1 . As Ginni Bazlinton reached Antarctica, she found herself greeted by a group of little Gentoo penguins (企鹅) longing to say hello. These gentle, lovely gatekeepers welcomed her and kick-started what was to be a trip Ginni would never forget.

Ever since her childhood, Ginni, now 71, has had a deep love for travel. Throughout her career (职业) as a professional dancer, she toured in the UK, but always longed to explore further. When she retired from dancing and her sons eventually flew the nest, she decided it was time to take the plunge.

After taking a degree at Chichester University in Related Arts, Ginni began to travel the world, eventually getting work teaching English in Japan and Chile. And it was in Chile she discovered she could get last-minute cheap deals on ships going to Antarctica from the islands off Tierra del Fuego, the southernmost tip of the South American mainland. “I just decided I wanted to go,” she says. “I had no idea about what I’d find there and I wasn’t nervous, I just wanted to do it. And I wanted to do it alone as I always prefer it that way.”

In March 2008, Ginni boarded a ship with 48 passengers she’d never met before, to begin the journey towards Antarctica. “From seeing the wildlife to witnessing sunrises, the whole experience was amazing. Antarctica left an impression on me that no other place has,” Ginni says. “I remember the first time I saw a humpback whale; it just rose out of the water like some prehistoric creature and I thought it was smiling at us. You could still hear the operatic sounds it was making underwater.”

The realization that this is a precious land, to be respected by humans, was one of the biggest things that hit home to Ginni.

Last Friday my mom decided to color his hair. She studied with all the hair products at the drugstore. The color she choose came in a box which had a picture of a woman that hair color looked just perfect. Mom was sure same color would look great on her. She put the new color on her hair or sat still for 30 minutes, just as the directions saying. However, instead of the brownish red hair she had hoped for, she final got purple hair. She went right into the shower to washing it, but it was no use. At least one thing proved truth: the color wouldn’t wash out.

3 . The Government’s sugar tax on soft drinks has brought in half as much money as Ministers first predicted it would generate, the first official data on the policy has shown.

First announced in April, 2016, the tax which applies to soft drinks containing more than 5g of sugar per 100ml, was introduced to help reduce childhood obesity (肥胖). It is believed that today’s children and teenagers are consuming three times the recommended level of sugar, putting them at a higher risk of the disease.

Initially the sugar tax was expected to make £520m a year for the Treasury. However, data of the first six months showed it would make less than half this amount. At present it is expected to generate £240m for the year ending in April 2019, which will go to school sports.

It comes after more than half of soft drinks sold in shops have had their sugar levels cut by manufacturers (制造商) so they can avoid paying the tax. Drinks now contain 45 million fewer kilos of sugar as a result of manufacturers’ efforts to avoid the charge, according to Treasury figures. Since April drinks companies have been forced to pay between 18p and 24p for every litre of sugary drink they produce or import, depending on the sugar content.

However, some high sugar brands, like Classic Coca Cola, have accepted the sugar tax and are refusing to change for fear of upsetting consumers. Fruit juices, milk-based drinks and most alcoholic drinks are free of the tax, as are small companies manufacturing fewer than 1m litres per year.

Today’s figures, according to one government official, show the positive influence the sugar tax is having by raising millions of pounds for sports facilities (设施) and healthier eating in schools. Helping the next generation to have a healthy and active childhood is of great importance, and the industry is playing its part.

4 . In 1916, two girls of wealthy families, best friends from Auburn, N. Y. — Dorothy Woodruff and Rosamond Underwood — traveled to a settlement in the Rocky Mountains to teach in a one-room schoolhouse. The girls had gone to Smith College. They wore expensive clothes. So for them to move to Elkhead, Colo. to instruct the children whose shoes were held together with string was a surprise. Their stay in Elkhead is the subject of Nothing Daunted: The Unexpected Education of Two Society Girls in the West by Dorothy Wickenden, who is a magazine editor and Dorothy Woodruff’s granddaughter.

Why did they go then? Well, they wanted to do something useful. Soon, however, they realized what they had undertaken.

They moved in with a local family, the Harrisons, and, like them, had little privacy, rare baths, and a blanket of snow on their quilt when they woke up in the morning. Some mornings, Rosamond and Dorothy would arrive at the schoolhouse to find the children weeping from the cold. In spring, the snow was replaced by mud over ice.

In Wickenden’s book, she expanded on the history of the West and also on feminism, which of course influenced the girls’ decision to go to Elkhead. A hair-raising section concerns the building of the railroads, which entailed (牵涉) drilling through the Rockies, often in blinding snowstorms. The book ends with Rosamond and Dorothy’s return to Auburn.

Wickenden is a very good storyteller. The sweep of the land and the stoicism (坚忍) of the people move her to some beautiful writing. Here is a picture of Dorothy Woodruff, on her horse, looking down from a hill top: “When the sun slipped behind the mountains, it shed a rosy glow all around them. Then a full moon rose. The snow was marked only by small animals: foxes, coyotes, mice, and varying hares, which turned white in the winter.”

7 . Young children across the globe enjoy playing games of hide and seek. For them, there’s something highly exciting about _______ someone else’s glance and making oneself unable to be seen.

However, we all witness that preschool children are remarkably _______ at hiding. They often cover only their eyes with their hands, leaving the rest of their bodies _______.

For a long time, this ineffective hiding method was _______ as evidence that children are hopelessly “egocentric” (自我中心的) creatures. But our _______ research results in child developmental psychology _______ that idea.

We brought young children aged 2-4 into our Minds in Development Lab at USC. Each _______ sat down with an adult who covered her own eyes or _______. We then asked the child if she could _______ or hear the adult. Surprisingly, children replied that they couldn’t. The same __________ happened when the adult covered her own mouth: __________ children said that they couldn’t __________ to her.

A number of __________ ruled out that the children misunderstood what they were being asked. The results were clear: Our young subjects __________ the questions and knew __________ what was asked of them. Their __________ to the questions reflected their true __________ that “I can see you only if you can see me, too.” They simply __________ mutual (相互的) recognition and regard. Our __________ suggest when a child “hides” by putting a blanket over her head, it is not a result of egocentrism. In fact, children consider this method __________ when others use it.

I used to afraid of insects, but last Friday’s biology class make a big change in me. In that class, Miss Zhao, our biology teacher, showed we insects on stamps. The bees, butterfly and many other insects looked lovely and beautifully on the stamps. Miss Zhao told us the names of the insects or described their living habits. She even played some recordings of their singing, what was fun. Now, I’ve come to love those of small living things. In the evening, when I take the walk in the school garden, the singing of insects become more meaningful to me.