I’ve always had a love for basketball, so when it came time to continue my basketball journey at Columbia High School, I resolved to make it onto the school’s varsity (校队)   basketball team. Any time I wasn’t studying, I was putting on my sports shoes and hitting the school stadium. Just before bed, I’d look up videos of LeBron James and Kevin Durant, trying to learn from the professionals. Day and night, all I could think about was how to get better and how to improve.

After months and months of practice and playing on the junior varsity team, Coach Moore finally told me one day that I was going to be playing for our school’s varsity basketball team going into my junior year. Success! Time for the big league! What I didn’t know, however, was that I was going to face a pretty big challenge in the form of a new transfer student: Chet Harrison.

Harrison had just transferred from another school, Westmoreland High School, where he had already been playing for the varsity team. There were rumors floating around that he was nearly guaranteed a spot playing in the National Collegiate Athletic Association and maybe even the National Basketball League someday.

I’ll admit, the kid was a natural talent when it came to playing basketball. But Harrison’s biggest weakness was his personality. He seemed selfish and sometimes acted like a bully, always seeking attention and showing off after scoring goals. Despite his loyal following of fans, I couldn’t stand him. But after Coach Moore said that Harrison and I would be playing together, I decided to accept it and make peace with the situation.

After months of putting up with Harrison’s attitude, I nearly had enough. Just before the winter break, however, we played a home match against Harrison’s old school Westmoreland and we lost. Harrison in particular felt utterly embarrassed.

I found Harrison struggling to fight off tears in a corner of the boys’ locker room.

After months of working together, we found ourselves again facing Westmoreland on the basketball court for the finals.

2 . Late last year, in the days before the Dosakian election, a video featuring a well-known journalist and a key candidate circulated on social networks. However, it was absolutely fake (虚假的). The International Press Institute has called this episode in Dosakia the first time that AI deepfakes — fake images, or videos generated by artificial intelligence — have influenced a national election greatly.

Security experts consider misinformation the biggest global risk recently — more dangerous than war, and extreme weather events. A constant stream of people is wrestling with this issue. Now even economists are joining in.

Economist Iyan Smith, and others conduct a real-world experiment to see whether simple, low-cost nudges, or interventions, can be effective. Instead of focusing on the supply side of misinformation like social media platforms, they pay attention to the demand side: increasing our capacity to identify the fake information.

The economists split participants randomly into four different groups. One group was shown a video demonstrating a convincing journey of two people from two different social groups who, before interacting, express negative stereotypes (刻板印象) about the other’s group, overcoming their differences and ultimately regretting unthinkingly using stereotypes to dehumanize one another. Another group completed a personality test that shows them their cognitive traits (认知特点) causing prejudice, hoping to increase their self-awareness, and decrease their demand for misinformation. A third group did both while a control group did neither.

The economists find the simple intervention of showing the video makes the participants over 30 percent less likely to “consider fake news reliable”. But the personality test has little effect. As for participants doing both, they were about 31 percent less likely to view true headlines as reliable. In other words, they became so skeptical that even the truth became suspect.

Smith and his colleagues are far from the first scholars to fight misinformation by helping people to think more critically. University of Weymouth psychologist Lisa Kindle also advocates similar ways to help reject misinformation in the wild.

Pot On Happy Face

Sarai was attempting to halter (给……套上缰绳) her bay (棕红色) horse, Amadore, when an unfamiliar voice caught her attention. “I know what your problem is.” said a boy from the stall doorway.

Sarai threw a look over her shoulder but her focus remained on the horse in front of her.

Holding out a hand to her horse. Sarai said. “You heard what Dad said yesterday. If I can’t get this halter on you by tomorrow, we’ll have to send you back to the rescue ranch. I don’t want to send you back.”

“I know what your problem is.” the boy persisted, introducing himself as Cody.

Sarai sighed, propped her hands on her hips, and turned enough to see the boy but keep Amadore in her sight as well.

“I haven’t seen you here before,” said Sarai, frowning. “If you don't know me or my horse, how can you know what my problem is?”

“I just do,” Cody smiled again.

Sarai rolled her eyes and turned her back on Cody. Despite Sarai’s skepticism and her insistence on working alone, he offered to stay around in case she needed help.

The following morning, Sarai’s efforts were met with the same resistance from Amadore. Seeing him push himself back into the corner even further when she approached with breakfast, she frowned again, feeling frustrated and broken-hearted.

Realizing she might need assistance after all, she sought out Cody, who was now grooming a horse named Monty, preparing him for the Great Mustang Challenge.

“How's it going with Amadore?” Cody asked.

The words stuck in her throat, “Well…I need your help. Yesterday you said you knew what my problem was.” “It’s your face,” said Cody. “Horses can read a person’s facial features and determine what might happen because of the look on the face.”

Noticing Sarai’s struggle, Cody explained that her frown, likely a result of concentration, could be misinterpreted by the horse.

“That's silly,” said Sarai skeptically.

“I can prove it,” Cody smiled with a camera in his hand.

With a quick pace, Sarai went back to her own horse.

4 . Authorities have moved to tighten oversight of the rapidly expanding semi-prepared food industry, ironing out definitions of precooked dishes and rolling out rules on the use of additives in the sector to ensure food safety. Restaurants are also being encouraged to identify dishes on their menus that include semi-prepared ingredients, a move that experts say will help customers make informed decisions.

The reforms, led by the State Administration for Market Regulation, which oversees product quality and consumer rights, were outlined in a circular issued on Thursday by six government agencies.

Share (股票) prices of companies involved in the semi prepared food sector fell by an average of 2 percent on the A-share market on Monday because of the strengthened oversight Industry insiders said the rules were the first to clarify the definition of semi-prepared food and set out safety and quality standards for the multibillion yuan industry.

China has more than 70, 000 companies making food items that have undergone some preparation but are not fully cooked or ready to eat, according to Xinhua News Agency. Their output value topped 500 billion yuan ($69.4 million) last year and is on track to surpass 1 trillion yuan in a few years, it said.

The new rules differentiate between semi-prepared food-also known as prepackaged meals — and other food items, such as instant noodles, frozen dumplings and salads. They say semi-prepared food must be a dish that can be consumed after simple preparations such as heating or boiling.

Experts said makers of frozen foods such as dumplings and hamburgers will no longer be regarded as being semi-prepared food businesses, and will be unable to ignore regulations in their own sector or enjoy preferential policies tailor-made for semi-prepared food makers. They said the generalization of the concept of semi prepared food had previously created regulatory difficulties.

It had been a challenging but rewarding term, filled with hard work and a thirst for knowledge. As I handed in my final assignment and saw it was graded A, a sense of pride and satisfaction washed over me. Little did I know that my accomplishments had not gone unnoticed by my families, who had been closely observing my progress.

At the first day of summer vacation, my mother told me excitedly that we would pay a visit to Marco the next day to cheer for my progress in academic study. When I got the good news, I felt on top of the world and could not hold back my high spirits. As I lay in bed that night, a mix of anticipation and delight welled up in my heart, and I slid into a dream-filled sleep, eagerly awaiting the arrival of the coming adventure.

After we arrived in Marco, my parents said that we would first visit the Marco tower. Marco Tower, built in the late 19th century, is a historic landmark that showcases the rich architectural heritage of the city. It is also considered one of the top tourist attractions in the region. Upon hearing the inspiring news, I bounced up and down with joy. But then I felt a bit uneasy because of my fear of heights.

Inside the lift, my palms grew sweaty as the anxiety consumed me. I paced back and forth in the tower lift, unsure of whether I would have the courage. After the lift reached the specific floor, I gasped (倒吸一口气) in horror. The floor here was made of glass, so one could appreciate the height of the tower and take a real adventure. Seeing my family both take out their phones to shoot the grand views, I felt under pressure. Then my mother smiled at me and said delightedly, “Just take it easy and you can do it.”

I didn’t know whether to stay or not.

I was totally struck by the height of the tower.

6 . Loneliness is a bigger health threat than smoking 15 cigarettes a day, according to a new research. Our ancestors likely did not suffer from a lack of companions. Why has loneliness become such a threat? How might it be addressed?

In the distant past, there were few complaints about loneliness. Indeed, every person in a community including children was up to speed on every detail of the lives of everyone else. Instead of suffering from loneliness, our distant ancestors were oppressed (被压迫) by a lack of privacy.     1     They facilitate distance. How did loneliness take over contemporary life?

Typically, people move away from family and friends for work opportunities. Yet, cities often function as gatherings of relative strangers rather than functional communities. The many people wandering around in a city are irrelevant if we have no social connection with them. Migrants to cities may establish various meaningful social links.     2     These might be the people we work among, those who frequent a coffee shop, or members of a gym or sports club. Such associations are not made automatically.     3     In some cases, those who eagerly need social connection can fare poorly in cities.

    4     According to the U. S. Surgeon General’s Report on Loneliness, people who spend more time online are lonelier. People who claim thousands of online “friends” are often chronically anxious, disconnected and depressed. Perhaps, they would gain better social bonus by being kind to people in real life.

Virtually, not everyone needs constant companionship. This is not merely a question of how extroverted a person is.     5     People with a strong sense of external purpose barely suffer from loneliness, whether they perfect their dance moves, get involved in political activism or train service dogs. In this vein, anyone who cultivates a love of nature may become a part of the natural world. That is an endless source of peace, happiness, and connection.