1 . Do you like to shop online? Or do you prefer' to go into a store and look at a product?     1    

One common shopper strategy is "show rooming." This means that customers go into a store, look at the product and talk to a salesperson.    2     "Reverse (逆向) show rooming" is another strategy. Customers first go online to do research and then go into a store to get the product. One thing is for certain: shoppers are now using many strategies to get the best price.

The number of online shoppers is rising, but not as fast as retailers (零售商) first thought. People still like to go into stores.     3     Shopping for them is not about finding the best price. It's a social experience.

In order to keep customers coming into stores, managers need to train salespeople well. In-store shoppers want salespeople to give them a lot of attention, be polite, and know a lot about the product.

What products do shoppers like to buy online?    4     It's easy to research these products and compare prices online.

However, online shopping doesn't work for every product. People prefer to shop for food in a store. If you're buying a new car, you can research prices online.    5     If you're buying a mattress (床垫)， online reviews can't tell you if it will be comfortable for you. You still need to go into the store and lie on it.

3 . After bikes and umbrellas are made sharable across China, some companies started eyeing the fitness market, so shared gym rooms have hit the streets in Beijing.

Unlike common gyms that provide large, open spaces for many members to share at the same time, the newly built shared gym rooms are small, stand-alone rooms for a person to use, often set up near living communities.

Every four-square-meter room is equipped with a treadmill (跑步机), an air cleaner, a mirror, a television and an air conditioner, and users can let down the curtains for privacy. When exercising, users can listen to music, watch movies and check emails by connecting to the Internet by the screen fixed on the treadmill. There’s no shower or washbasin.

Similar to using a shared bike, users can locate a shared gym room by smartphone application, book a room in advance and then need to scan a QR code for use. A refundable deposit (保证金) of 99 yuan is required, and users are charged 1 yuan every 5 minutes.

The shared gym rooms are created by Misspao, a Beijing-based technology company founded in July. Within several months since it was founded, the company has already raised over 100 million yuan, Yicai Global reports. The idea of the shared fitness experience is not entirely nascent. Last December, the Shanghai-based technology company VRUN set up shared treadmills in office and apartment buildings.

The sharing economy is still becoming popular in China. According to Yicai Global, confident investors are pouring millions into sharing start-ups. In March, the State Information Center published a report which predicts that the total value of China’s sharing economy will see a yearly growth of 40% in the coming years, and it is expected to make a great contribution to the country’s GDP.

4 . In today’s digital age when you can get information quickly, there is a concern about children developing an appreciation for reading printed books. That’s why communities in Australia have come up with a way to convey a love of books in the younger generations.

To solve this problem, communities are bringing libraries to where the kids are: in the streets. The little libraries consist of boxes that are set up outside of houses or public spaces and are filled with books. People can take books they haven’t read and donate ones they have to the libraries.

Street Library Australia, a nonprofit, was started by Nick Lowe after he saw a Little Free Library on a trip to the USA. After an initial workshop in 2015 to build 30 libraries, the idea mushroomed and now there are 4,500 registered street libraries in Australia. “It just grew and grew,” he said.

The libraries come in all shapes and sizes. These libraries are completely voluntary and anyone can start one.

Pamela Zielke, who runs a library called Pam’s Pantry, gives out toys and craft supplies along with books. An early childhood educator, she started her library with the goal of rescuing books from dustbins. But the libraries are doing much more than just providing books-and other donated items-to people. The street libraries are also building community. “It’s a little stopping place outside your house,” said Lowe. “It’s a great way to meet people in your neighborhood who are also book lovers, recycle books, and find new books.”

These Little Street Libraries provided a valuable service during the outbreak of COVID-19 and the popularity has not waned. People use them to find books on specific hobbies like cooking, children are developing a love of reading books, and it is more convenient than going to a bookstore or a brick-and-mortar library. But even more importantly, with a shared interest, the libraries are bringing communities closer together.

7 . There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so. A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm, the development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.

The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.

The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.

The researchers published their findings online on the American Journal of Psychiatry's website.

Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.

Some misunderstanding is putting shark populations at risk now. Thousands of sharks are dying as    1     result of people’s false beliefs.

Female sharks need males to make babies. Some female sharks have the ability     2    (produce) a baby by themselves and have young sharks without a male shark. That’s something commonly     3    (see) in plants and insects like ants and bees.

Shark fins have medical function.     4    (tradition), it     5     ( believe) that shark fin soup has health benefits and is quite special in China.     6     modern scientists point out that shark tissue(组织) can be extremely high in poison. What’s more, shark fishing kills up to 100 million animals each year, endangering several different species.

If you’re bitten by a shark, you will be a goner. You are more than twice as likely to die from a lightning strike as from a shark bite, according     7     the Florida Museum’s International Shark Attack File (ISAF). “Even if you are bitten, the large     8    (major) of people survive”, says Dr. Chapman. In fact, there were sixty-six unprovoked(无端的) shark bite    9    ( incident) around the world in 2018, only six of    10     were dangerous.

9 . You probably know who Marie Curie was, but you may not have heard of Rachel Carson. Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who do you think was the most important woman of the past 100 years?

Anyone who has ever been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank. Addams helped the poor and worked for peace. She encouraged a sense of community (社区) by creating shelters and promoting education and services for people in need. In 1931, Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

If it weren’t for Rachel Carson, the environmental movement might not exist today. Her popular 1962 book Silent Spring raised awareness(意识) of the dangers of pollution and the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and on the world’s lakes and oceans.

When Sandra Day O’Connor finished third in her class at Stanford Law School, in 1952, she could not find work at a law firm because she was a woman. She became an Arizona state senator (参议员) and in 1981, the first woman to join the U. S. Supreme Court (最高法院). O’Connor gave the deciding vote in many important cases during her 24 years on the top court.

On December 1,1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rasa Parks would not give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Her simple act landed Parks in prison. But it also set off the Montgomery bus boycott (抵制). It lasted for more than a year, and kicked off the civil-rights movement. “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in,” said Parks.

As is known to all food waste on campus has become more and more seriously, which cause great concern. Faced the problem, I think some effective measure should be taken. First of all, we should order a proper amount of food such that we can eat them up. What’s more, we were supposed to form a good eating habit, which is great benefit to our health. Last but not least, we can call on fewer schoolmates to fight against food waste. In a brief, it is high time that we took action to reduce food waste. Let’s do it now.