Across the world, young people are shaping the future in many fields. Their ideas are transforming communities and society. Here's a look at the achievements of four inspirational young leaders.
Kwiri Yang
Kwiri is the founder and CEO of LifeGyde, an online platform for young people to seek advice, guidance and support. She has an impressive track record of supporting individuals and small businesses.
She first helped immigrant owners of small businesses in California. When she developed anxiety and depression, Kwiri realized how many people, like her, were struggling with their mental health — and LifeGyde was born.
Abi Ramanan
Abi is the co-founder and CEO of ImpactVision, a software platform that uses machine learning to reduce food waste.
ImpactVision's technology uses digital imaging to take a picture of food and analyze its nutritional value and freshness. The system aims to reduce waste while also improving food safety. As technology advances, the sensors it uses are reducing in size and price, and could soon be integrated into everyday devices.
Oana Toiu
Oana is the founder and general manager of Social Innovation Solutions, which offers training and consultancy in social innovation.
She's also on the Board of Directors of The Entrepreneurship Academy, where students work in teams, learning about business by running real businesses under the guidance of a team coach.
Doreen Kessy
Doreen is CEO of Ubongo, a multi-media educational platform in Africa. Using the power of entertainment and mass media, the company provides educational material at low cost and high volume.
Some 6.4 million households in 31 countries currently watch, listen and learn from Ubongo's cartoons each week, with improved outcomes in maths and school readiness.
Ledet, a native of Lake Charles and his sister were raised by his single mom. "It was as tough as you can imagine. Sometimes, we had to dig in trash cans for pizzas and not yet rotten fruit," said Ledet. When he graduated from high school, there were only two options he had — go to the military or get a job. So, in 2004, the U. S. Navy became his job.
But life has a way of offering second chances. During a conversation with his wife, Mallory, he realized that college is not just for rich people, he can go to college too. With Mallory's help, he applied to Southern University. But as he also needed to make money for his family, Ledet took a job at Baton Rouge General Medical Center as a security guard.
It was a job that changed his path. While working there, he became inspired and wanted to become a physician. So he started asking as many physicians as he could whether he could shadow them. And a lot of them told him security guards don't become doctors. But one doctor, Dr. Patrick Greiffenstein, honored Ledet's request. He did what was necessary so that Ledet could officially follow him as he did surgeries and cared for patients. Ledet was dedicated from the start. "He desired to learn and he read on his own and he looked up things, so it seemed obvious that this was real for him. He would stay late and then go into his shift the next morning or do a shift and come join us in the morning, "said Greiffenstein.
Ledet went on to graduate from Southern University with a double major: chemistry and biology. But a bachelor's degree would not be the end of his academic pursuits. He earned his doctor's degree from NYU School of Medicine. Still, he wanted to be a medical doctor.
Whenever you read text, you don't pay much attention to the way the information is presented — particularly the font (字体) choice. That's because your main objective is reading comprehension.
Although printing design is overlooked by most of us, it's crucial in making texts clear, readable and appealing for audiences. Beyond the visual aspect, research shows that fonts play a significant role in the cognitive (认知的) processes while we read. A font's impact on the way you learn and keep information might be hard to notice consciously, but your brain is certainly tuned in. Perhaps surprisingly, hard-to-read fonts such as Bodoni or Comic Sansor are better for preserving information than fonts like Arial or Times New Roman. Participants recalled more information from the material they read when it was presented in a font that was difficult to read, according to a 2010 study.
"Difficulty can function as an alarm signal, giving the reader a sense that the task is challenging and will require mental effort," says Daniel Oppenheimer, a professor of Social and Decision Science. "Additionally, slowing down the reading speed to deal with the dis-fluency may help readers spot errors in a text. Hard-to-read fonts, which make it harder to engage with a material but don't actually draw away the reader, therefore generate "desirable difficulty"— and the resulting cognitive trouble may improve performance because they require more mental effort."
Font characteristics such as style, size and color play a role in information retention or recall, as well, because font design is vital to our familiarity — or unfamiliarity — with a given word, says Stephen Banham, a typography lecturer. Experiments have demonstrated a relationship between font size and memory: large font items may predict higher recall regardless of style, but very small font sizes can also introduce a desirable difficulty.
A document's specific method of formatting information also makes an impact. Using font styles like bold or italics to indicate significance can also improve information possession. That's because people are better able to remember information they consider important. Researchers found that bolded text has a higher recall than text in italic or regular styles, regardless of the font size. However, if an entire document is bolded, the emphasis is lost, and readers can no longer spot vital passages.
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Ariel Novoplansky, an ecologist in Israel, set up an experiment among pea plants to study how they communicate with each other.
In the experiments, Ariel put the pea plants in rows of containers. The center plant in the row was the target. The pea plants had been grown with two main roots. On one side, each pea plant had one root in its own pot and the other reaching into a neighbor's pot. The central plant connected to its closest neighbor, which connected to another neighbor, and so on down the line. On the other side, all the plants kept their roots in their own pots, unconnected to their neighbors.
With everything ready, the ecologist created a dryness for the central target plant, which had quickly closed up its leaf pores(气孔)to save water. Amazingly, the connected plants on one side gradually closed up their leaf pores, even though only one of them had experienced real dryness. On the other side, with unconnected roots pea chain, all their pores stayed open. This means the warning signal didn't travel from the stressed plants leaves through the air, but only from its roots through the soil.
It's possible that plants are just eavesdropping (偷听) even if the damaged plant didn't mean to send signals to them. Maybe the damaged plant leaks certain chemicals and nearby roots could sense those signals. But the plants with connected roots that weren't dried out passed on the drought signals to their neighbors too, which means simple eavesdropping probably isn't the answer. They seem to be having a real conversation, picking up information on one side and sharing it with a neighbor on the other.
The benefit to a plant that receives this information is pretty clear. But what's the benefit to sending a danger signal to your neigbour? Remember, your neighbor may actually be you.
Involvement in activities outside of schoolwork makes high school a lot more interesting and fun. Through extracurricular activities, you can develop important skills, such as teamwork, public speaking, creativity, leadership, and self-awareness.
The first step is to explore. While you can't do everything, try to get involved in as many clubs, teams, and activities that you find interesting. There is not a required one-size-fits-all list of activities. What matters is that you find clubs and programs that interest you!
You won't know if you like something if you don't try it. For example, if you think you might be interested in earning a business degree, find out if your high school has a financial association. If you think you'd like a career in politics, check to see if your high school has a Model Unite Nations project.
While you want to appear "well rounded," it is important that you don't take on too much. It can be helpful to see freshman year as the time to try a lot of things. In your sophomore year, you can begin limiting your involvement to your most important activities. This will allow you to spend more time on fewer things.
Develop it into a true passion and try to be an expert in it. This is what makes you unique and allows you to shine on a college application or qualify for a scholarship.
A. Bear in mind what is most important to you.
B. You may feel it hard to make choices at the very beginning.
C. Participate in various extracurricular activities with interest.
D. As you start high school, you will find you have many new opportunities.
E. Allow yourself enough time to do well in the activities you care about most.
F. These activities help you gain abilities you couldn't learn through textbooks and tests alone
G. Keep an eye out for clubs that may specifically help you prepare for a particular college major.
The future is burning bright for Smell of Love Candles and its 12-year-old CEO. After 1 the business in his family's kitchen about two years ago, Alejandro will bring his candles to a world-famous shopping mall next week.
The 2 for Smell of Love came to Alejandro in 2019 when he discovered his mom's head hurt from the smell of the candles she 3 . Despite loving candles very much, she had no choice but to 4 them. Unwilling to see his mom 5 , Alejandro started testing alternatives that would be 6 to make candles. To his delight, the first product was a 7 with his mom and her headache disappeared.
After deciding to form a business, Alejandro started brainstorming potential 8 . "You smell candles, and they bring joy and love into your home, so why don't we call them ‘Smell of Love Candles'?" he said. "The name truly goes with his 9 ," said his mom. "Bringing happiness to others has been a big 10 in everything he does."
Now Alejandro becomes the 11 stand owner of the nation's most popular shopping mall. "We are very excited to support Alejandro with the opportunity to 12 his Smell of Love candles," says the manager. "This is the first time that we have rented a place to a kid and 13 it will inspire more kids to follow their 14 ."
Alejandro's business is doing well, and he's making money. Besides saving for school, he donates to charities monthly. To Alejandro, 15 isn't only about making money. It's about spreading love and helping others.
Every year, rowers (take) part in the Atlantic Campaign set off from the Canary Islands in December and row roughly 3,000 miles across the Atlantic. Some handle the rowing in teams of two, three, or four. Others, like Jasmine Harrison, row all by (they).
It wasn't easy. Every day, Jasmine would row for about 12 hours, pushing her 550-pound boat across the ocean. She had a satellite phone allowed her to talk with family and friends every day. But things got a bit (hard) after her speaker fell in the water and she could no longer listen to her music. There was danger, too. Twice, her boat (turn) over in the night by large waves. The second time, she hurt her elbow quite (bad). Another time, she nearly ran into a ship.
Somehow, she kept going. On February 20, after 70 days, 3 hours and 48 minutes, she reached the island of Antigua-the end of the journey. When (ask) what she was most looking forward to, she said, "Food. Definitely food." She celebrated her (arrive) with a hamburger and fries.
Jasmine's rowing effort (make) her the youngest woman ever to row across the Atlantic — or any ocean. But Ms. Harrison's trip didn't just set record, it also raised over £18,500 for two charities.
Standing outside the cave entrance, Grandfather admired the green-carpeted hills, but Lin hated the cave. He had come here today only because of Grandfather.
Grandfather preferred to use guano, the waste matter of bats, to fertilize (施肥) his crops. But he was too weak to do the whole job. He could gather the guano and bring it out of the cave in the basket, but he needed Lin to carry it home in the wooden cart.
Grandfather took a shovel (铲子) and flashlight from the cart. "Change your mind and come inside with me?" he asked Lin. "It won't happen again, Lin," Grandfather promised. "Last time it was my mistake. We shouldn't have waited until nearly dusk (黄昏) to go inside. I know that the bats fly out of the cave at dusk." That was exactly what had happened on the Terrible Day of the Bats. As Lin had stood at the cave entrance, a crowd of black bats had erupted from it. Lin had been terrified.
"Bats hurt no one," Grandfather had said. "Besides, you scared them as much as they did you."
But nothing could make Lin forget the horror he had felt in that black cloud of bats. "I can't go in there," he told Grandfather now.
"OK," Grandfather said. As he started into the cave, he called over his shoulder, "I'll be out in no time." Lin parked the cart and glanced at the shovel and flashlight inside it. His shovel and flashlight. He had used them before. Now they only reminded him of his fear.
Lin turned his back on the cart and walked down to the river. Grandfather would call when he was finished. Until then, Lin would put as much distance as possible between himself and the cave.
Lin watched two little birds splashing about at the edge of the river. He enjoyed the peaceful view over the vast river surface. Then Lin realized that Grandfather's "no time" had turned into a long time.
Lin hurried up the hill toward the cave. The cart was still there. Grandfather was still inside. Something had gone wrong.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Lin looked around but found no one he could turn to for help.
……
In the dark cave, Lin gathered his courage and yelled again, "Grandfather!"
