It was the first time Moham went to a restaurant in his new neighborhood. He looked up at the menu board, and ________ how he could understand what all of these strange names meant. Moham decided that he would ________ ask the waitress for ice cream in a cup. She smiled brightly, wrote down his ________ and disappeared behind the big glass display case (陈列柜).

A moment later, she came back with a tall paper cup. ________ it was a long straw (吸管) and some kind of drink. Moham, quite ________, took the cup and thanked her, thinking about the possibility that he had used wrong words.

“It’s the soda you ordered,” ________ said, “an ice cream drink in a cup.”

He smiled at the waitress, pointed at one of the ________ in the display case, and said, “That one, please,” which seemed to ________ better.

Moham took the cake and his unexpected soda to a table and sat down to eat. Why was it that English had been so ________ for him in his classes in Tunisia, but when it came to ________ speaking, he couldn’t even get what he wanted to eat?

Just then, a girl, who sat at the next table and had watched the whole ________, smiled at him and said, “Hey, welcome to our beautiful city! Don’t feel ________ about your English—you’ll get better at it ________ you’ve lived here for a while. I’m from Spain, and the first time I tried to order a salad here, I ________ with a plate of pig’s feet. At least you got a soda!”

Hearing this, Moham felt much better. He wasn’t the only one ________ to communicate, and his new city began to feel just a little more like he could call it home.

During work hours, among the sounds of machines, the kitchen of Bach’s Bakery (面包房) is especially tidy and quiet, not because of any rules against talking during work hours, but because all of the workers have a hearing disability. They are hard-working and professional in their work, and use sign language to communicate with each other from time to time.

Bach’s Bakery lies in Changsha City, Hunan Province. It is run by a German couple, Uwe Brutzer and his wife Dorothee Brutzer, who started it up ten years ago with the purpose of creating more jobs for those disabled in the neighborhood. So far, Bach’s Bakery has trained around 30 hearing disabled people. While some skilled workers found jobs in other bakeries and hotels and have been able to live on their own, several of them have stayed to work at the bakery after they completed the training.

The Brutzers’ work has won the support of many people in China. With the spread of news about the bakery, many Internet users learned about Bach’s Bakery and its inspiring story. As a result, many local people in Changsha as well as visitors from other parts of the country come to buy their products, Uwe said that public attention has encouraged them a lot and helped grow the bakery’s business, resulting in workers getting higher pay. However, what he values more is that, through media (媒体) reports, more people have come to understand that disabled people can work as well as other people when they are given chances.

Now, as they are preparing to return to Germany, they have found a German couple teaching in China as the new managers, and handed over the bakery to a public welfare (福利) organization. Their wish is to continue providing free training for the hearing disabled and that the bakery will never be changed into a shop with moneymaking as its main goal.

“I wish I had straight hair”; “I’d like to be taller”. At times, we all want to look a bit more like someone else. However, the pictures we see on TV and social media can give us improper ideas about how our bodies “should” look. The truth is that everybody is different — and that’s a good thing. Accepting and feeling good about our bodies is really important for our self confidence (自信).

Body confidence is when someone accepts and behaves kindly towards their body. That includes our size and shape, skin color, appearance and any physical disabilities. Jade Parnell from the Centre for Appearance Research (CAR), says that having body confidence is “about being accepting of your body and what it does for you”.

If you feel positively (积极地) about your body, you are more likely to take care of it. Research has even shown that you are more likely to take part in activities and perform well in school. However, feeling agitated about your body could make you step back, do less well at school and even feel down. Parnell says that the cost of trying to achieve the “perfect” appearance is high. She says, “If you re spending a lot of time trying to look a certain way, you will have less time to spend with friends and to make important memories.”

It’s important to remember that everybody is different. To develop a positive body image, Parnell says, “Try to talk positively about your own body and other people’s bodies. Try not to pay too much attention to appearance. Instead, think about what your body does for you; do your legs make you run really fast?” She also suggests treating your body well by eating different kinds of foods, exercising to feel good and to have fun, and getting plenty of sleep. Remember that you are more than how you look.

If you look around the room you are in right now, you’ll probably notice a number of electronics. But can you imagine if they all had to be joined together by wires (电线)? Picture the wire snaking along the floor, for example, from your smartphone to your speaker, or connecting your game controller to the computer screen, meaning you could never sit more than a couple of meters away from it. A world of electronics connected by wires wouldn’t just be untidy, but a possible danger, too. That’s where Bluetooth comes in. We’ve all heard of it — but what exactly is it?

Bluetooth is a method of short-distance (短距离) wireless communication between electronics that makes use of the power of radio waves. The idea was first thought of by Dr. Janp Haartsen at Swedish mobile company Ericsson in 1994. Things really stepped up in September 1998 when the Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) was set up to develop and spread the technology. Bluetooth 1.0 came out in 1999, and a year later it began to be used in mobile phones and desktop computers. Now Bluetooth has become an increasingly popular way of solving the problem of more and more electronics needing to be connected. without having to connect everything together with wires.

But if you look at the remote control (温控器) you use to choose the program on TV, you might rightly ask yourself why Bluetooth was such a big deal. After all, connecting objects with infrared signals (红外信号) which can’t be seen had been done before. The problem with remote controls is that they need to keep what is called “line of sight”. If something is standing between the remote control and receiver, it won’t work. Because Bluetooth uses radio waves, the things standing in the way are no longer a problem.

Since its creation in the late 1990s, the technology has become more and more improved and widely used, with the 4 billionth Bluetooth objects shipped in 2020.

Nurse Charlie

Several months ago, I had a car accident and required an operation. My wife Geraldine, told me that for the three days I was in hospital, our black dog, Charlie,
36． (躺) at the door waiting for my return.

Charlie is
37． (六) years old. Whenever I go out and can’t take him with me, he patiently waits at the
38． (前面) door for me. Geraldine says that at times he will not leave his place even when facing delicious food — very
39． (不寻常) for a dog.

After I returned home, Charlie must have sensed that there was something different about me. For my
40． (安全), he did not jump up to greet me, although his moving tail
41． (清晰) showed that he was happy to see me. Instead, he waited till I could comfortably
42． (休息) in bed. Then he hesitantly (踌躇地) came close to me and sat at the foot of my bed.

As I started to become more mobile, he played with me in a more gentle way. I am now much healthier and
43． (有时) we go for walks together. Charlie does not
44． (拉) hard on the lead. Besides, his steps try to suit
45． (我的).

I could not have asked for a more careful nurse.

Max Woosey is a 12-year-old boy. He has slept outside in storms, snow and heat waves, but now he’s coming indoors.

After two years of
46． (sleep) in a tent, Max, who has raised over £700,000, is about to remember what a bed
47． (feel) like. “I’m still going to be in my tent a lot,” said Max. “But now I’ve done two years. If there’s a big,
48． (danger) storm coming, I may come inside.”

Max began camping out in March 2020. At that time,
49． old neighbor of his, Rick Abbott, who was
50． (serious) ill, gave Max a tent and told him to take a risk with it. Later Max decided to camp out to raise money
51． the hospital that cared for Rick. Max didn’t think he would keep going a long time,
52． it went on and on.

Over the two years, Max has been through around 15 tents and has had camping
53． (trip) in many places. He even slept on a hotel balcony (阳台). His dad joined
54． in the tent during last month’s Storm Eunice, with Max joking that he
55． (wake) up not by the wind but by his dad’s snoring (鼾声)!

Making your school a better place will make everyone around you happier and will get you more exited to go every day. Besides, a better place will also make you more productive. The following are some of the ways to make your school a better place.

♦ 1 Do not stay silent when you see another student getting hurt by others. Speak up confidently and tell them to stop. This will help create a better atmosphere (气氛) at school.

♦Try to deal with arguments between other kids. When you see other students in an argument, you can help deal with the problem. 2 After all, many arguments in school are just misunderstandings between two people.

♦ 3 If you know that other students have difficulty learning a subject that you’re good at, you can help them by teaching them in that subject. Helping other students to improve their grades will help create a positive atmosphere in school.

♦Make friends with lonely students. If you notice a student who doesn’t have many friends or sits alone at lunch, make it a point to become their friend. 4 So why not encourage other people to become friends with them?

假设你是刘军，在上周末的乡村旅游中，你发现了一些游客的不文明行为。请根据下表信息给某英文报VOICE栏目的编辑写一封邮件，反映这些问题并提出建议。

I was shocked to see some uncivilized behaviors when I took a trip to a village last weekend. _______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours sincerely,

Liu Jun