【推荐1】K2 is nicknamed "savage mountain". You hear tragic stories: For every four people who reach the summit, one dies. I was too afraid to even think about skiing down it. Even the best ski mountaineers thought it impossible.

But that changed after a training expedition to Broad Peak. I got a clear look at K2's massive face, and it inspired me. Over time, my skills improved and, by 2017, I didn't feel the fear anymore. I began preparations. To be the first to do it just adds to the challenge. Fear is an important element of life, but to ski down K2, I had to stop being afraid.

At the base camp, I felt calm and prepared. There were no emotions or doubts — I just knew I could do it. But there were challenges. In total, it took about three days to reach the summit. For many climbers, getting to the peak of K2 would be the defining moment of their lives. For me, it was where the real challenge began.

The most dangerous part was the Messner Traverse. It's pure ice, up to a 75-degree angle in places, with drops on either side. You need to keep your turns and movements smooth and confident. No one had attempted it before, so it was a relief to cross it.

In total, going down the mountain took about seven hours. When I eventually skied into camp, I simply lay in the snow, emotionally and physically exhausted. I'm so proud of what I achieved. No one thought it could be done. It taught me the value of patience and that nobody else can make your dreams come true.

【推荐2】I first met Charlie in the community soon after buying my apartment. He was a relatively short man around his mid-70s. At first, Charlie was very friendly and got along with people in a rather relaxing way.

But a few weeks later, the first time I joined the community meeting, things became difficult. The hot topic was to take control of the community gardens from Charlie and employ a professional gardener to do the job instead. All but Charlie agreed with the suggestion. Charlie had been doing the gardens as if they were his personal belongings. The problem was that his efforts weren’t what the rest of the owners seemed to want, and this led to a debate. As the meeting developed into a slanging match (互相谩骂), I decided to say something.

“Look! As a new owner, I have no interest in what happened in the past. I’m interested in how to solve the present situation. The problem is that I can’t even open my garage door properly because there’s a tree planted too close to it. Finding a professional gardener to solve the problem sounds like a great solution to me.”

Most of the other owners appeared relieved, but Charlie was annoyed. Finally, at the request of everyone, except Charlie, a professional gardener was hired to manage the community gardens.

From that day on, I became Charlie’s enemy. Later, I learned that he always lived in his own world. He was lonely because he had no friends, and he managed to alienate everyone in his life.

Suddenly one day, Charlie fell down the stairs, breaking his leg. Out of pity, I went to the hospital to care for him. During the three months we spent together, I gradually accepted this stubborn old man. After Charlie left the hospital, he became kind not just to me, but to the rest of the community. Since then, the friend lines s of the whole community has raised a lot.

【推荐3】Pat Patterson, a pilot for 25 years, had never met anyone like the handsome young man in the wheelchair who faced him at the Medford, Oregon, airport on July 28, 1976. Mike Henderson, a quadriplegic (四肢瘫痪者), wanted flying lessons.

As a 22­-year-­old Coast Guardsman eight years before, Henderson had fallen off a dock and landed on a floating log, breaking two of his bones. Doctors said that he would probably never walk again, let alone fly. “Here was this doctor telling me how it was going to be,” he says, “but no one was going to limit my freedom to try.”

Henderson parked his wheelchair next to the airplane and began to climb up onto the wing. He injured his elbow on the way, and after a great struggle, finally managed to pull himself into the airplane’s pilot’s seat. In the flight office, Pat Patterson watched in disbelief. “He crawled his way up that wing!” he says. “It took him 45 minutes. When I went out, he was sitting in the pilot’s seat, bleeding from his injured elbow all over the place. When I saw him go through that much pain, I knew nothing could stop him.”

Now everything was up to the instructor and the student, and together they set about solving each problem as it arose. A small piece of carpet gave Henderson traction (摩擦力) to climb the slippery wing. A headset freed his hands from the radio microphone, and the two men developed a moving bar that enabled Henderson to operate the airplane more easily.

Three weeks and eight flying hours after the first lesson, Henderson and Patterson happily phoned Dr. Stoddard — Henderson’s physician. At the airport, as the physician looked on, Henderson quickly wheeled himself around the airplane, doing a thorough, professional ground check. With Patterson and Dr. Stoddard on board, he went through his preflight instrument check. Minutes later, engine starting, the plane rolled down the runway and took off into the gray sky.

【推荐2】Jamie Wardley is a special kind of artist—an ice sculptor. He first trained as a sand sculptor. Later,he learnt about ice sculpture. Now he does sand sculpture in the summer. And in the winter, he sculpts ice.

When sculpting ice,Wardley has to work in cold temperatures. If the weather is cold enough, he can work outside. But winter in the United Kingdom is not always very cold. So often he works in a large freezer where the temperature is about -12℃.

Wardley enjoys sculpting ice outside in the winter. When he sculpts in the open air, people can watch. They can be part of the creative process.

Wardley makes ice sculpting sound simple. But the tools Wardley uses are sharp and dangerous. And the ice is very heavy. Each block of ice weighs 120 kilos. And some larger sculptures are made from several combined blocks of ice. Sometimes ice sculptures can be as big as buildings. In Kemi, Finland there is an ice hotel called the Snow Castle. Each year, Wardley helps build the Snow Castle.

Inside the Snow Castle, the temperature is -50℃. Even the dining tables are made of ice. So you have to wear winter clothes when eating and wear a hat when sleeping. “The ice hotel is built every year in January. Then it melts in April. Each year we rebuild it and create a new design,” Wardley said.

The Snow Castle is a large and amazing work of ice, but Wardley's smaller ice sculptures are special too. One winter, in the city of Bradford, the UK,Wardley created several small sculptures. He used the sculptures to tell a story which contained an important message about goodwill and understanding.

Ice sculptures are temporary works of art. When the temperature rises, they will melt. But that does not mean that their beauty is lost. The sculptures from that day in Bradford have now melted away, but their message of goodwill, understanding, and acceptance remains.

【推荐3】You may feel your backbreaking and low-paid part-time summer job isn’t worth you effort.     1     Here are some you can enjoy.

When landing a job, you’ll put yourself into unfamiliar territory and learn how to survive and develop there.     2     Whether it’s learning a new skill or dealing with a tough boss, you must rely on yourself for solutions, through which you can build up your self-belief.

Hanging around all summer is a great way to relax, but it won’t contribute to your time management skill.     3     This skill helps you decide what should be accomplished in a day and learn how to handle those things to make it happen, which involves prioritizing, planning and judging how much you can realistically finish. The best way to develop this skill is through practice. With loads of free time, you’ll likely not have to flex your time-management muscles.

    4     Take it easy. Most people change their minds many times before settling on their long-term career. Getting out into the workforce as a waiter at a cafe may not help you see what it’ll be like as a doctor but you’ll figure out whether you like to work with people or whether you can work efficiently under pressure. A summer job helps zero in on your likes and dislikes to evaluate your strengths and resolve your weaknesses.

Chances are that your social circle is comprised of people in your age group. However, in a job, you’ll work with diverse groups of people, from whom you’ll learn varying viewpoints and experiences.     5    

【推荐2】Long, long ago there lived at the foot of the mountain a poor farmer and his aged mother. They owned a bit of land which supplied them with food, and they were humble, peaceful, and happy.

The land was governed by a dictatorial (独裁的) leader who, once a warrior, hated anything suggestive of failing health and strength. This caused him to send out a cruel announcement that ordered the entire province to immediately put to death all aged people. The poor farmer loved his mother, and the order filled his heart with sorrow. But he was determined to save his old mother from this unreasonable order.

He found a little hut in the valley. Beneath the kitchen floor was a walled closet for food, which was covered and hidden from view. There the son hid his mother, supplying her with everything she needed, continually watching and fearing she would be discovered.

Time passed, and he was beginning to feel safe when again the governor announced an unreasonable order, demanding that his subjects should present him with a rope of ashes.

The entire province trembled with dread. The order must be obeyed yet who could make a rope of ashes? One night, in great distress, the son came to visit his hidden mother and whispered the news to her. “Wait!” she said. “I will think.”

On the second day she told him what to do. “Make rope of twisted straw,” she said. “Then stretch it upon a row of flat stones and burn it on a windless night.” He called the people together and did as she said and when the flames died down, there upon the stones, with every twist and fiber showing perfectly, lay a rope of ashes.

The governor was pleased and praised the young man greatly, but he demanded to know where he had obtained his wisdom. With deep bows he told his story. The governor listened and then meditated (沉思) in silence. Finally he lifted his head. “The land needs more than strength of youth,” he said. “Ah, that I should have forgotten the well-known saying, “with the crown of snow, there come the wisdom!” That very hour the cruel law was abolished.

【推荐3】By age 12, Gavin Svenson had a strong interest in insects. He couldn’t get enough of digging for them, watching them, and collecting them. He remembers that his parents patiently indulged (纵容) his passion for insects even as he stored them in the fridge of their home.

Around that age, Svenson saw an interview with an insectologist on TV and thought,“Whoa! You can do this as a job?” Clearly, yes, which explains how he ended up as the curator (馆长) at the Cleveland Museum of Natural History.

Deep interests that present at an early age often stay with us throughout life, says Susan Newman, a social psychologist.

So how do you help your teenager find their passion? Parents can be patient and supportive without overdoing it. Svenson feels his parents found the night balance. “My parents were super supportive, but it was mostly me driving it,” says Svenson. Though his parents had some worries about his narrow choice of a career path, they never tried to force him to change it.

Teens are likely to try lots of new activities and may drop them almost as quickly as they pick them up. So how can parents know when it’s a true passion and when not? Newman describes a passion as “an interest or activity that you can’t get enough of; it keeps you coming back for more.” Newman says, “As a parent, you’ll notice that you can’t get their attention because they are totally absorbed.”

But what if the passion that’s absorbing your child is not the one you would have picked for them? “Parents have to realize that their children are separate human beings with interests, likes, and dislikes hat can be very different from their own,” says Newman. “You have to let your teen take the lead in what interests them.”

Now a parent himself, Svenson concurs. “Never lower your kids’ interests. Kids are smart, and they have a great ability to form their own opinion.”