2 . Vijay Gupta is known to classical music lovers across the United States. He serves as the first violinist for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. In that job, he often plays to large crowds, including many very rich people. When he is not performing, he organizes concerts for homeless people. “They have reminded me why I became a musician.” He said.

Last week, Gupta was recognized for being a founder and the artistic director of Street Symphony. The group has performed at homeless shelters, jails and halfway houses for about eight years. Gupta is among the 25 winners of the 2018 MacArthur Fellowship, commonly known as the “Genius Grant”. Each winner will receive $ 625,000 over five years to use as they wish. The money is coming from a private group, the John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. It awards grants (补助金) to people whose work it considers exceptional and whose work “inspires hope in us all”. Gupta said he got the idea for Street Symphony while teaching Nathaniel Ayers, a trained musician whose mental illness led to his homelessness.

The 31-year-old winner said he did not know yet how he would spend the money. He has been a performer since the age of seven and the award will give him “space to breathe, plan and look ahead”.

Another winner is Rebecca Sandefur, an associate professor (副教授) of sociology and law in the University of Illinois. The Associated Press says her research actively supports new ways to involve poor communities in the U. S. justice system.

47-year-old Sandefur created the first national mapping of civil legal aid providers. It shows which states have the financial(金融的)resources to provide such aid and which don’t. She also found that the cost of legal services was only one of the things preventing poor people from getting lawyers. Among the others were fears of unfairness(不公平)in the legal system. Sandefur noted that a lot of attention had been paid to problems with the criminal justice system, but more attention must be paid to the civil side of the law, which also affected millions of people.

3 . Recently, the organizers of the 2024 Paris Olympics have suggested that breakdancing be included in 2024, making it closer to becoming an Olympic sport. The other 3 sports—surfing, skateboarding and sport climbing—all made debuts in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. That is to say, audience watched these three sports as Olympic events for the first time.

The organizers stressed that four sports had been chosen since they would reflect the city’s identity and help take the Olympics to the street. They added that the purposes were to deliver a Games that was able to keep up with the times and encourage new audience and attract young people. Breakdancing is a typical example which can be played without the limitations of time and places in urban and other environments.

As one of the sports at the Young Olympic Games in Buenos Aires in 2018, breakdancing now could see its popularity greatly raised. But the International Olympic Committee (IOC) needs to approve the French suggestion before it can be formally added to the 2024 Paris Olympics sports programme.

With new IOC rules first introduced to the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Host cities can select sports and propose them for inclusion in those Games if they are popular in that country and add to the Game’s appeal.

Antonio Espinos Ortueta, the president of the World Karate Federation said, “Our sport has grown rapidly over the last years. We believe that we have met all the requirements and that we have the perfect conditions to be added to the sports programme. However, we have learned today that we still haven’t had the chance to prove our value as an Olympic sport.”

4 . When making choices, people assume that they pick what they like. However, research suggests that we like something strictly because we have chosen it. In other words, we dislike things we don’t choose. And this phenomenon has existed since we were babies.

In an experiment, US researchers brought several 10 to 20-month-old babies into a lab and gave them two same bright and colorful soft blocks to play with. They set each block far apart, so the babies had to crawl to one or the other—a random choice. After the baby chose one of the toys, the researchers took it away and came back with a new option. The babies could then pick either the toy they didn’t play with before, or a brand-new toy.

It turned out that the babies reliably chose to play with the new toy rather than the one they had not chosen.

In follow-up experiments, when researchers instead helped choose which toy the baby would play with, the phenomenon disappeared. “As if they were saying, ‘Hmm, I didn’t choose that object last time, because I guess I didn’t like it very much” said Lisa Feigenson, co-author of the study.

This is a very important phenomenon in life, Feigenson noted. Adults will less like the thing they didn’t choose, even if they had no real preference in the first place. It looks like babies do just the same.

It shows that the act of making choices changes how we feel about our options. The random choices might become our preferences. “They are really not choosing based on whether they are novel or what they prefer,” said Alex Silver, co-author of the study.

This new finding explains why adults build unconscious preference when they make choices between the same things. Justifying(证明有道理) choice is somehow fundamental to the human experience. “I chose this, so I must like it. I didn’t choose this other thing, so it cannot be so good. Adults make these inferences unconsciously,” Feigenson said.

Such tendency makes sense to us as we live in a consumer culture and must make so many choices every day, between everything from toothpaste brands to styles of jeans.

Next, researchers will look at whether too many choices could be a problem for babies as they certainly are for adults.

5 . Over the years, I’ve been guilty of hurriedly shutting the front door to many strangers when they came knocking with the intention of selling the things. But around Easter time this year, a dear friend of mine had an experience that________my mind towards these “unexpected visitors.”

Alice who recently moved to a new neighborhood, had been housebound (足不出户的) all week________from the severe flu when, early one morning, there was the annoying knock on the door. Peering out the window, she saw two young ladies seriously________leaflets and a TV set model. She knew a large TV set establishment nearby and assumed a message was about to be________. “This is the last thing I need today,” she muttered to herself and________opened the door.

Coughing, she poked her head out and impatiently________them that she wasn’t the slightest bit interested in any TV products.________, she added, she was feeling quite unwell and abruptly shut the door. The ladies politely turned and left________. A few hours later, the same two ladies were back again. Really________this time, she opened the door ready to give them a piece of her mind.________she could speak, these women, with________looks on their faces, handed Alice a dish , saying “We’re so sorry we________you earlier. We thought you may like this homemade chicken soup.________it might make you feel better.” Alice was surprised by this lovely________. Being new to the area, she didn’t know many neighbors or people who could________her with shopping so the gesture was really________. She could only smile embarrassedly and sincerely thanked them. With that, the ladies left.

After Alice told this story to me, I thought about how________this deed was. Especially in today’s world where sadly, kindness and________seem so rare. I also realized that________others and showing________is the real essence of love.

My younger sister go to school by herself. Lived far from the school, she has to catch the early bus every day. One day, she had just arrived in the bus stop when she realized she had forgotten to wear a mask. She ran to a nearby shop and bought one. As she returned hurried to the bus stop, the bus had left! Worried about late for school, she began to cry. A stranger asked how she was crying. Then he showed to her an App on his phone, and told him the next bus would arrive in 5 minutes. Luckily, she is just in time for her first class. She was very grateful to the man and hoped to help other in the future.

Last year I attend a study tour in Scotland. The family who I was staying with was so friend. One day they took me to place that is called Loch Ness. I learned that "loch" is a Scottish word that mean "lake". There are stories for a Loch Ness monster(怪物), called Nessie. A famous photo of Nessie which was taking in 1934 kept the story alive. There are still reports from people who say I have seen the monster because they can clearly to see its huge long neck. For several hour we sat by the lake and enjoyed the picnic what we had brought. However, there was no huge monster to be seen!