When I was 10 years old, I tried out for the cheerleading squad. I had taken gymnastics classes for two years to prepare for these tryouts. However, I didn't make the team. It was a heavy blow to me. I cried all night.

    Kids today won't experience that kind of rejection. They're growing up in “everybody gets a turn” world where every child gets a chance to kick the ball, sing the song, and win the award. But that's not always such a good thing.

    Parents have become fearful of letting kids fail, thinking that our children are easily hurt and will never recover from anything—that's a serious problem. Last week, my 7-year-old daughter didn't get into the school play. At first, I was upset by it. How would she react? When I gave her the news, I was ready to hug her and cry with her. She looked at me, made a slight face and said, “That's too bad. What's for dinner?”

    It clearly wasn't the end of her world. Maybe if we let our kids experience rejection once in a while, we'd realize they are much stronger than we think. Kids need to be able to handle disappointments; doing so helps them to prepare for real life. Most importantly, rejection carries the possibility not only for growth and can also motivate kids to try harder the next time.

    Rejection is pain. There is no way around that. How will our kids ever discover their true talents if we don't let them? Instead of complaining, maybe we should consider rejection an opportunity.

    Half an hour into a cooking competition at Green Street Academy, Tyana Givens, 15, dipped a plastic spoon into a pot with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic and mushrooms over a burner in a science classroom. She and the two other students, Kalimah Ball and Maya Smith, were making meat sauce.

    The girls had spent the past five weeks learning how to grow their own produce using food computers-tabletop greenhouses controlled by computer programs-at Green Street Academy, a charter school in Baltimore. The course, which weaved together lessons on programming, food systems and agriculture, ended with an “Iron Chef”-style cooking contest.

    With the help of instructor Melanie Shimano, the girls finished their contest successfully using the food they planted in tabletop greenhouses. The tabletop greenhouses can control temperature, light and water inside using the computer code that the students wrote by themselves. Shimano, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, piloted(试行)the course as part of Green Street Academy's junior biotechnology class in the spring and will expand the program to other schools in the fall.

    “Technology is not something that a lot of teachers have a lot of resources for all the time, but it's something that's not difficult to do with a relatively low amount of funding,” Shimano said. “Baltimore is a center for startups and food, so kind of fostering that culture of being into technology and into design and seeing all the pieces fit together is really cool.”

    While her course is unique to Baltimore, it's part of a broader program born at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab called the Open Agriculture Initiative, or OpenAg, which aims to create inventive, sustainable food systems through open-source technology. In addition to 10 full-time staff and researchers, OpenAg is primarily an online community of about 1,400 educators, growers, chefs and retailers in 47 countries, according to Hildreth England, OpenAg's assistant director.

    “The interest level across the board generally comes from folks who are concerned about food systems and concerned about the environment, and it's usually a combination of the two,” England said.

    Why do Americans struggle with watching their weight, while the French, who consume（消耗） rich food, continue to stay thin? Now a research by Cornell University suggests how life style and decisions about eating may affect weight. Researchers concluded that the French tend to（往往，倾向于） stop eating when they feel full. However, Americans tend to stop when their plate is empty or their favorite TV show is over.

    According to Dr. Joseph Mercola, a health expert, the French see eating as an important part of their life style. They enjoy food and therefore spend a fairly long time at the table, while Americans see eating as something to be squeezed（挤出） between the other daily activities. Mercola believes Americans lose the ability to sense when they are actually full. So they keep eating long after the French would have stopped. In addition, he points out that Americans drive to huge supermarkets to buy canned and frozen foods for the week. The French, instead, tend to shop daily, walking to small shops and farmers' markets where they have a choice of fresh fruits, vegetables, and eggs as well as high-quality meats for each meal.

    After a visit to the United States, Mireille Guiliano, author of French Women Don't Get Fat, decided to write about the importance of knowing when to stop rather than suggesting how to avoid food. Today she continues to stay slim and rarely goes to the gym.

    In spite of（尽管） all these differences, evidence shows that recent life style changes may be affecting French eating habits. Today the rate of obesity — or extreme overweight — among adults is only 6%. However, as American fast food gains acceptance and the young reject（拒绝） older traditions, the obesity rate among French children has reached 17% — and is growing.

                                                                                                  Chinese International School

    Application Form

    Before an applicant can be invited to take part in an assessment, an application form should be returned to the Admissions Office, and the application fee of HK$1,000 cannot be returned. For overseas applicants wishing to pay in currencies other than HK dollars, the fee is US$145. Checks are also good for payment to “Chinese International School”.

    The application should include

    Applicants' academic report from the last school year.

    A recent passport-sized photo (attached to the application form).

    A copy of the applicant's Hong Kong ID card or a passport showing a valid Hong Kong visa.

    Only for applicants applying under a Corporate Nomination (提名) Right：A company letter confirming the nomination.

    Please note that the application fee is non-refundable. Applicants who would like to re-apply for another academic year are asked to submit a new application and application fee.

    Acceptance

    Applicants will be informed of their acceptance status in writing by postal mail. Initial (最初的) offers for Reception will be sent out from late March once all assessments have been completed.

Some applicants who have been assessed may be held on a reserve list. Acceptances may also be made on a conditional basis among the applicants on the reserve list.

    Applicants who have been assessed but who have not been admitted are welcome to reapply for the next academic year. Please note that such applicants will be asked to submit a new application and application fee.

    Confirmation of Acceptance and Enrollment (录取)

    Once an applicant has been admitted, the applicant family will be asked to confirm acceptance and hold the student's place with immediate payment of the required fees for the Nomination Right (HK$ 500), plus the sum of HK$ 7,500 as the first tuition payment.

    In addition, enrollment will not be considered complete until the following have been received, normally one month before the start of the new school year

    Physical examination results           Tuition (first month)

    As our closest neighbor in space, the moon has been the subject of popular myths, songs and poems since ancient times. And it has no less fascinated scientists. But even after centuries of research many questions remain to be answered about Earth's only satellite. Perhaps the Chang'e-4 lunar probe will be able to reveal more of its secrets.

    On Dec 8, the probe lifted off from Xichang Satellite Launch Center in Sichuan Province. It is the first probe to the far side of moon.

    The Earth's gravity slows the moon's rotation, matching it to the speed of its orbit. Thus, the far side of the moon is always dark and has never been seen. It's this sense of the unknown that makes the far side of the moon such an interesting place for scientific and space exploration.

Long exposed to solar winds, the far side may have the special soil and minerals in its upper mantle(地幔).For this reason, Chang'e-4 will study the effect of solar winds on the lunar surface and any minerals found beneath the spacecraft.

    Chang'e-4 is also carrying flower seeds and potato and silkworm eggs to see whether life is possible on the moon. If it is, then the moon will become a more likely destination for space travel in the future. However, due to communication problems, exploration of the dark side will not be easy.

    As the far side is blocked off from us, radio noise coming off Earth is also blocked. This is why China launched the relay satellite Queqiao in May—so that communication between Earth and the probe could go ahead. Power supply will also be a challenge to the mission.

    Chang'e-4 gets energy from the sun through its solar panels. However, a lunar day has the length of 28 Earth days. This means that the probe will need to orbit the moon for over 20 days to be in a position to be able to land in moon daylight and so use its solar panels.

    According to Xinhua, if everything goes well, the satellite will land on the far side on Jan 2.

    The New York Times described the journey as “groundbreaking”, and wrote that it will “give clues to the history and development of the moon”.

    Experts say there are about 6, 500 languages spoken throughout the world. But the United Nations estimates that about half of these languages are in danger of disappearing.

    One non-profit organization seeking to save world languages is a New York-based group called Wikitongues. Officials from Wikitongues say the organization has a simple goal: to provide the tools and support that people need to save their languages.

    Udell is the co-founder of Wikitongues. He said when a language disappears, many other things can go away as well. For example, parts of a community's culture, knowledge and identity can also be lost. Because of this. Udell believes the process of bringing languages back must be done by community members themselves, “from the ground up,” he said.

    “There is no way an outside organization can save someone's language for them.”

    Wikitongues was launched in 2016 as an open internet collection of world languages. The self-described “community” is operated by volunteers from around the world. The collection is in the form of language videos that people add to the Wikitongues website.

    There are currently more than 400 languages and dialects represented on Wikitongues' YouTube channel. Udell says more than 1,500 people from 70 different countries have added videos to the system.

    “We have people from India who record dozens of languages, which is beyond their own.” he said.

    One of Wikitongues'volunteers is Kolokwe, who lives in Namibia. His native language is Subiya, however, he does not get the chance to speak his native language every day. Like many other educated people from his area, he speaks a lot of English and Afrikaans.

    Kolokwe is hoping his involvement with Wikitongues call help keep Subiya and other African languages from going extinct. He wants the world to know about his language. But his goal goes beyond just sharing his language with others through video. He is also working to create a dictionary and language teaching materials that can be used in schools.