1 . Santosh Jadhav, a 28-year-old farmer from Maharashtra’s Sangli district, had never dreamed he would be trending on YouTube tending to his land. But as you watch his videos on Indian Farmer—the channel he runs with his friend, Akash Jadhav, 27—you quickly understand why he is attracting millions of views.

Set up in 2018, Indian Farmer was a result of the two friends’ love of farming, technology and filmmaking. Their videos offer tips, advice and information on various aspects of agriculture, including direct-farming techniques, agriculture-related activities, new farming tools, and agricultural apps. In addition to explaining how agricultural markets function, the channel shares success stories from across the country. A section that draws the most attention features workable solutions to everyday problems and do-it-yourself mechanical quick-fixes.

“We were looking to do something together. Agriculture was something we had in common. Plus, we were young and idealistic—we wanted to do something with a social impact,” says Santosh.

The channel has certainly made a mark, as the numbers show. Since 2018, their channel has built a user base of 21.5 million, thanks to the affordable mobile data revolution and the increasing popularity of smartphones in India. While Akash takes charge of the production side of things, Santosh offers his hands-on knowledge obtained from running his family farm. According to them, the Indian Farmer channel adds an average of 60,000 subscribers and earns between 70,000 and 100,000 in revenue every month.

“Knowledge in this sector is often inter-generational: a farmer is limited to what the others nearby know and do. There was very little by way of books or culture channels that addressed the needs, mistakes and scarcities of farmers. Social media has changed things, enabling cross-sharing of knowledge, all for free,” Akash says.

2 . Want to know what is coming soon to a cinema near you? Probably not a 1.5-hour-long movie, as in the old days. On October 20th comes Killers of the Flower Moon. At nearly three and a half hours, its length is nearly double that of the average film last year. Even movie fans struggle to concentrate for that long and some viewers even nod off. Afterwards there is a mad dash for the toilets. When does watching a film become such a slog?

The Economist analyzed over 100,000 feature films released internationally since the 1930s, the start of Hollywood’s golden age, using data from IMDb, a movie database. The average length of productions rose by around 24%, from one hour and 21 minutes in the 1930s to one hour and 47 minutes in 2022. For the ten most-popular titles, the average length grew to around two and a half hours in 2022, nearly 50% higher than in the 1930s.

One driver of this trend is that studios want to squeeze the most out of their costly intellectual property (知识产权), but they are competing with streaming platforms for eyeballs. The hope is that a spectacular, drawn-out “event” movie will draw audiences away from the small screen and into cinemas. This approach has often paid off: Avengers: Endgame Marvel’s three-hour superhero masterpieces, was the highest-grossing (票房最高的) film in 2019. Last year long movies series made up most of the highest-grossing films in America.

Another explanation for longer films has to do with directors’ growing influence. Who would dare tell the likes of Mr. Nolan to cut out his masterpieces? Moreover, streaming platforms, which do not have to worry as much about the length because viewers can pause whenever they like, may attract big names by promising them sufficient fund and creative freedom. Netflix funded and released three-hour The Irishman in 2019, a film that would have benefited from a decisive editor, Irish or otherwise.

3 . White dressed up as Captain America for the annual Anti-Bullying (反霸凌) Superhero Day. But when spotting ________ one afternoon, he couldn’t ________ any superpowers.

It was rush hour. White was ________ home when he noticed a pickup on the opposite side of the two-way street. It was hard to ________, for it was crashing into the curb (马路牙子) before course-correcting, only to hit it again. As the car drew closer, White got a good look at the ________: The driver appeared to be asleep. He had to ________ that vehicle.

________, White made a U-turn, facing in the same direction as the pickup, but there were four cars ________ them. White pressed his horn, hoping the cars in front would move aside. They didn’t. Trapped, White pulled his car over. He ________ up the sidewalk, cut into the road and ran around to the driver’s side. White ________ the frame (框) of the open window, his legs moving in step with the pickup, and with a mighty ________, jumped in.

DeAngelis, the man behind the ________, had unexpectedly faced dangerously low blood sugar, and just come to. He was ________ by the odd sight of a stranger lying across his stomach. White immediately brought the pickup to a stop. DeAngelis was rushed to a hospital, where it was determined that had his blood sugar gone lower, his life could have been endangered.

White ________ a superhero, but his quick thinking and daring ________ made him a real-life hero.

4 . The possible explanations for the natural roots of envy are easy to imagine. Social comparison is how we judge our relative place in society, and thus how we know what to achieve in order to stay competitive for resources. When we see that we fall behind others, the pain we feel often encourages us to build ourselves up—or to tear others down.

How people act in the face of this pain has led some scholars to distinguish between kind envy and harmful envy. The former is miserable, but is met with a desire for self-improvement and to catch up with the envied person. In contrast, harmful envy leads to destructive actions, such as hostile thoughts and behavior intended to harm the other person. Kind envy occurs when you believe that admiration for the other person is deserved; harmful envy kicks in when you believe it isn’t.

Envy—especially when harmful—is terrible for you. Scientists find that envying other people stimulates the brain, which is associated with both physical and mental pain. It can also spoil your future. Ordinarily, people become psychologically healthier as they age; envy can prevent this trend. Even though other studies have shown that kind envy might encourage your ambition, this one did not find that envy predicted later economic success at all.

To feel envy, you need to have exposure to people who appear more fortunate than you. That is simple enough in ordinary interactions. But the conditions of envy explode if we expose people to a wide group of strangers presenting their lives to look as splendid, successful, and happy as possible. Obviously, I am describing social media. In fact, academics have even used the term Facebook envy to capture the uniquely fertile circumstances that social media creates for this destructive emotion.

If I could snap (捻) my fingers and wipe out envy from my life, I would, and I bet you would too. But envy is natural, and getting rid of it would be impossible for all but perhaps the most enlightened (开明的) people. Lots of research shows that gratitude destroys envy. So, next time the dog of envy barks inside you, quiet it with thoughts of the people who love you, the things you enjoy, and the good fortune you have had.

Can red TV dramas awaken a strong desire in young people     1    (learn) about China’s revolutionary history? The answer is yes. Chinese TV drama Awakening Age, which narrates the story of how the Communist Party of China (CPC) was founded in 1921, ended several months ago, but it remains a hot topic on social media,     2     discussion shows that it has played a positive role in educating young people about China’s revolutionary history.

The TV series     3    (celebrate) this year’s 100th anniversary of the founding of the CPC has won high praise online. The stories of the young people in the drama — who devoted everything, even their lives,     4     the revolution — have touched a large number of viewers. The storytelling in the show has also been applauded by viewers for successfully showing the     5    (deep) of the CPC’s history and spirit, as well as the warmth of China and every family in the country.

Many audiences     6    (inspire) to find background information about the series and commented that this is their first time to     7    (voluntary) learn the history about the founding of the Party and the country. “I read many of Lu Xun’s novels such as A Madman’s Diary when I was in elementary school, but I couldn’t understand why he wrote them or the angry feelings hiding in the characters. After watching the drama, I read these novels again and found that I can now understand     8     they wanted to convey to readers,” said Li Lin,     9     18-year-old viewer.

Recently some school teachers     10    (show) video clips（片段）from the series in classes to arouse students’ interest in the time period and help them learn more about history. A junior high school teacher from Taiyuan, in north China’s Shanxi Province, said that this has proven effective as some students told her after class that the show had left a strong impression on them.

Traffic accidents cause many deaths and injuries every year.

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