“Military-style” travel has become the     1     (late) fashion among Chinese college students. Videos of them taking such trips     2     (trend) on social media platforms in recent years. The reason why it has become so popular is     3     college students can spend as little money as possible traveling to as many places as they can during the weekend. They usually hop on a regular-speed train on a Friday night, arrive at the destination city and travel     4     (extensive) there on Saturday. Then, they can repeat the same busy schedule     5     returning to their universities on Monday morning.

Different people have different views, with some netizens     6     (praise) these college students for their high ability to implement their plans. However, others doubt     7     such a tight schedule is healthy.

According to some experts, the “military-style” travel is a form of budget travel appealing to specific groups of people who are less     8     (concern) with in-depth experiences and more focused on checking off popular tourist destinations. Therefore, this has led to the emergence of a type of tourism     9     travelers are willing to sacrifice comfort for     10     (affordable) and convenience.

2 . What is the place of art in a culture of inattention? Recent visitors to the Louvre report that tourists can now spend only a minute in front of the Mona Lisa before being asked to move on. Much of that time, for some of them, is spent taking photographs not even of the painting but of themselves with the painting in the background.

One view is that we have made tourism and gallery-going so easy that we have made it effectively impossible to appreciate what we’ve travelled to see. In this society, experience becomes goods like any other. There are queues to climb Everest as well as to see famous paintings. Thus, leisure is considered as hard labour rather than relaxation.

In the rapidly developing society, what gets lost is the quality of looking. Consider an extreme example, the late philosopher Richard Wollheim. When he visited the Louvre he could spend as much as four hours sitting before a painting. The first hour, he claimed, was necessary for incorrect impression to be removed. It was only then that the picture would begin to disclose itself. This seems unthinkable today, but it is still possible to organise. Even in the busiest museums there are many rooms and many pictures worth hours of contemplation (沉思) which the crowds largely ignore.

Marcel Proust, another lover of the Louvre, wrote: “It is only through art that we can escape from ourselves and know how another person sees a universe which is not the same as our own and whose landscapes would otherwise have remained as unknown as any there may be on the moon.” If any art remains worth seeing, it must lead us to such escapes. But a minute in front of a painting in a hurried, harried (烦扰) crowd won’t do that.

3 . A new study published in The Journal of Positive Psychology found that performing acts of kindness can heal depression and anxiety. 123 young participants from all works of life were divided into three groups. Two of the groups were equipped with techniques often used in dealing with depression: planning social activities or cognitive (认知的) reassessment. Members of the third group were instructed to perform three acts of kindness a day for two days out of the week.

Participants followed their instructions for ten weeks. The findings showed that participants in all three groups showed an increase in life satisfaction and a reduction of depression and anxiety symptoms (症状). “These results are encouraging because they suggest that all three study methods are efficacious at reducing anxiety and improving satisfaction,” the study’s co-author David Cregg said.

However, the group performing acts of kindness led to improvements not seen in the two other groups. “The acts of kindness still showed an advantage over both social activities and cognitive reassessment by making people feel more connected to other people, which is an important part of well-being.” The acts of kindness technique was the only means tested that helped people feel more connected to others.

“Social connection is strongly associated with well-being. Performing acts of kindness seems to be one of the best ways to promote those connections,” Cregg said. The authors noted that just participating in social activities did not improve feelings of social connection in this study. “There’s something specific about performing acts of kindness that makes people feel connected to others. It’s not enough to just be around other people, participating in social activities,” said co-author Jennifer Cheavens.

Some of the acts of kindness that participants later said they did include baking cookies for friends, offering to give a friend a ride, and leaving notes for roommates with words of encouragement. “Something as simple as helping other people can go above and beyond other treatments in helping heal people with depression and anxiety,” Cregg added.

4 . Whether you’re a citizen, consumer or investor, it is fast becoming a key life skill to make out greenwashing, a word meaning a company claims that its products are environmentally friendly but actually not green at all. Misleading, or not proved claims about benefits to climate can make it harder for people to make informed decisions. They can also weaken real efforts by companies to clean up their act and deal with the climate crisis.

The basic problem is a lack of clarity. Indeed, when it comes to spottıng greenwashing, it can actually be more helpful to focus on the color grey—because it is the many grey areas that have helped make greenwashing appear in particular places. These grey areas might be around measurements, definitions, best practice, standards or regulations. Even the language we use is very imprecıse, leaving lots of room for vagueness, confusion or complete cheating. For instance, what do words such as “green”, “sustainable” and “eco” even mean? You have no standards, measurements or definitions to judge by.

These problems are increasingly important when it comes to the greenwashing of investment products, such as pensions and investment funds. In recent years, there has been a sharp rise in consumer demand for funds that invest according to environmental, social and governance (管理) criteria, often referred to as ESG funds. According to the financial data provider Morningstar, the value of assets (资产) held in UK funds grew from £29bn at the beginning of 2017 to £71bn by the end of 2020.

With that much money at risk for high profits, misleading claims can effectively hamper the flow of money and resources into really green new plans and businesses, preventing global efforts from dealing with the climate emergency. “I describe it as the ‘teenage years’ of responsible investing, with a lot of experimentation, and a lot of people trying out new things.” says Ashley Hamilton Claxton.

5 . I choose to argue against the topic of “TikTok has done more harm than good to young people”. Now as many people know, TikTok is a very popular app that started becoming very popular in March 2020. Many parents think TikTok is an improper and unsafe platform for young children. Let me start by saying that TikTok is not for young children! In Europe, the legal age for TikTok is 16 and in America the legal age is 13.

Secondly, many adults believe that seeing millions of “perfect” people who spend hours on makeup all the time can make us feel unhappy, but I personally find this entirely untrue. There are many people on TikTok and not each and every one is fascinated about “being perfect”. People also forget that TikTok isn’t entirely made up of people spreading nasty(恶意的) messages and pretending to be perfect. On TikTok you can find recipes, animals, facts, poems and nature among many other useful things.

Furthermore, if you are seeing an account that is making you feel unsafe, TikTok has made it very easy to block and report the creator. By blocking the creator you will no longer be able to view their content and by reporting the account you are telling TikTok that it is inappropriate and should be banned.

Finally, people might worry that strangers will comment hurtful messages on young people’ s videos, shattering their confidence, but TikTok is one step ahead. It has a very clear choice that you can enable called “private” which means that only people you allow can view/ comment on your videos. In conclusion, I am not saying that TikTok is perfect but it’s not nearly as bad as people make it out to be.

6 . “Farm to table” is the name of a movement that encourages people to eat locally grown food. The farm­to­table idea has become more popular in recent years. But there is also a movement that brings “table to farm”. Its purpose is to connect people to the land and to honor local farmers by creating a sort of restaurant without walls.

Its founder, Jim Denevan, got the idea for this kind of “culinary adventure (美食探险)”, as he called it, ten years ago. He recently prepared tables for more than a hundred people at Briars Farm in Virginia. He and his eight­member team arrived the night before. Chefs (厨师) from a local restaurant prepared the dinner.

Jim Denevan’s brother is a farmer and he himself is a chef. He thought that the idea of a meal served right on the farm made sense, though not everyone agreed.

“But I wanted to make the idea work, so I decided to cross the country,” said Denevan. “I went all the way across the United States and set the table on farms, ranches (大牧场) and beaches, and all the places where food came from.”

“This kind of event connects us with a lot of enthusiastic people, people that we can form relationships with,” said Matt Szechenyi, who operates Briars Farm.

The tour of the farm ends at the dinner table. The meats in the meal come from Matt Szechenyi’s farm. The vegetables come from nearby farms. Guests and local farmers sit together.

Annoica Ingram came with a friend. “The food is wonderful. I appreciate their hard work. I see everything they have to do to take care of the animals and make sure they are well­cared­for. Without them, I think, we’ll have big problems,” she said.

9 . Many people travel to enrich and enjoy themselves. However, their travel methods may be different each year.

Lonely Planet and Forbes concluded some top trends (趋势) in 2022. Here are three of them for you to take a look.

Solo (独自) travel

Traditionally, travel seems to be a group activity to have fun together and avoid loneliness. But solo travel became popular, especially among young people in 2022.

Traveling on your own means that you are the boss of everything, choosing wherever you want to go, whatever you eat and whenever you go out. For some people, it also makes them a more confident person that is ready to deal with anything. Traveling in a totally foreign land on your own can be challenging. “It opens up your mind to new things, and pushes you out of your comfort zone,” Kristina Wegscheider, a traveler from the US, told Travel Pulse.

Augmented attractions (增强型景点)

World travel can be expensive. But virtual reality (虚拟现实) and augmented reality, or VR and AR, are giving more possibilities to travel for little cost. With ever-improving headsets, smartphones and Wi-Fi connections, people can have a 360-degree experience of museums, theme parks and historical sites.

With these technologies, visitors can experience the surface of Mars with just a headset, or view a sea cow’s growing flesh before their eyes in a museum.

Getting off the touristy path

There are always some “must-see” spots anywhere you travel. But traveling in such places always brings problems like overcrowding and noise.

In order to have a better travel experience, many tried to visit less famous places in 2022. With less transportation and fewer things to do, visiting a little town lets people slow down and notice the little things. Take a walk, ride a bike, sip coffee a little slower, take a deep breath and explore the natural scenery.

10 . Mr. Hart, a London taxi driver, has a new black taxi. He hurries through the busy _________ every day. One day when he was having a short rest, a young man jumped into his taxi. “To the station as fast as you can,” shouted the man in a very _________ way. “My _________ leaves at 3 o’clock.” Mr. Hart did his best, but there was a lot of traffic. At every corner there was a _________ light. “Hurry up, man, I don’t want to _________ my train,” said the young man. “And I don’t want to have an _________ ,” replied Mr. Hart quickly. While he was _________, Mr. Hart suddenly recognized the man’s _________. He was a _________. The police were looking for him. His picture was in the __________. Mr. Hart drove through the streets and red lights. Soon there was a police car __________ him. Mr. Hart raced on until he __________ the station. He stopped in front of the station at two minutes to three, and the young man quickly jumped out of the taxi. “__________!” cried Mr. Hart. At the moment the police car stopped, too. “Quick! he is the thief!” shouted Mr. Hart. Two policemen __________ into the station. Three minutes later they __________ with the young man.

“Well done!” a policeman said to Mr. Hart as they were taking the thief to the police car.