1 . After bringing up three children, Barthorpe decided to do something for herself. She planned to _________ herself by learning to ride a motorcycle at the age of 60. After passing her driving test, she soon _________ on her first solo (单独的) ride. She remembered the _________ of being on the road alone for the first time.

Although Barthorpe preferred riding solo, she contacted the Women’s International Motorcycle Association (WIMA) in the hope of _________ it. It was the connection with the WIMA that led her to a(n) _________ — the Women Riders World Relay. The plan was to pass a baton (接力棒), rider to rider, all around the world. That was a test of the riders’ courage and _________. But just after Barthorpe took on the role, she _________ fell down and got injured. She spent several months in hospital. However, Barthorpe didn’t see it as a _________ experience. She knew that she must pay much attention to _________ first. Getting on a motoreycle again was ____________, but Barthorpe took extra training and ____________ a lot. And she pushed herself to take part in the race in Australia. Barthorpe then realized that it was normal to ____________ and rise to it, which offered an opportunity to grow.

What attracts Barthorpe most to a motorcycle is the ____________. “I can go anywhere I want and any time I like,” she said. “The kids said to me, ‘Mum, you seem to have turned into a ____________ teenager.’ I just told them, ‘No, I’ve just found the field where I can see my ____________.’”

“It is important that our cultures speak to one another,”Travis Preston, Dean of the School of Theater at the California Institute of the Arts, told Beijing Review.

In 2015, Preston worked with famous Chinese playwright, Stan Lai, often praised    1     Asia’s top theater director, on Night walk in the Chinese Garden,    2    was first shown in 2018. The production, created by Lai, was inspired by Chinese romantic tragicomedy The Peony Pavilion,    3    (write) in the 16th century about two lovers    4    (find) each other in dreams.

“For many in the U.S., the project was an extraordinary introduction to ancient Chinese culture in a contemporary context,”Preston said. “We have much to learn from Chinese    5     (artist) and I believe exchange is    6    (extreme) important to both countries.”

The collaboration (合作) with Lai also    7    (create) a significant chance for Preston to communicate with Chinese audiences through the Wuzhen Theater Festival. Lai is one of the founders of the festival,    8    annual event in the ancient water town of Wuzhen in east China’s Zhejiang Province. Founded in 2013, it is growing into a globally     9     (influence) theater festival.

“I don’t know of any other festival town in the world like it. It is truly an amazing gathering place,” Preston said.“It is an ancient town that has been restored perfectly to    10     (it) original beauty and then improved with contemporary touches.”

7 . In 1983, Ski Rixen USA became the first water ski cable park in the United States. Located in Deerfield Beach, Florida, the park offers riders a chance to experience all kinds ofwater sports.

In the past 40 years, Six Rixen USA has welcomed more than 1.5 million visitors. The park was the brainchild of engineer Bruno Rixen. Born in 1931 in Germany, Rixen grewfrustrated with the sport of water skiing, which required pulling by a motor boat.

“He used to wait for four hours in line to do three laps around the lake, ” explained Allan Wlodarczyk, the manager of Ski Rixen USA. He added that riding five minutes and waiting another four hours sparked Rixen’s idea of cable parks. Rather than relying on a boat, Rixen considered his own cable way. He also designed skis and set up a power source.

“The first cable was actually an old farm tractor, ” Wlodarczyk said. “Rixen took the wheels off, attached some ropes to the wheel disks, and started pulling people back and forth around the lake.” Over the years, Rixen improved his design and earned several patents. He opened the world’s first commercial cable water park in 1966 in Benidorm, Spain.

The sport grew from entertainment to international contests. Rixen died in 2020, but his idea has taken hold around the world. Today, there are more than 500 cable water parks on different continents. Typically, the cable tows riders at a speed of about 20 miles per hour.

But for beginners, who can take lessons, the speed is about 15 miles per hour.

Ski Rixen USA also offers riding opportunities and events to people with special needs to ski effortlessly. “We have a specially designed ski, called a sit ski,” Wlodarczyk said. “It’s a larger board with a lot of surface area. The riders are completely seated in the water and don’t actually have to hold onto the rope.”

8 . Paley arrived at Spring Grove Apartment 18 months ago. Jean Lewin, who lived there, fell in love with the stray (流浪的) cat and decided to _________ him. Although Lewin wanted to bring Paley into her home, Paley didn’t show _________ in being domesticated (驯化). _________, Lewin had to spare time to go out to _________ him. She placed blankets to keep him _________ in the cold winter nights and offered enough food. Lewin had _________ with cats as she had raised her own cats. Slowly, Paley started getting _________ with the kind woman. He would sometimes allow her to _________ him, and would even sit on her laps when she came. He became part of the building’s “family”.

One night, Lewin found Paley was crying and being a bit _________. Paley wasn’t being himself and refused to answer Lewin’s call, to which he usually made a quick __________.

Lewin thought the cat wanted to be followed, so she followed his __________. Paley led her out of the apartment’s yard until they __________ a large tree. That’s when Lewin saw a woman __________ on the snow, unconscious and unresponsive.

Lewin had worked on a __________ team for many years and knew exactly what to do. She __________ got a blanket for the woman and asked a neighbor to call 911 while she was tending to her.

Fortunately, the cat saved the day and the story had a happy ending.

9 . Think of your most prized possession. Now, imagine you decide you must sell this item. How much is it worth to you? How much would you charge for it? And would anyone else want to buy it at that price?

Let’s consider the real-world example of a yard sale. Before your neighbors come to look at your things, you must first decide on the prices for them. For you, each item has a story, and some items may even evoke strong emotions.

Let’s say you’re selling a pair of special edition sports shoes that you took care of and really enjoyed wearing on special occasions. With these sweet memories in mind, you put a price tag of $130 on the shoes. However, a customer offers $50 for them. You think, “How could they not see how special and valuable these are?”

In financial transactions like this, sellers often believe their own items are worth more than what buyers are willing to pay. This occurs because buyers do not have the seller’s experiences with and emotional attachment to the items. Buyers want a good deal, and they’re not willing to pay what the seller is asking for.

This negotiation process can even feel a little painful for the seller—over losing something and the buyer not valuing it as much. Economists suggest this dynamic occurs through the endowment effect (禀赋效应)—people’s tendency to value things they own more highly than they would if they did not own them. The endowment effect can take hold anytime we feel a sense of ownership over a product, and it can happen quickly.

As the saying goes, “Emotions get the best of us.” There is nothing wrong with being proud of owning things and treasuring your experiences with them. But when you consider selling a prized possession, think about whether you’re fully ready to part with it. The past is the past, though. Removing your emotional attachment to material possessions can help you make more accurate assessments of how much your items are truly worth.

10 . We’ve all done it before—dropped a box of unwanted household belongings at a flea market and driven off with a sense of accomplishment. But have you ever stopped to think about where those items actually go?

Business journalist Adam Minter began considering this while cleaning out his late mother’s home. Seeking reassurance that his mother’s donated items would be put to good use rather than destroyed, he started a journey worldwide that resulted in his latest book, “Secondhand: Travels in the New Global Garage Sale”. He found the industry significantly in the dark, with a disturbing lack of data on secondhand goods, despite their crucial role in clothing, furnishing and educating people worldwide.

In this book, Minter fully reveals himself as an investigative journalist. He doesn’t shy away from the commonly-accepted assumptions about the global trade in used goods. First, Minter questions the idea that shipments of secondhand clothes from developed countries to Africa have destroyed local textile industries (纺织业). That’s overly simplistic, he says. He further explains that multiple factors, such as declining cotton production in local areas and economic liberation, have influenced the situation.

Minter then explores the topic of car seats, making a statement that recycling car seats, instead of selling them secondhand, is wasteful and might compromise (危害) safety for children in developing countries. It is disturbing to say so in a society that prioritizes child safety and highlights zero risk, but when you consider the excessive caution that might endanger children’s lives elsewhere, the situation starts to look different.

Minter calls it “waste colonialism,” this idea that developed countries can apply their own safety standards onto the markets of developing countries—and it’s deeply wrong. Why label an used car seat or an old TV as unsafe if someone else, with different skills, is perfectly capable of repairing it and willing to use it, especially if they lack access to new products and other options?

The book explores the huge problems of handling surplus (剩余的) items and how producers discourage repairs and promote the sales of new products. Minter calls for initiatives to enhance product repairability and increase product lifetime.