1 . Top tips to study in the US

Studying abroad as an international student is an exciting and life-changing experience, but it also comes with some challenges. Here is a list of practical tips that can give you a hand.

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One of the first and most crucial steps for international students is to create a budget. Understand your source of income, including scholarships, part-time jobs, or financial support from your family. Then, make a complete list of expected expenses, including tuition, accommodation, food, transportation, and entertainment. This budget will be your financial roadmap and help you avoid overspending.

Select a place to live

Choosing the right place to live is very important. University accommodations are often convenient but can be expensive.     2    . They can be more cost-effective and offer a richer cultural experience. Be sure to research local housing laws, and thoroughly examine any rental property (房地产) before signing a contract.

Understand your insurance (保险)

Healthcare systems are greatly various from one country to another. Ensure you have the necessary health insurance coverage (覆盖范围). Many universities offer affordable student health plans.     3    .

Manage your time

Balancing study, part-time work and personal time can be challenging.     4    . Time management apps and tools can help you stay organized.

Be open-minded and adaptable

Living independently in a foreign country can be challenging, but it is also an opportunity for personal growth and self-discovery. Be open to new experiences, embrace cultural differences, and try to be adaptable in the face of challenges.     5    . But with time, you’ll adapt yourself to your new environment.

When Renee Butts was little, her dream was to become a volunteer firefighter because her father was one. Though her father’s work was hard and full of danger, he never made a     1     (complain) about it and fell in love     2     the job quickly. Sadly, at the age of 14, one afternoon Renee returned home, only     3     (tell) that her beloved father had passed     4     and she was never able to do volunteer work with him due to her dad’s death. However, Renee’s story didn’t end there. She was so determined and     5     (energy) a girl and never gave up, which made her dream a reality.

Now Renee, who used to be an astronomer, is a member of the Carme Fire Department now, where she is required to be an Emergency Medical Technician. Once a reporter asked her, “I wonder if all the skills necessary to act as a firefighter have been mastered by you so far.” She replied, “I seem to have. Now a summary     6     (write) last week about my training will be published tomorrow.” The reporter     7     (make) a response, “You must have trained hard and     8     (effective) in the past, haven’t you?” Renee should also be ready to deal with any emergency, like fighting a fire, dealing with a car accident or helping someone who is sick.

Asked what the best part of her job was, Renee replied, “Helping people and saving lives.” I think that shows signs of being a true hero. Renee says that to some extent, her job is frightening at times, but extremely exciting. “To tell you     9     truth, the worst part of my job is that I see deaths and serious injuries. Actually, sometimes people die in an accident and some fires and large amounts of property (财产) are lost, for     10     I am very sorry.”

5 . 17-year-old Addison Bethea had her world turned upside down in late June when she was bitten by a shark while playing near Keaton Beach, Florida.

Addison is a cheerleader and a tennis player. And she is also quite young to experience such a serious _________ and crisis. However, Addison has a _________ attitude, and she will be just fine!

As a native of Florida, Addison knew that if _________ by a shark, her best way was to hit the fish in the nose. But she did hit _________ in the face and tried to _________.

Addison’s elder brother, Rhett Willingham, was swimming nearby when he heard his sister _________ loudly. He quickly came to Addison, struggling to get the shark off from her, putting her into a _________ on the water and wrapping her bleeding leg with a tourniquet (止血带). Addison was instantly rushed to a hospital. Luckily, the _________ she received from Rhett, who is a firefighter and EMT (内科急救专家), might very well have saved her life.

About her brother, Addison said, “He’s always been kind of _________ a hero to me. I knew once I was in __________, he would help me out. Furthermore, he made a promise.” That is a wonderful brother-sister __________!

The injuries in Addison’s right leg were extremely serious. __________, the surgery(外科手术) was a success, and Addison is doing well in her __________. She has __________ her sense of humor and her faith to get through the hard times. Michelle Murphy, Addison’s mother, said, “God blessed us by allowing Addison to __________ and we will never lose focus on that gift.”

6 . Back in 1807, London became the first city on the planet to have a street lit up by gaslight lamps. For the city’s residents, it seemed like an extraordinary thing to have evening turned into a version of daytime. But more than two centuries later, artificial light has spread across so much of the planet that it has become a threat to us as well as the environment.

The extent of light pollution is evidenced by a study in the journal Science Advances, in which researchers used measurements taken by satellites to study the artificial brightness of Earth’s surface at nighttime. They found the artificially lit outdoor area grew at a rate of 2.2% per year. But those increases are just part of the story. Christopher Kyba, a scientist at German Research Center, says the increasing transition to high-efficiency LED lamps for outdoor lighting, which were regarded by most people originally as a way to reduce our dependence upon fossil (化石的) fuels and slow climate change, may not be saving as much electricity as expected.

The American Medical Association added that the wavelengths (波长) at which the lights operate control the hormone that helps us to sleep. “It is estimated that white LED lamps have a much greater impact on people’s sleep than the former streetlights.” Research shows that such impact may be a significant aspect inducing fatness and other physical disorders. Many species on Earth are active at night, and electric lighting, especially dusk to dawn lighting, represents damage to the environment of these species. A study in Proceedings of the National Academy of Science, for example, found powerful beams of light from the National September 11 Memorial and Museum changed the flight paths and speed of 1.1 million migrating birds over a seven-day period alone. And in Florida, light pollution along beaches is disturbing sea turtles having babies, resulting in thousands of young animals’ dying each year.

But perhaps the most obvious thing about light pollution is that much of it results from wasteful light that isn’t necessary, according to Kyba, who estimates that it could be reduced by five to ten times. “I think we should be asking as taxpayers (纳税人). Why are we paying for lights that shine uselessly into people’s windows and disturb their sleep?”

7 . If you’ve seen the movie Cast Away, you probably remember the scene in which Tom Hanks’ character, who survived a plane crash and found a refuge on a desert island, struggles to crack open coconuts before finally figuring out how to make use of one and drink from it. Well, it turns out that, in such a situation, a coconut palm tree actually could be your best hope for survival.

The coconut palm tree is native to tropical islands in the western Pacific Ocean. It is a tall tree, growing as tall as 100 feet, and with a branchless, light gray trunk that’s swollen at the base and topped by a crown of arching green leaves that stretch as long as 20 feet. It has fragrant (芳香的) yellow flowers, which appear in groups, and of course coconuts, which technically are a fruit rather than a nut, grow up to 14 inches long.

The fruit has a wooden shell surrounded by a fibrous cover, but inside is the stuff that a person wants — the coconut meat, which can be eaten raw or cooked, and the drinkable liquid. The nutritional qualities of a coconut — its meat and its juice — are nothing short of miracles. The meat is high in health fats, which are very important for survival, and the juice is filled with minerals like copper, iron and zinc, and can keep your electrolytes (电解质) balanced and blood levels healthy.

In Hawaii, coconut palm trees are known as “niu”, and are considered as a very important food source. While they are not native to this place, they are one of the famous “canoe plants”. Some of the ancestors of the trees currently found in Hawaii also moved slowly on water to or on the shore, alive for up four months at sea, still able to germinate (发芽). They are the symbol of vitality. They are admired here so much that traditionally, a coconut palm tree is planted at the birth time of a child born in Hawaii.

9 . Library Rules and Regulations

Opening hours

Monday — Friday: 8:00 am — 10:00 pm Saturday: 9:00 am — 4:00 pm

Sunday: 2:00 pm — 5:00 pm Public holidays: Closed

General rules

* Silence should be strictly observed in the library. Users are strictly prohibited from making or receiving calls at any given time. Discussions are not allowed, either.

* All readers must show their identification cards (student IDs) at the entrance.

* Marking, writing on or tearing pages is prohibited.

* Smoking, spitting, eating, sleeping, drinking or littering is banned.

* To improve the library service, users are free to report what they think the library should get better at to the librarian or by filling the opinion book at the security desk.

* Users are required to ensure that valuable items (like money, phones, laptops and

calculators) are not left in the luggage area.

Borrowing rules

* Undergraduate (大学本科生的) students — 2 books for one week

* Postgraduate students — 2 books for two weeks

* Lost or damaged information materials on loan should be replaced or charged at the current market price of the information materials.

* For a book out of print (绝版的), the librarian will guide the borrower to the alternative books available.

E-resources

The library subscribes to e-books and e-journals which can be accessed from the University library website and all computer labs via a laptop with wireless connectivity. We have off-campus access that will allow users to access the e-resources off campus. Users are advised to consult the e-resource librarian for the purpose of accessing e-resources.

Membership

* Membership of the library is open to all students and academic staff for free.

* External (外部的) members shall be considered on production of recommendation letters from school employees (员工). In addition, they shall pay 1 dollar per day.

10 . The moon has no air, no water and an extreme 250-degree celsius temperature range, but among the most tricky challenges for space agencies hoping to set up camp is the dust. It damages space suits, blocks machinery, affects scientific instruments and makes moving around difficult.

Now scientists have come up with a potential solution, demonstrating that moon dust could be melted using a giant lens (透镜) to create solid roads and landing areas. “You might think: Streets on the moon, who needs that?” said Prof. Jens Gunster, of the Federal Institute for Materials Research and Testing (BAM) in Berlin and co-author. “But in fact it’s a kind of depressing demand early on.”

Dust has destroyed previous missions, such as the Lunar Surveyor 3 spacecraft — damaged by dust kicked up by the Apollo 12 landing — and overcoming this challenge is a priority for NASA, which aims to establish a permanent lunar base.

Taking building materials to the moon would be too expensive, so new solutions are needed. “You need to use what’s there and that’s simply loose dust,” said Gunster.

He and colleagues experimented with a fine-grained material called EAC-1A, developed by the European Space Agency as a substitute for lunar soil. They used a laser beam (激光) to heat the dust to about 1, 600℃ to melt it. They then traced out bendy triangle shapes, each about 25 cm across, which could be interlocked to create solid surfaces across large areas for roads and landing areas.

The process is slow. Each small geometric unit took about an hour, meaning it would take about 100 days to create a landing spot measuring 10 meters by 10 meters. “It sounds like forever, but think about constructions on Earth,” said Gunster.

The authors calculate that a lens of about 2. 37 sq meters would need to be transported from Earth to act as a sunlight concentrator in place of the laser. But dust would still be an issue for the lens itself. “When you accumulate dust on the lens, it will sooner or later not function any more,” said Gunster, adding that a shaking lens may help ease off this problem.