2 . I once got lost on East Nanjing Road in a boiling sea of people. Music blared from every store. Having nowhere to sit and nowhere to stand, I was begging to be teleported to some deserted island. Even for extroverts (性格外向者) like me, who get energy from the _________ , Shanghai is overwhelming (令人难以招架的). I can’t imagine what it’s like during the holidays when the party animals, who have a fear of missing out, hit the streets to have fun. 

At times like these, I truly envy people who are introverted (内向的) and prefer their own thoughts and _________ world to being around other people. Introverts are self-sufficient and don’t need other people to be happy. They can be happy by themselves. It’s a _________ belief that introverts are lonely or shy, and that they would be much happier if they _________ their comfort zones and became more talkative. 

It is, therefore, fitting that January 2 is World Introvert Day. Following _________ full of glittering lights, bright colors and small talks, introverts might feel in need of some alone time to recharge. The day also _________ the positive points of introverted personalities, emphasizing that being the quiet one is not only acceptable but something to be _________.

Yet, society in general prefers _________ because, among other reasons, they tend to go out more and spend more money, which is good for the economy. For this reason, families often pressure their introverted kids to attend large _________ and fake being social butterflies to improve career prospects (前景). __________ this is sometimes necessary, to be happy, it is essential to be accepted for who we are.

3 . My father decided to start learning French when he was 57. On the surface, his retirement hobby seems a little random — our family has no connection to French-speaking countries — but his ______ ran deeper than a passion for cakes. My grandmother developed signs of Alzheimer’s disease (阿尔兹海默症) in her early 70s, and studies suggest that being bilingual, that is, being able to speak two languages equally well, can ______ the start of the condition by up to five years. Drawn by that ______ benefit, many people have attempted to pick up a new language in adulthood.

Lots of activities are linked to better brain health in old age, like getting more education when you’re younger and physical activity. Experts say regularly speaking multiple languages may be especially ______ though. “We use language in all aspects of daily life, so a bilingual brain is ______ working,” said Mark Antoniou, a professor at Western Sydney University who specializes in bilingualism.

The age at which you learn another language appears to be less important than how ______ you speak it. The cognitive (认知的) benefit is from having to ______ your mother tongue, which your brain is forced to do if you’re trying to recall the right words in another language. So if the second language is used a lot, you’re getting that cognitive ______. That process is called cognitive inhibition. In theory, by improving these types of processes, the brain becomes stronger to the ______ caused by diseases like dementia. The stronger your mental power, the thinking goes, the longer you can function normally, even if your brain health starts to ______.

However, evidence for the benefits of learning a second language as a hobby in your 60s is ______. Research by Dr. Antoniou and colleagues found that while Chinese adults 60 and up improved on cognition tests after a six-month language learning program, people who played games like Sudoku did as well. Two more recent studies on the topic found virtually no ______ in cognitive performance after people took part in language-learning programs.

The scientists who conducted those studies offered a few potential ______. One is that the participants were highly motivated volunteers, who may have already been at peak performance for their age, making it hard to see any ______. Another is that the language interventions were perhaps too short. The handful of studies looking into the issue have used language lessons that were very different in their ______ and frequency. Some studies taught participants for eight months, others for just one very intense week.

4 . It’s 3000 years ago, and people make the things they need by hand. They use metals, such as bronze and tin, to make tools and weapons, but these metals are hard to find. A group of people called the Hittites begin ________with a unique rock called iron ore, which is easy to find and mine. They make a(n) ________: By heating this rock, they get a new metal, called iron, which they can shape into sharp knives and other tools. The Hittites see little use for iron, ________, beyond making these simple tools. Never in their wildest dreams can they imagine the ________ iron will have on the world. But it’s where the story of the ________ begins.

This early form of iron isn’t strong enough for large things like buildings. Over thousands of years, though, people learned ways to make iron stronger. They ________ their rock ovens, raising the temperature and adding different minerals to the ore. Each experiment ________ the process, as people learned to change iron into carbon steel.

Finally, in 1855, an English engineer named Henry Bessemer invented a machine that turned large amounts of iron into steel in just minutes, which is strong and can be made into nearly any ________, including frames for tall buildings. Still the first skyscraper wasn’t built for almost 30 years. Why? Nobody wanted to walk up and down all those stairs. Tall buildings need a way to elevate people and objects. Although elevators existed, they weren’t safe enough for people. Pretty soon, seeing steel cables supporting bridges led people to ________ how steel cables could make elevators safe. And with safe elevators, you could build much ________ buildings. In 1884, the Home Insurance Building, the first skyscraper, rose. It was 138 feet high — higher than any other building at that time. It had ten storeys and four elevators — a miracle at the time!

The mighty skyscraper is much more than a building, though: It’s a ________ of what we can accomplish when we just try things. Inventions come from ideas, big and small, and from people old and young. So put on your thinking caps, because the great inventions of the future ________ your ideas today!

5 . So many of us are terrible at being terrible. As our children venture off to school, sports, dances and music lessons, we urge them: Just try something, keep practicing, you’re only a beginner. And yet, faced with our own failure, we become less confident, and quit altogether.

Images of perfection fill our social-media feeds, along with advertisements assuring us we wouldn’t be so _______ if we just bought this thing or tried that product. Parents often add to the pressure, _______ their kids will end up sliding down the socioeconomic ladder.

What if we’re _______?

“It’s such a _______ not to have to be good,” says Karen Rinaldi, who refers to herself as a horrible surfer. After 20 years on the board, she is still bad, and she loves it. There is the excitement of being out on the water, but there is also the _______ of not having to be the expert, the freedom to _______ help and rely on others in a way she never would at work. Back on land, she says she is more understanding and _______others’ mistakes. “The benefit of not _______ myself every day,” she says, “is that I get to surf every time I want.”

Ms. Rinaldi, whose experience led to a book about what you can learn from failure, recommends asking yourself: “What is it that you’ve always wanted to do or try but were too _______?” Whatever it is, she says, start doing it. Should you struggle, ________ the fact that you’re a beginner. “Go in there with the ________ to say, ‘I’m new,’” she says. “People want to help you learn. It makes them feel good.”

Take myself as another example. I started yoga lessons this summer. When I ________ Syd Schulz, a professional mountain biker, that I was terrible at the poses, her response was “what did you expect?” “It’s a little ________ to people who have spent years and years of their lives acquiring skills to think that you should have those overnight,” says Ms. Schulz. Years spent working on her cycling have taught her that improvement often comes in ________ steps, following long stretches of inactivity or even getting ________.

6 . Does a reassuring touch on the back bring you comfort during a tough day? A new study finds, when it comes to touching, people aren’t even ________ about who’s doing it. Researchers in Germany say the touch of a humanoid (人形的) robot makes people ________ and more likely to follow their requests.

Instead of being ________ on other humans, researchers are hoping that one day robots may be able to fulfill the roles of therapists, personal trainers, and even life coaches. Their study follows the widespread increase of touch ________ during the COVID-19 pandemic. Several studies have pointed out how physical distancing and isolation is creating a variety of negative effects that increase feelings of stress, depression, and anxiety.

In this research, 48 students engaged in a conversation with NAO – a programmable research robot. During the course, for some participants, the robot briefly and seemingly randomly ________ the back of the participant’s hand.

This differed from the design of other studies, which have relied on ________ touch. In response to the robot’s touch, most participants smiled and laughed, and none ________. Results show those who were touched were more likely to ________ the robot urging them to show interest in a particular academic course discussed during the conversation. Participants also reported a better ________ state after the robot’s tap on the hand. ________, students who were touched were more likely to give the robot a higher score for physical attractiveness (although these participants still only rated poor NAO a 2.5 out of 5 on average).

“A robot’s non-functional touch ________ to humans,” Laura Hoffmann from Ruhr University and her team write. “Slightly tapping human participants’ hands during a conversation resulted in better feelings and more compliance (依从) to the request of a humanoid robot.”

“It is remarkable that simple and brief tap on the back of participants’ hands showed such an effect. Involving more complex and ________ touching from a robot might increase engagement and compliance.”

As the researchers argue, this small study – one of the first to examine the ________ of robot-initiated touch – suggests that through the use of comforting touches, robot therapists could better ________ patients to engage in healthy activities such as exercise. However, they caution that much about human-robot ________ are complex, with there still more to be learned about the difference between human and robot touch.

7 . Colleges today often operate as machines for putting too many opportunities before already advantaged people. Our educational system focuses too much on helping students take the next step. But it does not give them adequate _______ in thinking about the substance of the lives toward which they are advancing. Many institutions today have _______ that it is an essential part of education to teach the young the art of choosing, and to train them to use _______ to decide which efforts deserve the investment of their lives.

We spent many years teaching on a college campus, trying to help students struggling with their confusion. Eventually, we sought to address this problem _______, by designing a course intended to introduce the young to the art of choosing. The course begins with Plato’s “Gorgias” — a messy dialogue that turns on a(n) _______ over whether the pursuit of virtue or of pleasure is the way to a good life. The dialogue ends _______; no one is satisfied. But with remarkable regularity, it _______ the kind of thinking that students need to better understand the choices that shape their lives.

Students’ first reaction to the “Gorgias” is disbelief, sometimes even horror. It is the dialogue’s _______ that alarms them: the idea that we can seriously argue about what represents the human good. Everything in their education has led them to believe that such arguments cannot bear fruit.

Most students are _______ to discover this art of choosing. Learning to reason about happiness is as delightful as discovering that one’s voice can be made to sing. Why, then, do institutions ________ teach it? In some cases, intelligence members are encouraged to ________ specialized research rather than thinking about the good life. In others, they share the belief that feeling is a more ________ guide to happiness than the mind.

Colleges should self-consciously prioritize initiating students into a culture of ________ reflection on how to live. Doing so will hold them ________ performing their proper work: helping young people learn to give reasons for the choices that shape their lives and to ________ about the ends they pursue.

8 . Robert Frank, an economist at Cornell, believes that his profession is restricting cooperation and generosity. In the U.S., economics professors give _________money to charity than professors in other fields. Economics students in Germany are more likely than those from other majors to recommend an overpriced plumber (水管工) when they are paid to do it. Economics majors tend to rate _________as “generally good,” “correct,” and “moral” more than their peers.

Does studying economics change people? Maybe not. It could be self-selection: students who already believe in self-interest are drawn to economics. But this doesn’t exclude the possibility that studying economics pushes people further toward the selfish extreme.

“As a business school professor, these effects worry me, as economics, _________every aspect of our lives, is taught widely in business schools, providing a _________for courses in management, finance, and accounting,” says Frank.

If economics can discourage pro-social behavior, which is central to the well-being of people or society, what should we do about it? A change in economics and business education is suggested. Courses in behavioral economics, which considers the role of “social preferences” like _________, fairness and cooperation, are required for students of economics major. In fact, economics courses not involving some behavioral economics are considered both an inadequate education and a poor preparation to be a practicing economist. Also, _________width, economics majors are required to take courses in social sciences like sociology and psychology, which place considerable emphasis on how people are _________about others, not only themselves. _________, within economics courses, we should do a better job _________the principle of self-interest, which involves anything a person values—including helping others.

Not until then may the prophecy (预言) by Nobel Prize-winning economist and philosopher Amartya Sen be __________. Calling economists “rational fools,” he observed: “The purely economic man is indeed close to being a social fool.”

9 . Let’s say your company has been making athletic shoes for 50 or 60 years. They are good shoes. _________ , other companies have sped past you in the race for fame and the profit that goes with it. Products with the logos of the other companies are status symbols. Products with your logo make people think of basketball stars from the 1970s. To turn things around you, you have to change your product’s _________ image into something new, and make sure consumers get the message. They must match your product with some larger idea that has nothing to do with shoes—beauty, prosperity, or even world peace. _________, you have to build a brand.

The term brand(烙记)comes from the practice of using a hot iron to burn a mark into the skin of a cow or a horse. This brand helps the owner _________ his or her animals from others. The brand is a kind of label, a device for creating recognition. Branding on products is also all about recognition.

People equate the name Rolls Royce, _________, with classic luxury. The recognition value of this brand is _________. It even registers with people who have never seen one of the company’s cars. When the German company BMW bought the Rolls company in 1998, they were careful to change _________. They even continued to build cars in Greenwood, England, because Rolls Royce is thought of as _________.

Among some strong brands, the line between promotional and personal image is _________. Some customers may adopt a brand’s image as their own images. The ads for Nike shoes show no-nonsense athletes. A customer might __________ Nike shoes because she considers herself a no-nonsense athlete—and she wants others to think so, too.

Biker subculture in the United States owes a great deal to the branding __________ of the Harley-Davidson motorcycle company(哈雷摩托车公司品牌成功). Harley has managed to turn its motorcycles into symbols of opposition to mainstream cultural values. In a radio interview, Harley-Davidson’s CEO, Jim Ziemer, points out one way his brand—and its black-and-orange logo—has become very __________. (个性化)

Interviewer: When business school students study __________, one of the names that’s always at the top of that list is Harley Davidson. In your mind, what is it that makes a brand?

Ziemer: A brand is made when a person really feels a __________ with that brand. I mean, we’ve taken it to the ultimate(我们已经做到了极致), where a lot of our customers have a Harley-Davidson tattoo (纹身) on their body so they really feel very special and linked with the brand.

The __________ of branding, the hot irons, seems not so far away. (烙记/印的起源，也就是烙铁，似乎并不遥远)

10 . Email is one of the Internet’s oldest apps — from the days before we used the word “app” even — and despite its drawbacks, most of us still use it every day.

Typically, the apps we download in 2020 have been _________for mere days or months. We are used to the pang of regret when really useful software suddenly winks out of existence. How has email remained a(n) _________ for nearly years? Yes, it is helpful that email is based on a(n) _________ communications medium that stretches back to some of the first examples of written language. But that isn’t the full story.

First, email managed to survive massive upheavals in the way we use computers. In the early 1970s, when email was born, it was almost _________ a tool for researchers, university students and engineers. You would send, receive and store your email on a work computer. With the _________ of personal computers in the 1980s and 90s, email became something you kept on your own private machines or disks — almost like storing old letters in a shoebox. Now we have come full circle. Most of us store our personal mail in the cloud, which is _________ like storing it on somebody else’s work computer.

It is extremely rare to see apps make the leap from one platform to another like email did. They tend to _________ in the journey from web to mobile, or from one game system to another.

As well as _________ dramatic tech changes, email dealt with another major hurdles — spam (垃圾邮件). In the 1990s and early 2000s, people’s inboxes were _________ with so much junk that it was impossible to find the stuff you wanted. You had to install another program — a spam filter — just to use your email program. But in the age of cloud mail, anti-spam systems have become so good that it is __________ to see one of those quaint old subject lines touting (标榜) “VI@grs@!” or “pron” to get around word filters.

And yet, __________ its heroic triumph over tech obsolescence and spam, email isn’t exactly alluring (吸引人的). We use it mostly for official __________, automated reminders and shopping receipts, along with the occasional bit of personal news. Though email communication is practically instantaneous, it feels __________. Why email when you could text?

Perhaps that is the point. Email isn’t a brand-new way to __________ nor is it juiced up with memes and not takes. But we are still opening G-mail or Hot-mail every day because it works and everybody has it. Under the hood, email uses protocol (数据传递的协议) that keeps trying to send data, over and over, hoping that it can outlast network problems. It doesn’t give up. And somehow, by trying really earnestly, it has __________ the computers where it has born and the spammers who tried to defeat it.