1 . Most of us know what it’s like to get presents. Whether it’s for a birthday or other celebration, it’s hard to beat the excitement of opening a carefully wrapped box to find something that’s both unexpected and suits you perfectly. Now, imagine if you could get the same feeling when you go shopping for yourself. That’s the feeling that mystery boxes hope to reach.

Mystery boxes are not a new idea—they were a feature of department stores in Japan in the early 20th Century. They contain different products sold at a lower price than their combined value. The key thing is that customers don’t know what’s in the box before they buy. All kinds of mystery boxes are available: fashion boxes, food boxes, beauty boxes, even loot boxes, which are virtual items for video games.

The pleasant surprise is not the only attraction of mystery boxes. They also allow people to try things that they otherwise wouldn’t. Seasonal vegetable subscription(订购)boxes might lead people to learn to cook new meals. They can also potentially offer great savings—as the recommended selling price of the contents is often far higher than the purchase price. For sellers and suppliers, the benefits are clear- it allows them to sell unwanted things for a profit. British fashion mystery box businessman Mario Maher highlights how mystery boxes can help reduce the amount of waste in the fashion industry. People might discover product ranges that would otherwise be thrown away.

There is an obvious disadvantage to mystery boxes -when you buy them, you don’t know what you’ll get! It may be that the goods inside are not to your taste, but there is also the potential for cheats to use the unpredictability of mystery boxes to send items that have a much lower value than the price of the box.

So, are mystery boxes a fun way of reducing waste and making shopping more exciting, or more an opportunity for disappointment, or worse—tricks?

4 . Dogs are welcome in the outdoor areas of restaurants in New York, US. In the past, health and safety laws made it illegal (违法的) to bring dogs to any restaurant in New York. But last May state lawmakers voted (表决) to let people bring dogs to restaurants that have tables outdoors: Not one lawmaker voted no. The law was soon passed. Several special rules are included in this law. The dogs must be kept on a leash (皮带). Dogs must not share water bowls. Also, restaurants can choose to let people bring dogs or not.

New York joins California, Florida and Maryland in the list of states with similar laws. In many European countries, bringing dogs to restaurants is common. Paris in France has allowed dogs to go with their owners in restaurants for a long time.

Governor Andrew Cuomo believes that this new law will help businesses grow. But not all New Yorkers are happy about this new law. Christopher Miller is the spokesman for the New York City Department of Health. He told the New York Daily News that letting dogs in restaurants could cause problems. “The Health Department loves all dogs, but just not at restaurants where they can create a risk to the health and safety of diners, restaurant workers and other dogs,” Miller said.

New York City is often the center of the new ideas in the US. A law asking some restaurants in the city to show the amount of calories (卡路里数量) in the food they served was passed in 2009. The city leader tried unsuccessfully to stop the sale of large amounts of soft drinks in 2012. Smoking was made illegal in restaurants in 1993.

6 . Nuclear energy is one of the cleanest power on earth. It is cleaner than any energy source except wind. But that doesn’t necessarily mean nuclear is the long-term solution for the world because nuclear material is perhaps the most poisonous matter on earth. In addition, uranium, the element most commonly used in nuclear reactors, is not in limitless supply. But the biggest problem is nuclear waste.

How can we deal with nuclear waste? The answer is simple—put them somewhere where they can stay, undisturbed, isolated, forever. Finland is building just that. This region is largely lacking in natural disasters. It really doesn’t encounter any natural phenomenon that could damage a nuclear waste storage site, especially if it’s 1, 500 feet underground. Beneath an island on the Finnish Baltic Sea coast, the country is digging. They’ re building the very first permanent nuclear waste storage facility in the world in the stable bedrock 1,500 feet below.

Currently they’ re just finishing their dig down, then very soon they’ll start filling the facility with nuclear waste. They’ll dig long tunnels with small holes in which they’ll place nuclear waste then backfill the tunnels with clay to be left forever.

With this system, there’s near zero risk of nuclear material leaking out into the groundwater and, once it’s filled in the year 2120, it can just be left, forever. Because the material will be so far down and so difficult to get to, no human management will be necessary once completed.

No security, no maintenance, nothing which means it should be truly secure, but before leaving it, Finland needs to fight against one thing—human nature. As curious beings, it’s hard to fight a person’s urge of discovery. If someone finds a mysterious structure from thousands of years ago, it’d just be natural to want to open it up, and that’s a problem for nuclear waste sites.

We essentially did just that with the pyramids in Egypt. These structures were built as the final, permanent resting places and we opened them up because we were curious. Opening the nuclear storage facilities would release radiation into a future civilization, so we have to tell them to leave the sites alone, but that’s easier said than done.

The international community     1    (astonish) by Japan’s action to discharge nuclear-contaminated water from Fukushima plant into the Pacific on August 24, 2023. This move occurred despite the widespread protests and complaints from     2    (nation) across the Asia-Pacific.

Japan’s action is seen as     3     display of extreme self-interest and irresponsibility, with the potential to do immeasurable harm to the ocean ecosystem. The consequences are far-reaching, extending to safety risks in our food chain, the appearance of new illnesses, and an increased likelihood of cancer cases among humans.     4    (eventual), such a course of action will change the fate of our planet,     5    (cast) a shadow of uncertainty over its future.

The radioactive water is discharged into the Pacific resulting from the Fukushima nuclear leakage     6    (cause) by submarine earthquake in 2011. Japan’s 2011 nuclear leak disaster ranks among the     7    (bad) nuclear incidents in history, resulting     8     vital leakage of radioactive substances (放射性物质).

On August 24, the Tokyo Electric Power Company,     9     is responsible for the Fukushima Daiichi nuclear power plant, started the water discharge process through remote operation from the plant’s monitoring room. As planned, about 460 tons of such water will be released daily for 17 days, with a gradual increase planned after that. The timeline provided by the Japanese government and TEPCO indicates that this oceanic discharge process is expected     10    (last) at least 30 years.

9 . Children and teens in China do not get enough sleep, which can put their health at risk. Nearly 63 percent of Chinese youths at 6 to 17 sleep less than eight hours a day. Among 13- to 17-year-olds the figure is more than 81 percent, according to a survey covering nearly 70,000 children and teens across the Chinese mainland, Hong Kong, Macao and Taiwan.

The report found that the heavy school homework and the use of electronic devices (设备) were the two top causes for the lack of sleep. From Monday to Thursday, 8.4 percent of the group would still be busy with their homework after 11 pm. More than 41 percent of children and teenagers who sleep too little use electronic devices such as computers and mobile phones. Other than that, youths whose parents use smartphones in front of them are more likely to have less sleep. Other factors, such as noise and increasing light pollution, contributed to the problem, the report said.

The survey also suggests that good sleep results in higher efficiency (效率) in study. Students who sleep longer generally finish homework in two and three hours per day, while those who sleep less require four to six hours.

Gao Xuemei, vice-president of Chinese Sleep Research Society, said studies have shown that decreasing sleeping time for children and teenagers has been a global trend in the past 10 years, but the problem appears to be worse in East Asia, including China, largely due to a heavier load of school homework. Besides, the overuse of electronics devices in China is responsible for teenagers’ sleeping problems as well.

“Lack of sleep among children and teenagers needs more attention, because it can seriously affect their health and growth,” Gao said. She also suggested that local education officials take measures to help students get more sleep, including putting off the start of morning classes by half an hour.