Every year in America, high-school students who want to go to college take a national examination called the Scholastic Aptitude Test, or SAT in a shortened way. Their score is an important factor in determining which colleges will admit them or whether any will be admitted at all. The Scholastic Aptitude Test measures one's mathematical ability and use of the English language. Traditionally, the English part involved grammatical questions and paragraphs that test reading comprehension.

    But the SAT folks have added a single question, to be answered in an essay, hand-written on the spot. That's an interesting way to test writing ability, but content aside, have you ever seen young people's handwriting lately? Or anyone's for that matter, in this age of computer keyboards? Students write numbers and sign their names on bank checks. They scribble class notes in what can generously be described as the written word.

    Yet today's kids are asked to write, thoughtfully and clearly, for several minutes on this SAT Test. Good luck to the text scorers who must work out difficultly the scrawl (潦草的字迹) of young people who've been typing on computers since the age of three! Teachers insist that good handwriting can not only help one's score on the SAT, but also, later on in life, impress potential employers. And don't forget, we all have to turn to handwriting from time to time, as computers go down when power goes out.

    Then how to improve the handwriting? Well, with a few simple steps you can improve your hand writing.

    Position the pen. You should hold the pen between the forefinger and the thumb, then rest it near the first knuckle (指节) of the middle finger. The rest of your fingers should be curled (卷曲) under your hand and your hand should remain relaxed.

    Evaluate your writing. Make changes to your letters till you like how they look.

    Take your time. Speed is bound to make your writing messy-looking.

    Practice. Practice it a lot; it's not enough to do it once and hope for the best. It has to be something you work at to make great improvements.

    According to a recent study out of the University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School, men with shaved heads are considered to be more manly, powerful, and successful than those with longer hair or thinning(稀少的) hair. Besides, in some cases, they are considered to have greater leadership potential (潜力). That may explain why the power-buzz look has become popular among business leaders in recent years.

    Albert Mannes, Wharton management lecturer, said he was encouraged to do the research after noticing that he was treated with more respect when he shaved off his thinning hair.

    Mannes did three experiments to test people's impression of men with shaved heads. In one of the experiments, he showed 344 subject photos of the same men in two versions: one showing the men with hair and the other showing them with their hair digitally removed, so their heads appear shaved. In all three tests, the subject report found the men with shaved heads are more dominant(占优势的) than their hairy counterparts(对应的人).

    The study found that men with thinning hair were viewed as the least attractive and powerful. For those men, the solution could be as cheap and simple as a shave.

    New York image consultant Julie Rath advised her clients to get closely cropped when they start thinning up top. “There is something really strong, powerful and confident about laying it all bare(光秃的),” she said, describing the thinning look as kind of raunchy(不修边幅的).

    Not everyone needs a bare head. Rick Devine, 55, the CEO of Devine Capital Partners, advised executive candidates attracted by their clippers to keep their hair closely cropped, rather than completely shaved. “It is way too much image risk,” he said, “The best thing you can do in a business meeting is to make your look not an issue.”

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    Tornadoes are nature's most violent storms, which can cause deaths and destroy a neighborhood in seconds. A tornado appears as a funnel-shaped (漏斗状) cloud from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling (飞快移动) winds that can reach 300 miles per hour. Damage paths can be over one mile wide and 50 miles long. Every state is at some risk from this disaster.

    Some tornadoes can be seen clearly, while rain or nearby low-hanging clouds obscure others. At many times, tornadoes develop so rapidly that little, if any, advance warning is possible.

    Before a tornado hits, the air may become very still. A cloud of debris (散片) can mark the location of a tornado even if a funnel can not be seen. Tornadoes generally occur near the edge of a thunderstorm, when the strong wind may die down. It is not uncommon to see clear, sunlit skies behind a tornado.

The following are facts about tornadoes:

    The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 MPH, but may also vary from still to 70 MPH. Debris is picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel.

    The average tornado moves from southwest to northeast, but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction. Tornadoes are most often reported east of the Rocky Mountains during spring and summer months.

    Tornadoes can happen together with tropical storms and hurricanes as they move onto land. Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.

    The tornado season in the southern states of America is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer. Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., but can occur at any time.

    Shree Bose is one of the most impressive kids graduating from Fort Worth Country Day High School this year. Bose has a large circle of friends, and there's one who you may have heard of: President Obama. He has twice publicly recognized her achievements in cancer research and spoken with her in the Oval Office.

    If that isn't enough, Bose recently gave a TED Talk about her work with the cancer drug Cisplatin, which also won her first prize at the Google Science Fair and recognition as one of Glamour magazine's Young Amazing Women of the Year.

    After watching her grandfather struggle with liver cancer, Bose was determined to help out in any way she could. As a high school student though, her scientific choices were limited. She reached out to various hospitals and research centers, but doctors turned down her requests because they felt she was too inexperienced medically.

    Only the North Texas Science Health Center respected her determination and chose to guide her. The results were amazing.

    Bose chose to study a protein (蛋白质) and its reaction with the cancer drug Cisplatin. She noticed that when she prevented this protein from growing, Cisplatin was allowed to begin destroying cancer cells once again.

    “My project not only contributes to the understanding of the relationship between the protein and Cisplatin, but also suggests a newer, more effective treatment for patients who resist Cisplatin,” Bose said.

    Bose's achievements aren't limited to the lab, though. She was also captain of her swim team and editor-in-chief of her school paper.

    Bose is currently getting practical experience at the National Institute of Health and she'll be attending Harvard in the fall. She plans to study molecular biology and go to medical school. Eventually, she would like to be a doctor.

    The man who walked into Dave Cutlip's tattoo parlor（纹身店）in Brooklyn Park. Maryland, in January was tough to miss. His face bore a gang（帮派）tattoo. The man sought Cutlip's help in covering up his violent past. He was determined to turn over a new leaf. "I could see the hurt in his eyes," Cutlip, 49, told The Washington Post.

    Cutlip couldn't help the man—the tattoo were too close to the eyes. But it got him thinking. Many young people get tattoos that hey come to regret. A few can mark them for the rest of their days. Then they're" always going to be a victim." said Cutlip." If I can help, that's my ultimate（最终的）goal."

    Inking over a tattoo costs hundreds of dollars, and getting one removed by laser（激光）is even pricier. So Cutlip decided he would help by hiding racist or gang-related tattoos for free. He put the word out via Facebook:" Sometimes people make bad choices and sometimes people change. We believe there is enough hate in this world, and we want to make a difference."

    One man, Casey Schaffer, showed up with the word "white" on one forearm and "power" on the other. He'd served a year in prison on drug charges, he told The Washington Post, and had joined a white group there because they" took care of me. I thought of it as paying them back." But employers would take one look at the tattoos and turn him down. So he had Cutlip obscure（使不分明）one of the words with a heat and roses and tattoo an eagle over the other.

    Cutlip has done nine such jobs, each of which took several hours. He told People that a client（顾客）let him know that he quickly found a job once his tattoo was obscured. Such victories inspired Cutlip to found the Random Acts of Tattoo project with three like-minded（志同道合的）tattoo studios from around the country, and now hundreds of clients are on a wait list. As he told National Public Radio." If we can just erase hate, then we're doing something."

    The view you adopt for yourself significantly affects the way you lead your life. It can determine whether you become the person you want to be and whether you achieve the things you value. How does this happen? How can a simple belief have the power to transform your psychology and, as a result, your life?

    Believing that your qualities are carved in stone­the fixed mindset­creates an urgency to prove yourself over and over. Some of us are trained in this mindset from an early age. Even as a child, I was focused on being smart, but the fixed mindset was really stamped in by Mrs. Wilson, my sixth­grade teacher. She believed that people's IQ scores told the whole story of who they were. We were seated around the room in IQ order, and only the highest­IQ students could be trusted to collect homework, or take a note to the principal. She was creating a mindset in which everyone in the class had one consuming goal­look smart, don't look stupid.

    I've seen so many people with this one consuming goal of proving themselves­in the classroom, in their careers, and in their relationships. Every situation calls for a confirmation of their intelligence, personality, or character. Every situation is evaluated: Will I succeed or fail? Will I look smart or stupid? Will I feel like a winner or a loser?

    But doesn't our society value intelligence, personality, and character? Isn't it normal to want these qualities? Yes, but...

    There's another mindset, the growth mindset, which is based on the belief that your basic qualities are things you can develop through your efforts. Although people may differ in every which way­in their inborn talents, interests, or characters­everyone can change and grow through efforts and experience. Did you know that Darwin and Tolstoy were considered ordinary children? That the photographer Cindy Sherman, who has been on almost every list of the most important artists of the twentieth century, failed her first photography course? That Geraldine Page, one of our greatest actresses, was advised to give it up for lack of talent?

    You can see how the belief that valuable qualities can be developed creates a passion for learning. Why waste time proving how great you are, when you could be getting better? Why hide weaknesses instead of overcoming them? And why seek out the tried and true, instead of experiences that will stretch you? The passion for stretching yourself and sticking to it, even when it's not going well, is the feature of the growth mindset. This is the mindset that allows people to achieve success during some of the most challenging times in their lives.