1 . 17-year-old Kenan Pala has a wealth of experience in dealing with homelessness and helping those in need.

The Rancho Bernardo student became one of the 17 young adults appointed ( 任命) to the newly revamped ( 改进的) San Diego Youth Commission by Mayor Todd Gloria in 2021. “Being on the Commission is very important and it’s an exciting new stage for my work in the community,” Pala said.

Pala started Kids4Community in 2017. The group works with local charities and volunteer organizations to encourage children 5 and up to do charity work.

Since the beginning, a major focus of Kids4Community has been to help the homeless. The group meets regularly to provide meal services and care packages (包裹) to the homeless and those in need.

Pala said his interest in helping others comes from the example set by his parents. “My parents moved here from Turkey in 1998. Life was really hard at first, but my parents said they got a lot of help from the San Diego community. They tried very hard to give back whenever and wherever help was needed,” he said.

Pala is also chair of the Lucky Ducklings Youth Advisory Board, part of the Lucky Duck Foundation, another charity with the mission of driving youth participation in community issues, particularly in helping to deal with the issue of homeless youth.

The young man has just been admitted to Yale University. At Yale, he plans to major in economics or business, because personal funds and private equity ( 私募股权) are all his interests. “I want to pursue ( 追求) a career path, but link it with my community and social work,” he said.

Meanwhile, Pala said the Commission members have already been communicating with each other through email, and he is very excited to work with like-minded people who want to make a difference.

Carl Edward Sagan was an American astronomer. He is best known     1     his work as a science popularizer and communicator. His best known scientific     2     (contribute) is research on extraterrestrial life (外星生命).

Sagan published more     3     600 scientific papers and many popular science books. He narrated (解说) and co-wrote the award-winning 1980 television series Cosmos: A Personal Voyage,     4     has been seen by at least 500 million people across 60 different countries. The book Cosmos     5    (publish) in the same year was also a real hit. He also     6    (create) the science fiction novel Contact, the basis for a 1997 film of the same name.

Sagan spent most of     7    (he) career as a professor of astronomy at Cornell University, where he directed the Laboratory for Planetary Studies. Sagan was very good at     8     (help) people to understand the universe and received plenty of     9    (award), including the Pulitzer Prize for his book The Dragons of Eden.

After a long and difficult fight with disease, Sagan died at the age of 62. Sagan was very important, because he made science popular, and     10    (actual) changed the way science was presented. The 1997 movie Contact finished after his death and ended with the dedication (献词) “For Carl.”

3 . The sciences are traditionally viewed as a set of difficult subjects for students, but in reality they are increasingly important for you to understand.     1     And science may be an important part of your education up through college. Learning scientific concepts (概念) through creative classroom experiences may help you better enjoy and understand the subject.

Make a group. Try forming a club or group that meets once or twice a week before school or during lunch for science-related activities.     2     Use club time to play scientific games, watch documentaries, and try different experiments.

    3     Simple experiments such as Magic Bottle are easily done at home in your spare time. More complex experiments can be done for class projects and science fairs. If you are doing your experiment for class or a science fair, it is important to follow the scientific method so that you can properly record and report your experiment.

Draw a picture. If you are a visual (视觉的) learner, turn your studies into art.     4     Be detailed and include labels. If, for example, you are drawing a plant cell (细胞), identify the cell wall, chloroplast (叶绿体), etc. Make sure there is information to match the visuals.     5     Creativity has been shown to help students actively engage in the learning process. Get creative and colorful with your drawings, even if they don’t exactly match the models in the textbooks.

We’ve all heard that laughter is the     1     (good) medicine, and it’s true. Laughter makes you feel better and it’s also good     2     your relationships. Laughter brings people closer, and is a     3     (power) tool for making you relax when feelings are running high. Whether with your friends and family, or co-workers, you can learn to use humor     4     (solve) disagreements, lower everyone’s stress levels, and communicate in a way that deepens the relationships.

Humor plays     5     important role in all kinds of relationships. In new relationships, humor can be a useful tool not just for attracting the other person but also for getting over any awkwardness (尴尬)     6     (arise) when we get to know each other. In old relationships, humor can keep things more exciting and fresher.

Sharing the pleasure of humor     7     (create) a sense of closeness and connection between two people—    8     (quality) that are signs of strong and successful relationships. When you laugh with one another, you create a positive relationship between you,     9     acts as a strong buffer (缓冲剂) against stress, disagreements and disappointments in your relationship. And laughter is spreading—just hearing someone laugh often makes you smile     10     (happy) and join in the fun.

Fourteen Steps

They say a cat has nine lives, and I think that possible since I am now living my third life and I’m not even a cat.

My first life began on a clear, cold day in November, 1904, when I arrived as the sixth of eight children of a poor farming family. Though struggling to make a living, I started my own family. This was when I started to enjoy my first life, happy, in excellent health and I became two lovely girls.

Life was a pleasant dream.

Then the dream ended and became one of those horrible nightmares that cause you to wake in a cold sweat in the middle of the night. I began to suffer from a rare disease of nerves, affecting first my right arm and leg, and then my other side.

Thus began my second life...

Despite my disease, I still drove to and from work each day. And I managed to keep healthy and optimistic, to a degree, because of 14 steps.

Crazy? Not at all.

Our home has 14 steps leading up from the garage to the kitchen door. Here hobbled (跛行) a desperate cripple (瘸子), a man who held on because of 14 miserable steps leading up to the backdoor from his garage.

Then on a dark night, I began my third life. It was raining when I started from home that night and drove on one of the less-traveled roads. Suddenly one of the tires burst with a bang. I fought the car to a stop.

Then I remembered that a short distance up a little side road was a house. I drove slowly along until I came to the house. Lighted windows welcomed me as I pulled into the driveway.

The door opened and a little girl stood there. I told her that I had a flat tire and needed someone to change it for me because I had a crutch (拐杖) and couldn’t do it myself. She went into the house and a moment later came out, followed by a man who called a cheerful greeting.

I sat there comfortable and dry. The rain seemed to be easing a bit now, and I rolled down the window to watch.

2. 请按如下格式作答。

There followed a long interval of noises, but finally it was done.

He didn’t take the bill and the little girl stepped closer and said quietly, “Grandpa can’t see it.”

10 . I love travelling. One of my fondest memories of travel is when I spent a few days backpacking in Bucharest, Romania. An unexpected act of kindness from a stranger truly made me feel moved.     1    

The first day I arrived in Bucharest I had to take the bus from the train station to my accommodation. I boarded the bus and found out that none of my cards worked and I wasn’t able to buy a ticket.     2     Although I explained that it wasn’t my intention and I had just arrived from Brasov, they still didn’t believe me and fined me for not having a ticket.

After doing some research online, I found that most buses in Bucharest do not accept cash or any form of payment onboard. You have to purchase a card at certain places in the city, top it up with money, and then pay onboard.     3     You can use wireless pay to purchase a ticket. I was delighted after finding out such good news as I did not want another fine.

    4     After I got on the bus, I found the ticket machine to be the same as the one I had met with on my first day in Bucharest. I tried in vain every method, including wireless pay, Apple Pay and cash.     5     At that moment, a kind middle-aged man standing next to me handed me a card. I understood that it was a card for the bus. The man paid for my bus ride.