To celebrate the 100th anniversary of Reader's Digest, we're re-starting our much-loved 100-Word-Story Competition.
Please make sure that entries (参赛作品) are original, unpublished, and exactly 100 words-not a single word shorter or longer! Don't forget to include your full name, address, email and phone number when filling in the form. We may use entries in all print and electronic media.
There are three categories:
In the adult category, the winner will receive 1, 000 and a Serious Readers High Definition Floor or Table Light (value up to £400) and the ones who finish second will receive $280.
In the 12-18s category, the winner will receive a £200 book voucher (券) or an 8GB Kindle Paperwhite, and the runner-up will receive a f100 book voucher.
In the under 12 category, the winner will receive £100 of book vouchers or an 8CB Kindle Paperwhite, and the runner-up will receive a £50 book voucher.
Please submit your stories online by 5pm on 1st May 2022, or send an entry via post addressed to:
Reader's Digest
100-Word-Story Competition
Warnes Group Publications
West Street
Bourne
PE10 9PH
The editorial team will pick a shortlist of entries by 31st May 2022, and the three best stories in each category will be posted online on 1st June 2022.
You can vote for your favorite, and the one with the most votes wins the top prize. Voting will close at 5pm on 30th June 2022 and the winning entries will be published in our September issue.
Temidayo Adedokun, 31, who was born in Nigeria and now is working in America, became pregnant with her first child. She couldn't hide her joy, and couldn't wait to shop for baby clothes with traditional African prints that she grew up wearing.
＂I was super surprised that I failed to find affordably priced African aesthetic（美学 的）products that were designed from an authentic place.＂Temidayo said.
Temidayo decided to take matters into her own hands. At first, she focused on creating clothes just for her baby. But then, she put some of them on a website to see what happened.
The feedback she got gave her just enough confidence. She figured she'd make the baby clothes an after-work side business to her full-time position as a lawyer in Oakland, California, until one day she was told she was given a boot. Once again, she needed to make her own choice. That's when she decided to make it a full-time job.
"I had to evaluate: Am I going to search for another job I don't have a great desire for?" she said. "Or am I going to take this as a chance I'm not sure about myself? After all, I'm not familiar with this field. What if something unexpected happens? However, for the symbols of children's clothing in my heart, I threw myself into it. So I chose the latter. "then, in March 2020, Temidayo officially announced her own brand: Ade +Ayo.
Since then, Temidayo has received much praise from other African parents informing her that her clothes help them start having conversations with their kids about what they're wearing and allow them to show their children the treasures handed down by their ancestors. And, for those who aren't African, her clothes have been a way for parents to introduce their kids to a new and colorful world. "I feel very blessed to be able to be doing this, "she said.
Western monarch butterflies(WMBs, 西部帝王蝶) fly thousands of miles every year, flying north in spring and summer, and south in fall. Now, scientists want people in the western US to give them a hand by sending in any pictures of monarchs they take this spring.
WMBs, like most butterflies, help plants create seeds, which can then create more plants by spreading a dust called pollen between plants. In turn, monarchs depend on plants. They gather sweet nectar (花蜜) from flowers for food. They rest and spend their winters in trees. And they depend completely on a plant called milkweed to lay their eggs.
Their number has been dropping sharply since the 1980s, when 3 million to 10 million butterflies migrated (迁徙) annually from the northwestern United States to spend the winter at hundreds of sites along the California coast. In 2020, less than 2, 000 monarchs were counted in the entire state. But in 2021, that number jumped to 247, 237. Scientists still don't fully understand this phenomenon. But they're studying it, saying it'll take years of tracking them to work it out.
Scientists have learned a lot about where Western monarchs spend the winters. But they know much less about where they go when they leave their winter homes. That's why scientists from several universities are organizing a project called "Western Monarch Mystery Challenge" to seek for practical assistance from "citizen scientists" in the American west.
They're asking anyone who sees a monarch butterfly outside of their winter homes this spring to take a picture and send it to them. By collecting the pictures, along with the date and place where the pictures were taken, scientists hope to learn more about what happens to the butterflies and where they are after they leave their winter homes and protect them better in the future.
Last year's increase in monarch number is great news. But the number of monarchs is still way below the millions of butterflies that migrated in the 1980s.
Many plastic products we use every day are not able to be recycled. Americans alone throw away 42 million tons of single-use plastics each year, and only 9 percent of that waste can be turned into something else. The rest ends up in landfills (垃圾填埋场), or worse, the ocean.
ByFusion, founded in 2017 in Los Angeles, California, has worked out a way to put all that plastic waste to good use. It uses machines called Blockers to shape all kinds of plastics, even non-recyclables, into standard building blocks called ByBlocks that can be used to build anything. Now, ByFusion has built a pavilion (亭子) for a school with blocks made from locally collected plastics.
"Plastic was not invented to be thrown away," the company states on their website. "Plastic is strong, flexible, and built to last. This is why plastic isn't the problem. The problem is that we don't have a good plan for its future, so now it is packed into landfills, burned at the edges of towns sending poisonous smoke into the air, and there are continents of it floating at sea killing precious wildlife. "
ByBlocks require no glues and are 10 pounds lighter than traditional blocks, making construction work quicker and easier, which means no special labor is needed. They won't break into pieces like concrete blocks would. They also create zero waste to make--1 ton of plastic equals 1 ton of ByBlocks.
After years of experiments that cost much，the company has installed (安装) a full production unit in L. A. , where it can process 450 tons of plastic per year, and there are 12 more Blockers arriving in U. S. cities soon. The company has set a goal to recycle 100 million tons of plastic waste by 2030, and it thinks the number is within reach. "If we get up to 9, 000 Blocker systems installed around the world by 2025, we'll make it," said founder Heidi Kujawa.
Confidence is at the heart of every successful person and it holds the key to success. Regardless of how knowledgeable you are in your professional field, if you lack confidence your success will be limited. . The following are 3 key tricks you may learn to increase your confidence.
Know yourself. Take a long hard look in the mirror and make an honest and accurate assessment of your strengths and weaknesses. as this will increase your confidence. Meanwhile, take an effective approach toward improving your weaknesses. We all have areas in our professional and personal lives that need to be improved. Ignoring them does not make them go away. .
Dress for success. Whether you like it or not, people make judgments about you based upon how you dress. You only have one chance to make a good first impression. From a confidence perspective (角度), how you dress directly reflects how you feel about yourself. if you are wearing a business suitor sweat pants and a T-shirt. Therefore, be highly aware of your appearance. Dress in a manner that reflects who you are and how you want to be perceived (看待).
. You can increase your confidence by seeking out one new challenge at a time. Research shows confident people consistently seek out new challenges. Move on to the next one when one challenge is successfully achieved. Success builds upon itself, therefore, success brings success-all fueled by increased confidence!
A. Steady as you go
B. Put pressure on yourself
C. Continue to build upon your strengths
D. Research shows that you will feel differently about yourself
E. What you wear will unintentionally show your weaknesses to those around you
F. On the contrary, it only holds back your success and keeps your confidence low
G. Actually, confidence isn't what you're born with, but something learned over time
TJ Lawlor never expected to appear in a news story. So reading an article in the local newspaper about his1with Riley Dehne who has Down syndrome (唐氏综合征), he was2. The author, Riley's mom Ande Dehne, says Riley has become more 3after he got to know TJ.
One day 6 years ago, TJ was4in the frozen section of the Whole Foods in Redwood City，California，when he5Riley in the aisle (过道). Riley was6into the Disney movie "frozen "at the time, which was why he chose that7aisle. When Riley came close to TJ, the8offered a cheerful greeting and9himself. After knowing something about TJ, Riley found him10. Then TJ asked if the teen was 11to help him fill the freezers, and Riley 12agreed as he thought staying with him was interesting.
Since the13, they've become great friends! Now Riley still comes into the 14to help TJ with duties once a week as his mum's shopping here.
"It's hard to15someone with a disability. However, TJ didn't16Riley but took the time to get to know him and find out his17, making him believe in himself more," Ande said.
When Ande18TJ in the article, TJ said it's a win-win situation. "As a man who has to work all day to support my family, I19sometimes myself. Every time this guy comes in, nothing but smiles!" TJ20. "He cheers me up and I cheer him up. That's what I look for in a friend."
Several large wooden constructions (date) back to the Neolithic era (新石器 时代) were unearthed at the Jijiaocheng ruins site, a prehistoric cultural site located in Changde City, central China's Hunan Province.
First discovered in 1978, the site used(be) a city from the Qujialing culture period(3300 BC-2600 BC)-a Neolithic civilization, had roots in the middle and upper reaches of the Yangtze River primarily(find) in today's Hunan and Hubei provinces.
Researchers (conduct) three excavations (挖掘) at the southwestern part of the city wall since 2020. More than 30 housing sites were discovered at the 721-square-meter area, a number of wooden architectural relics unearthed that were built 4, 800 years ago. Researchers think they are the most complete and(early) wooden structure building foundation in China. Besides, remains of rice husks (外壳) were also found at the site, coveringarea of 80 square meters.
Researchers believe(strong)the new findings will enrich the architectural history of prehistoric China." The(discover) helps us understand the overall architectural style of the Yangtze River Basin," said Zhao Hui, a professor at Peking University School of Archaeology and Museology.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（1）划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last summer, I went on the trip to Qingdao, where I stayed for seven days and enjoyed myself. Before leave Qingdao, I went fishing on a beautiful lake. Unlucky, I didn't catch any fishes, and I got boring. I decided to go swimming. When I stood up, my wallet with all my money in fell into the water. I jump into the deep lake to look for it, so I found nothing. The next morning, I wasn't able to leave the hotel because of I had no money to pay for anything. I had no choice but call my parents and asked for help. They sent myself some money by WeChat. How an embarrassing trip!
