Lust for Life (《渴望生活：梵高传》) is a biographical (传记的) novel about the life of the famous Dutch painter Vincent van Gogh．    1     (write) by US author Irving Stone, this work of historical fiction provides a vivid description of the artist．

The novel traces Van Gogh’s life from his early years in the UK to his final days in France. Stone weaves together historical facts, and     2     (imagine) storytelling to create the artist’s journey. The title, Lust for Life,     3     (perfect) shows Van Gogh’s enthusiasm both in his art and his life.

    4     impresses people most in this book is that,     5     (add) color to his paintings, Van Gogh would set aside the sketches (素描) to which he had devoted all his efforts and start over．    6    , among the Impressionist of the 19th century, this hardworking painter was still regarded as an abnormal person．

Another strength of Lust for Life lies     7     its ability to immerse the readers in the world of 19^th century Europe．Its vivid descriptions of the landscapes and cities contribute to a sensory experience that     8     (help) the readers better understand the environment where Van Gogh lived．Stone mixes the social and cultural contexts of the era effectively into the book,    9     (offer) readers a broader perspective on the challenges faced by artists during that period．

In conclusion, this book is a well-deserved     10     (celebrate) of the artist and his spirit of creation．

2 . Cultural traditions shape who you are. Lear n more about your traditions and how you can preserve them by means of the followings.

Share your culture art.

Each culture is carried by different forms of art. Museums often house items like clothing, music instruments, and visual artworks. However, beyond these exhibits, there exist tools crafted by ancestors, which present the traditions through generations’ wisdom.     1    

Attend or organize major events.

Your country, religious organizations, or immigrant ethnic groups almost certainly celebrate major holidays or cultural festivals.     2     If there aren’t any of those in your area, you can arrange your own events.

Cook family recipes.

Find some recipes from your grandmother’s cookbook.     3     As you knead dough (揉面) or follow the right amount of spices, you might remember meals from your childhood or holidays. Cooking your family recipes can help you inherit the family tradition and make it possibly passed down.

Promote your dialects (方言).

Language shapes culture to some degree. Therefore, promoting a dialect contributes to the protection of a certain culture.     4     So if you know one of them, help to spread it. With more and more people speaking, these dialects could be successfully preserved before they go extinct.

Spend time with other members of the community.

The best way to preserve your culture is to keep it alive.     5     Many aspects of culture are difficult to learn in books and museums, including body language, and humor. But you can get to the core (核心) of the cultural experience through daily communication.

3 . In a lab in London, newborn chicks took the first steps of their life and might become part of solving one of the brain’s big puzzles. Elisabetta Versace, the lead author of the new study and head of the Prepared Minds Lab at Queen Mary, and her co-workers published their findings on Tuesday in Biology Letters.

In a simple test, researchers placed the downy animals, hatched after less than a day in complete darkness, one at a time into a special box. Two screens on the opposite sides of the box played videos of moving orange balls, one moving upward and the other downward. Over the course of 20 minutes, most of the chicks hesitantly walked over to the end of the box with the upward-moving ball.

Biologists call the mechanisms (生物机制) that assist animals in their earliest moments “evolutionary predispositions (进化倾向)” or “priors”. “Studying how predisposition s work in humans is difficult,” says Elisa Raffalla Ferre, co-author of the new study, as babies take time to develop complex skills. By the time human babies can easily move, they have already spent significant time learning. Chicks, however, can perform relatively complex actions very soon after hatching, which makes them ideal candidates for exploring how predispositions function.

Why this preference for objects that move against gravity exists at all remains unclear. “Going against gravity in a consistent way is associated with animate objects in the ecological world,” Versace says, “because usually you see that water flows down or a rock falls down.” Lifeless objects, on the other hand, are unlikely to move consistently against gravity.

The newly released article is consistent with previous research, according to Orsola Rosa Salva, a comparative psychologist at the University of Trento. What Salva wants to see next in this field are experiments that begin to identify what areas of the brain are active when predispositions are launched, so scientists can better understand how the mechanisms work. Versace hopes that future research can offer insights into the way the brain is organized to make sense of the world.

Tom was a skilled teenage surfer. He had always been attracted by the ocean and the challenge of riding its waves. He had trained tirelessly for years, sharpening his skills and perfecting his technique. He had participated in many competitions and won several titles. But one day, his world was turned upside down.

It was a routine training day. While Tom was concentrating on his training in the sea, a shark came in through the broken shark-proof net and approached him. The animal knocked over Tom’s surfboard and bit his right leg, tearing through his flesh (肉体) and causing massive damage. Despite the seriousness of his injuries, Tom was lucky to survive the attack. He was rushed to the hospital, where he received an emergency operation. With the efforts of doctors, his leg was saved.

Tom’s recovery was long and painful, but he refused to give up on his dream of surfing. At first, his progress was slow. He had to learn to walk again, and then to run, and then to jump. Every movement was a struggle. But with the help of his family and friends, as well as his own fierce determination, Tom gradually began to make progress.   He spent hours every day in the gym, doing strength and balance exercises to rebuild his body.

Finally, after months of hard work, Tom was ready to get back into the water. His first training was incredibly difficult, as he struggled to overcome his fear of the ocean and the memory of the shark attack. But gradually, he began to regain his confidence and his love for surfing. As his strength and skills returned, Tom set his sights on competing once again. He trained tirelessly, working with a coach to perfect his technique and improve his performance.   And finally, the day of the competition arrived.

Standing in front of the starting line again, Tom felt nervous．

Tom fell into the sea．

7 . In the summer of 2015, Brian Peterson and his wife, Vanessa, had just moved to Santa Ana, California. One day, Peterson was reading the book Love Does, when his quiet was ________ by a homeless man. Encouraged by the book’s sympathetic message, Peterson made an conversation with him, and ________ that the man called Merda had moved here to ________ a career in music, but he ended up living on the street for years.

“It was the ________ thing to me,” Peterson recalled later on the podcast Top Artist. “I saw the ________ on the face of a man who hadn’t ________ or showered in probably a year. But his story, the life inside of him, ________ me.” And even though Peterson, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, hadn’t ________ a paintbrush in about 8 years, he ________ himself asking if he could paint Merda’s portrait．

Peterson painted Merda’s portraits, ________ his traits and life experiences．________, the painting was sold for a few thousand dollars, and the money was put into a “love account” by Peterson for his model. Merda used the funds from his portrait to ________ an album, fulfilling his musical dreams.

Peterson’s ________ with Merda led him to form Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit organization focused on befriending and painting portraits of members of the community who are ________. Up till now, with 41 portraits painted and sold, Perterson has helped many people get back on their feet, and established the friendship with someone people might have ________.

8 . Four Best Natural Parks in America

Everglades National Park, Florida

Everglades National Park is the largest subtropical (亚热带) wilderness reserve in America. This amazing destination is a 1.5-million-acre ocean of grass which flows gradually from central Florida all the way south to the sea. This makes it -an important habitat for numerous rare and endangered species like manatee, American crocodile, and Florida jaguar.

Grand Canyon National Park, Arizona

Grand Canyon National Park is home to one of the largest canyons in the world. If you visit between mid-May and mid-October, you can see the Canyon from the North Rim. About 90% of all visitors see it from the “South Rim”, because it is open all year and has easy-to-get-to overlooks.

Mammoth Cave National Park, Kentucky

The caves house 200 animals, most of them being invertebrate (无脊椎) species. 42 of these species live in total darkness. These caves are incredible enough to be featured in Planet Earth——a must-see BBC documentary series.

Olympic National Park, Washington

Olympic National Park has a little bit of everything rugged Pacific coastline, high mountain peaks, broad sandy beaches, clear lakes, rain forests. With such a wide variety of ecosystems, Olympic is one of the most diverse wilderness areas in the United States. The park is an important habitat for species like wild salmon (鲑鱼), northern spotted owls.

Olympic National Park is very large and there are no roads that cross the park. If you visit in April or May, you may see gray whales pass by on their way to Alaska.