1 . I strongly believe that it is rather important to be a good listener. And although I have become a better listener than I was ten years ago, I have to admit I’m still only an ________ listener.

Effective listening is more than simply ________ the bad habit of interrupting others while they are speaking or finishing their sentences. It’s being ________ to listen to the entire thought of someone ________ waiting impatiently for your chance to respond. In some ways, the way we fail to listen is symbolic of the way we live. We often treat communication as if it were a ________. It’s almost like our goal is to have no time ________ between the conclusion of the sentence of the person we are speaking with and the beginning of our own. My wife and I were recently at a cafeteria having lunch, overhearing the conversation around us. It seemed that no one was really listening to one another. ________, they were taking turns not listening to one another. I asked my wife if I still did the same thing. With a smile on her face she said, “only sometimes.”

Slowing down your responses and becoming a better listener ________ you in becoming a more peaceful person. It takes ________ from you. If you think about it, you’ll notice that it takes an enormous amount of energy and is very stressful to be sitting at the edge of your seat trying to ________ what the person in front of you (or on the telephone) is going to say so that you can ________ your responses. But as you wait for the person you are communicating with to finish, as you simply listen more ________, to what is being said, you’ll notice that the pressure you feel is off. You will immediately feel more ________and so will the people you are talking to. They will feel safe in slowing down their own responses because they won’t feel in ________ with you for “air time”! Not only will becoming a better listener make you a more patient person, it will also ________ the quality of your relationships. Everyone loves to talk to someone who truly listens to what they are saying.

2 . The sharing economy is an economic model known as a peer-to-peer(P2P)based activity of getting, providing, or sharing goods and services that is often promoted by on-line platforms (平台) It allows persons and groups to make money from the assets (资产) which is not _______ .In a sharing economy, underused assets such as parked cars and spare bedrooms can be _______ when they are not used. In this way, physical assets are shared as _______ .

Concerns about the sharing economy often includes the uncertainty about _______ .While businesses offering rent services are often _______ by local governments, people who don’t have official permission to _______ rent services may not be following these rules or paying the costs. This could mean putting them in a better position that makes it possible for them to ask _______   prices to get a bigger market share.

Another _______ is that lack of watching over businesses will lead to _______ uses of both buyers and sellers in the sharing economy. There have been many cases ________ known to the public like hidden cameras in rented rooms, lawsuits (诉讼)over ________ treatment of ridesharing drivers by the platforms ________ employ them, and even murders of customers by real or ________ ridesharing providers.

There is also a fear that lots of information shared on online platforms can create racial or sex bias (偏见) among users. This can happen when users are allowed to ________ who they will share their homes or cars with, or because of the database of users with poor credit history or bad behaviour ________ .

4 . Three men were _________ from a small, uninhabited Pacific island after writing a big SOS _________ in the sand.

The men had been _________ in the Micronesia archipelago (群岛) for nearly three days before their distress (遇险) signal was _________ on the Pikelot Island by searchers. SOS is an internationally recognized signal originally established for ships at sea to request _________.

Located in the western Pacific Ocean, the Federated States of Micronesia is _________ of more than 600 islands. Officials said that _________ the men aboard a seven-meter boat started off from Puluwat Atoll (环焦), _________ to travel about 43 kilometers to Pulp Atoll when they sailed off course and _________ fuel. They were reported missing after __________ to arrive at their destination.

__________, the men were found in good condition about 190 kilometers from where they originally __________. Helicopter landed on the beach and gave the men food and water before they were __________ and taken home by a Micronesian ship.

“I’m __________ of the response and professionalism of all on board as we perform our duty to __________ to the safety of life at sea wherever we are in the world,” said the commanding officer of one of the search ships.

5 . About 70,000,000 Americans are trying to lose weight (减肥). That is almost 1 out of every 3 people in the United States. Some people eat_______ food and they hardly have any fats or sweets. Others do running, exercise with machines, take medicines, or even have operations. _______ you can see losing weight is_________work, and it will also cost a lot of money. But _______ do so many people in the United States want to lose weight?

Many people in the United States worry about their look of the body. For many people, looking nice also means to be_______. Other people worry about their health as many doctors _______ overweight is not good.

Most people want to find an   _______way to take off fat, and books of this kind are very popular. These books tell people how to lose weight. Each year a lot of new books like these are     3_______. Each one says it can easily help people take fat away.

Losing weight can be _______ Some overweight people go to health centres, like La Costa in California. Men and women __________ several hundred dollars a day at these health centres. People live there for one week or two, __________exercise, eating different foods. Meals there may be just a little. All these work for losing weight. __________ 4 days on the programme, one woman called Mrs. Warren lost 5 pounds (2.27kg). At $ 400 a day, she spent $ 320 to lose each pound. But she said she was still __________to do so.

Health centres, books, medicines, operations, running and exercise machines all__________a lot of money. So in the United States, losing weight may mean losing __________ too.

7 . People using ad-blocking software who visited the New York Times website in March were shown a message. This read: “The best things in life aren’t _______.” It went on to explain that, “Advertising helps us fund our journalism,” and gave the visitor two options to read the newspaper’s online content: _______ their ad-blocking software or pay for a subscription.

Despite many internet users’ opposition, a number of publishers are now banning ad-blocking software. Aidan Joyce, chief executive of Oriel, says, “Most ad-blocking users do not object to a reasonable advertising experience _______ quality free content.” Mark Thompson, the group’s chief executive, said, “Anyone who refuses to contribute to the creation of high-quality journalism has no right to _______ it.”

To satisfy people who hate advertising, the news organization plans to introduce a higher-priced, advertisement-free _______. Ben Barokas, chief executive of Sourcepoint, thinks that media groups should offer consumers a range of different ways to _______ content, including for-free with ads, micropayments and subscriptions.

However, Sean Blanchfield, chief executive of PageFair, argues that publishers need to exercise care in how they ban ad blockers. “Users have justifiable concerns,” he says. “Ads that are served today have serious privacy and security problems.” Mr. Blanchfield says that PageFair aims to help publishers. “_______ the advertising experience in a way that the typical ad-block user wouldn’t find offensive.”

Publishers that ban ad blockers also risk losing their audience to competitors that turn out more _______. In some ways, that matters little. But internet users are not just _______ consumers; Instead, they often help distribute a publisher’s content by sharing links with friends through email, forums, and social media.

More than half of U.K. adults using an ad blocker said that they would switch it off if doing so was the only way to access a website, according to a survey by YouGov. Meanwhile, Sweden’s biggest publishers will ________ block people next month who use ad-blocking software. The idea is that they will be able to turn the ad-blocking tide with a combined effort.

8 . Since the beginning of the twentieth century, the number of wild tigers has been on an alarming decline. ________, it appears that the situation has finally changed. The ________ of specialised conservation programmes has ________ the first growth of wild population number for over a century and, while still not strong enough, the big cat's future seems a little more positive.

For those whose wildlife dream is ________ this wonderful big cat in its ________ habitat, a well-organised tiger trip to one or more of the parks and ________ of the Indian subcontinent ________ the chance to do just that. Anyone fortunate ________ to go on a tiger trip should become familiar with not only the physical characteristics of the big cat, ________ also the major threats to its survival.

The tigers' habitat often covers some parts of the human ________. With the destruction of forest habitats leading to a(n) ________ in smaller prey species (猎物), the tigers are often forced to leave the protection of its own range and take the risk of going into human areas to ________ cows or sheep. Because local people ________ these farm animals, this causes ________, resulting in the killing or capturing of the animal to ________ on the black market.

While there are numerous high-profile conservation campaigns in action around the world, everyone should play a part. For those planning to explore the Indian subcontinent on a tiger trip to see this mysterious big cat in its natural habitat, helping to raise the profile of its endangered position is one way to help ensure its survival.