The National Reading Competition

Each year, the Jamaica Library Service encourages hundreds of enthusiastic competitors to compete for the top positions in this exciting competition, which provides attractive prizes and a platform to share their love for reading.

Objectives

·To encourage and develop the reading skills

·To cultivate (培养) an appreciation of books

·To help people contact with highly rated literature and promote continuing education for adults

Organization

·Duration: Held annually from April to August (5 months).

·Stages & Age groups：

First rounds take place at local libraries for children.

Winners advance to county-level competitions.

Final champions are selected by age groups:

Children: 6 to 8 years, 9 to 11 years, 12 to 14 years Adults: 15 to 20 years, 21+ years

Testing

The competition tests include both speaking and writing tasks, like writing letters, book reviews, and solving puzzles. Winners are chosen based on how well they can read, understand, and explain the books or selected parts of books.

·Adult Section: Focuses on West Indian literature.

·Final Stage: Starts in mid-July and ends with the Quiz Finals at TVJ Studios in August.

·Champions: Only one winner is selected in each age group based on the highest score.

Life had always been about action for former teacher Billy Keenan, who had served in the Army before. He mastered musical instruments including the flute, guitar, bass guitar and piano. As a competitive triathlete and surfer, he completed numerous 5K, 10K and half-marathon runs. “I was at the peak of my powers,” he said.

But on Sept. 14, 2013, his life changed in an instant while surfing at the Jersey Shore. “I rode that wave, fell off my board, hit my head on the ocean floor,” Keenan said. “Everything faded to black.” Keenan woke up in a hospital room two and a half weeks later. He had been paralyzed (瘫痪的) from the shoulders down and the medical team didn’t expect him to regain independent breathing.

Keenan called it one of the worst days of his life, saying it was “a lot of darkness”. When a parent of a former student visited him at the hospital, they handed him the phone. It was New York Police Department Detective Steven McDonald, who survived a shooting in 1986. He eventually forgave his attacker. But he too was paralyzed. He became a public speaker, conveying the importance of forgiveness.

That day, he had advice for Keenan. At a recent talk at Berkeley College, Keenan recalled what McDonald had told him. “The only reason you survive is when you’re better, when you’re stronger, when your recovery is over, you’re going to come back and contribute in a significant way,” he said. “Don’t ever forget that in the end, there will be life.”

Looking back on his life, Keenan realized he had been accustomed to what he called “deliberate discomfort”. Drawing on his own faith and that reminder from McDonald, Keenan ascended beyond the darkest days. Four months after his accident, he was able to breathe on his own again.

In 2015, Keenan went back to teaching, but later retired. When McDonald died in January 2017, Keenan decided to start helping others by becoming a motivational speaker. He published an autobiography in 2023 — “The Road to Resilience: The Billy Keenan Story” — and is already working on his next book, a new coming-of-age story called “I Am Iron Man”

Flexibility is important for wearable electronics to enable the creation of displays that bend, fold or twist easily, says Yu Haidong, at Nanjing Tech University in China. Plastic has been the only material for achieving this kind of flexibility, but because of its harmful impact on the environment, sustainable, low-cost alternatives(替代物) are highly sought after.

Fish scales account for 3 percent of the 70.5 million metric tonnes of fish produced globally each year. They usually don’t get eaten and go to waste, but Yu and his team saw potential in flexible electronics.

The team extracted gelatin from fish scales and used this to create an extremely thin film. Tiny silver nanowires(纳米丝) were then incorporated into it, to act as electrodes(电极), along with a light-emitting material made of zinc sulphide (硫化锌) and copper, to provide light for the electronic display.

“The result was a flexible electronic display, which fully biodegraded(生物降解) after 24 days in soil. A plastic display can take centuries to break down. This means fish scale films could also be useful for creating disposable wearable electronic devices,” says Yu. “In addition to biodegradability, the fish scale films have the advantages of high transparency, low surface roughness and low cost. They can also be recycled by dissolving them in warm water.”

Begun 30 years ago, the Kubuqi desert greening project has succeeded in not only controlling the fast growth of the seventh-largest desert in China, about the size of Kuwait, but also turning about 6,000 square kilometers of the desert — one-third of it — green.

The desert lies about 800 kilometers to the west of Beijing in the Inner Mongolia autonomous region and the greening efforts have also controlled desertification (沙漠化) in the rest of the area.

The project, which began about 30 years ago, can be looked to as an example of efforts to advance green development, in order to create harmony between humans and nature, and leave a better environment for future generations.

The success of the project, which has been n praised by the UN Environment Programme as an “eco-pioneer”, sets an example for successful desertification control and ecosystem improvement based on effective government policies, supported by investment (投资) in the eco-industry and combined with the efforts of local farmers. These three aspects are key to the success of the “Kubuqi model”.

Elion, a private ecology (生态) and investment company, has invested about 38 billion yuan ($5.82 billion) in the Kubuqi desert-greening project since 1988 helping to lift about 102,000 local farmers out of poverty. For example, the locals grow a drought-tolerant (耐旱) plant, Chinese licorice, which is the most used herb in traditional Chinese medicine. The plant helps enrich the desert soil, with the bacteria around the roots of the plants producing nitrogen (氮气). Besides, Cistanche, another type of drought-tolerant herb, was introduced after the successful planting of licorice. Under the company’s guidance and with the local government’s support, the local people benefit from the “environmental wealth”.

More companies should be encouraged to apply the “Kubuqi model” in other desert control projects in Inner Mongolia and neighboring Gansu province, where the climate conditions are similar but not quite the same, so as to further gain experience and enrich the model in practice. Showing it can be successfully applied in other areas will help promote the model worldwide.

Music is a huge part of our lives. Music helps us find our identity.【小题1】

●It serves as a cultural time capsule.

【小题2】The slang and language usage are so indicative of the times, and you can probably recall when a song was made based on what is mentioned.

●It teaches us about language.

Most parents sing to their child from an early age, as singing is such an important part of learning a language. If you take another language, chances are you learn key words and phrases through songs.【小题3】For example, if you were asked to memorize sentences in Spanish you’d probably have a hard time, but you can sing out a few lines of the Macarena.

●【小题4】

Pretty much every moment we celebrate in our lives is tied to music—blowing out our birthday candles, scoring a goal, etc. Holidays around the world have distinct music that accompanies them. A party without music just isn’t a party at all.

●It’s part of our routine.

Music just becomes so intertwined with our lives. While we’re cooking, cleaning, or just walking around the grocery store, it’s always there. It’s what we do when we’re happy or sad, and it’s become our self-care.【小题5】

Music has become our favourite pastime, distraction, hobby and art form. It’s so necessary for shaping us and we wouldn’t have it any other way.

When I was young, I loved and really did well in drawing and art. I won ___________, and got constant ___________, and even saw my face in the newspaper and on television because of my natural ability to draw.

Most people who happen to ___________something that they are good at are encouraged to take it and run with it. Of course, my life was no different. From teachers to principals, to family members, everyone seemed to have a ton of ___________ to give me concerning art.

All the while, my ___________desire was writing. I entered poetry, essay and short-story contests and ___________all. It was such a contrast from my artistic competition experience! It was so ___________ that I had a good friend who told me once, “If you are so g good at drawing, why do you even care about writing?___________drawing!”

Though well ___________, eighteen years later I’m ____________ I didn’t take his words to heart. Years went by with me still ____________ and still constantly entering contests. It was not until my first year in college that I ____________got honorable mention in a poetry contest. As a writer, I’ve truly grown.

I’m sure there are things in your life that are challenging and yet,____________. When it comes to things you truly love,____________is definitely essential. Take some time to ____________ some more energy to the thing that didn’t come easy and see what happens.