Earlier this month, two rock climbers achieved what many thought impossible: They climbed up the 3,000-foot-high Dawn Wall in Yosemite NationalPark without specialized equipment. Climbing without this equipment iscalled“free-climbing.”Until now, no one had free-climbed to the top of the rockface, which is a part of the mountain EI Capitan.

    El Capitan, which means“the captain”or“the chief”in Spanish, has always presented a challenge to climbers. But the Dawn Wall, on the mountain's southeast face, is a particularly difficult route to the summit (顶峰). It is a rock formation that is both steep and relatively smooth. This makes free-climbing the rock face seem almost impossible.

    About seven years ago, professional climber Tommy Caldwell spotted a possible route up the wall. It took years of planning and preparation, but this month, Caldwell, 36, and his friend Kevin Jorgeson, 30, finally make the climb.

    Free climbers do use ropes and other basic safety equipment to catch them if they fall — and Caldwell and Jorgeson fell often. Before starting their climb, they broke down their route into 32 sections. Each section was based on a rope length called a“pitch.”The rope was secured into the rock faceto catch the climbers if they fell.

    Caldwell and Jorgeson's goal was to climb the DawnWall without returning to the ground. If they fell, they had to start that pitch all over again. The two men started climbing on December 27. They slept in hanging tents, and a team of friends brought them food each day.

    The men had spent years rehearsing (排练) them ovements it would take to get through each pitch. They made it through the fist half of the climb relatively easily. But halfway up, Jorgeson ran into trouble. In one difficult spot, he fell each time he attempted to climb. After10 days of trying, Jorgeson finally made it to the next pitch.

    Getting through that troublesome pitch gave both climbers renewed energy. They finished the rest of the climb five days later, on January 14.

阅读理解

    Many people think that listening is a passive business. It is just the opposite. Listening well is an active exercise of our attention and hard work. It is because they do not realize this, or because they are not willing to do the work, that most people do not listen well.

    Listening well also requires total concentration upon someone else. An essential part of listening well is the rule known as 'bracketing'. Bracketing includes the temporary giving up or setting aside of your own prejudices and desires, to experience as far as possible someone else's world from the inside, stepping into his or her shoes. Moreover, since listening well involves bracketing, it also involves a temporary acceptance of the other person. Sensing this acceptance, the speaker will seem quite willing to open up the inner part of his or her mind to the listener. True communication is under way and the energy required for listening well is so great that it can be accomplished only by the will to extend oneself for mutual growth.

    Most of the time we lack this energy. Even though we may feel in our business dealings or social relationships that we are listening well, what we are usually doing is listening selectively. Often we have a prepared list in mind and wonder, as we listen, how we can achieve certain desired results to get the conversation over as quickly as possible or redirected in ways more satisfactory to us. Many of us are far more interested in talking than in listening, or we simply refuse to listen to what we don't want to hear.

    It wasn't until toward the end of my doctor career that I have found the knowledge that one is being truly listened to is frequently therapeutic(有疗效的) In about a quarter of the patients I saw, surprising improvement was shown during the first few months of psychotherapy(心理疗法), before any of the roots of problems had been uncovered or explained. There are several reasons for this phenomenon, but chief among them, I believe, was the patient's sense that he or she was being truly listened to, often for the first time in years, and for some, perhaps for the first time ever.

    The TED speaker series features “ideas worth spreading.” With over 1,400 to choose from, we've selected a few that are perfect for students.

    ⒈Larry Smith: Why You Will Fail to Have a Great Career

    We humans have an excellent ability to make excuses for ourselves. Larry Smith, a professor of economics at the University of Waterloo in Canada, tells us why most of us will fail to have a great career. But there is a way out— if you try to pursue your passion.

    ⒉Andy Puddicombe: All It takes Is 10 Mindful Minutes

    Between dance team, volunteering and—oh, right—lectures, your life's crazy factor is about to go way up. In this entertaining and informative talk, mindfulness expert Andy Puddicombe teaches us how to be “more healthy, more mindful and less distracted” by taking just 10 minutes out of the day to be more present.

    ⒊Shane Koyczan: To This DAY For the Bullied and Beautiful

    This talk is sure to stay with you. Shane Koyczan's “To this DAY” is an affecting spoken-word poem about bullying and being different that gained over 10 million views on YouTube. In this talk, Koyczan gives a live reading of the poem, along with some stories about his background.

    ⒋Susan Cain: The power of Introverts(性格内向者)

    Does a cup of tea and a good book sound like a perfect Friday night? In this personal talk, Susan Cain argues that introverts have important talents and abilities. Our culture may value being social and outgoing, but the word needs all kinds.

    Inside Out is one of my favorite Disney / Pixar movies. The story is about a young girl named Riley who moves from Minnesota to San Francisco with her family and how she deals with her emotions (情感) through the move. These five emotions in Riley's brain are Joy, Fear, Anger, Disgust (厌恶) and Sadness. These emotions play a very important role in her life. I can understand because I am an 11-year-old girl and I am very in touch with my emotions and pre-teen feelings.

    The film is extremely beautiful and you couldn't ask for better direction from Pete Doctor. The use of the right colors for the characters is great. For example, Joy is yellow, Sadness is blue, Disgust is green, Fear is purple and Anger of course is red. Sadness plays a main role in the story and it makes me wonder why we are told not to be sad. I think it's important to be sad when the time comes. The end of the movie pretty much got me and the whole audience (观众) (families, couples and even elderly people) in tears and I cried very hard.

    I recommend (推荐) this movie for anyone from 8 to 18 because it has enough joy in it for younger kids to like it even though it does have some sad moments. I believe that adults will like it too. And I give it 4 out of 5 stars because it connects to an older audience even though it is designed for a younger audience. I think younger children can see this, but a parent would have to explain some things to them after the movie.

    "What kind of rubbish are you?" This question might normally cause anger, but in Shanghai it has brought about complaints over the past week. On July 1st, the city introduced strict trash-sorting regulations that are expected to be used as a model for our country. Residents must divide their waste into four separate kinds and put it into specific public bins. They must do so at scheduled times, when monitors are present to ensure compliance（服从）and to inquire into the nature of one's rubbish.

    Violators face the possibility of fines and worse. They could be hit with fines of up to 200 yuan ($29). For repeat violators, the city can add black marks to their credit records, making it harder for them to obtain bank loans or even buy train tickets.

    Shanghai authorities are responding to an obvious environmental problem. It generates 9 million tonnes of garbage a year, more than London's annual output and rising quickly. But like other cities in China, it lacks a recycling system. Instead, it has relied on trash pickers to sort out the waste, picking out whatever can be reused. This has limits. As people get wealthier, fewer of them want to do such dirty work. The waste, meanwhile, just keeps piling up. China produces 80 billion pairs of disposable(一次性的)chopsticks a year.

    Many residents appear to support the idea of recycling in general but are frustrated by the details. Rubbish must be divided according to whether it is food, recyclable, dry or hazardous(有害的), the differences among which can be confusing, though there are apps to help work it out. Some have complained about the rules surrounding food waste. They must put it straight in the required public bin, forcing them to tear open plastic bags and toss it by hand. Most upset are the short windows for throwing trash, typically a couple of hours, morning and evening. Along with the monitors at the bins, this means that people go at around the same time and can keep an eye on what is being thrown out; no one wants to look bad.