2 . This is a real story about an old man in China. Sixty-three-year-old Zhuang Guorong is a_______rural primary school art teacher, who has had a life of_______for more than 40 years.

Every year, the strong, younger-than-his-actual-age pensioner (领养老金者) goes to “the farmers’ home” of Chenyang Community to paint or_______other villagers how to paint.

“The farmers’ home”, a public building,_______the venue (聚集地点) for a_______ of the Sheyang Farmers Painting Institute. The institute is a government _______cultural organization in Sheyang County, in the north of Jiangsu Province, east China.

Zhuang works at the institute part time, and each year he_______up to ten paintings, which are then _______ by the local government. He_______ around 5,000 yuan — that’s about 740 US dollars — a year by doing this________ .

As well as earning himself some money, Zhuang says the job gives him an opportunity to ________his views of life to his fellow countrymen,________ the elderly.

“This painting is about a nursing home. We now live in a(n)________ society. We can no longer ________the traditional way of taking care of our elderly just with our children doing it.________, professional nursing homes are________ for elderly people’s ________.”

“In this painting, I________a scene of young people celebrating the birthday of a senior citizen. The ________I want to convey is that life in one’s later years can be happy. And all of my paintings are like this one — based on our ________lives.”

5 . Speed-reading is a crucial skill in the Internet age. We skim over articles, e-mails and tweets to try to _________ key words and the essential meaning of a certain text. _________ with information from our electronic devices, it would be impossible to cope if we read word by word, line by line.

But a new trend calls on people to _________ and enjoy reading slowly, using the linear (线性的) pattern, left-to-right sequence.

A recent story from The Wall Street Journal reported on a book club in Wellington, New Zealand, where members meet in a cafe and turn off their smartphones. They _________ comfortable chairs and read in silence for an hour.

Unlike traditional book clubs, the _________ of the Slow Reading Club isn’t exchanging ideas about a certain book, but to get away from electronic devices and read in a quiet, _________ environment. According to the Journal, the Wellington Book Club is just one example of a movement _________ by book lovers who miss the old-fashioned way of reading before the Internet and smartphones.

Slow readers, such as The Atlantic’s Maura Kelly, say a regular reading habit sharpens the mind, improves concentration, _________ stress levels and deepens the ability to empathize (有同感).

Some of these benefits have been backed up by science. _________, a study of 300 elderly people published by the journal Neurology last year showed that regular engagement in __________ activities like reading slowed the rate of memory loss later in life.

Another study published last year in Science showed that reading novels helps people understand others’ mental states and beliefs, a crucial skill in building __________.

Slow reading means a(n) __________ to an uninterrupted, linear pattern, in a quiet environment free of __________. Aim for 30 minutes a day, advises Kelly from The Atlantic. “You can squeeze in that half hour pretty easily if only during your free moments — whenever you find yourself __________ firing up your laptop to check your favorite site, or scanning Twitter for something to pass the time — you pick up a meaningful work of literature,” Kelly said. “__________ your e-reader, if you like. Kindles make books like War and Peace less heavy, and also ensure you’ll never lose your place in the book.”

6 . In China, square dancing is an exercise routine performed to music in squares or parks. Recent years have _________ the growing popularity of square dancing among elderly people in China, _________ it provides them with a good platform to _________ and make new friends in their ordinary lives. Although the practice has roots in both ancient and modern Chinese history, today the Chinese hold _________ views towards it. Some people, the young in particular, argue that it has disturbed their peaceful lives.

As for _________ citizens, square dancing is relatively easy to learn compared to traditional _________ and thus win their _________. Moreover, practicing square dancing doesn’t need special equipment. All it needs are open ground and loudspeakers. _________, it can be found across the country.

_________, many young people have showed their dissatisfaction. They think that square dancing __________ too much space in their neighborhood and disturbs their life. In fact, it is the noise __________ square dancing that young people __________ most.

Therefore, concessions (让步) should be made by both __________ so that they can live in __________ with each other.

People taking part in square dancing are expected to dance in areas far away from residential communities (居民区), while the young are called on to show more __________ of square dancing.

They will also become old and one day may be one of the dancers they dislike now.

In addition, the government should spare more suitable areas where the elderly can do their favorite activities.

7 . A friend of mine met with an accident driving in darkness. His legs were so hurt that he couldn’t move. What was the ______ was that he found himself unable to ask for help—his mobile phone went out of ______ as a result of exhausted battery (电池). Nothing could be done but ______ in cold wilderness. It was 8 hours later that day broke, and then the _____ of the rescue (救援).

It is almost ______ that he could stand the horror in the darkness for so long. Even more surprising was his ______: “First of all I checked up my ______ conditions and found myself not in fatal (致命的) danger. As there was no ______ to call for help, I leaned back in my seat trying my best to keep the wound from ______. In this way I dozed (打盹) off.”

His story put an end to my regret for the ______ of an exploration adventure that happened last year. A group of young men ______ to explore a mountain cave and got lost.                           ____ to find a way out in the dark cave they were frightened and ran anxiously without a sense of ______. Finally they fell dead in fear and exhaustion. According to the ______ people that found them, the place where they got lost was only about 10 meters away from the ______ of the cave. If they stayed on the spot when they lost their way and tried to ______ themselves, they would probably sense a faint light glimmering (闪烁) not far away.

Don’t you think that you can compare it with ______ itself? When you meet with obstacles in life and work, you are lost in darkness. Mind you (请你注意) it’s ______ yet and you needn’t put up struggle ______. It seems to be a negative attitude; ______ a person who can afford to do so must have foresight (预见) as well as great courage in the first place.

8 . One very important institution in our economy is the bank. Banks______money for individual people, corporations, and the government. Banks, provide a number of important services for you and your family. Most importantly, they're a______place to store your money. They also provide an easy way for you to______money from one place to another. When you write a personal check, the check authorizes the bank to give your money to the person or business whose name is on the check.

Of course, banks also lend money. Ordinary people take out bank______for a number of reasons -to pay for college, to buy or remodel a home, to start or expand a business, and so forth. Banks provide these services to individuals______, their main function is to lend large sums of money, for example, to corporations. When people or corporations borrow money from a bank, they must, of course, pay______-a percentage of the money they have borrowed.

Banks pay interest on the money they hold, and charge interest on the money they lend. For a bank to make a ______, it has to collect more interest than it pays out.

Sometimes banks invest money as well as lend it. To invest money means to put it into a corporation. or some other project - for example, building a housing complex or doing medical research-______a share of the profits. Most businesses need loans and investments at some time, and banks are an important source of______.

You might wonder what would happen if all the people with money in a bank wanted to take their money out at the same time. I mean, how would the bank be able to give everyone their money, if it had lent out or______most of it? In fact, this can be a serious problem for banks. They______the fact that most people won't want their money for a long time once it's deposited. That leaves the bank free to lend or invest the money. If every person-or even lots of people- tried to______their money at the same time, the bank might not be able to honor all of its______. This causes some banks to______, or go bankrupt.

Bank failures used to be______during times of recession or depression. They were especially common during the Great Depression of the 1930s. When Franklin Roosevelt became president in 1933, one of the first things he did was close all the banks, so depositors wouldn't panic and try to take all their money out.

9 . 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.

10 . 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.