a person's natural heat-employing thermoelectric generators to change the body's internal temperature into electricity. "In the future, we want to be able to power your wearable electronics without having to include a battery," said Jianliang Xiao, an associate professor at CU Boulder.

The concept may sound like something out of The Matrix film series, in which a race of robots have enslaved humans to harvest their precious organic energy. Xiao and his colleagues aren't that ambitious: Their devices can generate about 1 volt (伏特) of energy for every square centimeter of skin space-less volt per area than what most existing batteries provide but still enough to power electronics like watches or fitness trackers.

Scientists have previously experimented with similar wearable devices, but Xiao's is stretchy, can heal itself when damaged and is fully recyclable-making it a cleaner alternative to traditional electronics. "Whenever you use a battery, you're depleting(消耗) that battery and will, eventually, need to replace it," Xiao said. "The nice thing about our device is that you can wear it, and it provides you with constant power."

Just pretend that you're out for a jog. As you exercise, your body heats up, and that heat will radiate out to the cool air around you. Xiao's device captures that flow of energy rather than let it go to waste. "The thermoelectric generators are in close contact with the human body, and they can use the heat that would normally be sent into the environment," Xiao said.

8 . When I was a kid, my mother used to tell me Chinese folk stories before bedtime. My mother is an immigrant. She told me those stories so that I wouldn’t forget the culture that she had left. Even though I hadn’t ever experienced that culture at firsthand, she wanted me to remember it.

Of all her stories, my favourites were about Sun Wukong, the monkey king who had many superpowers. Eventually, though, I moved on to other kinds of heroes. When I was in the fifth grade, I bought my first American comic book. Afterwards, Superman, Spider-man and Captain America replaced Sun Wukong in my heart.

I became crazy about comic books. I loved them so much that I went on to work towards a career in comics. Today I am a professional graphic novelist. My most well-known book is American Born Chinese, published in 2006. Monkey King is one of my main characters, but the book isn’t direct adaptation of my mother’s stories. Instead, I invited Monkey King into my story so that I could talk about the uneasiness of growing up as an Asian American. The character I knew from my childhood expressed his emotions without reservation. I needed him to emote on my pages.

For research, I tracked down an English translation of Journey to the West, the centuries-old Chinese classi that first told the monkey king’s story. As I read it, I realized that American superheroes hadn’t replaced Sun Wukong in my heart after all -they were simply Western expressions of everything I loved about the monkey king. The monkey king’s story has lasted for centuries and travelled across continents and cultures. Journey to the West is the very definition of “timeless”.

My mother now has Alzheimer’s. She’s forgotten all of the stories she used to tell me, but I remember. In many ways, I’ve built my whole career on those moments before bedtime. With every comic book I create, I am trying to relive the wonder I felt when my mother told me the stories of Sun Wukong.

10 . In the US housing market, 3D-printed houses are catching buyers’ attention and coming into their consideration. In some of the hottest markets, 3D-printed houses are competing against traditional wood-frame houses with features of “cheap”, “safe” and “eco-friendly”.

In Riverhead, New York, a 3D-printed house with three bedrooms, two bathrooms and a 2-car detached garage is listed for sale online with a price of $299, 999, much cheaper than a traditional wood-frame house like this. In Austin, Texas, another construction technology company, ICON, is building two-to-four-bedroom homes, wishing to be the first to get involved in this area. Their aim is to take over the market as soon as possible.

In the US, the first 3D-printed housing community will be built in Rancho Mirage, a desert resort city in California, according to developer Palari. The houses in the Rancho Mirage project will take a month to install as opposed to three to six months using traditional methods, Palari CEO Basil Starr told the Los Angeles Times. A typical project of this scale would take around three years, but they are planning for no more than a year and a half, he said. The pre-sale campaign started in late February and sold out within days, said Starr, adding that most of the buyers were young people with a passion for sustainability.

Apart from the construction speed, the companies also emphasize that 3D printing is more eco-friendly than conventional building methods because 3D printers generate the precise amount of material, while building wood-frame houses will result in construction garbage. The 3D-printing technology also provides “much safer, more adaptable to changes” houses that are designed to withstand (承受)fire, flood, wind and other natural disasters better than conventionally built houses, according to ICON.

Will 3D-printed houses replace traditional houses? Only time will tell.