Barditch High School decided to an All-School Reunion. Over 450 people came to the event. There were tours of the old school building and a picnic at Confederate Park. Several former teachers were on hand to tell stories about the old days. Ms. Mabel Yates, the English teacher for fifty years, was wheeled to the Park.

    Some eyes rolled and there were a few low groans(嘟囔声)when Ms.Yates was about to speak. Many started looking at their watches and coming up with excuses to be anywhere instead of preparing to listen to a lecture from an old woman who had few kind words for her students and made them work harder than all the other teachers combined.

    Then Ms. Yates started to speak:

     “I can't tell you how pleased I am to be here. I haven't seen many of you since your graduation, but I have followed your careers and enjoyed your victories as well as crying for your tragedies. I have a large collection of newspaper photographs of my students. Although I haven't appeared in person, I have attended your college graduations, weddings and even the birth your children, in my imagination.”

    Ms. Yates paused and started crying a bit. Then she continued:

     “It was my belief that if I pushed you as hard as I could, some of you would succeed to please me and others would succeed to annoy me. Regardless of our motives, I can see that you have all been successful in you chosen path.”

     “There is no greater comfort for an educator than to see the end result of his or her years of work. You have all been a great source of pleasure and pride for me and I want you to know I love you all from the bottom of my heart.”

    There was a silence over the crowd for a few seconds and then someone started clapping. Tee clapping turned into cheering, then into a deafening roar(呼喊). Lawyers, truck drivers, bankers and models were rubbing their eyes or crying openly with no shame all because of the words from a long forgotten English teacher from their hometown.

    Celeste Ng,a new writer,has gained recognition for her first novel,Everything I Never Told You.

    Ng's parents came from Hong Kong,China in the 1960s.Ng was born in America and grew up in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania,and Shaker Heights,Ohio,in a family of scientists.Celeste went to Harvard University and earned an MFA from the University of Michigan,where she won the Hopwood Award.

    Although her novel is not about race,the characters are Asian.The main character is Lydia,a teenage girl,who is the favorite of three children born to a white mother and a Chinese-American father.The story is about Lydia's disappearance,and the emotions the family goes through as the mystery unfolds.The whole family deals with sorrow, regret,and exposed secrets as they search for their lost daughter.

    Though the characters in this story are Asian,Ng says she didn't really want to include Asian characters.She was afraid people would think the story was about real people in her life.Because she grew up in America and doesn't speak Chinese,she was actually surprised that she included.Asian characters in the book.

    The book has taken off,especially on Amazon,where it won the Editor's Pick for No.1 Best Book of the Year in 2014.Ng is still getting used to the attention,saying she is still amazed when people tell her they have read her book. With so many readers,it's safe to say this is a book you should read.But if you're looking for a simple mystery,this book might not be for you.Most readers warn that you should not read this book unless you're prepared to cry.

    Larry Bird was born in 1965 in a small town in the Middle Western State of Indiana. He was tall, and good at playing basketball. He attended Indiana State University. Bird led the team into the College Basketball Championship Game.

    After completing his college studies, Larry Bird began playing professional basketball for the Boston Celtics. He remained with the Celtics for all his professional career. During those 13 years, Larry Bird was named the Most Valuable Player of the Year three times. He scored more than 21, 000 points, and he played in 13 of the highest scoring games in his team's history. Once he scored 60 points in just one game.

    During his very successful basketball career, Larry Bird suffered a number of injuries. In 1989, he stopped playing because of pain in his feet. He returned in 1990, but the pain in his feet returned too. In the next two years he experienced more medical problems, and he missed many games.

    Larry Bird did play on the Dream Team－the first Olympic Team with professional players. However, after winning the gold medal in Barcelona, he announced that he would retire from professional basketball. Larry Bird said he would have liked to play a little longer, but he could not because of his health problems. He also said it was a good time to leave the game. He wanted to be remembered as a winner.

    When 12 girls from San Fernando high school in California received a grant (助学金) to develop an invention to solve a real-world problem, they decided to create a solar-powered shelter. Now for over a year, the girls have been working after school and over the winter and spring breaks to complete their project. "They have this amazing drive that I've never seen before," said Violet Mardirosian, a math teacher at San Fernando High. "I thought at the beginning that maybe some of them would give up, saying 'I didn't expect this much work,' but they don't. They're just working hard and they're not giving up."

    Living in a low-income community (社区), the girls have seen the problem of homelessness first-hand, which is why they chose that population to create a product for. Many of them are also from immigrant families and hope the solar-powered shelter might help refugees (难民). Seventeen-year-old Maggie Mejia said that while she had no engineering experience, the girls figured out as a team how to create the prototype (雏形), using how-to videos and books that taught them how to code. But the most important lesson she's learned over the course of the project isn't technical. "I've learned a lot about helping others, helping the community and showing a better world to other people," she said.

    The girls have been invited to MIT to show their invention. Mardirosian says all the participating students have expressed interest in going into STEM (science, technology, engineering, mathematics) fields and that students from lower grades are already expressing interest in being involved next year. She says, "Many of them didn't think about engineering before. They thought maybe they're not made out to be an engineer. But working together, now they realize they're all needed in this field. Everyone has found their importance in this picture."

Nobody says high school and college are easy. Studying is difficult, as is memorizing information for a test. Fortunately, there are books that can help to make dealing with school easier.

Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley

Do you have trouble remembering everything you're studying? Feel like you have too much on your plate? Unlimited Memory by Kevin Horsley may be for you. It's a bestseller in memory improvement. This book has strategies to help you learn faster while also teaching you to become more productive. Of course, having a good memory comes in handy outside of the classroom as well. Really, this is a great book for life in general.

Student ^fs Guide to Writing College Papers by Kate L. Turabian

Many students reach college and find that essay writing in college is very different from that in high school. Whether this is the case for you or you just want to improve your writing skills, you'll want to check out Student's Guide to Writing College Papers. It's available on Kindle or in hardback or paperback forms. Right now, this one is its fourth edition. The book covers writing your actual paper, citing sources(引用来源), and style. Even English majors can find a lot of helpful tips in this book.

On Course by Skip Downing

It is another book you'll want to check out. In its eighth edition, the book provides you with self-assessment tools to help you identify what you need to change for academic success. It contains guided journal entries（分录）to help you with responsibility, self-management, self-awareness, learning and self-esteem.

How to Become a Straight A Student by Cal Newport

The book will teach you different approaches and strategies to help you score better but spend less time on studying, with a focus on studying smarter, not harder. It's available on Kindle and in audiobook(有声读物)and paperback forms.

A lot of people admired our neighbor. One day a delivery truck unloaded a large 1 system at their house. And the kids discussed the new sound equipment my neighbor had just bought. Meantime, we were living in a house decorated 2 and dressing our kids in second-hand clothes. We lived a 3 life. 

My poor mother-in-law, in town for a visit, got to hear my complaints that night. "I feel so 4 sometimes," I told her, as we 5 the table after dinner. "I know we're doing the right thing, living frugally (节俭的), saving money, but it feels so hard. There're so many things I'd like to 6 , so many things I'd like to do, but we just can't."

She 7 as she folded a cloth napkin in silence. Then she turned to me and said, "When you make a comparison between yourself and others, it's easy to 8 what you don't have. But there's one thing you two do that many other couples may 9 to do. You two often go out together and take time to focus on your 10 . And that's a very important thing."

I stopped wiping the table and 11 for a minute. I thought of the movie my husband and I had seen a week earlier. I 12 the bike rides, the hikes and the picnics. Most of all, I remembered how 13 we were together, even after twenty years. How many people can say that? 

I looked around my home in a new 14 . Our refrigerator was too small for a family of six, but it was 15 filled with delicious food. Our kitchen was small and we had no big TV, but we're happy! And that's enough!