The Chinese New Year holiday is just around the corner. As you enjoy time with family and friends, you may want to do some shopping for a fresh new look.     1     that’s the case, I have an important question for you: Are you an ethical shopper?

Many clothing items are made from animal products. Think about what you’re wearing right now or what’s in your closet. Do you have any leather gloves, shoes, jackets or handbags? Or perhaps you have a cozy suede (绒面革) coat     2    (decorate) with fur.     3     you consciously avoid animal products, something in your wardrobe is probably made from an animal.

Historically, clothing was made from animal furs or hides     4     necessity and availability. For example, the indigenous (本土的) people of Canada hunted wild animals for food and used the non-edible (不可食用的) parts to make tools, clothing and even shelter. In today’s reality, very few people can claim that they require animal furs or hides to keep them warm. Does this mean that we should not wear any clothing made from animals? To some extent, that is a personal decision.     5     I’m not suggesting that you should completely stop buying animal products, I do think that every one of us     6     become more ethical shoppers. We should know where our clothing was manufactured and     7     standards the companies follow.

Some countries have few laws that govern the treatment of animals. Animals may be raised on “fur farms” for     8     only purpose of being killed for their furs. They often spend their short lives in dirty living conditions and may even be cruelly killed in a painful manner.

On the other hand, some countries and companies are against animal cruelty. The website of one popular clothing brand claims to buy the lamb skin for their famous boots only from suppliers that use “humane animal treatment”. They also claim to only use the skin of sheep that are killed for food.     9    (base) on this, they argue that their clothing products do not directly cause any harm to animals.

This Chinese New Year, do a little research before you make any purchases. Your choice to only support companies that have high ethical standards could help change the clothing industry and make things better     10     animals everywhere.

The government is being urged to monitor teachers’ well-being after research has revealed that one in 20 are reporting mental health problems which have lasted for more than one year.

The study, funded by the Nuffield Foundation, is the first    1     (examine) the mental health and well-being of teachers in England over the span of three decades, based on the data recorded from more than 20, 000 of them during that time.

It has found that around 5% of teachers today    2     (suffer) long-lasting mental health problems, up from just 1% in the 1990s.

The figures    3     be ringing alarm bells for England’s policymakers. They are having a hard time hiring teachers at a time     4     the number of children of school age is on the increase. The government     5     (make) a series of promises to reduce workload so far, but teachers say they are not seeing the real benefits yet.

According to the report, a third of new teachers leave the job within the first five years. The paper also quotes recent Department for Education (DfE) research,     6     found that “sleeping problems, panic attacks and anxiety issues” had contributed to teachers’ decisions to quit the profession.

The lead author of the report, Johm Jerrim, a professor at the UCL institute of education, says that the teaching profession in England is currently in the middle of a crisis, and that its struggle to hire and retain enough teachers is partly    7     the pressures of the job.

“It has long been known that teaching is a stressful and challenging career and we wanted to see    8     the mental health and well-being of teachers had improved or declined,” he says.

The report admits that the increase in reported mental health problems is not specific to education, but can be seen in other professions,     9     human resources and accountancy.

It concludes, “In our view,     10     (pressing) issue is for the DfE to make a commitment to monitor the mental health and well-being of the teacher profession.”

Manchester May Get High-speed Rail Before Leeds, HS2 Minister Suggests

Manchester may get high-speed rail before Leeds, the new minister for HS2 has suggested.

In his first speech in the job, Andrew Stephenson said the next step for government was to “bring forward legislation to bring high-speed rail into Manchester as soon as practical”. There was no mention of Leeds in relation to HS2 when     1     (address) the New Statesman’s northern powerhouse-themed conference in Manchester.

The plan now is to split those two spurs into two stages, with legislation for the Manchester leg going through parliament (议会) first, a transport department press officer confirmed. This is to integrate it with Northern Powerhouse Rail, the new east-west line across the Pennines,     2     includes 50 miles of HS2 track, including a tunnel from Manchester Airport to Manchester Piccadilly.

Judith Blake, the Labour leader of Leeds city council, insisted she     3    (not, concern). She said she had been on a conference call last week with Grant Shapps, the transport secretary, in which he said he was “100% committed” to both east and west HS2spurs. Shapps said it was     4    (efficient) for HS2 legislation to be split into smaller chunks than one big “hybrid bill”.

But she accepted that the eastern spur was trickier, as it went through more “highly populated" areas.We have always known that the eastern leg has some refinement to do,” she said, “noting that no agreement has yet been reached whether     5    (spend) billions turning Manchester’s Piccadilly into a multi-level station either.”

Stephenson, a Mancunian former insurance broker who       6    (represent) Pendle in east Lancashire since 2010, said he was thrilled to become the first minister for “HS2, Northern Powerhouse Rail and Transpennine route upgrade”.

“HS2 is not simply a project that the north and Midlands benefit     7    . It is a project for the north and Midlands,” Stephenson said in his speech. “The critics who say that HS2 will only benefit London are simply wrong. They ignore the voices in towns and cities across the north, all the businesses and passengers       8    (cry) out for investment and change. They ignore people in my own constituency of Pendle.”

He said, “Too many times I have heard stories of unacceptable treatment of those       9    (impact) by this line. There will be disruption. We can’t deny that.     10     we must manage this work efficiently and effectively while always being sympathetic to those affected.”