1 . Colleen and Terence have known each other for more than 35 years and have been out fishing together more than 500 times. On a freezing ________, they went fishing by boat as usual. And their ________ began when their boat hit a semi-submerged (半沉的) tree on the northern side of Motuihe Island about 4:30 a.m.

After the 4.8m boat ________ in 10 to 15 seconds, Terence, 42, who lost his brother in a boating accident in 1975, said “Oh God, you can’t do this to me twice in my life — losing two people I ________.”

The last bag of air on the boat was almost gone. “But Colleen remained amazingly ________ in the ________ water. We made the decision that I was the ________ swimmer, and I should go for help!” said Terence.

He swam against the tide for more than an hour. He ran into rocks and ________ two toes to get help to save a ________ friend. Meanwhile, Colleen, 53, said she ________ stars to kill time and thought of her family. “I wasn’t afraid because I had ________ in Terence. I knew he would do ________ to save me.”

Colleen was ________ found and picked up by the Marine Rescue Centre. She was ________ by ambulance to hospital. “When they came back and I asked if she had been found alive — they said yes — I just broke down. All had been ________ it,” Terence said.

2 . As schools around the country reopen after winter break, their students are being reminded of the lunch debt they’ve racked up this school year.

Congress ended the free-lunch-for-all program in June, reverting to a system in which low-income families had to fill out paperwork to qualify for aid based on their income. But some families have been left behind because they do not understand the application process.     1     For some kids, the debt can get so big that schools stop giving them a full meal.     2     According to the national campaign No Kid Hungry, students who eat school breakfast have been shown to achieve 17.5% higher scores on standardized math tests.

    3     The nonprofit Tusk Philanthropies’ Solving Hunger is funding four organizations focused on promoting policy change on free school meals. In another, Sarah Stusek recorded herself calling Mount Vernon Community School in a viral TikTok video to pay off the Virginia school’s nearly $1,700 lunch debt.

Some states choose to continue free-lunch-for-all programs, including Massachusetts, Nevada, Vermont and Pennsylvania. California, Maine and now Colorado are the only states with laws ensuring permanent universal meal programs for all children, regardless of parents’ income.     4    

Results from a national survey shows 847 schools had amassed $19.2 million in lunch debt. Debt varies across the country. Across North Carolina, lunch debt exceeded $1 million as of Nov.1.     5    And in Georgia, a nonprofit called All For Lunch paid $130,000 to wipe the debt of several schools across several metro area counties in December.

3 . From the flower crown to the one that makes you look like an adorable baby deer, Snapchat’s filters (滤镜) are famously pleasing. But if you have ever shifted your phone and seen the filter disappear, revealing your normal human face on the screen instead, you may have thought to yourself, “I wish I looked like a Snapchat filter in real life.”

This is a real and increasingly common way of thinking, according to the plastic surgeons who authored a recent article in the Journal of the American Medical Association (JAMA). For some people, the authors say, this obsession with looking as perfect as they do in their filtered social media photos has become so extreme that experts place it on the body dysmorphia disorder spectrum.

Body dysmorphia disorder (BDD) is a mental health condition and a type of obsessive compulsive disorder in which a person becomes obsessed with thoughts about appearance imperfection. “For someone with BDD, their entire life’s balance hangs on whether they look okay or whether they have hidden their appearance imperfection appropriately,” Tom Hildebrandt, PsyD, chief of the Division of Eating and Weight Disorders, explained in a previous interview.

The JAMA article names this latest version of the disorder “Snapchat dysmorphia disorder,” saying that apps like Snapchat and Face Tune are giving rise to new unattainable standards of beauty.

In the past, the authors write, patients would show up in their plastic surgeon’s office with photos of celebrities that had been edited to perfection in magazine spreads. Now, they say, patients want to look like filtered versions of themselves instead, with fuller lips, bigger eyes, or a thinner nose. According to recent data, 55% of surgeons report that patients are looking for plastic surgery to improve the appearance the way they look in social media selfies.

“This is an alarming trend,” the authors write, “because those filtered selfies often present an unattainable look and are blurring the boundary between reality and fantasy for these patients.”

4 . A huge fire broke out on 2 September 1666 in London. The fire, known as the Great Fire of London, was the worst fire in the history of London. It burned down more than three quarters of the old city.

The fire started in the very early hours of Sunday morning in the house of the king’s baker. A strong wind blew the fire from the baker’s house into a small hotel next door. Then it spread quickly into Thames Street. That was the beginning.

At that time, most of the buildings in London were made of wood, so it was easy for the fire to spread quickly. By eight o’clock, three hundred houses were on fire. By Monday, nearly a kilometre of the city was burning along the Thames River. On Tuesday, which was considered the worst day, the fire destroyed many well-known buildings, including the old St Paul’s Cathedral.

The fire burned until finally hundreds of buildings in the path of the fire were destroyed to create a firebreak. The fire then died out eventually with nothing left to burn.

7 . Lying to friends and family members may seem like a way to lose their trust.     1    Researchers found that lying for the right reasons can actually strengthen some social bonds (联系).

    2     That depends on the situation. Lying to cover up a misdeed (不端行为), known as anti-social lying, isn’t likely to improve your relationships.     3     On the other hand, lies told to help another person are good for relationships. It is commonly known as telling a white lie.

To study how these two types of lies affect relationships within social groups, researchers created a hypothetical (假定的) mathematical model. The model showed that individuals who tell anti-social lies become isolated (孤立的) within their social networks sometimes.     4     In fact, these individuals are likely to form strong links with other individuals within their social networks.

While the researchers created a hypothetical model, it could be used to understand how lying affects groups of friends in the real world.     5    

10 . LONDON — British Foreign Secretary David Miliband said on Wednesday that boycotting the Beijing Olympic Games is not the right path to take.

“We are ever excited about prospects for the Summer Olympic Games in Beijing,” Miliband said in an interview with Chinese reporters in London before his visit to China.

“Everything we have seen and read suggests that preparations are proceeding in an excellent way. We very much look forward to a very successful Olympics, successful for China and successful for the world. We certainly believe that boycotts are not a right way,” he said.

“China has big responsibilities around the world. We are looking forward to working with the Chinese government to ensure the values of stability, security and social justice. And only today I spoke with (Chinese Foreign Minister) Yang about our joint work that could help the situation in Darfur. And the Chinese envoy (特使) to Darfur is in London today, that sort of engagement is the right way to go and boycotts are not the right way,” Miliband said.

“The prime minister (Gordon Brown) is determined to represent the whole of the country with his attendance to the Games,” he added.

Miliband expressed his high regard to the bilateral (双边的) relations between Britain and China. “I can’t think about a time that our relations are stronger, that is symbolized by the visit of the prime minister to China last month but also by cultural events like China now going on in Britain.”

British people are fascinated by the changes and improvements going on in China, and are trying to build bridges between the two nations, the foreign secretary said.

“Both our countries are challenged by the facts of globalization. Economic and social changes are producing challenges for both the societies, challenges about security and stability, challenges about justice, challenges about environment, and the theme of my visit is how our two countries can work together and learn from each other in adapting to these challenges,” the secretary told Chinese reporters.