3 . Working out which colleges to apply for can be one of the most difficult decisions any high schooler can face, but Alena got it all out of the way early as she’s only 13 and already has her medical school offer.

The application process for the medical school was “super stressful”, but she was adamant to follow her dreams regardless of what anyone said, even if it was “no”. “If I could say anything to another little girl that looks like me: never stop believing and don’t give up on your dreams just because somebody tells you ‘no’. You can do anything that you put your mind and your heart to,” she said.

Alena is the youngest African American person to get into a US medical school, and the second-youngest person overall.

Alena didn’t just wake up one day and decide to go to the medical school while in middle school — she’s a child genius. By the time she was 11 she’d already taken several high school courses. When Alena turned 12, she graduated from high school and is currently enrolled (注册) in online classes at Arizona State University.

If all goes to plan for Alena, she’ll start studying to be a doctor at age 15, in 2024, and graduate when she’s 18 when other kids her age are preparing for their freshmen year at college. Although she’s so young, age is “not a big deal” to her and she is just a normal kid.

She explained, “I’m in honors choir, I’m in cheerleading and I play soccer. I hang out at the mall with my friends like a 13-year-old does, and I also go to the movies and go swimming with them. I’m very structured and very disciplined.”

5 . The sun was beginning to sink as I set off into the Harenna Forest. I was on my way to _________ a unique honey harvest. Here, in south-east Ethiopia, hand-carved beehives(蜂箱)are placed in the _________. Reaching them to get the honey is difficult—and often _________ .

I _________ beekeeper Ziyad over a wide stretch of grassland before entering a thick jungle. Ziyad began preparations. He _________ handfuls of damp tree leaves, wrapped them with string, and _________ the bunch to create a torch(火把). Then, with one end of a rope tied to his waist and the other end around the trunk of a tree, Ziyad began _________ . He stopped every few minutes to move the _________ higher up the tree trunk.

_________ , Ziyad got close to the hive which was around 20 metres above the ground. Sitting on a branch, he __________ towards it and blew smoke from his torch into a tiny hole in the hive. Suddenly, Ziyad let out a sharp cry. Within seconds, he’d __________ the trunk and was back on the ground.

It was too __________ to collect the honey. A cool summer had delayed __________ . Baby bees were still in the honeycombs(蜂巢). The adult bees were __________ and kept attacking as Ziyad escaped from the tree. He had to wait for the right __________ to go back up.

6 . The Dead Sea might be the most famous saline body in the world, but it’s by no means the only one. Here, we uncover some other salt lakes around the world.

Dead Sea

The most famous of the lot, the Dead Sea—also known as the Salt Sea—is a natural place to start. It’s technically not a sea at all, but a land salt lake. Its waters are mainly drawn from the Jordan River, and the high salinity (盐度) means no life can survive here, so don’t expect any colorful fish. However, much amusement results from the sea’s buoyancy (浮力): Bring some reading material to the waters and lie back—nature will do the rest.

Lake Assal

Surrounded by black volcano rocks, Lake Assal takes the title of being the lowest point in Africa. Vast salt fields mark its edges; the lake has long been at the centre of the area’s salt trade, on which the region’s African locals still rely. Though the area might not be suitable to live in, the waters are rich in minerals and related to health benefits.

Great Salt Lake

The biggest salt lake in the western hemisphere, and the one that gave Salt Lake City its name, the Great Salt Lake finds its home in northern Utah. What makes the lake well-known is not only the lake’s blue and green waters and white-sand beaches, but also Great Salt Lake State Park and Antelope Island State Park, both offering super hiking and biking trails, and great long views.

Don Juan Pond

Don Juan Pond might not win any prizes for its beauty—at four inches deep, it’s little more than a pond, but it is worth visiting. Its salinity content of almost 40 percent   makes it   one   of   the   saltiest   bodies   of   water   on   Earth, meaning it doesn’t freeze even when Antarctic temperatures drop to -50℃. And with suggestions that water in a similar form could exist on Mars, there’s more than one reason for scientists to study this fascinating dry, cold environment.

7 . Let’s face it—most of us can’t resist a cup of tea or coffee sometimes. They’re a perfect pick-me-up and comforter. But there are alternative drinks, so why have we chosen these as our go-to drinks to soothe our busy lives? And which one is superior?

Let’s start with tea-it’s the second most consumed drink in the world. For many-especially the British-having a “cuppa” is a daily practice. The caffeine contained in it helps wake you up in the morning, and throughout the day we’ll make a brew to distract us from our work. And according to some scientists, habitual tea consumption can have some health benefits. Andrew Steptoe, a professor from University College London’s Department of Epidemiology and Public Health, told BBC Food that drinking black tea “may speed up recovery from the daily stresses in life. . . but we do not know what ingredients of tea were responsible for these effects on stress recovery and relaxation”.

Coffee is tea’s ＂trendier＂ rival(对手). Its popularity has grown over the years, and this is reflected in the number of coffee shops we see around-places to hang out, do business or catch up with friends. Coffee can taste great and can be served in many ways, but it’s sometimes how you have it that can be seen as a status symbol or the preserve of hipsters(潮人)I Of course, it gives you a strong caffeine hit-roughly double of that contained in tea. However, too much can lead to anxiety. Sleep scientist Matt Walker told the BBC that caffeine can decrease the amount of restorative deep sleep you have.

But some scientists say drinking coffee-and green tea-can also be good for us. Researchers at Osaka University linked drinking a daily cup of coffee with a lower risk of death among both stroke survivors and healthy people, while drinking seven or more cups of green tea was associated with a lower risk of death among both heart attack and stroke survivors. So, whether we turn to coffee or tea for its taste, its image or as a lifestyle choice, it could be a lifesaver!

8 . “Fast fashion” has been mentioned so often in the past two years. It refers to low-cost, quickly-made clothing that copies the latest high-quality fashions. Unlike the traditional clothing industry where designers plan their new lines every season, fast fashions are made and sold whenever new fashions appear. They are put in shops and online quickly to create a high demand.

However, environmentalists are getting more worried about the effects of fast fashion on the environment. More than 100 billion items of such clothing are made every year. This is expected to grow by 60 percent by 2030. The fast fashion business model is having adverse effects on the environment. Many of the clothes end up in landfills and are not recycled. The chemicals used to make the clothes are bad for the environment. These cause health problems for people working in clothes factories. There are reports that even children make many of these clothes.

The way people are buying clothes is adding to the problem of clothing waste. Many years ago, people went to stores and tried clothes on. People took more time and thought more carefully before they bought clothes. They also wore them for longer. Today, people order cheap clothes on the Internet so often and if they don’t like them, they send them back or throw them away. Some people say this is causing throwaway society. Some people buy clothes and never even wear them. The German media company Deutsche Welle wrote: “Every year in Europe, four million tons of clothing ends up in the trash. Less than one percent of this is recycled.” It seems that the fashion industry is wasting much.

10 . This painting Spring Bouquet has a precise structure. The flowers spill over into the lower left-hand corner, with an imbalance as free and as wild as nature. But at once the artist responds to this unbalance. To the right of the vase, Renoir has developed a heavy shadow area, rich in purples and sharply contrasted with the light below it. The placing of the straight line in the lower right side is necessary. If the reader covers this line, he will see that the composition becomes unbalanced.

The Impressionist technique had not yet developed when Renoir painted this picture. Yet the painting with light and color indicates Impressionism is around the corner; there is something of that school in the feeling of the out-of-doors that Renoir has acquired. The texture (纹理) of the flowers is described. Above all, one can’t help saying the very nice smell of the flowers is there, too.

Pierre-Auguste Renoir was born in 1841. He began working as a young painter of porcelain and textiles. At age 21, Renoir entered the École des Beaux-Arts in Paris and went on to study under the instructions of painter Charles Gleyre’s. Even though his paintings had been initially rejected by the Academy and the public, with time he became one of the most admired artists of his generation.

Unfortunately, in 1899, he was diagnosed with rheumatoid arthritis (风湿性关节炎). It is a disease that causes a lot of pain. In addition, the person affected by it may also have deformities (畸形). Consequently, his movements became very limited and each movement was a big and certainly painful effort.

His son, Jean Renoir, writes in the book Renoir, My Father after his father passed away, the reaction of the people to the painting of the father, after seeing his hands:

Visitors who were unprepared for this could not take their eyes off his deformity. Though they did not dare to mention it, their reaction would be expressed by some such phrase as “It isn’t possible!” With hands like that, how can he paint those pictures? There’s some mystery somewhere.