1 . The Bridge Home

By Padma Venkatraman

Runaway sisters Viji and Rukku arrive in the Indian city of Chennai, and it isn’t what they expected. The girls must depend on each other to survive until they meet two homeless boys, Muthi and Arul. As a team, they search around the city for food and shelter while making the most of a terrible situation.

Otherwood

By Pete Hautman

Best friends Stuey and Elly Rose share a birthday and a love of the woods near their homes. When playing in their favorite place deep in the woods, Stuey tells Elly Rose a story—a secret he has learned about his great-grandfather and hers. Something unexpected happens, and Stuey must work out how to repair the damage that was caused long ago.

Where the Watermelons Grow

By Cindy Baldwin

Della’s mama has been sick before. She has an illness that cause her to hear voices that aren’t there. But this summer, her mama seems worse. With daddy working hard to save the family farm from bad weather, Della believe that she needs to fix what’s wrong with mama.

Planet Earth Is Blue

By Nicole Panteleakos

Nova loves astronomy(天文学), an interest she shares with big sister Bridget. The space shuttle Challenger is days from launching(发射),and Bridget has promised to watch it on TV with Nova. But Bridget left their last foster (寄养的)home, and Nova is with a new family. Nova, who is autistic(患孤独症的)and doesn’t use words, hopes that Bridget—the only one who truly understands her—will find her way to Nova in time for liftoff.

4 . People will say firmly their childhood memory is real, offering amazing detail as proof that it must be, and getting upset if you suggest they are wrong.

But, for years, scientists have questioned whether these memories could actually be true, given what we know about neuroscience (神经科学) and the brain. The human brain grows and develops in clear stages. As it grows and creates and adapts, so different developmental stages are reached. These stages are the result of millions of years of evolution (进化). Now, finally, a study has proved this. Researchers from Memorial University in Newfoundland, Canada, reviewed decades worth of data to understand the earliest age at which lasting memories form and they have believed that it is around 30 months.

So people who think they remember something from when they were a baby are, I am afraid, mistaken. The problem with early memories is that they are very easy to fabricate, which is what I did.

I have a vivid image of standing in the garden, my mum holding a flower and laughing. It’s one of my first memories. I must have been 18 months old because we moved from that house before I was two. I could swear it was real.

Years ago, when I shared this memory with my mum, she shook her head and produced a photo. It showed her in a garden, laughing and holding a flower. But it was taken three years before I was born. That beautiful memory is a work of fiction (虚构): an old photo that used to hang on the wall.

I’ll admit to feeling shocked and robbed when I realized this memory was entirely false. It made me question other things I remember as a child, too. A study into this event published a few years ago found that around 40 per cent of us say that we have memories from before the age of two. But it’s the mind playing tricks on us taking old stories or photos and turning them into a memory.

While it can be disappointing to realize that a recollection you hold so dear might not be true, it does provide a good lesson in how changeable memory can be.

5 . When the pandemic(流行病) hit last spring, 9-year-old Zoe Benard of California started baking(烘) sweet treats with family members. But what started out as a fun way to pass the time has become a one-girl mission to raise $10,000 for Parkinson’s disease research.

Through a series of weekend bake sales since July, the homeschooled fourth-grader has taken in nearly $3,500 through the sale of her homemade banana bread, cookies and brownies. For a weekend sale, she’ll bake up to 25 pieces, four to five pans of brownies and three batches(炉)of cookies.

One hundred percent of the money made by selling treats is given to Team Fox, a research organization set up by actor Michael J.Fox, who has the disease. Zoe’s grandfather, 75-year-old Joe Contogenis, who is the inspiration for her sales, also has Parkinson’s. Contogenis can no longer run or play tennis the way he did before his diagnosis(诊断) three years ago.But he comes to every one of Zoe’s bake sales and is often moved to tears by the generosity of Zoe’s customers.

“She is a little entrepreneur(企业家) and has always been an out-of-the-box thinker,” Christine Eris, her mom, said. “we were cleaning our house out and found a magic set, and now she’s reading books on magic. She taught herself how to solve the Rubik’s Cube in a minute and a half. She just learns and practices things until she perfects them.”

Zoe sells her treats for $1 to $2, or $12 for a full piece of banana bread. Eris said many customers give more because they know it’s for a good cause. One customer arrived with a $200 check and another with a $100 bill. Zoe said her goal is to keep hosting sales until she reaches her $10,000 goal. Then she will either start over or find another cause to support. She also plans to start her own children’s cooking channel on YouTube because she finds the process of baking so fun.

6 . Office Manners

Be punctual. As a newcomer, you should arrive early, not just on the first day and don’t be the first to leave at the end of the day.    1    It shows that you respect your colleagues’ time and, in return, they will respect your time, too.

Respect other people’s privacy. Knock before you enter someone’s office and do not read any correspondence lying on somebody’s desk. If you need to discuss a private matter with a colleague, make sure nobody else can overhear you.    2    

Be neat and clean.    3     It shows respect for both your colleagues and clients and is a sign that you are professional. Keep your personal workspace clean and neat at all times, for a messy desk will make people think that you’re an unorganized person.

    4    Remember to leave the photocopier in working condition. Return the stapler (订书机) that you borrowed with at least a few staples left inside. When you use up all the paper in the printer, put more in it for the next person. If a machine jams, try to undo the jam or to tell somebody else about it.

Don’t disturb others. Always apologize if you interrupt a discussion, someone’s concentration or other activities. Be aware of how loudly you may be speaking. If people in other offices comment on your conversations, perhaps your voice is too loud.    5    

In short, office manners are about being respectful and polite in the office. It is an essential part of growing professionally and becoming a more mature person in the business world.

7 . China is one of the countries most affected by typhoons in the world. While summer is the peak typhoon season, autumn typhoons might be more dangerous.

In September, Typhoon Conson and Chanthu formed successively in the northwest Pacific Ocean. Chanthu has become a super typhoon, bringing “gale-force winds and rainstorms to regions including Shanghai, Zhejiang, and Jiangsu,” reported Xinhua on Sept14.

It’s no surprise that super typhoons occur in September. From the vernal equinox (春分), the subsolar point (太阳直射点) moves from the equator to the Tropic of Cancer (北回归线), heating the tropical ocean in the northern hemisphere(半球). The sea temperature reaches the highest from August to September, according to Weather China website.

“The warming ocean, especially the warming northern South China Sea, enhances typhoons before landfall(着陆),” said Xiao Zhixiang, a researcher of the Guangxi Institute of Meteorological Sciences, in the conference of the Japan Geoscience Union in 2020.

Autumn brings cold air, and when that cold air meets a typhoon, it could make it more destructive. “This will develop into a powerful typhoon due to the greater temperature difference between the cold continent and the hot sea,” said Woo-Sik Jung, a researcher at Inje University in South Korea, at the conference. “In other words, the larger the temperature difference, the stronger the wind, the more powerful the autumn typhoon can be compared to the summer typhoon.”

Megi, the 13th typhoon of 2010, was generated in October. Before making landfall in Taiwan, it entered the South China Sea and then headed north to land in Zhangpu, Fujian province, where Megi met cold air from the north. The typhoon led to more than 1,000millimeters of rainfall in Ilan, Taiwan, resulting in many deaths, according to Weather China.

Autumn typhoons are not only powerful but also often unpredictable. Three typhoons “with the most complicated paths in China” include Wayne in 1986, Nat in 1991 and Nari in2001. Among them, Nat and Nari were formed in autumn, according to the National Meteorological Center.

10 . Many people, including some successful men, wear the same clothing daily to focus their decision-making energy on more important things.     1     Julia, an art teacher, is wearing the same dress for the first 100 days of school to create awareness of the environmental costs of fast fashion.

Available online or from various shops, it allows everyone to adopt the latest fashion trends instantly. Though that sounds like a win-win for all, the rapid change in styles and the affordable prices result in impulse (冲动) purchases, many of which are thrown away after being worn just once or twice.    2    

Julia's idea for the “One Outfit (服装), 100 Days” began as a comment she made to her husband during the summer.     3     Moreover, it would serve as a great lesson for her new students. Selecting a perfect outfit for the challenge was a little tricky.After some consideration, Julia settled on a plain dress. Though she has a backup dress, Julia plans to use it only if absolutely necessary.

    4     It has also inspired some of her colleagues and her husband to take up the challenge. Julia says the experiment has forced her to rethink her attitude towards clothes. She values things more now—respecting the planet for her children and trying to value herself in a different way, as opposed to caring so much about what she looks like.     5     Reuse, recycle, and, most importantly, reduce.