— ____. You'll never get your dream job as a market analyst if you don't stick to it.
— ____? We also have the occasional argument.
The mission of Faces of Santa Ana is to lovingly engage the homeless through art. In July 2015, Brian Peterson and his wife had just moved to Santa Ana, California with a burning desire in their hearts to love their neighbors. Outside the couple's fourth-floor apartment, a（n）1 man was often yelling on the street corner, sometimes keeping them 2 at night. Peterson, 28, would pass the guy on his way to work as a car designer, but they never 3 .
One day, Peterson was relaxing in his living room, reading the book Love Does, about the power of love in action, when his 4 disturbed by the homeless man.5 by the book's compassionate （有同情心的） message, Peterson made a（n）6 decision: He was going outside to introduce himself.
In that first 7 , Peterson learned that the man's name was Matt Faris. He'd moved to Southern California to pursue a career 8 , but he soon fell on hard times and 9 living on the street for more than a decade.
"It was a strange thing to me, " Peterson recalled later. "I saw 10 on the face of a man who hadn't shaved in probably a year. And the 11 inside of him inspired me. "12 Peterson, a graduate of the Cleveland Institute of Art, hadn't picked up a paintbrush in about eight years, he found himself asking if he could 13 Faris's portrait. And Faris said yes.
Peterson's 14 with Faris led him to form Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit organization focused on 15 and painting portraits of members of the community who are unhoused. Peterson sells the 30-by-40-inch canvas（画布）-signed by both subject and artist-for a few thousand dollars, and put half into what he calls a "love account"for his.16 .
Many of Peterson's new friends use the donations to secure immediate 17 -medical care, hotel rooms, food. Faris used the funds from his portrait to record an album, realizing his 18 dreams.
Peterson has painted 41 of these portraits himself. He's discovered that the buyers tend to connect to the story of the person in the painting, finding 19 and often friendship with someone they might have otherwise overlooked. "People often tell me, 'I was the one that would cross the street. But I see homeless people 20 now, " Peterson says. "I didn't know that would happen. "
You're looking for a holiday with a difference? It's on offer right here! Come with us on a very special tour of the great southern continent Antarctica. It's the only untouched wilderness left on our planet. For 10 months of the year, the continent is inaccessible by ships. Consequently, our tours are conducted in the brief period in late spring when the ice has melted and we can reach Antarctica.
So why should I go there?
Antarctica may lack man-made attractions, but its natural beauty is breathtaking. You'll want to tell your grandchildren about this trip in years to come. Ninety-eight percent of this continent is covered with ice, which contains 70 per cent of the world's fresh water, although it receives very little rainfall.
What kind of things could I see and do there?
Our tours are conducted in summer, but you have to remember that summer is six months later in the Southern Hemisphere. Apart from the Arctic region, Antarctica is one of the two areas on earth where you can enjoy 24 hours of sunlight. To get there, we have our own ship, which is equipped with a helicopter and a landing pad. Once there you'll be able to observe penguins and birds, and even watch whales and seals in the ocean.
Do your tours damage the environment?
No, not at all. We don't disturb the wildlife, and we remove all the rubbish that we produce. We strictly follow the guidelines contained in the 1991 Antarctica Agreement, which bans oil exploration and protects wildlife.
How long does a tour last?
That depends on which tour package you choose. You can visit the Antarctic region for as long as a month or, if you depart from Australia, you can see the Antarctic continent from the air in just one day. We will fly you over the continent so you can see it from the comfort of your seat on one of our aircraft. The exact route depends on the weather on the day of the . tour, but normally the flights pass over the Antarctic coastline and then head inland over vast landscapes formed by ice and dramatic mountain ranges.
That sounds really interesting. How do I make a booking?
South Pole Tours are based in Christchurch, New Zealand. Call us on 25674874 today!
Camping is a rite of passage（成人礼） if you grow up in Canada. It's a child's first taste of what living in the wild really means. But growing up as an immigrant（移民） from India, I thought it was strange. I simply didn't understand why so many people loved nature when the comfort of your home still existed.
Then I turned 20 and started trying new things. I had been experiencing mental health issues for quite some time and I discovered being out in nature helped me calm down. So, I decided to try camping.
The night before the trip I was quite excited. Then I overheard a conversation between my father and mother. "Why does she have to do this? Doesn't she know she can just stay at home?" my father asked. "This is what Canadian kids do, it's okay, she'll be fine!" my mom explained. My parents had no faith in me surviving one night in the wild.
My friends and I set up our campsite in the woods. As the day went on, we ate, played by the water and met our camping neighbors. Time felt like it slowed down; life felt gentler and easier. Suddenly, I realized: I was doing it! I was camping! As the day turned into night, the stars came out and I was amazed by all the twinkling lights above me. I won't lie. I had the worst sleep of my life. Morning came and I was up and ready to make breakfast, coffee and tea. I didn't even realize I was sad to leave until we started packing everything up.
I wasn't just leaving, having accomplished something I never thought I would do. I was leaving with a real sense of community, a real sense of appreciation for what the great outdoors had to offer, and a completely different outlook on an activity that I had thought strange for so many years. It made me realize the beauty of Canada wasn't in the things we did, but in the community we built.
The high-tech revolution has inspired a pleasure endless stream of new and exciting electronic products that we just can't live without. In fact, the speed of technological innovation can make last year's must-have this year's junk. And that's the problem.
The average life span of a personal computer has been shortened to around 18 months- and this has nothing to do with worn-mice or damaged disk drives. Simply put, electronic products can become out of date before you've even figured out how they work.
So what happens to all those old keyboards, monitors, organizers and CPUs? Most are stored away in a warehouse （仓库）, taking up valuable space. But many end up in landfills, and that is where the trouble really begins. Computer monitors can contain up to 3.5 kg of dangerous waste once they are no longer in use.
Unfortunately, this problem is not going to disappear anytime soon—in fact, it is growing by the minute. In Japan alone, people throw away some 20 million TVs, washing machines, refrigerators and air conditioners each year. What is to be done with all this techno-trash?
One way to reduce waste is to avoid throwing away in the first place. Many companies reuse parts from old products in new models. This is not cheating-it makes both environmental and economic sense. Cannon, for example, has adopted a philosophy known as "kyosei", meaning "living and working together for the common good?"-a goal of achieving balance between the environment and the corporate （公司的） activities. The company has even gone so far as to say that environmental assurance should come before all business activities, and that companies unable to achieve such assurance do not deserve to remain in business.
As part of that effort, the company has started a global recycling program with a goal to reduce, reuse and recycle more than 90% of its used products. In 1999, for example, Cannon collected 128, 000 copying machines and 12, 175 tons of toner cartridges （色粉盒） in Japan, Europe and the United States.
Some argue that electronic garbage can also be controlled during the design phase. This concept, called "design for the environment". Not only does this make environmental sense, but it saves the customer money. IBM, meanwhile, recently planned programs in Canada and the US that, for a small fee, will take back not just an IBM but also any manufacturer's computer. Depending on the age and condition, the equipment will then be either donated to charity, or broken down for reusable parts and recyclable materials.
Everyone knows that the choices we make affect our future. Suppose I am an intelligent student with good marks. However, being lazy, I do badly in my examinations. I am refused entry to university and cannot find a good job. The golden future I had imagined will never be. All these are all from a bad choice!
However, your choices affect your future in a way that is a lot more complicated. This is because nearly all the choices you make affect your character. Your character is displayed through your choices, but it is also formed by them. Whenever you make a choice, your character changes or grows, or diminishes （降低, 减弱） depending on whether the decision you made is wise or foolish. Your character is being made by you, bit by bit, choice by choice. And so, you become the sort of person who will maké a certain kind of choice in a certain situation.
Some will argue this is not true. After all, the field of human choice is a narrow one. Most of the things that form us in our lives are not subject to choice. We cannot choose when and where to be born, whether our families will be rich or poor, kind or cruel. We cannot even entirely control who we will meet in our lives. With so much that we cannot choose, how can we be said to be responsible for anything?
There is some truth in this. We are thrown into life without any say over the matter, and have little control over most of it. However, we do have some power of choice, and we do control the most important thing of all: how we respond to circumstances. We can choose to keep struggling in hard times, or to give up.
This ability to choose how we behave and respond is a great gift. It is our key to having confidence in the future. It is human nature to fear the future, as the future is unknown. You cannot entirely control what will happen to you tomorrow. But if you have confidence in your character, formed by years of making good choices, then you do know one thing for certain about the future: no matter what happens, you will make a choice that you will be proud of.
At every moment, then, practise forming your character when you make your choices, no matter how small they are. Remember: your choices form your character. And your character determines your future.
I remember the day I sat down and considered my future quite clearly. I had been widowed recently, and I had an elderly mother to support but no income of my own. I no longer had the luxury of a husband supporting me, so it was time to get a job. With my background and qualifications, the easiest way for me to earn money was to become a teacher.
A friend told me his school was looking for an English teacher, so I arranged an interview with the principal. Fifteen minutes after stepping into her office, I was given the job and asked ifI was able to begin teaching that same day. The current English teacher appeared very keen to leave!
I wondered why she had made such an abrupt decision, but I was secretly pleased that her loss had become my gain. I walked towards the classroom on that first day, wondering about the wisdom of my decision to accept the principal's offer. The thought of standing in front of a group of teenagers made me scared and I started to panic.
The classroom was empty when I entered it. Slowly, the teenagers I was expecting arrived in groups of four and five. Finally every seat was taken and I stared out at the blank faces in front of me. They had been shown little respect and so they had given up on education and on themselves. No one was listening or seemed to care what I was doing. I knew I wasn't a gifted teacher and it was only my first day, but nothing I did motivated these students. They were bored and restless.
I knew why their previous teacher had left. That night I sat at home. The same question kept repeating itself in my head, even when I tried to distract myself by watching late-night movies: "How could I make a huge difference to their lives?". I decided I would take up the challenge. It was a slow process, but it was also the most rewarding experience of my life. It took time, but my patience was rewarded. They had discovered the joy of learning and I had discovered what it really means to be a teacher.
注意：（1）词数不少于100；（2）可适当加入细节，使行文连贯。（3）文章的开头结尾已给出。
Dear Campus Cultural Society,
Yours,
Li Jin
