Mr. Henry taught sixth grade science. On the first day of class — he gave us a ______ about an animal called the Cattywampus, a kind of animal that died out during the Ice Age. He ______ around a skull(头盖骨)as he walked. We all took ______ and later had a test.

When he returned my paper, I was ______ . There was a big red “x” through each of my answers. I had failed! ______ must be some mistake! I had written down ______ what Mr. Henry said. Then I learned that everyone in the class had ______ . What had happened? Very simple, Mr. Henry ______ . He had invented this Cattywampus. There had never ______ any such animal. The information in out notes was, ______ , incorrect. Did we expect our marks for incorrect answers? Needless to say, we were ______ .

What kind of test was this? And what kind of teacher? Mr. Henry said he ______ we would learn something from this experience. ______ and textbooks are not perfect. ______ no one is. He told us not to ______ our minds go to sleep, and to speak out ______ we ever thought he or the textbook was wrong.

Every class was an exciting one ______ Mr Henry. I can still remember some science periods from beginning to end. I haven’t made any great scientific subjects, ______ Mr. Henry’s class gave me and my classmates something ______ , like the courage to look people in the ______ and tell them they are wrong. He also showed us that you can have fun doing it.

Six weeks before his 97th birthday, Giuseppe Paternò realized the dream of a lifetime. That is, he got a university _______.

Mr. Paternò’s graduation has _______ news coverage around the world, _______ because of his age. But he has also drawn _______ because his life story _______ commitment. It’s a theme that has been _______ to what people think as millions of schoolchildren in Italy and elsewhere face extraordinary _______ during the coronavirus pandemic (新冠疫情).

Born in a very _______ family in Palermo in 1923, Mr. Paternò was the first of seven children. He began to _______ soon after finishing elementary school. It was only after he retired, in the mid-1980s, that he returned to his ________.

“His story is a ________ that dreams can come true and that you can remain ________, if not in age at least in spirit, if you develop ________,” said Rossella Cancila, his adviser and a professor of history at the University of Palermo.

Italy’s university system is based on a three-year degree, followed by a two-year master’s ________. University officials are hoping that Mr. Paternò will ________ his studies.

Mr. Paternò isn’t so ________. “I have to admit that in this moment, I don’t know whether I would ________ it with the same spirit,” Mr. Paternò said, ________ that all the attention had been a bit tiring. ________, Mr. Paternò said, he would probably register ________. “I want to keep my options open.”

Why girls do better at school than boys?

For centuries, boys were top of the class. But these days, that’s no longer the case.

A new study by the OECD, a club of mostly   _______ countries in Europe and North America, examined how 15-year-old boys and girls performed at reading, mathematics and science. Boys still get somewhat better _______ in maths and physics, and in other science courses the genders are roughly _______. But when it comes to the students who really struggle and suffer at school, the difference is _______ : boys are 50% more likely than girls to fall short of basic standards in all three areas.

_______ are girls performing better at school than their male classmates?

First, girls read more than boys. Reading proficiency (熟练) is the basis upon which all other learning is built. When boys don’t do well in reading, their _______ in other school subjects suffers too.

Second, girls spend much more time on their homework and out-of-class learning. _______ , girls spend five and a half hours per week doing homework while boys spend a little less than four and a half hours. Researchers suggest that doing homework _______ by teachers is linked to better accomplishment in maths, reading and science. Boys, it appears, spend more of their free time in the _______ world; they are 17% more likely to play cooperative online games than girls every day. They also use the Internet more.

Third, peer_______ plays a role. A lot of boys decide early on that they are just too cool for school. They adopt a so-called concept of masculinity (男子气概) that includes a disregard for _______ , which means they’re more likely to be rude and noisy in class. Teachers mark them down for this. In anonymous (匿名的) tests, boys perform better. In fact, the gender gap in reading_______ by a third when teachers don’t know the gender of the pupil they are marking.

So what can be done to close this gap? Getting boys to do more homework and cut down on screen time would help. And offering boys a _______ to read non-fiction would help too: they’re keener on comics and newspapers. But most of all, abandoning gender stereotypes (刻板印象) would _______ all students. Boys can read much better than girls. And as we know, girls in Shanghai are good at mathematics, and they _______ boys from anywhere else in the world.