A plot to rob the bank was ______ to the police, and all the people involved in the plan were caught.

One good way to ______ questions you don’t want to answer in a conversation is to change the topic.

To apply for a job, you need to have ______ such as skills, education, and experience required by the job.

For years, Lily has been ______ all incoming calls on both her mobile phone and home phone because she hates to be bothered by unknown callers.

Many people felt extremely sad and angry over the ______ news of a stray dog found abused and killed in the park.

Chris never shows up at meetings on time. His excuse for being ______ late is that he wants to avoid small talk at the beginning of the meetings.

Steve will quit his job next week. His ______ is completely unexpected, especially after his promotion and pay raise two months ago.

People with an ______ illness should avoid going to public places to keep the diseases from spreading.

Although electronic devices are very popular nowadays, paper ______ are still most common in major elections around the world.

We all know that too much stress is not good for our health, but too little is not ideal, either. While   11   stress can be dangerous to the body, short-term stress is actually healthy.

Short-term stress triggers the production of protective chemicals in our body and strengthens the body’s defenses.   12   our body is in a vulnerable situation, a burst of stress will quickly mobilize the body’s own repair system to defend the damaged areas.

When our body is in a vulnerable situation, a burst of stress will quickly mobilize the body’s own repair system to defend the damaged areas. This   13   us from physical discomfort and sickness. Small amounts of stress hormones may even sharpen our memory.

A recent study found that when rats were forced to swim—an activity that places them under stress for a short while—they remembered their way through mazes far   14   than rats that were in a relaxed state.

The key to a healthy lifestyle is to keep our stress level   15  . Too much stress will make us cranky and sick. Too little stress, on the other hand, will lead to boredom and low motivation.

Do you know the difference between the terms meteoroid, meteor, and meteorite in astronomy? Many people find these words confusing. However, the difference is all about their   16  . Meteoroids are far up in the sky.

Meteoroids are far up in the sky. They are chunks of rock or metal that speed through space. Some are very large and may be hundreds of feet wide. Others   17   the size of a small stone. Most meteoroids travel around the sun in space and stay away from the Earth.

However, sometimes a meteoroid will enter the Earth’s atmosphere. Friction with the atmosphere will cause it to   18   and burn while traveling at high speed. As a meteoroid begins to burn in the atmosphere, it leaves a streak of light.

Most meteors vaporize completely before they hit the ground. If any meteor   19   its fiery journey through the atmosphere and lands on Earth, it is called a meteorite.

Large meteorites can cause great explosions and much destruction on the surface of the Earth.   20  , Barringer Crater in the American state of Arizona, measuring 1,200 m in diameter and some 170 m deep, was produced by a meteorite impact.

Some people say that Cantonese is a dialect of Chinese. Others insist that it is a language in its own   21  . Who is correct? How do dialects differ from languages?

Two kinds of criteria are used to   22   languages from dialects.

The first are social and political: In this view, “languages” are typically written, official, and   23  , whereas “dialects” are mostly spoken, unofficial, and looked down upon.

As a saying goes, “A language is a dialect with an army and a navy.” This implies that a powerful group of people like an army or a government can   24   which dialect is chosen as the official language of a state.

Linguists have a different criterion: If two kinds of speech are so   25   in grammar, vocabulary, and pronunciation that their speakers can understand each other, they are regarded as dialects of a single language.

On the other hand, if   26   is difficult or even impossible, they are different languages.

On the other hand, if comprehension is difficult or even impossible, they are different languages. On this   27  , Mexican Spanish and Argentine Spanish are dialects of the same language (Spanish).

Speakers of these dialects normally have little   28   communicating with each other.

Cantonese, on the other hand, is not considered a dialect of Chinese because speakers of the two languages can hardly   29   with each other. This criterion of mutual understandability, though objective, can annoy nationalists.

For example, Danes and Norwegians have no difficulty understanding each other, making Danish and Norwegian   30   as dialects of the same language. Yet, few Danes or Norwegians would actually feel happy about this classification.

Niki de Saint Phalle, one of the most famous artists of the 20^th century, was a French-American born in 1930. She was brought up in a very conservative family, and yet, she rejected the staid, conservative values of her family to pursue a career in painting.   31   Fortunately, painting offered her an effective therapy and a way to develop as an artist.

Her famous “Nana” series gained universal praise. It is a testimony to the glory of women.   32   Some of these sculptures are very big, “so that men would look small next to them.”

Some of these sculptures are very big, “so that men would look small next to them.” Saint Phalle used vivid colors in these works and her female subjects dance cheerfully and merrily.   33   

Saint Phalle’s sculptural park, “The Tarot Garden,” inspired by Tarot cards, is situated in the Italian province of Tuscany.   34   The park contains sculptures of the symbols found on Tarot cards.

The brightly colored combinations of buildings and sculptures reflect the metaphysical qualities represented by the 22 main tarot cards. The sculptures, however, have nothing to do with fortune telling.   35   

Saint Phalle passed away on May 21, 2002, in San Diego, California, at the age of 71. Her death meant the loss of a woman of diverse creative talents.