In early 2022, the Ministry of Water Resources in China planned to invest 800 billion yuan building water management projects during the year. But the country     1     (see) the funds reach 823 billion yuan by the end of September.

Last year, the large-scale development played a significant role in ensuring stable home fund     2     promoting employment. Over 2. 5 million workers     3     (employ) in the development, including almost 2.1 million people from rural China. People also noted the     4     (remark) growth in funds it raised for water management projects. Almost 1. 16 trillion yuan was collected across the country last year, 44 percent more than 2021. Over 203.6 billion yuan was raised     5     government bonds, roughly 1.5 times that of the previous year. Over 37.9 billion yuan was invested     6     (expand) and renovate (翻新) 529 medium and large-scale irrigated areas in 2022. Thanks to the     7     (invest), over 10,000 kilometers of irrigation channels were built or renovated.

During the rare drought in the Yangtze River Basin last year, the complete systems in many of those irrigated areas functioned     8     (efficient) in reducing the impacts of the drought and reducing losses. Such irrigated areas guaranteed water supply to 11.3 million hectares of farmland in     9     (strike) regions. Despite the drought, the basin saw     10     good harvest of grain.

Have you ever wondered what life is like now     1     (compare) to, say, the 1980s or the 1990s? I went to ask some people I know who were adults in the ‘80s and 90s’, and the answer I got was that “Overall, life is a lot     2     (good) now!” This didn’t really surprise me. I mean, these days we’ve got mobile phones and the internet and so on — but     3    (actual) those weren’t the things they talked about.

So what did they talk about? For     4     start, we don’t have to work physically hard since now there are a lot of things like dishwashers for housework. Then there’s the matter of how, these days,     5     is possible to work at home — it’s mainly     6    (computer) that have made this possible. Not only that, there’s a lot more     7     (equal) now. It’s easier for all people, whatever their social background, gender (性别), colour and so on, to have equal access     8     a variety of career opportunities.

That said, it’s not all a matter of improvement. Quite a few people told me that they feel more stressed these days because they rely a lot on technology and they are always     9    (anxiety) about security on the internet. Plus, we spend a lot of our time     10     (use) smartphones. One person said, “Wouldn’t it be great to be off the grid (不上网) for a few days?”

Digitalization,     1     is a main characteristic of the twenty first century, represents a transformation of society to a widespread use of digital technologies in various     2     (area) of life.

However, experts noted that too much social media use is known to have a negative influence     3     mental health. So they started a study to investigate how to improve mental health in this time of rapid digitalization.

The results of the study     4     (lead) by Dr. Julia Brailovskaia of the Mental Health Research and Treatment Center clearly showed that individuals who cut their social media use by 30 minutes a day     5     used this time for physical activity could     6     (significant) improve their mental health.

Participants who replaced 30 minutes of social media with exercise every day for two weeks     7     (have) powerful results. They reported feeling happier, more satisfied, less stressed and less depressed. The positive effects lasted for at least six months after the study had ended.

“This shows us how vital it is     8     (reduce) our availability online from time to time and to go back to our human roots,” said Dr. Brailovskaia. “These measures can be easily applied to people’s     9     (day) lives and they’re completely free and, at     10     same time, they help us to stay happy and healthy in the digital age.”

Machines work well at a constant speed ― and the faster the better. Whether they are spinning cotton     1     dealing with numbers, regular, repetitive actions are what they excel at.

Increasingly, our world is being designed by machines and for machines. We adapt to machines and hold ourselves to their standards: People     2     (judge) by the speed at which they respond, not the quality of their response. “Always on” becomes something to take pride     3    . When I ask people     4     they are doing, they almost always answer “busy”. Ticking things off the “to do” list becomes     5     means of defining ourselves.     6     (occupy) if not with work then with family or our social networks, most of us feel exhausted.

A few years ago, I became very interested in what it meant     7     (pause). I started to notice where pauses show up in my own work and life. For example, I realized when I was writing, a short walk was a(n)     8     (effective) way to focus than concentrating harder. The small walk acted as a pause,     9     (enable) me to rest, reflect or refresh, appreciate and break a block in my     10     (creative). I realized that pause is not nothing!

A minute eating ice-cream is not the same as a minute doing push-ups. Even time itself isn’t a uniform raw material ― as the physics of Einstein shows.

Two graduates, from Central China Normal University in Wuhan, Hubei Province, using the names Wanwan and Chaochao,     1     (upload) a 17-minute video online late last year about their lives over the past five years.

In the video, Wanwan,     2     has taken up a dozen jobs since graduating five years ago, said she now only has 5,000 yuan. Her roommate Chaochao got a master’s degree in scriptwriting (编剧) from Communication University of China. But     3     consequence of a tough job market, she had great difficulty     4     (obtain) a job in the film industry. Last year, she started to learn painting but she said she had to work part-time as a cleaner at a hotpot restaurant to support     5     (she).

“When you can accept your failure, you will feel that it is not that bad. When working at the hotpot restaurant, my biggest     6     (comfortable) is that I won’t starve to death no matter what is next,” Chaochao said. “There are many roads in our lives, and no matter which direction you go, you will     7     (eventual) find your own road.”

The video was one of the trending videos of last year, gaining more than 5.44 million views and more than 26,000 comments since it     8     (release), with many netizens sharing their own failures in the comments section.

Netizens said they were warmed by their courage to share failures with the public, strong determination     9     (achieve) their goals, optimism in the face of hardships     10     spirit of never giving up.

A recently released     1    (nation) survey on reading among Chinese people,     2     was conducted by the Chinese Academy of Press and Publication (CAPP), has shown     3     steady rise in reading as a habit in the country.

Over 1.48 million     4    (sample) were collected for the survey from 165 cities nationwide, carried out via the forms of online and telephone surveys.

An average adult would spend 23.13 minutes on average per day     5    (read) printed books in 2022 the survey showed.

Moreover, listening to audiobooks was another rising habit among Chinese readers,     6     35.5 percent of adults saying they were used to listening     7    (main) to audiobooks.

Public reading services continued to meet the needs of Chinese readers, as 78.2 percent of the people     8    (survey) were satisfied with the services of public libraries, and 72.5 percent were pleased with their experience at community or self-service libraries.

“In Hangzhou, for instance, reading venues, including public libraries, self-service libraries and rural reading rooms,     9    (cover) the whole city in the past several years,” said Mayor of Hangzhou Yao Gaoyuan on Sunday.

Reading on mobile phones also remained a habit among Chinese readers. According to the survey, 77.8 percent read on their phones last year, 0.4 percent     10    (high) than in 2021.

With the rapid growth of population and global warming, the food problem has aroused public concern. “All countries in the world should    1    (strength) cooperation to contribute to a secure global food supply,” said one of the Chinese    2    (official). Facing the challenges of global food security, he called on more countries    3    (maintain)the multinational trading system with the World Trade Organization, enhance the teamwork of agricultural trade policies, and    4    (far) expand partnerships through stronger mutual cooperation on agriculture.

China not only advocated    5    (adopt) a joint security cooperation strategy,    6    supported the establishment of a forum on the agriculture and rural development of all countries. Despite the severe challenges    7    (bring) by natural disasters, China has managed to ensure enough food for over 1.4 billion people through its own efforts, making    8    positive contribution to global food security. The meeting,    9    some emerging countries attended via video link last year,    10    (highlight) the major problems such as global food security and availability. It is believed that there will be more such meetings on livelihood issues in the future.