【推荐3】As 17-year-old Norwood drove through St. Peters-burg, Florida, last February, the laughter and chatter from the four teenage girls inside her car quickly gave way to screams. As they approached a crossing, another car T-boned them, sending their car sailing into the yard of a nearby home, coming to a stop only when it crashed into a tree.

As smoke rose from the other car, a bystander shouted, “It’s about to blow up! Get out!” Shaken, but otherwise OK, she crawled (爬行) out through the window. Along with two of her friends, who’d also managed to free themselves, she ran for her life.

But halfway down the street, she realized that her best friend, Simmons, wasn’t with them. Norwood ran back to the car and found Simmons passed out in the back seat. She threw open the back door and pulled her friend out, avoiding the broken glass as best she could. She dragged Simmons a few feet to safety and laid her on the ground. “I checked her pulse.” Nothing.“I put my head against her chest.” No sign of life. “That’s when I started CPR (心肺复苏术).”

Had the accident happened a few weeks earlier, she might not have known what to do. But Norwood, who wants to pursue a career in medicine, had earned her CPR certificate just the day before. Kneeling on the lawn and looking down at her dying friend, Norwood knew she had precious little time to practice what she’d learned. She started pumping Simmons’s chest and breathing into her friend’s mouth in hopes of filling her lungs with the kiss of life. No response. And then, after the 30th try, Simmons began coughing and gasping for air. The CPR had worked! Soon, the ambulance arrived and rushed Simmons to the hospital, where she received treatment for a cut in her forehead. And then she heard how her best friend had saved her life. “I wasn’t shocked,” Simmons told CNN. “She will always help any way she can.”

【推荐1】Jean was a single mother with a young son. She taught the first grade and worked very hard. She drove a small old car. One August, the teachers returned from a summer break to see Jean drive up to school with three children The two girls were Jean’s former students who had lost their parents. They did not want to enter a foster care center. They turned to Jean—their first grade teacher—for help. Though she and her son lived in a small house, Jean took the girls in.

During lunch, while other teachers shared life stories, Jean never complained about her new responsibilities. She did, however, speak about her car. With three children to transport, the car was too small and slow. It even burned engine oil. Jean needed something new. However, she couldn’t buy one with three children in her home.

As a good friend, I listened to her concerns. At that time, did not have much money. But I wanted to help Jean buy a car. An idea hit me when I watched a TV show.

One day, Jean received an invitation to TV show. She was surprised but decided to attend it. Midway through the show the host called Jean to the stage. He explained he had received a letter, knowing her need for a new car. The audience listened to the details of Jean’s story and were all moved. Then the host said that Jean would receive a new car for her family. Cheers filled the studio and Jean shook with disbelief.

Six hundred miles away, I watched the joy of it all from the television in my living room. Jean’s big heart taught me many lessons that year. I did nothing but share her story.

【推荐2】My mother is the only living person who has never used email to send a letter. In all her life, she has never turned on a computer, opened an email account and touched the Internet. She has a phobia (恐惧症) about technology. When Dad was deadly sick she began to use a cell phone. Mom is far from the information age. She likes the way of her living. In 1955 she met her new husband. Since then she has lived in Silicon Valley. The man is an expert who is rich in computer technology.

Mom is still that farm girl, and she is proudest of it. She sees her friends and her life “real”. She shows no interest in the information and technology life. My mother experienced Depression, World War Ⅱ and the Cold War. She enjoyed country music on The Sons of the Pioneers, a Canadian broadcast. But she had no way to listen to the radio. In the age when a lot of people were moved by Churchill for the first time with radio broadcasts, she only experienced them monthly.

In her early twenties, Mom had worked in the field before she was a wife. Thus family and church became her life’s center. She was never really interested in television, though I think she enjoyed a few of the TV series we had watched before, like All in the Family. Computers, the Internet and mobile phones are simply not parts of her life. Mom disagrees with the opinion that technology can make the life easier. In her life, she sees online music, email and information which are “unreal”．

However, I can partly understand. I like to read the books in my schoolbag. And also I am a child who enjoys the online books and music. I’ve written down my love­hate feelings with my computer. Mom’s technophobia surely plays a role here, but it works for her. She’s the happiest as she is.

【推荐3】As a little girl growing up in Colombia, Diana longed to explore the universe and gain more understanding of it. Her dad thought that being able to speak a second language would give her an advantage. He suggested she live with her aunt in Miami while going to school. Only 17 years old at the time, she accepted his suggestion.

With just $300 in her pocket, Diana took a series of housekeeping jobs to put herself through community college and later the University of Florida. In addition to learning English, she studied aerospace engineering. Sometimes she had to take six buses just to get to class. Other days she was cleaning bathrooms to continue her studies. But Diana saw everything coming her way as an opportunity.

Diana applied to the NASA Academy in her senior year of college, and was the first immigrant Latina woman in the academy. NASA hired her that year, and in 2009, she became a telecom systems engineer for the Curiosity Rover (探测器) that landed successfully on Mars in 2012. During this mission, she developed a dust removal tool to help scientists better explore the Mars’ surface, which earned her recognition as one of the 20 most influential Latinos (拉丁族裔) in the technology industry. Since then, Diana has only kept setting the bar (设定标准) higher. In her second mission, it took her team of engineers two years of long days and nights to create the robotic arm for the Perseverance Rover that would bring back soil samples from the Red Planet to learn whether there once was life there.

Right now, her mission is to help more Latina women realize they, too, can be successful in the exploration of science and technology. Last week, she hosted NASA’s first-ever Spanish-language live broadcast for Perseverance’s arrival on Mars and it gained more than 2.5 million views on YouTube.

【推荐1】Throughout history people have used herbs and spices for food and medicine. They were prized by the early Chinese, Egyptian, Greek and Roman civilizations and the search for new spices was the reason behind much of the early exploration.

Spices were used to add variety to otherwise monotonous diets, and to hide the flavour of foods that had gone bad. The sweet-smelling properties of herbs and spices were also much appreciated. They could be added to oils and used to disguise body smells.

Trade in spices was a valuable source of income for many nations. The Phoenicians were among the earliest specialist traders in herbs, spices and perfumes. Later, many European cities prospered under the spice trade, in particular Venice. The Venetians already had ships collecting silk from Damascus, and they also brought back spices, including pepper, ginger, nutmeg and cloves, to grace the tables of the wealthy. Spice prices soared. Pepper was regarded as black gold in the Mediterranean, and it became a universal currency. In some countries people had to pay their taxes in pepper.

During the 15th century, the great voyages of exploration opened direct sea routes for the spice trade. Vast profits could be made by trading in these lucrative products - in 1504, Vasco da Gama (1469-1524) brought 5000 tons of pepper and 35, 000 hundred weight of other spices to Europe which he sold for a 400 percent profit.

During the 16th and 17th centuries, wars were fought to gain a favorable position in Asia and a share in the lucrative spice trade.

Spices were always considered a luxury in Europe, but in the Middle East and Asia they were used generously to add flavour to the staple diet of rice, and to disguise the taste of meat that had gone off. Markets offered a colourful array of herbs and spices that could be blended together for different dishes. Some curries, for example, contained up to thirty different spices.

【推荐2】Below you will find a list of streaming services and channels that focus on TV and movies, various sports, documentaries, and more.

Netflix

Cost: $8.99/ month for a basic plan that allows a single screen in standard definition (清晰度); $12.99/ month for a standard plan that allows two screens at once and HD Streaming.

Watch it on: Android mobile devices and tablets; Windows phones; Amazon Fire TV devices; Apple TV.

Notes: Netflix subscribers can download select programming for offline viewing, and the number of devices you can download on is equal to the number of screens you can use at one time.

Hulu

Cost: $5.99/month for a basic plan that features limited commercials; $ 11.99/month for an ad-free plan.

Watch it on: Android mobile devices and tablets; Nintendo Switch; Play station 3 and PlayStation 4.

Notes: Ad-free subscribers can download select programming for offline viewing.

Amazon prime

Cost: $12.99/ month; $6.49/ month for student membership; $119/ year for an annual membership; or $59/ year for an annual student membership.

Watch it on: iOS mobile devices and tablets; Android mobile devices and tablet; amazon Fire TV devices.

Notes: An Amazon Prime subscription includes access to all other benefits of Prime membership.

Apple TV+

Cost: $4.99/ month after 7-day free trial; free for 1 year with purchase of an Apple device and if redeemed (赎回) within 90 days; free with Apple music Student Plan.

Watch it on: Android mobile devices and tablets; Amazon Fire TV devices; Apple TV.

Notes: Apple TV+ is available through apple TV channels.

【推荐3】Billions of stars and planets fill the sky. Are any of those planets home to intelligent life? Some scientists are trying to find out-by listening!

One group of scientists is asking home computer users to listen for possible radio signals from space. It's not hard to see why the group is called SETI, which stands for Search for Extraterrestrial Intelligence. Extraterrestrial indicates something outside of Earth. What exactly is the group listening for? The regular noise of the universe sounds like a waterfall. So, they are listening for unusual sounds, such as pulse or a whistle.

Volunteers from around the world get free screen savers that study the information. Each screen saver shows the users a picture of radio waves coming from their piece of sky. Scientists will review and check the strong signals to rule out false alarms.

This is not the first time SETI listening for sounds from the sky. The first SETI project began over 40 years ago. A young scientist named Frank Drake used an 85-foot antenna (天线）to listen for sounds from a few nearby stars. Today, SETI scientists use a1,000-foot-wide radio telescope.

At one time, the U.S. government gave money toward the SETI project. But some people were against it, and the funding was cut in 1993. One U.S. Senator, Richard Bryan, from Nevada, disliked spending money on the project." Millions of dollars have been spent, and we have not yet bagged a single little green fellow," said Bryan. He was talking about extraterrestrial life.

But that attitude did not undo SETI's belief in the project. Even scientists from NASA(National Aeronautics and Space Administration) back it." We support SETI as a valid research project," says Don Savage, from NASA. "The odds are strong that there is other life, maybe intelligent, in the universe. If they were to find evidence, it would be the greatest discovery in the history of science."

Meanwhile, the SETI scientists are still listening to the stars. They think that there could be millions or billions of years older than we are. And maybe their signals are touching us right now.

【推荐1】The care center told us Dad's case was hopeless. Mom took him home and his spirits lifted under her care. Several months later, we decided to fly out and give my mother a break from nursing him.

On the last day of our trip, after finishing his walking treatment, I suggested that he "exercise" his fingers by playing his piano, but the fingers that had once flown over the keys with ease could barely strike one note. Paralysis（瘫痪）had taken away the number-one joy in Dad's life.

Helping him from his wheelchair to the piano bench, I placed his hands on the keys and the list on the piano. Seeing his stiff fingers devastated me and Dad. I lay back in my chair, closed my eyes and expected the worst. I couldn't believe my ears when The War We Were rang out, flowing with feeling and no mistakes. He continued playing down his list.

Quickly wiping my eyes, I felt grateful for what had taken place. I never thought I'd hear my dad's beautiful music again. Dad couldn't grasp what had happened during that hour and seemed confused. Instead of getting back in his wheelchair, he asked me to turn him around on the bench so that we could talk.

Starting with his earliest childhood memories, Dad shared his life story, telling tales I'd never heard before. It was a magical time for us, and we took turns wiping our eyes. When he became silent, I knew this moment had ended.

For the next hour, I found myself reliving priceless memories. Happy tears flowed as my father played every song I'd ever heard growing up, including favorites that we had danced to as children. Apparently, the wonderful stories he'd just shared had sparked his memory.

【推荐3】Christmas Traditions

Since about 400 AD, Christmas day has been celebrated on 25th December. This date was the old mid-winter festival in pre-Christian times, around the time of the longest night and the shortest day. Christmas in the 21st century has many traditions.

Shops can make about 60 per cent of their year's income in the three months before Christmas. So most shops get ready for it in October. The shopping centres are beautifully decorated and stay open late at night. The first time this happened was in 1867 when Macys', a famous shop in New York, stayed open until midnight on Christmas Eve (24th December).

By mid-December, almost every house, shop and street has a Christmas tree. This tradition was started by the Germans as early as 700 AD. In the northern countries of the world, winter is cold and dark and most trees lose their leaves. The beautiful green trees decorated with lights and coloured glass balls give people hope that spring will come again.

Father Christmas is known across the world with his white hair, red coat and big bag of toys. Young children are told that he lives it in the north of Finland and makes toys for them. By tradition, he brings the toys to children at midnight, on the night before Christmas.

On Christmas day a traditional meal is eaten, usually turkey and a rich, spicy cake. Some people hate Christmas. Others feel it is a magical and exciting time. They love seeing family and friends; they also love the traditions. Love it or hate it, Christmas is a time to look back over the old year and forward to the new one.