School is still out for the summer, but at Eastern Senior High School, students are hard at work. In a garden bursting with vegetables and herbs, nearly a dozen teenagers are harvesting them for the weekend's farmers market. They work Tuesday through Saturday with City Blossoms, a non-profit that brings community gardens to schools and other places where kids gather in urban areas.

    Roshawn Little, going into her junior year at Eastern, believes that working in the garden has taught her to try all sorts of new things—like eating different kinds of vegetables more often. And she has taken those healthy behaviors home with her and her family now buy more fruits and vegetables. “We mainly live around liquor（酒）stores and snack stores. There aren't that many grocery stores. They're way out, and you have to drive so far”—a common problem in low-income urban areas.

    City Blossoms is one of many groups across the country teaming up with local communities to establish school gardens, like the one at Eastern. These gardens, advocates say, are really outdoor classrooms where kids learn valuable lessons — not just about nutrition, but also about science and math, even business skills. For example, the gardens can be used for math lessons—like calculating the area of a plant bed—or learning the science of how plants grow.

    On a recent weekend at the Aya farmers market, the kids work at a table decorated with handmade signs that read “onions” and “garlic”, inviting people to try their herbed salt with bread. Working at the market helps them practice public speaking skills and business skills.

    Nadine Joyner of a nutrition education company has a food table next to the kids at the market and often buys produce from them. She is constantly impressed by the kids' knowledge of what they're selling—they know how to grow it, how to prepare it, and how to cook it

    Last night, on my way home I stopped because of being attracted by some hamburgers at a fast food restaurant. On my way in, a homeless man approached me and asked, “Do you have any bottles lying around?” I knew he would recycle them for a few cents, but I didn't have any, so I said no. And again he asked, “Can you spare some change ?” I smiled, and said no again. He was very respectful; he smiled back and said, “OK, thank you.” Even though he didn't have anything, he was still in good spirits. From the way he spoke I could tell he was smart.

    Then I bought one hamburger and enjoyed my meal, but in the back of my mind I wondered whether the homeless man was hungry. After I finished my meal I decided to order another one for him. At this point I didn't know if he was still around, but I tried anyway.

    At the counter I ordered a hamburger and also a hot chocolate, because it was cold outside, and I thought it would help warm him up. They delivered me the hot chocolate first and as I waited for my hamburger, I noticed the homeless man was standing right beside me. I looked at him and smiled, “This hot chocolate is for you.” He replied like a gentleman, “Thank you so much. That's very kind of you.”

    I always believe no matter how hard up I am, there are always those who are worse off than I. When you help someone, it's not always about money, it's about love. The love you give today, someone might forget tomorrow. It doesn't matter. Love anyway, because the greatest thing you can give is love.

Technology is supposed to make our lives easier, allowing us to do things more quickly and efficiently. But too often it seems to make things harder. This increase in complexity, often called "feature creep," costs consumers time, but it also costs business money. Product returns in the U.S. cost a hundred billion dollars a year, and a recent study by Elke den Ouden, of Philips Electronics, found that at least half of returned products have nothing wrong with them. Consumers just couldn't figure out how to use them. Companies now know a great deal about problems of usability and consumer behavior, so why is it that feature creep proves unstoppable?

In part, fieature creep is the product of the so-called internal-audience problem: the people who design and sell product are not the ones who buy and use them, and what engineers and marketers think is important is not necessarily what's best for consumers. The engineers tend not to notice when more options make a product less usable. And marketing and sales departments see each additional feature as a new selling point, and a new way to attract customers.

You might think, then, that companies could avoid fieature creep by just paying attention to what customers really want. But that's where the trouble begins, because although consumers find overloaded gadgets (配件) unmanageable, they also find them attractive. It turns out that when we look at a new product in a store we tend to think that the more features there are, the better. It is only once we get the product home and try to use it that we realize the virtues of simplicity.

It seems strange that we don't expect feature tiredness and thus avoid it. But, as numerous studies have shown, people are not, in general, good at predicting what will make them happy in the future. As a result, we will pay more for more features because we systematically overestimate how often we'll use them. We also overestimate our ability to figure out how a complicated product works.

The fact that buyers want bells and whistles but users want something clear and simple creates an unusual problem for companies. A product that doesn't have enough features may fail to catch our eye in the store. But a product with too many features is likely to annoy consumers.

    Plenty of people dream of traveling to other planets. But “Star Wars” fans can actually visit locations where many of the films' most famous scenes were shot. Here are some of the places where “Star Wars” comes to life.

Hotel Sidi Driss, Matmata, Tunisia

    Perhaps the most famous "Star Wars" landmark in the world, this is where the interiors of Luke Skywalker's childhood home on planet Tatooine were filmed. Centuries ago, Berbers built the underground structure as a real home. Eventually it became a hotel, which George Lucas used to film the first "Star Wars" film. The set decorations came down when the crew left, but were rebuilt in 2000 for "Attack of the Clones." Since then, they've remained, so guests can eat at the table where young master Luke did.

La Grande Dune, outside Nefta, Tunisia

    The igloo(冰屋) outside of Luke's house was filmed about 300 kilometers away on the dried-up salt lake of Chott El Jerid. The igloo is still there, reachable with a decent car at the GPS coordinates 33"50'34. 42"N, 7"46'44.48"E.

    The surrounding hotels are man-made, to create the illusion (幻觉)that the underground house is next to it. The igloo from the 1977 movie was taken apart, but again rebuilt for "Attack of the Clones," and later restored by a fan. Nearby is La Grande Dune, site of the Dune Sea. About 30 minutes from the igloo is the set of Mos Espa, the spaceport town where Anakin was discovered as a young slave.

Redwood National and State parks, California

    Endor, the forest moon home of the furry Ewoks, was filmed among California's giant redwoods. Most of the well-known scenes were shot on private land owned by a lumber company. Since the cast and crew worked on "Return of the Jedi" in 1982, heavy logging has left most of the landscape unrecognizable. But driving through the parks still gives a feel for the set, especially along the Avenue of the Giants highway.

    In Grizzly Creek Redwoods State Park and the Humboldt Redwoods State Park, plates were filmed for some chase scenes.

    You may think that sailing is a difficult sport, but it is really not hard to learn. You do not need to be strong. But you need to be quick. And you need to understand a few basic rules about the wind.

    First, you must ask yourself, “Where is the wind coming from? Is it coming from ahead or behind or from the side?” You must think about this all the time on the boat. The wind direction tells you what to do with the sail.

    Let's start with the wind blowing from the behind. This means the wind and the boat are going in the same direction. Then you must always keep the sail outside the boat. It should be at a 90° angle to the boat. Then it will catch the wind best.

    If the wind is blowing from the side, it is blowing across the boat. In this case, you must keep the sail half way outside the boat. It should be at a 45°angle to the boat. It needs to be out far enough to catch the wind, but it shouldn't flap(摆动). It shouldn't look like on a flagpole. If it is flapping, it is probably out too far, and the boat will slow down.

    Sailing into the wind is not possible. If you try, the sail will flap and the boat will stop. You may want to go in that direction. It is possible, but you can't go in a straight line. You must go first in one direction and then in another. This is called tacking. When you're tacking, you must always keep the sail inside the boat.

    Have you ever been faced with trying to stay positive when others around you are negative? A negative person can bring you down and throw your positive plans out of the window. Whether you deal with a family member, friend or co-worker who is negative, there are things you can do to remain positive in the face of negativity?

    Whatever you do, don't argue with a negative person. Arguing only adds fuel to the fire. I have noticed when my children are crabby, it is best to avoid trying to convince them to analyze and adjust their attitude. As soon as I take the approach of being in opposition to them, the situation gets worse before it gets better. Sometimes the best thing to do is remain silent and let negativity pass.

    You know how difficult it can be to give love and positive attention to negative people. Unfortunately, that is often exactly what they need. A negative person is usually afraid he is unlovable. How do you show love when someone is negative? You must listen to what he is trying to tell you. Acknowledge the feelings he has by saying something like, “You sound very angry right now.” How might you help a negative person? Offer a hug even if you get rejected. A negative person often has difficulty accepting love from others.

If you have negative people on your life who are affecting your mental and physical health, you need to decide whether or not you want these people in your life. Some people are so negative that you have no other choice but to remove them from your life. However, some people, such as your children, are difficult to remove from your life, in this case, professional counseling(咨询) may be the answer.

Dear Mum,

    Today I went to a conference. In the conference, ⑴两个学生就因特网的优缺点进行了辩论。They made diverse points about the Internet that I had never thought about before. For example, some experts think that⑵花过多的时间上网的后果就是很难建立社会联系。 They were also quite explicit about how heavy Internet users spend more time with their Internet friends than with their real­life friends from school and work. ⑶This is another drawback of the Internet that alarms me. They addressed good points of the Internet, as well. For example, with the Internet, up­to­date information is only a click away. ⑷We can also correspond with people in distant places. This is very important for disabled people who can't always leave their homes.

    ⑸Both sides presented lots of statistics to support their arguments. My own judgement is that the Internet is beneficial. Otherwise, I would unable to write this e­mail to you!

Love from your son,

Xiaokun

⑴⑵⑶⑷⑸

Why do people take "selfies"? Researchers at Syracuse University in New York tried to answer the question. They came up with some  (surprise) answers.

"People who post selfies and use editing software to make  (they) look better show behavior  (connect) to narcissism (自恋)," the Syracuse researchers said. Narcissists are people who think very highly of themselves,  (especial) how they look.

Kim, a doctoral student at the university's S. I. Newhouse School of Public Communications,  (work) on the study. She said because social media can be superficial (表面的), it was good place for people to "work towards satisfying their own vanity (虚荣心) ".

By superficial, she means social media is mostly used by people  (share) unimportant information about their lives-not deeply personal issues. Besides narcissism, there are many other reasons for  people post selfies. People who post group selfies show a need for (popular) and a need to belong to a group, the Syracuse University research found.

There are no major differences between how often men and women post selfies and how often they use editing software. But men who post selfies show more of a need to be seen as popular women who post selfies.

1）倡议的原因和目的；

2）倡议的具体内容；

3）发出倡议。

注意：

1）词数100左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。

参考词汇：垃圾分类 garbage sorting  区分 differentiate

Dear friends,

……

The Students' Union