As is known to us, the year 2016 has one extra day in it — February 29th. This is because it's {#blank#}1{#/blank#} we call “a leap year”. Every four years, the year has 366 days in {#blank#}2{#/blank#}  instead of 365.

    It is called a leap year because hundreds of years ago in England, the extra day wasn't{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (legal) recognized. There is a well-known tradition in the UK{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (associate) with February 29th, introduced many centuries ago. Women are allowed to break with tradition and propose(求婚) to their boyfriends on this day. This all started back in the{#blank#}5{#/blank#} (five) century, when a famous Irish saint made a{#blank#}6{#/blank#} (complain) that women had to wait too long for men to propose. According to the legend, Saint Patrick said any female dreaming of a proposal could ask her boyfriend to marry her on this additional day in February. This so-called tradition{#blank#}7{#/blank#} (write) in law in the thirteenth century. Scotland passed a law allowing women to propose to men in a leap year. It was said that if the men refused, they had to pay a fine!

    Now in 2016, there are calls{#blank#}8{#/blank#} February 29th to become a public holiday. Some people believe that it should be an{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (office) day off, because no one gets{#blank#}10{#/blank#} (many) payments for working an extra day in a leap year. For the moment though, the British still have to go to work on this day.

    Ask helpful Hannah

    Dear helpful Hannah,

    I've got a problem with my husband, Sam. He bought a smart phone a couple of months ago and he took it on our recent ski vacation to Colorado, it was a great trip except for one problem. He has a constant urge {#blank#}1{#/blank#} for next messages; he checks his phone every five minutes! He's so addicted to it that he just can't stand the idea{#blank#}2{#/blank#} there may be an important text. He can't help checking even at inappropriate times like when we are eating in a restaurant and I am talking to him! He behaves {#blank#}3{#/blank#} any small amount of boredom can make him feel the need to check his phone even when he know he shouldn't. The temptation to see {#blank#}4{#/blank#} is connecting him is just too great. When I ask him to put down the phone and stop {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  (ignore) me, he say, “In a minute.” but still checks to see if {#blank#}6{#/blank#} has posted something new on the Internet. Our life {#blank#}7{#/blank#}  (interrupted). If we go somewhere and I ask him to have the phone at home, he suffers from withdrawal symptom. May this dependency on his smart phone has become more than an everyday problem.

    I recently read an article about “nomophobia,”{#blank#}8{#/blank#} is a real illness people can't suffer from the fear of being without your phone! I am worried that Sam maybe suffering from this illness because he feels anxious if he doesn't have his phone with him, even for a short time.

Who would have thought that little devices like these could have brought so much trouble!

    Sick and Tired Sadie

    Silence is unnatural to man. He does all he can {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(make) a noise in the world, and he fears silence more than anything else. Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence. If he{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(introduce) to another person, and a number of pauses occur in the conversation, he regards himself as{#blank#}3{#/blank#}failure, and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox (喋喋不休的人).He knows that ninety-nine percent of human conversation {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(mean) no more than the buzzing of a fly, but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure (蜡塑人像).

    The aim of conversation is to keep up the buzzing sound. There are, it must be admitted, different qualities of buzz; there is even a buzz that is as{#blank#}5{#/blank#}(annoy) as the continuous noise made by a mosquito (蚊子). But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito {#blank#}6{#/blank#}a quiet person. Most buzzing, fortunately, is pleasant to the ear, and some of it is pleasant even to the mind.

    Those{#blank#}7{#/blank#} hate to pick up the weather as a{#blank#}8{#/blank#}(conversation) opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk. Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(learn) anything new. Some of them are content if they are {#blank#}10{#/blank#}(mere) allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears.

    Two brothers, Herbert and James, lived together with a cat named Edgar.

    James {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (be) particularly devoted to the cat, and when he had to leave town for several days, he left Herbert careful {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(instruct) about the cat's care.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} the end of his first day away, James telephoned his brother ,“How is Edgar ?”He asked.

    “Edgar is {#blank#}4{#/blank#}(die),” Herbert answered. Then James said, “Herbert, you're insensitive(漠不关心的). You know{#blank#}5{#/blank#} close I was to Edgar. You should have broken the news to me {#blank#}6{#/blank#}(slow). When I asked about Edgar tonight, you should have said, 'Edgar's on the roof, but I have called the first department {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (get) him down.' And tomorrow when I called, you could have said the firemen were having trouble{#blank#}8{#/blank#} (take) the pet down, but you were hopeful they would succeed. Then when I called the third time, you could have told me that the firemen have done their{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (good), but unfortunately Edgar had fallen off the roof and was at the vet's(兽医站). Then when I called the last time, you could have said that {#blank#}10{#/blank#} everything possible had been done for Edgar, he had died. That's the way you should have told me about Edgar.”

    As an old English saying goes, "Honesty is the best policy". It is more than{#blank#}1{#/blank#}old cliché(陈词滥调), but a good way to live your life. First, honesty is the{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(easy) choice that we can make. When people get caught in lies, it always costs them something. Many relationships are destroyed by lies. Second, honesty gives us much{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(free). Many believe that being honest limits them in life, but that is not true. Sooner or later those dishonest people {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (pay) a price for their acts; on the contrary, when we are honest, we are {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (true) free.

    If there were two people standing before you, a person {#blank#}6{#/blank#} a record of being honest and a person who is known to be dishonest, who would you be more likely {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (believe)? I'm sure most people would side with the honest person. {#blank#}8{#/blank#} we live in the truth or we live in lies. Truth sets us free and lies leave us in nothing {#blank#}9{#/blank#} more troubles. Honesty is a choice that we can make each day. The choice is {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (you). What will you choose?