4 . Overlooking the Davis—Gant Varsity Soccer Field, a bed of overturned soil waits for further development. In a few years, this area will become a natural habitat and a playground for animals and residents. This peaceful area didn’t appear naturally, but through planning and action taken by Catlin Gabel’s Tiny Forest project launched by teacher Patrick Walsh.

Forests typically take hundreds of years to mature, with four stages of growth. “Tiny forests flatten out time through the planting of all four layers (层),” Walsh explained. The end result is a fast-growing, native forest in about 20 years. Over 600 plants from 43 species will be planted in the tiny forest, the first one in Oregon.

Walsh was inspired to build a tiny forest after hearing about this idea, which emerged in Japan and has taken hold in North America. He shared his vision with seniors in his class. The seniors researched tiny forests and made a proposal resulting in Clean Water Services donating 60 trees and $5,000 from the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration. Armed with these resources, Walsh and the students started working. “Something I didn’t really expect was the outpouring of students’ enthusiasm. Seeing students from all grades volunteered to contribute to the ‘dirty work’ really blew me away,” Walsh said.

Senior Megan Cover has been at the school since the first grade. “I’ll graduate after working on this project, which is surely sad, but it’s really rewarding and great to be a part of this project and to do my bit. We’re creating this educational space for many young kids,” Cover said.

Walsh summed up his goal of the project, which is to build a place where students can enjoy and learn about nature. “The forest will obviously not solve climate change, but it will deserve the efforts if the kids think about climate change and remember the importance of reforestation and trees when they look outside at the forest.”

5 . A crowd cheered Kunle Adeyanju as he turned off his motorbike engine after completing a tiring 41-day trip. The 44-year-old left London on April 19 and arrived in Nigeria’s commercial center Lagos on Sunday after travelling more than 8,000 _________ across 13 countries. He started the impressive journey to _________ funds for Rotary International to deal with polio(小儿麻痹症)in his native Nigeria.

Accompanied by a dozen _________ for the last part of the journey from the Republic of Benin, Adeyanju was welcomed by supporters in Ike ja, in central Lagos. Adeyanju, called “Lion Heart” by fans, won _________ among the public by _________ daily pictures with comments about his journey on social media. At every stop along the way, he was _________ by enthusiastic supporters.

He did face some _________ , like the one in Mali where one of his wheels _________ . “I was standing in the middle of the night, alone in a bush, not knowing what to do, _________ speaking the language,” he said, explaining he had to walk to the nearest village. “ __________ , the locals helped me.” Not all of the challenges he faced were solved __________ . “Mauritania, a country in northwest Africa, was ‘terrible’,” he said, after he got __________ of hundreds of euros. “The worst experience,” he added.

The former Shell employee self-funded his trip with $ 20,400 in savings, hoping to collect up to $48 million for Rotary International. “I have been suffering from a lack of sleep lately __________ I slept only three to four hours per night. But I feel __________ because I finished this challenge.”Adeyanju said just after he arrived, wiping the sweat off his face. Adeyanju added that he is now planning to have a __________ cycling trip to Ghana or a bike ride to Israel to help raise more funds. And he has another dream: to climb Mount Qomolangma.

7 . Snowboarding genius Su Yiming made a name for himself by winning China’s first Olympic gold in the sport on Tuesday. By cleanly stomping back-to-back 1800 tricks, the teenager landed the biggest prize so far in his young career—gold in the men’s Big Air at the Beijing Winter Olympics. The notable achievement realized a childhood dream to reach the peak of the sport, which he began to learn at the age of 4.

Now with two shinning medals hung around his neck, the 17-year-old described his superb Olympic debut ( 首秀) as an unbelievable experience that has made all his sacrifices worthwhile. “This feels so surreal that I’ve finally accomplished what I’ve dreamed of since I was little,” said an emotional Su.

Over the past four years, Su has combined his talent with hard work to produce one of the swiftest rises to prominence the sport has ever seen. When the Shougang Big Air venue hosted its first international event, Su was an unknown qualifier, who didn’t even make the final runs. Just over two years later, Su is the name on everyone’s lips at the venue’s Olympic debut—drawing the whole nation’s attention to the sport he loves.

“The biggest motivation (动力) for me is my love for snowboarding,” Su said, when asked about the secret to his success. “In snowboarding, I feel like I can show my own style and creativity. Every time I ride my board, it’s always a joyful moment. I hope through my experience, I can inspire more young people to get interested in the sport.”

Su, a former child actor who featured in action movies, said the Olympic gold will encourage him to seek for more breakthroughs—even beyond his athletic career. “I enjoy snowboarding just as much as I enjoy acting,” said Su, who turns 18 on Friday. “I think I still have a lot of possibilities to explore in my future career either in snowboarding or in acting. But now I just want to enjoy the moment and celebrate it as the best possible birthday gift.”

9 . The first time you start to read a poem, you must relax and read through it without concentrating on its meaning. Imagine you are meeting a person for the first time. You will just observe him and listen to his voice, as well as watch his shapes or movements, but you have not yet known what he is all about. Likewise, you may enjoy the sound, rhythms, or wording, and form some first impressions about a poem.

On your second reading, you should concentrate more on the general meaning of the poem. This time, you will want to compare your feelings about the poem by now with how you felt before. Are they the same? What is different and why?

Your third reading will focus more on details: the words, phrases, or images. Looking up any unfamiliar words in a dictionary so that you can gain a more accurate understanding. Using the example given above about meeting someone, his image will change gradually and slightly as you meet and learn more about him. Therefore, in your additional readings, it is a good idea to compare your understanding each time with the understanding before.

A helpful approach to further understanding a poem is to summarize it in your own words. Compare your version of understanding with those of others reading the same poem, and listen to how they form such opinions. Remember, however, that there is no exact or right meaning for a poem, as most poets have admitted they themselves are not exactly sure what they meant when writing certain lines or phrases; they have even been heard to say on occasion that sometimes words just seem to “drop from heaven” and land on the page. That is what awakening the imagination is all about. If you are lucky, and if you practice enough, magical things may happen when you write and you may be able to produce a beautiful poem or other work of art yourself.

10 . When I first heard about Summit Learning, I admitted I was not a bit happy and excited at all. I thought it would require interactions with others. But later, I was astonished when I got to experience it firsthand.

Recently, we did a poetry project, and one of the activities was a peer (同龄人) review. I would never have taken part if it was up to me, as I preferred to work independently. But when I got involved, I found in the experience, I had done something that I thought was nearly impossible it made my poetry better. My partner informed me of my mistakes and told me where I could give more detail.

One of our final products of the project was to present our poetry to the class. I’ve always loved public speaking, but I thought with Summit Learning, I would have fewer chances to speak. I was wrong. The peer activities we did with a partner gave me more belief in my ability and inspired me to do more to make my presentation the best it could possibly be.

Interactions like these are what Summit Learning is all about. This style of learning brings a positive and hard-working culture that allows us to push our boundaries and keep going. It creates a sense of community since we are all working towards a similar goal.

As an active boy, I have always been ahead and advanced, but in a normal classroom, there are restrictions on what I can do. With Summit Learning, I can go beyond expectations in projects or move ahead in learning new content when I’m ready. I have ownership of my work and pursue my goals.

Summit Learning has showed me how much people can grow and change. It has helped me see people and myself differently. It has been one of the greatest experiences of my life, and I cannot see myself going back to a normal classroom.