3 . The universal use of technology has resulted in a constant current of information interrupting the “flow” of our life. This ________ pattern was initially marketed as “call-waiting” for our phones. But now our eyes, ears, and fingers are glued to our technology 24/7. We are ________ by emails, texts, or the news on our Facebook pages. My friend Ron refers to this technology as “weapons of mass distraction.”

But how is this mass distraction ________ us? According to a 2010 Kaiser Family Foundation report, children from eight to eighteen spend an average of seven hours and thirty-eight minutes a day using entertainment media. In addition, a study found that exposure to ________ media was associated with attention problems in a sample of 210 college students.

The ________ is just part of the larger picture. Dealing with a crowd of daily text messages and emails makes it difficult for us to be by ourselves when all that activity stops. Although a sense of ________ is natural at times, our addiction to the nonstop interaction afforded by technology deepens that feeling when access to the technology is unexpectedly ________. Just think how you feel when you lack cell phone or web access. Is it possible that our obsession with continually checking our emails and text messages has contributed to our ________ to genuinely relate with others?

Apart from the effects of technology on our ________ and our ability to be at ease without technology, let’s examine how interacting with our devices ________ the development of our fundamental communication and social skills. Many researchers observe that everyday conversation between human beings is becoming increasingly ________.

Many of today’s children are growing up with a built-in dependence on devices, making it difficult for them to feel ________ in everyday social situations. Often they find it ________ to make eye contact or deal with even the simplest face-to-face interactions without the aid of technology as an intermediary (媒介).

Over time these children forget how to relate with each other because they have become habituated to using technology to ________ direct contact with others and life itself. ________, some neuroscientists believe that use of the internet actually rewires our brains.

5 . Every artist knows in his heart that he is saying something to the public. Not only does he want to say it well, but he wants it to be something that has not been _______ before. He hopes the public will listen and understand—he wants to teach them, and he wants them to learn from him.

What _______ artists like painters want to teach is easy to make out but difficult to explain, because painters translate their experiences into shapes and colors, not _______. They seem to feel that a certain _______ of shapes and colors, out of the countless billions possible, is exceptionally interesting for them and worth _______ to us. Without their work we should never have noticed the _______ shapes and colors, or have felt the _______ which they brought to the artists.

Most artists take shapes and colors from the world of nature and from human bodies in _______ and repose(静止); their _______ indicate that these aspects of the world are worth looking at, that they contain beautiful ________. Contemporary artists might say that they ________ choose subjects that provide an interesting pattern, that there is nothing more in it. Yet even they do not choose entirely without ________ to the character of their subjects.

If one painter chooses to paint a gangrenous(坏疽性的)leg and anther a lake in moonlight, each of them is directing our attention to a(n) ________ aspect of the world. Each painter is telling us something, showing us something, ________ something-all of which means that, consciously or unconsciously, he is trying to ________ us.

6 . You’re walking down a quiet street and suddenly you hear some footsteps. _______ , it means that there’s someone around. But have you ever wondered why it _______ to us that it’s someone else’s footsteps rather than ours?

According to a new study published in the journal Nature in September, this phenomenon results from a function in our brain to _______ the noises we make ourselves.

In order to _______ how our brain does this, a group of scientists from New York University in the US carried out an experiment with mice at Duke University. In the experiment, researchers _______ the sounds a group of mice could hear, reported Science Daily.

During the first several days, the mice would hear the same sound each time they took a step. This was just like “running on a tiny _______ with each key playing exactly the same note”, senior study author Richard Mooney, a professor of neurobiology at Duke University, told Live Science.

Scientists found that their auditory cortex(听觉皮层)—the area of the brain that processes sound—became active at first but _______ its response to the sound after two or three minutes when the mice became familiar with it.

“It’s almost like they were wearing special headphones that could _______ the sound of their own movements,” David Schneider, an assistant professor at the Center for Neural Science at New York University, told HuffPost. But once the sound changed, their auditory cortex was _______ again.

This suggests that the “sensory filter” in a mouse’s brain could help it detect ________ sounds or abnormal noise in the environment easily after tuning out familiar sounds, according to Science Daily.

“For mice, this is really important,” said Schneider. “They are prey(猎物)animals, so they really need to be able to ________ for a cat creeping up on them, even when they’re walking and making noise.”

As important as it is for mice’s survival, the ability to ignore ________ noises is also useful for humans when it comes to complex tasks, such as playing an instrument.

According to Schneider, “The ability to ignore the ________ consequences of our movement gives us the extra-cool ability to detect when we’ve got it wrong. So if I play the piano just right, I hear it, but my auditory cortex is pretty silent. But when I play it wrong, I get a(n) ________ response.”

So, our ________ could be telling us, “Hey, that didn’t sound right, maybe I should move my fingers a little differently next time,” Schneider told HuffPost.

8 . The past 10 months has been the most influential months of my life.

As a junior, I left my comfortable home in Illinois and ________going to the Navajo Indian Reservation in Arizona. There I attended a local poorly­equipped school and ________ for an adventure. I experienced so many________ when I arrived, fighting each day to ________ in a new social environment—overcoming racial differences, handling social ________...

During the summer vacation I ________to be a counselor (顾问) at an Easter Seals camp for people with ________ needs who require assistance because of disabilities and improve their ability to do things alone. It was the most tiring work I'd ever experienced but the most________. I knew that I'd helped improve over 850 campers'________.

As the new school year began, our department had a renovation (翻新). I offered to help clean up all the ________books. Instead of recycling hundreds of those books, I________the department that the books could serve a higher ________. This simple act resulted in an all－out book drive benefiting the schools in Arizona.

The 10­month experience in Arizona________me greatly. It made me become a person with patience, appreciation, determination, and ________enthusiasm. I trust that it is through enthusiasm, ideas and action that all changes can ________.

9 . What does taking a risk mean? It means ______ your comfort zone, and at times doing ______ things even if they terrify you. One of the greatest risks I’ve ever taken was auditioning(试演) for my high school’s play. Not only was I a person who had no ______ experience, but also I stuttered(口吃).

The thought of performing in front of people ______ me. The reason why I decided to have a try was that I wanted to get ______ in my school’s theater program. On the day of the audition, there was also a special acting workshop(研习班) which meant to warm us up. I walked in and set my backpack down on the floor. I ______ and saw about twenty people calmly making preparations. Soon we began special acting exercises. We were divided into ______ to prepare parts of the play. I was very anxious. After I delivered some of the lines, my partner said, “Oh, I ______ you are stuttering. Is that for dramatic effect or do you really stutter?” I was ______.

When it was my turn to audition, my heart was beating fast. Across from me, the director and two of his assistants sat on metal chairs. Needless to say, I was really worried about my performance. In the ______, I played the role of a male painter who pretended to be a woman. My partner was playing an evil picture dealer who was determined to marry me. We said our lines and, ______, I didn’t stutter. The whole process went smoothly, and finally the audition was over. I was so ______.

The next Monday I got a call telling me that I had ______ the play. I was overjoyed. It was a lot of fun doing the play, and it was really worth it. It was ______ to me: My stuttering couldn’t prevent me from doing the things I wanted to do, and taking risks, ______ it embarrassed me, was well worth time and effort.

10 . A brave ICU nurse, who suffered a breakdown after working through the COVID-19 pandemic, ran the London Marathon for charity on October 3, 2021, hoping to beat the Guinness World Records as the fastest man to run a marathon dressed in a pint of beer costume.

Joan Laplana, a dad of three kids, ______ running after he was diagnosed(诊断) with post-traumatic stress disorder. He had been a nurse for 23 years and was ______ as a lead nurse. His mental health suffered when he lost a patient, who was the same age as him, with daughters the same age as his and had no underlying(潜在的) health conditions. Despite suffering from ______ attacks and anxiety, Joan still wanted to ______ his work in ICU when the second wave ______ the country.

But he went to pieces during it and was diagnosed with PTSD. His mood would often change quickly and he couldn’t slept through the night. He started getting counselling. Since his new fitness plan, Joan said he wasn’t ______ medicine anymore, and for the first time in 18 months he had ______ slept through the night. He said, “In March I joined a running ______ and on days when I can’t motivate myself, my friends from the club will message me. I knew I had to get ______ about my running when I got an email saying I got a ______ for the London Marathon. I am very proud of myself after everything that I have been through. Running has ______ my mental health. It helped with my ______, reduced my panic attacks and improved my mood changes.”

In July 2021, Joan ______ to the top of Snowdon, a mountain in northern Wales, dressed in a pint of beer costume also for ______. Though his first attempt at beating the Guinness World Records at the London Marathon failed last year, Joan will once again try to ______ the record at the 2022 London Marathon.