1 . Many visual artists have a signature style, as unique and identifiable as a fingerprint. For Amoako Boafo, who often paints with his fingers, this seems doubly true. His distinctive paint strokes (笔画) combine the complex skin tones of his chosen subjects, many of whom are, like himself, Africans with global life experiences.

Boafo, whose first solo museum exhibition runs at the Seattle Art Museum, was born and raised in Accra, Ghana, and moved to Vienna, Austria, in 2014, where he ran into difficulties, with gallerists unwilling to show his works due to his focus on Black figures. He continued making an effort to create self-portraits (自画像) and people he knew or admired-African people and Black people who have African ancestry, painting a community of sorts during a time of hardship. He also developed his standout approach to figurative painting, which combines areas of bright and noticeable color with his soft and deep fingerpainting.

He began posting his art online and caught the attention of artists like Kehinde Wiley, the celebrated American artist. The word started to spread.

Boafo is now a global art star, with numerous shows at galleries and art fairs, working with fashion house Dior, and several paintings selling for over a million dollars. In 2021, with three of his paintings being launched into space by Blue Origin, Jeff Bezos’ Kent-based spaceflight company, you might even say Boafo has rocketed to success.

And yet a recent phone conversation with the artist from his studio in Accra, which is once again his home base, revealed a well-mannered person who appreciated his success while pointing out all of the luck and preparation that led to it. Seeing so many of his paintings -created from 2016 to 2022-gathered together in an exhibition has helped him remember that “I did not ‘just happen. ‘I did not expect this success but I was hopeful and ready for it.”

2 . Famous People Who Begin With Difficulties

Oprah Winfrey

Probably having one of the most famous success stories, Oprah was born into a poor family in Mississippi, raised by a single mother living on welfare. She was physically, and mentally abused during her childhood. Despite her initial struggles as a young girl, she turned herself into one of the most successful talk show hosts of our time.

Jim Carrey

Jim Carrey has been the star of some of the most successful movies of all time. But Carrey grew up extremely poor in Canada. When he was a teenager, his family took security jobs in a factory to help pay the bills. And during his first stand-up comedy performance, he was booed off （喝倒彩） the stage. Not shortly after, he made it big on In Living Color and then went on to star in Dumb & Dumber, The Mask, and Ace Ventura in the same year!

James Dyson

If you thought Thomas Edison’s failures were bad, let me introduce you to James Dyson, the famous inventor of the Dyson vacuums （真空吸尘器） you see all over the television. Dyson developed over 5,000 failed prototypes （原型） before finding the bagless vacuum brand. Not only that, he put his entire savings account into his prototypes over fifteen years! Luckily, the bagless vacuum worked.

Stephen King

Before Stephen King became known as a great living writer—having written over 60 novels, many of which have been adapted for film and television—King was rejected over and over again. In his memoir, On Writing, King describes how he used to post his rejection letters on the wall for inspiration. His first novel, Carrie, was rejected 30 times.

3 . Four Most Famous Paintings in the World

Artist: Vincent Willem van Gogh

Where to see it: the Museum of Modern Art (New York, US)

Being treated for mental illness in hospital and inspired by the view from the window of his room, Van Gogh painted The Starry Night. The painting is famous for Van Gogh’s creative use of thick brushstrokes (笔画). The painting’s striking blues and yellows and the dreamy atmosphere have attracted art lovers for decades.

Artist: Edvard Munch

Where to see it: the National Museum and the Munch Museum (Oslo, Norway)

The Scream is not a single work of art. According to a British museum’s blog, there are two paintings, two pastels (彩粉画) and a number of prints, The paintings are in the National Museum and the Munch Museum, and in 2012, one of the pastels was sold for almost 120 million.

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Where to see it: the Louvre Museum (Paris. France)

It should come as no surprise that one of the most famous paintings in the world is a woman with a mysterious smile. It is the earliest known Italian painting to focus closely on the sitter in a half-length portrait (像) , according to the Louvre, where it was first exhibited in 1804.

Artist: Leonardo da Vinci

Where to see it: Santa Maria delle Grazie (Milan, Italy)

Leonardo is the only artist to appear on this list twice. The Last Supper is about the last time Jesus had dinner with his followers. The painting is actually a huge wall painting-4. 6 meters high and 8. 8 meters wide, which makes for a memorable viewing experience.

4 . M-U-R-R-A-Y-A is the word that pushed Zaila Avant garde, 15, to victory in the 2021 Scripps National Spelling Bee. The annual event took place in July, 2021, in Florida.

After correctly spelling Murraya, which is a type of flowering tree, Zaila became the first Black American contestant ever to win the national title. She is the second Black winner, after Jody-Anne Maxwell of Jamaica, who won the bee in 1998.

Since 1925, the Scripps spelling bee has promoted literacy. Competing in the event helps students improve their spelling, increase their vocabularies and develop self-confidence.

Zaila, who is from Harvey, Louisiana, put in a lot of work to become the top speller. She studied for two years. ”I worked with a tutor and studied some days up to seven hours,“ she said.

In addition to being an award-winning speller, Zaila enjoys juggling, playing basketball and inspiring other students. ”Whether I’m studying for spelling bees or playing basketball,“ she said, ”the main motivation for me is to inspire others.“

In the months following her spelling bee win, Zaila made several television appearances. She was also named the 2021 SportsKid of the Year by Sports Illustrated.

The rising star is not finished. She has big goals for the future. “I’d like to play basketball at Harvard, play in the WNBA, become a head coach in the WNBA, and work for NASA,” she said.

Zaila’s parents introduced her to basketball when she was a young child. After receiving a copy of the Guinness Book of World Records on her eighth birthday, she set her sights on becoming a record holder. “When I looked in the book,” she said, “I decided that I wanted to be in it.” Now, at the age of 15, Zaila holds three world records.

5 . “What if we treat the ocean as if our lives depend on it? Or, what if we don’t?” World-famous marine biologist Sylvia Earle poses her famous “what if” questions to inspire people to reflect on how they can help save the ocean. In 1998, Time magazine named Earle its first “Hero for the Planet.”

Earle’s move to Florida’s west coast at age 12 is what started a lifelong passion. She says, “That’s where I first fell in love with the ocean.” In 1953, using newly developed equipment, the young scientist became one of the first in her field to scuba dive (水肺潜水). Her first long-term exposure to the ocean depths came in 1970 when she led an all-female research team to study the ocean. They lived under the sea in a submersible (潜水器) for two weeks. When they returned to the surface, world-wide cheer and praise were waiting, especially for Dr. Earle.

Sylvia Earle’s career includes many firsts. In 1979 she became the first woman to walk the ocean floor 381 meters below the surface. In 1990, she became the first female chief scientist of the U.S. National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration (NOAA).

Through the years, Earle has spent roughly 7,500 hours underwater. During that time, she has become increasingly alarmed by the significant changes she has observed.

The famous scientist fears that the ocean is dying. Climate change, overfishing, the dumping of trash and chemicals and oil spills are just some of the many causes. In order to tackle the problem, Earle formed Mission Blue in 2009. This organization promotes the legal protection and conservation of the world’s oceans. Her plan is to develop “Hope Spots,” protected areas large enough to reverse (逆转) damage and restore the ocean.

6 . “Can you imagine?” Diébédo Francis Kéré said to NPR, “I was born in Burkina Faso, a little village where there was no school. And my father wanted me to learn how to read and write very simply because then I could translate or read him his letters.”

The first Black winner of the Pritzker Architecture Prize was as surprised as anyone else to be selected for the field’s most famous prize. Many architects had openly supposed that 2022 would be Sir David Adjaye’s year, who is best known for designing notable buildings as the Nobel Peace Center in Norway. Kéré, who is based in Berlin but centers much of his practice in Africa, has been—until now—far lesser known, with buildings that include primary schools and a healthcare clinic.

When he was twenty, in 1985,Kéré earned a scholarship to study carpentry in Berlin. But he also attended night school and was admitted to Technische Universität Berlin, from which he graduated in 2004 with an advanced degree in architecture. He was still a student when he designed and built the innovative Gando Primary School.

Kéré’s architectural practice was inspired by his own experience attending school with around 100 other children in a region with temperatures over 100 F. “It’s very hot inside. And there was no light, while outside, the sunlight was abundant. I think, one day I should make it better. I was thinking about space, about room, about how I could feel better.”

In his designs for Gando Primary School and Naaba Belem Goumma Secondary School, Kéré drew on traditional building materials such as local clay mixed with concrete, and emphasized shade and shadows, making spaces bright enough and letting air in, and thus reducing the need for air conditioning. He wanted the buildings to evoke the sense of an oasis (绿洲), a place for many children, to be happy and learn how to read and write.

7 . 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics presented the world fantastic events and bunches of brilliant athletes, among whom certain young athletes stood out and went viral among audience.

Yuzuru Hanyu

Aged just 19, Hanyu became the first Asian man to win an Olympic gold medal in Sochi, becoming the youngest men’s champion since 1948. Hanyu’s technique is outstanding, but he combines his ability with an astonishing creativity and artistry. Though the “ice prince” tumbled (摔倒) in his performance and thus failed the gold medal in Beijing 2022, he still makes a deserving figure skating icon.

Alexandra Trusova

Alexandra Trusova is a Russian figure skater who is the Beijing 2022 Olympic silver medalist (representing ROC). The 17-year-old is best known for her quadruple-jumping abilities. She was the first female to land each of the quad Lutz, flip and toe jumps in competition, and was also the first to land two- and then three-quads in a free skate.

Eileen Gu

Nicknamed “Snow Princess”, Gu initially represented the United States of America in competition, but she chose to compete for China, the birth land of her mother who is from Beijing. As a Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games gold medalist in big air, the 18-year-old girl is the first female Chinese freestyle skier to top the podium (领奖台).

Yiming Su

Born in 2004 in Jilin, Su is the first Chinese snowboarder to ever land on World Cup podium in either big air or slopestyle. He is also the first rider ever to land 1800s two ways in a FIS competition. This year he won China’s sixth gold medal in the Olympics.

Click here for more information about the above athletes.

Two scientists, Germany’s Benjamin List and Scotland-born David MacMillan, have won the 2021 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for     1     (develop) a molecule-building（分子建构）tool that can produce many important compounds in a “greener” way.

The process of making molecules     2     (require) the linking of individual atoms together in specific positions. This can be very slow and difficult. For many years, chemists only used either complex enzymes（酶）     3     metal catalysts（催化剂）.

That all changed in 2000, when List and MacMillan     4     (independence) reported that small organic molecules can be used to do the same job.

The process has made the production of some drugs much     5     (easy). It noted that an     6     (estimate) 35 percent of the world’s total GDP, in some way involves chemical catalysis.

Speaking after the     7     (announce), List said the award came as a “huge surprise”. He said at the beginning he did not know that MacMillan was working on the same subject, and he thought his effort might turn out to be, what he called,    8    “stupid idea”.

MacMillan said the start of his catalysis work was a pretty simple idea     9     really sparked a lot of different research. He added, “The part we’re just so proud of is that you don’t have to have huge amounts of equipment and money     10     (do) fine things in chemistry.”