【推荐3】School uniforms are becoming more and more popular across the U.S.A. That’s no surprise, because they offer many benefits. They immediately end the powerful social sorting and labeling (标记) that come from clothing. If all students are dressed in the same way, they will not pay too much attention to their clothing, and some of them will not be laughed at for wearing the “wrong” clothes.

Some people are against the strict rule of school uniforms, but they do not realize that students already accept a kind of rule — wanting to look just like their friends. The difference is that the clothing students choose for themselves creates social barriers; school uniforms tear those barriers down.

As in other places, uniforms remind the wearers of their purposes and duties. For example, when a man or woman puts on a police uniform, he or she becomes, for a time, the symbol of law and order. The uniform means to the wearer his or her special duties and sends the same message to everyone the wearer meets. People with different jobs wear uniforms of one kind or another. For students, the school uniform reminds them that their task for the six or seven hours they are in school is to get an education.

Some parents are unhappy about uniforms, saying that school uniforms will affect their children’s “creativity.” First, as noted above, the clothes students choose to wear do not necessarily express their individuality. They just copy their classmates. Second, students have the rest of the day to be as creative as they like. While they’re in school, their job is to master reading, writing, and maths; this should take up all the creativity they have. Mastery of those skills will be good for the students to build up their creativity in every way.

【推荐1】Jason Ahn’s favorite parts of Marvel’s (漫威) Iron Man movies are scenes showing inventions being developed. Many of these scenes are similar to the experiences he went through himself before winning national recognition for an innovative classroom whiteboard design.

For Ahn, 17, a rising senior at Ames High School in Iowa in the US, there was a good month’s worth of nights staying up until 4 am — before going to school the next day — during which he first gained the idea for an auto rolling and erasing whiteboard, or ARE Board. He then submitted it to the Raytheon Technologies Invention Convention US Nationals.

All that work paid off for Ahn in 2022 when he was among inventors from across the country to win awards at the competition.

In his physics class — and throughout most of his time in school — he noticed his teachers struggle with having to write and erase (擦) the same notes for each of their classes; that was if they could even reach the top of their traditional whiteboards. However, electronic whiteboards are too expensive.

He made a working prototype (原型) of a whiteboard on a motorized (机动的) conveyor belt system that can be scrolled (滚动) up and down. It is more time and space efficient than a traditional whiteboard. He wanted to make something similar to an electronic whiteboard but far cheaper and easy to use.

“I’ve seen my friends kind of joking, ‘Isn’t this kind of a step backward? We’ve evolved all the way to electronic whiteboards’.” Ahn said.

“In some cases, it’s good to keep the traditional aspects and characteristics of some fundamental tools,” because markers and erasers are more tangible (有形的) and accessible to people, he added.

One of the awards he won at the competition provided him with a patent lawyer to help him get a patent application with the fee covered. He’d be willing to sell a patent to a company.

Ahn thinks of things in daily life that might make the world a better place. “I’m making a notebook of all the ideas that I’m thinking of,” he said.

【推荐2】Washington is home to lots of trees, fireplaces and wood-burning stoves (炉子) too. But what if you lived there and couldn’t cut wood or couldn’t afford to pay someone to do it? Luckily, Shane McDaniel and his twin sons, Harrison and Henry McDaniel, 21, are happy to give a hand. The three men cut truckloads of wood (数货车木头) and then give it to those in need.

It was too much for the McDaniels to use themselves, and when the weather turned cold that November, Shane started thinking of others. He posted (发帖子) on Facebook: “If you are in need of firewood and cannot afford it, please message me personally! If you know someone who burns wood, and they’re living in a cold house this holiday season, please help me and my boys make sure no one goes cold in our neighbourhood.”

The response (反响) was quick. One man offered to give a wood-burning stove. Others raced over to add wood for the McDaniels. Single mom Katelyn Ticer, 29, and her four-year-old daughter depend on a wood-burning stove as their only way of heat, so it was a great help to receive a truckload of firewood from the McDaniels before the holidays. “To get that much wood brought me to tears,” she told msn.com. “So much pressure and worry is off my shoulders. I couldn’t be more thankful.”

【推荐3】Michael is a guy who is always optimistic about life whatever happens.

One day I went up to Michael and asked him, “I don’t understand it. You can’t be positive all the time. How do you do it?”

Michael replied, “Each morning I wake up and say to myself, ‘Mike, you have two choices today. You can choose to be in a good mood or choose to be in a bad mood.’ I choose to be in a good mood. Each time something bad happens, I can choose to be a victim or choose to learn from it. I choose to learn from it. Life is all about choices. You choose how you react to situations. You choose how people will affect your mood. The bottom line is: It's your choice how you live life.”

Soon, I left the big company that I had worked in for years to start my own business. We lost touch, but I often thought about him when I made a choice about life.

Several years later, I heard Michael had a serious accident, falling off 60 feet from a tower. After l8 hours of operation and weeks of intensive care, Michael was released from the hospital. I saw Michael about six months after the accident. When I asked him what had gone through his mind as the accident took place.

“The first thing that went through my mind was the well-being of my soon-to-born daughter,” Michael replied. “Then, lying on the ground, I remembered I had two choices: I could choose to live or I could choose to die. I chose to live.”

“Weren't you afraid?” I asked.

Michael smiled, “The doctors and nurses kept telling me I was going to be fine. But when they wheeled me into the operation room and I saw the expressions on their faces, I got really scared. In their eyes, l read ‘He's a dead man.’ I knew I needed to take action.”

“What did you do?” I asked.

“Well, there was a nurse shouting questions at me,” said Michael. “She asked me if I was allergic to anything. ‘Yes,’ I said. The doctors and nurses stopped working as they waited for my reply. I took a deep breath and yelled, ‘Gravity!’ Over their laughter, I told them, ‘I'm choosing to live. Operate on me as if I am alive, not dead’.”

Michael lived, thanks to the skill of his doctors, but also because of his amazing attitude.

【推荐1】Conditions for growing pumpkins were poor in some areas of the United States this year. The East and parts of the Midwest suffered heavy rains and extreme heat. So the supply for sale has decreased, making prices higher than last year.

Still, many people are buying the large, round fruit. Pumpkins are an important part of the American celebration of Halloween on October thirty-first. Many families visit farms or markets so their children can pick out the pumpkins they want. They remove the insides of the pumpkin and cut pieces from the outside to make a face. Sometimes they place and light candles inside their carved pumpkin faces. People place the pumpkins outside their homes or in their windows.

Americans also use pumpkins for cooking, especially during the American holiday of Thanksgiving in late November. Tradition says early settlers ate pumpkin pie, or something similar to it. Pumpkins belong to the gourd(葫芦) family. They are related to melons, cucumbers and squashes(西葫芦). Some people call pumpkins vegetables. But others, including scientists, call them fruit. Pumpkins have hard skins and seeds in the center. And they contain more Vitamin A than almost any other fruit.

People have grown pumpkins in North and Central America for thousands of years. Pumpkins grow on vines or bushes. Most weigh only a few kilograms. But some pumpkins grow to be huge. A farmer from the state of Rhode Island recently won a competition with a pumpkin that weighed 681 kilograms. It could be the largest in the world. Such super pumpkins are often shown at agricultural fairs.

People use pumpkin in pies, bread, cakes and other baked foods. Many Americans also like to eat baked pumpkin seeds. Americans can also buy processed(加工过的) pumpkin in cans. However, experts say it is not a good idea to process fresh pumpkin at home to use in the future because dangerous bacteria(细菌) can develop. But whole pumpkins can be stored well for weeks in a cool, dark place.

【推荐2】“My wife of 24 years, Marie Roberts, was raised in New York City, worked in the fashion industry, and never got her hands dirty,” said Keith Roberts. “Then, nine years ago, I wanted to move to Florida and reconnect to my country life, but how would I inspire(激发) the same feeling in, well, a city woman? I brought her a two-month-old potbellied pig.”

At first sight, Marie, then 46, was smitten. So soon she took in another abandoned(遗弃) pig. And thus began Sugarloaf Mountain Farm, her animal shelter in central Florida. With the couple’s two children grown up, these animals would now be Marie’s babies.

The Farm now has 300 rescues, from alpacas to donkeys, each with its own story. “A gentleman had a litter of eight pigs, and all but one died,” says Marie. “She weighed one pound and suffered great pain. For three weeks straight, I fed that baby every hour, day and night, seldom sleeping.” Till now, Marie still gets five to ten requests a day to save animals and has to turn most down. “If she can’t rescue the animal, she works with that person to find a solution,” Keith says. “She’s not only saving animals; above all, she’s giving their owners peace of mind.”

“A woman called from her nursing home,” Marie remembers. “Her pigs would be abandoned if she couldn’t find a suitable home. ‘I only have a few months, and I need to know that they’ll be safe,’ she said.” So Marie drove three hours and got them. Soon after, Marie received a note from the woman’s daughter. “Dear Marie,” she wrote. “My mom went peacefully, as she went knowing that they are forever loved. Thank you for being Mom’s angel.”

“She is a ball of energy,” Keith adds. “A few times she’s gone so far in some situations, like when she locked herself in the chicken coop(鸡舍). I found her sitting in it with ten chicks nestled in her lap.” That is exactly what you’d expect from a true mother hen.

【推荐3】Recent data released from the Department of Labor in the US show that for the first time in 10 years, women make up more than half (50.04%)of the workforce. Many have celebrated this milestone as proof that women are inching toward equality in the workplace. After all, a symbol of women's equality in America has always been increased via labor force participation.

For women in today's economy, however, increased employment also carries an increased burden. Women earn less, have less flexibility in terms of their work schedules to meet caretaking demands, and are more likely to experience discrimination based on gender or sexual harassment than their male counterparts in the workforce.

Women earn less than men in nearly every occupation for which there is available data. If we do nothing, women will not reach economic equality with men until 2059.For women of color, it will take more than a century:2130 for black women and 2224 for Hispanic women(those from Latin America).This means women will have to work longer or hold multiple jobs to make ends meet and to care for their families.

Increased employment among women has not translated into less work at home. Many women in the workforce are still primarily responsible for the lion's share of housework and caretaking responsibilities compared with men.

A new study by Oxfam America-Institute for Women's Policy Research finds that women in the United States spend 37%more time on household and care work than their male counterparts, limiting career choices and economic mobility, and affecting their overall health and well-being. Black and Hispanic women spend nearly twice as much time on unpaid housework and caretaking demands as their male counterparts.

Much has been made about our strong economy as measured by how well the stock market performs and low unemployment. There's no doubt the increase in workforce participation among women will help boost this narrative. However, it does not mean that women are more economically secure.

In today's economy, working and middle-class families continue to struggle with rising housing and health care costs, stagnant wages and a shift to a technology-driven economy fueled by automation and the loss of manufacturing jobs. These trends have an extreme impact on women.

【推荐1】This centuries-old town of stone homes could be any rural (农村的) village in Europe. It reached its maximum population at around the turn of the last century, and since then it has slowly emptied until, in 2007, its public school finally shut its doors.

“They say when a town loses its school it loses its soul,”says the governor of St. -Pierre-de-Frugie, Gilbert Chabaud, who was elected to office the following year. After the village’s only restaurant closed too, Gilbert took up his post with a central question, “What can we do to make it come back to life, to make people come here?”

Gilbert, who himself left St. -Pierre-de-Frugie to work in the automobile industry before retiring, found his answer in sustainability (可持续发展). He opened up a store for local producers to sell their vegetables which were grown without using any artificial chemicals. He opened a community (社区) garden and ongoing ecological workshops that encourage knowledge-sharing among the community.

He has a businessman's knowledge: he is making use of the idea shared across the West by many people looking for an alternative to the high-pace urban life. And after the rapid urbanization of the 1950s and 1960s left many villages across Europe abandoned or only partially used, a mini urban-to-rural flow is under way.

Since taking office, 40 new people have moved here — most of them from the cities, bringing the population up to 400. Last year a new school opened in the village. Gilbert is eyeing a bigger place for a new school.

Just a few months ago, lulia Timofticiuc and her partner Guillaume Bled were living in Paris. They were concerned about global environment and at a more micro level about what foods they were consuming and where they were coming from. “We wanted to live lighter, be productive, and be autonomous,” Timofticiuc says. But they didn’t just want to go anywhere. They wanted to go where things were already happening. So they chose St. -Pierre-de-Frugie.

【推荐2】One day about eight years ago in the departure lounge (休息室) of a flight from New York's LaGuardia airport to O'Hare in Chicago, I found a young boy in tears and his mother at his side also appeared upset, I walked to them and invited them to our VIP lounge.

As it turned out, the boy, Miles and his mom were returning to their home in Kansas City. Miles has had some health problems. Though he had received more than thirty operations in a Jewish Hospital in New York, he would be back for more.

Miles enjoyed spending his time in our VIP lounge looking at the entire wall filled with the pictures of many celebrities (名人) who often came to our office. We soon added Miles' picture to the wall among those celebrities.

Among the celebrities, Miles like the country singer Garth Brooks best. Miles would just sit and stare at Garth's picture,

One day, Mr. Brooks was waiting in the lounge for his flight. As he looked at the collection of photographs, Garth asked about the youngster with the big smile. We told him about Miles. We also told him how much Miles loved and respected (尊重) him. He nodded and left.

About six months later, Garth was going to be performing in Kansas City and he asked our workers to help him get in touch with the family. He wanted Miles to be his guest. That evening, not only did Miles sit in the front row, but he and Garth also had a private meeting after the performance.

Although Miles would receive many more treatments after that special evening, his smile greeted us with every following visit. The face of a sick boy was changed by the joy of a stranger.

【推荐3】Once upon a time a greedy emperor forced his subjects to pay heavy taxes. Not only the poor were squeezed, but the nobles in this immense empire were highly taxed too. At last, tired of being crushed by taxes, the nobles held a protest meeting.

When the emperor heard about this, he took fright for he feared a rebellion. So he sent out this proclamation (公告):

"The nobleman that can make my daughter Sarah smile again, for she's mourning the loss of her fiance (未婚夫), will never pay taxes again."

This caused an uproar(骚动) at the protest meeting. Most of the princes decided there was no need now to complain for each was quite sure he would succeed where others might fail. So off they went to get ready to try and make Sarah smile. But some of the nobles warned their fellows that the emperor was not really abolishing any taxes at all. From that day on, a long procession of noble knights trooped from all over the empire to the palace to amuse the weeping princess.

The crowds cheered them as they passed, but when they returned with bowed heads, the same crowds booed and same crowds booed and whished at their failure.

All noblemen appeared except Osmar, the chief of the tiniest farthest away province. The emperor's messengers had taken a long time to reach so remote a place, and Omar set out at once, on bearing the news.

The next morning after Osmar reached the palace, the emperor ordered the newcomer to be led before Sarah Unlike all the other suitors, Omar did nothing at all to amuse the princess. He stared at Sarah without saying a word. And she stared back, with an empty look on her face. The two young people stared silently at each other. Then Omar went back to the emperor and said:

Sire! Give me your scepter(权杖) and I will solve the problem of Sarah."

Surprised at such an odd request, the emperor followed Omar into Sarah's room. The other princesses clustered round, smiling and admiring the handsome young man. With a deep bow to Sarah Omar straightened up and dealt her a blow on the bead with the scepter. Screams filled the air the emperor threw up his arms in rage and his daughters fled in all directions. The guards drew their swords. Then the whole room stopped in amazement. For, out of Sarah's head, which had been chopped off by the blow, rolled broken springs and pieces of metal. The princess that never smiled was a doll! A perfect doll! And nobody had ever been aware of it except Omar.

The only princess that couldn't stop laughing was Marika. The emperor glared at her.

"Be quiet..." he ordered. But he too saw the funny side of it. For the crafty emperor had been making use of Sarah the doll as a way of guaranteeing himself a steady flow of taxes from all his subjects. And now, a man more cunning than himself had exposed his trick. The emperor had a sadden thought he would rid himself of the cheeky Marika and gain an astute son-in-law able to help him hold onto his kingdom.

"You should be put to death for this insolence," he said, "but I'm going to spare your life, if you marry my youngest daughter. Of course, you won't need to pay taxes!" Smiling at a happy Marika, Omar nodded silently. Down in the depths of his mind he was thinking:

"One day, dear father-in-law, I'll be sitting on your Imperial throne." And he was, a few years later.