{#blank#}1{#/blank#}We achieve it actively by direct experience, by testing and proving an idea, or by reasoning. We achieve knowledge passively by being told by someone else. Most of the learning that takes place in the classroom and the kind that happens when we watch TV or read newspapers or magazines is passive. Conditioned as we are to passive learning, it's not surprising that we depend on it in our everyday communication with friends and co-workers.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} It makes us tend to accept what we are told even when it is little more than hearsay and rumor.

    Did you ever play the game Rumor? It begins when one person writes down a message but doesn't show it to anyone. Then the person whispers it, word for word, to another person. That person, in turn, whispers it to still another, and so on, through all the people playing the game. The last person writes down the message word for word as he or she hears it. Then the two written statements are compared.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}．

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} The simple fact that people repeat a story in their own words changes the story. Then, too, most people listen imperfectly. And many enjoy adding their own creative touch to a story, trying to improve on it, stamping it with their own personal style. Yet those who hear it think they know.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} A statement of opinion by one writer may be restated as a fact by another, who may in turn be quoted by yet another; and this process may continue, unless it occurs to someone to question the facts on which the original writer based his opinion or to challenge the interpretation he placed upon those facts.

A. Typically, the original message has changed.

B. Finally everybody gets the meaning.

C. Unfortunately, passive learning has a serious problem.

D. Knowledge is passed down from generation to generation.

E. That's what happens in daily life.

F. This process is also found among scholars and authors.

G. We can achieve knowledge either actively or passively.

    After I mastered my first (协奏曲) at age 14, my parents decided to get me a nice violin. I tried out dozens of instruments before I found my match: a German violin. It was beautiful, but what I liked best about it was its voice. Confident and strong, it was everything I longed to be.

    I'm not sure how much that violin cost, but my parents made me promise never to let it out of my sight. They didn't understand that dragging a large violin case ran counter to my daily middle school task of being invisible (看不见的). I was a strange, absent-minded kid. When I spoke up in class, my comments brought confused silence from teachers and wild laughter from students. Like a deer in a wolf pack, I tried to be quiet and still.

    In contrast, my new violin was almost shockingly loud. Together, we could drown out the rest of my middle school orchestra(管弦乐队) — which was encouraged, since the other kids made sounds like cats' crying. For one glorious hour every day, I was showered with attention. Everyone wanted to hear what I had to say.

    Between classes, I bent under the combined weight of my violin case and a backpack filled with books. My posture suffered, but my confidence grew. With my violin by my side, I found my voice. More and more, I contributed to class discussions and even made a couple of friends.

    Today, I'm just an amateur violinist with a regular day job. As I sit in my community orchestra, sometimes I feel jealous(嫉妒的) my fellow musicians' instruments with their elegant voices. I may not be the best violinist around, but at least I'm still the loudest.

    According to the findings of a new study, telling kids they're smart enhances the idea that intelligence is a genetic gift rather than a skill that ran he improved, and children who think their intelligence is fixed are not likely to pay attention to mistakes and recover from them.

    In the study publisher! online, researchers looked at 123 children who were about 7. The team assessed the children to determine whether they had a “growth mindset（思维定式）”. They asked the children to complete a fast-paced computer task while their brain activities were recorded. During the recording, researchers noted that brain activity stopped within a half-second after making a mistake. The larger the brain response was, the more the child focused on the error.

    Based on the data they collected, the researchers concluded that children with a “growth mindset” were much more likely to have a larger brain response after making a mistake, and in turn were more likely to improve their performance by paying closer attention to the task after making an error.

    For parents, the lessons are clear: for starters, don't pay praises that suggest intelligence is fixed. If a child hands you an A test, don't say “You are smart!” Instead say “Wow, that study really paid off!”

    Second, focus on using errors to work together and learn. Many parents and teachers shy away from mentioning a child's mistakes, telling them “It's OK. You'll get it next time.” without giving them the opportunity to figure out what went wrong. Instead, it's better to tell the child that mistakes happen, and to pay attention and work to figure out where and how they made the mistake.

    A new restaurant in Indonesia is on a mission (使命) to support locals trapped in poverty, many of whom are earning less than $25 a month, by providing them with an alternative way to pay for their food.

    The Methane Gas Canteen, run by husband and wife team Sarimin and Suyatmi, is located in an unexpected place for an eatery — Jatibarang Landfill. The landfill is a mountain of purifying waste, where poor locals spend their days collecting plastic and glass to sell. Meanwhile, the couple, who spent 40 years collecting waste before opening the restaurant, is busy cooking.

    What makes the restaurant unusual, aside from its location, is that no cash is required to pay for meals. Poor people have the option to pay for their food with recyclable waste instead of cash. Sarimin weighs the plastic customers bring in, calculates its worth, and then deduct that value from the cost of the meal, giving any extra value back to the customer. The scheme is part of the community's solution to reduce waste in the landfill and recycle non-degradable plastics.

    “I think we recycle 1 tonne of plastic waste a day, which is a lot. This way, the plastic waste doesn't pile up, drift down the river and cause flooding,” said Saimin. “It benefits everyone.”

    The restaurant seats about 30 people and serves meals that cost between $0.40 and $0.80 each. Since opening the canteen Sarimin and Suyatmi have seen their daily income more than double to $15 a day.

    “I'm happy to see our customers enjoying their meals,” Sarimin told NHK World. “The poor must also have the right to enjoy healthy eating. I want to give them that chance as much as possible.”

    This may be sad to hear, but the number of Britain's famous red telephone boxes has been falling for decades. The phone box is well-known to foreign fans of Britain and visitors to the country. There are still many left to enjoy, however.

    There is deep feeling for the bright red boxes with the Queen's coat of arms (盾形徽章). The places that still have the red box are mostly small and in the countryside. In these places, the phone box may be a symbol of community, as well as a landmark (地标).

    But there are still several cities, including London, that still have original red phone boxes in place.

    For tourists, they probably make the perfect place for a selfie (自拍照). Visit London any day in the summer and you'll see people with their smartphones taking photos with the red box behind them. People who receive the photo will have no trouble guessing where the selfie was taken.

    Ever since mobile phones became more widespread, there has been less and less point in public phones. But although the red boxes are no longer popular places to make a call from, new uses are being found for them all the time. The famous design created by Giles Gilbert Scott back in 1924 lives on, but in ways the British architect (建筑师) would never have imagined.

    Some of the new ways the phone boxes are being used are quite unusual. For example, some have been changed into tiny coffee shops. Others are hat stores. In one distant area of the country, a red box that had not been used for a long time has been turned into a small lending library.

    Even back in their heyday in the last century, phone boxes were put to other uses. Some people even used them as toilets in an emergency.

But for many, they were a safe place to hide if you were caught up in the rain. Britain's weather is unpredictable: sun one moment, heavy rain the next. So if you are planning to visit the UK and want the perfect British selfie, standing inside a red telephone box in a rainstorm may be your best bet.

    Parents often believe that they have a good relationship with their teenagers. But last summer, Joanna and Henry noticed a change in their older son. Suddenly he seemed to be talking far more to his friends than to his parents. "The door to his room is always shut." Joanna noted.

    Tina and Mark noticed similar changes in their 14-year-old daughter. "She used to sit in my arms on the sofa and talk with me," said Mark. "Now we joke that she does this only when she wants something. Sometimes she wants to be treated like a little girl and sometimes like a young lady. The problem is figuring out which time is which."

    Before age 11, children like to tell their parents what's on their minds. "In fact, parents are first on the list." said Michael Riera, author of Uncommon Sense for Parents with Teenagers. "This completely changes during the teen years." Riera explained. "They talk to their friends first, then maybe their teachers, and their parents last."

    Parents who know what's going on in their teenagers' lives are in the best position to help them. To break down the wall of silence, parents should create chances to understand what their children want to say, and try to find ways to talk and write to them. And they must give their children a mental (思想的) break, for children also need freedom, though young. Another thing parents should remember is that to be a friend, not a manager, with their children is a better way to know them.