【推荐1】As the school year barely starts in Denver, French teacher Melanie is filled with worry that her students are always absent-minded. Yet, the problem isn’t messaging, enjoying video games or delivering notes. Surprisingly, the problem is about the ongoing heat wave in Denver.

“Today was a little bit hot, so I noticed kids were very sleepy and they were having to get up to drink water quite often.” said Melanie, who works at Denver’s East High School. “If you lose too much water, and you have to keep going to the water fountain, that can take away from their classroom experience.” While nodding off in class on a warm day may seem acceptable for the average teen, Melanie’s observation carries a bigger consequence than dry lips.

“There have been quite a few media reports about teachers noticing that students weren’t able to focus on hotter days,” said R Jisung Park, a researcher, “Does a hotter climate during the school year actually affect the rate of learning?” The drops in academic achievement couldn’t be explained by hotter weekends or hotter summers, but the trend was connected to higher temperatures on school days alone.

The connection between lost learning and a greater number of hot days is one more example of how climate change is already affecting our lives — and it’s an alarm bell for what we stand to lose in the future. Humans still have time to lessen the worst consequences of continued global warming. Without the unlikely important changes in the next 10 years, the globe will be trapped in an unavoidable era of heat waves that were unprecedented (前所未有的) for human beings.

【推荐2】Moving on

The end of school is here at last

It has come so very fast

We look ahead with such delight

The future looks so very bright

It's now time to say goodbye

We're all leaving senior high

Other people，other places

Different schools，different faces

Please don't feel bad and grieve

On the day you take your leave

But celebrate and raise your glass

And say goodbye to all your class

Other subjects，a new class

Different teachers and exams to pass

For everyone in this hall

A new life awaits you all

So don't look sad and cry

You're moving on the university

【推荐3】I’m glad I got to attend PRSSA’s (Public Relations Student Society of America) National Conference in Philadelphia this year because it gave me the opportunity to get advice and insight (见解) from industry professionals. Newhouse (American publisher) brings in great speakers, but I don’t always get the chance to go to the ones I want because of classes and other schedule conflicts (日程冲突). Having five days to focus only on developing my public relations knowledge base was great.

One of the sessions (会议) I enjoyed the most was about food PR. The speaker was very enthusiastic and gave helpful information on her day-to-day responsibilities and on the importance of choosing the person you want to work for, not just the job position.

Attending the different sessions also gave me insight on areas that I might not want to work in. The session on entertainment and public relations showed me that I do not have enough interest in the latest television shows and pop culture to work in the entertainment industry. All of the reality stars and movies everyone was talking about were beyond me.

Attending conferences also allowed our own PRSSA members to get to know each other better and become friends outside of meetings and work. We have a sort of PRSSA family environment where we always try to help each other.

To sum up, if you ever get the chance to attend a PR conference, whether regional or national, be sure to take the opportunity to do so. Conveniently, Syracuse University will be hosting a regional PRSSA conference on March 1-2 this coming spring. Don’t miss it!

【推荐1】Twelve-year-old Amanda Clement raced to the ballpark across the street from her house in Hudson, South Dakota. She couldn't wait to join her brother, Hank, and the boys for a game of baseball.

Would they let her play? She could throw, run and bat as well as any of them, but they let her play only when they needed her. She would have to umpire again. At least she could be part of the game.   Amanda knew all the rules, and the boys could count on her.

Over the next few years, local teams began asking her to judge their games，too. One summer day in 2018，Amanda and her mother traveled to Hawarden, Iowa, to watch Hank play in the championship semiprofessional game. Two local teams decided to play a game be- fore the semiprofessional teams.   Amanda agreed to be the judge. As Amanda finished the morning game, she saw two men walking toward her. To her surprise, they were the manag- ers of the semiprofessional teams and were impressed with her judge and wanted her to judge the afternoon championship game. They would even pay her.   The 16-year-old girl was about to become the first female paid to be a judge of a baseball game. Amanda was calm and confident and judged fairly.   She was right on the spot, watching closely.

Newspaper reporters said that she was absolutely fair.   Managers began to ask for her first when they needed a judge. Amanda was popular with the fans, too.   In one game, the audience weren't happy with the judge and insisted on replacing him with Amanda. Being a judge was hard work. Amanda judged for the whole game, and she worked in all kinds of weather. She said, "It isn't as easy as it looks, but for all that, there is a good deal of enjoyment in the work. You have got to have confidence in your ability or you won't do well in anything.”

【推荐3】Benjamin West, the father of American painting, showed his talent for art when he was only six years of age. But he did not know about brushes before a visitor told him he needed one. In those days, a brush was made from camel’s hair. There were no camels nearby. Benjamin decided that cat hair would work instead. He cut some fur form the family cat to make a brush.

The brush did not last long. Soon Benjamin needed more fur. Before long, the cat began to look ragged (蓬乱). His father said that the cat must be sick. Benjamin was forced to admit what he had been doing.

The Cat’s lot was about to improve. That year, one of Benjamin’s cousins, Mr. Pennington, came to visit. He was impressed with Benjamin’s drawings. When he went home, he sent Benjamin a box of paint and some brushes. He also sent six engravings (版画) by an artist. These were the first pictures and first real paint and brushes Benjamin had ever seen.

In 1747, when Benjamin was nine years old, Mr. Pennington returned for another visit. He was amazed at what Benjamin had done with his gift. He asked Benjamin’s parents if he might take the boy back to Philadelphia for a visit.

In the city, Mr. Pennington gave Benjamin materials for creating oil paintings. The boy began a landscape (风景) painting oil paintings. William Williams, a well-known painter, came to see him work. Williams was impressed with Benjamin and gave him two classic books on painting to take home. The books were long and dull. Benjamin could read only a little, having been a poor student. But he later said, “Those two books were my companions by day, and under my pillow at night.” While it is likely that he understood very little of the books, they were his introduction to classical paintings. The nine-year-old boy decided then that would be an artist.

【推荐1】This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. As I searched the name, I found that there were two famous people having the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts（花生）, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; let the coin decide. I flipped(掷) a coin and Ah! Tails (背面)! My report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

Weeks later, I stood in front of the classroom and proudly read my homework. But things started to get strange. I looked around the room, only to find my classmates with big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes and my stone-faced teacher. I was completely lost. “What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

Oh well, I dropped the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American War of Independence.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that my teacher meant that George Washington?

Of course, my subject result was awful. Sad but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to the headmaster Miss Lancelot, but she said firmly: No re-dos; no new score. I felt that it was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. So I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, I sat in the headmaster’s office again, but this time a completely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the terrible moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster told me I was good enough to skip(跳过) the 6th grade and started the 7th grade next term.

【推荐2】My name is Matthew. I’m not someone who has many secrets, because I’m a terrible liar. But there is one huge secret that I kept for years—I failed my driving test. I had never failed a test before, and had never even come close. Driving made me anxious, but my parents told me I had to. They signed me up for driving lessons. I had gotten a perfect score for my written permit exam, but getting behind the wheel was a different story.

But when October 30th rolled around, my pride set in. I wanted to be like everyone else at my school, showing off the brand new license they’d gotten. Looking back on that special day, I can’t remember if I was nervous. What I do remember is starting the test, pausing at a stop sign after a few seconds, and being asked by the instructor to pull over. I had received an auto-fail since my pause was indeed a pause and not a real stop. I wasn’t upset that I was leaving without a license, but I was scared everyone would know that I had failed. So when I got to class, I told everyone I didn’t want to take the test on my birthday.

One Friday a month later, I went to the test spot again and passed. Later that night I drove for the first time by myself, which brought to me an amazing feeling I’ve never experienced—but still, I couldn’t imagine ever telling anyone the truth. So I didn’t. It wasn’t until midway through college that I came clean. It turned out plenty of my college friends had failed too! And I gathered enough courage to speak the fact out. Yes, I had also failed.

Now I realize failure and imperfection are two things everyone has to experience, without which one couldn’t make a true man.