1 . “This world is so unfair!” my daughter shouted as soon as she entered the door. It turned out that she was caught talking with others while having a math class. And finally she was punished by the teacher. “There were other students talking in class, but the teacher only punished me,” she said angrily.

I asked her, “Should you be punished for speaking when your teacher is in class?” She nodded but also defended, “It is unfair for me because the teacher didn’t punish the other students who spoke!” “Let’s just talk about you. Was the teacher wrong to punish you?” I asked again. She lowered her head and said, “No.”

“That’s fair!” I said. “You know what the price of speaking in class is. You did it and got the punishment you deserved (应得). The teacher didn’t punish others because she could choose to forgive (原谅). From your point of view, it seems unfair, but for those students she has forgiven, there’s no unfairness. It depends on from which angle (角度) you look at the thing.”

People are often like this. When they look at themselves, they are very clear about what they are doing, knowing what their prizes and punishments should be, but they think differently after looking at others. Because comparison with others makes people confused and even becomes a stumbling block (绊脚石) in their life. The most important thing is to understand fairness in a deeper way, not from your point of view only!

3 . After I entered high school, I attended advanced classes and I had a teacher who made me think I was stupid.

In my freshman year, I had trouble writing essays for that teacher. She was strict. She made fun of me, sometimes in front of the class. It didn’t help that my friend was a genius (天才) who would text me the night before our essay was due (到期) and ask, “What is the essay about again?” She would receive a 97 and I would receive an 80 even though 1 had revised (修正) and edited that piece for two weeks. Once I got a 97 on a project that took me two and a half weeks to complete, and I was asked how much help my mom had given to me. In the second grade, I had trouble with my essay writing once again. Besides, I had problems in Maths even though I understood the concepts.

Now I am in a new school and taking many subjects and I am doing well. Actually in the beginning, I was nervous. I thought I would fail all of my classes because my previous teachers had failed me and made me ashamed to try. I thought 1 was just going to get another 80 on an essay. It is hard indeed. They are fast-paced courses and it isn’t easy to keep up with all the readings and when my next lab will be. But with so much adjustment (调整) to the stress, I have become confident. Now I know how much time I need to perfect that essay, and when to set aside time to meet with my tutor (老师) before my next biology exam.

I am writing this blog to the kids that have gotten lost in the mix—any adjusting freshmen, any lost kids in advanced classes, and the hidden genius in everyone. I went through two years in high school, thinking I was a little slower than the other kids in advanced classes. But in this new environment, with the experience I have received and my new-found confidence, I can say, “I’m Anne Hilker and I am smart!” We are all smart.

4 . On our first morning at the Thwaites Glacier in West Antarctica, the air was still. The captain of our research icebreaker made a brave choice: Our ship would hold close to the ice shelf so that the sonar system would peer beneath it while producing a detailed map of the seafloor. The scientists on board, along with the writers like me, were the first people in the history to visit this part of Thwaites. Our task was to bring back as much information as possible about the place where ocean and ice meet.

If Antarctica collapsed, it could threaten West Antarctic Ice Sheet, causing global sea levels to jump 10 feet or more. In terms of the fate of our coastal communities, this particular glacier is the biggest wild card, the largest known unknown. Will Miami even exist in 100 years? Thwaites will decide.

Reading about the collapse of Antarctica’s glaciers, I feel I am being encouraged to jump to a conclusion: that no matter what we do now, what lies ahead is bound to be worse than what came before. This kind of thinking turns Antarctica into a passive symbol of the coming disaster. But what if we were to see Antarctica as a harbinger of change rather than doom (厄运)? This is why I came to Thwaites in 2019. I wanted to find out: Antarctica has the power to rewrite all our maps.

This week a paper analyzed the data from that exploration. The authors suggested that sometime Thwaites retreated at two to three times the rate we see today. Put another way: At the coldest period of the planet, Thwaites is stepping farther outside the script we imagined for it, likely challenging even our most detailed predictions of what is to come.

It took us nearly a month to arrive at the edge of Thwaites. It is one of the most remote regions on Earth. But despite the distance, what happens there is shaping us just as much as we are shaping it. If we can begin to recognize the agency of this faraway glacier, we will be one step closer to embracing the modesty that climate change demands.

6 . Have you seen people who take pictures of food for more than 10 minutes before eating? How about those who beautify their selfie (自拍照片) so much that they can’t be _______?There must be one or more who _______ in your social media. No matter what they choose to share, they share the best but the most unreal.

Take my friend Chen. Every time we went to a restaurant, she would not take a _______ until all the dishes we _______ were on the table. Then, she would spend five minutes in setting the dishes in a seemingly random but in fact _______ order. Then the most important part: taking pictures. After that, she would choose one of the _______ and click in the filter (滤镜) app. The food eventually looked 10 times more delicious than it really was, but we had no _______ to really enjoy it—it all went cold. Actually Chen’s real life is much less elegant. For example, she hates to wash the dishes, so she leaves them in the sink for _______.

Many people care too much about others’ opinions and try too hard to _______ others. They find it hard to be ________ and to accept themselves, and thus they are afraid to show their real life on social media. What they are trying to prove is ________ what they lack in reality. But this will not bring any change to reality, as they still ________ the same old pattern of life.

If they really want an elegant life, they should put more ________ into achieving it. Being more confident, ________ themselves and trying their best to be better is much more meaningful than ________ their life on social media.

7 . Three years ago, I participated in Model United Nations (MUN) held by the Education Department, which was a mock (模拟的) UN activity. During the two days, students are separated in different groups which _______ different countries to debate and try to solve problems. MUN has _______ awards: best delegates (代表), honorary mentions, and verbal mentions.

Each time I participate in MUN, I made good _______ and undoubtedly got a few awards. But I often felt as if I’d _______ because I had never won the best delegate award. I _______ those who didn’t deserve to win the award but won it various times, and I was just filled with _______ at their success. But later I realized that it was also _______ not to get the award because I could actually _______ something, and that I shouldn’t _______ the best delegate award until I was the best delegate I could be.

Failures are completely subjective — we can look at a result as a failure or a ________. Any failure can be regarded as a(n) ________ because you can always learn something from it and do ________ next time. This is supported by John Locke’s theory that we are born with blank views: knowledge and ability are learned from our ________. That’s true. If I make a mistake in the life practice, then I probably won’t ________ that next time. I believe this is ________ the best way to become better.

9 . Once a psychology professor walked around on a stage while teaching her students about how to manage pressure. As she lifted a glass of water, everyone _________ they’d be asked the “glass half empty or glass half full” question. Instead, with a smile on her face, the professor asked, “How _________ is this glass of water I’m holding?”

Students shouted out _________ answers. She replied, “In my _________, the absolute weight of this glass doesn’t _________. It all _________ how long I hold it. If I hold it for a minute or two, it’s fairly light. If I hold it for an hour straight, its _________ might make my arm ache a little. If I hold it for a day straight, my arm will likely cramp up (抽筋) and feel completely numb, forcing me to _________ the glass to the floor. In each _________, the weight of the glass doesn’t change, but the longer I hold it, the heavier it feels to me.”

As the class nodded their heads in agreement, she continued, “Your __________ and worries in life are very much like this glass of water. Think about them for a while and __________ happens. Think about them a bit longer and you begin to ache __________. Think about them all day long, and you will feel completely numb—unable to do anything else __________ you drop them.”

It’s important to remember to let go of your stresses and worries. No matter what happens during the day, as __________ as you can, put all your burdens down. If you still feel the weight of yesterday’s stress, it’s a strong __________ that it’s time to put the glass down.