1 . Recently I invited a homeless man to have lunch so that he could eat as much as he wanted to fill his stomach. I _______ him over the phone by accident when I was supposed to call Father Benno’s, a soup kitchen. He muttered in a weak voice, “I am starving, sir!” before I said sorry and hung up. Something _______ me stirred to invite him to lunch.

_______ he did not have a car, I offered to pick him up. We had a(an) _______ four—hour lunch. I learned a lot about his struggles but more importantly, I left lunch feeling more _______ for a roof over my head, warm shower, comfortable bed, and food on the table, all of which we may not _______ twice about. He, too, _______ the connection, his lunch, and a rest from spending his afternoon on the streets.

I learned long ago that one person alone cannot _______ the homeless problem in California or the U. S. ; however, each person can make an effort to humanize the homeless in their own way. Did you know that 40% of the U. S. population lives paycheck to paycheck? Should _______ emergencies occur, any one of those 40% can __________ homeless on the streets.

For this holiday season, perhaps you may want to try something __________ . Buy a meal for the person asking for money instead of giving him spare __________ . If you can make the time and find courage, __________ them to share a meal with you. Jesse Jackson once said, “Never look down on anybody unless you are __________ them out,” and Rumi reminds us, “When we practice __________ and compassion, we are making the world a better place.”

2 . Food Festivals Around the World

Stilton Cheese Rolling

May Day is a traditional day for celebrations, but the 2,000 English villagers of Stilton must be the only people in the world who include cheese rolling in their annual plans. Teams of four, dressed in a variety of strange and funny clothes, roll a complete cheese along a 50-metre course. On the way, they must not kick or throw their cheese, or go into their competitors’ lane. Competition is fierce and the chief prize is a complete Stilton cheese weighing about four kilos (disappointingly, but understandably the cheeses used in the race are wooden ones). All the competitors are served with beer or port wine, the traditional accompaniment for Stilton cheese.

Fiery Foods Festival — The Hottest Festival on Earth

Every year more than 10, 000 people head for the city of Albuquerque, New Mexico. They come from as far away as Australia, the Caribbean and China, but they all share a common addiction-food that is not just spicy, but hot enough to make your mouth burn, your head spin and your eyes water. Their destination is the Fiery Food and BBQ Festival which is held over a period of three days every March. You might like to try a chocolate-covered habanero pepper — officially the hottest pepper in the world—or any one of the thousands of products that are on show. But one thing’s for sure—if you don’t like the feeling of a burning tongue, this festival isn’t for you!

La Tomatina — The World’s Biggest Food Fight

On the last Wednesday of every August, the Spanish town of Bunol hosts La Tomatina-the world’s largest food fight. A week-long celebration leads up to an exciting tomato battle as the highlight of the week’s events. The early morning sees the arrival of large trucks with tomatoes — official fight-starters get things going by casting tomatoes at the crowd.

The battle lasts little more than half an hour, in which time around 50, 000 kilograms of tomatoes have been thrown at anyone or anything that moves, runs, or fights back. Then everyone heads down to the river to make friends again — and for a much-needed wash!

3 . Each year people are crazy about different ceremonies. Many graduation ceremonies look special and different. But for Melody, it looked so unique because of the classmate who graduated alongside her — her grandmother, 75-year-old Pat Ormond. They both went to the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga (UTC) and graduated together.

Pat took her first college class 42 years ago. After one semester, she dropped out to move to Chattanooga, where she spent the next several decades working as an accountant and raising a family. While she did take an occasional class at UTC, she says her family continued to encourage her to go back to finish her degree, especially after she retired. She agreed when her granddaughter decided to move to study psychology at UTC after a year at Berea College. They both entered UTC with enough college credits to make graduating together a possibility.

Pat and Melody graduated on November 20 as part of UTC’s 2020 class. The achievement has also made Pat somewhat of a celebrity.

“We are so proud to have graduates like Melody and her grandmother, Pat Ormond, in the UTC class of 2020,” said Steven, UTC Chancellor. “Together, they personify the determination, commitment and love for lifelong learning we encourage in every UTC graduate.”

Pat hopes that she can be an example to other non-traditional college students who want to get their degrees. “Learning never stops,” Pat said. “That’s something that my father taught me when I was young. No matter what you do, learning never stops.” Pat isn’t planning to stop anytime soon. She’s already working on another degree-a bachelor’s degree in history.

Meanwhile, her granddaughter, who is hunting jobs, is interested in getting a master’s degree in clinical psychology so she can become a lawyer. But she says she’s in no rush. Her nanna has taught her that she has plenty of time.

7 . A study led by Plana-Ripoll, a psychiatrist (精神病医生) at Aarhus University in Denmark, tries to deal with a fundamental question that has bothered researchers for more than a century—What are the roots of mental illness?

In the hope of finding an answer, scientists have piled up a large amount of data over the past decade, through studies of genes (基因), brain activity and neuroanatomy (神经解剖学). They have found evidence that many of the same genes underlie seemingly distinct disorders and that changes in the brain's decision-making systems could be involved in many conditions.

Researchers are also rethinking theories of how our brains go wrong. The idea that mental illness can be classified into distinct, separate categories such as “anxiety” or “psychosis” has been disproved to a large extent. Instead, they’ve found that disorders shade into each other, and there are no hard dividing lines.

Now, researchers are trying to understand the biology that underlies mental illness.

They have a few theories. Perhaps there are several dimensions of mental illness—so, depending on how a person scores on each dimension, they might be more prone (易患) to some disorders than to others. An alternative idea is that there is a single factor that makes people prone to mental illness in general; which disorder they develop is then determined by other factors. Both ideas are being taken seriously, although the former one is more widely accepted by researchers.

The details are still vague, but most psychiatrists agree that one thing is clear: The old system of categorizing mental disorders into neat boxes does not work. They are also hopeful that, in the long run, replacing this framework with one that is grounded in biology will lead to new drugs and treatments. Researchers aim to reveal, for instance, the key genes, brain regions and neurological (神经的) processes involved in psychopathology (精神病理学), and target them with therapies (疗法). Although it might take a while to get there, they are long-term optimistic if the field really does its work.

8 . The day finally came, when I had to leave the warm home where I’d grown up. I ran to the back yard, as tears came up from my heart. Suddenly I _________ a hand rest on my shoulder. I looked up to _________ my grandfather. “It isn’t _________, is it, Billy?” he said softly.

Gently _________ my hand in his, we walked, hand in hand, to the front yard,_________ a huge red rose bush sat alone.

“What do you see here, Billy?” he asked. I looked at the flowers, not knowing _________ to say, and then answered,“I see something soft and _________, grandpa.”

He pulled me _________. “It isn’t just the roses that are beautiful, Billy. It’s that special place in your heart that makes them so.” “Billy, I_________ these roses when my first son was born. It was my __________ of saying ‘thank you’ to God. I __________ to watch him pick roses for his mother. Then, as a young man of only 20, a terrible war robbed him of his life.” Grandpa slowly stood up. “Never say goodbye, Billy. Never __________ to the sadness and the loneliness. Instead, I want you to remember the joy and the __________ when you first said hello to a friend.”

A year later, my grandpa became very __________. Then all members of the family were __________ back, and I returned to the old house. When it came to my __________, I took his hand as __________ as he had once taken mine.

“Hello, grandpa,” I __________. His eyes slowly opened and said, “Hello, my friend.” With a brief __________ he died. Suddenly, and truly. I knew what he had __________ about never saying goodbye—about refusing to give in to sadness.

10 . After my mother died, my father, who was 75 at the time, began to regularly visit the local library in Epping. The library had a small area, where the soft carpet, folding chairs and lap desks _________ a comfortable space for independent reading. My dad would sit there for hours. This particular wintery Saturday, at about 12 noon, after being there for two hours, my dad _________ that it was very quiet and darker than usual. He looked around, realizing that all the staff had left and he had been _________ locked in.

My dad was a “panic merchant” at the best of times, so I can only _________ what he was like when this happened. The doors had been locked from the outside and he had no way out. He must have felt completely at a _________, since he didn’t know some tips for handling this kind of crazy situation. My dad looked at the notice boards to try to find a _________ phone number—a staff member or someone he could ring to help let him out—but without _________. So he rang the police station and they kindly got in touch with the head librarian.

The head librarian immediately rang my dad back at the library, and _________ that she would be soon there. She tried to _________ him and even explained how he could make a coffee if he wished. This was very nice, but my dad was in too much of a “__________” to do so.

Thankfully, the head librarian arrived within the hour and let my dad out. She apologized for the __________ it had caused my father and sent my father back home in person. We were very grateful, since she could easily have been __________ at having to come back to work. The next day my dad seemed to __________ from this accident. He almost forgot all about the unpleasantness, and even found his experience quite __________.

I guess the entire staff now makes extra sure that the library is empty before they leave. What’s more, my dad has learned an important lesson by himself—never again became quite so __________ in his reading.