Walk Out of the Comfort Zone and Try New Things

    For most high school students, free periods are useless. From what I have seen, few do homework, instead many are on their phones and talking, making it impossible for those who actually want to do work to complete any. As a senior next year, I think extra periods should be used to take optional subjects.

    Our school offers many classes. Now is the time to experiment in different fields of study. We will never know if we are interested or talented in a subject if we don't try it.

    In my 8th grade, I was told that I had to take an art class as a graduation requirement; so in the 9th grade I took Studio and Art. One of the projects was to build a clay pot, but I built mine incorrectly, so it broke in the kiln (窑). I found out that I have no artistic ability at all, and now I know for sure that I do not want to be an artist. However, the class was one of my favorites that year. I was able to try new activities and test my ability.

    Walk out of our comfort zone and try new things! College is when we should focus on a specific major, but high school is when we have to figure it out.

    Half of all college students change their major at some point. By doing that hundreds of dollars are wasted on classes that they would have never needed to take. So use our extra periods to find out what we want to do in college. The classes we choose can impact us in future. Taking optional subjects will enrich our mind. It will also show colleges we are diverse students.

    Age has its privileges in America, and one of the most important of them is the senior citizen discount. Eligibility(资格) is determined not by one's need but by the date on one's birth certificate. The discounts have become a routine part of many businesses—as common as color televisions in motel rooms and free coffee on airliners.

    People with gray hair often are given the discounts without even asking for them; yet, millions of Americans above age 60 are healthy and solvent (有支付能力的). Businesses that would never dare offer discounts to college students or anyone under 30 freely offer them to older Americans. The practice is acceptable because of the widespread belief that ＂elderly＂ means ＂needy＂. Perhaps that once was true, but today elderly Americans as a group have a lower poverty rate than the rest of the population. To be sure, there is economic diversity within the elderly, and many older Americans are poor. But most of them aren't.

    It is impossible to determine the impact of the discounts on individual companies. For many firms, they are a stimulus to revenue. But in other cases, the discounts are given at the expense, directly or indirectly, of younger Americans. Moreover, they are a direct irritant(刺激物) in what some politicians and scholars see as a coming conflict between the generations.

    Generational tensions are being fueled by continuing debate over Social Security benefits, which mostly involve a transfer of resources from the young to the old. Employment is another sore point. Supported by laws and court decisions, more and more older Americans are declining the retirement dinner in favor of staying on the job—thereby lessening employment and promotion opportunities for younger workers.

    Far from a kind of charity they once were, senior citizen discounts have become a privilege to a group with millions of members who don't need them.

It no longer makes sense to treat the elderly as a single group whose economic needs deserve priority over those of others. Senior citizen discounts only enhance the myth that older people can't take care of themselves and need special treatment; and they threaten the creation of a new myth, that the elderly are ungrateful and taking for themselves at the expense of children and other age groups. Senior citizen discounts are the essence of the very thing older Americans are fighting against—discrimination by age.

    Perhaps at one point in time, it was acceptable to start any letter or e-mail with “To Whom It May Concern.”{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Starting your cover letter or e-mail for a job this way might give off the impression that you didn't do your research on who you're writing to{#blank#}2{#/blank#}After all, people who address other people by their names when writing and speaking to them tend to be more pleasant.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}It can be used in letters of recommendation or reference, formal complaints（抱怨）made to a company, letters of introduction, and letters of interest.

    Grammarly uses the example of needing to write a letter of recommendation, for a colleague who will have to make several copies to distribute to interviewers{#blank#}4{#/blank#}“In most cases, though, try to narrow your focus rather than cast a broad net,” notes Grammarly.”Ask yourself. Who does this e-mail concern? If you can honestly answer 'Anyone, 'then feel free to use “To Whom It May Concern.” （These are the things you should never say in your cover letter.）

    If you do happen to find that using “To Whom It May Concern” is appropriate, don't make grammar mistakes, for example, letters or punctuation.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. However, it maybe interesting.

B. Those times have changed, though.

C. Making mistakes in writing will surely get you low scores.

D. It's also very impersonal, which some employers might not appreciate.

E. In that circumstance, sending and receiving letters is more of a formal greeting.

F. You might want to take note of other common errors you might be committing, too.

G. But according to Grammarly, there are four times when it's OK to use this greeting.

                         Improve your memory

    Some people often complain about their poor memory. Actually there are several ways to keep your memory sharp. This article will show you some simple tips.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}. When you say these things, you begin to plant the thought in your mind and it may become true. Tell yourself you can remember anything as long as you put your mind to the task. You will see an improvement in your memory.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}. If you have trouble remembering phone numbers or other blocks of numbers, it can be really helpful to try this method. If you remember them in smaller groups, like two or three digits(数字), it will also be much easier to remember the number.

    Be sure to see a doctor if you really are losing your memory. A poor memory can be a sign that you are in low spirits.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

    Playing games also helps improve your memory. Any type of games that involves(涉及) remembering things is wonderful.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}. Try and remember it when you have nothing better to do. A useful tip for anyone interested in games is to often work on solving word puzzles and similar types of games. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Not only will your memory probably improve, you will also have a great deal of fun.

A. Take a right attitude.

B. Remember numbers in small groups.

C. Stop telling yourself you have a weak memory.

D. If you don't know your condition, you cannot treat it!

E. If you don't like games, you can go over a list of “to do things”.

F. If so, treating it could be the key to getting your memory back.

G. Such games use the same skills needed to remember facts and help keep the mind sharp.

    On an average day most of us check our smartphones 47 times, and this habit clouds our judgment on what information to select and store, which might explain why it's time we should do things about the information we take in to form memories.

    As simple as it sounds, the repetition of tasks-reading, or saying words over and over — continues to be the best method for transforming short-term memories into long-term ones. To do that, we have to retrain our minds to focus on one task at a time. Sadly, most turn a blind eye to this formula because we believe we're productive. New connections are made in your brain when you learn, so to remember what you learn, do what you probably did in your youth: Repeat words, thoughts and ideas over and over until you get them right.

    Also, spaced repetition might be the best way. Quickly pushing facts into our brains leads us to forget them in the long term. When you review knowledge and practice it often, it sticks, a research has shown. So if you can include what you're trying to remember into daily life, ideally over time, your chances of keeping it significantly improve. But once you stop reviewing that knowledge, the retention (保留) drops greatly. To get past it, space out your repetition over a few days and test the effect yourself. But be careful: find a healthy interval that works. This is a good way to effectively start tackling a new language.

    Sometimes, memory and focus usually go hand-in-hand. Dr. Cowan suggests rearranging our office setup as one way to improve focus. "The rebirth of the open workplace cannot be helping stay on task, "Dr. Cowan said. Referring to work spaces without desks, physical barriers and privacy, but with a lot of playthings.

    Multiple studies have found that procrastination (拖延) leads to stress and completely kills focus. Stop engaging in useless tasks like surfing the web and just handle whatever it is you need to work on. Then watch your focus increase quickly and your memory improve.

    Memory is very cue (提示) dependent, "Mr. Schacter, a psychologist, said, referring to. Something he calls absent-minded memory failure. "Most say it could never happen to me, but it's a very long list of responsible people that it has happened to. When you don't have that cue, you can forget almost everything. "

    A simple way around that is to set reminders. Even better, combine a few of these techniques: Write your reminder on a post-it and put it on your desk so you're forced to repeatedly look at it over a long period, including the practice of spaced repetition.

Kite Power

The search for new, clean energy sources has occupied the attention of scientists and politicians for years. One common resource for green energy is the wind. A new twist on this old resource could cause the energy output of wind-power plants to rise dramatically.

Standard wind-power plants rely on fixed support and generally can only reach a height of 200 meters or so. Higher than that, winds tend to be stronger and more persistent.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

Delft University of Technology in the Netherlands and Karlsruhe University of Applied Sciences in Germany have formed a kite-power research group. The group is working to develop kites with inflatable (可充气的) wings connected to electrical gencrators on the ground. The research group's goal is to design a kite that can operate on its own for 24 hours. Research has begun，but many challenges remain，including making the generators more efficient and perfecting the automatic flight control and the structure of the kites.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Meanwhile, in Italy, researchers are working in a similar power generator that relies on kites. When the generator, called KiteGen, senses the wind blowing, kites are released from the ends of poles with high-resistance cables to control their height and angle. These cables are able to move the kites if the system senses incoming objects such as planes, helicopters or even individual birds. The kites themselves are light, tough and able to reach fairly high altitudes. They form a circular shape in the wind, which sets the core of the generator in motion, producing electric current. KiteGen has the potential to be very cost-effective in the long run.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

The plant also requires relatively little space, which makes it ideal for cities and means that multiple plants can be set up to provide even more energy.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#}In the future, it may be an efficient, cost-effective addition to the other sources of energy we use, or even a replacement for some of them.

A. But the challenge is figuring out how to collect the energy from those winds.

B. Kite power has the potential to greatly improve on current wind-power strategies.

C. Wind at these altitudes (海拔高度) is stronger and steadier0 which increases productivity factors of the system to about 60%.

D. Its plan is to build a kite power station using technology that can collectively generate (产生) large amounts of energy.

E. Nevertheless, they successfully demonstrated that their kites could operate automatically at an altitude of up to 700 meters.

F. After the initial cost of designing and setting up the plant, little additional investment will be necessary, apart from standard maintenance.