Dear Boat Tour Manager,

On March 15, my family was on one of your Glass Bottom Boat Tours. When we returned to our hotel, I discovered that I left behind my cell phone case. The case must have fallen off my lap and onto the floor when I took it off my phone to clean it. I would like to
ask you to check if it is on your boat. Its color is black and it has my name on the inside. If you find the case, I would appreciate it if you would let me know.

Sincerely,
Sam Roberts

One Saturday morning, Matthew’s mother told Matthew that she was going to take him to the park. A big smile came across his face. As he loved to play outside, he ate his breakfast and got dressed quickly so they could go. When they got to the park, Matthew ran all the way over to the swing set. That was his favorite thing to do at the park. But the swings were all being used. His mother explained that he could use the slide until a swing became available, but it was broken. Suddenly, his mother got a phone call and she told Matthew they had to leave. His heart sank.

Meetings encourage creative thinking and can give you ideas that you may never have thought of on your own. However, on average, meeting participants consider about one third of meeting time to be unproductive. But you can make your meetings more productive and more useful by preparing well in advance. You should create a list of items to be discussed and share your list with other participants before a meeting. It allows them to know what to expect in your meeting and prepare to participate.

A psychology professor raised a glass of water while teaching stress management principles to her students, and asked them, “How heavy is this glass of water I’m holding?” Students shouted out various answers. The professor replied, “The absolute weight of this glass doesn’t matter. It depends on how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute, it’s quite light. But, if I hold it for a day straight, it will cause severe pain in my arm, forcing me to drop the glass to the floor. In each case, the weight of the glass is the same, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.” As the class nodded their heads in agreement, she continued, “Your stresses in life are like this glass of water. If you still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong sign that it’s time to put the glass down.”

Your emotions deserve attention and give you important pieces of information. However, they can also sometimes be an unreliable, inaccurate source of information. You may feel a certain way, but that does not mean those feelings are reflections of the truth. You may feel sad and conclude that your friend is angry with you when her behavior simply reflects that she’s having a bad day. You may feel depressed and decide that you did poorly in an interview when you did just fine. Your feelings can mislead you into thinking things that are not supported by facts.

Every day, children explore and construct relationshipsamong objects. Frequently, these relationships focus on how much or how many of something exists. Thus, children count ― “One cookie, two shoes, three candles on the birthday cake, four children in the sandbox.” Children compare ― “Which has more? Which has fewer? Will there be enough?” Children calculate ― “How many will fit? Now, I have five. I need one more.” In all of these instances, children are developing a notion of quantity. Children reveal and investigate mathematical concepts through their own activities or experiences, such as figuring out how many crackers to take at snack time or sorting shells into piles.

Only a generation or two ago, mentioning the word algorithms would have drawn a blank from most people. Today, algorithms appear in every part of civilization. They are connected to everyday life. They’re not just in your cell phone or your laptop but in your car, your house, your appliances, and your toys. Your bank is a huge web of algorithms, with humans turning the switches here and there. Algorithms schedule flights and then fly the airplanes. Algorithms run factories, trade goods, and keep records. If every algorithm suddenly stopped working, it would be the end of the world as we know it.

The graph above shows the percent of households with pets in the United States (U.S.) from 1988 to 2020. ① In 1988, more than half of U.S. households owned pets, and more than 6 out of 10 U.S. households owned pets from 2008 to 2020. ② In the period between 1988 and 2008, pet ownership increased among U.S. households by 6 percentage points. ③ From 2008 to 2013, pet ownership rose an additional 6 percentage points. ④ The percent of U.S. households with pets in 2013 was the same as that in 2017, which was 68 percent. ⑤ In 2015, the rate of U.S. households with pets was 3 percentage points lower than in 2020.

Pianist, composer, and big band leader, Claude Bolling, was born on April 10, 1930, in Cannes, France, but spent most of his life in Paris. He began studying classical music as a youth. He was introduced to the world of jazz by a schoolmate. Later, Bolling became interested in the music of Fats Waller, one of the most excellent jazz musicians. Bolling became famous as a teenager by winning the Best Piano Player prize at an amateur contest in France. He was also a successful film music composer, writing the music for more than one hundred films. In 1975, he collaborated with flutist Rampal and published Suite for Flute and Jazz Piano Trio, which he became most well­known for. He died in 2020, leaving two sons, David and Alexandre.

Despite all the high­tech devices that seem to deny the need for paper, paper use in the United States ① has nearly doubled recently. We now consume more paper than ever: 400 million tons globally and growing. Paper is not the only resource ② that we are using more of. Technological advances often come with the promise of ③ using fewer materials. However, the reality is that they have historically caused more materials use, making us ④ dependently on more natural resources. The world now consumes far more “stuff” than it ever has. We use twenty-­seven times more industrial minerals, such as gold, copper, and rare metals, than we ⑤ did just over a century ago. We also each individually use more resources. Much of that is due to our high­-tech lifestyle.
* copper: 구리

Do you sometimes feel like you don’t love your life? Like, deep inside, something is missing? That’s because we are living someone else’s life. We allow other people to ①influence our choices. We are trying to meet their expectations. Social pressure is deceiving ― we are all impacted without noticing it. Before we realize we are losing ownership of our lives, we end up ②ignoring how other people live. Then, we can only see the greener grass ―ours is never good enough. To regain that passion for the life you want, you must ③recover control of your choices. No one but yourself can choose how you live. But, how? The first step to getting rid of expectations is to treat yourself ④kindly. You can’t truly love other people if you don’t love yourself first. When we accept who we are, there’s no room for other’s ⑤expectations.

One of the big questions faced this past year was how to keep innovation rolling when people were working entirely virtually. But experts say that digital work didn’t have a negative effect on innovation and creativity. Working within limits pushes us to solve problems. Overall, virtual meeting platforms put more constraints on communication and collaboration than face­to­face settings. For instance, with the press of a button, virtual meeting hosts can control the size of breakout groups and enforce time constraints; only one person can speak at a time; nonverbal signals, particularly those below the shoulders, are diminished; “seating arrangements” are assigned by the platform, not by individuals; and visual access to others may be limited by the size of each participant’s screen. Such ________________ are likely to stretch participants beyond their usual ways of thinking, boosting creativity.

The law of demand is that the demand for goods and services increases as prices fall, and the demand falls as prices increase. Giffen goods are special types of products for which the traditional law of demand does not apply. Instead of switching to cheaper replacements, consumers demand more of giffen goods when the price increases and less of them when the price decreases. Taking an example, rice in China is a giffen good because people tend to purchase less of it when the price falls. The reason for this is, when the price of rice falls, people have more money to spend on other types of products such as meat and dairy and, therefore, change their spending pattern. On the other hand, as rice prices increase,
people __________________.

In a study at Princeton University in 1992, research scientists looked at two different groups of mice. One group was made intellectually superior by modifying the gene for the glutamate receptor. Glutamate is a brain chemical that is necessary in learning. The other group was genetically manipulated to be intellectually inferior, also done by modifying the gene for the glutamate receptor. The smart mice were then raised in standard cages, while the inferior mice were raised in large cages with toys and exercise wheels and with lots of social interaction. At the end of the study, although the intellectually inferior mice were genetically handicapped, they were able to perform just as well as their genetic superiors. This was a real triumph for nurture over nature. Genes are turned on or off _________________________.
* glutamate: 글루타민산염
** manipulate: 조작하다

Researchers are working on a project that asks coastal towns how they are preparing for rising sea levels. Some towns have risk assessments; some towns even have a plan. But it’s a rare town that is actually carrying out a plan. One reason we’ve failed to act on climate change is the common belief that ________________________. For decades, climate change was a prediction about the future, so scientists talked about it in the future tense. This became a habit ― so that even today many scientists still use the future tense, even though we know that a climate crisis is ongoing. Scientists also often focus on regions most affected by the crisis, such as Bangladesh or the West Antarctic Ice Sheet, which for most Americans are physically remote.

According to Marguerite La Caze, fashion contributes to our lives and provides a medium for us to develop and exhibit important social virtues. ① Fashion may be beautiful, innovative, and useful; we can display creativity and good taste in our fashion choices. ② And in dressing with taste and care, we represent both self­-respect and a concern for the pleasure of others. ③ There is no doubt that fashion can be a source of interest and pleasure which links us to each other. ④ Although the fashion industry developed first in Europe and America, today it is an international and highly globalized industry. ⑤ That is, fashion provides a sociable aspect along with opportunities to imagine oneself differently ― to try on different identities.
* virtue: 가치

Mrs. Klein told her first graders to draw a picture of something to be thankful for. She thought that most of the class would draw turkeys or Thanksgiving tables. But Douglas drew something different.

(A) The class was so responsive that Mrs. Klein had almost forgotten about Douglas. After she had the others at work on another project, she asked Douglas whose hand it was. He answered softly, “It’s yours. Thank you, Mrs. Klein.”

(B) Douglas was a boy who usually spent time alone and stayed around her while his classmates went outside together during break time. What the boy drew was a hand. But whose hand? His image immediately attracted the other students’ interest.

(C) So, everyone rushed to talk about whose hand it was. “It must be the hand of God that brings us food,” said one student. “A farmer’s,” said a second student, “because they raise the turkeys.” “It looks more like a police officer’s,” added another, “they protect us.”

According to legend, once a vampire bites a person, that person turns into a vampire who seeks the blood of others. A researcher came up with some simple math, which proves that these highly popular creatures can’t exist.

(A) In just two-­and-­a-­half years, the original human population would all have become vampires with no humans left. But look around you. Have vampires taken over the world? No, because there’s no such thing.

(B) If the first vampire came into existence that day and bit one person a month, there would have been two vampires by February 1st, 1600. A month later there would have been four, the next month eight, then sixteen, and so on.

(C) University of Central Florida physics professor Costas Efthimiou’s work breaks down the myth. Suppose that on January 1st, 1600, the human population was just over five hundred million.

For example, if you rub your hands together quickly, they will get warmer.

Friction is a force between two surfaces that are sliding, or trying to slide, across each other. For example, when you try to push a book along the floor, friction makes this difficult. Friction always works in the direction opposite to the direction in which the object is moving, or trying to move. So, friction always slows a moving object down. ( ① ) The amount of friction depends on the surface materials. ( ② ) The rougher the surface is, the more friction is produced. ( ③ ) Friction also produces heat. ( ④ ) Friction can be a useful force because it prevents our shoes slipping on the floor when we walk and stops car tires skidding on the road. ( ⑤ ) When you walk, friction is caused between the tread on your shoes and the ground, acting to grip the ground and prevent sliding.
* skid: 미끄러지다
** tread: 접지면, 바닥

But, a blind person will associate the same friend with aunique combination of experiences from their non-­visual senses that act to represent that friend.

Humans born without sight are not able to collect visual experiences, so they understand the world entirely through their other senses. ( ① ) As a result, people with blindness at birth develop an amazing ability to understand the world through the collection of experiences and memories that come from these non­visual senses. ( ② ) The dreams of a person who has been without sight since birth can be just as vivid and imaginative as those of someone with normal vision. ( ③ ) They are unique however, because their dreams are constructed from the non­-visual experiences and memories they have collected. ( ④ ) A person with normal vision will dream about a familiar friend using visual memories of shape, lighting, and colour. ( ⑤ ) In other words, people blind at birth have similar overall dreaming experiences even though they do not dream in pictures.

According to a study of Swedish adolescents, an important factor of adolescents’ academic success is how they respond to challenges. The study reports that when facing difficulties, adolescents exposed to an authoritative parenting style are less likely to be passive, helpless, and afraid to fail. Another study of nine high schools in Wisconsin and northern California indicates that children of authoritative parents do well in school, because these parents put a lot of effort into getting involved in their children’s school activities. That is, authoritative parents are significantly more likely to help their children with homework, to attend school programs, to watch their children in sports, and to help students select courses. Moreover, these parents are more aware of what their children do and how they perform in school. Finally, authoritative parents praise academic excellence and the importance of working hard more than other parents do.

The studies above show that the children of authoritative parents often succeed academically, since they are more ______(A)______ to deal with their difficulties and are affected by their parents’ ______(B)______ involvement.

U.K. researchers say a bedtime of between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. is best. They say people who go to sleep between these times have a (a) lower risk of heart disease. Six years ago, the researchers collected data on the sleep patterns of 80,000 volunteers. The volunteers had to wear a special watch for seven days so the researchers could collect data on their sleeping and waking times. The scientists then monitored the health of the volunteers.
Around 3,000 volunteers later showed heart problems. They went to bed earlier or later than the (b) ideal 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. timeframe.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. David Plans, commented on his research and the (c) effects of bedtimes on the health of our heart. He said the study could not give a certain cause for their results, but it suggests that early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body clock, with (d) positive consequences for cardiovascular health. He said that it was important for our body to wake up to the morning light, and that the worst time to go to bed was after midnight because it may (e) reduce the likelihood of seeing morning light which resets the body clock. He added that we risk cardiovascular disease if our body clock is not reset properly.
* disrupt: 혼란케 하다
** cardiovascular: 심장 혈관의

U.K. researchers say a bedtime of between 10 p.m. and 11 p.m. is best. They say people who go to sleep between these times have a (a) lower risk of heart disease. Six years ago, the researchers collected data on the sleep patterns of 80,000 volunteers. The volunteers had to wear a special watch for seven days so the researchers could collect data on their sleeping and waking times. The scientists then monitored the health of the volunteers.
Around 3,000 volunteers later showed heart problems. They went to bed earlier or later than the (b) ideal 10 p.m. to 11 p.m. timeframe.
One of the authors of the study, Dr. David Plans, commented on his research and the (c) effects of bedtimes on the health of our heart. He said the study could not give a certain cause for their results, but it suggests that early or late bedtimes may be more likely to disrupt the body clock, with (d) positive consequences for cardiovascular health. He said that it was important for our body to wake up to the morning light, and that the worst time to go to bed was after midnight because it may (e) reduce the likelihood of seeing morning light which resets the body clock. He added that we risk cardiovascular disease if our body clock is not reset properly.
* disrupt: 혼란케 하다
** cardiovascular: 심장 혈관의