As a nurse at the cancer care center where I’ve worked for seven years, I’ll do almost anything to make a patient feel better. But when I met Patty at the center, in 2011, she didn’t want my help.
She was a tiny 44-year-old single mom battling an aggressive head and neck cancer. Unlike many of our other patients, Patty was alone during her treatment, but no matter what I did. I couldn't get her to open up. She just buried herself in book or pulled a blanket over her head to fend off conversation.
Eventually I hit on a reliable way to make Patty smile: mentioning her nine-year-old son, Stephen. She'd tell me how well he did in school, how he'd been selected to read a poem he wrote at a local bookstore. She desperately wanted to live for him. With three kids myself, I totally understood how she felt.
After a year and a half of treatment, in August 2012, Patty was told her cancer had spread, and I learned she wouldn't live much longer. My first thought was, “What's going to happen to Stephen?”
Nurses at the center shared stories at their meetings about how bright and unusual the boy was. but no one seemed to know how to resolve the issue of what would happen to him when his mom died. My husband, Michael, who too works at the center, started hearing about Patty and Stephen.
One morning in October, Patty quietly slipped away. Michael and I picked Stephen up after school, drove him to a nearby park, and sat on a bench by a pond. I finally managed to say, “Stephen, we're sorry to have to tell you this, but your mom came to an end this morning.” The sound that came out of his mouth was like nothing I'd ever heard before. This skinny little guy sat between the two of us and just wailed (哀号) and wailed. It was as if his whole world was just destroyed.
Yours,
Li Hua
Two months to save my girl’s life
As my feet pounded the pavement, sweat dripped down my forehead and back. “Just a little bit further,” I told myself, determined to push forward. Though I’d never been much of a runner, I had a crucial motivation to save my little girl, Bridie. Born in January 2017, she had beautiful big blue eyes. But shortly after her arrival, doctors pointed out that her head was measuring quite large. Within days, she was diagnosed with sagittal craniosynostosis. Doctors explained that she’d need surgery. They also noticed that her limbs and fingers were measuring quite short, so Bridie went through genetic testing to find out why. When the results came back, my wife and I met with the specialist. “Bridie has Mainzer-Saldino syndrome,” he said. He also revealed the rare condition would cause reinal (视网膜的) degeneration, meaning she could go blind and develop kidney (肾) disease.
So, when Bridie fell ill in 2019 with common flu, it caused a loss to her little body. Sadly, the medications she needed to help her recover weakened her kidneys even further. By December that year, her specialist revealed they were only functioning at 30 percent. “If it gets any worse, she will need to start dialysis (透析),” he admitted, adding that a transplant might be required sooner than we first thought.
It broke my heart, and I knew I had to step up to help save my girl. So I volunteered to give her one of my kidneys right away. After undergoing multiple tests, I was declared a match. But there were still several barriers I had to overcome before I had the all-clear to donate.
“You’ll have to lose 15 kilos before we consider you fit to transplant,” the specialist told me in June. He gave me two months to get into shape. At 96.5 kilos, I wasn’t overweight, but I needed to lower my BMI to be fit for the surgery.
Yours,
Li Hua
Both misinformation, which includes honest mistakes, and disinformation, which involves an intention to mislead, have had a growing impact on teenage students over the past 20 years. One tool that schools can use to deal with this problem is called media literacy education. The idea is to teach teenage students how to evaluate and think critically about the messages they receive. Yet there is profound disagreement about what to teach.
Some approaches teach students to distinguish the quality of the information in part by learning how responsible journalism works. Yet some scholars argue that these methods overstate journalism and do little to cultivate critical thinking skills. Other approaches teach students methods for evaluating the credibility of news and information sources, in part by determining the incentive of those sources. They teach students to ask: What encouraged them to create it and why? But even if these approaches teach students specific skills well, some experts argue that determining credibility of the news is just the first step. Once students figure out if it’s true or false, what is the other assessment and the other analysis they need to do?
Worse still, some approaches to media literacy education not only don’t work but might actually backfire by increasing students’ skepticism about the way the media work. Students may begin to read all kinds of immoral motives into everything. It is good to educate students to challenge their assumptions, but it’s very easy for students to go from healthy critical thinking to unhealthy skepticism and the idea that everyone is lying all the time.
To avoid these potential problems, broad approaches that help students develop mindsets in which they become comfortable with uncertainty are in need. According to educational psychologist William Perry of Harvard University, students go through various stages of learning. First, children are black-and-white thinkers—they think there are right answers and wrong answers. Then they develop into relativists, realizing that knowledge can be contextual. This stage is the one where people can come to believe there is no truth. With media literacy education, the aim is to get students to the next level—that place where they can start to see and appreciate the fact that the world is messy, and that’s okay. They have these fundamental approaches to gathering knowledge that they can accept, but they still value uncertainty.
Schools still have a long way to go before they get there, though. Many more studies will be needed for researchers to reach a comprehensive understanding of what works and what doesn’t over the long term. “Education scholars need to take an ambitious step forward,” says Howard Schneider, director of the Center for News Literacy at Stony Brook University.
1．As for media literacy education, what is the author’s major concern?| A．How to achieve its goal. | B．How to measure its progress. |
| C．How to avoid its side effects. | D．How to promote its importance. |
| A．Importance. | B．Variety. | C．Motivation. | D．Benefit. |
| A．compare different types of thinking |
| B．evaluate students’ mind development |
| C．explain a theory of educational psychology |
| D．stress the need to raise students’ thinking levels |
| A．Media Literacy Education: Much Still Remains |
| B．Media Literacy Education: Schools Are to Blame |
| C．Media Literacy Education: A Way to Identify False Information |
| D．Media Literacy Education: A Tool for Testing Critical Thinking |
Yours,
Li Hua
At the beginning of this term, I found a new student in my class named Ainne Olar, who is 16 years old. She was quiet, always having lunch alone. From her parents, I learned that Ainne was born in Japan and spent most of her childhood there, and then the family moved in Canada. It wasn’t as easy as she thought. She had to learn and speak a new language to be able to communicate with other people. When at school, she tended to be alone. She usually didn’t talk to people. In class, she was not active , and always chose to shut her mouth. She didn’t join any clubs or after-school activities for a little while even though the teachers and her mom were always encouraging her.
At first, I thought maybe she was just a little shy like me when I first moved to Canada. At that time, it also wasn’t as easy as I thought, but I’ve made it until where I am now. So I had the confidence to encourage Ainne to join us.
In one class, I invited Ainne to make a short presentation. But she just stood up, speechless. Then she looked down, color rising on her face. The next class, we had a P. E. lesson in the gym. But she still didn’t join in it, just watching everyone play. Learning that she was fond of sports and was actually a very athletic and energetic person, I felt the urge to do something to help her melt into us. All these thoughts came to my head and pushed me to sit aside Ainne.
“Hello, Ainne, would you like to join us playing basketball?” I smiled.
The next day, Ainne volunteered to come to the platform to make a presentation.
Preamble of《China: Democracy that works》
Published by the State Council on December 4, 2021
Democracy is a common value of humanity and an ideal that has always been cherished by the Communist Party of China and the Chinese people.
This year marks the centenary of the CPC. Since its founding in 1921, the Party has taken wellbeing for the Chinese people and the rejuvenation of the Chinese nation as its abiding goals, and has made continuous efforts to ensure the people’s status as masters of the country. China is a country with a feudal (封建的) history dating back several thousand years that descended into a semi-feudal and semi-colonial society after the Opium War of 1840. Over the past hundred years, the Party has led the people in realizing people’s democracy in China. The Chinese people now truly hold in their hands their own future and that of society and the country.
The people’s status as masters of the country is the essence of people’s democracy. Since the 18th CPC National Congress in 2012, with a deeper understanding of China’s path to democracy and the political system, the Party has developed whole-process people’s democracy as a key concept and striven to translate it and relevant democratic values into effective institutions and concrete actions.
Whole-process people’s democracy integrates process-oriented democracy with results-oriented democracy, procedural democracy with substantive (本质上的) democracy, direct democracy with indirect democracy, and people’s democracy with the will of the state. It is a model of socialist democracy that covers all aspects of the democratic process and all sectors of society. It is a true democracy that works.
Democracy is a concrete phenomenon that is constantly evolving. Rooted in history, culture and tradition, it takes diverse forms and develops along the paths chosen by different peoples based on their exploration and innovation.
The best way to evaluate whether a country’s political system is democratic and efficient is to observe whether the succession of its leaders is orderly and in line with the law, whether all the people can manage state and social affairs and economic and cultural undertakings in conformity with legal provisions, whether the public can express their requirements without hindrance, whether all sectors can efficiently participate in the country’s political affairs, whether national decision-making can be conducted in a rational and democratic way, whether people of high caliber in all fields can be part of the national leadership and administrative systems through fair competition, whether the governing party is in charge of state affairs in accordance with the Constitution and the law, and whether the exercise of power can be kept under effective restraint and supervision.
Democracy is not a decorative ornament, but an instrument for addressing the issues that concern the people. Whether a country is democratic depends on whether its people are truly the masters of the country; whether the people have the right to vote, and more importantly, the right to participate extensively; whether they have been given verbal promises in elections, and more importantly, how many of these promises are fulfilled after elections; whether there are set political procedures and rules in state systems and laws, and more importantly, whether these systems and laws are truly enforced; whether the rules and procedures for the exercise of power are democratic, and more importantly, whether the exercise of power is genuinely subject to public scrutiny and checks.
Democracy is the right of the people in every country, rather than the prerogative of a few nations. Whether a country is democratic should be judged by its people, not dictated by a handful of outsiders. Whether a country is democratic should be acknowledged by the international community, not arbitrarily decided by a few self-appointed judges. There is no fixed model of democracy; it manifests itself in many forms. Assessing the myriad political systems in the world against a single yardstick and examining diverse political structures in monochrome are in themselves undemocratic.
In the richly diverse world, democracy comes in many forms. China’s democracy is thriving alongside those of other countries in the garden of civilizations. China stands ready to contribute its experience and strength to global political progress through cooperation and mutual learning.
1．Which of the following is the foundation of people’s democracy in China?| A．Fighting against the feudal power which held the nation backwards. |
| B．Striving to translate Whole-process democracy and relevant democratic values into effective institutions and concrete actions. |
| C．Asserting their power to rule the country effectively. |
| D．Ensuring that the public can express their requirements without hindrance and all sectors can efficiently participate in the country’s political affairs. |
| A．Its democracy being rooted in history, culture and tradition as well as taking diverse forms based on exploration and innovation. |
| B．Even a little bit of shade from the feudal history has been swept away while continuously revoluting its democracy for the better. |
| C．Teenagers willing to take an active part in political activities such as the Simulated CPPCC. |
| D．People are able to exercise their rights within the scope of the law unhinderedly (不受阻地). |
| A．Observing whether the succession of its leaders is orderly and in line with the law. |
| B．Raising our status as masters of the country with concrete actions. |
| C．Always innovating for a better future, not only for ourselves but also for our democracy. |
| D．Persisting in the Party’s strong leadership. |
| A．A full and accurate foreword introducing existing circumstances of democracy. |
| B．An informative official document giving people knowledge on democracy in China. |
| C．An introduction of how democracy works in China. |
| D．Telling people what are thus how to distinguish various kinds of democracy. |
A new algorithm(演算法)raises parking rates in busy neighborhoods and lowers them elsewhere，guaranteeing free parking spots regardless of location，Christopher Intagliata reports.
If you drive in a city，you’ve no doubt experienced the headache of circling block after block，cruising for parking.But scientists who study that phenomenon have a solution to free up more spots:“You make them more expensive，so people have to decide whether to park farther away and Pay less，or closer and pay more.”Itzhak Benenson，a system scientist at Tel Aviv University.
San Francisco has piloted a program that raises parking rates based on demand—and it's been shown to reduce cruising.But the sensors required for those systems can cost millions of dollars to install and operate，Benenson says.So instead，writing in IEEE Intelligent Transportation Systems Magazine，he and his colleague Nir Fulman describe an algorithm that can determine smart pricing，without the use of sensors.
They tested it on the Israeli city of Bat Yam，near Tel Aviv.First，they divide the city into zones.They estimate the parking demand in each zone，by calculating the number of apartments and offices there.Then they take account of parking supply in the area，along with how wealthy potential parkers might be.Using that data，the algorithm suggested pricing for each zone that would guarantee a 90-percent occupancy rate of parking spots city-wide.Meaning 10 percent of spots were always available to drivers willing to pay the price，regardless of neighborhood.
Of course，not everyone will agree that raising parking prices will reduce the press of parking.Last time Benenson proposed hiking rates for city residents?“I got about 100 reactions on the web and 99 of them that said they have never heard such a stupid statement from the professors，and I should be punished and fired.”
Eventually，he says，it'll be up to cities themselves to estimate their residents’political appetites for an easier parking spot.
1．What does the underlined word“them”in paragraph 1 refer to?| A．Parking spots. | B．Parking rates. |
| C．Busy neighborhoods. | D．New algorithms. |
| A．Adopting different parking rates. |
| B．Counting the apartments and offices. |
| C．Making farther parking spots more expensive. |
| D．Setting the price of parking spots with sensors. |
| A．②⑤④③① | B．①③②⑤④ |
| C．②⑤①③④ | D．①③④②⑤ |
| A．Supporting. | B．Disapproving. | C．Optimistic. | D．Controversial. |
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