1 . After receiving several complaints (投诉) from the customers, the owner of an Italian restaurant in Mooresville, North Carolina, has taken the decision to forbid(禁止) children under the age of five. Although facing criticism in social media, he says that business has grown greatly.

The owner describes his restaurant as a traditional and wonderful restaurant, but young children cry, scream or play on iPads at full volume (音量). It disturbs other customers and clearly doesn’t fit in too well in a wonderful meal. So the owner, Pasquale Caruso, set up a “no child under five” rule in January 2020.

“Some customers complain, get up and leave because children are bothering them, and the parents are doing nothing,” Caruso told the newspaper. “It starts to feel like it isn’t the Caruso’s anymore, that it’s a local pizzeria instead." Caruso added that he didn’t like taking this kind of decision, but in the end, he had to do what was best for his business. Since then, people have been voicing their opinions on the restaurant’ s unofficial Facebook page.

“You have forbidden small children. Then who are the next: blacks, Jews, native people? Shame on you!” one Facebook user called John commented. But for every critical comment, there are some that congratulate Caruso’s for taking such a brave decision. “Thank you for taking a stand,” some people wrote on its Facebook page.

“I’m the parent of 5. Don’t bring little ones to a nice restaurant or expect them to quietly sit still for an hour. They CAN NOT DO IT,” one person posted. Caruso said the online support for his controversial (有争议的) rule is reflected in the success of his business. The number of customers has risen from 50 a day to around 80.

3 . Perhaps you’ve heard the old saying “curiosity killed the cat.” It’s a phrase that’s often used to warn people — especially children — not to ask too many questions.     1     In fact, research has shown that curiosity is just as important as intelligence in determining how well students do in school. Curiosity can also lead us to make unexpected discoveries, bring excitement into our lives, and open up new possibilities.     2     For example, one day in 1831, Michael Faraday was playing around with a coil and a magnet when he suddenly saw how he could produce an electrical current. At first, it wasn’t clear what use this would have, but it actually made electricity available for use in technology, and so changed the world.

    3     On one level, this is because technology has become so advanced that many of us are unable to think too deeply about how exactly things work anymore. While it may be possible for a curious teenager to take a toaster apart and get some sense of how it works, how much do you understand about what happens when you type a website address into a browser? Where does your grasp of technology end and the magic begin for you?

In addition to this, there’s the fact that we all now connect so deeply with technology, particularly with our phones. The more we stare at our screens, the less we talk to other people directly.     4     Then we feel we know enough about a person not to need to engage further with them.

The final — and perhaps most worrying — way in which technology stops us from asking more has to do with algorithms, the processes followed by computers. As we increasingly get our news via social media, the big data find out what we like and push more of the same back to us.     5     Perhaps the real key to developing curiosity in the 21st century, then, is to rely less on the tech tools of our age.

7 . On Thursday morning, two teenage boys were rescued by a drone (无人机) in Australia while lifeguards were still training to use the machine.

The ________, aged 15-17, got into difficulties about 700 feet off the coast of Lennox Head, New South Wales (NSW). A passer-by saw them ________ in dangerous waves. Lifesavers ________ sent the drone to drop a lifeboat, and the pair made their way safely to the ________.

The drone, known as “Little Riper”, was actually not ________ to be saving anyone just yet—lifeguards were being trained to ________ the machine. When a call came through about the swimmers in ________ the drone happened to be nearby.

Jai Sheridan was the lifeguard who ________ the drone. He described the experience as ________. “The Little Ripper ________ proved itself today. It is a highly efficient piece of lifesaving equipment. I was ________ the drone when the alarm was raised. I directed it towards the swimmers and dropped the ________. With its support they made their way to safety. They were ________, but not hurt. The teens were saved in just 70 seconds with the drone—while a lifeguard would have taken up to six minutes to ________ the rescue.”

John Barilaro, an official of the state,________ the rescue as historic. “It was the world's ________ rescue by the unmanned airplane,” he said. “Never before has a drone been used to ________ swimmers like this.”

Last December, the NSW state government ________ some “Little Ripper” drones for 247, 000 pounds.________ some are designed to spot sharks, others are ________ with lifeboats, alarms and loudspeakers. “It was money well spent,” said John Barilaro.

8 .     1    

Researchers at Syracuse University in New York tried to answer that question. They came up with some surprising answers. People who post selfies and use editing software to make themselves look better show behavior connected to admiring themselves too much, the Syracuse researchers said.    2    As social media can be shallow（肤浅）, it is a good place for people to "work towards satisfying their own overmuch pride."

    3    People who post group selfies（自拍）show a need for popularity and a need to belong to a group, the Syracuse University research found.

Other findings from the study include: There are no major differences on how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software.    4    

The Newhouse School's Associate Professor Makana Chock worked on the study. She said, posting selfies on social media is not all that different from what people have done for many years. On trips, our parents and grandparents used cameras to take photos. Before social media, people would bring back photos to show friends and family. You had no choice but to look at them. If you are a nice person, you commented about how nice everyone in the photos looked, especially children and the person showing the photos.    5    

On social media, it is a different experience. People can decide not to look at photos of their friends and family even if they click "like" even "love" under the Facebook selfie.

9 . A survey said the average Asian dad spent one minute a day with his children. I was shocked. I mean, a whole minute? Every day? Get real. Once a week maybe. The fact is, many Asian males are terrible at kid-related things. In fact, I am one of them.

Child-rearing (养育) doesn’t come naturally to guys. My mother knew the names of our teachers, best friends and crushes. My dad was only vaguely aware there were short people sharing the apartment. My mother bought healthy fresh food at the market every day. My dad would only go shopping when there was nothing in the fridge except a jar of butter. Then he’d buy beer. My mother always knew the right questions to ask our teachers. My dad would ask my English teacher if she could get us a discount on school fees. My mother served kid food to kids. My dad added chili sauce to everything, including our baby food.

The truth is, mother have superpowers. My son fell off a wall once and hurt himself all over. I demanded someone bring me a computer so I could google what to do. My wife ignored me and did some sort of chanting (咏诵) phrase such as “Mummy kiss it better,” and cured 17 separate injuries in less than 15 seconds.

Yes, mothers are incredible people, but they are not always correct. Yet honesty forces me to record the fact that mothers only know best 99.99 percent of the time. Here are some famous slip-ups.