Five trends to watch in the coming year
The number 21 is connected with luck, risk, taking chances and rolling the dice, all of which seem strangely appropriate for a year of unusual uncertainty. As 2021 approaches, here are some trends to watch in the year ahead.
⒈ Fights over vaccines
As the first vaccines become available in quantity, the focus will shit from the heroic effort of developing them to the equally difficult task of distributing them. Vaccine negotiations will accompany fights within and between countries over who should get them and when.
⒉ A mixed economic recovery
As economies bounce back from the pandemic, the recovery will be inconsistent, as local outbreaks and restrictions come and go — and governments turn from keeping companies on life-support to helping workers who have lost their jobs.
⒊ A less footloose world
Tourism will shrink and change shape, with more emphasis on domestic travel. Airlines, hotel chains and aircraft producers will struggle, as will universities that rely heavily on foreign students.
⒋ An opportunity on climate change
One positive side to the crisis is the chance to take action on climate change, as governments invest in green recovery plans to create jobs and cut emissions. How ambitious will countries' reduction promises be at the UN climate conference, delayed from 2020?
⒌ The year of déjà vu
That is just one example of how the coming year may feel, in many respects, like a second take on 2020, as events including the Olympics, the Dubai Expo and many other political, sporting and commercial gatherings do their best to open a year later than planned.
After releasing a short video on April 27 about planting and cooking peas, Chinese food blogger Li Ziqi witnessed her followers on YouTube go beyond 10 million.
This puts Li, who shot to fame with short videos recording her traditional and peaceful lifestyle in China's countryside, among the ranks of the most popular Chinese-language content creators on the platform.
"It's really surprising. I didn't expect such a wide response," Li told Xinhua in an interview, noting she was surprised by how foreign fans were taken with her works. "What I present is just a lifestyle I've long followed and appreciated," she said. "Maybe it's also what many other people have valued."
Li's YouTube videos center on her life with her grandmother in the rural parts of Sichuan Province. In the videos, Li, often dressed in graceful traditional dresses, rises at sunrise, rests at sunset, plants seeds and harvests flowers, cooks Chinese dishes and crafts bamboo furniture. Unlike many other food bloggers, Li's videos set China's countryside as the stage and start with how the foods are planted and harvested on the farm. She rarely speaks in the process.
Li's overseas followers have praised her videos for showing the amazingly charming, simple and beautiful side of China's rural life, but back home, there have long been debates on whether her presentation is unrealistically poetic.
In response, Li, who was raised in the countryside, said she never needs special arrangements when shooting a video about rural life as "everything is in my mind." "In the countryside, planting flowers, vegetables and trees is not difficult. There are tough elements of rural life of course, but I didn't put them in my videos," Li said. "Most people today are facing much stress in work and life, so I hope they can feel relieved and relaxed when watching my videos."
After nearly two months of relative silence among new waves ofCOVID-19 pandemic infection in Japan, organizers of Tokyo Olympics on Wednesday released the first of playbooks that will instruct athletes, officials and members of the news media on the procedures they must follow at the rescheduled Games.
Already delayed by a year, the opening ceremony is now a little more than 120 days away. Organizers must find a way to accommodate and ensure the safety of more than 10,000 athletes who view this summer as the result of years of sacrifice and training.
For now, the best that organizers could offer were the outlines of a plan. Athletes and other attendees will not be required to be vaccinated (接种疫苗) or to quarantine (隔离) on arrival in Japan, but they will be subject to severe restrictions on movement and socializing. All athletes will be required to test negative for COVID-19 within 72 hours of their departure for Japan and give in to another test on arrival.
The organizers said the documents were not an end. They would wait until spring to decide if audiences will be permitted to travel to Tokyo. If fans are eventually allowed to attend, the documents suggest they be asked to express support for athletes only in the form of clapping, rather than singing or chanting. To track outbreaks, visitors from abroad will have to file a list of everyone they have close contact with during that initial 14-day period.
Olympic officials see some reason for optimism. In many parts of the world, professional sporting events have been held for months, though often with very few or no spectators at all, and nothing as large as the Summer Games.
What is the best part of a typical relaxing summer day? Nothing is better than sitting in an armchair with a beer and some chips in your hand, enjoying the great comfort.
The much-loved combination of beer and chips is being exploited for the first time to deal with climate change. Chips firm Walkers has adopted a technique it says will cut CO2 emissions (排放) from its production process by 70%.
The technology will use CO2 captured from beer processing in a brewery (啤酒厂), which is then mixed with potato waste and turned into fertilizer. It will then be spread on UK fields to feed the following year's potato crop. Creating fertilizer normally produces high CO2 emissions, but the technology adopted by Walkers makes fertilizer without generating CO2. So, the beer-and-chips combination performs a double function. It stops the emission of brewery CO2 into the atmosphere — and it saves on the CO2 normally generated by fertilizer production.
This Creative win-win solution was developed with an approval from the UK government by a 14-employee start-up called CCm. The fertilizer was experimented on potato seed beds this year, and next year Walkers will install CCm equipment at its Leicester factory to prepare for its 2022 crop.
A decision has not yet been made on which brewery Walkers will work with on this. The new technology adds to carbon-saving techniques already under way. The firm has installed an anaerobic digester (厌氧消化池), which feeds potato waste to bacteria to produce a useful gas. The gas is burned to make electricity for the chip-frying process — so this saves on burning gas or coal.
The new system will go a step further by taking away potato "cake" left after digestion — and mixing the brewery CO2 into it to make an enriched fertilizer which will help put carbon back into the soil as well as encouraging plant growth.
It's an example of scientists finding ways to use CO2 emissions which otherwise would increase the over-heating of the planet.
The secrets of successful listening
"When people talk, listen completely." Those words of Ernest Hemingway might be a pretty good guiding principle for many managers, as might the saying by Zeno of Citium, a Greek philosopher, "We have two ears and one mouth, so we should listen more than we say."
Some firms use a technique known as a "listening circle". In such a circle, only one person can talk about the issues they face at a time and there is no interruption. A study cited in the Harvard Business Review found that employees who had taken part in a listening circle then suffered less social anxiety and had fewer worries about work-related matters than those who did not.
Listening has been critical to the career of Richard Mullender, who was a hostage (人质) negotiator, dealing with everything from suicide (自杀) prevention to international crimes. He defines listening as "the identification, selection and comprehension of the key words". Plenty of people think that good listening is about nodding your head or keeping eye contact. But that is not really listening, Mr Mullender argues.
A good listener is always looking for facts, emotions and indications of the speaker's values. Another important point to bear in mind is that, when you talk, you are not listening. The listener's focus should be on analysis.
One approach is to make an assessment of what the other person is telling you and then check it with them ("It seems to me that what you want is X"). The fundamental aim is to build up a relationship so the other person likes you and trusts you, Mr Mullender says.
A. It is vital to all effective communication.
B. However, a listener needs to speak occasionally.
C. For people like listening to others.
D. That gives the other party a sense that they are being understood.
E. Therefore, a listener shouldn't just listen.
F. In it participants are encouraged to talk openly and honestly.
G. For people like being listened to.
When I got to high school at the age of 16, I took art classes for all of my electives. I began looking at 1 and I knew New York City had the best design schools; the 2 was deciding which one was the best fit for me. I found FIT was a good fit because it could throw you into your area of 3 immediately and absorb you in the culture of New York City.
I've always felt like I'll 4 FIT because I know the fashion design program is probably 5 at times, but that is one of the things I love about the fashion industry. It's constantly moving, changing and looking 6. There's no time to slow down and think about anything but what's 7 next. Not only is fashion an ever 8 industry, it is also an expensive industry. In situations where it's 9 to get your words out right, the way you present yourself is a form of 10. I like fashion and art in general because I can use it to reveal things about myself to people who don't 11 me that well and to express my opinions or 12.
Once I got settled in high school and got more 13 in my art classes, I moved my 14 towards learning more about design. My school offers lots of art classes. 15, fashion design is not included. So I have to search for 16 on my own. The summer after my freshman year I 17 a two-week class at Massachusetts College of Art and Design in Boston. I 18 at 8 each morning and learned how to draw a figure with fashion proportions (比例) and even 19 my first clothing. There were ups and downs to this program, 20 this pre-college experience has helped me realize that this is what I need to be doing, and that I don't want to give up until I'm doing it.
Digital technology is being increasingly adopted (carry) out economic and social activities, and is deeply transforming production patterns and people's lifestyles. However, it is important that the adoption of digital technology in developing countries does not (wide) the rich-poor gap. In China, e-commerce and poverty alleviation (扶贫) programs (support) by big data have had positive effects on fighting poverty.
E-commerce (电子商务) promotes growth in incomes' for the poor. China has the world's fastest-growing e-commerce market, more than 40 percent of global e-commerce transactions (交易) take place. Many poor people have benefited the booming e-commerce industry. For example, in the past years, the National Rural E-commerce Comprehensive Demonstration Project (help) nearly 3 million poor families realize income growth. Besides, E-commerce platforms have greatly increased the possibility the small and micro businesses enter the market. Rural residents can now display (they) farm produce and handicrafts online and find buyers, thus increasing sales. Also, e-commerce drives the development of whole industrial chains, creating job opportunities and providing diverse options for rural labor.
Digital technology has been playing a positive role in China's poverty (reduce). Governments at all levels keep an open and encouraging attitude toward the development of the digital economy and much (active) cooperate with digital companies to better identify and help the poor.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其正下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词正下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均限一词，请严格按照要求格式修改。
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
I use to be a person who hated exercising. And after I started playing baseball, I became attracting to the sport. Now, I spend most of my time improving my skills, for it is the hard process for me. I need to make more efforts than others. I enjoy the feeling of working with teammate, as well as the time we spend it together. I am a beginner in this sport. Sometimes people will look down to me, but it doesn't matter. It will only make them keep going. I believe only by practicing over and over again I catch up with other fantastic players one day. The challenge motivate me to work harder.
1）活动情况介绍；
2）个人感受。
注意：1）词数100左右；2）短文题目已为你写好。
