13．　　It was January 2021. My second term in high school had just ended. Two weeks earlier, my parents checked my grades and (1)       more than 20 missing tasks.
　　Bright and able as I was, I had often struggled (挣扎) with (2)       and procrastination (拖延), especially with writing tasks. But this time was different, and the pandemic (疫情) was to blame. I was doing my first year partly from home — where I did my schoolwork on my own time, and, for the most part, without teacher's guidance.
　　The (3)       was too much. I could do a million other things rather than my homework. I told my mom what I was missing from my teachers and classmates. "When a teacher walks around the classroom, you want to be on task, and you don't want to fall behind the other students."
　　My parents tried to help, but their (4)       fell far short of their expectations. Tired from working long days, they criticized rather than advised. Late-night learning hours ended in (5)       matches. All three of us were upset and stressed out.
　　We knew we couldn't solve this alone. So when my mom heard that Steve Merrill, an experienced teacher, could help, she (6)       out.
　　Mr. Merrill told me that his students also had problems in the same areas: task organization and time management. He taught me to break down big tasks into small ones. We met twice a week, over video, where we could look over my tasks and put the skill into practice. After a few months, I started to see positive results. My grades were improving. My work habits were becoming more regular. There were (7)       late-night learning hours and fights.
　　The other evening I came downstairs to ask my parents for help with a writing task. There was something different. I had (8)       most of it two days before the deadline! While I don't expect this school year to be easy, I now have some of the tools I need to help me through it.

14．　　You change into your pajamas, turn off the lights, and get yourself ready to sleep. How do you prefer to sleep, on the back or on your side? Here are some interesting sleeping positions.

15．Jeremiah's Mistake
　　Jeremiah hurried into the kitchen and washed his hands. He had exactly one hour until his father got home. He wasn't used to starting dinner this early. On his nights to cook, Jeremiah generally got dinner ready in fifteen minutes. But Dad always praised Jeremiah's meals, no matter how simple they were. "Delicious!" he would say. But Jeremiah knew Dad liked more complicated (复杂的) dishes, because on Dad's nights to cook, he used a ton of ingredients. Dad was a natural cook. Not Jeremiah — at least, not until tonight.
　　It was Dad's birthday, and for once in his life, Jeremiah was cooking something complicated: spaghetti with homemade sauce (酱). He'd eaten it a million times, so he knew most of the ingredients. "Tomatoes, onions, garlic, beef," he thought, looking through the fridge. They had everything except the beef. No problem — they'd go vegetarian tonight.
　　Jeremiah cut up the vegetables with Dad's special knife and put them into the pot. Then he turned to Dad's spice (香料) collection. He picked a few familiar ones and put them in. The pleasing smell of fresh tomatoes amazed him. He tasted it just as Dad usually did. It was terrible! Way too spicy. Aha! A lime would cool things down. He added in as much lime juice as he could. One more taste. Ugh. It was awful! Now the sauce was sour and spicy.
　　He left the kitchen and went into his room. He could at least order pizza, so Dad wouldn't have to stay hungry on his own birthday. As he counted his money, he heard the front door open.
　　"Hi, Jer!" Dad called.
　　"Coming."
　　Jeremiah returned to the kitchen, where he found Dad digging through the food cupboard. "I'm buying pizza," Jeremiah said. "It's not much of a birthday dinner..."
　　Dad turned, holding a bag of chips and a bowl of Jeremiah's spaghetti sauce. "We don't need pizza!" Dad smiled. "This delicious salsa (萨尔萨辣酱) is a meal in itself!"

16．　　Why Do Top Athletes Choke Under Pressure?
　　According to classic economic theory, the higher the reward, the better the expected performance. As a result, we could expect the best performance at the most important moments. But why do we so often see the most talented and experienced athletes perform much worse than expected in important competitions like the Olympics?
　　Why the Drop in Performance?
　　It is not necessarily true that there's a direct relationship between incentives (激励) and achievement. Research has shown that increased motivation (动机) beyond a certain level harms an athlete's performance. We call this phenomenon "choking under pressure". Greater incentives may lead to higher levels of arousal (兴奋). The relationship between performance and arousal looks like an inverted U shape (倒U形), meaning that performance is the best at certain levels of arousal and drops with over-arousal.
　　The desire to perform as well as possible is thought to create performance pressure. Many studies have shown increased pressure has a bad effect on athletes' performance in skill-based games. When people overthink or consciously monitor each step, the drop in performance happens.
　　(2)___________
　　Beyond the pressure coming from the important competitions, another thing that may add pressure is the level of expectations. An experiment suggested high audience expectations harm performance in a skill-based task. For example, one of the most famous biathletes in history, Martin Fourcade, said it was very emotional for him to compete in his home country and also much harder than competing abroad because of greater expectations.
　　We tested this home disadvantage by using data from biathlon (冬季两项) competitions over 17 years. We have found the most titled athletes miss a lot more shots when competing in their home country compared to when they compete abroad. The most reasonable explanation likely relates to the level of expectations from the homeland.
　　How to Deal with It?
　　There are several ways to reduce stress, such as a countdown or taking a deep breath before the task. But the base for any solution is to realize that stress affects performance. Choking under pressure can happen to the best athletes and it's not a shame to admit it. The more athletes know about the effect pressure can have on them, the more likely they are to succeed at the highest level.

17．　　Nowadays, the online world is nearly as important as the real one. It is not uncommon to see the whole Internet bands together to "cancel" someone after they make a mistake, which is called Cancel Culture. It can result in a person, if famous, losing fans and having to face attacks online. Even a normal person faces risks of losing their jobs or personal relationships. While stepping foot on any social media platform, everyone including young children can fall victim to it.
　　Cancel Culture is a lose-lose situation. The person being canceled has to stand the negative effects of the Internet, and the people doing the canceling are contributing to (促成) the mindset that it's okay to do this to people they don't know. Young kids may not understand or contribute completely to Cancel Culture, but by simply being on the Internet, they can see it firsthand, affecting their real lives. A New York Metro Parents article describes one girl who was canceled in school the same way people are canceled on the Internet, and her friends wouldn't even talk to or look at her.
　　Dr. Pam Rultledge, a media psychologist, explains in her blog post that Cancel Culture discourages kids from expressing their opinions and standing up for others. It's always an "us against them" mindset; anyone agreeing with the person being canceled is at risk of being left out online too.
　　So again I ask, what is this teaching our kids? That they aren't allowed to make mistakes? That they have to be perfect? This may be the current narrative, but it shouldn't be. Everyone messes up at some point, especially young children. They shouldn't be publicly punished for it and not given the chance to change people's minds. Forgiveness is an important skill kids need to learn, and Cancel Culture is encouraging the opposite.
　　One small mistake doesn't make someone a bad person, but Cancel Culture makes them feel as if they are. Cancel Culture doesn't have to exist. We make it exist. And just as easily, we can make it disappear by contributing to an online world full of praise and love.

18．　　Eradajere Oleita has a tradition on her birthday of finding some ways to give back. So as her 25th birthday was around the corner in 2020, she started looking for her next project. She found it when she came across a video on the Internet about how to iron foil-lined (铝箔内衬的) chip bags into sleeping bags. Oleita said the video gave her the idea of the Chip Bag Project.
　　"This is a project that allows me to really bring two of my passions together, people and the environment," Oleita said. "We throw so much stuff away and never really think about where that's ending."
　　"It takes about four hours to sew (缝) a sleeping bag. Each takes around 150 to 300 chip bags, depending on whether they're single-serve or family size," Oleita told The Detroit News. "Our sleeping bags are better than the cotton ones. They are waterproof, lightweight, and easy to carry around."
　　Once each sleeping bag is complete, it's packed with other donated winter necessities such as socks, gloves and hats to be given away to homeless people.
　　Since its start in 2020, the Chip Bag Project has collected over 800,000 chip bags and, as of last December, created 110 sleeping bags.
　　"Every time we get a chip bag we're taking something — something that's not going into our water." Oleita said. "And when we give somebody a bag, we're giving warmth, and we're helping a human life."
　　The Chip Bag Project is just the latest environmental project for Oleita. She has also worked with the Youth Energy Squad, a program that teaches students about environmental sustainability (可持续性). One of her first large projects was creating a 6-foot-tall Minion character out of recycled plastic bottles.
　　"Before, I felt like environmental things were not topics for people like me." Oleita said. "But now I believe that each of us can contribute to the future of the world by training people not to be careless with their things, and meanwhile, helping people in need."

19．假如你是李华，你们学校英语角留言板本月的主题为“致我最想感谢的人”，请你用英语写一则留言，谈谈你最想感谢谁，以及你感谢他/她的理由。
提示词语：support, encourage, advice, helpful, patience
提示问题：
Who do you want to thank?
Why do you want to thank him/her?
　　This is a thank-you note to _____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

20．“凡事预则立，不预则废。”
某英文网站正在开展主题为“做一个有准备的人”的征文活动。假如你是李华，请用英语写一篇短文投稿，谈谈是什么经历让你意识到准备的重要性，以及你从中获得的益处。
提示词语：competition, worried, improve, confidence, proud
提示问题：
What experience taught you the importance of preparation?
Please describe it.
What benefits have you got from the experience?
　　Being prepared is important. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________