【推荐1】One afternoon I was sitting at home feeling so bored. Instead of feeling sorry for myself, I wanted to meet people and have new experiences so I decided to start volunteering. I searched on my computer and found a website where I could volunteer on a farm in France.

My time working on a farm was a new experience for me. It was basically a free holiday as food and accommodation were provided. However, it was not my typical holiday as I had to look after fifteen horses and sleep at the top of a tower in a castle! I was an awful farmer but it did not matter because I made some great friends. However, you do not need to go abroad to volunteer. I have had plenty of adventures at home as volunteering can become a hobby. For example, I love singing so I had a good laugh waving my arms in an attempt to conduct my local choir. I did slowly improve and it felt great to conduct the choir in a concert. At university, I organized a concert for charity with my friends. It was really fun finding bands and raising money for a cause we believe in.

It is true that you feel good volunteering but there are also other advantages. I once volunteered as a server at a charity sports event where the organizers gave me cupcakes to thank me for my services. I also volunteered in a charity shop so I found loads of nice cheap clothes to update my wardrobe(衣柜).

While this is all fun, my favorite aspect of volunteering is creating and sharing stories. My terrible attempts at farming have given me hilarious stories to tell! Talking to volunteers from different countries and backgrounds has also helped me learn more about the world. I feel thankful to have had so much fun with many nice people thanks to volunteering.

【推荐2】Beatrice De Lavalette was just 17 years old when she was seriously injured in a terrorist attack in Belgium, losing both of her legs from the knee down.

The teen spent the next several months in receiving treatment, working hard to regain her movement and independence. She appreciated her family for supporting her and comforting her by saying that life would go on during those dark days.

Her beloved horse, DeeDee, was especially helpful in her recovery. Beatrice grew up in an equestrian (马术的) family. She started riding when she was just a kid, competing in dressage(盛装舞步) by the time she was 12. When her therapist (治疗专家) brought DeeDee to the hospital parking lot one day, Beatrice knew her love of horses and riding was the way forward.

A few days later, her therapist drove her to the stables (马厩), and lifted her up onto DeeDee, beginning her challenging task of relearning how to ride. Even though her muscle strength as well as her sense of control was gone, she never submitted to her misfortune. Instead, she was eager to get back to her “real life”. Little by little, she successfully regained the strength to ride without assistance.

Her efforts paid off eventually. In April 2017, Beatrice was able to return to competitions at a show. Now, six years after the accident that almost killed her, she was selected to represent Team USA at the Tokyo 2020 Paralympic Games!

DeeDee had retired from competing, so Beatrice rode her new horse, a Dutch warm blood named Clarc. The two of them earned fifth place in the grade II individual category and sixth in the freestyle! “My being here shows that anything is possible,” she said. “I know it’s kind of the usual thing to say, but it’s true. Just go for it.”

【推荐3】When it comes to friends, I desire those who will share my happiness with me. When I was in the eighth grade, I had a friend. We were shy and “too serious” about our studies when it was becoming fashionable with our classmates to learn acceptable social behaviors. We said little at school, but she would come to my house and we would sit down with pencils and paper, and one of us would say: “Let’s start with a train whistle today.” We would sit quietly together and write separate poems or stories that grew out of a train whistle. Then we would read them aloud. At the end of that school year, we, too, were changed into social creatures and the stories and poems stopped.

When I lived for a time in London, I had a friend. He was in despair (失望) and I was in despair. But our friendship was based on the idea in each of us that we would be sorry later if we did not explore this great city because we had felt bad at the time. We met every Sunday for five weeks and found many excellent things. We walked until our despairs disappeared and then we parted. We gave London to each other.

For almost four years I have had a remarkable friend. We write long letters in which we often discover our strangest selves. Each of us appears, sometimes in a funny way, in the other’s dreams. She and I agree that, at certain times, we seem to be parts of the same mind. In my most interesting moments, I often think: “Yes, I must tell...” We have never met.

It is such comforting companions I wish to keep. One bright hour with their kind is worth more to me than the lifetime services of a psychologist (心理学家), who will only fill up the healing (愈合的) silence necessary to those darkest moments in which I would rather be my own best friend.

【推荐2】Overcoming extreme cold, cruel ice and people dismissing him as mad, Slovenian Davo Kamicar became the first person to ski non-stop down Mount Everest.

After a dramatic fall over almost sheer cliffs of snow, stones and ice, 38-year-old Kamicar emerged in his base camp after five hours of skiing. “I feel only absolute happiness and absolute tiredness,” he said.

At one stage he had to speed over stretches of ice that collapsed and broke underneath him and could have sent him falling into the deep crevasses (裂缝) that dot the mountain.

The descent (下落) had been seen by many as insanely dangerous. The Darwin Awards website, which documents deaths which are foolhardy, urged people to log on to Internet broadcasts of the attempt. “Keep your eyes peeled for a live Darwin Award,” it said.

However, the only body to make the news was the corpse (尸体) of an unknown mountaineer which Kamicar zipped past as he descended, one of an estimated 120 corpses, thought to litter the slopes.

“This mountain is always full of surprises. Seeing a dead man out there was a really shocking experience,” he said.

Thanks to strategically placed cameras on the mountain and one attached to his safety helmet, hundreds of thousands of people witnessed his descent on the Internet, which was one of the record highs ever. During the run more than 650,000 hits were registered on his expedition website jamming it for a time as others tried to access the site.

Weather conditions were so severe that Kamicar had to abandon plans to rest on the summit before attempting to descend. Instead, suffering from fatigue, as soon as he reached the top he put on his skis and flung himself back down the mountain.

Dealing with the mountain had already cost Kamicar two fingers when a previous failed attempt saw him get frostbite as a fierce storm lashed the peak.

Kamicar comes from a skiing family and took part in his first Himalayan skiing expedition in 1989. Since then, he has been tireless in raising funds and sponsorship for more expeditions, with Everest as the permanent goal.

【推荐3】Some people say that the planet is getting smaller, that there are few places left to explore, and that the age of exploration will be over soon.

I would argue instead that there has never been a greater need to explore. That’s because the stage for all exploration is the natural world, and nature is experiencing a rapid decline. It is by exploring that we understand and when we understand we develop an appreciation for what is found. Ultimately, only the things we appreciate are worth protecting.

As the golden age of exploration weakens, so does the richness of life on Earth. It isn’t just that there are fewer blank areas on the map; it is that wild places and spaces have been progressively carved up (瓜分). Visiting the Okavango Delta or Kalahari Desert, for example, no longer implies a self-supported expedition. Field stations pop up in important national parks and remote sensing by satellite becomes commonplace.

In the next century, I believe we will need larger and wilder areas. We will need the wilderness, not just for the protection of it, but because it is an important part of the ecosystems from which we gain our necessities like clean water, food and materials. If we succeed, then expeditions — brief travels into the wild that seek to answer questions, monitor populations, and inspire action — will have a renewed sense of purpose. More importantly, they greatly help the public experience, understand and appreciate nature.

Based on my own research expedition which aims to understand “edge effects” — how the changes in temperature at forest edges impact animals, I find it important that today’s scientists continue to spend time in the field. It is here that they begin to understand how seemingly unrelated environmental interactions influence their study system. Sometimes, it’s difficult to know which is important to measure until you stand out there on the forest edge.

It is the young generation that is the main force to lead the next wave of expeditions. The measure of their success will be whether there are still well-preserved wild places for expeditions in the future. Their leadership is needed now, more than ever.