Marty Verel, a 59-year-old kidney transplant patient in Ohio, should have been near the top of the list to receive a COVID-19 vaccine. Yet like millions of others, he wasn't having any luck. Marty and his wife, Nancy Verel, would sit with computers on their laps trying for hours to book an appointment on different sites, all of which were complex. "I felt hopeless," Nancy says.
Then Nancy heard about Marla Zwinggi, a 40-year-old mom of three who was spending up to ten hours a day online trying to secure appointments for vulnerable (易受攻击的) individuals. So Nancy messaged Marla on Facebook: Can you help? Twenty-five minutes later, Marla responded by asking for Marty's legal name, date of birth, and other information. Nine minutes after that, Marla reported back-Marty had an appointment.
Marla's vaccine hunting started on February 1, when she learned that her parents-her father has leukemia(白血病) and her mother is a breast cancer survivor with a heart-condition-were unable to get appointments themselves. She hated that they had to wait. Clicking around on vaccine registration sites, Marla discovered just how difficult it was to book an appointment. "It was like trying to get a World Series ticket," she says.
She applied strategies that web insiders are familiar with (keeping multiple browsers open, refreshing sites every 20 seconds, erasing cookies) and added a few of her special skills. "I'm determined. I drink a lot of coffee, and I'm a fast typer," she says. Soon enough, Marla had secured appointments for her parents. "I felt like a rock star," she says.
Marla decided that helping others would be her way of giving back. "I feel like I need to will us out of this pandemic (大流行病)" she says. On February 10, she logged on to Facebook to let people know that she was assisting with bookings. By March 2, she'd secured appointments for 400 seniors, a feat that made Nancy conclude, "Marla is some sort of COVID angel."
The e-commerce (电子商务) company that people talk about most these days is neither Amazon, the American giant, nor Alibaba, China's biggest. It is Pinduoduo (PDD), a Chinese firm that started in 2015 as an online food supplier, but whose success has driven its market value above $200 billion. Last year it was China's fastest-growing internet stock (股票), rising by 330%.
PDD attracts attention for two reasons. One is its business model. David Liu, vice-president of strategy, explains that it has ridden the rise of smartphone popularization rate in China to create an e-commerce experience in which people club together to buy products from computers to bananas. During the spread of Covid-19, this has expanded into a fast-growing business across thousands of towns and villages, in which PDD's users gather to order delivery of local farm produce at bargain prices. This is called "community group-buy" or "interactive commerce".
The second is the way PDD has broken the myth that the giants of online shopping are unbeatable. Until a few years ago, China's e-commerce market seemed a two-way contest between Alibaba and JD. com. It is not the case now. Experts expect PDD's share of online sales in China to be larger than that of JD in 2021 and the number of users to surpass (超过） Alibaba. And although PDD pays out huge funds to attract customers from poorer parts of China to its app, they think it may turn profitable this year.
Remarkably, PDD has done this less by replacing its bigger competitors than by employing parts of the market they have been unable to reach. Although online sales of groceries have rocketed during the pandemic, less than a tenth of the 8. 1 trillion yuan farm-produce market is bought and sold digitally. However competitive a market looks, there is opportunity for newcomers because e-commerce is at an early stage of development.
Earth's longest artificial structure is usually said to be the Great Wall of China while the second-longest is not a wall, but a fence. It stretches for 5,614km across eastern Australia and is intended to stop the country's wild dogs, the dingoes, from hunting sheep.
Australia's dingo fence does not stand alone. Millions of kilometres of fences wrap the world. Some are intended to limit the movement of animals, some the movement of people, and some merely to mark the the boundary.
Until recently, data on the effects of fences on wildlife have been inadequate. That has changed with the publication of a report by professor Alex McInturff. One discovery he has made is that more than half of published fence research focuses on just five countries-America, Australia, Botswana, China and South Africa. A second is that only a third of these studies examined the impact of fences on anything other than the target species involved, meaning the animals purposely intended to be kept in or out.
Non-target species, however, are often those that have their fortunes most greatly reshaped by the appearance of poles and wire. Australian fences intended to keep out dingoes are also barriers to long-necked turtles, which travel great distances over land when moving between nesting sites. In Botswana fences built to spare cattle from wildlife-borne disease result in serious interference with wildebeest (角马) migrations.
Not every creature fares badly. Hawks (鹰) in Montana gladly sit on newly built livestock fences to hunt small animals, while fence-based spiders in South Africa outperform their tree-based cousins when it comes to catching insects.
Often, though, the winners are creatures that cause trouble for existing ecosystems. Keeping dingoes out of large parts of Australia has allowed aggressive red foxes to multiply. Native rodents (啮齿类动物) have suffered as a result. Some have been brought to the edge of extinction.
Four Steps to Help Someone Having a Panic Attack
In the United States, 1 in 3 people will have an anxiety disorder at some point in their lives, according to the National Institute of Mental Health. If your loved one is having a panic attack, there are several ways you can help. With a few research-backed techniques, you'll be better equipped to provide support.
Name it and stay calm
Gently name it, and tell your loved one that you believe they are having a panic attack. You can let them know that it will pass. And one of the best ways to help your beloved ones is to remain calm themselves by taking deep breaths and reminding themselves that this is temporary, even if they're feeling a little uneasy about what's happening.
Give them space
Your loved one may need some space during a panic attack. After reminding them that they can handle their symptoms, you can give your loved one space until their panic attack passes. If they do, improve their ability to independently experience their symptoms by offering the coping statement once or twice and letting them ride out their symptoms until they pass.
While someone is having a panic attack, we do want to be empathic (移情的), but we don't want to stress the idea that panic is dangerous, harmful, or needing to be reduced, minimized, or escaped. So, rather than giving your loved one lots of comfort and concern, it can help to remind them that they can cope with what's happening on their own. This gives them back their power to deal with the situation. You can do this by offering supportive statements like:
"You can handle these symptoms."
""
"This will pass."
A. Look after yourself
B. Offer a coping statement
C. Why are you so upset over that?
D. They might ask you to stick around.
E. The feelings aren't comfortable, but you can accept them.
F. Statistics show that women are twice as likely as men to have a panic disorder.
G. This can provide some context for what's happening and relieve the fear of the unknown.
Johnny was sound asleep when he was awakened by a loud commotion (骚动). He opened his eyes and lay 1. He could hear shouts and screams coming from the outside. Sensing that 2 was wrong, he quickly slipped into a pair of jeans and 3 his T-shirt, and rushed out of the house.
A huge crowd 4 at one of the houses further up the street. The house was flaming and thick clouds of 5 were floating up into the air. Johnny went back into the house and made a(an) 6 call to the fire department. Then, he ran out again towards the burning house.
It was Mr. Smith's house. Mr. Smith and his wife were 7 out of the house but their 9-year-old daughter was still 8 inside the house on fire. The neighbors had formed a human chain and were using buckets of water to put out the fire but 9.
Johnny could hear the 10 cries of the young girl inside the house. Without thinking twice Johnny threw himself at the door and 11 the house. Thick smoke filled the room. He was almost 12 by it. Johnny held his breath and managed to 13the young girl. He carried her over his right shoulder and 14 out of the house and placed her on a grass patch.
Soon, the fire engine and the 15 arrived. The doctors quickly 16 the girl to the hospital accompanied by Mr. and Mrs. Smith. The firemen used their big hoses to put the fire out 17 the house was completely ruined.
A few days later, Mr. and Mrs. Smith came to Johnny's house. Their daughter was still 18 in hospital as she had suffered some minor 19. The couple thanked Johnny for rescuing their daughter.
It was Johnny's quick thinking and 20 that made a great difference to the Smiths.
The game of basketball was created by Dr. Naismith, Canadian who worked as a physical education instructor at the Springfield College.
The New England winters were very cold, and the students were unwilling to do outdoor (activity). Naismith determined that a fast-moving game could be played indoors would fill the empty afternoons after the baseball and football seasons had ended. First he tried to change outdoor games such as soccer to indoor play, but he soon found them (suitable) for small areas. December of 1891, Naismith hung two old peach baskets at either end of the gym at the school, and, using a soccer ball and nine players on each side, (organize) the first basketball game. The early rules allowed three points for each basket and banned (run) with the ball.
Five years later, a championship (hold) in New York City. By that time, the team had been reduced to seven players, and five became standard in the 1897 season.
basketball first appeared in the 1904 Olympic Games, it quickly spread throughout the world. In 1906, a metal ring was used (replace) the basket for the first time, but the name basketball has remained.
One summer afternoon, when I was about eight years of age, I was looking at a beautiful rainbow that, bending from the sky, seemed to be losing itself in a thick wood about a quarter of a mile distant.
"Do you know, Gracie," said my brother, who was just recovering from a severe illness, weak and tired, "that if you should go to the end of the rainbow, you would find there precious treasures?"
"Is it truly so?" I asked.
"Truly so," answered my brother, with a smile but a very serious face.
Now, I was a simple-hearted child who believed everything that was told to me; so, without another word, I rushed out toward the wood. My brother called after me as loudly as he was able to, but I did not take any notice of him.
I cared nothing for the wet grass, -on and on I ran. I was so sure that I knew just where that rainbow ended. But when I reached the cedars (雪松林), the end of the rainbow was not there! Abruptly I saw it shining down among the trees a little farther off; so on and on I struggled, through the thick bushes, till I came within the sound of a stream. I reached the bank of the stream, and I could see it a little way off on the other side. I crossed the stream on a fallen tree, and still ran on, though my muscles were aching and my knees shaking.
Suddenly I met in my way a large porcupine (豪猪). I ran away from him as fast as my tired feet would carry me. In my fright and hurry I forgot to keep my eye on the rainbow, and when, at last, I remembered and looked for it, it was nowhere in sight!
When I saw that it was indeed gone, I burst into tears, for I had lost all my treasures, and had nothing but muddy feet and a wet and torn dress. So I set out for home.
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
Paragraph 1:
But I soon found that my troubles had only begun.
Paragraph 2:
At last I heard my own name called.
