1 . Handwritten Chinese characters can be beautiful. Living in a digital era with smartphones and computers, most students sooner or later ask themselves this question:    1    

Knowing how to write Chinese characters by hand is just cool. It feels like magic when you write a few strokes (笔画)on paper that don’t normally make sense, but they suddenly come together and create a meaning.    2    

Handwriting characters trains your muscle memory, making characters stay longer in your memory and improving your reading and speaking skills.     3    However, without knowing how to write characters by hand, you are very unlikely to reach a level above intermediate (中级的).

    4    Handwriting characters is a form of meditation. Once you learn how to stay focused, you will not only notice that your concentration skills improve, but you will also find yourself feeling calm and relaxed when writing characters.

Most people agree that we should learn to write last least some characters at some point as a student of Chinese, although not necessarily straight away and not necessarily all the characters that you can say. But unless you don’t care about written language at all, you should learn the basics of handwriting.    5    You don’t need to be a calligraphy master, but you do need basic handwriting skills to do this. Simply looking at things is, as usual, a bad way of learning.

3 . Thrillers and romance and mystery, oh my!     1     And as someone with a massive to-be-read lineup, I sometimes wish I could flip the pages with a little more speed. If you’re also wondering how to read faster, you’re in luck. Here are some tips for how to read faster.

Scan the text first. Before you kick off the speed-reading adventure, give the text a quick scan.     2     By giving your brain a pre view of the topic, you reduce time spent processing surprise information. This tip mainly applies to academic texts, but it can be a helpful strategy for any factual or how-to piece, from nonfiction books to news articles.

Silence your inner subvocalizer. Subvocalizing is the act of silently saying words in your head as you read. It means you are taking the time to read each word and “hear” it in your head. Subvocalizing is a handy way to ensure you understand what you read, but it’s also a habit that can slow you down.     3     Mentally voicing the words you read can be a major roadblock to speed. Instead of silently mouthing each word, train your brain to process chunks of words.

    4     Have you ever been deeply immersed in a story only to stop short at a word you don’t recognize? The stronger your vocabulary, the slimmer your chances of slowing down to puzzle over the meaning of a word.     5    Reading news articles from the economics section can help you learn new financial terms. And reading nonfiction health books can help you pick up medical vocabulary terms you might not see otherwise.

And remember: Becoming a speed reader is like learning to salsa dance. Start slow, find your rhythm, and soon you’ll be breezing through pages like a literary Zorro!

4 . Do you always get angry about something? Do you always take things too personally? Do you find yourself thinking people are laughing at you in public places?     1     If you are sensitive about something, you are easily worried and angry when people talk about it.

    2     Actually, sensitive people can appreciate food, the sound of music, the different colors of nature, or even traffic. They can also notice small differences in meaning, making them more emotionally(感情上地) intelligent and more creative.

However, it can also be a terrible burden(负担) if left uncared for.     3     So you should do something to stop being too sensitive. For example, recognize those people who often leave you feeling tired in life and avoid them. Instead, surround yourself with people who will make you feel bright and happy. If you constantly feel negative about yourself, you’ll struggle with being sensitive.     4    

Another important thing to do is forgive those who have wronged you. Often sensitive people aren’t good at letting things go.     5     This is unhealthy as it’ll keep you from enjoying both the present and the future. Take the lesson; leave the pain.

In a word, though being sensitive is certainly a challenge, you can deal with it correctly by taking proper efforts.

5 . In June a massive “heat dome” baked the famously temperate Pacific Northwest, subjecting parts of Washington State, Oregon and western Canada to extreme temperatures. It is virtually impossible that heat waves like this would have occurred without climate change. Scientists estimate it was a one-in-1,000-year event. “And that’s an ‘at least,’ ” says Kristie. L. Ebi. “It could be more rare than that.” If warming reaches two degrees Cabove preindustrial levels — the threshold (阈值) that most national governments have agreed to try to avoid in hopes of reducing climate change impacts, “that event could occur every five to 10 years,” Ebi says.

“In an average year in the U.S., heat kills more people than any other type of extreme weather,” says Kristina Dahl, a climate scientist. Hundreds of people died in the recent Pacific Northwest heat wave, according to estimates: there were at least 486 deaths in British Columbia, 116 in Oregon and 78 in Washington. A recent U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention report found there were more than 3,500 emergency department visits for heat-related illness this past May and June in a region that includes Oregon and Washington State.

The human body functions best at 98.6 degrees F (37 degrees C). The body has mechanisms to rid itself of excess heat, most notably sweating. But at a certain point, that fails to work, causing loss of consciousness. People can eventually acclimatize to some level of heat. If you live in a hot climate or work in hot conditions for a period of weeks or months, your body becomes more efficient at sweating and cooling itself down. This process takes time, however.

As the planet warms, heat waves like these this year are becoming frighteningly common and catching climate scientists off guard. “Even a lot of our climate models that project out how frequent extreme heat will be in the future wouldn’t have necessarily predicted this level of heat for that part of the country,” Kristina Dahl says. “But then to realize that I am seeing it in my lifetime, and living it right now, is really terrifying.”

6 . As an ordinary senior school student, I’ve discovered a wonderful way to _________ life with a positive attitude — my daily bicycle rides. Riding my bike has become more than just a fun activity. It’s like a little _________ that has taught me important lessons about staying positive, facing challenges and being _________.

When I get on my bike and ride around familiar streets, it feels like I’m on a small quest. It’s not just about reaching a(n)_________; it’s about enjoying the ride itself. Cycling has turned into a kind of teacher, helping me understand the _________ of practice and having a can-do spirit. One of the coolest things I’ve learned is about not giving up when things get hard. You know, when I’m trying to pedal up a steep hill, it’s hard! But guess what? Even when my legs feel super tired, I keep going and do not give up, till I reach the _________. Life is kind of like that too. When I have a challenging task or any problems in my studies, I remember those steep hills. I know if I keep trying, I can _________ anything.

Another thing that cycling has taught me is to be ready for surprises. The road isn’t always _________. Sometimes there are bumps, and you have to ride around them. When something is wrong with my bike, I do not _________. I try to find a solution. Life’s a bit like that too. It’s not always easy, but being flexible and staying positive helps me rise to the challenge and handle __________ problems.

The most important part, though, is how cycling makes me feel happy and __________. The wind in my hair and the rhythm of pedaling makes everything seem OK. It’s like a secret power — no matter what’s going on, it keeps me happy, lets me __________ my batteries, and lets me come back feeling __________.

In the end, my daily bike rides have become more than just a way to get around. They’ve become a(n) __________ for how I want to live my life. Cycling has shown me that being positive, facing challenges with __________, and keeping an optimistic attitude can turn the life journey into a fantastic adventure. So, here’s to more bike rides and more fun!

7 . Mosquitoes can spread a range of potentially life-threatening diseases. Existing methods of controlling the insect can be inefficient. For example, mosquitoes can develop a resistance to insecticides(杀虫剂).

Now, Kevin Gorman at the biotechnology firm Oxitec in Abingdon, UK, and his colleagues have genetically modified (基因改造) males of the mosquito species Aedes aegypti in a way that will greatly cut the insect’s population. Among all mosquito species, only females bite. So the team modified males to create so-called OX5034 mosquitoes. They have a gene that allows young male mosquitoes to live, but prevents the females from surviving into adulthood.

In the peak season for reproducing, OX5034 males were released into four heavily populated places in the city of Indaiatuba in Brazil. Within two of these neighborhoods, 100 modified mosquitoes were released at a time, while the remaining test areas were exposed to up to 500 of the insects at a time. Compared with a nearby community that wasn’t exposed to any of these mosquitoes, the places where the modified insects were released saw an 88 percent to 96 percent decline in their mosquito population.

The researchers particularly focus on controlling dengue-a disease caused by a virus carried by mosquitoes. Globally, the number of dengue cases has grown significantly in the past three decades, with 100 million to 400 million cases now occurring annually. While the study didn’t look at whether suppressing (抑制) the mosquitoes led to a lower rate of dengue, there was evidence of this elsewhere. Similar efforts in Australia saw fewer cases of locally spread dengue compared with previous years. A study also found a 77 percent reduction of dengue in Indonesia after modified mosquitoes were introduced there.

According to Dawn Wesson at the Tulane University School of Public Health and Tropical Medicine, Louisiana, Oxitec’s effort is a step up from previous insect control strategies in which mosquito sexual selection wasn’t done by genetic means. That’s the beauty of this method. As well as dengue, Oxitec is making plans for developing modified mosquitoes to reduce other diseases like malaria, says Nathan Rose at Oxitec.

8 . In December 2013, photojournalist Wood set out to become the first person to walk the length of the Nile River.

Wood’s journey began in Rwanda, took nine months and ________ 3,750 miles. It was necessary to make the trip on foot, he says, because “________ is the only way you can really get under the skin of a country.”

Wood acknowledges that his ________ was often dependent on the hospitality (好客) of local villagers. The people of the Sudan, he says, were probably the most ________ of all. Even sharing water, he says, ________ an incredible act of kindness.

“The biggest challenge was the sun ________ down. Most of the day I had to be ________ to the sun,” he recalls, “My guide had a catapult (弹弓). He would shoot pigeons. Other times we’d eat with villagers. The local ________ could vary, from grasshoppers to rats.”

The journey wasn’t without danger. Civil War in South Sudan ________ shortly after his arrival. He made it halfway through the country, to Bor—the front line of the war. It was there that he was arrested and ________ before an army commander, who told him he was not ________, and threatened to kill him if he crossed the border. He was evacuated (疏散)   to the capital, and flew to North Sudan.

“I ________ out 400 miles of the journey,” he regretted.

Had he made the trip ________, he would ________ have achieved a Guinness World Record. But he says it doesn’t matter.

“It was never about breaking records, it was about taking the biggest ________ in my life, and it was certainly that.”