1 . Meena has raised an impressive $140,000 for senior dogs. The young girl was _______ by her desire to help her furry friends find a loving, forever _______ —just like she did. Meena was found abandoned, left in a basket at just 9 months old. She was _______ at age 2 and got a new home from an Indian couple.

As a child, she was fond of animals. She often _______ to the local dog rescue to play with the animals. As much as Meena _______ spending time at the shelters, she grew _______ by how often senior dogs were _______ . Senior dogs were seldom adopted, suspected of requiring more _______ medical procedures. Muttville Senior Dog Rescue, a volunteer-run rescue, soon became Meena's home away from home and favorite place to visit. The _______ rescues and rehomes older dogs. She admired how Muttville __________ senior dogs “a second chance at life”.

Having been __________ herself, Meena understood how it feels to be left behind. She never viewed the senior dogs as a __________ , but rather as intelligent, gentle and loyal __________ for the right pet parents. Meena hopes to __________ others to adopt older dogs as they also provide an abundance of unconditional love and can make a(n) __________ addition to any home. During the pandemic (流行病), she observed how dogs have helped soothe (抚慰) their owners’ __________ and loneliness. She believes since animals have __________ us, we, in turn, need to do our __________ and help them when the opportunity arises.

Meena was determined to find a way to __________ Muttville in its noble mission of saving senior dogs. Her brainstorm was a pet-sitting business. Meena __________ contributed all her pet-sitting earnings to Muttville.

2 . A 2020 study by Balbix found that 99% of the people surveyed reused their passwords between work accounts or between work and personal accounts.     1    

For example, a 2019 study by Google found that 59% of the people they surveyed used a name or a birthday in their password. And 24% admitted using a password like one of these below: 1234, 12345, 123456, etc.     2     Since both personal and work accounts are accessible from the same device with the same password, it simplifies the work a bad actor has to do in order to breach (攻入) your systems.

    3     The NIST (National Institute of Standards and Technology) Password Guidelines are widely regarded as the international standard for password best practices. Following these guidelines—and insisting your employees do the same—will help protect you against threats from weak or stolen passwords. Password managers can simplify the work required for your employees to follow these guidelines.

It's more secure to require your employees to use more than one authentication (身份验证) factor to access mobile company applications.     4     They'd need to check on their identity with additional authentication factors in order to log in.

Finally, you can also perform passwordless authentication.     5     For example, in the event that a mobile device is stolen or accessed illegally, requiring a facial scan (扫描) or a finger scan as a primary or secondary authentication factor could still prevent unauthorized access.

3 . In school, we' re taught word repetition is bad and that we shouldn't use the same word over and over again in the same piece. It gives the impression that we have a severely limited vocabulary.

Later on, however, we' re sometimes told that it's better to use the same word repeatedly. With dialogue, some novel-writing professors recommend using "said" with each comment instead of replacing it with synonyms（同义词）（whispered, responded, etc.）. Word repetition is also an emotional appeal strategy for speeches and sales, because people remember and respond to things they hear multiple times.

So which way is right?

The answer is, "It depends.” If you're writing for school, it's not a very good idea to use the same word constantly. If you're writing dialogue that you want to keep moving at a fast pace, using mostly “said” can help do that because "he said” and "she said” more or less fade into the background. They don't take much time or attention for the readers, so they can skip over and focus on the dialogue. However, this isn't a hard-and-fast rule. You might rely on “said” for one scene and mix in a bunch of synonyms for another.

Repeating a word can also provide emphasis, and it's really good for sales. Think about commercials and how they re-use specific words to make sure that those words stick in your memories. The trick to this method, however, is that you have to make sure other words aren't repeating the same way. Otherwise, the repetition loses its power.

In the end, it comes down to personal taste and the effect you' re trying to achieve. As Shakespeare said, "there is nothing either good or bad, but thinking makes it so." You may need to repeat the same word every time. You may need to mix it up with synonyms. You may need to do both at the same time for different ideas. And the decision may change completely by what you're trying to do.

4 . Polish Olympian Maria has generously auctioned（拍卖）off her Tokyo Games silver medal to raise funds for a baby's lifesaving operation.

When Maria heard about 8-month-old Miloszek's battle for survival, she felt it a must to do something to help. The baby had a serious and rare heart disease. His condition was badly worsening, and he was in need of immediate surgery. His parents sought funds to cover the cost of his transportation and medical care for the complicated surgery at Stanford University Medical Center in the United States.

As a cancer survivor, Maria knows what it is like to fight the disease. She overcame bone cancer and a shoulder injury to make her comeback and compete at this summer's Tokyo Olympic Games. Her hard work paid off, earning her first medal.

Athletes make enormous sacrifices to have an opportunity to compete at the Olympic Games, and winning an Olympic medal is every athlete's dream. Maria treasured what the medal represents. However, she decided her medal was more valuable at auction if the raised funds could help save a child's life.

Maria stated in her social media auction announcement that Miloszek's fundraising already had a good head start. It was at the halfway point of reaching its goal of $390,000. That was thanks to the family of a recently deceased young boy who generously donated the funds originally meant for their son. Maria hoped her Olympic silver medal would take the fundraising across the finish line.

Zabka, a popular Polish supermarket chain, won Maria's silver medal auction with a bid of $125,000. Zabka's owners gracefully declined to accept the silver medal and returned it to Maria. They stated they were grateful for the opportunity to contribute to such a good cause.

5 . Nature is all about relationships: the interconnected links between the living and lifeless, and how they harmonize beautifully into a whole that might not be immediately apparent to us humans, as the complexities of the world sometimes escape the grasp of our relatively short-sighted understanding. Perhaps that's why the urgency of the climate crisis and other environ-mental issues don't truly hit home for some; because that important data is presented in a dry, factual way that doesn't touch the deeper parts of our collective soul, in a way that would move us to realize what is being lost.

Clare Celeste is an environmentally-minded artist creating artworks that aim to highlight the precious biodiversity of the planet. Using paper that is complexly cut and then hand-assembled piece by piece, Celeste forms imaginary landscapes of plants and animals that are folded or pressed between glass.

Growing up in Brazil, Celeste says that her earliest childhood memories were of green, tropical ecosystems slowly being eaten up by the rapid expansion of nearby cities.

Celeste said, “When I made a series of combinations, I realized that many of the species in the illustrations had already gone extinct. Humans have wiped out 68 percent of all our planet's biodiversity since 1970, so working with old illustrations can be very heartbreaking as much of the diversity in these beautiful old illustrations has been wiped out by human activities.”

Celeste explains some of the motivations behind this series of paper works: “I wanted to convey the beauty of our planet's plants and animals, while also introducing a more architectural or human-made element with the geometric (几何图形的) patterns. Having grown up in Brazil, I was surrounded by dense urban spaces that often had rich jungle growth just wanting to break through the concrete architecture. I suggest we go back to our love: our love of nature, of our children, of future generations. Because when we love something deeply, we are required to act—to save it when it is threatened.”

7 . If you are currently learning English, 1 highly recommend you check out the apps below.

Quizlet

When learning English, you probably have to memorize a lot of words. If you want to grow your vocabulary as fast as possible, a flashcard app like Quizlet is a great shortcut. With Quizlet, you can create a set of flashcards with new English words you are trying to learn, and practice typing them out until you know them by heart. It's a simple concept, but it's highly effective.

Spotify

Spotify is not a language learning app. But chances are that you already use it or a similar app for listening to music or podcasts（播客）, and one of the effective ways to study is combining something you already use into your existing habits. If Spotify is already on your phone, you can subscribe to some podcasts for English learners or download playlists of songs for learning English, or make your own.

Beelinguapp

Beelinguapp makes reading in English as convenient as possible. It shows you a text in your own language with the English translation side-by-side. Texts are short enough so that you can really dig into every word. They cover topics from fairytales, to science, to current news articles. There's even a "karaoke" feature where you can read along to audio, which helps you match up the English pronunciation with the English spellings.

Tandem

Tandem is a language exchange app which connects learners from all over the world. It can help you find a native English speaker who is trying to learn your native language, so you can swap language skills. If you only have five minutes to spare, you can simply exchange messages with a native English speaker. If you have more time, you can have a longer, digital language exchange" by sharing voice notes, or using video chat. It's a great way to test your English skills out with real people.

9 . Decision hard

From the moment we wake up each day, we’re faced with a continuous stream of choices.    1    , when there are too many options. This is decision fatigue (疲劳), a state of mental overload that can impede (妨碍) our ability to make additional decisions.

When decision fatigue kicks in, you may feel like you just don’t have the mental bandwidth to deal with more decisions.     2    . As a result, you avoid making certain choices entirely, go with the default option or make ones that aren’t in line with your goals or values, experts say.

Here’s how to minimize or manage this phenomenon:

    3    . Some easy ways to do this: When you go grocery shopping, use a master list that has the same staples, and buy the same brands each time.    4    . And if you’re trying to exercise regularly, devote a consistent amount of time for it every day.

Tune into how you’re feeling. Be watchful of signs of decision fatigue and act accordingly: If you’ve had a demanding day that was filled with lots of decisions, put off making another one if you can. If things that wouldn’t normally upset you start bothering you, consider that a sign that you may not be in the best state of mind to make a major decision. “People may not realize that they’re experiencing decision fatigue,” Baumeister, a professor of psychology at the University of Queensland in Australia, says. “    5    .”

I have been in Taiyuan, the provincial capital of Shanxi, for two years since I     1    (admit) to a PhD program in Shanxi University as an international student.

Over the two years, I found     2    (I) falling in love with Shanxi and China as I got more familiar     3     the city, the province and the country. You have to adapt to everything—food, language and culture. But for me, the     4    (adapt) didn’t take a long period of time. I have got used to eating noodles for breakfast and using online payment via my smartphone very     5    (quick).

My favorite sport is cycling and I find China is very cyclist-friendly because it is convenient     6    (hire) bicycles in every city in the country. I like to cycle on     7     streets in Taiyuan and visit places I meet randomly. The cycling tours helped to deepen my understanding of the city.

Taiyuan     8    (have) a history of more than 2,500 years, among the     9    (old) cities in China. An abundance of well-preserved ancient structures, like the temples in Jinci, are the material evidence to help you get a quick look at     10     ancient China looked like.