By May, after three months, I had lost22pounds and reached my goal of 115 pounds. My friends would say “Alice, you look great!” or “How did you lose so much weight?” Those compliments made me feel good and confident.

    Soon I dropped to110 pounds. A few of my friends told me that I needed to stop dieting, because I was starting to look sick. They brought me a present—— a bag of chocolates, which I later gave to my sister. My mother would come to my room, with tears in her eyes, and have long chats about how harmful this diet was and begged me to stop. My dad would leave worried messages on my cell phone at school, telling me that it would do serious harm to my body.

    By mid-June, when school was coming to an end, I was down to an only alive state of 95 pounds. All of a sudden, I knew I had to do something. I guessed the number itself scared me. I recalled my doctor. He told me about a girl who was 95 pounds and was at the risk of dying. I knew I was putting my life at risk, but for what? To make those who love me worried? Was it worthwhile to be thin?

    Now I realize that models in magazines, TV and movies are not realistic. The price to pay for the “perfect body” is living with a dangerous and sometimes deadly eating disorder. And there are more important things to think about than how thin you are.

    I must have looked deep in thought, or as deep in thought as an 11-year-old man can, when my grandmother glanced up from her weeding to ask, "You have something on your mind, don't you?"

    "Yes, I was thinking that someday I want to be an Olympic speedskating champion like my hero, Eric Heiden, I want to be a doctor like my parents and I want to help children in Africa."

    I immediately knew I had confided in the right person when a knowing smile broke across her face. "Johann, of course! You can do anything you want to do!" she said simply. And with my grandmother's support, I set out to pursue my passions.

    14 years later, I was well ready to take hold of my first dream: becoming an Olympic champion. The Olympics in 1994 were in my home country, Norway. As I entered the Olympic stadium, I wasn't the best athlete, and many had doubts about my ability to perform well. But I had something special working for me. I had a woman in the first row who believed in me following my passions just as much as I did. For the first time ever, my grandmother was going to see me skate.

    It happened. Breaking a world record, I won the gold.

    As I stood on the podium(领奖台) that I had dreamed about my entire life, a curious question popped into my head. Why me? Why did I win, given all the other incredible competitors out there? The reason had to be more than a grandmother who shared a belief in her grandson's dream. The question led me to only one answer: because I wanted to make a difference in the world, and with all the media attention on my success, I could.

    I immediately knew what that difference had to be: hope in the lives of the children in Africa. Six months earlier, I'd been invited to Egypt as an ambassador for Olympic Aid.

    With at least a dozen wildfires going through western North Carolina in the fall of 2016, it would take more than one local fire department to fight the flames. In early November, the federal government sent over a team of firefighters from the Interagency Hotshot Crews.

    Most of the Hotshots stayed at Hinton Rural Life Center in Hayesville, North Carolina. The center reached out to the media and community groups, hoping to get four volunteers per day to help things run smoothly for their firefighting guests. They didn't expect a response quite so unbelievable.

    Within two days, over 200 people—about a third of the town's population—reached out to offer help, according to the center's website. Meals and accommodation were already being taken care of, so they went above and beyond the basic things. Community members donated over 1,000 goods, including sports drinks, snacks, eye drops and so on.

    Even the kids in Hayesville participated, sending thank-you cards, pictures and signs to motivate the Hotshots. The team received over 2,000 thank-you notes. After the fires were put out and the firefighters were preparing to go home, the town threw a parade（游行）to thank them and wish them well.

    The firefighters were at a loss by the generosity from Hayesville. They put together their own thank-you in a YouTube video.

    “You guys don't know how much you mean, all the support you guys give us, '' says Ron, a firefighter from Oregon, in the video. “Out of four years when I've been fighting fire, this is about the most hospitable（好客的）state and county I've ever been in. And it brings tears to my eyes just thinking about it.”

    For most of her life, Suanne Laqueur's passion for storytelling was shown on the dance floor.

    Although Laqueur began writing at a young age, dancing always took center stage. She majored in dance and theater at Alfred University and taught at her mother's dance studio in Croton-on-Hudson, New York, for years. But when her mother was ready to retire and an opportunity opened for Laqueur to take over the studio, she realized she had no interest in taking on the business side of her art: "Owning a studio is a lot of work—financially, logistically. I love the teaching, the choreographing(编舞), the staging, but I didn't want to own it."

    Yet Laqueur's disinterest in running the studio changed when she became a self-published author. In the fall of 2013, she decided to pursue Self-publishing as a way of sharing her first completed novel with friends and family. During the process, she realized that following her true passion—telling stories through writing—made the business of the art worthwhile, and owning that business meant she could direct her writing career however she chose.

    Starting with her second self-published novel, she began investing more time in marketing and building her audience. Her investment paid off. Since 2014, Laqueur, now 49, has self-published six novels, which collectively have hundreds of ratings and reviews on Goodreads. Her 2016 novel An Exaltation of Larks stole the show at the 25th Annual Writer's Digest Self-Published Book Awards, topping more than 2,300 entries to win the grand prize.

    "You have to write the most truthful story to you, and I think self-publishing allows that freedom,' she says. "If you work with traditional publishing, it's more about what's marketable, There are trade-offs, which everyone will tell you, but by self-publishing I have control of the book, I have control of the story, and I'm cool with that."

    The skin under the eyes is delicate, which is why it sometimes appears sunken and has darker coloring than elsewhere on the face. Aging and health problems play a role in sunken eyes but other factors can contribute, so it may affect younger people as well.

Dehydration

    The most common cause of sunken eyes is dehydration, or not having enough water in the body. Consuming too much coffee, soda, and prepackaged drinks may increase production of urine(尿液), which may lead to dehydration.

    Vitamin shortages

    Shortages of vitamin C, vitamin K, and iron can cause eyes to become sunken. Vitamin C helps with absorbing iron and decreasing bruising(瘀斑), while vitamin K is responsible for blood thickening, causing unhealthy skin. Easy bruising and unhealthy skin will result in sunken eyes.

    Weight loss

    Most people tend to lose weight in their face first. Sometimes, the weight loss is sudden enough to make blood vessels(血管)below the eyes easy to see, and the skin clear, producing the appearance of sunken eyes. Sudden weight loss may also cause nutritional shortages, which can lead to sunken eyes.

    Not enough sleep or poor quality sleep can cause sunken eyes and a person's DNA or the habit of smoking can also contribute to sunken eyes. Most cases of sunken eyes relate to the quality of an individual's nutrition and healthy living. When these causes are corrected, sunken eyes can be resolved without further treatment. This means that causes can be avoided or treated in good time to prevent the recurrence of sunken eyes.

    The Chinese invented paper in 105 A. D. They mixed the bark of a tree and rags (破布) with water, put a screen into the mixture, and lifted out a thin piece of wet paper. They dried the paper in the sun.

    The Chinese kept their secret of how to make paper until a war with Muslims in the ninth century. The art of papermaking soon spread throughout the Muslim world.

    The Mayan Indians in Central America and Pacific Islanders also discovered how to make paper, but their knowledge never spread to the rest of the world.

    For centuries, all paper was made by hand. Rags were the main material. Then a French scientist discovered that people could make paper from wood, too. Finally, in the eighteenth century, a Frenchman invented a machine to make paper from wood.