1 . Every year around August, millions of teens take their parents to stores to buy new clothes for the start of the school year. Not every parent can afford this, and some teens are forced to go to school in the same clothes they wore last year. The obvious differences in clothes cause differences among students. There is a simple solution to this problem; school uniforms (校服).

I know from personal experience and surveys that wearing uniforms creates a sense of equality among peers (同龄人).

From sixth grade until I graduated from senior high school, I attended a school that required students to wear uniforms. The uniform was very simple: dark brown shoes, green-brown pants, and a white shirt. The uniform left little room for any kind of self-expression, especially through clothes.

However, I learned how to stand out by expressing myself through my personality, art, and sports. I did not know I could draw until the sixth grade. I also would never have learned of my musical abilities if it hadn’t been for my desire to find ways to express myself. Uniforms taught me that I was myself, except what I wore.

Uniforms also contribute to a much safer learning environment. I remember a particular event that happened in my junior high school. A man ran away from prison and wanted to hide in the gym of our school. Luckily, cameras all over the school quickly found the stranger before any danger could ever happen as he was out of place. School officials kept the man locked inside our gym until the police came to take him back to prison.

Uniforms help provide a better educational experience for all students no matter what race, culture, or economic class (经济阶层). In closing, wearing uniforms is good for both schools and students.

2 . When I was in high school, I watched as many of my friends got excited about applying to universities, eagerly waited for the results, and happily shared which four-year university they were going to attend.

I never experienced anything like that, because I was going to a community college, a place I’ve _______ a lot. It’s a place for people who aren’t sure what they want to do or those who were not _______ in high school. I felt some jealousy when my friends went away to universities. In the end, _______, the community college turned out to be a great place for me.

I _______ English as my main subject, and many of my professors were writers who were passionate about what they were doing. My class was _______, with only 16 students, and it allowed me to get close to my professors and get   _______ regularly. Having professors who really knew me brought _______ like being able to edit the magazine, organize poetry readings, and be _______ in writing competitions on campus. Although in the first year I sometimes felt _______ for not having the traditional university experience, I was so glad that I was close to home to have the ________   of my family.

I got all of my units done quickly and was able to graduate a term earlier, which ________ me a large amount of money and time. I’m so ________ that I can get a jump on finishing college, stay close to my family and have ________ relationships with professors. I got a good education and was ________ prepared for my work. There are many ways to finish school, and everyone has to decide what’s the ________ for them.

5 . While travel may have been brought to a standstill, it certainly didn’t stop progress. Here are just a few of the new attractions in some of our favourite places to visit, writes ALENEY DE WINTER.

A fairy tale (童话) first

The first stages of the H. C. Andersen House in Odense, Denmark — the hometown of the famous fairy tale writer — have opened. The site will also soon be home to a kid’s space where more fairy tales will be brought to life. hcandersenshus. dk

A floating (漂浮的) flower garden

Team Lab Planets TOKYO in Toyosu, Tokyo, has shown a new Garden Area with two garden artworks. One of them invites you to get close to 13,000 live orchids (兰花). Visitors will find themselves walking through water and floating as they become one artwork with the flowers. planets. teamlab. art

Sunken (沉没的) city

Dubai landmarks haven’t just gone high, they’ve gone deep! The world’s deepest dive pool, Deep Dive Dubai, is the latest record-breaking attraction. More than 60 metres deep, the too-cool pool includes an underwater sunken city for divers to explore on their own or with a guide: Whether you’ve never dived before or you’re an experienced diver, those aged 10 and over are welcomed. deepdivedubai. com

New York’s newest island

Park life just got a little more interesting in New York. Little Island @Pier55 is a human-built island park next to the Hudson River Park. The new public space is unlike any other in the Big Apple: visitors can take in views of the Hudson River and New York City, along with music, dance and other performances (表演) in its 687-seat theatre. littleisland. org

6 . Last year, hundreds of people spent good money on an experience that they knew would include crowds, discomfort and danger. Many would become ______, due to the extreme cold and low air pressure, and a few would even lose their ______. Yet, despite all this, by the end of the trip many were already planning to ______ For these people, climbing Qomolangma is an experience like no other, making some feel weak and others, ______.

British mountain climber George Mallory wrote of climbing Qomolangma, “What we get from this ______ is just sheer joy... We do not live to eat and make money. We eat and make money to be able to ______ life. That is what life means and what life is for.” ______, Mallory would die on the mountain in 1924, although his body would not be found until many years later.

In 2011, words ______ to those of Mallory were spoken by American mountain climber Alan Arnette, who climbed Qomolangma in that year and was going to climb other high mountains around the world. “It brings into ______ what’s important to you.” He added. “There are a thousand reasons to ______ and only one to keep going. You really have to focus on the one reason that’s most important and ______ to you. It forces you to look deep inside yourself and figure out if you really have the physical, as well as mental, toughness to ______ when you want to stop.”

Psychologist Frank Farley has spent years studying people who jump out of planes and drive fast cars, as well as those who climb Qomolangma. He referred to the ______ of these people as “Type T”, with the “T” standing for “thrill”.

Speaking to the LA Times about the “Type T” personalities, Farley said, “They don’t want to die and they don’t expect to die. “Research also suggests that our ______ to seek risks can be connected to how much we expect to benefit from the result. With this in mind, are the benefits of climbing Qomolangma worth the ______? It’s totally up to you.

9 . My husband, our children and I have had wonderful camping experiences over the past ten years.

Some of our _______ are funny, especially from the early years when our children were little. Once, we _______ along Chalk Creek. I was _______ that our 15-month-old boy would fall into the creek (小溪). I tied a rope around his waist to keep him near to our spot. That lasted about ten minutes. He was _______, and his crying let the whole campground know it. So _______ tying him up, I just kept a close eye on him. It _______ — he didn’t end up in the creek. My three-year-old, however, did.

Another time, we rented a boat in Vallecito Lake. The sky was clear when we _______, but storms move in fast in the mountains, and this one quickly _______ our peaceful morning trip. The _______ picked up and thunder rolled. My husband stopped fishing to ____________ the motor. Nothing. He tried again. No ____________. We were stuck in the middle of the lake with a dead motor. As we all sat there ____________, a fisherman pulled up, threw us a rope and towed (拖) us back. We were ____________.

Now, every year when my husband pulls our camper out of the garage, we are filled with a sense of ____________, wondering what camping fun and ____________ we will experience next.

10 . Like most of us, I try to be mindful of food that goes to waste. The arugula (芝麻菜)was to make a nice green salad, rounding out a roast chicken dinner. But I ended up working late. Then friends called with a dinner invitation. I stuck the chicken in the freezer. But as days passed, the arugula went bad. Even worse, I had unthinkingly bought way too much; I could have made six salads with what I threw out.

In a world where nearly 800 million people a year go hungry, “food waste goes against the moral grain,” as Elizabeth Royte writes in this month’s cover story. It’s jaw-dropping how much perfectly good food is thrown away — from “ugly” (but quite eatable) vegetables rejected by grocers to large amounts of uneaten dishes thrown into restaurant garbage cans.

Producing food that no one eats wastes the water, fuel, and other resources used to grow it. That makes food waste an environmental problem. In fact, Royte writes, “if food waste were a country, it would be the third largest producer of greenhouse gases in the world.”

If that’s hard to understand, let’s keep it as simple as the arugula at the back of my refrigerator. Mike Curtin sees my arugula story all the time — but for him, it's more like 12 bones of donated strawberries nearing their last days. Curtin is CEO of DC Central Kitchen in Washington, D.C., which recovers food and turns it into healthy meals. Last year it recovered more than 807,500 pounds of food by taking donations and collecting blemished (有瑕疵的) produce that otherwise would have rotted in fields. And the strawberries? Volunteers will wash, cut, and freeze or dry them for use in meals down the road.

Such methods seem obvious, yet so often we just don’t think. “Everyone can play a part in reducing waste, whether by not purchasing more food than necessary in your weekly shopping or by asking restaurants to not include the side dish you won’t eat,” Curtin says.