1 . Nick Lee, also known as Magic Nick, tries to bring joy to seriously ill children and their families during a child’s time in hospital. As a magician, Lee works with the ________ Spread A Smile, which sends numerous artists, including magicians, into hospitals to entertain ________ patients who are being treated for life-threatening illnesses. The aim is to ________ lasting memories for families at the ________ of times.

Before Lee worked with the charity, two of his ________ had been in Great Ormond Street Hospital and had been ________ there by Spread A Smile magicians. ________ the joy his nephew experienced from magicians encouraged him to use his talents to ________ in the lives of others.

________ from common belief, Lee did not grow up in a family of magicians. ________, he is the first magician in his family. He got his first magic set when he was three, and at 16 he started doing shows ________ on the stage. Lee has dyslexia (阅读障碍), a condition that ________ the way a person learns. He admits that maths and English have always been a ________ for him, but he remains optimistic and admits, “Performing magic seems to be going quite well.”

Lee ________ significant insights from the children he meets in hospitals. He says seeing the children’s strength has given him ________ as well. “I might be having a bad day, but this person is ________ having a much worse day than I am and they’re still ________,” he reflects.

By means of his work with Spread A Smile, Lee has been able to bring a sense of magic and ________ to children and their families. His ________ to his career and his sympathy for others make him a ________ magician, both on and off the stage.

2 . Far too often, we look at ourselves in the mirror and tell ourselves we aren’t good enough.     1    . Here’re some tips on how to accept yourself.

Accept your individuality

View your weaknesses as what makes you a unique person. As humans, we all have weaknesses that set us apart from others. Instead of viewing your weaknesses as bad things, turn them into what makes you an individual.     2    . However, that same quality may also mean you’re awesome at art or English.

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We are often our own worst critics, and we tend to hold ourselves to standards that we wouldn’t expect of other people. Think about the standards you set for yourself, and then think about if you’d hold a friend or loved one to the same standards. If you wouldn’t, then you don’t need to hold yourself to those standards either.

Don’t compare yourself to others

Stick to your own standards. While it can be tough, try not to compare yourself to your peers (同龄人).     4    , and you don’t need to match someone else’s journey. Be grateful for what you have, and think about how far you’ve come to make it where you are today.

Surround yourself with people who support you

    5    . Your friends and family members often have your best interests at heart, and they’ll want to improve your self-confidence as much as they can. On the other hand, try to watch out for people pointing out your weaknesses often. Spending too much time with them can make you feel worse about yourself.

5 . A Chicago resident didn’t know riding the local train would unexpectedly turn him into a hero.

It was a typical day for Anthony Perry, 20, who got off the train at Chicago’s 69th Street station. Since Perry was interested in purchasing a car, he was on his way to meet his grandfather, who had agreed to accompany him to view one he had been eyeing.

Suddenly, a physical fight erupted between two men at the station, which led to the two falling onto the train tracks. Although one of the men landed on his back, they continued to fight. This caused the other guy to fell on the third rail, which passes electric current to the train. The man was lying on the tracks and appearing to convulse (抽搐) as a result of hundreds of volts of electric current shooting through his body. It looked like the unnamed man lost his life. However, Perry refused to let him lie on the tracks. He jumped down from the platform and quickly crossed the tracks in front of a train that had managed to stop a few feet away.

Perry said “I was hoping I could just grab him and not feel nothing, but I felt a little shock. I felt it all through my body actually. I didn’t let that stop me.” Perry administered CPR to the man after he’d pulled him from the tracks. Then the man was taken to hospital and survived finally.

As planned, Perry went to look at the car he wanted to buy, but it had been sold. Just days after the incident, Early Walker, founder of an anti-violence organization, rewarded him with the car. “We need more Anthonys in the world,” Walker said.

Also, there to thank Perry was the Chicago police department. District Commander Roderick Watson said “So many times people think these young men are out here doing the wrong thing, but this is just a typical example of how a young man took it upon himself to jump in and do the right thing, and it should be recognized.”

6 . Plenty of past research has found that late-night eating is linked to weight gain, but most studies are observational, and few explain why eating later might have anything to do with why people put on pounds. A recent study, published in Cell Metabolism, sought to address the question by controlling the calories participants ate, how much they slept, and how much physical activity they got so researchers could learn how and why eating later might affect weight.

One of the most significant findings from this report is that “a calorie is a calorie, but the response of your body to that calorie is different in the morning versus in the evening,” said Frank A. J. L. Scheer, the senior author and a scientist at Harvard Medical School.

That finding matches past research showing that the glycemic index (升糖指数) of a food—how it affects the body's blood sugar following a meal—varies depending on the time of day that food is consumed, said Nina Vujovic, who led this study. In the study, Vujovic found that eating within four hours of bedtime affects two hormones (激素) related to hunger.

On days participants ate closer to sleep, they also burned fewer calories and showed molecular changes in fat tissue suggesting their body converted calories into fat storage more easily.

What surprised Scheer most was that eating closer to bedtime affected all the factors they measured rather than just one or two of them. “In the nutrition field, I think the longest resistance against the idea that timing of food matters is based on this simplistic view of‘a calorie is a calorie,’ meaning that it shouldn't matter when someone eats it,” Scheer said, “yet it does.”

But the authors also acknowledged that their study was not designed to determine whether eating dinner closer to bedtime long-term would lead to weight gain over time or whether the body might instead adapt to such a schedule.

9 . It was not a “whale-come” experience! A humpback whale caused quite a _________ by landing on a boat near the _________ of Plymouth, Massachusetts on Sunday.

“The 19-foot boat was _________ in the area of White Horse Beach when the whale _________ out of the water and fell on top of this guy’s boat. As his bow (船头) went down into the water, engine out, the whale _________ over the side of it, totally fine, but his boat was _________,” witness Ryder Parkhurst said. “It was _________. The guy was just in the wrong place at the wrong time, that’s all.”

Plymouth Harbormaster Chad Hunter said no one was _________ by the whale. “This could have been much worse for all _________,” added Hunter. “People like to __________ over the side of the boat to watch the fish, so it is very __________ that nobody got hurt here. An incident like this is pretty __________ but very dangerous to boaters.”

Harbor officials had been __________ whale activities in the area since Friday after a boat __________ hit a whale. “There are a lot of whales in this area but it also draws a lot of __________, which creates problems like today,” said Hunter. “They’re beautiful __________, but, you know, they are still animals, you got to keep their __________ .” Officials have stated that with an increase of fish, more whales have been __________ to the coastline. Boaters have also been __________ that under the Marine Mammal Protection Act, they are required to stay a(n)__________ of 100 feet away from the mammals.