Are all changes good?

It is a commonly held belief that as people get older, they become resistant to change. Their complaints that things used to be better in the past or     1     some new development is no good can be dismissed as the unavoidable thoughts of people who    2     (simple) don't like change and are therefore     3     (able) to see the benefits of progress.

But is this automatically true? Are the views of an older person on a new development always to be disregarded? This would suggest that every new development must be a good     4     and surely that cannot logically be    5     case.

Take    6     (architect) for example. In the 1950s and 1960s, many older British people were highly critical of the new concrete housing blocks that suddenly sprang up in cities,     7     (say) that they were ugly and depressing places to live in. They were     8     (tell) that they were simply being old-fashioned and that they were incapable of appreciating the advantages of these new buildings, which had replaced the streets of small houses that they were familiar with.     9     decades later, these very same blocks were being pulled    10    , as new generations decided they were both ugly and bad for society.

Yuan Longping, a Chinese scientist who developed many high-yield rice    1    (variety)that helped feed people around the world, passed    2    on Saturday at a hospital in the southern city of Changsha. On Saturday afternoon, large crowds honored the scientist by marching past the hospital, calling out “Grandpa Yuan, have a good journey!”

Yuan spent his life    3    (research))rice and was a household name in China, known by the nickname “Father of Hybrid Rice.” It was in the 1970s    4    Yuan achieved the breakthroughs that made him a household name. He developed a hybrid strain of rice that recorded an annual yield 20%    5    (high) than other species—meaning it could feed    6    extra 70 million people a year.

Worldwide, a    7    (five) of all rice now comes from species    8    (create) by hybrid rice following Yuan’s breakthrough discoveries. His work helped transform China from “food deficiency to food security” within three decades, according to the World Food Prize, which was started in 1986    9    (recognize) scientists and others who have improved the quality and availability of food.

Yuan    10    (award) “the Medal of the Republic” for his outstanding contribution to China’s food security, agricultural scientific development and world food supply.

Alex felt on the top of the world because he knew he     1     (fly) to Brazil in several days to experience the    2    (annual) held Rio Carnival after he attended an unforgettable wedding in India. As soon as he got off the flight, he could feel the Carnival in the air! No wonder     3     the summer heat, people from Rio take a week off for this happy occasion. Then he went to a street party     4     he saw a group of dancers and a band, all     5     (dress) up in fancy costumes. Merry crowd waited with excitement. When the band started playing an     6     (energy) samba beat, the dancers twisted and turned,     7     the crowd began to cheer, clap and sing. The whole group marched down the street,    8     (pass) wave after wave of street stands. Breathing in the rich smell of roasted meat, Alex felt never     9     (happy). He was so caught up in the party fever that he hardly noticed five hours     10     (go) by.

People have lived in cities for thousands of years. Yet even just 100 years ago, more people     1     (live) in the country than in cities. Today, with the population in the world     2     (increase) sharply, more people move to cities for various     3     (reason). For many it is for work or education. Some are     4     (simple) attracted to city life. By the year 2030, it is thought     5     more than sixty percent of the world's population will be living in cities. More and more cities will become megacities (特大城市), and they will     6     (find) in different parts of the world.

Maybe one megacity is not the same as another     7     they do have common problems, such as air     8     (pollute), housing problems, traffic jams and so on. Making these cities work well for every person living in them will be     9     great challenge in the future. However, we do believe when people work together, they can find solutions which will help make these megacities happy, healthy and     10     (excite) places to live in.

Katherine Johnson Dies at 101； Mathematician Broke Barriers at NASA

They asked Katherine Johnson for the moon, and she gave it to them.

    1     (use) little more than a pencil, a slide rule and one of the finest mathematical minds in the country, Mrs. Johnson, who died at 101 on Monday, calculated the precise trajectories(轨道)that would let Apollo 11 land on the moon in 1969 and, after Neil Armstrong's history-making moonwalk,     2    (let) it return to Earth.

Yet throughout Mrs. Johnson's 33 years in NASA and for     3     (decade) afterward, almost no one knew her name.

Mrs. Johnson was one of several hundred strictly educated, extremely capable yet largely     4     (mention) women who are well before the modern feminist movement. worked as NASA mathematicians. But     5    was not only her sex that kept her long marginalized and long unsung.

For some years at midcentury, the black women worked as "computers”     6     were subjected to a double segregation(隔离歧视):They    7     (keep) separate from the much     8    (large) group of white women who in turn were segregated from the agency's male mathematicians and engineers.

In old age. Mrs. Johnson became     9     most celebrated of the small excellent group of black women who at midcentury served    10     mathematicians for the space agency. Their story was told in the 2016 Hollywood film "Hidden Figures”, which was nominated for three Oscars, including Best Picture.

I'm a National Geographic photographer. When the pandemic (瘟疫) hit, I had to figure out what to do to contribute    1    (responsible) to a story that would affect people in the world. I started driving all over,     2    (sleep) some nights in my truck. I was looking for what the virus meant to people.

I had to change the way I worked by using a drone (无人机),    3    I flew relatively low to the ground, and it allowed me to take pictures from a distance. I would call out to people and say, "Hey, do you mind if I use my social-distance flying camera    4    (take) your picture?" The response    5    (be) usually, "Do what you've got to do."

After I took photos, I'd leave a note    6    my contact information on the person's car, on the front step or in the mailbox. I'd say, "Contact me if you want to tell me more about what's going on in your life,    7    I'll send you a picture." I was moved by the responses I received, long emails from people who wanted to have their stories    8    (tell) or just needed someone to talk to.

Everybody's got an important story to tell. To    9    (communication) with people and photograph them, I decided that I was an essential worker. I felt so grateful that I had photography, because I could be out in the world, and I could see things for    10    (I). I had a sense of purpose.