The President of North Macedonia walked Embla Ademi, an 11-year-old girl to her elementary school in the city of Gostivar on Monday after he heard she had experienced bullying at school as a result of having Down syndrome—a genetic condition that causes learning disabilities, health problems and     11     facial characteristics —a spokesperson for the President’s office told CNN.

Pendarovski talked to Embla’s parents about the challenges she and her family face on a     12     basis, and discussed solutions, his office said in a press release.

“The President said that the behavior of those who     13     children’s rights is unacceptable, especially when it comes to children with atypical development,” the statement said.

“They should not only enjoy the rights they     14    , but also feel equal and welcome in the school desks and schoolyard. It is our     15     as a state, but also as individuals, and the key element in this common mission is empathy.”

“It will help children like Embla, but it will also help us learn from them how to     16     express happiness, share and be in togetherness,” the president added.

In a video shared by Pendarovski’s office, the President can be seen sitting down with Embla's family, giving her gifts. He is also seen     17     the 11-year-old off at the school gate as she walks into the building. “We are all equal in this society. I came here to give my support and to raise awareness that inclusion is a basic principle”, the press release     18     Pendarovski as saying.

The President said he “encouraged and supported” Embla’s parents in their fight for the protection of the rights of children like their daughter.

“Prejudices in that context are the main     19     to building an equal and just society for all,” Pendarovski said, according to the press release.

He also stressed there was a legal and moral responsibility to provide inclusive education, in which the main focus is on developing skills and abilities in children with different     20     processes and emphasized the need to raise public awareness of the issue.

I am not sure if it was the crowds, the harsh lighting, the cheap fabric, or the overwhelming choices spread out before me. But last December, staring at rows of scarves in an H&M in London, I was _________. I decided to give up fast fashion for a year.

Fashion is an estimated $ 2.4 trillion industry. Fast fashion, a big portion of it, has completely _________the way we shop. Brands like H&M, Zara and Forever 21, with their quick _________to trends, speedy deliveries to stores, and ridiculously low prices, have developed faster than their competitors for years. Fast fashion is also a dirty industry, however. It is full of unsafe labor conditions and _________ resources.

Still, giving up fast fashion is not the easiest choice. I was addicted to what our fashion reporter Marc Bain calls the “sad cycle of uncontrollable shopping and _________” brought about by shopping at places such as H&M. But somewhere along the line, browsing for clothes had _________being fun and started feeling mindless. I wasn’t _________finding items I really liked. I was _________clothes as quickly as I was acquiring them. This was partly the _________of mistrusting my own fashion sense, but it was also about the way I shopped. Why care about how well-made or good-looking a piece of clothing is if you can just replace it at a minimal cost to yourself?

And so I __________to ignore the bright shop windows and glittery mannequins (人体 模型) and to bring some “mindfulness" to my wardrobe. For the most part, the shopping __________came as a relief. I began to buy things of __________quality and price, take better care of my clothes, and repair them instead of throwing them away.

However, my fast fashion-less year was __________. Toward the end of the year, I relaxed my rules and allowed myself to buy a few second-hand fast-fashion clothes at charity shops. I hope in the year ahead, with a more focused __________, I can learn how to shop better. Marc’s suggestion is to pause and ask yourself “How much do I really want this?” -- a guideline he follows to reduce his __________to the wastefulness of fast fashion.

Depending on whom you believe, the average American will, over a lifetime, wait in lines for two years (says national public radio) or five years (according to some customer-loyalty experts).

The crucial word is average, as wealthy Americans routinely avoid lines altogether. Once the most democratic of institutions, lines are rapidly becoming the exclusive province of suckers (people who still believe in and practice waiting in lines). Poor suckers, mostly.

Airports resemble France before the Revolution: first-class passengers enjoy "elite" security lines and priority boarding, and disembark before the unwashed in coach, held at bay by a flight attendant, are allowed to foul the Jet-way.

At amusement parks, too, you can now buy your way out of line. This summer I haplessly watched kids use a $52 Gold Flash Pass to jump the lines at Six Flags New England, and similar systems are in use in most major American theme parks, from Universal Orlando to Walt Disney World, where the haves get to watch the have-mores breeze past on their way to their seats.

Flash Pass teaches children a valuable lesson in real-world economics; that the rich are more important than you, especially when it comes to waiting. An NBA player once said to me, with a bemused chuckle of disbelief, that when playing in Canada—get this—"We have to wait in the same customs line as everybody else. "

Almost every line can be breached for a price. In several U. S. cities this summer, early arrivers among the early adopters waiting to buy iPhones offered to sell their spots in the lines. On Craigslist, prospective iPhone purchasers offered to pay "waiters" or "placeholders" to wait in line for them outside Apple stores.

Inevitably, some semi-populist politicians have seen the value of sort-of waiting in lines with the ordinary people. Billionaire New York mayor Michael Bloomberg often waits for the subway with his fellow citizens, though he's first driven by motorcade past the stop nearest his house to a station 22 blocks away, where the wait, or at least the ride, is shorter.

Nothing annoys a national lawmaker more than a person who will not wait in line, unless that line is in front of an elevator at the U. S. Capitol, where Senators and Representatives use private elevators, lest they have to queue with their constituents.

But compromising the integrity of the line is not just antidemocratic, it's out-of-date. There was something about the orderly boarding of Noah's Ark, two by two, that seemed to restore not just civilization but civility during the Great Flood.

How civil was your last flight? Southwest Airlines has first-come, first-served festival seating. But for $ 5 per flight, an unaffiliated company called Board First. com will secure you a coveted "A" boarding pass when that airline opens for online check-in 24 hours before departure. Thus, the savvy traveler doesn't even wait in line when he or she is online.

Some cultures are not renowned for lining up. Then again, some cultures are too adept at lining up: a citizen of the former Soviet Union would join a queue just so he could get to the head of that queue and see what everyone was queuing for.

And then there is the US, where society seems to be cleaving into two groups; Very Important Persons, who don’t wait, and Very Impatient Persons, who do-unhappy.