1 . No Guts, No Glory? The Fear and Attraction of Risky Winter Sports

Once I went flying off the side of a mountain on skis. Certainly, I didn’t mean to. Before I _________ the ground, there was a surprising amount of time for reflection—and more on the long painful journey down to the ambulance.

The Winter Olympics are here, and I’ll be astonished with my heart in my mouth, watching ski-jumping and people hurtling downhill at _________ speed one way and another. But why are we so attracted to doing, watching and glamorizing dangerous activity? Is it really the thrill (兴奋) of the adrenaline (肾上腺素) rush? I hate that part when I take a big risk of any kind.

It _________ out I’m not the only one. The popular “thrill-seeker” explanation put forward by Marvin Zuckerman and others that sensation seeking is a basic personality trait has been strongly _________. Thrill-seeking is common in the young, especially young males. Many pay a high _________ for it. But our relationship with fear, courage and risk-taking is _________.

Eric Brymer and Robert Schweitzer asked people who had been doing an extreme sport for many years, to reflect   _________ on the experience. For these people, it wasn’t that they didn’t feel fear, or that they were attracted to the feeling of fear. They saw fear as an important tool to _________ danger—and working through it was a transformative experience. Part of the reward was the sense of one-ness with nature that lay beyond the _________.

For me, reading what the research participants said was __________ and there was a lot that was easy to relate to. __________, it seemed as though they believed they were only taking on risks over which they could prevail (战胜). Presumably, many of the people who are severely injured thought so too. I wonder if many who draw the short __________ regret it?

I have an almost total lack of mastery of winter sports. The contrast between my enthusiasm and lack of skill   __________ the somewhat spectacular accident at the start of this post. But just what kind of risks are we talking about with winter sports more commonly? For example, Brian Chaze and Patrick McDonald gathered published data on head injuries in winter sports. They advocated __________ use for sledding and skating as well. Children who hurt their heads sledding need hospitalization twice as much as for head injuries in other sports. Helmets aren’t used much, though.

Perhaps the best __________ from watching the winter Olympians is not the glamour of their risk-taking, but the way they rock those helmets.

2 . Transition. It’s a pleasant word and a calming concept. It means going surely and sweetly from somewhere present to somewhere future. Unless, that is, it is newspapers’ ‘transition’ to the _______ world, an uncertain and highly uncomfortable process.

Just look at the latest print circulation figures. The Daily Telegraph, The Guardian and many of the rest are down overall between 8% and 10% year-on-year, but their websites go ever higher.

All of that may well be true, depending on timing, geography and more. _______, everyone— from web academics to print analysis—says so. Yet pause for a while and count a few little things that don’t _______.

One is the magazine world, both in the UK and in the US. It ought to be _______, wrecked by the move to the tablets which fit existing magazine page sizes so perfectly. But, in fact, the rate of decline in magazine purchasing is relatively small, with subscriptions holding up strongly and advertising remarkable _______.

As for news and current affairs magazines — which you’d expect to find in the eye of the digital storm — they had a 8.4% increase to report. In short, on both sides of the Atlantic, although some magazine areas went down, many showed rapid growth.

You can discover a _______ phenomenon when it comes to books, Kindle and similar e-readers are booming, with sales up massively this year. The apparent first step of transition couldn’t be _______. Yet, when booksellers examined the value of the physical books they sold over the last six months, they found it just 0.4% down. Screen or paper, then? It wasn’t one or the other: it was _______.

So if sales in that area have fallen so little, perhaps the _______ mostly affects newspapers? Yet again, though, the messages are oddly ________. The latest survey of trends by the World Association of Newspapers shows that global circulation rose 1.1% last year (to 812 million copies a day). Sales in the West dropped back but Asia more than ________ the difference.

Already 360 US papers—including most of the biggest and best — have built paywalls around their products. However, the best way of attracting a paying readership appears to be a deal that offers the print copy and digital access as some kind of ________ package.

________, print is also a crucial tool in selling internet subscriptions. And its advertising rates raise between nine and ten times more money than online.

Of course this huge difference isn’t ________ news for newspaper companies, as maintaining both an active website and an active print edition is difficult, complex and expensive. But newspaper brands still have much of their high profile in print: a drift on the web, the job of just being ________ becomes far harder.

3 . A hundred years ago, the largest city in the world was London, with a population of 6.5 million. Today it is beaten by Tokyo. With barely a quarter the population of London a century ago, the Tokyo metropolitan area has since ______ to 34 million, promoting it to first place in the global city league table. Tokyo’s phenomenal growth is largely due to a single factor: migration from the countryside to the city.

This ______ migration can now be seen in scores of cities around the globe. And it has brought us to a crucial moment in human history. In 1990, most people lived in the countryside, with a little over 10 percent of the world’s population living in ______. From next year, the UN Population Division predicts that for the first time in history, more people will live in cities than in the country, and the biggest growth will be in “mega-cities,” with populations over 10 million.

The ______ of mega-cities - there are now 20 in total - has brought with it huge environmental and social problems. Cities occupy just two percent of the land surface of the Earth but consume three-quarters of the resources that are used up each year. Their residents are making ruinous ______ on soils and water supplies for food and on forests for wood and paper.

______ the world’s population to the countryside isn’t an option. Dividing up the planet into plots of land on which we could all survive self-sufficiently would create its own natural disasters, not to mention being highly unlikely to ever ______. If we are to protect what is left of nature, and meet the demand to improve the quality of living for the world’s developing nations, a new form of city living is the only option. ______, governments, planners, architects, and engineers are beginning to wake up to this idea, and are dreaming up new ways to green the mega-cities. Their approaches ______ two main principles: recycle whatever possible and remove as many cars as possible. So as well as developing energy-efficient buildings, emphasis is being placed on increasing the use of ______ and redesigning how cities are organized to integrate work and living areas into a single neighborhood, rather than ______ cities into residential, commercial, and industrial zones.

Planners and architects now agree that to improve the social and environmental condition of cities the top ______ is to cut car use. They say zero-emission cars running on electricity or burning hydrogen are not ______. What is needed is a wholesale rethink of how new cities are laid out — and how existing ones expand — to ______ the need for cars in the first place. One way of achieving this is to build cities with multiple centers where people live ______ their work in high-rise blocks that are also near public transport hubs. In parts of the world this is already taking place.

4 . A hundred years ago it was assumed and scientifically “proved” by economists that the laws of society made it necessary to have a vast army of poor and jobless people in order to keep the economy going. Today, hardly anybody would dare to _______this principle. It is generally accepted that nobody should be_______ from the wealth Western industrialized countries, where a system of insurance has been introduced which guarantees everyone a minimum of subsistence (生活维持费) _______ unemployment, sickness and old age. I would go one step further and argue that, even if these _________ are not present, everyone has the right to receive the means to subsist (维持生活). In other words, he can claim this subsistence minimum ________ having to have any “reason”. I would suggest, ________, that it should be limited to a definite period of time, let’s say two years, so as to avoid the _________ of an abnormal attitude which refused any kind of social obligation.

This may sound like a fantastic proposal, but so, I think, our insurance system would have sounded to people a hundred years ago. The main objection to such a scheme would be that if each person were _______ to receive minimum support, people would not work. This _______ rests on the fallacy of the inherent laziness in human nature. ________, aside from abnormally lazy people, there would be very few who would not want to earn more than the minimum, and who would prefer to do nothing rather than work.

However, the suspicions against a system of _________ subsistence minimum are not groundless, from the standpoint of those who want to use their ________ of capital(资金) for the purpose of forcing others to accept the work conditions they offer. If nobody were forced to accept work in order not to starve, work would have to be sufficiently________ to attract one to accept it. Freedom of contract is possible only if both parties are free to accept and________ it; in the present capitalist system this is not the case.

But such a system would not only be the beginning of real freedom of contract between employers and employees, its principal________ would be the improvement of freedom in inter-personal relationships in every sphere of daily life.

5 . With advances in electronics and neuroscience, researchers have been able to achieve remarkable things with brain implant devices. In addition to restoring physical senses, scientists are also seeking innovative ways to ____ communication for those who have lost the ability to speak. A new “decoder” receiving data from an electronic device implanted inside the skull, for example, might help paralyzed patients speak using only their minds. Researchers from the University of California developed a two-stage method to turn brain ____ into computer-synthesized speech.

For years, scientists have been trying to control and use neutral inputs to give a voice back to people whose neurological damage prevents them from talking. Until now, many of these brain-computer interfaces have ____ a letter-by-letter approach, in which patients move their eyes or facial ____ to spell out their thoughts. But these types of interfaces are very slow - most max out producing 10 words per minute, a fraction of human’s average speaking speed of 150 words per minute.

The brain is undamaged in these patients, but the neurons - the pathways that ____ your arms, or your mouth, or your legs are broken down. These people have high cognitive functioning and abilities, but they cannot accomplish ____ tasks like moving about or saying anything, “says a co-lead author of the new study and an associate research specializing in neurological surgery at UCSF.” We are essentially by passing the pathway that’s broken down.“

The researchers started with high-resolution brain activity data collected from five volunteers over several years. These participants - all of whom had normal speech function - were already undergoing a ____ process for epilepsy(癫痫)treatment that involved implanting electrodes(电极)directly into their brains. The research team used these electrodes to ____ activity in speech-related areas of the brain as the patients read off hundreds of sentences.

From there, the UCSF team worked out a two-stage process to recreate the spoken sentences. First, they created a decoder to ____ the recorded activity patterns as instructions for moving parts of a virtual vocal tract(声道). They then developed a synthesizer that used the ____ movements to produce language.

Other research has tried to decode words and sounds directly from neural signals, ____ the middle step of decoding movement. However, a study the UCSF researchers published last year suggests that your brain’s speech center focuses on how to move the vocal tract to produce sounds, ____ what the resulting sounds will be.

Using this method, the researchers successfully reverse-engineered words and sentences from brain activity that ____ matched the audio recordings of participants’ speech. When they asked volunteers on an online crowd-sourcing platform to attempt to ____ the words and sentences using a word bank, many of them could understand the simulated(模拟的)speech, though their ____ was far from perfect. Out of 101 synthesized sentences, about 80 percent were perfectly transcribed(记录)by at least one listener using a 25-word bank.

6 . Schools are not just a microcosm (缩影) of society; they mediate it too. The best ________ to alleviate the external pressures on their pupils while equipping them better to understand and handle the world outside—at once sheltering them and broadening their horizons. This is ambitious in any circumstances, and in a divided and unequal society the two ________ can clash outright (直接地).

Trips that many adults would consider the ________ of a lifetime—treks in Borneo, a sports tour to Barbados—appear to have become almost routine at some state schools. Parents are being asked for thousands of pounds. Though schools cannot ________ from these trips, the companies that arrange them do. ________ , pupils arrive at school hungry because their families can't afford breakfast. The Child Poverty Action Group says nine in every classroom of 30 fall below the poverty line. The discrepancy is startlingly apparent.   ________ a fundraising requirement for students does not help, as better-off children can tap up richer aunts and neighbors.

Probing the rock pools of a local beach or practicing French on a language exchange can fire children's passions, boost their skills and open their eyes to life's possibilities. The Sutton Trust, which focuses on improving social mobility, says educational outings help bright but ________ students to get better A-levels. In this globalized age, there is a good ________ for international travel, and some parents say they can manage the cost of a school trip abroad more easily than a family holiday. Even in the face of immense and mounting financial pressures, some schools have shown remarkable determination and ingenuity in ________ that all their pupils are able to take up opportunities that may be truly life-changing. They should be ________ . Methods such as whole-school fundraising, with the proceeds (收益) ________ , can help to extend opportunities and fuel community spirit.

But £3,000 trips cannot be ________ when the median income for families with children is just over £30,000. Such initiatives close doors for many pupils. The NASUWT teaching union has warned of parents pulling their children out of school because of expensive ________ trips; for other students, these trips confirm their intuition that the world has wonderful things to show—but not to people like them. Even parents who can see that a trip is little more than a party or celebration may well feel ________ that their child is left behind.

The Department for Education's guidance says schools can charge only for board and lodging if the trip is part of the syllabus, and that students receiving government aid are exempt from these costs. However, many schools seem to ignore the advice；and it does not cover the kind of glamorous, exotic trips, which are becoming increasingly ________ . Schools cannot be expected to bring together communities single-handed. But the least we should expect is that they do not foster divisions and exclude those who are already disadvantaged.

7 . Female penguins get stranded

Every year, thousands of Magellanic penguins (麦哲伦企鹅) get stranded along the coast of South America, but, _________ about 75% of those that get stuck are female. Now scientists say they have worked out what is behind the gender _________: the females migrate further north than males.

Magellanic penguins finish breeding in Patagonia in February, and, during the _________ winter months, head north, reaching as far as Brazil, in search of anchovies (风尾鱼). But every year thousands become stranded, with many _________ to safety on board military aircraft by human.

Writing in the journal Current Biology, researchers in Japan and Argentina report how they _________ tracking device to eight male and six female penguins in 2017 and tracked where the birds went after they left the breeding grounds of Cabo dos Bahfa in Argentina and began the migration north in April.

Previously it was unknown whether male and female’s took different paths or not. “Although some _________ are made, the exact reason for the _________ stranding has been unknown due to the lack of information on their behavior outside the breeding season.” said Takashi Yamamoto, a co-author of the report from the Institute of Statistical Mathematics in Japan.

The results from the study offer a clearer picture. _________ the authors note that only a small number of penguins were tracked, all the female’s generally traveled further north. The male, meanwhile, predominantly stuck to waters of the Argentinian coast. The study also found male _________ dived deeper than female’s: about 59 metres compared with about 35 metres.

The authors offer a number of reasons why males and females may head to different areas— including to avoid __________ for food—and why they dive to different __________ —the females’ smaller bodies may restrict the depths they can reach. They also suggest the different sexes may seek waters of different temperatures, with the __________ females preferring warmer, shallower surroundings.

While researchers are still trying to understand why penguins end up stranded, Yamamoto and colleague’s suggest those that end up further north may have used more energy swimming or catching __________ prey, leaving them exhausted. Climate change, pollution in the area or injury from fishing equipment could also play a role. Reports of standings have noted that many penguins are unwell or exhausted, with some even washing up dead.

“__________, plastic remains have been reported in the stomach of beach-washed Magellanic penguins,” said Yamamoto, adding that a stewed sex ratio could potentially lead to a population decline.

While the findings may not help prevent strandings, Yamamoto said it could help with __________ of the species. “If we do not consider any action, such as marine zoning, I expect that the number of stranding individuals will increase.”

8 . Aesthetic thought (美学思想, 审美理念) of a distinctively modern art emerged during the 18^th century. The western philosophers and critics of this time devoted much attention to such matters as natural beauty, the purity, and representation—a trend ______ the central position they had given to the philosophy of nature.______ that time, however, the philosophy of art has become ever more famous and has begun to ______ the philosophy of nature. Various issues ______ to the philosophy of art have had a ______ impact on the or 20th-century aesthetics. Among these are problems relating to the theory of form of art and to the distinction between representation and expression. Still another far-reaching question has to do with the value of art. Two ______ theoretical positions have taken on this issue: one holds that art and its appreciation are a ______ to some recognized moral good,______ the other maintains that art is in itself valuable and an end. Underlying this whole issue is the concept of taste, one of the basic concerns of aesthetics. In recent years there has also been an increasing preoccupation with art as the prime object of critical judgement. Corresponding to the trend in contemporary aesthetic thought,______ have followed either of two approaches. In one criticism is ______ to the analysis and interpretation of the work of art.______, it is devoted to the response to the aesthetic object and to justifying a particular way of perceiving it.

Over the years, aesthetics has developed into a ______ field of knowledge and inquiry. The ______ of contemporary aesthetic include such problems as the nature of style and its aesthetic significance; the relation of aesthetic judgement to culture; the relevance of psychology ______ the criticism of art; and the place of aesthetic judgement in ______ reasoning in the conduct of everyday affairs.

9 . Stephen Hawking remembered by his research student

Stephen was not so famous when I began my PhD at Cambridge in 1972, but his brilliance was already clear to his peers. On becoming his research student, I found it rather discouraging when I was informed by one of my tutors that Stephen was the brightest person in the department. ___________, it soon became evident that my relationship with him would not be the usual type of supervisor-student relationship. In those days, before he had his caretakers’ group of nurses and assistants, students would necessarily have to help him in various ways___________ his disability. This was not an tough task, but it did mean that my relationship with him became quite ___________. Indeed, I shared an office with him, lived with his family for a while and ___________ him as he travelled around the world, giving talks and collecting medals.

I soon discovered some of Stephen’s unique ___________. The first, of course, was that he was very smart. Students are probably always in respect of their supervisors and with Stephen the respect was even greater. Indeed, on matters of physics, I always regarded him as an oracle(圣人), just a few words from him generating insights that would have taken weeks to___________on my own. However, Stephen was only human and not all encounters led to inspiration. Once I asked a question about something that was ___________ me. He thought about it silently. His eyes then closed and I was even more impressed with myself because he was clearly having to think about it very deeply. Only after some time did it become clear that he had fallen asleep. Nowadays, I also sometimes fall asleep while talking to students, so I recall this incident with ___________.

I also learned about Stephen’s stubbornness and ___________ to continue doing things for himself as long as possible, despite the continuous progress of his illness. For example, because he had an office in both the department of applied mathematics and theoretical physics and the Institute of Astronomy at Cambridge, I also had offices in both places. I recall that he sometimes gave me a lift (probably illegally!) between the two places in his three-wheeled invalid car. I found this rather ____________ because I thought he drove faster than was safe. Later, he had to discontinue the use of the car but he never lost his drive and the desire to travel as far and wide as possible. One ____________ is he didn’t live long enough to achieve his dream of going into space.

I’m often asked where Stephen stands in the pantheon(名流群) of great physicists. There are many ways of being a great physicist and they cannot be ____________ like runners in an Olympic race. Stephen himself never ____________ to have the status of Newton or Einstein, but I strongly disagree with people who suggest that his scientific contributions have been ____________ because of his symbolic status. His disability was clearly a factor in his becoming so famous, but I doubt any other ____________ physicist will achieve the honor of being buried next to Isaac Newton in Westminster Abbey after his death.

10 . In 2008, the US Department of Homeland Security asked Scot Borg at the United States Cyber Consequences Unit, a non-profit organization to look into what might happen if the Internet went down. Borg and his colleagues analyzed the economic_________of computer and Internet outages (中断) in the US from 2000 onwards. Looking at quarterly financial reports from the 20 companies that claimed to be most affected in each case, as well as more general economic statistics, they discovered that the financial impact of the an outage was surprisingly_________—at least for outages that lasted no more than four days, which is all they studied.

“These were instances where_________losses were being claimed — in the hundreds of millions and even billions of dollars.” Borg says. “But while some industries like hotels, and airlines firms suffered a bit, even they didn’t_________very big losses.”

It turned out that losing Internet_________for a few days just made people_________their work. “People carried out all the same activities they would have done had the internet been up, but they just did it two or three days later.” Borg says.

In some cases, shutting down the Internet for a short time might even_________productivity. In another study, Borg and his colleagues analyzed what happened when a company suffered an Internet outage that lasted four hours or more. Rather than use their thumbs, employees did things that they would_________put off, such as dealing with paperwork. The result was a boost for_________. “We jokingly suggested that if every company__________their computers for a few hours each month and make people do the tasks they__________, there’s be an overall productivity benefit,” Borg says. “I see no reason why that wouldn’t also__________to basically the whole economy.”

Travel probably would not be affected too much__________, either — so long as the blackout lasted no more than a day or so. Planes can fly without the Internet, and trains and buses would continue to run. Longer outages would start to have an effect on logistics (物流), however. Without the Internet it would be__________for businesses to operate. “I’ve suggested that people and businesses should have a plan__________Internet loss, but I haven’t heard of anyone doing that yet.” Eagle-man says.