2 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.

“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.

You can see the irony (讽刺) here.

Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.

The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.

So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.

Did you grow up in one culture, your parents came from another, and you are now living in a     1     (total) different country? If so, then you are a third-culture kid.

The term “third-culture kid”     2     (use) in the 1960s for the first time by Dr. Ruth. She first came across this phenomenon while     3     (research) North American children living in India. In general, third-culture kids benefit     4     their intercultural experience and they often reach excellent academic results.

Yet many     5     (difficulty) may arise from this phenomenon. Third-culture kids may not be able to adapt     6     (they) completely to their new surroundings. Also, they often find it hard     7     (develop) new friendship. Additionally, for a third-culture kid, it is often     8     (easy) to move to a new country than to return to his homeland. For example, after living in Australia for many years, Louis finally returned to the country     9     she was born. She didn’t know anything about current TV shows     10     fashion trends. And she didn’t share the same values as other teens of her age.

7 . Food has always been one of the greatest wants of humankind. The search for food is the _____ human behavior. Thus, _____food were easier to get and prepare, it would be really _____for humankind. It would reduce a great burden(负担). The development of processed foods(加工食品) has made food easier to get and prepare._____ every coin has two sides. Apart from its advantages, the _____ of cooking also has its disadvantages.

Though processed foods seem a great way to save _____, they offer much less nutritional(营养的)value than traditional foods. People today are so _____that they are not able to spend enough time preparing their food. As a result, many people _____to eat processed foods, ready­to­cook meals and various fast foods. But what will _____if one eats such food all year round? It will damage your ______. The nutritional value of the food is not so high. Worse still, research shows that preservatives(防腐剂)used in these foods are ______ to children. That’s why health experts warn people not to eat too much of such ______food.

Besides, since people spend little time______food, the culture of cooking is slowly ______. Cooking is not done just to satisfy hunger; it is also a(n)______form of art. Across the world, there are thousands of ______cooking styles. If young people are used to processed foods, few of them will develop great cooking ______. And when they become parents, it will be hard for their children to enjoy a(n) ______home­cooked meal. What’s more, cooking is a great time for ______to connect. There is a lot of ______when family members are preparing food together.

In a word, I believe though processed food has made the preparation of food much easier, it has not been a good step for humankind.

Thanks to China’s anti-poverty policy, great changes have been taken place in my hometown in the past decade, especial in the living conditions. Take my grandparents’ home in the countryside as a example. They used to live in a small house with little furniture, and now they have moved into a two-storied building with modern electric equipments. In the past, we had to ask someone to write to my parents to keep contact. But they each has a mobile phone now, that makes the communication more convenient. They even have learned to use WeChat talk to us. And they mostly drive out instead of walk or ride bicycles at times.

9 . When Ariyah Georges was born 15 weeks early, she weighed only one pound 12 ounces. Her mother, Jovan, knew how important breastfeeding (母乳) was, especially for a premature (早产的) baby like Ariyah, so she began pumping milk to feed her through a tube. But two days later, Jovan felt dizzy and feverish —104 Fahrenheit degrees, in fact. She had a blood disease and was close to full shock.

She was separated from others for nearly two weeks at the regional Northern Virginia hospital where she’d delivered. During that time, she could still pump breast milk, but Ariyah couldn’t consume it because of the risk of infection (感染). Without it, the newborn was particularly easily affected by diseases. There are many cases like this, which creates the need for the milk donation.

Enter donor (捐献者) milk — breast milk purchased by hospitals for mothers who aren’t able to produce enough milk on their own, due to health complications, stresses, or other factors. The milk comes from milk banks, organizations that collect and screen breast milk from those women willing to donate. Usually processed in intensive-care units, the milk is only available by prescription (处方).

In recent years, both milk banks and the use of donated human milk have risen swiftly in the United States. In 2011, 22 percent of NICUs used donor breast milk; four years later, that number doubled to nearly 40 percent, and went even higher for the most intensive NICUs — as much as 75 percent. There are 23 milk banks in the United States recognized by the Human Milk Banking Association of North America, or HMBANA, double the number that existed five years ago.

But as the demand for donor milk rises, banks must find more charitable donors — a task made more complicated by informal networks of milk sharing that happens online. And many of the most vulnerable (脆弱的) infants are still not being reached.

Many students may feel    1    (stress) because of their parents. Most parents have good intentions,     2    some of them aren't very helpful with the problems their sons and daughters have in    3    (adjust) to college, and a few of then seem to go out of their way to add to their children’s    4    (difficult).

For one thing, parents are often not aware of the kinds of problems their children face. They don't realize that the    5    (compete) is stronger, that the required standards of work are    6    (high), and that their children may not be prepared for    7    change. They may be upset by their children’s poor grade.

At their kindest, they may     8    (gentle) ask why John or Mary isn't doing better. Whether he or she is trying as hard as he or she should, and so on. At their worst, they may threaten     9    (take) their children out of college or cut off living expenses.

Sometimes parents think it night and natural that they determine     10    their children do with their lives. They forget that everyone is different and that each person must develop in his or her own way.