The Best Vacation Ever

Winter break was fast coming, and all Scott wanted to do was to go snowboarding. Unfortunately, Scott’s parents had different plans. They had booked a weeklong tropical cruise(乘船游览). Scott hated warm weather and asked if he could just stay at his best friend’s house so he could ______ every day with his friends at the local mountain. His parents didn’t want to hear anything of it. He kept debating(争论) them about the topic, but they would not change their minds. Family time was important to them.

The week of the cruise arrived, and Scott continued to voice his ______ as he and his family left their house to head south. Scott’s dad told him that he would only make the vacation worse for himself if he didn’t change his attitude and open his mind to a new ______. Scott still couldn’t stop thinking about all of the snow he was leaving behind.

When they arrived at the port to board the ship, Scott had a hard time admitting that the size of the ship actually ______ him. The dining room looked like a royal hall; the game room had all of his favorite games; the ship’s deck had several different swimming pools. Then Scott saw the surfing pool. It was ______. It had big waves, and the girl who was showing how to ride the waves made it look like a ton of fun.

When Scott and his parents had their swim suits on, Scott’s dad went first and only lasted about five seconds before he wiped out. Then it was his mom’s turn. She actually made it longer than his dad did. When it was Scott’s turn, he was excited but a little bit ______. He hopped on the board and took a stance(姿势) similar to his snowboarding stance. Then the waves started. It felt similar to snowboarding but different at the same time. On his first ride, Scott rode for almost 30 seconds before wiping out. He was crazy about it though.

A lot of the passengers tried surfing the first day of the cruise, but only eight people or so really started to ______ it, and Scott got to know the people who often surfed there quite well.

By the time the weeklong cruise was over, Scott had new friends he planned to keep in touch with, a new hobby, and great ______. He apologized to his parents for earliest moaning and groaning(牢骚), and told them it was his best vacation ever.

Hats in Harvard

The cold wind blew through the trees and between buildings. Winter was on its way. Amaya was warm in her house, thinking about an article she’d read at school. The article was about the kids who helped out their communities, and she thought it would be really cool to help her own town, Harvard.

The only problem was that she wasn’t sure how to help. What did her town need that a kid could do? In the article, the kids grew food for people who needed food. But it was winter, she couldn’t start a garden. Amaya was still deep in thought when her mom said it was time to go shopping.

On the road, Amaya saw a family walking on the sidewalk, wearing only light jackets. How cold they must be, Amaya thought. That gave her an idea! She could help her town. She could collect winter coats, hats, and gloves for people in Harvard who needed them.

Amaya decided to talk to her teacher, because then she could share her idea with her classmates at least. Mrs. Monroe was very supportive when Amaya talked about her idea. She even said she could help Amaya talk to the principal(校长) about it, so they could get the whole school involved! They decided to call the project “Hats in Harvard” and they wrote up a letter explaining the idea to the families. Mrs. Monroe said they could even take a field trip to parks around Harvard where families in need gathered to drop off the coats, hats, and gloves. Amaya was excited, and really hoped the principal, Mrs. Brown, would let the school participate(参加)!

Mrs. Brown was excited about the idea, and said she would make sure copies of the letter went home with all the students! They collected the winter clothing for a few weeks, then were able to take their field trip to two parks to leave the clothes where families who needed them could get them.

Three days after their field trip, Amaya and her mom once again saw the same family walking together. This time, though, the family looked nice and warm in some new coats, hats, and gloves. Amaya felt a warm glow in her heart, and was very glad she could help her community.

Scientists found that people who have fewer friends in real life are happier than those with far more if many of theirs were online.

Social media, the researchers said, has encouraged younger people to have larger but more impersonal networks of “friends”. But instead of trying to get more friends, they added, a better cure for loneliness might be spending time with those you’re closest to.

Researchers from the University of Leeds, UK, studied data from two online surveys of nearly 1, 500 people. Those who took the survey gave details about their ages, social interactions (相互影响), and how satisfied they were with their social lives. They included details of how often and how they interacted with family or neighbours, and whether they included people who provided services to them in their networks.

The researchers found that those who had a small number of close friends generally were happier than those who had a large number of superficial (关系浅的) friends. “Loneliness has less to do with the number of friends you have, and more to do with how you feel about your friends,” said Dr. Bruine de Bruin, one of the researchers. “It’s often the younger adults who admit to having negative perceptions (负面看法) of their friends. Loneliness happens in people of all ages,” she added. “If you feel lonely, it may be more helpful to make a positive (积极的) connection with a friend than to try and find new people to meet,” she also said.

In her study Dr. Bruine de Bruin found that older people had smaller social circles than young people, but the people in these circles were closer to them. Younger people, on the other hand, had bigger circles that were made up of “peripheral others”—people who are not true friends, but just people they know. These so-called friends didn’t influence the younger people’s happiness.

The results of the study show that the stereotypes (偏见) society has about old people being sad and lonely might not be right. “The research shows that older adults’ smaller networks didn’t have a bad influence on social satisfaction and happiness. In fact, older adults had a better feeling of happiness than younger adults,” said Bruine de Bruin.

Based on these results, the study believes that people should pay more attention on the ties with close friends instead of increasing the number of friends.

Is Writing Notes by Hand Better than Typing?

Many college students have given up taking class notes by hand. Instead, they type on laptop or tablet computers. But scientists from Princeton University and the University of California say that this method is less effective.

If you need to remember something, write it. Writing notes by hand is much better for long-term memory of ideas, or conceptual(概念上的) information. That is the finding of a 2014 study published in the journal Psychological Science.

So, turn off your computer if you want to remember something. Computers can take your attention away from your work. They can be distracting. Computers provide the chance to send a quick message to a friend, check a sports’ score, shop or watch a funny cat video. But scientists say computers may hurt performance in school, called academic performance. The research showed that students who type notes on a keyboard often transcribe, or write down what the professor says word for word. They may write without really thinking about what they are writing. These electronic notes contained more words. But scientists say it leads to “mindless transcription”. Transcription means to record something exactly as you hear it.

However, students taking notes longhand, or by writing them, need to first process the information they hear. Then they record just the main points, or summarize. They use fewer words. This is because people usually write slower than they type. This process of summarizing information leads to a deeper understanding.

In the study, students listened to a teacher and then took a test. Some took notes by typing on a computer. The others took notes by writing them down. Both groups performed about the same in remembering facts. But students who typed their notes did much worse on conceptual questions. These questions required them to understand an idea. Also, researchers found that those who wrote their notes remembered conceptual information better a week later. Researchers believe that the students who wrote notes longhand had a deeper understanding of ideas and concepts.

Scientists know that students probably will still use their laptops and tablets in class. But they suggest using some of the available technologies for writing notes by hand on computer screens. They say this might be a good compromise(折中) between old school and new school.

This research was contained in a classroom. But the findings may be valuable for anyone wanting to remember more of what they read, hear or see.

Students at Bullock Creek High School in Midland, Michigan found an unusual way to raise money for their robotics team.

Every year, 28 students on the Blitz Creek team take part in a national robotics competition, where students are challenged to create a robot that can perform certain tasks.   They design robots, build them, and write the programs that run them.

But building robots isn’t cheap. Maxton Herst joined the team in the ninth grade, and later he became the captain of the robotics team. By accident, Maxton Herst saw a video about a toilet paper pyramid. Maxton realized that it was possible to build a record-setting pyramid, and then sell the toilet paper to get money for their program. All the team members agreed to try his idea.

Blitz Creek has been planning the pyramid since last May. One challenge was calculating(计算) how many rolls of paper were needed. The answer turned out to be 27,434.

In late December, team members gave up part of their winter holiday to build the pyramid. The pyramid was so big that they had to build it from the inside before backing out and filling in the areas where they had been standing. It took about 16 hours, with many people working, to complete the pyramid. The final height of the pyramid was 4.95 meters tall, which is about 61 centimeters taller than the current(当前的) Guinness World Record.

The pyramid opened for viewing on January 4, 2020. Sadly, because the pyramid was in the school’s front hall, it could only stay for three days. With all the excitement caused by the pyramid, it turned out to be fairly easy to sell the toilet paper. Many supporters did help. Families and teachers bought half of the paper. A large company bought the rest. The team made about $10,000 from the event, which will help pay for its activities.

Maxton talks about the success of his crazy idea. “If you’ve got an idea, and you know that this idea is good, push it,” he says. “Don’t stop.”

39. 假如你是李华，得知你们班交换生Peter因病住院了，作为班长的你代表全班同学慰问一下。请用英语写一封电子邮件，告诉他你所了解的他的情况，以及打算为他做什么事情。

40. ②“世上无难事，只要肯登攀”。我们在学习和生活中都会遇到一些问题，但只要积极面对，努力解决，就一定能克服、某英文网站正在开展以“积极面对问题”为主题的征文活动。假如你是李华，请用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈你的曾经遇到过的问题是什么，你是怎么解决的，有什么收获。

Everyone meets problems in life.