SAO stands for The Standard Application Online.
美国传统寄宿高中250所有余，其中近200所高中都可以通过SAO系统申请。SAO系统申请需要学生完成学生文书（Student Statement）及部分学校（10所左右）需要完成自己的补充文书（Supplement）。
这篇我们主要针对SAO系统文书的第二篇进行讲解。
Describe an academic or extracurricular achievement of which you are most proud or a challenge you have faced. If you select an achievement, what did it take to accomplish this achievement? If you select a challenge, what did you learn from it and how did you overcome it?
跟我们描述一个你感到最骄傲的学术成绩或课外活动成就，或一个你曾经面临的挑战。如果你描述的是成就，跟我们说一下你做了什么？如果你选择描述一个挑战，跟我们说一下你从这个挑战中学到了什么以及你是如何战胜这个挑战的？
写这篇文书，需要同学在写之前就十分清晰自己所选择的事件究竟是一个成就还是一次挑战。因为两者的写作侧重点是完全不同的。
还需注意的是，学术成就最好不要提托福和SSAT备考，这本身就不是招生官想要看到的内容。课外活动成就最好是公认很棒的一个活动，比如某比赛世界级别的奖项，或一个发自内心的公益项目；结果一带而过，关键是要展示完整的过程。挑战可以是学术挑战或活动挑战。挑战本身是一个个人化的感受，每个学生对同样一个事情的舒适圈的承受度是不同的，关键是写清楚自己通过怎样的心路历程、做了什么事情，去克服了这个挑战。这个问题是很好展现学生个性和潜力的问题。
申请美高和美本的文书是有很大不同的：美本文书鼓励文学性的创作，但美高文书一般有字数（字符）限制，再加上学生年龄较小，很难在有限的字数空间内完成一篇高质量的文学性很高的文书创作，所以我们一般建议同学在首段即点明主题，让招生官明白你要写的是什么。
下面分享几个优秀的文书开头段：
On the night before the finals of my third FLL (First LEGO League) competition, malfunctioning computers and broken LEGO pieces sat before me. I frantically worked with my teammates to recover from our near disqualification. At that moment, I could never have believed our team would eventually win the Best Programming Award 1st Runner-up, the first award I have ever received in my three years in FLL.
✅ achievement
My legs were sore, and my heart was beating fast as I skied down the mountain. I tried to catch up to my dad. Crash! When I fell down on my very first advanced trail at 10 years old after skiing for only 3 years, I never expected I would be able to conquer my fear and start to love skiing.
✅ challenge
I have studied art since I was six but never had any formal classes or teaching. I am most proud of how although I am self-taught, my high skill in art has helped me not only connect with others but is also useful in my life.
✅ achievement
I have always aspired to improve my longboarding skills since I began learning it for myself. So, after one month of practice, I wanted to try the halfpipe. Little did I know how painful and tough an experience it would be.
✅ challenge
通过以上几个文章开头段，我们可以清晰地看到：同学写的到底是一个成就还是挑战，这个成就或者挑战到底是什么，在第一段就要明确地写出来了。
下面引申两篇外刊文章，希望通过这两篇文章的阅读，同学可以更加深入地理解achievement和challenge的区别。
📌 achievement
China retains the title of Women’s Volleyball World Cup champion
👉 retain the title of sth.
卫冕……，保持……的头衔
retain vt. 保持，保留（通常用在比较正式的场合）
retain their traditional and habitual ways of doing things （某个国家）保留做事的传统
On September 28, China routed Serbia 3-0 in the 2019 Women’s Volleyball World Cup, sealing the tournament title with one match left to play and pocketing its fifth gold medal in World Cup history, an unparalleled feat.
👉 rout
vt. 击溃，击败 （to defeat sb. completely）
The quadrennial event wrapped up in Osaka, Japan, where China topped the scoreboard with an overwhelming 11-0 win-loss record in the 12-team round-robin match.
👉 wrap up
圆满结束，相当于successfully finish/complete 但较后者更高级一点
We wrapped up the meeting today.
👉 round-robin
n. 循环赛
Even US and Russia, who are among the leading contenders in the game, had to taste bitter losses at the hands of the team coached by Lang Ping, an icon starred in China’s surge to become the volleyball world-beaters in the 1980s.
Dubbed the “Iron Hammer”, Lang led the group of Chinese girls to the summit of women’s volleyball through a historic winning streak of five world titles, beginning with the 1981 World Cup victory over Japan.
The sweeping triumphs led to widespread revelry as it came when the country was going through a period of transformation. Women’s volleyball has since been a huge source of national pride and an embodiment of spirits like teamwork and persistence.
Inspiring, captivating and nostalgia-evoking, the fresh success has lit up nationwide discussion again and greatly boosted the morale of the team ahead of the Tokyo 2020 Olympics.
📌 challenge
The Chinese Doctor Who Beat the Plague
In October 1910, a mysterious illness appeared in the city of Manzhouli, on the Russian and Chinese border. It spread swiftly, killing 99.9% of its victims.
The Qing Imperial court had dispatched Malayan-born, Cambridge-educated Dr. Wu Lien-teh north to stop the epidemic before it spread to the rest of the empire.
Dr. Wu set up special quarantine units and ordered blockades to stop infected persons from traveling and spreading the disease. He had teams check households for possible cases, and even managed to convince Russian and Japanese authorities to completely close the railways in the early weeks of 1911.
The pneumonic plague outbreak of 1910-1911 lasted nearly four months, affected five provinces and six major cities, and accounted for over 60,000 deaths. It is clear that without the brave and decisive actions taken by Dr. Wu it could have been much worse. Had the epidemic gone unchecked, allowing holiday rail passengers to spread the disease to the rest of China, it could have meant a catastrophic loss of life and possibly precipitated a global health crisis.
For a time, Dr. Wu was the world’s most famous plague fighter.
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