2 . Economists have long tried to calculate the value of unpaid housework. In terms of inputs and outputs, the_______of a stay-at-home parent can easily be overlooked, hidden in the _______ of freshly ironed shirts and the contents of a full belly. The courts, too, have tried their hand at putting a price on housework.

Last month China was shocked when a court ordered a man to pay his wife $7,700 for housework during their live-year marriage. The wife, known as Ms Wang, told a judge in Beijing that she "looked after the child and managed the household _______ while her husband did not care about or participate in any other household affairs besides going to work". On average, Chinese women spend four hours a day on housework, compared with about an hour and a half for men.

The court ruling was widely _______. But on Weibo many users were disappointed with the amount _______ to Ms Wang. One user commented: "Women should never be stay-at-home wives. When you divorce, you are left with nothing whatsoever." The government has adopted policies aimed at advancing co-parenting and protecting women's rights. Most provinces, for example, have in recent years introduced _______ leave for new fathers. But many people argue that it is too short—an average of just two weeks—to _______ new mothers, who receive a minimum of 98 days, from child care.

In the West, where the starting principle is an equal split of the couple's assets on divorce, claims for extra compensation are _______ by the courts. Housework is seen as equivalent to financial contributions, so neither spouse _______ financially by doing more cooking and ironing than their partner.

In Britain, the concept of compensation fell out of use for over a decade before resurfacing in 2020, bringing the question of pay for housework into the ________. Last year a woman was compensated and received £400,000 ($520,000) for giving up her legal career to focus on the family. When her marriage broke down and the couple's assets were divided, she asked for an additional sum to ________ the sacrifice she had made by cutting her career short. The judges agreed, but only because she was already a high earner and could prove she had been on track to become one of her firm's leading money makers. She was compensated not for the housework, but her forgone legal career. So Ms Wang's claim for extra compensation would probably have failed anywhere in Europe. But she may never have felt the need to make it ________.

Many women have no option but to leave the workforce when they start a family—the cost of child care might ________ the benefits of a second salary, particularly if working hours and earnings are reduced to ________ family responsibilities. Legal and financial recognition of unpaid domestic work would change this calculation. But it would be simpler (and fairer) to share domestic burdens more evenly. More important than writing new rules about compensation for housework is strengthening existing ones that ________ shared parental leave. With both spouses more involved in parenting, family responsibilities can be shared. Why wait until the divorce to quibble over who did the housework?

    1     I think about the beauty and appeal of Chinese culture, one of the first things that enter my mind is images of complicated Chinese calligraphy. I love to watch the older folks in the park dip and sweep their brushes across the stones. I imagine as they swing their arms that their movements are part of     2     dance and the watery messages left behind are the words to the song playing in their head. Unfortunately, just as the water slowly evaporates from sight, so, too, the art of Chinese calligraphy seems     3     (fade) away gradually.

This is the fear of Cui Zhiqiang, a senior calligraphy master with the China Calligraphers Association. “The style of writing among Chinese people today has been changed or ruined,” he laments. He explains this as the unavoidable effect     4     the everyday use of cellphones and computers. With the help of the pinyin system, people     5     “write” the characters by simply spelling out the phonetic equivalent. Skillful strokes have been replaced with tapping and typing.

It isn’t just the written form of Chinese that is being impacted by this phenomenon, though. The English language has been impacted, too. Computer skills are now considered so basic that the time once spent     6     (teach) cursive writing in elementary school is now being used to teach keyboarding. Furthermore, people have become so dependent on the spellcheck and autocorrect features     7     their ability to spell is suffering.

Language and culture are inextricably linked. The written form of the Chinese language     8     (carry) with it the stories of the traditional characters and the reasons for each and every change through the years. In light of its value, many people celebrated CCTV’s summer show,     9     brought together groups of Chinese youth to compete in a dictation contest. The show was well received and generated an interest in young people to improve their handwriting skills and encouraged parents to enroll their children in calligraphy classes.

Not all see the changing forms of our written languages as a negative thing. If you look at language solely as a tool for communication, then perhaps you might agree. Modern ways of writing are efficient and effective. But if you also see language as an art form, then we are truly losing something     10     (beautiful).

Barry Jenkins: ‘When you climb the ladder, you send it back down’

“So, you saw the film?” Barry Jenkins is eager to ask the minute we are introduced. He gives good eye contact through those stylish thick-rimmed glasses – not the big-time, Oscar-winning writer-director speaking, but a nervous artist, anxious     1     the new work he is starting to screen. I love it, I tell him. If Beale Street Could Talk may be only Jenkins’ third feature-length film,     2     it has already been nominated for three Oscars (best adapted screenplay, best supporting actress, best score), just two years     3     his Moonlight walked away with the Academy Award for best film. A passionate film about race and love, it’s an     4     (add) pleasure to see black characters of such complexity on the big screen.

Adapted from James Baldwin’s 1974 novel, Beale Street tells the story in which the personal experiences of a young black couple     5     (interweave) with the big picture in 1970s Harlem. When Tish (KiKi Layne) becomes pregnant, they plan to marry – until her fiancé Fonny (Stephan James) is set up by a racist police officer for a rape he did not commit. The film explores the different reactions of their siblings (兄弟姐妹) and parents, led by Regina King in a standout performance as Tish’s mother, as they fight for Fonny’s freedom.

Baldwin has been dead for 30 years, but his depiction of the fight against a country’s powerful prejudice is a sad reminder     6     not enough has changed. Yet Jenkins turns a bleak story into a fascinating romance, as the young lovers strive     7     (regard) as human beings. With its lingering, saturated-colour photography – the director has cited Wong Kar-Wai’s In The Mood For Love as an influence – Beale Street is one of     8     (visually-arresting) films I’ve seen.

Beale Street     9     (film) on location in New York and the Dominican Republic – filling in for Puerto Rico, still devastated by 2017’s Hurricane Maria. It was shot on an Arri Alexa 65 camera. Throughout the film, as he did in Moonlight, the director lingers over often wordless scenes between his characters,     10     (present) them as a series of moving photographs.

5 . For years, studies have found that first-generation college students — those who do not have a parent with a college degree — lag behind other students on a range of education achievement factors. Their grades are lower and their dropout rates are higher. But since such students are most likely to advance economically if they succeed in higher education, colleges and universities have pushed for decades to recruit more of them. This has created a ‘paradox’ in that recruiting first-generation students, but then watching many of them fail, means that higher education has ‘continued to reproduce and widen, rather than close’ the achievement gap based on social class, according to the depressing beginning of a paper set to be published in the journal Psychological Science.

But the article is actually quite optimistic, as it outlines a potential solution to this problem, suggesting that an approach (which involves a one-hour, next-to-no-cost program) can close 63 percent of the achievement gap (measured by such factors as grades) between first-generation and other students.

The authors of the paper are from different universities, and their findings are based on a study involving 147 students (who completed the project) at an unnamed private university. First generation was defined as not having a parent with a four-year college degree. Most of the first-generation students (59.1 percent) were recipients of Pell Grants, a federal grant for undergraduates with financial needs, while this was true only for 8.6 percent of the students with at least one parent with a four-year degree.

Their thesis — that a relatively modest intervention could have a big impact — was based on the view that first-generation students may be most lacking not in potential but in practical knowledge about how to deal with the issues that face most college students. They cite past research by several authors to show that this is the gap that must be narrowed to close the achievement gap.

Many first-generation students “struggle to navigate the middle-class culture of higher education, learn the rules of the game, and take advantage of college resources,” they write. And this becomes more of a problem when colleges don’t talk about the class advantage and disadvantages of different groups of students. Because U.S. colleges and universities seldom acknowledge how social class can affect students’ educational experience, many first-generation students lack sight about why they are struggling and do not understand how students like them can improve.

Bright Future for Girls

Worldwide, 130 million girls are out of school. At the United Nations two years ago, leaders promised to ensure every girl receives 12 years of education by 2030, but contributions from donor countries have declined. Some days are hard—but I refuse to believe the world will always be as it is;     1     is happening.

At the Malala Fund, we are investing in educators in developing countries. These     2     understand the challenges girls face in their communities—child marriage, poverty, conflicts and wars—and are best     3     to develop solutions. In Afghanistan, they are     4     female teachers to work in rural schools. In Nigeria, they are running clubs to help girls resist family     5     to drop out and marry as young as 13 years old. In Lebanon, they are developing e-learning programs to teach STEM skills to Syrian refugee girls. I believe we can see every girl in school in my lifetime.

I believe in girls like Najlaa, who are leading the fight for themselves and their sisters. I believe in the millions of people who support our     6     . Earliest this year, someone asked me, “After everything you've been     7     and everything you've seen, how do you keep yourself from being hopeless?” After talking for a moment about all the things to be grateful for in my own life, I said, “I think it's     8     to be hopeless. If you are hopeless, you waste your     9     and your future.” If we want a brighter future—for them and for ourselves—we must     10     in girls today.

Pedigree Matters Less

The Exciting Offer, a reality show     1     is now well into its second season, has gained in popularity recently because it vividly portrays     2     new college graduates compete for their dream job.

Two participants in particular have attracted a great deal of attention: Wang Xiao, who graduated with a master’s degree in law from Stanford University, and Ding Hui, who     3    (not start) his law studies East China University of Political Science and Law until he turned 25.

Many Viewers imagined that Wang     4     (have) a big advantage over his opponents because of his outstanding educational qualifications. However, Wang turned out to be impatient with his fellow interns, often     5     (interrupt) them when they were sharing their opinions. Ding, on the other hand, presented determination and the attitude of a life-long learner.

You     6     be wondering, “Shouldn’t the student at the ‘better’ university automatically be the better learner and the better intern?”

Well, I hate to rain on your parade (泼冷水),    7     being able to go to a top university is nothing more than a testament to one’s hard work at a certain stage in his or her life. It does not automatically transform them into a better, smarter person     8     their making continuous efforts. Even top university graduates should always keep on working instead of resting on their laurels (不思进取).

More importantly, no amount of prestige can make up for being an arrogant know-it-all.     9    , many Harvard or Peking University degrees you hold, if you do not have regard     10     other people, you won’t earn respect from them in return.

In a word, respect is earned by becoming a worthy role model for others rather than through an excellent pedigree (历史).