【推荐2】Susan was a shy girl. She always had a hard time talking with new people. But when she grew up. she became a reporter. This job is usually for a person who likes to talk in front of people. But Susan thought that her shyness made her a better reporter. "Being shy makes me more believable people feel more comfortable around me. "she said.

It is reported that almost 50% of the people say that they are shy. Some people are not shy when they are with their friends. But when they are in a new place, they become quiet and shy.

Why are some people shy? Scientists did a study on two-month-old babies. They found that one of every five babies was very active. These active babies liked to make noise. And one of every five babies was always quiet. These quiet babies might be shy when they grew up.

Family also affects shyness. For example, children are more likely to be shy if their family always tell them that they are wrong. Studies show that if parents have fewer friends and fewer family activities. their children usually become shy.

In fact, shy people are often good at listening. They are good friends because they listen more than they talk. This can also make them successful.

【推荐2】The “24 solar terms” (节气) originated and was first used in China. It was created thousands of years ago on the basis of practical needs of agricultural. Ancient Chinese people used it to guide agricultural production, explain special climate signs and even come up with healthy living tips. Last year, the 24 solar terms was added to UNESCO's world cultural heritage list(联合国教科文组织世界文化遗产名录). Now, it has been brought to life thanks to a creative designer from Southwest China's Guizhou Province.

On the eve of this year's Qingming Festival, Shi Changhong released (发布) his version of reproduced and packaged characters for each solar term in the form of “moving art” of gifs. Since their first release on Zcool on March 29, the gifs have won great praise among the general public and quickly flooded the social media with millions of hits during the festival period.

To maximize publicity, Shi released his work in three forms: the video, the animation and pictures. The background sounds add to the brilliance.

“When I watch the short video, I can strongly feel the Chinese-style elements hidden in it. And it is really cool to liven up traditional Chinese culture in such a unique way.” WeChat user Xiao Feifei said.

“It is really a comfort to me to see so many people like my latest work. To be honest, it would really surprise me if the work had not aroused great interest among Chinese people. The 24 solar terms is a deeply rooted concept that covers the essence of Chinese wisdom. However, only a small portion of people know all the names or the correct order of those terms. My intention is to increase Chinese people’s self-awareness to learn more about our traditional fine culture. Actually, the 24 solar terms work is only a part of my whole design program ‘Charm China’, which I started a year ago.” Shi told China Daily.

【推荐3】In valleys with thick plants, different-sized round and square buildings with faded yellow clay walls and wooden roofs, tulou lie in mountainous villages in Longyan, Fujian Province. There are more than 23,000 tulou in Yongding, which became well-known after 46 were given World Heritage status by UNESCO in 2008. “The structures were awarded because they are exceptional examples of a building of tradition and function demonstrating a particular type of communal (共有的) living and defensive organization, and, in terms of their harmonious relationship with their environment, an outstanding example of human settlement,” UNESCO said.

The giant multi-storied tulou were built with wood and mud walls. Constructed from the 15th to 20th centuries, these massive communal homes were sited based on feng shui principles, which claim to use energy forces to harmonize individuals with their environment. Tulou are also purposefully resting amid tea, tobacco, rice plantations and abundant forests of pine and bamboo.

Throughout history, tulou residents have mostly been Hakka — migrants in southern China. Population pressures created conflict between the Hakka and their neighbors, so they built their homes to double as defending. The buildings are mainly four or five stories high. The first floor serves as the kitchen, the second is used for grain storage and the upper floors act as living areas. The structures are mainly symmetrical (对称的), and their defensive features include ironclad gates, escape tunnels, narrow openings for weapons under the dark-tiled roofs, and a water well. For their defensive function, only rooms on the third floor and higher have windows, which are very small. With sufficient food, the residents could survive in the event of a lengthy conflict.

Communal living is integrity to these villages, where the closed wall design boosts social interaction. Residents gather in the courtyard for ceremonies such as ancestor worship and weddings. Tulou is such an extraordinary piece of architecture, living up to the title given by UNESCO.

【推荐1】For high school leavers starting out in the working world, it is very important to learn particular skills and practice how to behave in an interview or how to find all internship(实习). In some countries, schools have programs to help students onto the path to work. In the United States, however, such programs are still few and far between.

Research shows that if high schools provide career-related courses, students are likely to get higher earnings in later years. In Germany, students as young as 13 and 14 are expected to do internships. German companies work with schools to make sure that young people get the education they need for future employment.

But in America, education reform (改革) programs focus on how well students do in exams instead of bringing them into contact with the working world. Harvard Education school professor Robert Schwartz has criticized education reformers for trying to place all graduates directly on the four-year college track. Schwartz argued that this approach leaves the country’s most vulnerable(易受影响的) kids with no jobs and no skills.

Schwartz believed that the best career programs encourage kids to go for higher education while also teaching them valuable practical skills at high school. James Madison High School in New York, for example, encourages students to choose classes on career-based courses. The school then helps them gain on-the-job experience in those fields while they’re still at high school.

However, even for teens whose schools encourage them to connect with work, the job market is daunting. In the US, unemployment rates for 16-to 19-year-olds are above 20 percent for the third summer in a row. “The risk is that if teenagers miss out on the summer job experience, they become part of this generation of teens who had trouble in landing a job,” said Michael, a researcher in the US.

【推荐2】About eight years ago, Mary Grace Henry of Harrison, New York, asked for a sewing machine for her birthday. She wanted to design and sell headbands (头巾) to pay for just one African girl’s schooling.

Now, 11,000 headbands later, Mary Grace has sold enough to give 45 girls living in poverty the gift of an education.

Henry is the founder of Reverse The Course — a headband-making business that gives 100 percent of the money it makes toward educational chances for girls, primarily in Uganda and Kenya. Henry had the idea to start her business after learning about early marriage in some developing countries—a practice that greatly reduces the likelihood of a girl receiving education.

There are about 67 million child brides (新娘) worldwide, according to the International Center for Research on Women (ICRW). Girls in poor communities in the developing world are greatly affected by the practice, which “repeats the cycle of poverty,” according to the organization.

On November 6, Henry won a World of Children Award for her work to fight against the practice through educational chances. According to the organization, $35,000 will be given to support Reverse The Course’s work by providing money for student workshops and programs for girls in poor Africa.

“The greatest difficulty of education faced by both girls and boys is poverty,” Henry told the awards organization. “Girls, though, face a second hurdle that is far more difficult to address: their culture. In many countries throughout the world, girls are viewed as having not just less value than boys, but often little or no value.”

“When you see a need, act,” Henry said of the advice she’d give to others who want to make change. “Dream big, but start small, taking little steps. Set a goal and don’t frighten yourself by thinking about the ‘what-ifs.’ Each step taken will present both new chances and new difficulties. Face each one as it comes and then keep going. All those little steps, done with love, will lead you to places impossible to imagine.”

【推荐3】Although the Poetry Out Loud (POL) National Finals were cancelled due to COVID-19, it is announced that they’re working with their POL partner, the Poetry Foundation, to explore ways to honor the 2020 state POL champions.

Poetry Out Loud is a national arts education program that encourages the study of great poetry by offering free educational materials and a dynamic recitation competition to high schools across the country. This program helps students master public speaking skills, build self- confidence, and learn about literary history and contemporary life. Since 2005, POL has grown to reach more than 3. 8 million students and 60,000 teachers from 16,000 schools.

POL uses a pyramid structure that starts at the classroom level. Winners advance to a school-wide competition, then to a state competition, and ultimately to the National Finals. Awards and placements are determined only by the judges’ scores based on the POL Evaluation Criteria.

Each winner at the state level receives $200 and an all-expenses-paid trip with an adult to Washington, DC to compete for the national championship. The state winner’s school receives $500 for the purchase of poetry materials. At the national finals, a total of $50,000 is awarded annually.

The free materials POL provides include an online poetry anthology (诗集), a teacher’s guide, videos of student performances, lesson plans and promotional and media resources. Hard copies of materials are available for teachers participating in the official program but anyone can access the online materials at poetryoutloud.org.

Poetry creates a space for empathy (共鸣) that no other art does, so POL as a program creates a really inclusive space where the students read poets of different cultural backgrounds. Khadijah Ceesay, the 2019 POL champion, said at the award ceremony, “Going out to compete and meet different people after the same goal, to share poetry, has been eye opening because It’s given me a chance to see different interpretations and meanings behind words. It’s also taught me the power and weight that words hold.”

【推荐1】Zhang Yaping, a 32-year-old woman, was awarded a poverty-alleviation ( 扶贫) prize by the State Council Leading Group Office of Poverty Alleviation and Development earlier this year. Despite difficulty walking, she overcame poverty through her own effort and helped many people around her.

Born in Gansu province, in 1988, Zhang contracted polio (小儿麻痹症) at a young age, which affected her ability to walk. When she was a junior high school student, a traffic accident caused permanent injury to her father's leg. Zhang had to drop out of school to take care of her father and for several years, continued learning by herself. She was admitted into a secondary technical school in 2009.

After graduation, she decided to work in her hometown. “My brother and sister were quite young, and my mother couldn't take care of both of them as well as my disabled father, so I could not go far,” says Zhang.

She tried her hand at various jobs, but found it difficult because of her leg ailment. She then decided to grow crops in a large scale, inspired by other villagers.

“At the beginning, I didn't have enough money or labor, so I went to villagers' homes every day trying to persuade them to join me, as well as exploring every means to collect money.” says Zhang.

Although she enjoyed a good start to her farming career, it wasn't long before a landslide caused by heavy rain and an earthquake in 2017 resulted in heavy damage to her cooperative. “The loss just robbed me of my confidence to continue. However, it occurred to me that it was I who encouraged other villagers to join the cooperative. If I gave up, I would be lacking in my responsibilities to them,” recalled Zhang. Finally, Zhang Yaping found her resolve and restarted her business with the help of local government. The cooperative gradually developed into a large-scale operation, which has benefited 206 households. They bid farewell to poverty and led a prosperous life.

“In the future, I want to expand the scale of the cooperative, form my own brand, promote deep processing of our products and apply more technology in raising our livestock. Although I walk slowly and take longer to get where I am going, I believe that someday I will overtake many others,” says Zhang.

【推荐2】Turtles have an unfortunate habit of eating plastic objects floating in the sea. These then cannot be broken down and digested, and may ultimately kill them.

It is widely assumed that this special liking for plastics is a matter of mistaken identity. Floating plastic bags, for instance, look similar to jellyfish, which many types of turtles love to eat. Yet lota of plastic objects that end up inside turtles are not similar to jellyfish. Joseph Pfaller of the University of Florida therefore suspects that the smell of micro-organisms (微生物) which grow on floating plastic objects fools turtles to feed.

Researchers at the University of California noticed that certain chemicals, which are released into the air by micro-organism — colonised plastics, are those which many seabirds sniff to track down food. These chemicals mark good places to hunt because they indicate an abundance of the seaweed and bacteria. Since turtles are known to break the surface and sniff the air when swimming towards their feeding areas, Dr. Pfaller indicated that they are following these same chemicals, and are fooled into thinking that floating plastic objects are edible.

To test that idea, he and his colleagues set up an experiment. They arranged for 15 of the animals, each around five months old, to be exposed, in random order, to four smells delivered through a pipe to; the air above an experimental area. The smells were: the vapour from deionised (去离子) water; the smell of turtle-feeding meal; the smell of a clean plastic bottle; and the smell of a similarly plastic bottle that had been kept in the ocean for five weeks to allow seaweed and bacteria to grow on it. Two of the smells-the smell of meal and that of five-week-old bottles-proved far more attractive to the animals than the others.

On the face of it, then, the turtles were responding to the smell of old bottles as if it were the smell of food. In an unpolluted ocean, pretty well anything which had this smell would be edible-or, at least, harmless. Unfortunately, five-week-old plastic bottles and their like are not.

【推荐3】Many kids start humming tunes like “Twinkle, Twinkle Little Star” as their first songs, but Nygel Witherspoon was an exception. He preferred Finnish composer Jean Sibelius’s Violin Concerto in D Minor.

So when Nygel Witherspoon began to hum the very difficult concerto(协奏曲), his family guessed that he should have music lessons. He was, however, just 3 years old.

“He was calm, with an ability to focus.” recalled David Holmes, Witherspoon’s cello(大提琴) teacher from age 3 to l6.

Witherspoon is a familiar name in his hometown. He has inherited his talent from both sides of his family, including his aunt, the late jazz vocalist Shirley Witherspoon.

The 17-year-old doesn’t see himself as competitive. “I think it’s more important for students to have a supportive environment than a competitive one;” he said. “It’s great to have a support system, where you can be yourself and improve right along with others doing the same thing.”

Witherspoon’s love of music blossomed as he attended viola(中提琴) lessons with older siblings. Their teacher, David France, noticed that the little boy was a sponge(海绵).

“He’d absorb everything they did.” France said. Witherspoon was given a box violin, but he wanted to play “the big one”— the cello. He loved its size and tone. That’s when he was matched with his teacher Holmes.

Witherspoon’s drive is inspired by the connection music provides. He recalled that he and his siblings performed as a chambertrio(室内乐三重奏) at their grandmother’s nursing home. The positive reaction from residents gave him motivation.

“It’s so important, whether it’s hip-hop or classical,” he said. “Music is the universal language. It connects all of us.”