【推荐1】Most high schools in the United States publish a yearbook once a year, usually in the spring. It is a record of the school year—a “book of memories” for the students. They have photos and text that tell the stories of how students grow up. Students can see how they and their classmates have changed over the years.

However, editors at Spanish River High in Boca Raton, Florida, found it hard to make their yearbooks this year. COVID-19 has emptied schools. There are no sports meetings, concerts or plays. Most students are learning from home.

“It was really difficult to interview people,” said yearbook editor Sean Delaney. “So we had to be creative.”

They decided to focus on personal stories during the pandemic. They found that a student who’d had a car accident was still exercising every day. They also wrote about students who started their own businesses, such as shoe designing or baking.

To get more photos, the editors asked students and teachers to send in their own pictures. These were often of poor quality, so the editors made creative use of large headlines(头版头条) and text.

“I hope the yearbook brings a positive light on the situation we’re in,” Delaney said. “It shows that even though we’re in a pandemic, we’re still doing all these amazing things.”

【推荐2】The eagle has the longest life of its group. It can reach up to 70 years. But to reach this age, the eagle must make a hard and painful decision. When an eagle reaches near 40, its short sharp beak becomes bent (弯曲的). Its long and once flexible (灵活的) talons can no longer catch animals or birds for food. And its old and heavy wings with thick feathers on its body make it difficult to fly. Then, the eagle has only tow choices: to die or to go through a painful time of change which needs five months.

When the eagle feels weak and is about to die, it goes to a place far away on the top of a mountain and sits on a nest. For a new life, the eagle knocks its beak against a rock until it pulls its beak out. After pulling it out, the eagle waits for a new beak to grow. And then it pulls out its talons and old feathers. It takes the eagle five months to complete its change and get a new life. We can call it its rebirth. So it can live for 30 more years.

Like the eagle, we human beings sometimes need to make some changes to get out of our difficulty. In miserable condition, we have to change our ways of life. The changing may be very painful. But sometimes we have to throw off our old habits, memories and traditions. We can’t go on with all our past burdens (重负).

【推荐3】When I was a kid in Minnesota, watermelons were expensive. One of my father’s friends, Bernie, was a rich businessman, who owned a large store in St. Paul.

Every summer, when the first watermelons arrived, Bernie would call. Dad and I would go to Bernie’s place. We’d sit on the edge of the dock ( 码头 )and got ready for a big meal. Bernie would take his knife, cut our first watermelon, hand us both a big piece and sit down next to us. Then we’d bury our faces in watermelon, eating only the heart — the reddest, juiciest, firmest, sweetest, and most seed-free part — and throw away the rest.

Bernie was my father’s ideal of a rich man, I always thought it was because he was such a successful businessman. Years later, I realized that it was not Bernie’s wealth itself but his way of dealing with it that my father liked. Bernie knew how to stop working, get together with friends and eat only the heart of the watermelon.

What I learned from Bernie is that being rich is a state of mind. Some of us, no matter how much money we have, will never be free enough to eat only the heart of the watermelon. If you don’t take the time to enjoy life’s small pleasure, your work is probably hurting your life.

For many years, I forgot that lesson I’d learned as a kid on the dock I was too busy making all the money I could. I hope I have time left to enjoy the success of others and to take pleasure in the day. That’s the heart of the watermelon. I have learned again to throw the rest away.