【推荐2】My name is Allison, an American boy. During my sophomore year of high school, I participated in an exchange program where a Spanish student came to live in my home for a few weeks and then I went to live in her house in Spain.     1    

After the initial excitement of being in a new place wore off, some of the cultural differences began to affect me, causing me to feel anxious and homesick.    2     My Spanish skills were not at the level of being able to express how I felt clearly.

    3     I usually ate dinner at 6:00 pm at home, but in Spain, we ate it at 10:00 pm when I was very hungry and ready for bed！I was a picky eater, and while I ate meat, I still wasn’t very adventurous with it. But there was a lot of meat in Spanish cuisine. Almost every meal was filled with rich unidentifiable foods.

One night, I asked what we were going to eat. Since I didn’t know the Spanish word “conejo” they used, the entire family started acting like rabbits at the dinner table in an effort to help me understand its meaning.    4     Sometimes I just wanted to curl up in my room alone and order a pizza, but not the pizza they had in Spain.

Some of the new and unusual foods I first had in Spain caused me much stress.    5     This trip taught me how to be flexible and leave my comfort zone, and how important it is to try new things.

【推荐3】It was the festive season. Mom had baked some delicious cookies. Jam tarts were always my favorite and I had enjoyed myself to excess. Moreover, the refrigerator was well-stocked with chocolates and ice-cream so I helped myself to all the goodies. That night I woke up with an unbearable toothache. No amount of aspirin could stop the pain.

When morning arrived, I had to do the unavoidable - make an appointment with the dentist. My dental appointment was at 2 pm that afternoon, which was just another four hours away. The thought was enough to kill my interest in everything else. I had butterflies in my stomach. I arrived at the dental clinic an hour before the appointment.

After registering, I walked unenthusiastically towards a chair. I did not even bother to look at the other patients. Picking up a few magazines, I tried to read to get rid of my fear and pain, but I could not concentrate. All I was aware of was a terrible pain. The sight of patients coming out from the treatment room, with large pieces of gauze sticking out from their mouths, only seemed to worsen my pain.

One of my New Year resolutions was made while I was shifting restlessly in my seat. I vowed never to taste another jam tart or take a chunky bite of chocolate in the future.

When my name was finally called, I staggered into the treatment room. I heard the dentist greeting me, but I could not bring myself to respond to his greeting. The sight of the drilling equipment and the hypodermic syringes (皮下注射器) only increased my feelings of sickness. When the dentist asked me to take my seat and then open my mouth, I felt my heart pounding very fast. I was sure that I was going to get a heart attack.

The dentist informed me that it was best to extract the tooth. I nodded and opened my mouth and tried to think of other things. The next minute or so was one of the most terrifying moments of my life. I grabbed the dentist’s hands more than once. At first, he was quite taken aback and eyed me suspiciously. Then he warned me that he would have my hands tied if I were to repeat my antics. I did not think that he was joking!

Soon the pain gave way to a soothing sensation. When the dentist told me that the pain was all over, I could hardly believe my ears. After paying for the extraction, I walked out of the clinic confidently and headed for the nearest bus stop. I swore that this would be the first and the last time I stepped into a dental clinic.

While other teenagers might be busy taking care of their personal pages online or playing games for hours, 14-year-old Jackson Oswalt from Memphis has been busy doing something different. He has spent his free time building his own nuclear reactor (核反应堆) in his home. Now, the boy is praised by city leaders for his achievement as he is the youngest person to have achieved nuclear fusion (核聚变).

At just 12 years old, Jackson chose to spend his time exploring his interest in nuclear physics. After scouring the Internet, the student learned of the story of Taylor Wilson, an Arkansas boy who won recognition in the field of science as the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion in 2008 at the age of 14. Jackson was greatly inspired by him.

The process of the nuclear experiment is not easy at all. But Jackson thought if Wilson could do it, then he could, too. Maybe he could even break Wilson’s record in the process. The boy started his project by turning his playroom into a laboratory. Then he bought different kinds of things to build own nuclear fusion reactor.

“The beginning of the scientific research was just learning about what other people had done with their fusion reactors,” Jackson said. His parents spent nearly $8,000 to $10,000 supporting his nuclear experiment. “With the money, I searched for and bought the parts that I needed. Often the parts I found were not exactly what I wanted, so I had to make improvements to them.”

Jackson’s hard work finally paid off. Hours before his 13^th birthday, he made history as the youngest person to achieve nuclear fusion in January last year. Months after the project, Jackson continued to test his fusion reactor to further prove his project. On Tuesday, Memphis City leaders officially praised Jackson’s achievements with a resolution.

【推荐3】On the surface, Ana de Armas might seem like a typical Hollywood actress, beautiful and talented. But Ana’s path to stardom has been a unique one. She’s had to find success in a foreign land.

Ana de Armas was born in Havana, Cuba, in 1988. She knew early that she wanted to act and was only 14 when she joined the National Theater School of Cuba. At 18, she decided to move to Spain, where there are more opportunities for Spanish speaking actresses because of its large film industry.

This decision paid off, and Ana’s acting career (事业) started to take off. She played the lead in several Spanish TV shows and movies. But after a while, Ana felt like she was being typecast (定型) as teenagers. Thanks to her newly hired American agent, she decided to move to Hollywood.

Ana arrived in Hollywood when she was 26. She knew very little English. To solve this problem, Ana attended English school, and after just four months of full-time classes, she became fluent enough to land English-speaking roles.

So far, Ana’s Hollywood career has been extremely successful. Since she starred in her first Hollywood film, Knock Knock, in 2015, she has had major roles in movies such as Blade Runner 2049 and Knives Out. For the latter film, Ana earned a Golden Globe nomination (提名) in 2020.

She went on to star in four movies in 2020 and had a scene -stealing performance in the latest James Bond film. She can also be seen in the 2022 film Blonde, in which she stars as Marilyn Monroe.