3 . The question of whether our government should promote science and technology or the liberal arts in higher education isn't an either/or proposition(命题) , although the current _________ preparing young Americans for STEM(science, technology, engineering, math)-related fields can make it seem that way.

The latest congressional report acknowledges the critical importance of _________ training, but also maintains that the study of the humanities and social sciences must remain central components of America's _________ system at all levels. Both are critical to producing citizens who can participate effectively in our democratic society, become innovative leaders, and _________ the spiritual enrichment that the reflection on the great ideas of mankind over time provides.

Parents and students who have invested heavily in higher education _________ about graduates' job prospects as technological advances and changes in domestic and global markets transform professions in ways that reduce wages and cut jobs. Under these circumstances, it’s _________ to look for what may appear to be the most “practical”way out. Major in a subject designed to get you a/an _________ seems the obvious answer to some, though this ignores the fact that many disciplines in the humanities characterized as “soft” often, in fact, lead to employment and success _________. Indeed, according to surveys, employers have expressed a preference for students who have received a _________ education that has taught them to write well, think critically, research creatively, and communicate easily.

__________, students should be prepared not just for their first job, but for their 4th and 5th jobs, as there's little reason to doubt that people entering the workforce today will be called upon to play many different roles over the course of their careers. The ones who will do the best in this new environment will be those whose educations have prepared them to be __________. The ability to draw upon every available tool and insight -- __________ from science, arts, and technology -- to solve the problems of the future, and take advantage of the opportunities that present themselves, will be helpful to them and the United States.

In May 1780, John Adams wrote to his wife Abigail expressing his hopes for the progress of the American experiment. “I must study Politics and War so that my sons may have __________ to study Mathematics and Philosophy. My Sons ought to study Mathematics and Philosophy, Geography, Architecture, Commerce and Agriculture, in order to give their Children a right to study Painting, Poetry and Music.” What Adams was really expressing was that a country must have a sufficient level of __________, stability and security before large numbers of its citizens can engage in pursuits __________ than the basic struggle for survival. Despite our economic difficulties, the U.S. is a wealthy nation. We have the capacity to create and maintain an educational system that trains students in science, math, history, art and other disciplines, at the very highest level.

5 . Which comes first, happiness or money? Are richer people happier ? And _________, how do people get richer? A recent study could tell you the answer.

The study_________ thousands of teenagers and found that those who felt better about life as young adults_________ to have higher incomes(收入) by the time they _________ 29. Those who were happiest earned an average of $8,000 more than those who were the most_________.

The researchers(研究者), from University College London and the University of Warwick, say that very   depressed(沮丧的) teens, no matter how tall or smart they were, earned 10% less than their peers(同龄人), _________ the happier ones earned _________ 30% more.

Happier teenagers have an easier time _________ school, college and the job interview, _________ because they always feel better about life. It may also be true that happier people find it easier to make friends, who are often the key to homework help or networking.

A report in June suggested that professional(职业的) respect(尊重) was more important than __________ in terms of workplace happiness. In August scientists announced(宣布) that they had found the __________ for happiness in women. Alas! The same gene(基因) doesn’t appear to have __________ effect on men. And in October researchers in the UK and in the US announced that people who eat seven portions(份) of fruit and vegetables a day report being the happiest.

If it is really true that happier kids __________ being wealthier (更富有) kids, is it necessary for parents to get their kids to do the homework? The fact is that no homework will make kids happy but surely hurt their grades(分数). Studies do show, __________, that more education __________ better-paid jobs, which may give us a deep thought.

6 . Concerns about the harm caused by “too much” screen time—particularly when it is spent on social media—are widespread. But working out what a “healthy” ___ might be is far from easy.

Some negative experiences on social media—like ____ how your appearance compares to others—do affect some children. However, this does not mean that technology use in ____ is harmful and it is difficult to make claims about how it will affect different people.

Consider the picture painted by a UNICEF review of existing research into the effects of digital technology on children’s ____ comfort, including happiness, mental health and social life. Rather than stating that social media was harmful, it suggested a more ____ effect.

The UNICEF report highlighted a 2017 study that examined 120,000 UK 15-year-olds. Among those teenagers who were the lightest users, it was found that increasing the time spent using technology was linked to ____ comfort—possibly because it was important for keeping up friendships. ____, among the heaviest users of technology, any increase in time was linked to lower levels of comfort. Overall, the UNICEF study suggested that some screen time could be good for children’s mental health.

A broader look at evidence provided by some other high quality studies again suggests the story is not ____. An early study in 2013 looked at how the television and video game habits of 11,000 UK five-year-olds affected them two years later. It is one of few studies actually ____ the effects of technology over time. It suggested that, compared with children who watched one hour of television or less on a weekday, a small increase in conduct problems was seen among those who watched more than three hours each day. Playing electronic games, however, was not seen as leading to a greater ____ of friendship or emotional problems.

So how much time should our children spend looking at screens? It is difficult to be ____ as different people spend time online in such different ways. A useful comparison might be with sugar. Broadly speaking, people ____ that too much sugar can be bad for your health. But the effect it might have can depend on many factors, from the type of sugar to the person and the amount. We would not ____ trust anyone who claims to predict how someone is affected by consuming one gram of sugar. The same could be said for ____ usage: the outcomes depend on so many factors that only very ___ predictions are possible.

7 . We hear between 10 and 200 lies every day, from “Sorry, my phone was dead” to “I’m fine.” And just by listening to simple linguistic _______, we could easily discover them, claim scientists and linguistics experts.

Studies have shown that stories based on _______ experiences are different from those based on real experiences, suggesting that coming up with a lie takes work and thus _______ a different pattern of language use.

In a TED Talk, Noah Zanden, a science communicator and chief executive of Quantified Communications based in Austin, Texas, explained how “linguistic text analysis”—which is based on the difference between how we _______the truth and lies--- can help people spot untruths.

There are four common patterns in the subconscious language of lying. Zanden explained that liars typically _______themselves less and talk more about others in a lie than usual. They sometimes use the third person to _________ themselves from their lie, because they subconsciously feel guilty. For the same reason, liars tend to be more _______. “For example, a liar might say, ‘Sorry, my stupid phone battery died. I hate that thing,’”Zanden said. People can also spot a lie when someone explains events using very _______ words. Our brains struggle to build a complex false story, which means that explanations about events that didn’t happen seem _______ straightforward. ________, although liars may keep their story simple, they tend to use longer and more complicated sentences, __________unrelated but factual sounding details to make their story sound more believable, he said.

Experts say that the patterns can be seen in famous ________. For example, when seven-time winner of the Tour de France, Lance Armstrong, ________using performance-enhancing drugs in 2005, he described an unreal situation ________ someone else to disassociate himself from his lie. In contrast, when he admitted to using them in 2013, his use of first-person pronouns increased by nearly three quarters, ________that he was telling the truth. He talked about his focus on personal emotions and motivations.

8 . We love letters. Just as John Donne, a poet, _________ it, “Letters, to me and my friends mean _________ greetings; they get souls together. Thanks to letters, friends who are _________ speak.” He wrote these words nearly 400 years ago. Today, in the age of instant text message, social media, and email, they _________ ring truer than ever, because writing or receiving a letter has become such a _________ event.

A UK-wide survey undertaken by Sunday Times suggests that one in four of us has not _________ a letter for at least 10 years. That’s ten years without the bitter-sweet _________ of pacing the floor waiting for the _________; ten years without recognizing the handwriting on the envelope and eagerly _________ the letter to read its content.

We ____________ not get them any more, but we still love handwritten letters. In the same survey, one third of ____________ people interviewed say that they ____________ the content of sentimental (充满情感的) letters. Shouldn’t we make ____________ to give our friends and families what they will treasure forever? Ann Bickley went online in 2013 and offered to handwrite a letter to anyone who ____________ her. Her website received 50,000 ____________ in its first three months. Five years later, she is still the main ____________ behind one-million-lovely-letter.com and has personally written 4,000 letters offering hope and ____________ to strangers.

The thought behind a letter ____________ as much as its contents. “I never tell anyone that ____________ is going to be OK,” Ann Bickley says, “I am letting someone know that there is someone in the world who ____________ them.”

Who wouldn’t love to receive a letter like that? Let’s get writing!

9 . It was raining. I went into a café and asked for a coffee. _______ I was waiting for my drink, I realized there were other people in the place, but I sensed _______. I saw their bodies, but I couldn't feel their souls _______ their souls belonged to the _______.

I stood up and walked between the tables. When I came to the biggest computer, I saw a thin, small man _______ in front of it. "I'm Steve," he finally answered after I asked him a couple of times what his name was. “I can't talk with you. I'm _______”, he said. He was chatting online and, _______, he was playing a computer game ---- a war game. I was _______ . Why didn't Steve want to talk with me? I tried _______ to speak to that computer geek (怪人), ________ not a word came out of his mouth. I touched his shoulder, but no reaction (反应). I was ________. I put my hand in front of the monitor, and he started to shout, "________!"

I took a few steps back, wondering if all those people in the café were looking at me. I ________, and saw nobody showed any interest.

________, I realized that the people there were having a nice conversation with their machines, not with people. They were more ________ having a relationship with the ________, particularly Steve. I wouldn't want to ________ the future of human beings if they preferred sharing their lives with machines ________ with people.

I was worried and lost in my thought. I didn't even ________ that the coffee was bad, ________ Steve didn't notice there was a person next to him.

10 . President Obama’s second Inaugural Address used soaring language to stress America’s commitment to the dream of equality of opportunity: ‘We are true to our belief that a little girl born into _______ knows that she has the same chance to succeed as anybody else, because she is an American’.

The gap between ideal and reality could hardly be _______ . Today, the United States has less equality of opportunity than almost any other advanced industrial country. Study after study has _______ the myth that America is a land of opportunity. A way of looking at equality of opportunity is to as to what extent the life chances of a child are _______ the education and income of his parents. Is it just as likely that a child of poor or poorly educated parents gets a good education and rises to the middle class as someone born to middle-class parents with college degrees? Even in a more democratic society. the answer would be no.

How do we explain this? Some of it has to do with discrimination （歧视）. Latinos and African-Americans still get paid less than whites, and women still get paid less than men, _______ they recently surpassed （超越）men in the number of advanced degrees they obtain. Discrimination, however, is only a small part of the _______. Probably the most important reason for _______ of equality of opportunity is education. After World WarⅡ, we made a major effort to _______ higher education to Americans across the country. But then we changed, in several ways. While racial segregation（种族隔离）decreased, economic segregation increased. After 1980, the poor grew poorer, the middle stagnated（停滞不前）, and the top did better and better. A result was a widening gap in educational performance – the _______ gap between rich and poor kids born in 2001 was 30 to 40 percent larger than it was for those born 25 years earlier, a Stanford sociologist found. Of course, there are other forces ______ . Children in rich families get more exposure to reading. Their families can afford enriching experiences like music lessons and summer camp. They get better nutrition and health care, which enhance their learning, directly and indirectly.

Now Americans are coming to realize that without extensive policy changes, their long cherished belief is only a myth. It is unreasonable that a rich country like the United States has made _______ to higher education so difficult for those at the bottom and middle. There are many _______ ways of providing chances for more to receive higher education, from Australia’s income-contingent loan program to the near-free system of universities in Europe. A more educated population produces greater innovation, and a booming economy. Those benefits are why we’ve long been ______ to free public education through 12^th grade. But while a 12^th-grade education might have been enough a century ago, it isn’t today. Yet we haven’t _______ our system to contemporary realities.

The steps I’ve outlined are not just affordable but necessary. Even more important, though, is that we cannot afford to let our country drift farther from _______ that the vast majority of Americans share. We will never fully succeed in achieving Mr. Obama’s vision of a poor girl’s having exactly the same opportunities as a wealthy girl. But we could do much, much better, and must not rest until we do.