1 . One morning, Huang Fulin, a local farmer, rode a motorcycle to the Lixinsha Bridge in Guangzhou. The bridge, is the main ________ connecting the Nansha Economic Development Zone with Sanmin Island.

The visibility was ________ that day. However, when Huang was about 20 meters away from the bridge, he saw a thick fog, and it was very dark around. It ________ that a container ship hit the pier (桥墩) of the Bridge, causing it to ________. Huang saw a ________ coming his way. At that very moment, he ________ flashed his lights and shouted loudly, “Stop! It’s dangerous.”

The lorry driver, Wang Guoliang reversed his truck back and ________ it horizontally at the T-junction to the bridge. “My truck is about 15 meters long. By ________ the road with the truck at the T-junction, the only route to Sanmin Island, the ________ wouldn’t be able to get onto the bridge,” Wang said.

Meanwhile, Huang ________   the accident to the on-duty officers, who quickly arrived at the scene and ________ traffic cones (路障) on the road. Before more police were ________ to the spot, Officer Tang, on the other side of the bridge, stopped vehicles about to cross the bridge. Meanwhile, Tang ________ a video of the damaged bridge on his WeChat Moments to ________ others about the dangerous situation.

According to the official website, they will be awarded with the title of individuals who act bravely in a(n)________ .

4 . A University of Michigan (U-M) study has found that older adults’ regular visits to eateries such as fast food restaurants and coffee shops may be as protective of cognitive (认知的) health as marriage.

Lead researcher Jessica Finlay and her team interviewed 125 older adults aged 55-92 in Minneapolis, Minnesota, and accompanied them on visits to their neighborhood places. Through analysis of her interviews, they found that older adults valued these types of eateries as places of familiarity and comfort, places that were physically and economically accessible, and places to socialize with family, friends, staff and customers.

“Traditionally, fast food has a negative relationship with cognition — we know that diets high in fat and salt are associated with increased risk of cognitive decline,” said Finlay. “But as a geographer, I’m interested in the places themselves and what those spaces mean for the everyday lives of older adults.”

There is one interviewee called Denise. “It was an expensive month with a wedding and two unexpected funerals (葬礼), and these events ate up her budget (预算),” the researchers wrote. “Though she could not afford restaurant meals regularly, Denise still enjoyed inexpensive coffee with her friends as a valued opportunity to socialize.”

Finlay’s research at U-M focuses on how neighborhoods may help reduce or increase risk for Alzheimer’s disease. She assumed that regular socialization and leisure activities that take place in these places might be linked to cognitive health.

Finlay and U-M researcher Michael Esposito tested this idea in a national cohort by drawing on the Reasons for Geographic and Racial Differences in Stroke, or REGARDS, study, which collects information by mail and telephone from more than 30,000 aging individuals. The participants were an average age of 64 in 2003-2007.

REGARDS respondents living in the most limited retail food (零售食品) environments had cognitive scores that were modestly lower — about 0.1 points — than residents living in the highest density (密度) environments. The difference in cognitive well-being between individuals living in high-density and low-density neighborhoods was about a year difference in age, which is strongly linked to age-related cognitive decline in older adults.

“My side of the project was translating what Finlay found in her qualitative results over to the national level, blowing it up to see if some of those associations she inferred from her study in Minnesota held for the nation at large — and they did,” said Esposito.

5 . There is a decades-long rise in Americans feeling socially isolated (孤独的). That may seem strange, in the light of all the ways we now have to connect electronically, from email and Facebook to Instagram and TikTok.

“Loneliness is strongly related to people’s health problems,” said psychologist Matt Johnson. And he pointed out: increasing loneliness also has a connection with the proliferation of social media platforms worldwide. “When this social need for interpersonal connections isn’t met in your organic social environment, the market converges on (趋同于) this,” said Johnson. “We see the rise of social media happening around the same time as this loneliness epidemic (流行病).” Johnson said that social media platforms can sometimes relieve loneliness — if you’re actually keeping in touch with others through them.

That’s the kind of social network that Deena Hindi has been trying to build for her 84-year-old mother. Hindi’s father passed away several years ago. Her mother was left living alone next door to Hindi, with few friends. Hindi figured, “There’s got to be a lot of lonely people. So that’s why I created a Meetup group, to see if I could get people together.” A group of older women found Hindi’s Meetup group online. They now go out regularly in person.

However, Johnson said, “More and more people, especially younger people, are engaging in the more follower-type of social media, where you’re engaging with people with massive followings, and you’re looking at their TikTok videos, their tweets and their Instagram content. You don’t know them personally; you’ll probably never meet them in real life: not really social connection.”

There are ways that employers can help fight the loneliness epidemic, according to Anne Bowers, who researches the workplace, mental health, and productivity. “Workers who have a good work-life balance, social companionship (友谊), and satisfying communications at work are 53% less likely to be lonely than other employees who don’t. Creating a healthy work-life balance for employees is very important — flexible work schedules can create better balance,” he said.

Recent studies show that the amount of time people spend looking at screens is rising. We live in an era where mass media is     1     (ready) accessible and at times, it can influence how we see the world around us. Many experts agree that too much     2     (expose) to mass media can have negative     3     (effect) on your psychological well-being. It can influence how you feel about yourself and life,     4     it impacts what messages others consider     5     (be) true about healthy living.

For example, advertisements often feature beautiful,     6     (wealth) individuals or groups that enjoy their lives by eating rich foods and     7     (spend) lots of money on flashy clothes and houses. Such images may appeal to someone who does not know any different leaders, parents, or peers who eat poorly and do not have much money. Advertisements create a sense of urgency,     8     can make you feel like you must have what everyone else has before you don’t consider     9     (you) part of the “in-group”. It is easy to fall into a habit of buying whatever new thing comes along, without thinking too hard about     10     it is worth it.

So be a critical mass media reader.

8 . On Indonesia’s eastern island of Sumba, a lack of electricity once left many communities in the dark at night. But off-grid(离网) solar energy programs are bringing people there limited electricity years before normal power systems reach them. Such small solar panels(电池板) mean a lot to them. They can work later in the evenings, help their kids with their homework and even hold more social gatherings. Besides, there are experts saying off-grid solar programs could be reproduced across the nation of thousands of islands and that the energy is renewable.

However, off-grid solar energy systems face problems too. Most villagers depend on donators, some international organizations, to pay most of the cost of solar panels, so, villagers without off-grid solar panels have to wait until there is enough money from the donators. And when solar systems break, imported parts are needed, which can be hard to find and costly. While the solar systems can power light bulbs and charge cellphones, they do not provide the same amount of power as a grid and thus cannot operate devices like a sound system for a church.

Despite these challenges, off-grid solar programs have proven successful in Indonesia and other places, such as Bangladesh and Africa, south of the Sahara Desert. These programs, offered by companies like Sumba Sustainable Solutions, help provide electricity for millions. The company has sent over 3,000 solar light systems across the island, reaching more than 3,000 homes. To continue the successful completion of off-grid solar projects, Sumba Sustainable Solutions is seeking support from Indonesia’s Just Energy Transition Partnership Deal, which involves loans and other money from developed nations and international financial companies. By increasing solar use in Indonesia, more people will have access to electricity and improve their livelihoods.

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