Population Change

Why is the world’s population growing? The answer is not what you might think. The reason for the explosion is not that people have been reproducing like rabbits, but that people have stopped dropping dead like flies. In 1900, people died at the average age of 30. By 2000 the average age was 65. But while increasing health was a typical feature of the 20^th century, declining birth rate could be a defining one of the 21^st.

Statistics show that the average number of births per woman has fallen from 4.9 in the early 1960s to 2.5 nowadays. Furthermore, around 50% of the world’s population live in regions where the figure is now below the replacement level (i.e.2.1 births per woman) and almost all developed nations are experiencing sub-replacement birth rate. You might think that developing nations would make up the loss (especially since 80% of the world’s people now live in such nations), but you’d be wrong. Declining birth rate is a major problem in many developing regions too, which might cause catastrophic global shortages of work force within a few decades.

A great decline in young work force is likely to occur in China, for instance. What does it imply? First, China needs to undergo rapid economic development before a population decline hits the country. Second, if other factors such as technology remain constant, economic growth and material expectations will fall well below recent standards and this could invite trouble.

Russia is another country with population problems that could break its economic promise. Since 1992 the number of people dying has been bigger than that of those being born by a massive 50%. Indeed official figures suggest the country has shrunk by 5% since 1993 and people in Russia live a shorter life now than those in 1961.Why is this occurring? Nobody is quite sure, but poor diet an above all long-time alcoholism have much to do with it. If current trends don’t bend, Russia’s population will be about the size of Yemen’s by the year 2050.

In the north of India, the population is booming due to high birth rates, but in the south, where most economic development is taking place, birth rate is falling rapidly. In a further twist, birth rate is highest in poorly educated rural areas and lowest in highly educated urban areas. In total, 25% of India’s working-age population has no education. In 2030, a sixth of the country’s potential work force could be totally uneducated.

One solution is obviously to import foreign workers via immigration. As for the USA, it is almost unique among developed nations in having a population that is expected to grow by 20% from 2010-2030. Moreover, the USA has a track record of successfully accepting immigrants. As a result it’s likely to see a rise in the size of its working-age population and to witness strong economic growth over the longer term.

Acting is the activity of performing in plays or films. It’s about living an alternative reality. It lets you explore all kinds of possibilities of what you could be. Just being your own self can be boring sometimes, and acting gives you an opportunity to be someone else for a while. It is voluntarily entering the psyche (心灵) of another personality and thinking according to a different set of values and constraints (约束). It lets you explore many parts of you, which you thought never existed. It lets you deeply explore what it means to be a human being.

One of the best ways to begin your own acting studies is to start reading some good plays. Choose your favorite role from one of your favorite plays and prepare to act it out in front of the audience. To learn to act, you must act. Here are some tips on how to become an actor with no experience:

To play a role, you must understand the character that you are going to play with open arms. Understand the plot of the play, as well as the psyche of your character. Understand the conditions in which your character lives. Try to understand why your character behaves in that way. So you must learn the lines or dialogues thoroughly and explore the thought behind every sentence. This will help you picture the circumstances in which the character finds himself/herself. Some actors go as far as “living” as that person for a while, to understand him or her. The idea is to go as close as possible to being that person. More importantly, only through practice can you get close to actually being that person. So seize every chance and perform as frequently as you can. This will help you develop confidence and overcome stage fright.

As a student of acting, you need to always be a sponge (海绵), ready to absorb, learn, and observe the performances of great actors, to learn the slight differences of the art. While you watch movies, plays and any other performance, study the differences of a role played by any actors, especially the masters. By just keeping your eyes open, you can pick up a lot of things.

Why do you want to act? Is it for money, fame, or genuine love for the art? Would you do it if you were not paid for it? If the answer and y our motivation is love for acting, you are sure to eventually succeed.

Nowadays, advertisements can be seen everywhere. They have made a really bad i  (1)  on people for various reasons. First of all, their constant   (2)  (出现) on different media disturbs people’s normal life. Besides, the skillful methods are used so   (3)   (频繁地)to cheat consumers that they have great difficulty d  (4)  useful information from lies. However, despite the s  (5)  mentioned above, advertisements do play an important role in our daily life. With different products being developed everyday, advertisements make it more   (6)  (方便的）for consumers to get necessary information and make comparisons, thus purchasing the best goods. What’s more, public service advertisements, or PSAs, provide people with e  (7)   about health, safety, or any other problem that affects public welfare. By dealing with widespread s  (8)  concerns, they us lead better lives.  (9)  (因此), instead of blaming advertisements all the time, we have to admit that they are indeed b  (10)  to each person as well as the society.

Do People in Public Life Have a Right to Privacy?

People, famous or not, have a right to privacy, which is a basic human right. Although some of them have voluntarily made themselves known to the world, they are still entitled to live a life without others following them all the time.

However, we have to distinguish between famous people. Basically, there are those who were seeking a public life—or at least knew to some extent what they were going into—and those who were not. Politicians, athletes, actors, musicians and entertainers belong to the former. The latter are ordinary citizens who become significant, because of their extraordinary experiences, for example, victims of crimes or tragedies, but also criminals.

The number of ordinary citizens who receive their celebrity(名人) status unwillingly is quite big and the privacy of those people needs to be especially respected and maintained. Names, addresses or pictures that could lead to the identification of a person should never be made public. It is not of interest for the readers, and it usually does not make a difference for them, what the name of someone is, but for the one concerned publication of identity could mean embarrassment and harassment(骚扰). Suspected criminals, for instance, could lose their jobs, their families could break up or their whole lives could get destroyed, even when they are innocent. Apart from that, as soon as someone is well known, they are pursued and harassed by journalists demanding interviews. Also in cases where a family just had to experience the loss of a dear person, the press usually shows little respect for that.

In the case of politicians or other powerful people, the right to privacy comes into conflict with another right, the publicˈs right to know. Therefore, the right to privacy of certain politicians sometimes has to be neglected to ensure a rightful running of the country. But do we need to get informed about everything there is?

Actually, the position of politicians in the eye of the public is especially difficult to judge. On the one hand politicians use their happy family and home in campaigns; on the other hand, we know personal behaviors have nothing to do with competence in running a country and private details, even if completely irrelevant, can still ruin careers. Sometimes only due to the intrusion(侵入) of privacy, corruption or similar crimes can be made public, but at the same time not everything in oneˈs life is connected to oneˈs office.

When personal morality and family values are deliberately used by politicians as a reason for them to be elected, they have chosen to make it a public issue rather than a private one. This is a sad fact, but it does not justify intrusion of the personal lives of all politicians. A politician still is, like everyone else, entitled to privacy.

___________this, VR can be used to practice skills in a secure environment that ___________would be quite dangerous. For example, firefighters could use RealCine to train safely, without the risk of getting injured in a burning building. It could be used in class as well. Teachers could ___________ history ___________ by placing students in an ancient town., or they could teach biology by allowing students to _____________the world as a whale or a squirrel.

1，Modern English appeared during the Renaissance in the 16^th century. Because of this , Modern English includes many Latin and Greek words. Pronunciation also   (1)      (2)    huge changes during this period. Of course, this was not the end of the changes in the English language. The question of   (3)   English will keep on changing in the future is easy   (4)     (5)  _.,

2，PSA are often run   (6)     (7)   , and   (8)     (9)     (10)   educate people about health, health, safety, or any other problem that affects public welfare.

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The public were shocked in March when the news that improperly stored vaccines (疫苗) worth millions of dollars were sold to patients all over the country.

China is trying to rebuild public confidence in vaccines after the news struck fear into the hearts of parents. 

Chief government officials should be dismissed if serious vaccine violations (违规) took place in their jurisdictions (管辖区), according to a revised regulation (规定) approved by the State Council. The regulation was passed on Saturday and took effect immediately, the report said. It strengthens management rules for vaccines, including their transportation and storage, and increases punishments for violators.

Vaccines stand for the primary means in most countries to prevent and control infectious diseases, and parents should get their children vaccinated as required by the government, said Yu Wenzhou, an expert at the Chinese Center for Disease Control and Prevention. 

China is trying to restore public confidence in vaccines

Blood donation, also called blood banking, is a wonderful thing to do. It is an easy and direct way of contributing to social work and having a big effect on the community. It helps to save lives and helps those who are in need of blood due to bad condition or the heavy loss of blood during operations or in accidents.

You are able to give or donate blood every three or four month, and it is such a beautiful way of making a huge difference to someone’s life and you can always be proud of it after making a valuable contribution to society. Blood donation is not a big problem, but you need to keep a few points in mind.

Before donating blood, make sure that the ferrum（铁）level in you body is high enough and for that you should take a healthy diet. Do not go for blood donation on an empty stomach. You should follow the correct process so that everything goes well. After having a balanced diet you will feel strong and comfortable to donate blood. Afterwards, you will not feel faint or weak.

For required hemoglobin（血红蛋白）in your body, drink lots of juice and other drinks. Fruit juice, such as apple juice is very good for increasing the blood level in your body.

For a good blood flow in your body, drink at least 6-7 glasses of water every day. Completely avoid, a day before and after giving blood, taking alcohol, caffeine, etc. Do not smoke half an hour before giving blood.

When you are going for blood donation, be relaxed, which helps keep the right blood pressure. During the blood donation activity take a deep breath and try to calm yourself. Don’t take part in some other activities.

When you donate blood, you are making the effort to save someone’s life. Blood donation is a very simple and fast process, but you need to take care of yourself after donating blood. Proper care helps to reduce side effects. The following are a few tips that will help you out.

Take a rest for 15 minutes after completion of the donation. It helps you to feel relaxed and energetic.

Eat something and drink juice before leaving the blood donation center. Make sure that you have meals after donating blood. Smoking should be avoided for one hour after the process. Avoid some activities right away, for example, driving.

Finally, be proud of yourself because you have done a great thing in helping to save someone’s life. Blood donation is a very important activity.

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Once there lived a rich man  1  wanted to do something for the people of his town.   2   first he wanted to find out whether they deserved his help.

    In the centre of the main road into the town, he placed   3  very large stone. Then he   4 (hide ) behind a tree and waited. Soon an old man came along with his cow.

    “Who put this stone in the centre of the road?” said the old man, but he did not try to remove the stone. Instead, with some difficulty he passed around the stone and continued on his way.   5   man came along and did the same thing; then another came ,and another. All of them complained about the stone but not tried to remove  6  . Late in the afternoon a young man came along. He saw the stone,  7  (say) to himself: “The night  8  (be) very dark. Some neighbors will come along later in the dark and will fall against the stone.”                 

Then he began to move the stone. He pushed and pulled with all his  9  (strong) to move it. How great was his surprise at last!   10   the stone, he found a bag of money.

It is promoted that we should all prioritize some simpler life improvements to live better lives.The explanations for how and why they better our life serve as powerful reminders that we might be prioritizing the wrong things,and undervaluing what makes life worth living.

Smoking drinking,exercise and even heart problems are not predictors of a person's longevity—a person's close relationships and social integration are.Our human connections have the positive impact on all aspects of our well-being,including our physical health.Those with intimacy（亲昵）in their lives,and those with frequent face-to-face interactions were not only physically and emotionally healthier,but they also lived longer.

It's why women,who tend to prioritize spending time with their friends more than men,live an average of six years longer.It's not enough to text or email.The actual health benefits of socializing are only achieved through in-person contact because face-to-face contact releases chemicals that protect you now and well into the future like a vaccine.

People who spend time on social networks,dating apps and even online news sites are found less happy.Most things we do for pleasure,like reading a book or watching a movie,have an end.But scrolling（卷动）on the phone is endless and we don't know when to break away.And those who do set limiting rules for their technology use are able to enjoy life more.Life becomes more colorful,richer,when you have better conversations with the person who is there with you.

The chase for happiness doesn't make us happy.In fact,constantly evaluating our own happiness is actually contributing to feelings of hopelessness and depression.Happiness is a fickle（变幻无常的）emotion,based on a moment or an experience.It's not a lack of happiness but lack of meaning that's really making us feel sad.

Meaning can be obtained in four forms: belonging,purpose,transcendence （卓越）and storytelling.The first is having people in your life who truly love and care about you.The second is having purpose.Most people find purpose through work because it's how we feel like we're adding value or contributing.So finding something to drive you forward is a crucial slice of having meaning.Transcendence is about finding something like art or church or doing yoga that can take you outside of yourself,that can make you feel like you're part of something bigger.With storytelling,that's all about our personal narratives.We're the author of our stories,and we can change how we're telling them.Your life isn't just a list of events.