Dear Alfred,
I want to tell you how important your help is to my life.
Growing up, I had people telling me I was too slow, though, with an IQ of 150 at 17, I'm anything but stupid. The fact was that I was found to have ADIID(注意力缺陷多动障碍). Anxious all the time, I was unable to keep focused for more than an hour at a time.
However, when something did interest me, I could become absorbed. In highs chool, I became curious about the computer, and built my first website.Moreover, I completed the senior course of Computer Basics, plus five relevantpre-college courses.
While I was exploring my curiosity, my disease got worse.I wanted to go to college after high school, but couldn't. So, I waskilling my time at home until June 2012 when I discovered the online computercourses of your training center.
Since then, I have takencourses like Data Science and Advanced Mathematics. Currently, I'm learning yourProbability course. I have hundreds of printer paper, covered in self-writtennotes from your video. This has given me a purpose.
Last year, I spent all my timelooking for a job where, without dealing with the public, I could work alone,but still have a team to talk to. Luckily, I discovered the job—DataAnalyst—this month and have been going full steam ahead. I want to prove that Ican teach myself a respectful profession, without going to college, and be justas good as, if not better than, my competitors.
Thank you. You've given me hopethat I can follow my heart. For the first time, I feel good about myself because I'm doing something, notbecause someone told me I was doing well. I feel whole.
This is why you're saving my life.
Yours,
Tanis
SurvivingHurricane Sandy(飓风桑迪)
Natalie Doan, 14, hasalways felt lucky to live in Rockaway, New York. Living just a few blocks fromthe beach, Natalie can see the ocean and hear the wave from her house. “It'sthe ocean that makes Rockaway so special,” she says.
On October 29, 2012,that ocean turned fierce. That night, Hurricane Sandy attacked the East Coast,and Rockaway was hit especially hard. Fortunately, Natalie's family escaped toBrooklyn shortly before the city's bridge closed.
When they returned to Rockaway the next day, they found their neighborhood in ruins. Many of Natalie's friends had lost their homes and were living far away. All around her, peoplewere suffering, especially the elderly. Natalie's school was so damaged that she had to temporarily attend a school in Brooklyn.
In the following few days, the men and women helping Rock away recover inspired Natalie. Volunteers came with carloads of donated clothing and toys. Neighbors devoted their spare time to helping othersrebuild. Teenagers climbed dozens of flights of stairs to deliver water and food to elderly people trapped in powerless high-rise buildings.
“ My mom tells me that I can't control what happens to me,” Natalie says. “butI can always choose how I deal with it.”
Natalie's choice was to help.
She created a website page matching survivors in need with donors who wanted to help. Natalie posted introduction about a boy named Patrick, who lost his baseball card collecting when his house burned down. Within days, Patrick's collection was replaced.
In the coming months,her website page helped lots of kids: Christopher, who received a new basketball; Charlie, who got a new keyboard. Natalie also worked with other organizations to bring much-need supplies to Rock away. Herefforts made her a famous person. Last April, she was invited to the WhiteHouse and honored as a Hurricane Sandy Champion of Change.
Today, the scars(创痕)of destruction are still seen in Rockaway, but hope is in the air. The streets are clear, and many homes have been rebuilt. “I can'timagine living anywhere but Rockaway,” Natalie declares. “My neighborhood willbe back, even stronger than before.”
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CaliforniaCondor's Shocking Recovery
California condors are North America's largest birds, with wing-length of up to 3 meters. In the 1980s, electrical lines and lead poisoning(铅中毒) nearly drove them to dying out. Now, electric shock training and medical treatment are helping to rescue these big birds.
In the late 1980s, the last few condors were taken from the wild, and there are now more than 150 flying over California and nearby Arizona, Utah and Baja in Mexico.
Electrical lines have been killing them off. “As they go in to rest for the night, they just don't see the power lines,” says Bruce Rideout of San Diego Zoo. Their wings can bridge the gap between lines, resulting in electrocution(电死) if they touch two lines at once.
So scientists have come up with a shocking idea. Tall poles, placed in large training areas, teach the birds to stay clear of electrical lines by giving them a painful but undeadly electric shock. Before the training was introduced, 66% of set-freed condors died of electrocution. This has now dropped to 18%.
Lead poisonous has proved more difficult to deal with. When condors eat dead bodies of other animals containing lead, they absorb large quantities of lead. This affects their nervous systems and ability to produce baby birds, and can lead to kidney(肾) failures and death. So condors with high levels of lead are sent to Los Angeles Zoo, where they are treated with calcium EDTA, a chemical that removes lead from the blood over several days. This work is starting to pay off. The annual death rate for adult condors has dropped from 38% in 2000 to 5.4% in 2011.
Rideout's team thinks that the California condors' average survival time in the wild is now just under eight years. “Although these measures are not effective forever, they are vital for now,” he says. “They are truly good birds that are worth every effort we put into recovering them.”
Why College Is Not Home
The college years are supposed to be a time for important growth in autonomy(自主性) and the development of adult identity. However, now they are becoming an extended period of adolescence, during which many of today's students and are not shouldered with adult responsibilities.
For previous generations, college was decisive break from parental control; guidance and support needed help from people of the same age and from within. In the past two decades, however, continued connection with and dependence on family, thanks to cellphones, email and social media, have increased significantly. Some parents go so far as to help with coursework. Instead of promoting the idea of college as a passage from the shelter of the family to autonomy and adult responsibility, universities have given in to the idea that they should provide the same environment as that of the home.
To prepare for increased autonomy and responsibility, college needs to be a time of exploration and experimentation. This process involves “trying on ” new ways of thinking about oneself both intellectually(在思维方面) and personally. While we should provide “safe spaces” within colleges, we must also make it safe to express opinions and challenge majority views. Intellectual growth and flexibility are fostered on debate and questioning.
Learning to deal with the social world is equally important. Because a college community(群体) differs from the family, many students will struggle to find a sense of belonging. If students rely on administrators to regulate their social behavior and thinking pattern, they are not facing the challenge of finding an identity within a larger and complex community.
Moreover, the tendency for universities to monitor and shape student behavior runs up against another characteristic of young adults: the response to being controlled by their elders. If acceptable social behavior is too strictly defined(规定) and controlled, the insensitive or aggressive behavior that administrators are seeking to minimize may actually be encouraged.
It is not surprising that young people are likely to burst out, particularly when there are reasons to do so. Our generation once joined hands and stood firm at times of national emergency. What is lacking today is the conflict between adolescent's desire for autonomy and their understanding of an unsafe world. Therefore, there is the desire for their dorms to be replacement homes and not places to experience intellectual growth.
Every college discussion about community values, social climate and behavior should include recognition of the developmental importance of student autonomy and self-regulation, of the necessary tension between safety and self-discovery.
B . 
C . 
D . 
The Science of Risk-Seeking
Sometimes we decide that a little unnecessary danger is worth it because when we weigh the risk and the reward, the risk seems worth taking. Some of us enjoy activities that would surprise and scare the rest of us. Why? Experts say it may have to do with how our brains work.
The reason why any of us take any risks at all might have to do with early humans. Risk-takers were better at hunting, fighting, orexploring. As the quality of Risk-taking was passed from on ration to the next, humans ended up with a sense of adventure and a tolerance for risk.
So why aren't we all jumping out of airplanes then? Well, even 200,000 years ago, too much risk-taking could get one Killed. A few daring survived, though,along with a few stay-in-the-cave types. As a result, humans developed a range of character types that still exists today. So maybe youlove car racing, or maybe you hate it.
No matter where you are on the risk-seeking range,scientists say that your willingness to take risks increases during your teenage years. Tohelp you do that, your brain increases your hunger for new experiences.
New experiences often mean taking some risks, so your brain raises your tolerance for risk as well.
Mean taking some risks, so your brain raisers your tolerance for risk as well.
For the risk-seekers a partof the brain related to pleasure becomes active, while for the rest of us, a part of the brain related to fear becomes active.
As experts continueto study the science of risk-seeking, we'll continue to hit the mountains, the waves or the shallow end of the pool.
A. It all depends on your character.
B. Those are the risks you shouldjump to take.
C. Being better at those thingsmeant a greater chance of survival.
D. Thus, these well-equipped people survived becausethey were the fittest.
E. This is when you start to move away from your family and into thebigger world.
F. However, we are not all using the same reference standard to weighrisks and rewards.
G. New brain research suggests our brains work differently when weface a nervous situation.
