【推荐1】Last summer, I helped coach my son’s baseball team and came away with a better understanding of that quality we call “character”. However, when I first watched my team of 11-year-olds play baseball, my first impressions were not positive.

One player regularly left as soon as we started losing. He needed to develop a more optimistic mindset. Another player was overly focused on all our errors during the game. Other boys preferred to dig up the grass when they weren’t involved in the play. A lot of boys threw their baseball bats in frustration when they lost the catch.

While their baseball skills improved over time with more practice, there remained problems with the team members’ all-important character. Our team had a long way to go. For example, some boys were hard on those who made mistakes. Instead of being supportive or encouraging, they criticized or blamed each other.

I started one-on-one talks with each player to discuss things that I had noticed. Some of our conversations focused on technical things like holding the bat up higher or opening their eyes when making a catch. But most conversations were about staying positive and supporting each other. Slowly things began to change. The boys began to take responsibility for their play instead of blaming others for mistakes. They stayed optimistic even when losing. The team culture was improving.

Players began encouraging each other, high-fiving and supporting teammates even if they struck out. I was, however, especially pleased to see some of the boys taking leadership roles and having their own one-on-one talks with their teammates.

I don’t think I made huge progress in teaching the boys how to throw, catch or hit better, but I was pleased that our conversations around character led to something positive. Although we still lost games, our players had stronger characters. As for me, I gained significantly from the experience, too. My character was tested, specifically my patience and ability to remain calm. Next season, our characters will be tested again.

【推荐1】The 20-year-old student will be the first person to compete in the final of the Miss England contest without make-up in its nearly 100-year history, in an attempt to show girls they don’t have to wear it to feel beautiful.

Ms. Raouf, from south London, won a special “bare-face” round of the competition last week, strengthening her place in the final between 40 contestants on 17 October. But while previous winners of this round have returned to wearing make-up for the final, she will not. And if she wins, she says she will leave it off for the Miss World competition, hoping to “inspire the world”.

“I wanted to prove we have a choice,” she tells BBC News. Since last week’s bare-face round, Ms. Raouf has been “overwhelmed” by positive messages on social media. At her early age, Ms. Raouf was “significantly insecure”, and found comparing herself to the “unrealistic standard of beauty” shown on social media had a negative impact on her mental health. But as she got older she gained confidence-and she thinks taking part in the beauty contest, while “very scary” at the time, has increased this.

Ms. Raouf does not object to wearing make-up in general, and will still do so on other occasions. She only wants girls to place more value on their “inner beauty” rather than comparing themselves to others. “When you wear that amount of make-up you’re just concealing yourself. Remove all those layers and you’ll see who you truly are,” she adds.

Miss World was first organized in 1951 in the UK. Some of the rules of entry for the competition have not been changed since then. Miss England hopefuls cannot be older than 27 in their year of entry, and are not allowed to be married or have given birth to children. In 2018, Veronika Didusenko, who had been crowned Miss Ukraine, said the rules needed to change after she had her title taken away for being a mother.

Altering entry rules is difficult but not impossible. Some netizens commented, “Some contestants, Ms. Raouf included, use their platform to do something good in the world.”

【推荐2】Roberta Drury, a 32-year-old woman who was the youngest of the 10 Black people killed at a Buffalo supermarket, was remembered at her funeral Saturday for her love for family and friends.

“Robbie,” as she was called, grew up in the Syracuse area and moved to Buffalo a decade ago to take care of her brother in his fight against leukemia (白血病). She was shot to death May 14 on a trip to buy groceries at the Tops Friendly Market targeted by the white gunman.

“There are no words to fully express the depth and breadth of this tragedy,” Friar Nicholas Spano, parochial vicar (牧师) of Assumption Church in Syracuse, said during the service. “Last Saturday, May 14, our corner of the world was changed forever,” he said. “Lives ended. Dreams shattered and our state was plunged into mourning.”

“Robbie always says Hi to neighbors when she saw them, always making sure they felt noticed and loved,” her sister, Amanda, told the Associated Press by text before the service. “She was that light that shone through whatever darkness might have been present,” Spano said. He said mourners would remember Drury’s “kindness ... love for family and friends, her perseverance, her tenacity (顽强), and most of all, that smile that could light up a room.”

Drury is the second shooting victim to be praised.

Tops was encouraging people to join its stores in a moment of silence to honor the shooting victims Saturday at 2: 30 p.m., the approximate time of the attack a week earlier. Buffalo Mayor Byron Brown also called for 123 seconds of silence from 2: 28 p. m. to 2: 31 p.m., followed by the ringing of church bells 13 times throughout the city to honor the 10 people killed and three wounded.

A candlelight memorial was planned at the Buffalo supermarket in the evening.

【推荐2】On a hot summer day, Julie DiNardo was preparing for a road race like many runners do. But unlike many runners, she placed her three young children into the stroller(婴儿车）she would push throughout the 10-kilometer run.

That day, August 26, 2016, Julie earned a spot in Guinness World Records, setting the record for "Fastest 10km pushing a triple pram(三人婴儿车）(female)."She ran it in 49 minutes in North Kingstown, Rhode Island. Julie, now 33, has been a runner since age five. In her 20s, she ran a race almost every weekend. But she didn't know stroller racing was a thing until she ran across an article three years ago in Runner's World,featuring a woman who did just that.

Julie is half of a rather athletic couple. Her husband, Lenny DiNardo, played baseball for six years and today is an analyst at New England Sports Network. Lenny,39, is still in tip-top shape, but says Julie is the better athlete. Julie ran eight races in2018, six of them with a stroller. She has set other Guinness records, too- fastest half marathon pushing a double stroller, and fastest half marathon pushing a triple stroller.

Julie says her kids- Abby, 6; Lenny, Jr, 4; and Audrey, 2- love being part of the racing, and she loves" knowing that when they grow up, they'll be able to understand they were part of the record." Already, they 're aware of what's happening." At every race that I ran with my kids, all of them cheered at the top of their lungs,' Go mama! Go mama, go! '"she says.

“Organized events began to take hold about eight years ago after factories began building running-friendly strollers," says Jennifer Flanigan, who founded a group called The Stroller Run." I was a runner before," she says. But having kids complicated her running routine." You wanted to go out for a run, but you did not want to leave your children behind at home. There was that guilt. As soon as we got strollers that were able to run long distances, many of us regained our freedom."