Nowadays, most young people have little understanding of     1     a shadow play is despite its 2000-year-old history. Like Peking Opera and other traditional national arts in China, Piyingxi or the shadow play show,     2     (know) as a Chinese cultural heritage, has spread to many     3     (country). Vivid design and a rich variety of colors, beautiful costumes, change of lighting, and unique singing, together make up the     4     (fascinate) world of a shadow play.

As     5     old form of storytelling and entertainment, shadow play artists use plain figures in front of a bright cloth     6     (create) the illusion (错觉) of moving images. The figures     7     (move) by people behind a thin screen. Shadow play is not     8     (entire) a show of shadows but rather a show of silhouettes (剪影).

That day I     9     (watch) a shadow play show at the Chinese People’s Association for Friendship with Foreign Countries, and was fascinated by the wonderful performance. It is a pity that nowadays young people don’t know how to appreciate this traditional art. Shadow play is our precious folk art, and let’s preserve     10    .

2 . Consumption of ultra-processed foods (UPFs) has increased over the past 20 years. UPFs (超加工食品) contain few or no whole foods, are industrially produced, are ready-to-eat or ready-to-heat, and include additives (添加剂). The ultra-processing of food reduces its nutritional value. It has been known that higher UPF consumption is associated with overweight and heart disease. Now, research has been extended to examine its impact on mental health.

In a new study, over 72,000 participants who were at least 55 years old and didn’t have dementia (痴呆) at the start of the study were followed for an average of 10 years, during which they filled out questionnaires regarding their diet. By the end of the study, 518 people were diagnosed (诊断) with dementia. After adjusting for other factors that could affect risk of dementia such as age, gender, and heart disease, researchers found every 10 percent increase in daily intake of UPFs was associated with a 25 percent higher risk of dementia. They also found replacing 10percent of UPFs with unprocessed or minimally processed foods was associated with a 19 percent lower risk of dementia.

In another study, researchers found individuals who consumed the most UPFs had significant increases in the symptoms (症状) of mild depression, “mentally unhealthy days”, and “anxious days”. Eric Hecht, Founder and Executive Director of the Institute of Etiological Research, said, “More than 70 percent of packaged foods in the US are classified as UPFs and represent about 60percent of all calories consumed by Americans. Considering the degree of exposure to and effects of UPF consumption, this study has great significance in clinical practice and public health. It might help improve future development of dietary guidelines.”

Facing such alarming data, maybe it’s time for Americans to reconsider their food choices. Researchers recommend taxes on UPFs and carrying out policies to reduce the consumption. They also support programs and policies to increase the availability and affordability of whole foods, especially among disadvantaged populations.

3 . Two weeks ago my grandfather passed away. It really put me into deep ________ because my grandfather held a ________ position in my life. For me, my grandpa was not only a ________ family member but a tutor (导师) who encouraged me to work hard and ________ well.

I’ll never forget the first time I read a long piece of his writing. It was when I ________ for Princeton and he offered to write to the university on my behalf. He wrote in beautiful ________ and used poetic language, unafraid of sounding too “flowery”. I read the ________ out loud so I could hear the rhyming sounds.

My grandfather ________ hard work. Every time he came to visit us in New York, he would ________ my brothers and me for our good performance, which made me feel ________. I knew he had worked hard to ________ the big family during the Great Depression. He was awarded many military ________ for winning many battles in the Navy in World War II.

At the funeral, a friend of my grandfather walked to me and said that my grandfather had told him about a small book I had written. After it came out, I sent it to my grandfather ________ received no reply. This man told me that my book hit my grandfather’s heart and brought tears to his eyes. My grandfather said he was so ________ of me.

Now I feel even more deserved to write well because I know my grandfather ________ it. I know he lives in my heart forever.

8 . For decades, scientists thought of the brain as the most valuable and consequently most closely guarded part of the body. Locked safely behind the blood-brain barrier, it was broadly free of the harm of viruses and the battles started by the immune system (免疫系统). Then, about 20 years ago, some researchers began to wonder: is the brain really so separated from the body? The answer, according to a growing body of evidence, is no.

The list of brain conditions that have been associated with changes elsewhere in the body is long and growing. Changes in the makeup of the microorganisms in the digestive system have been linked to disorders such as Parkinson’s disease. There is also a theory that infection during pregnancy could lead to brain diseases in babies.

The effect is two-way. There is a lengthening list of symptoms not typically viewed as disorders of the nervous system, but the brain plays a large part in them. For example, the development of a fever is influenced by a population of nerve cells that control body temperature and appetite. Evidence is mounting that cancers use nerves to grow and spread.

The interconnection between the brain and body has promising implications for our ability to both understand and treat illnesses. If some brain disorders start outside the brain, then perhaps treatments for them could also reach in from outside. Treatments that take effect through the digestive system, the heart or other organs, would be much easier and less risky than those that must cross the blood-brain barrier.

It also works in the opposite direction. Study shows mice have healthier hearts after receiving stimulation to a brain area involved in positive emotion and motivation. Activation of the brain reward centre — called the ventral tegmental area (VTA) — seems to cause immune changes that contribute to it. Working out how this happens could help to destroy cancers, enhance responses to vaccines and even re-evaluate physical diseases that, for centuries, have not been considered as being psychologically driven.

10 . In the endless sky, the unaided human eye should be able to perceive several thousand stars on a clear, dark night. Unfortunately, growing light pollution has impeded people from the nightly view.

New citizen-science-based research throws alarming light on the problem of “sky glow”-the diffuse illumination (漫射照明) of the night sky that is a form of light pollution. The data came from crowd-sourced observations collected from around the world as part of Globe at Night, a program developed by astronomer Connie Walker.

Light pollution has harmful effects on the practice of astronomy but also on human health and wildlife, since it disturbs the cycle from sunlight to starlight that biological systems have evolved alongside. Furthermore, the loss of visible stars is a great loss of human cultural heritage. Until relatively recently, humans throughout history had an impressive view of the starry night sky, and the effect of this nighty spectacle (壮观) is evident in ancient cultures.

Globe at Night has been gathering data on star visibility since 2006. Anyone can submit observations through the Globe at Night web application. Participants record which one best matches what they can see in the sky without any telescopes or other instruments.

Researchers find that the loss of visible stars indicates an increase in sky brightness of 9.6% per year while roughly 2% is measured by satellites. Existing satellites are not well suited to measuring sky glow as it appears to humans, because they can not detect wavelengths shorter than 500 nanometers (纳米). White LEDs, with shorter wavelengths under 500 nanometers, now are increasingly commonly used in outdoor lighting. But human eyes are more sensitive to these shorter wavelengths at nighttime. Space-based instruments do not measure light from windows, either. But these sources are significant contributors to sky glow us seen from the ground.

“The increase in sky glow over the past decade underlines the importance of redoubling our efforts and developing new strategies to protect dark skies,” said Walker. “The Globe at Night dataset is necessary in our ongoing evaluation of changes in sky glow, and we encourage whoever can to get involved to help protect the starry night sky.”