2 . Riding the bus to school could be keeping some kids out of class. Most school buses run on fuel. Those buses send out pollution, including tiny particles and gases. Bus riders get exposed to high levels of this pollution. When breathed in, it can lead to breathing problems, such as asthma (哮喘), which may keep kids home from school. But replacing the worst-polluting buses should cut down on student absences, a new study shows.

The study focused on schools that were asked to take part in a U. S. government program. The program offered schools cash back for money spent on cleaner school buses. The 2, 816 school districts in the new study all asked for the money. But not all got it. Only 383 were picked to receive funding. Winning districts could buy new buses and desert old ones.

The program started in 2012. From 2012 to 2017, the winning districts very likely had less bus pollution. And a year after getting new buses, student attendance had improved in those districts. For an average district of 10, 000 students, about six more students attended school each day in the winning districts. Districts that replaced the oldest buses had an average of 45 more students in school each day.

Those numbers may sound small, but they can add up, says Meredith Pedde, an environmental epidemiologist (流行病学家). Almost 3 million U. S. kids ride school buses more than 20 years old, her team figures. Replacing all of those old buses could mean 1.3 million fewer student absences each year, the data suggest. And school attendance matters for student achievement.

Now the U. S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) has a new program for school buses.   It’s offering $5 billion through 2026 to replace old fuel buses with cleaner ones. Almost all U. S. school districts can apply for the new rebates. But schools in low-income areas and in rural areas will get priority. Kids in these areas tend to face the most health risks from old buses, EPA notes. And anything that cuts air pollution, Pedde says, should improve student health.

The World Health Organization (WHO) has announced a shocking finding about the air we breathe. It has found that almost everyone on Earth breathes unhealthy air. The WHO made     1    (it) air quality update ahead of World Health Day on April 7. The update reported that 99 per cent of the world’s population breathes air     2     goes beyond WHO air quality limits. It looked at data from over 6,000 cities in 117 countries. People     3    (live) in lower- and middle-income countries breathe the poorest-quality air. Millions of people die in these countries because of pollution-related diseases. The WHO said: “After surviving a pandemic, it is unacceptable to still have 7 million preventable deaths due     4     air pollution.”

The WHO said its report highlighted the need to move away from fossil fuels. It asked governments to do more     5     (reduce) levels of air pollution. It said: “Current energy concerns highlight the importance of speeding up the transition to cleaner and     6    (healthy) energy systems.” It added that high gas prices, energy     7    (secure), the dangers of air pollution, and climate change mean the world must be less dependent on fossil fuels. The WHO report     8    (include) many recommendations for change. One of these is     9     use of clean energy for cooking, heating and lighting. Another is to “build safe and affordable public transport systems and pedestrian- and cycle-friendly     10    (network)”.

7 . You’re passed over for a job. Your back aches. Faced with difficulties large and small, you wonder if you’re an unlucky person. We turned to experts to understand why we believe in luck and how we can have that belief to make changes in our attitude towards life.

Richard Wiseman, a psychology professor, doesn’t believe there’s anything magical about luck — it won’t help you or hurt you. “On the other hand, considering yourself lucky or unlucky is a way of seeing yourself, which has an impact on how you behave and how you think, and becomes a self-fulfilling anticipation,” he says. “So, in a sense, it absolutely does exist.”

The sociology lecturer Vik Loveday interviewed academic employees who were on temporary contracts, an uncertain situation that caused anxiety. In general, when one of these academics learned about good news concerning their careers, such as getting a permanent job, they would attribute it to luck. Because they felt they had so little control, a move in a positive direction happened almost by accident, rather than as the result of hard work.

In a 2021 study, Professor Woolley has looked at this idea in children and adulthood. For example, basketball player Michael Jordan would wear his college practice shorts under his National Basketball Association uniform for good luck. “Obviously, it’s that the superstitious (迷信的) custom gives him confidence and then he plays better,” Woolley says.

Is it possible to change your attitude towards luck to get better outcomes? Wiseman believes some steps can improve your luck. He has found “lucky people not only maximize opportunities and know where they’re heading, but often they change course depending on how the wind is going”. Lucky people can also transform bad experiences to good. Specifically, you can shift your focus towards the positive by keeping a “luck diary”. Also don’t be a creature of habit. Watch a different TV program, speak to different people — even small shifts can be effective.

9 . Back in April, Elon Musk, the world’s richest man, made a dramatic attempt at a hostile takeover of Twitter, for a cool $44 billion. That’s a lot of money, even for a billionaire tycoon (巨头), and the takeover attempt quickly slid into court battles. But whoever wins (we’re not going to know for some time), I think the most interesting part of the story is the more fundamental question: why would Musk even want to buy Twitter in the first place?

If you look at the size of Twitter, its appeal isn’t obvious. The company makes a relatively small profit each year, and in terms of the number of users, Twitter is a relative minnow among social media networks. It has around 436 million users every month, which isn’t nothing—but is also a long way behind the likes of Facebook (near three billion), Instagram (two billion), and TikTok (one billion). So why does Musk want to spend a considerable slice of his own enormous fortune on a social network that not many people, in the grand scheme of things, actually use?

The answer might be what makes Twitter so interesting: what it lacks in revenue, size or growth potential, it makes up for in a much harder to define way. It carries absolutely enormous cultural power, and has an unrivalled ability to shape the news we read, the content we consume and the culture we live in.

10 . It’s 7: 30 p. m. at Lisa’s house and she’s in her room doing her homework. However, her eyes are________on the computer screen. As well as studying for her math exam, Lisa is also listening to the________, and chatting with her best friend online. “My parents try to________me not to study in this way, but I have got used to it,” she says.

It’s not________for human beings to do several things at the same time, but in our fast-paced society, the________has become worse. Young people today spend 4 to 5 hours a day using electronic media and doing________things at the same time. This is why they are called the “multi-task (多任务的) generation”, or “Generation M”.

But how do their brains________multi-tasking? Some automatic actions like walking and________on the phone can be done at the same time, but when it comes to learning new________ , multi-tasking has a bad result.

________your attention between many activities makes the information you want to get harder to________. We are not saying you shouldn’t multi-task; just don’t do it while you are trying to learn something new.

In addition, it’s also________to take time away from electronic media. “As soon as the bell rings, all my students_________reach into their bags for mobile phones,” says Kelly, a high school teacher. “They should never forget the________that there’s life beyond the screen. The pleasure of face-to-face________can never be replaced.”