1 . A nurse named Aly Hogarth has reunited with a mother and daughter at the same hospital ship 30 years after saving their lives.

In 1993, Ms Hogarth was touring a hospital ship in Sierra Leone when she knew that a patient Catherine Conteh needed a Caesarean section (剖腹产手术), but she couldn’t _____ it. Ms Hogarth contacted her colleagues and they paid for the 170 surgery, so that Catherine’s daughter, Regina, could be _____. Later, Ms Hogarth volunteered to take care of her in the hospital, _____ her wound and teaching her how to feed the baby. In this way Ms Hogarth formed a _____ with the mother and the baby, but they lost _____ when she returned home to New Zealand.

Ms Hogarth, now 52, volunteered for charity Mercy Ships. Surprisingly, she _____ Catherine and Regina at the same hospital ship. They both became nurses, inspired by Ms Hogarth, and Regina now has a child of her own.

Ms Hogarth said, “To see Catherine in person again, it’s very unreal really. It’s not something I _____ expected until we made contact again. For me, I felt _____ at the moment when we met and didn’t know how to react.” “We just cried and cried,” Catherine said. “Regina and I would have died without Ms Hogarth’s pure love.”

“It’s really _____ to see Catherine again,” Ms Hogarth shared. “I thought about her every time I told that story for the last 30 years. I know it was a significant time — realizing that you can make a real ______ by doing something.”

4 .

It is perhaps easy to accept the statement that the universe is expanding. It is just some strange physics indicating that, as time goes on, galaxies (星系) get further away from each other just like two cars racing away from each other.

I personally don’t like it and prefer the balloon analogy. In this situation, there are dots all over a balloon. When we blow it up in real life, the dots would increase in size. In this analogy, let’s assume they don’t. What we are interested in is how the distance between the dots on the surface of the balloon grows as we put more air into it.

The balloon analogy relies somewhat on our geometric sensibilities which refer to our sense of shapes and how they change over time. At its core, what we are trying to develop a sense for is how we measure distances. This concept is also the fundamental goal of general relativity, Einstein’s theory of gravity. In general relativity, the most important piece of information is what we call the metric, an equation that describes how distances are measured, and therefore also tells us about the shape space-time is taking.

The whole idea that space-time is expanding was first noticed as a mathematical consequence of general relativity by Georges Lemaitre in 1927, when he solved Einstein’s equation and found a solution for the metric showing that distances grow with time. His work provided a theoretical explanation：the standard for measuring cosmic (宇宙的) distance was itself changing with time.

What is delightful is that it means we can quite reasonably say that universe’s expansion is a gravitational effect. I enjoy this because it is so deeply counterintuitive to our usual understanding of gravity, which teaches us that it is a force that always draws things together. But in this case where gravity is a geometric effect, we are offered a broader range of gravitational possibilities.

It is worth noting that the geometric explanation of general relativity hasn’t been universally popular. The late physicist Steven Weinberg wrote that the geometric explanation of the theory of gravitation has been reduced to a mere analogy, but is otherwise not very useful. Another challenge with the balloon analogy and our reliance on geometric explanation is to explain why gravity seems to pull things together in many situations, while universe is expanding. This difference is resolved by acknowledging that local gravitational effects due to massive objects dominate over large-scale expansion effects, leading to the formation of structures like stars, galaxies and, eventually us.

In fact, the analogy where universe is only expanding and this is the only gravitational effect at play is a very idealized situation where matter was initially spread out perfectly evenly across the universe.

5 . When I was nine, my best friend nearly choked to death on a gobstopper, a type of hard candy. After several attempts, she coughed up the candy. I haven’t had a gobstopper since and I have carried with me a fear of seeing that scene again. Sadly, as I discovered this week, lightning can strike twice.

I was getting off a tube train in London when I noticed a woman coughing. I slowed down, watching her carefully. I had learned that coughing is rarely a sign that something is terribly wrong. Suddenly, the woman stopped coughing, her eyes widened and she bent over.

When I went over to ask if she was OK, she looked up at me, panicked, and pointed to her back. I started hitting her back and screaming for help. Despite having watched a few videos, I was terrified that I wouldn’t be able to correctly perform the Heimlich, a first-aid method, and that I would have to walk away with guilt for her death. But it was just the two of us, alone at an underground station; if I didn’t try to help, no one would. Thankfully, much like with my friend, after a few sharp hits, whatever had been stuck in her throat came loose. She thanked me, almost embarrassed, and walked up to the lift. I followed behind her, shaking, with tears in my eyes.

By the time we reached the lift, we had both calmed down. She took my hands and thanked me again, before disappearing. She might have been fine without my hurried hits on her back—I may not have actually saved her life—but at least she knew that someone, a stranger whom she would never see again, cared.

This experience also taught me about the bystander effect, where people assume others assumed to be available during an emergency, direct help from others is far less likely to will help, leading to inaction. I get it: the fear of making things worse, especially if you have no medical training, is real. Research suggests that when a “medically competent” person is assumed to be available during an emergency, direct help from others is far less likely to occur. Sometimes, though, regardless of who else could be nearby, it may be useful to get involved. So it was with the coughing woman on the tube.

It can be hard not to let negativity go into your day, especially during     1    (stress) periods of life. A bit of optimism makes you become better and emotionally     2    (healthy) in the long term. An optimistic person is always looking for the best in any situation and expecting that good things     3    (happen). But being optimistic doesn’t mean you go into denial and pretend everything is fine when it’s not. It is a particular state of mind     4     you hope for the best but prepare for the worst.

The horse-face skirt, or mamianqun in Chinese, is a traditional Chinese skirt that dates back to the Song Dynasty. Traditionally it has two panels     1     (attach) to a single waistband, which overlap in front of the body to form a “skirt door”, like the horse-face defenses on ancient city walls. It primarily     2     (represent) a Chinese philosophical concept that harmonizes strength and gentleness. The skirt has gone beyond time and space to become a fashion item today. It     3     (prefer) by fans of traditional clothing, who have continued to develop it.

An elderly couple has become stars in the marathon community.     1     (win) at least 200 medals from sports meetings in the past ten years, they are regarded as role models by many people. Initially, the couple started running just     2     (improve) their health. Later, they decided to challenge themselves and signed up for a marathon. Though neither of them had run a full marathon before, they managed to complete it. They believe no matter     3     age it is, the marathon spirit of fighting to the end is essential.