2 . “My goal is that the City of Atlanta becomes the best place in the United States to raise a family,” says Mayor (市长) Andre Dickens about the capital of Georgia.

Dickens grew up in Atlanta. Recently, he was asked about his main goals for this city of nearly 500,000 people. His focus, he said, is on the youth. For that reason, he told the public officially 2023 is the Year of the Youth.

“Whatever we do, we have to think about young people,” Dickens said. “Atlanta’s young people are our future. Continuing to invest (投资) in future generations puts them on pathways to success that will help us move Atlanta forward together.”

Dickens said that after he put forward the idea of the Year of the Youth, businesses, nonprofits, and other community members all said, “I want to be in on that.”

Businesses offer summer internship (实习) programs. They allow students in Atlanta to get valuable experience in the workplace. Dickens explained that several businesses in the city even made their working environments suitable for young people to join in internships.

Improving education is another key goal. Schools and city leaders have been working together to make their partnership in the service of young people stronger. Toward this end, the city is working to improve educational opportunities, create safe ways to school, and offer after-school activities for free or at little cost.

Dickens also believes that it’s important to invest in early education. Investing in early education, he explained, means that more young people will be able to develop basic skills, stopping them from falling behind later in life.

Dickens is looking forward to positive results. “Everyone’s getting ready to serve the young people over the summer,” he said.

Friends make up a huge part of most people’s lives, but over time, friendships can fade (褪色) unless they     1     (maintain) carefully. Putting effort into friendships is key to     2     (enable) them to stay strong.

Scientists have found that friendship plays a     3     (significant) important role in our mental (心理的) health. Spending time with friends can increase our feelings of well-being, make us happy,     4     improve our overall mental health.

There is no one way     5     (keep) friendships for good. In fact, not every friendship is meant to last forever, and sometimes it might pain us. “Being yourself” is one of the     6     (old) suggestions on making friends. To maintain strong friendships, you ought to try to be yourself so that you can exactly describe your needs and wants to someone else, giving them the opportunity to care for you in the best way.

Whoever your friends are, their actions are out     7     your control. They may not choose to work toward being the best self they can be.     8     only one you can control is yourself. Therefore, you may sometimes have to learn how to let those friendships go, or learn to put     9     (distant) between you and the other person if you often feel     10     (misunderstand) or disrespected by them. Not every friend has to be a close friend, just like not every friendship will last forever.

4 . Concrete (混凝土) is one of the most common building materials in the world. It’s used to build many things, including roads, sidewalks, and buildings. But making concrete creates a lot of pollution. And it uses a lot of sand. Mining for sand creates other problems for the environment. Siswanti Zuraida from the University of Kitakyushu in Japan had an unusual idea. What if some of the sand in concrete could be replaced (代替)with used diapers (尿布)?

Diapers are a huge source of pollution. In the US alone, over 8 billion pounds(3.6 billion kilograms)of them are thrown away each year. In other countries, dirty diapers can end up in rivers and roads. One 2018 study in Indonesia showed that diapers made up more than 20% of the rubbish pulled from waterways in 15 cities.

So Ms Zuraida and her team collected used diapers, cleaned them up, and killed any bad germs (细菌) in them. Then the diapers were dried and cut into small pieces that could be added to concrete.

The team made different mixes of concrete with different numbers of diapers. They found that this new kind of concrete was just as safe and strong as normal concrete. The researchers think their idea could make it less exorbitant to build homes. After all, sand needs to be mined, which costs money. Used diapers are basically free, and there’s no shortage of them.

Ms Zuraida and her team are excited about their results. However, if diapers are really going to be used in concrete, someone will have to think about how to safely collect, clean, and store lots and lots of used diapers. The team is also studying how well diaper concrete is able to block out heat and sound. Perhaps the biggest challenge will be encouraging people to use concrete made with diapers.

5 . Naima Souissi and Saida Chehbouni cried as they hugged for the first time in 16 years when they met up in New York City. Their daughters, Nissma Bencheikh, 19, and Roaya Jannatipour, 18, met when they were both freshmen (大一新生) at the University of California, Berkeley. The two became fast friends. “We hit it off right away. We’re both pre-med (医科大学预科班的) and Canadian,” said Nissma.

The two had such a great bond (联系) that they decided to share an apartment during their second year, and on the move-in day the pair made a surprising discovery. “I was having a video chat with my mom in my room, and I thought I’d bring her out to meet Nissma’s dad,” Roaya said. Nissma added, “They talked for only a few minutes ... but in that short time we realized that not only were they neighbors, but our moms were actually best friends 16 years ago.”

The two friends, who at first thought they had met for the first time at university, even found out that they had photos together as babies that their mothers took. The two even found out that their mothers went to college together.

Sixteen years ago, their life separated the two best friends after Roaya’s family moved from Canada to California, and Nissma’s family relocated to northern Virginia, putting a distance of over 2,000 miles between the families.

Roaya said her mother had recently been trying to find Nissma’s mother on Facebook, and that when the two first separated they both did not have a computer or even a phone, making it difficult to keep in touch.

Before their reunion, Nissma told ABC News that she was excited that the pair met again, saying, “A best friend is a best friend even when 16 years passed.”

6 . Best Movies For Summer Holiday

Watching a film together with your family will help you take a step back from the rest of the world and share some meaningful moments with your family whether it is an adventure movie or a sci-fi (科幻) movie. Here are four films that will make you laugh and cry.

The funny movie, starring the gifted Steve Martin as college football coach Tom Baker, describes his life as a parent raising his twelve kids. The film examines the difficulties, and unexpected experiences in a home where there is a lot of love and differences.

This action movie starring Will Smith doesn’t take place on the beach but its July 4 theme (主题) makes it a summer movie. The movie is about an alien invasion (外星人入侵) of the earth and how the world fights back.

The funny movie, starring the talented Steve Martin, shows the understandable anxiety and emotional (情感的) journey of a parent dealing with the realities of his daughter growing up and starting a new stage in her life. It is a timeless movie that beautifully shows the challenges and meaning of fatherhood thanks to its attractive characters and funny language.

This film was based on the 2005 book by John Grogan. A couple (played by Jennifer Aniston and Owen Wilson) adopt (领养) a Labrador(a large dog)named Marly. They learn to live and love together. The film was put on show on Christmas day of 2008.

10 . Chinese designers are setting themselves apart from the global competition today by turning to China’s rich history for inspiration to create their contemporary clothes.

Long before the invention of the qipao, there was a similar-looking type of clothing that most Chinese wore starting from as early as the 26th century BC. Known as hanfu, these traditional clothes featured loose lapels and long flowing sleeves. While the details changed through the centuries, the style of the hanfu has endured even till today, with a growing number of Chinese designers turning to it for inspiration and infusing (注入) elements of it into their contemporary designs.

“The old style is monotonous and makes people think of patterns featuring dragons and phoenixes. To make it appealing, we need to get rid of the original frame and be innovative,” said Cai Wenqiao, an integrated design undergraduate student.

For her final-year project, Cai designed eight pieces of clothing inspired by the Chinese prose called Peach Blossom Spring by Tao Yuanming. Cai used pink as the main color for all the pieces as it represents the peach blossom. She has also included classic hanfu elements such as embroidery (刺绣) featuring flowers and butterflies. Silk, a common material used to make hanfu, was also the choice material for the project.

“The combination of nostalgia (怀旧) and modern influences should set trends for some time to come. The fashion’s future is far from clear, but what is clear is that Chinese designers’ influence and Chinese heritage infusion are here to stay,” wrote Mike Bastin, senior lecturer at Southampton University.