第四周我们收到了944份投稿，并选出了两位获奖者，分别是梅加·米什拉（Megha Mishra）和萨迈拉·拉苏尔（Samaira Rasul）的作品。您可以在下方阅读这两篇文章。
接下来，浏览一下入围和荣誉提名，欣赏一下本周引起青少年关注的各种话题，包括Pope, pink sneakers, high prices, siblings, doommaxxing and student cheating。
Our Winners
Megha Mishra, 17, from Cumming, Ga., was enlightened by “Fish Sleep a Lot Like Us. (They Even Nap.)”.
The first time I witnessed fish sleeping was when my little sister and I flushed Timmy down the toilet.
Merely minutes before, our goldfish was resting at the bottom of his tank, completely still and motionless. And we were convinced that it was Timmy’s last day. After serenading with “Let it Go” from Frozen and offering a sprinkle of fish food, we brought Timmy over to his resting place, but mere seconds before his demise, we saw a twitch. Then Timmy began to swim around the bowl.
But this was seconds too late.
For the lever had been pulled, and Timmy forever disappeared into the depths of Forsyth County’s plumbing system.
This awful memory came back to me as I read “Fish Sleep a Lot Like Us. (They Even Nap.)”. The article explained that fish don’t “rest” in one simple way; instead, they have multiple sleep states. For zebrafish, some sleep cycles last up to 10 hours, while others last as little as 5 minutes. Similar to us, when they sleep, they’re motionless, slow to respond, and if you keep them up … they’ll make up for the lost time by sleeping in longer the next night.
It’s hard to come to terms with the fact that if I had known fish can fall into deep sleep, just like humans do, maybe poor Timmy would’ve survived. It made me realize that if I had taken a second to consider goldfish sleep cycles with a quick Google search, I wouldn’t have been an accomplice to this crime.
To my 9-year-old self, not all fish are dead; sometimes they’re just asleep.
Samaira Rasul, 16, from Richmond Hill, Ontario, had a strong reaction to “Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age”:
Ms. Cain Miller’s words in her article “Why Boys Are Behind in Reading at Every Age” ring especially true for me as a rising high school junior.
I’ve personally witnessed fewer boys earn academic awards, answer questions during class, and even complete their schoolwork. So, it came as no surprise to discover that they have also been falling behind when it comes to reading.
Yet, it’s difficult to feel much sympathy.
Out of the 14 or so school-mandated books that I’ve read since the 4th grade, only two of the titles have featured a female protagonist. “Formative” and “iconic” coming-of-age works like “The Catcher in the Rye” or “The Outsiders” take us through adolescence in the experiences of a young boy.
Despite this, girls rarely complain about the underrepresentation of our voice in school-mandated literature — and most of us complete the required readings anyway.
Ms. Cain Miller mentions how similar attempts to encourage girls in STEM may work for boys to get them to start reading more. However, if the overrepresentation of male voices in the books we read isn’t an act of encouragement, then I don’t know what is.
I empathize with the biological differences that boys may have to overcome, and I do think that every effort should be made to close the gendered reading gap. However, considering the apathy that most boys have towards reading books that were seemingly written for them, I wonder if these efforts are … how would Holden Caulfield put it?
Oh yeah, phony.
Runners-Up
Erin Jia on “Welcome to the Airport Lounge. Please Don’t Make Yourself at Home."
Hyunwoo Choi on “Why Are So Many Players Wearing Pink Footwear at the World Cup?”
Iwan Lee on “White House Again Shrugs Off High Prices Amid War With Iran”
Jaemin Benjamin Choi on “For Half a Century, Capturing New York’s Human Moments”
Hyewon Yun on “Of Course the Pope Is a Natural at Memes”
Nishka Danya Gurung on “Want to Know Your Dad Better? Ask Him These 25 Questions”
Philina Chen on “Student Cheating is Becoming Impossible to Detect in an A.I. Era”
Honorable Mentions
Akriti Aloor on “Why Are Dress Sneakers Everywhere?”
Alyssa Chiao on “They’ve Heard the Warnings. Gen Z Is Tanning Anyway.”
Annie Qi on “Life Is Better With Siblings”
ChunChang He on “Going to a National Park This Summer? Here’s What to Expect.”
Grace Ye on “Life Is Better With Siblings”
Grace Qian on “How to Bring Back the American Dream”
Hyeonji Nam on “Immigrant Arrests Surge to 10,000 in 5 Days as ICE Clamps Down”
Isabelle Zhao on “This Doommaxxing Has Got to Stop”
Juwon Lee on “The 10-Year-Old Who Can Deadlift 180 Pounds”
Mihika Puvvena on “Texas Public School Students Will Be Required to Read the Bible”
Vanessa Braginton on “The Glitchy, Gloppy Look of Now"
Xiaoqing Cai on “How These High Schoolers Prepare for the Tonys for Teenagers”
