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.

    In 1880, fourteen-year-old Matthew Henson loved to hear sailors tell tales of their exciting lives at sea. The travel, the adventure, the danger, and the steady pay were all attracting young Henson. One day, he found a job as a cabin boy on a beautiful ship called the Katie Hinds. For the next five years, Henson sailed around the world. With the help of the ship's captain and other members of the crew, Henson learned mathematics, navigation, history, geography, and many other subjects. By the time he left the Katie Hinds in 1885, Henson was well educated and had become an excellent seaman.

    Unable to find work anywhere else, Henson took a job in a hat shop in Washington, D.C. One day in 1887, a man came in to buy a hat. The man, Robert Peary, asked the owner if he knew anyone with experience at sea. Peary would soon travel to South America for the U.S. government. He needed experienced men to accompany him. The shop owner knew about his young employee's skills and experience on ocean journeys, so he introduced Peary to Henson.

    Using his map-reading and sailing skills, Henson proved himself to be a worthy and smart seaman. Peary soon made Henson his assistant（助理）, and they became close friends. One day Peary told Henson about his real dream: to be the first man to stand on “the top of the world” at the North Pole. He asked Henson to help him make his dream come true. Over the next five years, the two explorers made two trips together to the Arctic. However, they were not able to reach the pole either time. The cold, wind, and ice were worse than either of them had ever imagined.

    In 1908, Peary and Henson were ready to make their final attempt at reaching the North Pole. Both men were over forty years old. The years of hardship in the arctic cold had made them suffer a lot. This would be their last chance. With four Inuit（因纽特）guides, they made a mad rush straight across the ice toward the pole. Peary's feet were injured and he had to be pulled on a dogsled. In April 1909, Henson's instruments showed they were standing at the North Pole. Together Henson and Peary planted the American flag in the snow.

    In later years, Robert Peary and Henson were greatly honored for their achievements. Today, the two friends and fellow explorers lie in heroes' graves not far apart in the Arlington National Cemetery.

    It is quite apparent that competition surrounds every aspect of human life whether in the United States or the Amazon Rain Forest. Without it we would not have grown into primates(灵长类动物). Or we would probably still be struggling to sharpen a bronze tool while crawling around on four legs in search of meat. Without competition, Columbus wouldn't have discovered America and Edison would never have invented the light bulb.

    Friendship, like all relationship between two people, involves competition. It isn't competition in a traditional sense because there are no goals to be scored and no prize. Perhaps the ecological definition—the simultaneous (同时的)demand by two or more organisms for limited environmental resources, such as nutrients， living space, or light- better explain it.

    As in nature, high school life is governed by a set of laws, similar to a shortened version of Darwin's theory of evolution, overpopulation, and competition. There is an abundance of high school students and to distinguish them, ranking and categorizing(分类)take place. In high school, friendships learn to co-exist with competition even though at times the relationship is rough. In fact, in some circumstances, competition is too much of a burden for a friendship to bear, causing it to fall apart. College admission is the final high school objective. Four years of hard work is to achieve good grades, and a student's fate is determined not only by these achievements, but by the records of thousands of other seniors trying to achieve a similar recognition.

    Nevertheless, by necessity, competition between students exists in all aspects of high school life. It sets and improves the standards in everything from sports to school work. A healthy, friendly competition can have only benefits, but when it becomes too fierce, jealousy can tear friendships apart. Yet, despite all this, without competition, we would be lost.

    My 17-year-old daughter went off to college and having her away from home brought back memories of watching Peter Pan when she was little. In the classic TV production, one scene in particular impressed me: when Mrs. Darling puts her children into bed. As she turns off the last of the night light, she takes one last look at the bedroom and says, “Dear night lights, protect my sleeping children.” As a mother, I know how much she loves her children.

    It has been several weeks since we took our daughter to college and she seems to be adjusting well after a short period of homesickness. For us, though, it's another story. Like most parents, I love checking in on my children at night. But now she's gone, and I find nighttimes the hardest. I miss her most at night.

    In my neighborhood, most of the parents whose kids are off to college are dealing with similar melancholy. My husband is filled with anxiety. One friend talked about getting this sick feeling in her stomach as she prepared for the college drop-off. We complained that many of us were too busy to truly enjoy being with our children while we had them.

    For us moms, seeing Toy Story 3 only made the sadness worse as we watched the character Andy, who is the same age as our kids, say goodbye to his childhood as he prepares to leave for college. And it's not just “first-time” parents like me. Two moms who have kids already well into college said the separation didn't get any easier. “You feel like something has been taken away from inside you” said one of them.

    I imagine things will get easier with time, especially as I see my daughter adjust to college life. Meanwhile, as I keep my cell phone close to me in bed and text my daughter goodnight and sweet dreams every night, I like to think that messages serve as a night light that keeps her safe.

    When many people are worried that there are no more heroes in modern times, two university students who lost their lives to rescue drowning children have shown that heroes still exist (存在).

    According to the Inner Mongolia Morning Post, the accident occurred on the afternoon of December 14, 2002 when three school students skating on a frozen lake in Qingcheng Park in Hohhot fell through the ice into the freezing water.

    More than 20 university students who happened to be near the spot immediately went to the rescue of the children.

    Two children were quickly rescued, but the third died. The child's body was not found for three hours. Two of the rescuers, Liu Ye and Hao Longbiao, also died of cold and exhaustion (筋疲力尽).

    The body of Hao who took the lead in jumping into the lake was not found until the next day.

    A student who was unwilling to tell his name said he and his classmates from the local college were taking photos at the lake. When they heard the children's cries for help, they went to the ice hole hand in hand to rescue the children. But the ice kept breaking, causing most of them to fall into the icy water.

    Local residents held mourning ceremonies (祭奠仪式) at the lake.

    Eight of the students were seriously affected by the freezing water and were being kept in hospital for further observation, but their lives were no longer in danger.

A British woman who once weighed some 322 pounds said breaking a roller coaster seat during an amusement park outing was her motivation for working toward a healthier weight.

Four years ago, Danielle Wright, 27, went to the Alton Towers theme park in Staffordshire, England, with her sister. She wanted to avoid roller coasters, fearing that she was too heavy for them. But she was convinced to give it a try and boarded one of the rides.

"Fitting in the seat was bad enough, but when it came to pulling down the safety bar, my stomach stopped it from working," she recalled. "One of the employees came over and had to put his foot against the ride and push the bar hard to make it click into place."

She was worried throughout the ride that “the bar was going to pop open and I was going to be thrown off the tracks". When the ride ended, the bar sprang up and made a huge noise. Shortly after, she heard an announcement over the loudspeaker saying the ride was temporarily closed due to a broken seat.

Though it was embarrassing, the incident presented a silver lining. "It's what I needed to motivate me to lose pounds," Danielle said. She totally changed her diet, cutting back on carbohydrate and replacing food like chocolate with healthier choices such as apples and yogurt. Meanwhile, she also began participating in workout classes.

In November 2016, Danielle found out she was pregnant. But as tempted as she was, she didn't allow herself to eat unhealthy food while pregnant and stuck to her new diet.

Now Danielle weighs some 140 pounds. "Being able to run and play with my little boy is, he best part of it all. I couldn't have asked for a better reward," she said.