1 . Hosting an international sports event is an important thing that has to be prepared well. Due to that, many opinions exist.

Firstly, positive views need to be talked about. When a country gets to host such a famous event, it will probably get well-known by other nations, and surely that can help the country a lot. For instance, the government and residents have a chance to use the opportunity to advertise their culture to foreign people. Above all, by doing that, the country’s economy might increase sharply during the event. Besides, it will satisfy some people’s wish to meet famous sports players. They have a high rate of talking to their favorite players whom they really want to talk to once in their life.

However, the risk of hosting a big event still exists. An important event is not necessarily good at all. That is why there is a debate about this topic. If a country can’t be able to prepare for the event in a period, they have to do as many ways as possible to finish preparation on time, and serious results may happen. The most obvious thing is that people attending that event will have a bad experience and are sure to make grumbles. This then affects the country’s image. For example, Qatar is a country that will host the 2022 World Cup. The government has to rush to finish building big stadiums, over 6,000 migrant workers sacrificing (牺牲)their lives for that. Hearing the sad news, some people around the world disagree to go to Qatar to attend the World Cup. The result is that Qatar has been badly affected.

In conclusion, hosting an international sports event is both good and bad, and good things or bad things depend on that country’s attitude and responsibility.

2 . Many companies are expanding their mental—health benefits(福利), but getting employees to take advantage of them can be challenging. Puget Sound Energy is—on a mission to change that.

Last year, 98% of its employees watched a 20—minute mental—health training video, and managers were offered a two—hour live mental—health training. The sessions included tips on how to recognize and respond to mental—health issues in themselves and others, information on what mental—health resources the company offers, and personal stories from PSE workers who had experienced mental illness.

PSE is one of many companies expanding mental—health benefits and talking about mental health in the workplace in new ways. Workers are suffering from it, and companies recognize poor mental health among employees which is linked to lost productivity and higher medical expenses. Most companies already offer some free mental—health counseling(咨询) through an employee assistance plan, or EAP, to provide a certain number of counseling sessions annually for free.

The problem is that EAPs are often not made full use of. While research indicates that 20% of the adult population experiences a mental illness each year, less than 8% of employees take advantage of their company’s EAP, says Darren Brooks.

In some cases, workers don’t know their employer has an EAP because it isn’t well—promoted. In other cases, workers fear there could be repercussions if their employer finds out their depression or another mental illness. Still others face long waits to book an appointment with EAP due to a national shortage of counselors.

With that in mind, some companies are improving access to mental—health services. It requires training managers to recognize signs of mental—health illness and to speak about specific challenges that people experience in their daily lives. Another part of the challenge is convincing people that it is OK to use them. To make employees more comfortable asking for help, some companies are encouraging managers and workers to share their own mental—health stories.

3 . The bond shared between teachers and students is special. First-grade teacher Hodges found out just how ______ that bond can be when her students came to her ______ after she experienced a medical ______ while teaching last month.

Hodges, a first-grade teacher at Hill Elementary, was ______ a small group lesson on the morning of January 20, when she began to feel off.

“I sat down, and one of my students sitting at the table — I couldn’t even ______ the children at the table,” Hodges said. “He asked me what was going on, and at that time I knew something was ______, so I asked them to get help, and they ______, and that’s the last thing I remember.”

Soon after requesting help, Hodges began ______. She didn’t know it at the time, but she was experiencing a sudden ______ caused by COVID-19.

“At first, they thought I was just ______ because we had been singing and dancing, and when they saw me trembling, they just thought that it was ______ I was doing, but then they ______ that it was much more than that,” she said.

When Hodges became ______ and unresponsive, her students didn’t ______. They quickly found help.

“On that day, they were courageous, demonstrated their strength and ______, and now have a real ______ to tell,” Hodges said in Facebook post.

On February 16, Hodges’ students, now known as Hodges’ Heroes, were ______ in a special ceremony attended by classmates and family members.

Today, Ms. Hodges is ______ recovered and glad to be back ______ her little heroes. “I think I was at the right place at the right time because had I been home, I would have been ______,” Hodges said. “I just thank God every day for them.”

4 . Around 126, 000 gallons of oil have spilled into the Pacific Ocean off the coast of Orange County. The oil spill covers about 34 square kilometers of ocean.

To find the leak (裂缝、泄漏), many divers explored underwater. They found a break in a 28-kilometer pipeline (输油管道) that delivers oil off the California coast. Amplify Energy Corp. (AEC) is the oil company that owns the pipeline. It shut down the pipeline on Saturday, but experts say the company should have noticed a change in the pipeline’s pressure much sooner. The leaking pipeline is over 40 years old, even though such pipelines are normally only used for about 25 years.

Locals have said that even though the spill began on Friday night, little action was taken to contain it until Saturday afternoon. Some visitors to nearby beaches report that there is oil everywhere. Martyn Willsher, who leads Amplify, believes the leak has been stopped. “There is no active leak that we’re aware of,” he said.

Now beaches in the area have been closed, and fishing has been banned in a wide area along the coast. People are being asked to stay away from the beaches, since the oil can be poisonous.

Extra efforts are being made to keep the oil away from protected marshy (沼泽的) areas, along the coast, which are home to special wildlife. At least one of these areas, Talbert Marsh, has already been affected. Workers are trying to help animals that may have been hurt in the spill. It’s still not known exactly how many animals have been affected. But there are reports of dead fish and birds washing up on shore, and of dolphins swimming through the oily waters in the areas.

The US Coast Guard is leading efforts to place floating barriers called “booms” on the water to try to keep the spill from spreading.

5 . Buy land, advised Mark Twain； they're not making it any more. In fact, land is not really scarce: the entire population of America could fit into Texas with more than an acre for each household to enjoy. What drives prices rocket is a collision between uncontrolled demand and limited supply in the great metropolises like London, Mumbai and New York. In the past ten years real prices in Hong Kong have risen by 150%. Residential（住宅的）property in Mayfair, in central London, can go for as much as £55,000（$82,000）per square metre. A square mile of Manhattan residential property costs $16.5 billion.

Even in these great cities the scarcity is artificial. Regulatory limits on the height and density（密度）of buildings constrain（限制）supply and increase prices. A recent analysis by academics at the London School of Economics estimates that land-use regulations in the West End of London inflate the price of office space by about 800%; in Milan and Paris the rules push up prices by around 300%. Most of the enormous value captured by landowners exists because it is almost impossible to build new offices to compete those profits away.

The costs of this misfiring property market are huge, mainly because of their effects on individuals. High housing prices force workers towards cheaper but less productive places. According to one study, employment in the Bay Area around San Francisco would be about five times larger than it is but for tight limits on construction. Add up these costs in lost earnings and unrealized human potential, and the figures become dizzying. Lifting all the barriers to urban growth in America could raise the country's GDP by between 6.5% and 13.5%, or by about 1 trillion—2 trillion. It is difficult to think of many other policies that would produce anything like that.

6 . Pupils who don’t pass GCSE English and maths will be kept from taking student loans (贷款) under government plans to be announced this week, which was reported last night. Ministers are also seeking to limit student numbers as part of a clampdown (取缔) on low-quality degrees.

The Department for Education proposals (提议) will include new minimum entry requirements for university to ensure pupils “aren’t being pushed into higher education before they are ready”. The reforms mark a change of New Labour and government policies which sought to encourage more people to go to university.

Under the proposals, reported by The Daily Telegraph, students who fail to achieve a Grade 4 in maths and English GCSEs will be stopped from getting student loans. The ban could also be applied to those who fail to achieve two Es at A-level. There would be exceptions for certain people, such as mature students. Ministers are said to want to ensure that “poor-quality, low-cost courses aren’t encouraged to grow uncontrollably”.

University leaders have warned that setting minimum entry requirements too high, such as requiring a Grade 5 in GCSE maths and English, would, in effect, price out many school leavers from disadvantaged backgrounds.

The announcement comes as the government prepares to publish the final part of its response to the Augar review into higher education funding. The response is said to include a consultation on minimum entry requirements for students to be qualified for government-backed loans for tuition fees.

The number of students at university used to be tightly controlled but the cap began to be lifted after tuition fees increased to f 9,000 in 2012.

The new entry thresholds(门槛) for university are widely seen as a means of controlling in student loan debt, with outstanding loans reaching £140 billion in 2020. The government plans come after the Office for Students Regulator threatened universities and colleges in England with fines and restrictions on their access to student loan funding in a move to remove “low-quality” courses.

7 . The idea that boys are more interested than girls in computer science and engineering starts as young as age six, according to a new study. That may be one reason why girls and women are underrepresented in these STEM (Science, Technology, Engineering and Mathematics) professional fields.

The traditional idea that STEM is for boys begins in primary and junior school, and by the time they reach high school, many girls have made their decision not to go after degrees in computer science and engineering because they don’t think they belong (属于) to the fields.

Researchers surveyed nearly 2,500 students from the 1st to 12th grade with different racial and social backgrounds. Most children believed girls had less interest than boys in key STEM fields. Specifically, 63% of the students believed girls were less interested in engineering than boys were, while 9% believed girls were more interested in the subject. Regarding computer science, 71% thought girls had less interest while 14% thought girls had more interest than boys.

These interest styles play out in the job market. According to the official statistics (数据) of the US, while women make up nearly half of the workforce, they account for only 25% of computer scientists and 15% of engineers.

The laboratory experiments gave children a choice between computer science activities. Fewer girls (only 35%) chose a computer science activity they believed boys were more interested in, compared to the 65% of girls who chose an activity in which they believed boys and girls were equally interested.

It’s time for all to be united in sending the message that girls can enjoy STEM just as much as boys do, which will help draw them into STEM activities. Researchers say educators, parents and policymakers can help close these sex gaps (差距) by introducing girls to high quality computer science and engineering activities in elementary school before traditional ideas take root. They also suggest educators who wish to improve girls’ interest in STEM should consider using inclusive programs designed to encourage girls’ sense of belonging in STEM.

8 . Programs that drive the digital experiences today seem to turn to contents that are popular, and they are unable to tell facts from fictions. And due to the fact that anyone can post anything they want online, unconfirmed reports and irresponsible and unchecked contents are common in the online world.

The problem is so common that the British newspaper The Independent has a whole page contributed to news about fake news, along with Mashable’s social media and a growing number of others.

During the past days when most kids used textbooks that had been edited and reviewed responsibly before they were used, the need for students to check their sources was not great. Today, it’s different. Students use the Internet for research, and teachers and parents can’t keep them away from bad contents all the time. And they’re on their own as they get older. They have to master information literacy, the skills of recognizing bad information, identifying good information, and understanding the difference between the two.

There are people and organizations dealing with the problem and developing information for Internet searchers, both adults and children. The website of Encyclopedia Britannica, for example, has provided Internet searchers with extra information at the top right of their results page. The move was intended to make people slow down and think twice before accepting search results as facts.

Fake news is here to stay. We all need to fight. We can start with awareness and a few rules: don’t make the web full of bad information: don’t spread or share information if you aren’t sure about it. And be mindful of how we use information: practice information literacy. And human curiosity is of great importance in this fight against misinformation. Curiosity drives learning and makes people question information. We need everyone to join in researching and questioning for the truth.