1 . At the beginning of Grade Two, I joined the cross-country running team in our school.

When I came to the first practice, I was filled with optimism. But as the distance we ran in each practice gradually increased from three to four, to six miles, I realized with surprise that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn’t able to run as fast as others. In fact, I was one of the slowest on the team.

What was the point of putting myself through so much pain? After the first few weeks, I wanted to quit.

Then we had our first cross-country meet.

When we started the race, I felt the great pressure of expectations sink onto my shoulders. And after a while I stopped running and struggled to walk up the hill. But then I heard my coaches shouting my name from the top of the hill. I felt confused and embarrassed; why were they cheering for me? I was running terribly! As I tried my best to finish the race, I realized that my coaches didn’t care how fast I ran. Neither did my teammates. During the rest of the season, they were always on the sidelines of every race, cheering for me just as loudly as they’d cheered for the front runner.

From then on, I began to put my effort into supporting my teammates instead of focusing on my own performance. In that way, I celebrated my teammates’ victories as if they were my own; I felt their pain and exhaustion as if they were my own.

Cross-country running made me realize I don’t need to be the best to be successful in life. It taught me to value my relationships with people more than my relationship with my ego. It taught me to cheer for others even if I don’t know their names.

2 . When we pay attention, we see courage every day. I see it in my classroom when a student ________her hand and says, “I’m completely lost.” Do you know how incredibly________it is to say so when you’re pretty sure everyone else gets it?

I recently saw another________of ordinary courage in my son Charlie’s preschool. Parents were invited to________a music presentation by the kids. You know the________— twenty-five children singing with fifty-plus ________in the audience holding up cameras.

One girl cried her way through the entire________because she couldn’t see her mom. As I was telling Charlie goodbye,I saw her mom rush into the door,and immediately start ________the room for her daughter. Another mother walked by this stressed mom, shook her head and________her eyes.

Just then one more mom walked up to this now________mom and smiled. “I wasn’t just late. I________forgot.” She said, “It’s okay. We’re in the same boat.” The woman’s face________and she wiped away a tear. By the time she made it to the corner where the teacher was still________her daughter, she looked calm.

The mom who stopped and shared her story of________was practicing courage. She didn’t have to. Every time we choose________,we make the world a little kinder and braver.

4 . Tabichi’s father,uncle,and cousins have all worked as teachers. He could see that his relatives were making a real difference to people’s lives and wanted to do the same. So for the past 12 years,Tabichi has worked as a math and science teacher in the hope that his lessons will give students a chance to improve their situations.

However,working at a remote village school in Kenya hasn’t been easy. The unique challenges and obstacles have forced Tabichi to find unique solutions for his students. The school only has one computer and unreliable Internet access.The school also has no library or laboratory. To make matters worse, there are not enough books for all the students and the school is desperately in need of more teachers. Most of the students are not able to concentrate because they haven’t had enough meals at home.

One of the other major challenges that Tabichi faces is keeping kids in school as long as possible. So Tabichi spends most of his time outside of the classroom working on ways to keep kids in school. When the 36-year-old gets the feeling that a student is at risk of dropping out, he works to persuade families to put more value in education. To help those in poverty afford food,uniforms, and books, Tabichi also gives away 80 percent of his salary. Despite all the obstacles he faces,Tabichi is credited for improving the school and keeping much of the village’s youth in school. He has also managed to set up science clubs and addressed food insecurity issues.

Thanks to his tireless work, his students have excelled. In recent years,students have won national and international science competitions. In March of 2019,Tabichi was voted the best teacher in the world and won the prize of $1 million.

6 . Compared with the obvious environmental issues we hear about every day, littering often takes a backseat-but it’s more pressing than we may think.

Some may say that a banana peel out of your car along the motorway would be a harmless action. Actually, they are wrong. A banana peel can take up to two years to decompose(分解)，and with a third of motorists admitting to littering while driving, that’s a whole lot of discarded banana peels, or much worse. An orange peel and a cigarette butt has a similar biodegrading(生物降解)term to that of a banana, but tin and aluminium cans last up to 100 years, and plastic bottles last forever, so do glass bottles and plastic bags.

Despite the fact that longer-lasting materials will serve to damage the environment and its animals for longer, we can’t only measure the severity of a certain type of rubbish by its lifetime. For example, despite having a fairly short biodegrading span, more than 120 tons of cigarette-related litter is thrown away in the UK every day. Similarly, our regular littering here and there has caused the UK’s mouse population to increase by 60 million. This suddenly isn’t so mysterious when you consider that since the 1960s our annual littering has increased by an amazing 500%.

It’s not a cheap habit either: UK taxpayers spent $500 million on keeping the streets clean. So, it’s not surprising that if caught fly-tipping, you could face a $20, 000 fine. Regardless of how severe the punishment might seem, however, among the reported cases only 2, 000 were punished out of 825, 000, so we still have some way to go in making sure people observe the rules.

To take back our beautiful cities, we need to do more than simply not leaving rubbish where it ought not to be. We need to care more about the world around us.

8 . Some Music Festivals

Pitchfork Music Festival

Anyone who adores indie(独立的) music and up­and­coming artists will have an amazing time at the Pitchfork Music Festival in Chicago's Union Park. This is a wonderful festival that explores more underground and less­known bands than the other big Chicago summer festival, Lollapalooza.

Date: July 14－16

Location: Chicago, Illinois

Music Type: Indie

Price: $75－$365

Essence Music Festival

No matter what time of the year it is, New Orleans is an incredible place to be if you love live music. The Essence Music Festival is a celebration of great artists like Diana Ross, Chaka Khan, and Mary J. Blige.

Date: June 29－July 2

Location: New Orleans, Louisiana, USA

Music Type: R & B, soul

Price: $126－$2, 700

Sziget Festival

Budapest knows how to organize a party, and Sziget is one of the biggest celebrations of music and culture in all of Europe. You can expect to watch favorite artists like Bad Religion and Mac DeMarco appearing on the stages here during this seven­day festival.

Date: August 9－15

Location: Budapest, Hungary

Music Type: Eclectic, indie, rock

Price: $70－$96

Flow Festival

The Flow Festival is a great excuse to explore the city of Helsinki. Artists including Lana Del Rey and The XX will be playing, among many others. Come to this festival to enjoy a relaxing atmosphere with an earth­friendly attitude.

Date: August 11－13

Location: Helsinki, Finland

Music Type: Rock, soul, jazz

Price: $106－$199

9 . You probably know who Marie Curie was, but you may not have heard of Rachel Carson. Of the outstanding ladies listed below, who do you think was the most important woman of the past 100 years?

Jane Addams (1860-1935)

Anyone who has ever been helped by a social worker has Jane Addams to thank. Addams helped the poor and worked for peace. She encouraged a sense of community by creating shelters and promoting education and services for people in need. In 1931, Addams became the first American woman to win the Nobel Peace Prize.

Rachel Carson (1907-1964)

If it weren’t for Rachel Carson, the environmental movement might not exist today. Her popular 1962 book Silent Spring raised awareness of the dangers of pollution and the harmful effects of chemicals on humans and on the world’s lakes and oceans.

Sandra Day O’Connor (1930-present)

When Sandra Day O’Connor finished third in her class at Stanford Law School, in 1952, she could not find work at a law firm because she was a woman. She became an Arizona state senator (参议员) and, in 1981, the first woman to join the U.S. Supreme Court. O’Connor gave the deciding vote in many important cases during her 24 years on the top court.

Rosa Parks (1913-2005)

On December 1, 1955, in Montgomery, Alabama, Rosa Parks would not give up her seat on a bus to a white passenger. Her simple act landed Parks in prison. But it also set off the Montgomery bus boycott. It lasted for more than a year, and kicked off the civil-rights movement. “The only tired I was, was tired of giving in,” said Parks.