British people are working to an older age. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} number of working 70-74-year-olds has doubled in recent years. Around 10% of people in {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (they) early 70s now work. This is the {#blank#}3{#/blank#}(high) figure on record. An important reason {#blank#}4{#/blank#} the British work in their old age is that retirement pensions are becoming more difficult to live on. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}(consequence) many older people have to work in order to survive.

    Britain {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (see) great changes in the labor market during the last decade, {#blank#}7{#/blank#}far more people working beyond their retirement age. While there are plenty who enjoy remaining in work, many need to earn extra cash because they can not afford {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(retire) early. Older people need decent(体面地) jobs and pensions so that they can make a proper {#blank#}9{#/blank#}(choose) about whether they remain in work. Now they are deciding on a career change later in life and are starting up their own businesses, {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(devote) to something they may have dreamed of doing for years.

—Yes, she doesn't even have enough {#blank#}1{#/blank#} to walk upstairs.

    In 1608, Thomas Coryate, an Englishman, visited Italy. He liked the country and noted down every interesting thing {#blank#}1{#/blank#} he had found. But there was one thing he found {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (interesting) than the others. In his diary, Thomas wrote, “When the Italians eat meat, they use small forks instead of their hands. As they say, people don't always have clean hands”

    Before {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (leave) for England, Thomas bought a few forks. At home he gave a dinner party to show the {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (invent) to his friends. When the servants brought the steak, he took out a fork and began to eat {#blank#}5{#/blank#} people did in Italy.

    Everybody looked at him in surprise. When he told his friends what it was, they all wanted {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (take) a good look at the strange thing. They said that the Italians were very strange people, for the fork was not very convenient.

    Thomas tried to prove the opposite. He said it was not nice to eat meat {#blank#}7{#/blank#} one's fingers because they were not always clean. He wanted to show how easy {#blank#}8{#/blank#} was to use the fork. But the first piece of meat he took with the fork {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (fall) to the floor. His friends began to laugh and he had to take the fork away.

    Only fifty years later {#blank#}10{#/blank#} people in England begin to use forks.

    Diets have changed in China — and so too has its top crop. Since 2011, the country {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(grow) more corn than rice. Corn production has jumped nearly 125 percent over {#blank#}2{#/blank#} past 25 years, while rice has increased only 7 percent.

    A taste for meat is {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (actual) behind the change: An important part of its corn is used to feed chickens, pigs, and cattle. Another reason for corn's rise: The government encourages farmers to grow corn instead of rice {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (improve) water quality. Corn uses less water {#blank#}5{#/blank#} rice and creates less fertilizer(化肥) runoff. This switch has decreased {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (pollute) in the country's major lakes and reservoirs and made drinking water safer for people.

    According to the World Bank, China accounts for about 30 percent of total {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (globe)fertilizer consumption. The Chinese Ministry of Agriculture finds that between 2005—when the government {#blank#}8{#/blank#} (start) a soil-testing program {#blank#}9{#/blank#} gives specific fertilizer recommendations to farmers - and 2011, fertilizer use dropped by 7.7 million tons. That prevented the emission(排放) of 51.8 million tons of carbon dioxide. China's approach to protecting its environment while {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (feed) its citizens "offers useful lessons for agriculture and food policymakers worldwide." says the bank's Juergen Voegele.