A young boy, named Timmy, lived in a small town. He disliked doing any work; he found it boring and would always come up with a reason to avoid it. His room was always messy with toys thrown everywhere, socks under the bed. Books and clothes piled up like a small mountain. Homework often remained untouched on the desk, buried under comic books and game controllers.

Timmy avoided chores, finding them less exciting than his digital universe. Day and night, Timmy tapped buttons, lost in virtual battles, his eyes glued to the screen. Socializing means chatting with fellow games online rather than meeting friends outside.

One Saturday morning, Timmy’s mom asked him to clean up his room. Timmy frowned and ignored his mom, diving deeper into his video game. His mother sighed and went on with her chores. That afternoon, as Timmy was standing by the window, he noticed his neighbor, Mr. Jenkins, working tirelessly in his garden, repairing the wooden fence (栅栏).

At the sight of Timmy, Mr. Jenkins smiled and called out, “Hey, Timmy, I need a helper to hold the wooden strips (木条). And could you lend me a hand for a moment?” Hesitantly, Timmy walked over. Mr. Jenkins showed him how to do it. He continued to help do gardening work such as watering and weeding(除草) in the garden. As they worked, Mr. Jenkins shared his adventurous stories when he was a soldier, and Timmy listened with respect.

Hours passed, and to Timmy’s surprise, he enjoyed helping out. His hands were dirty, but he felt delighted and meaningful. As they finished, Mr. Jenkins thanked Timmy and showed him the result of their teamwork: a neat garden full of colorful flowers and fresh greenery. Timmy felt proud and realized that work could be fun and rewarding.

The next day, Timmy decided to give his own room a change.

Later, when his mother entered his room, she was astonished.

3 . There has been a recent wave in Hollywood where studios take popular animated (动画的) films and “improve” upon them by changing them into live-action remakes. The thought that live-action movies are better because they follow the laws of the natural world degrades the style of animation.

The beauty of animation is that its use of caricatures (漫画) and exaggerations (夸张) reflects an amazing amount of creative depth in characters stories that reality cannot. Looking at the bigger picture, it becomes clear that the true purpose of Disney’s ever growing list of live-action remakes is not to comment on the value of animation, although it indirectly does, but a quick way to take advantage of nostalgic (怀旧的) fans.

For evidence, look no further than Disney’s 2019 The Lion King live-action remake, a retelling of the 1994 animated classic. It broke several box office records, raking in a whopping $543.6 million globally in box office sales alone. However, in comparison to the original, the audience satisfaction with the remake decreased greatly on Rotten Tomatoes. This is similar to the the remakes of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, Dumbo, Aladdin, and the countless other live-action remakes Disney has produced within the last 5 years. This means that Disney no longer needs to come up with new and original content because they can make a big profit just by taking beloved stories and remaking them.

In fact, Disney looks at itself as a business, and therefore considers making a profit as one of their main aims.

The problem with this mentality (心态) is that, while Disney makes a huge profit, audiences, artists, and art suffer. They may no longer create new stories or art styles, but rather serve as money-making machines that require directors to produce the same stories with a fresh coat of paint every 10 years or so. If this cycle continues, artists will be held back from creating new lovable characters and stories full of creativity. The feeling of nostalgia when we see old Disney films could possibly never happen-to newer generations if this cycle does not stop.

5 . My phone was an extension of myself. I couldn’t go anywhere _________ it. I scrolled through my friends’ _________ into late night and turned my phone on before my eyes were fully open. I enjoyed having it until that day when I realized that what had started as a useful tool had turned into a(n) _________. So, I made a _________ decision to turn off that smartphone and _________ my old dumb phone out of hiding.

When I was watching TV shows or movies and there was a boring part, I _________ picking up the phone and checking out “what everyone else was doing.” Now I had to pay attention or find a way to _________ myself with my thoughts instead. When I visited New York City, I had to write out _________ and ask people where an intersection (十字路口) was _________ pulling out my phone.

I have welcomed silence into my life with open arms and am enjoying the increased __________ from not constantly having to fight with the __________ to check my phone while I’m trying to get something done. I am allowing my thoughts to speak to me instead of my phone. I am connecting with others in a __________ way that isn’t all about me. Instead of always posting about what’s going on in my __________ perfect life, I am connecting with my friends one-on-one, talking about the reality of our lives and being there for them from a place of __________.

As much as having a smartphone was __________, not having one is freeing on a much bigger level.

6 . We may weep for the dodo, but could and should we bring this lovely bird back from the dead? De-extinction is the science of restoring lost species and it has been in the news for decades.

The story in modern times began in 1990 when Michael Crichton published his science fiction novel Jurassic Park, in which he imagined a world where scientists were able to bring dinosaurs back to life. Crichton imagined that polymerase chain reaction (PCR) technology could be a way to amplify (放大) tiny quantities of dinosaur DNA and thus build a living embryo.

Sadly, biologists soon realized that DNA in fact breaks down super-fast; even after 100 years, DNA from museum skins of dodos was decayed (腐烂) beyond repair. They could be sequenced (测定序列) using massive computational power, but then only with considerable uncertainty. And even if you capture a DNA sequence, there’s still the problem of how you get living cells to read that sequence and express proteins that make the dinosaur or the dodo.

But why would anyone want to see mammoths, or something like them, roaming (漫游) present-day Siberia? Well, they were undoubtedly amazing beasts. As well as hunting them, our distant ancestors painted their likenesses in caves across Europe. Fascinating as they may be, there's some ecological justification for the project too.

It was this diversity of land surface, broken up by heavy limbs and randomly fertilised by faeces (排泄物), that supported so much flora (植物群). Without the mammoths, that diversity disappeared. Return them and landscapes would once again be with a variety of species, including flowers and bushes.

True, it’s not de-extinction in the sense of bringing a long-dead species back to life. Instead it’s more like making a “dodo” by engineering a modern pigeon, its closest relative, to become huge and flightless. The result would be a big, fatty pigeon that, whether it looked like a dodo or not, would probably fulfil some of its ecological roles.

As a palaeontologist, I would of course love to see living dinosaurs, mammoths and dodos. In some ways, though, I am relieved that the optimistic claims for cloning and genetic technologies have not been borne out. The slowdown gives us time to consider the outcomes—and hopefully avoid some of Michael Crichton’s more fevered imaginings.

At a neighbor’s pool the summer after sixth grade, Charley shouted out those famous last words, “Hey, watch this!” As he dove into the pool, Tad froze. It wasn’t the deep end!

Charley was hurt bad when he hit the bottom of the swimming pool. The doctor said he might have broken his back and could lose the use of his legs. His life would change forever. Tad didn’t see Charley for over a month after he was carried away in the screaming ambulance.

When Tad went to visit Charley in the hospital, his “Hey, dude, how’s it going?” was greeted by an annoyed grunt (嘟哝声) . Looking small and pale, Charley cried, “I can’t walk-how do you think I feel? I wish I was dead!”

“Bro, you’ll get well! You’re tough.”

“No, the doctor said I won’t.”

“Aw, man. That’s horrible!” And the conversation died right there.

Tad didn’t go back after that. He just didn’t know what to say. When Charley got out of the hospital, Tad went over to his house a few times and played video games, but it just wasn’t the same. Not only was his friend’s body damaged, so was his spirit. Tad had made friends with other boys who enjoyed all the things he and Charley used to do. Even if he felt sad and guilty, he wasn’t spending more time at Charley’s. Tad wanted to help and be a good friend but didn’t know how now.

Charley just became sadder and sadder, and Tad spent less and less time with him as the school year passed.

When summer break started again, Tad didn’t see much of Charley. He had made the baseball team and didn’t have time for video games. At least he told himself that was the reason. He was shocked right before eighth grade started when he saw Charley sailing down the sidewalk with a big black dog by his wheelchair. “Wow, what’s this?” Said Tad, running over to his friend.

“This is Rowdy! He helps me.”

“Wow, what does he do?” Tad was interested.

After that, Tad could sense something had changed.