Japan is experiencing record heat. Last week, the temperature in eastern Japan     1     (reach) 40℃ for the first time in June. Isesaki City in Gunma, north of Tokyo, recorded a temperature of 40.2 degrees Celsius on Saturday. The     2     (unusual) hot weather means people are using their air conditioners more. This is making     3     difficult for power companies to keep up with demand.     4     (help) these companies, Japan’s government has asked people to use less electricity. Spokesman Yoshihiko Isozaki said: “We ask the public to reduce energy consumption during the early evening     5     (hour).” He wants people to turn off unnecessary lights from 3 pm     6     6 pm and use air conditioners less.

Japan’s heat wave is set to continue. The weather agency said that the country’s     7     (rain) season finished at its earliest since records began in 1851. This means a     8     (long) and hotter summer. The Tokyo Electric Power Company warned there would be power shortages (短缺) if people did not use less energy. There is also     9     risk of people getting heatstroke (中暑). So far, at least 250 people in Tokyo     10     (take)to hospital after suffering from heatstroke. The government is advising people to drink more water and not to exercise outside in the heat.

National Handwriting Day     1     (fall) on January 23rd. Its aim is to stress the significance of the skill of handwriting. Handwriting is of practical     2     (important) in today’s world where people use a computer keyboard more than a pen or pencil. Some people are worried that in the future, handwriting might become a     3     (lose) art.

The Writing Instrument Manufacturers Association (WIMA)     4     (start) National Handwriting Day in 1977. The day January 23rd was chosen because this is the birthday of John Hancock,     5     was the first person to sign the American Declaration of Independence — one of the most important documents in America’s history. WIMA says: “National Handwriting Day is     6     chance for all of us to re-explore the purity and power of handwriting.”

Handwriting is more like an art rather than     7     (simple) writing. We can use it to express     8     (we) and be creative. A higher art form is calligraphy (书法). People can study how to write a single letter for many years. Everyone’s handwriting is unique. We only need to see the front of a letter     9     (recognize) the handwriting of someone we know. Experts can even analyze our handwriting and explain     10     kind of personality we have. What does your handwriting say about you?

Britain has jumped up in maths in the Programme for International Student Assessment(PISA) tests, thanks     1     government efforts to import Chinese-style teaching into the classroom. Seventy-nine countries     2     (take) the tests last year, with the UK ranking 18th, up from 27th in 2015. Within the UK, the average score for maths among English pupils was     3     (significant) higher than scores for Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland. Experts believe that the     4     (introduce) of Chinese teaching methods is likely to have driven up the UK’s test results. Countries in the Far East,     5     (include) China and Singapore, have long come at the top of the PISA tests for maths. In 2014, the British Department for Education set up     6     exchange programme between English and Shanghai schools so that maths teachers could learn about Chinese teaching methods. The programme was followed two years     7     (late) by a 41-million-pound project to train thousands of primary schools to adopt the Shanghai-style teaching method.

“It’s encouraging     8     (see) the students’ great improvement in maths,” said Professor Valsa Koshy, an expert in maths education at Brunel University, “Importing maths teaching from Far Eastern countries     9     (mean) there is a need for children to master the basic facts and traditional skills,     10     used to be laughed at as too old fashioned.”

A recent research shows that 86% of the world’s rivers have been damaged by human activities. The research     1     (conduct) by experts from a university in Toulouse, France,     2     examined data on over 2,500 rivers around the world.     3     (look) into changes in biodiversity (多样性) over the past 200 years, the scientists discovered that biodiversity in over half of the rivers has been seriously damaged by humans. The researchers said there were many reasons     4     this damage. A big reason is the     5     (introduce) of new species of fish into rivers. Other reasons include pollution, dams, overfishing, farming     6     climate change.

Unsurprisingly, the worst-hit rivers are in western Europe and North America. This is because these regions have large and rich     7     (city) crowded with people. The lead researcher Brosse said: “Rivers which have the most economic development around them, like the Mississippi River, are the most     8     (strong) affected.” The River Thames in London was one of the worst-affected rivers in the study. The least-affected rivers are in Africa and Australia. This is probably due to a     9     (slow) rate of industrialization in Africa and smaller population around rivers in Australia. Brosse added that rivers in many rich nations are unrecognizable compared with how they     10     (be) 200 years ago.