Years of living with a lisp (口齿不清) had taught me it was better not to say anything than to speak and risk embarrassment. As a result of my ______, I felt distanced from most of my peers (同龄人). “Kathy? Oh, she’s quiet.” That’s what most people would say when they ____ me, as if “Quiet” were part of my ____. I was okay with that. I didn’t need to be ____.

Last September, however, that all ____. I started my creative writing class with Ms. Haist. Every day we would be given a different writing task and, if we wished, we could ____ what we had written. I ____ listening to others read their work and thinking: “That will never be me. I’ll never have the ____ to do that.”

One day, I was really ____ with what I had written and wanted to share. My heart was beating wildly as I raised my hand. Those ____ little voices were ringing in my ear, “You have a lisp, remember? ____, your writing isn’t that good. Be quiet.” I was about to ____ my hand when I met Ms. Haist’s encouraging eyes.

I swallowed the voices down and let my real voice ___. I could hear it ___as I read, and I could hear every stutter (结巴) and mistake. I finished reading, waiting to be laughed at. ____, I heard claps from the class and praise from Ms. Haist.

The next day, I did it ____. Soon I was reading out loud nearly every day. Gradually, I realized that ____ my lisp, the class and the teacher always appreciated my writing. Now I may still not be the most ____, social person, but I’ve become better at oral presentations. I ____ read my poetry out loud at a reading club.

Every time those little voices try to tell me to be quiet, I think of all the encouragement I received in class and I know that I ____ to be heard.

   When you choose a higher education course, here are some tips for you to follow.

There are a range of subjects and courses available. Many are work-related; others are academic. You’ll need to look beyond the course title because courses with almost the same name may differ enormously. For example, if you’re interested in construction but wish to use your creative skills, you may be better suited to a building design management course than a building project management course.

Think about the style of learning that best suits you. It’s important to study a subject that you particularly enjoy, but if you want to follow a career in a different area, you may consider taking the subjects you want to learn and joining them into one degree. Many degree courses are made up of different subject modules which deal with particular areas of interest.

Where you study can be almost as important as what you study. One thing to consider is whether you want to live at home or move away. For some people, living at home offers the best of both worlds, but it may make sense to move if you want to study a particular course at a specific university or college. Many students value the experience of living on campus or in a different part of the country as an important part of university life.

Once you’ve got a list of courses that appeal to you, it’s worth looking at some other sources of information about them, like independent reports. These provide information on the numbers of students who finished the course, student satisfaction and more.

Open days usually take place in spring or autumn. Although you may have an idea about what a course is like, there’s no substitute（替代）for attending a class yourself. If you can’t come on the open days, you can sign up for a guided tour instead.

With a satisfied smile, Keisha finished the last sentence of her English essay about one of her heroes, Rosa Parks, an important figure in the Civil Rights Movement.

“Keisha,” her mother shouted from downstairs. “It’s almost 4:15.”

“Don’t worry. I won’t be late. ” Keisha pulled down a storybook from her bookshelf， as she always read to the nursing home’s residents. And on an impulse（一时心血来潮）, she added her English notebook as well.

As Keisha came running in the door, the manager told her, “We have a new resident this week, Mrs. Ruby Watson. She’s still adjusting to her new surroundings. You’ll find her in Room 28. And by the way, Keisha, good luck.”

Keisha walked down the hallway at a quick pace. As she entered Room 28, she met two sharp brown eyes staring at her doubtfully.

“I’m Keisha Jackson, a volunteer,” Keisha explained. “I come here to help pass the time with residents, or read to them, or, . . .” Keisha started stammering（结巴）as Mrs.

Watson continued to stare at her.

“I didn’t request anyone to keep me company,” Mrs. Watson interrupted. “I’m alone most of the time, and that’s how I prefer it.”

“I brought along some funny stories,” Keisha said hesitantly.

“I’m not in the mood for funny stories,” Mrs. Watson replied angrily. “What else do you have?”

Nervously, Keisha opened her notebook to her essay. She read the title aloud, “Rosa

Parks: A Woman of Courage and Conviction（信念）.” She glanced at Mrs. Watson to see how she might react, but to her surprise, Mrs. Watson’s face relaxed and her eyes shone.

“Read to me about Rosa,” Mrs. Watson said.

Keisha read how Rosa Parks’ refusal to give up her seat to a white passenger on a bus in 1955 inspired the protest that became a turning point in the struggle for civil rights.

“I walked with Rosa Parks and Dr. Martin Luther King,” Mrs. Watson said with pride. “That was the greatest moment of my life because…” She paused.

“Because… you were a woman of courage and conviction too.”

Sitting up straighter, Mrs. Watson said, “Yes, I was and I still am. Thank you for reminding me, Keisha. Next Thursday, I will tell you my story.”

   If you were bringing friends home to visit, you could show them the way. You know the landmarks—a big red house or a bus-stop sign. But what if you were swimming in the middle of the Atlantic Ocean? Could you still find your way home? A loggerhead turtle（海龟）could.

According to Dr. Ken Lohmann, loggerheads have a magnetic（磁力的）sense based on Earth’s magnetic field. It helps them locate the best spots for finding food and their home beaches.

Scientists already know that several other animals, such as whales and honeybees, can detect（探测到）magnetic fields. The difference between them and loggerheads, however, is the way they learn to use their magnetic sense. Young whales and honeybees can learn from adults. Loggerheads are abandoned as eggs.

As newborn loggerheads have no adults to learn from, what helps them figure out how to use their magnetic sense? Lohmann thinks one of the cues was light on the sea.

Baby loggerheads hatch only at night. However, a small amount of light reflects off the ocean. The light makes that region brighter. Heading toward the light helps them get quickly out to sea, where they can find food. Lohmann tested whether newborn loggerheads use this light source to set their magnetic “compasses”（罗盘）. He and his team put some newborns in a water tank and recorded which way they swam. Around the tank, the scientists created a magnetic field that matched the Earth’s. They set a weak light to the east of the magnetic field. Then they let the newborns go.

At first, the newborns swam toward the light. After the scientists turned off the light, the turtles that had seen the light in the east always swam toward east. When the researchers reversed（颠倒）the magnetic field, these turtles turned around and swam toward the new “east”.

This and the follow-up experiments all showed that loggerheads use light from the outside world to set their magnetic “compasses” and then remember the “correct” direction. If a turtle hatches on a brightly-lit beach, that would damage its magnetic sense forever and make survival hard for the turtle.

Lohmann’s work has led others to protect the habitat of this endangered species. Yet many questions about these creatures remain unanswered, and researchers have a lot to study.

   Most people aren’t good at creative problem solving for two reasons: (1) They are not trained in how to be creative. (2) They don’t understand group strength well enough to harness（驾驭）their power to maximize group creativity.

A key element of creativity is applying existing knowledge to a new problem. The more people getting involved in solving it, the more knowledge there is to work on it. Unfortunately, research shows that the traditional brainstorming methods fail to achieve that goal. When groups get together to exchange ideas, they actually come up with fewer ideas overall than if they each had worked alone.

To fix this problem, you should consider the two stages of group problem-solving: divergence（分散）and convergence（集中）. Divergence happens when the group considers as many different potential solutions as possible. Convergence happens when the various proposed solutions are evaluated and reduced to a smaller set of candidate solutions to the current problem.

The essential principle of group creativity is that individuals working alone diverge, whereas group members working together converge. In groups, once a member states a potential solution, that makes others think about the problem similarly. That is why groups working together diverge less than individuals working alone.

Therefore, be aware of when to diverge and when to converge. For example, early in the problem-solving process, have group members work alone to write down statements describing the problem. Then get them back to discuss their descriptions. The group discussion will lead everyone to accept one or a small number of these statements to work on—this is healthy convergence.

When starting to generate solutions, you again want divergence. Have people work alone to start. Then collect people’s initial ideas and send them around to others and allow the divergence to continue as everyone individually builds on the ideas of other members.

Finally, let the group discuss the resulting ideas. This discussion will gradually lead the group to converge on a small number of candidate solutions.

This simple method works effectively, because it respects what individuals and groups do best.

For many teenagers, a job is a way to earn a little extra money. For me, it is more than that.

At the age of 16, I was offered my very first job as a shopgirl in a clothing store. On the first day, my manager was training me how to fold and organize platform after platform of clothes. The work seemed overwhelming, and everything had to be done in an accurate way. I got so impatient because I couldn’t get it right the first couple of times. After about ten tries, I had the clothes folded perfectly. Then it took me thirty minutes to get them all looking uniform. Now, I fold and organize clothes every day, and I’m able to do them well. Through this experience, I’ve learned to be patient.

Helping customers and establishing connections with them is one of the things I love most about my job. About two months ago, I helped a woman who was looking for a dress. She told me exactly what she was picturing—a blue dress with long sleeves and a lace neck. We didn’t have any such dress, and when I explained that to her, she wasn’t very happy. Instead of getting annoyed, I tried getting to know her a bit better and asked what the dress was for, so I could find other items in her size that could work. We shared our love of the Netflix fashion show, and she ended up buying $200 worth of new clothes, having found other items she liked. This experience has taught me to be more open with strangers.

Every job has its share of frustrations and challenges; to do well you must learn to deal with them. I’ve learned this from my own experience, and it has helped me in other aspects of my life as well.