Two students started quarreling at school. One student shouted dirty words at the other, and a fight began. What can be done to stop fights like this at school? In some schools, the disputants sit down with peer mediators(同龄调解者). Peer mediators are students with special training in this kind of problems.

    Peer mediators help the disputants to talk in a friendly way. Here are some of the ways they use:

1) Put what you think clearly but don't say anything to hurt the other. Begin with “I feel…” instead of “You always…”

2) Listen carefully to what the other person is saying. Don't stop the other person's words.

3) Keep looking at the other person's eyes when he or she talks.

4) Try to see the other person's side of the problem.

5) Never put anyone down. Saying things like “You are foolish” makes the talk difficult. 6) Try to find a result that makes both people happy.

    Peer mediators never decide the result or the winner. They don't decide who is right and who is wrong. Instead, they help the two students to find their own “win-win” result.

    It was in October. I was aimlessly wandering down the street, heading into a most gloriously beautiful sunset. I had an urge to speak to someone on the street to share that beauty, but it seemed everyone was in a hurry.

    I took the next-best action. Quickly I ducked into a department store and asked the lady behind the counter if she could come outside for just a minute. She looked at me as though I were from some other planet. She hesitated, and then seemingly against her better judgment, she moved toward the door.

    When she got outside I said to her, “Just look at that sunset! Nobody out here was looking at it and I just had to share it with someone.”

    For a few seconds we just looked. Then I said, “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world.” I thanked her for coming out to see it; she went back inside and I left. It felt good to share the beauty.

    Four years later my situation changed greatly. I came to the end of a twenty-year marriage. I was alone and on my own for the first time in my life. I lived in a trailer park which, at the time, I considered a real come-down, and I had to do my wash in the community laundry room.

    One day, while my clothes were going around, I picked up a magazine and read an article about a woman who had been in similar circumstances. She had come to the end of a marriage, moved to a strange community, and the only job she could find was one she disliked: clothing sales in a department store.

    Then something that happened to her changed everything. She said a woman came into her department store and asked her to step outside to look at a sunset. The stranger had said, “God is in his heaven and all is right with the world,” and she had realized the truth in that statement. From that moment on, she turned her life around.

    “Years ago when I was at the Grand Canyon, I remembered someone coming up to the canyon's edge, taking a shot with a camera and then walking away, like 'got it – done', barely even glancing at the magnificent scene in front of him,” Linda Henkel, a scientist at Fairfield University, US told Live Science.

    Henkel was surprised by how obsessed (痴迷的) people are with taking pictures these days - before dinner, during friends' birthday parties, on museum tours and so on.

    They keep taking pictures because they think that it helps record the moment, but as Henkel's latest study has just found out, this obsession may prevent their brains remembering what actually happened, reported The Guardian.

    In her study, Henkel led a group of college students around a museum and asked them to simply observe 15 objects and photograph 15 others. The next day the students' memory of the tour was tested, and the results showed that they were less accurate in recognizing the objects and they remembered fewer details about them if they photographed them.

    ''When people rely on technology to remember them — counting on the camera to record the event and thus not needing to attend to it fully themselves, it can have a negative impact on how well they remember their experiences,” Henkel explained.

    But there is also an exception: if students zoomed in to photograph part of an object, their memory actually improved, and those who focused the lens (镜头) on a specific area could even recall parts that weren't in the frame.

    So basically, this study is saying that constantly taking pictures can harm your memory. But shouldn't reviewing pictures we have taken help wake up our memories? This is true, but only if we spend enough time doing it.

    “In order to remember, we have to access and interact with the photos, rather than just collect them,” Henkel told The Telegraph. However, previous research has shown that most people never take the time to look over their digital pictures simply because there are too many of them and they aren't usually very organized on their computers.

    Making friends is a skill like many other skills. It improves with practice. If you want to meet people and make friends，you must be willing to take some actions. You must first go where there are people. You won't make friends staying home alone. Join a club or a group. Talking with those who like the same things as you do is much easier. Or join someone in some activities. Many people are nervous when talking to new people. After all meeting strangers means facing the unknown. And it's human nature to feel a bit uncomfortable about the unknown. Most of our fears about dealing with new people come from doubts about ourselves. We imagine other people are judging us or finding us too tall or too short，too this or too that. But don't forget that they must be feeling the same way. Try to accept yourself as you are and try to put the other person at ease. You'll both feel more comfortable.

    Try to act self­confidently even if you don't feel that way. When you enter a room full of strangers，such as a new classroom，walk tall and straight，look directly at other people and smile.

    If you see someone you'd like to speak to，say something. Don't wait for the other person to start a conversation.

    Just meeting someone new does not mean that you will make friends with that  person—friendship is based on mutual liking and“give and take”. It takes time and effort to develop.

    People who have seen Trisha Seifried Woodall with her cats say that she has a magic touch. Most people don't know anyone who can order a cat to jump on a table, sit for two minutes, and then jump to the floor and walk backward.

    Ms. Seifried Woodall has taught her cats to do all these tricks -- and many more. At her training center. Got Pet-ential, cats learn tricks for TV and magazine ads. Some of her cats have appeared on bags of cat food.

    When Ms. Seifried Woodall gets a cat, she first learns what that cat likes and doesn't like. "Some cats like to stay close to the ground, so I'll teach them how to stand behind me, and walk with me," she says. "Other cats, like high places, so they'll learn how to jump on my bent knee and then safely leap to my shoulder."

    Ms. Seifried Woodall grew up in a family with many pets, and she was first paid to work with animals when she was 18. At a summer job at an amusement park, she learned how to train a few of the animals for performances. She continued to train and learn about animals for 20 years before starting her own animal-training center.

    Ms. Seifried Woodall is proud of the skills her cats have learned, but she is also proud that her center's cats are healthy and social. She believes her cats enjoy learning new tricks.

    In Ms. Seifried Woodall's experience, no breed (品种) of cat is easier to train than others. All of her cats came from shelters. They have become pets in her home.

    Like most animal trainers, Ms. Seifried Woodall uses a reward system. Cats that are successful during training get food or a new toy. A cat that doesn't enjoy eating or playing will probably not be interested in being trained. She never scolds (责骂) them. "Cats need a lot of encouragement when they are performing, she says." I say good job or that s right several times during a single minute."

POETRY CHALLENGE

    Write a poem about how courage, determination, and strength have helped you face challenges in your life.

Prizes

    3 Grand Prizes: Trip to Washington, D.C. for each of three winners, a parent and one other person of the winner's choice. Trip includes round-trip air tickets, hotel stay for two nights, and tours of the National Air and Space Museum and the office of National Geographic World.

    6 First Prizes: The book Sky Pioneer:A Photobiography of Amelia Earhart signed by author Corinne Szabo and pilot Linda Finch.

    50 Honorable Mentions:Judges will choose up to 50 honorable mention winners, who will each receive a T-shirt in memory of Earhart's final flight.

Rules

    Follow all rules carefully to prevent disqualification.

    ■Write a poem using 100 words or fewer. Your poem can be any format, any number of lines.

    ■Write by hand or type on a single sheet of paper. You may use both the front and back of the paper.

    ■On the same sheet of paper, write or type your name, address, telephone number, and birth date.

    ■Mail your entry to us by October 31 this year.