1 . The problem of robocalls has gotten so bad that many people now refuse to pick up calls from numbers they don’t know. By next year, half of the calls we receive will be scams (欺诈). We are finally waking up to the severity (严重性) of the problem by supporting and developing a group of tools, apps and approaches intended to prevent scammers from getting through. Unfortunately, it’s too little, too late. By the time these “solutions” become widely available (有效的), scammers will have moved onto cleverer means. In the near future, it’s not just going to be the number you see on your screen that will be in doubt. Soon you will also question whether the voice you’re hearing is actually real.

That’s because there are a number of powerful voice manipulation (处理) and automation technologies that are about to become widely available for anyone to use. At this year’s I/O Conference, a company showed a new voice technology able to produce such a convincing human—sounding voice that it was able to speak to a receptionist (接待员) and book a reservation without detection.

These developments are likely to make our current problems with robocalls much worse. The reason that robocalls are a headache has less to do with amount than precision. A decade of data breaches (数据侵入) of personal information has led to a situation where scammers can easily learn your mother’s name, and far more. Armed with this knowledge, they’re able to carry out individually targeted campaigns (活动) to cheat people. This means. for example, that a scammer could call you from what looks to be a familiar number and talk to you using a voice that sounds exactly like your bank teller’s, ricking you into “confirming” your address, mother’s name, and card number. Scammers follow money, so companies will be the worst hit. A lot of business is still done over the phone, and much of it is based on trust and existing relationships. Voice manipulation technologies may weaken that gradually.

We need to deal with the insecure nature of our telecom networks. Phone carriers and consumers need to work together to find ways of determining and communicating what is real. That might mean either developing a uniform way to mark videos and images, showing when and who they were made by or abandoning phone calls altogether and moving towards data-based communications—using apps like Face Time or WhatsApp, which can be tied to your identity.

Credibility is hard to earn but easy to lose, and the problem is only going to harder from here on out.

3 . While English is getting more important in our schools, Chinese has become popular among foreign kids. But Chinese can be more difficult to learn. At least 16-year-old Piao Chenglong thinks so. “English is easier for me. Chinese characters (汉字) have too many strokes (笔画),” said Piao. “But I want to learn it. I want to study at Beijing University when I grow up.” Piao is from Korea. He came to China in 2008.

In Korea, there are more than 300, 000 Chinese learners like Piao. Some Korean students begin to learn to write the language on their first day at school. To help students learn Chinese, Korea holds speaking competitions for high school students every year.

Chinese isn’t just popular in Korea. People from all the world want to learn it. The Ministry of Education of China says that nearly 130 million people from 85 countries are learning Chinese. This number will be increasing to 800 million in the coming years.

In America, Chinese is the second most popular foreign language after Spanish. Some American middle schools have Chinese classes. Students learn to make jiaozi and tie Chinese knots (中国结). Some even try to write and draw in the Chinese way!

People want to learn Chinese because China is becoming such an important country. Foreign countries want to understand China better to help them with business. The Chinese government is also helping the world learn Chinese. It has sent more than 200 Chinese teachers to more than 60 countries in the world. Many more Confucius Institutes (孔子学院) will be set up in the world. These institutes will teach Chinese to foreign students.

6 . One of the most important things of the U. S. government’s routine in 2020 is to raise the federal (联邦) legal age for buying tobacco from age 18 to 21.

Beginning in the summer of 2020, it will be against the law to sell tobacco to anyone under the age of 21. Since 1990, the legal age permitted to buy cigarette is at least 18. The law also includes e-cigarette, not just traditional tobacco products like cigarettes and cigars, adding regulation to this industry, which has developed largely unchecked.

The use of E-cigarette has increased sharply among U. S. teenagers. According to the U. S. Department of Health and Human Services, 27.5% of U. S. high school students have used e-cigarette in the past month. Raising the age one can buy tobacco is intended to avoid what many people are calling an epidemic, which is doing great harm to the health of American teenagers.

A recent outbreak of the disease related to e-cigarette has raised even more concern about e-cigarette products , although the disease is largely linked to cartridges (药筒) filled with addictive Vitamin E acetate sold in black market.

In a statement to TIME, the American Lung Association considered raising the age one can buy tobacco as an easy way to protect children’s health and prevent them from getting addicted to nicotine.

Those in favor of e-cigarette have made it clear that they support raising the legal age permission for buying and using tobacco, arguing that e-cigarette products are never designed for young people. Some anti-cigarette (反对吸烟) people have expressed their doubt of this opinion.

At present, twenty states have already raised the legal age to buy cigarette to 21.

7 . An idea that started in Seattle’s public library has spread throughout America and beyond. The concept is simple: help to build a sense of community in a city by getting everyone to read the same book at the same time.

In addition to encouraging reading as a pursuit (追求) to be enjoyed by all, the program allows strangers to communicate by discussing the book on the bus, as well as promoting reading as an experience to be shared in families and schools. The idea came from Seattle librarian Nancy Pearl who launched the “If All of Seattle Read the Same Book” project in 1998. Her original program used author visits, study guides and book discussion groups to bring people together with a book, but the idea has expanded to many other American cities, and even to Hong Kong.

In Chicago, the mayor (市长) appeared on television to announce the choice of To Kill a Mockingbird as the first book in the “One Book, One Chicago” program. As a result, reading clubs and neighborhood groups sprang up around the city. Across the US, it appeared that parents and children read to each other at night and strangers chatted away on the bus about the stories and character.

The only problem arose in New York, where local readers could not decide on one book to represent the huge and diverse (多样的) population. This may show that the idea works best in medium-sized cities or large towns, where a greater sense of unity can be achieved or it may show that New Yorkers rather missed the point, putting all their energy and passion into the choice of the book rather than discussion about a book itself.

Finally, as Nancy points out, the level of success is not judged by how many people read a book, but by how many people are benefited by the process, or have enjoyed speaking to someone with whom they would not have shared a word.

9 . An executive was driving his new car on a street.He was _______for kids rushing out from between parked cars.

_______his car passed, a brick hit the car’s side door.He pressed hard the brake and drove the car back to the_______ from where the brick had been thrown.

He jumped out of the car,_______ a kid and pushed him up against a parked car, shouting, “What was that all about and who are you?Just what the hell are you doing?”_______more and more angry, he went on “That brick you threw will_______much money. Why did it?” “Please, mister, please, I’m sorry. I didn’t know what else to do!”_______the youngster. “My brother fell out of the wheelchair and I can’t_______him up.” Sobbing, the boy asked, “Could you help me? He’s hurt and he’s too heavy.”

_______beyond words,the driver tried to__________the rapidly swelling lump(块)in his throat. He helped the young man back into the wheelchair and used a __________ wiped the scrapes(擦伤)and cuts,__________ everything would be okay.

“Thank you,” the little boy__________his brother to the sidewalk toward their home.

After that, he never did__________the side door in order to remind him not to go through life so fast that someone has to throw a brick at you to get your__________.