Do you know an outstanding junior high or high school teacher, coach, guidance counselor, librarian，or headmaster? Nominate (提名)that special teacher you'll always remember and give him/her the chance to be recognized in a famous national magazine through "Educators of the Year Contest"!

Prizes

    Cash awards will be given to those from across the country who are given the honor of Educators of the Year. Besides, your winning essays will also be published in our magazine.

Guidelines

    We will only consider essays written by teens, and nominations must be for junior high or high school educators only. Elementary school educators are not suitable.

    Convince us your educator is special. Tell us about his or her style of teaching, his or her role in school activities, and community service. What has your educator done for the entire school, your class, for you or another student? Give examples with specific details. Keep your essay between 200 and 1,000 words. Remember to include the first and last name, position, and school of your educator in your essay.

Don't forget to submit (提交)your essays through our website. You can also read our submission guidelines for more information on this website.

The Deadline

    The deadline for submitting your essays is December 30. Your essays are accepted and will appear in our magazine all over the year. Winners will be made public after the January issue is published.

    In 1978, I was 18 and was working as a nurse in a small town about 270 km away from Sydney, Australia. I was looking forward to having five fays off from duty. Unfortunately, the only one train a day back to my home in Sydney had already left. So I thought I'd hitch a ride (搭便车).

    I waited by the side of the highway for three hours but no one stopped for me. Finally, a man walked over and introduced himself as Gordon. He said that although he couldn't give me a lift, I should come back to his house for lunch. He noticed me standing for hours in the November heat and thought I must be hungry. I was doubtful as a young girl but he assured （使…放心）me I was safe, and he also offered to help me find a lift home afterwards. When we arrived at his house, he made us sandwiches. After lunch, he helped me find a lift home.

    Twenty-five years later, in 2003, while I was driving to a nearby town one day, I saw an elderly man standing in the glaring heat, trying to hitch a ride. I thought it was another chance to repay someone for the kindness I'd been given decades earlier. I pulled over and picked him up. I made him comfortable on the back seat and offered him some water.

    After a few moments of small talk, the man said to me, “You haven't changed a bit, even your red hair is still the same.” I couldn't remember where I'd met him. He then told me he was the man who had given me lunch and helped me find a lift all those years ago. It was Gordon.

                                                                       Balloon Volleyball

    It's a rainy, dark day and there's nothing to do. You don't feel like sitting quietly but you are not allowed to make a lot of noise. What can you do for fun? Try balloon volleyball.

    Items needed for this game: a balloon (or two, in case the first one bursts), some ropes, two chairs, at least two people and a room.

    Set up the room. If you're in the living room, or a family room, be sure to move all the furniture out of the way. Get two chairs and set them in the middle, outer edges(边缘)of the room. They should be at the same place where you put a volleyball net. Turn them so that the seat is facing the wall, not the “playing” space. Tie the rope onto the top of the chair, and run the rest of the rope to the other chair. Now tie it on this chair at the same place as the first chair. You can decide the “out-of-bounds”(出界) lines, if you want to have them, but they really are not necessary in this game.

    Blow up the balloon. Choose sides. You will play this game on your knees (at least until they start hurting and you want to stand). Each side must get the balloon over the rope in three hits. If it does not get over, the other side gets the balloon and a point. This game becomes more difficult because you must play without talking.

    You can also add other rules to make it more difficult; for example, you can only use your left hand or only your right hand to hit the balloon.

    Continue playing until one side gets 10 points. You can make your game longer or shorter by changing the number of points it takes to win.

    This is a fun way to get your energy out, have fun, and not make too much noise on a rainy, stay-in-the-house day.

    Hungary's capital sparkles(闪耀)in winter and it's a great place to see in the New Year. There's festive cheer on tap, with concerts, folk dancing and stalls selling wine or fruit brandy and traditional chimney cake outsides. New Year's Eve is celebrated with fireworks over the Danube(多瑙河), and it's worth booking one of the many river cruises(巡游)with dinner and DJs (free and open 24/7, but likely to be crowded).

    A four-night trip with Travel Republic costs £449 for a family (2 adults with 1 child under 6), departing Stansted on 28 December with Ryanair, with B&B accommodation at the central Atrium Budapest Hotel.

    For a slightly more cerebral(理智的)New Year's Eve, Stockholm is a smart choice. The main celebration is at Skansen, Sweden's oldest open-air museum. Enterainment starts at 8 p.m. with singing and dancing, and peaks with a recitation of the poem Ring Out. Evening tickets are £14 for adults (children under 6 go free), or there are new day and evening combination tickets (£16 adult/£5 child). On New Year's Day, early birds can try an introduction to ice skating (8 a.m. daily, £139).

    Book it Ryanair, Norwegian and SAS fly to Stockholm from several UK airports.

    The land of fire and ice lives up to its name on New Year's Eve, when about 90 bonfires(篝火)are lit across the country. Some bonfires are accompanied by Icelandic singing; most start about 8 p.m. and finish by 10 p.m., which can be a good time to see the northern lights. After the fires, everyone goes home to watch Áramótaskaup, a TV show that has been running on 31 December since 1966. But that doesn't mean the party is over just before midnight, they all come back out to let off an astonishing amount of fireworks, with profits going to Icelandic Search and Rescue Association, which does life-saving work, and is run by volunteers and is a cause close to most Icelanders' hearts.

    Book it Wow Air and Wizz Air, easyJet and Icelandair fly to Reykjavik from several UK cities.

    A project in Gambia is empowering women and reducing dangerous waste at the same time.

    The Waste Innovation Center, funded by the European Union's Global Climate Change Alliance, shows women in the Brikama area how to recycle waste into useful materials and products, which they can then sell in local markets.

    Wood-like waste is recycled into charcoal (木炭), for example, which can be used to supersede firewood and reduce the number of trees that are cut down for firewood. Food waste is recycled into compost(混合肥料)to function as environmentally friendly fertilizers and plastic is turned into many useful things.

    Supported by Waste Aid UK and the Gambia Women's Initiative (GWI), among others, the project provides women with skills they can use to become self-sufficient (自给自足的). Women learning at the center come from five communities, and some of them travel as far as 12 miles to learn these important skills that will provide them with an income, according to The Guardian.

    Isatou Ceesay, who now leads the GWI, highlighted the need to focus on economic equality in her country, telling The Guardian, "In terms of education, women are the ones who are always behind. Boys are chosen to go to school. When we conduct our training, we find women can do a lot, but don't know who they are, or how to carry out things. "

    According to the World Health Organization's Country Cooperation Strategy 2018—2023 report, the main environmental issue facing Gambia is poor waste management in urban areas. Ndey Sireng Bakurin, executive director of the National Environment Agency, has voiced concern over health and environmental risks, such as water pollution, the increase of insects as well as flooding that occur as a result of poor waste management.

HK, mainland university to open in Guangzhou

The Hong Kong University of Science and Technology (Guangzhou), will start its very first semester in the Guangdong provincial capital in September, undertaking its mission {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (train) new talent for the development of the Guangdong-Hong Kong-Macao Greater Bay Area.

Ma Shu, deputy director-general of the city government, {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (say) HKUST(Guangzhou) is the first cooperative university in Guangzhou and the first university in the city's Nansha district, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} has become a new engine for economic growth.

"HKUST (Guangzhou) {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (expect) to become a role model for higher education collaboration between Hong Kong and the Chinese mainland, as well as a world-class university to train the right kind of talent for the development of the GBA and the entire country," Ma said at a news conference in Guangzhou {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Monday.

It will serve as a research university for scientific and {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (technology) innovation, industrial upgrading and the high-quality development of the GBA, he said.

The university {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (aim) to integrate the high-quality education resources of the mainland and Hong Kong, Ma said, adding that by exploring cutting-edge and crossover {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(discipline) it can build a new internal management system and mechanism to help cultivate innovative talent with {#blank#}9{#/blank#} international perspective.

The deputy director-general said the city government would continue to {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (financial) support the construction of the second phase of the university in the coming months.