【推荐1】In 2005, Winston Duncan was travelling with his mother in Southern Africa when he saw an old lady and a young boy walking down a road together. He thought of his own grandmother and wondered how he could help the old lady and others in Africa who have to walk a long way.

Duncan, who lived in Washington State, was 10 at the time, and his solution was to give them bikes. With his mum, he started Wheels to Africa, an organization that for the past 15 years has taken bicycles donated from residents of the Washington area and shipped them across the world to people in need.

Most of the 8,000 bikes they have collected have gone to countries in Africa, helping cut down hours of walking for students and other postmen. But last week, Duncan, travelled with a handful of volunteers and 400 bikes to a destination much closer to his home yet still in need: Puerto Rico. More than a year after it was destroyed by Hurricane Maria, the island suffers from transportation problems.

"It was a little chaotic（混乱的）—as soon as they got their bikes, they were just having fun riding around the parking lot, " said Austin Higgins, a New Jersey resident who recently joined Wheels to Africa as its photographer and videographer. "Some people who received bicycles were almost speechless, and some of them cried, because it was something they had requested for Christmas from Santa Claus, " he said.

The donated bikes included some high-end racing models, which went to teenagers interested in pursuing serious cycling.

Duncan recently graduated from Bard College. He now is in Arlington working at a political consulting firm and encourages kids in the Washington area to get involved with the organization, and some have joined him on trips to Africa and on this trip to Puerto Rico.

" I wanted to try to get people to think about giving back, " he said.

【推荐3】Sidney Keys, 14-year-old, has started a youth-led book club program, with the support and help of his mom, to help empower (给予...力量) both himself and many other boys with mental or physical problems through literature.

“I used to have a really bad stutter (结巴) and perform badly in school and I would get laughed at for it,” Sidney Keys, the founder of the book club Books N Bros said. “Reading was kind of my escape from my stutter because in my head I was able to imagine things and play out all the events clearly.” He said,“I wanted to start up Books N Bros so that I could talk to other people, especially boys, about books I love in a relaxing way because it’s like a brotherhood.”

The reading club that he started at just 10 years old now has over 250 “bros” aged 7 to 13 from the U.S. and Canada, most of whom are changing actively and positively. Marvels Hero Project, which reveals (展示) the remarkable, positive change young men make in their communities across the country and turns them into superheroes, selected Keys to be featured in the Disney series.

“I always wanted to read books that had characters that looked like me, but now I see a comic book with me in it,” Keys said.“It’s unbelievable that my friends and teachers all call me my superhero name.”

As for the future of Books N Bros, Keys and his mom hope to expand the programs reach throughout the country.“Getting Books N Bros in schools across America, we don’t want transportation to be an issue for getting that physical brotherhood and bond. It just benefits so many people, and it keeps me going,” Keys explained.

【推荐1】In many fields youngsters are changing the world. Listed below are several influential young people.

Muzoon Almellehan, 19

Millions of children live in refuge? camps (难民营)，where few pave access to school. Almellehan experienced these conditions firsthand after fleeing Syria. Fighting to change that, she travels the world to tell people about the significance of education Almellehan, UNICEF’s(United Nations International Children’s Emergency Fund) youngest-ever goodwill ambassador now, plans to return to her homeland Syria finally.

Auli’i Cravalho,17

The Hawaii native voiced the heroine in Disney’s hit movie Moana. Now Auli’i is taking on a new role. She’ll star on NBC’s Rise, a drama about a high school theater department’ that lifts the spirits of a struggling steel town in Pennsylvania. Based on a true story, the show has strengthened her belief that young people can bring about real change.

Moziah Bridges, 16

At 9, Moziah launched, his own handmade bow-tie business from his grandmother’s kitchen table. Now Mo’s Bows is worth about $1.5 million. More recently, Moziah signed a licensing deal with the NBA that lets him sell bow ties featuring team logos. But Moziah has even grander ambitions. He plans to expand globally. He credits his success to his natural sense of style.

Mikaila Ulmer, 13

Mikaila used to hate bees. She was stung (蜇) twice. But after learning honeybees are critical to the ecosystem and dying out, she developed a fascination with them. She was determined to help. Using her great-grandmother’s recipe, Mikaila made a mixture, sweetened with local honey. She sold it at community business fairs, donating 10% of her profits to honeybee-advocate groups. Mikaila also runs a nonprofit group called the Healthy Hive Foundation, whose goal is to raise awareness about the hardship of the honeybee.

【推荐1】More than half of UK parents believe sunglasses should become an official part of school uniform, a study has found.

A study of 1,000 parents with children aged 4-12 found 72 percent worried about protecting their child’s eyes from the sun; however, only three in 10 sent their child to school with sunglasses every time it was sunny, with one-quarter even saying their child was forbidden by their school from wearing sunglasses on school grounds.

A spokesperson for Monkey Monkey Sunglasses, which commissioned(正式委托) the study, said: “Parents are consistently telling us that their children are more likely to wear sunglasses on holiday or during leisure activities than at school. We just want parents to know that the midday and afternoon sun can be equally strong on the school playground, on the school sports field, or on the walk home from school, as it is on the beach. Wearing hats and staying in the shade during these times help reduce UV exposure but are not a surrogate for wearing sunglasses with full UVA and UVB protection, because UV rays reflect through cloud cover and reflect off a variety or surfaces.

Researchers also found only 16 percent of those surveyed said their children always worn sunglasses on a sunny day and one in four said their child did not currently own a pair of sunglasses.

Parents of children who rarely or never wear sunglasses said their kids found them uncomfortable to wear and avoid them if they can. However, 57 percent who have bought their children sunglasses checked the glasses for their UV protection rating before making the purchase.

When asked about their knowledge about surrounding surfaces which reflect and increase UV radiation, 61 percent of parents who took part in the study correctly said that snow reflected UV rays. One in four said concrete(混凝土) surfaces and 56 percent pointed to water as a key reflector of UV rays.

Monkey Monkey’s spokesperson added: “It is said that up to 80 percent of a person’s lifetime exposure to UV is received before the age of 18, when children’s eyes are also not yet fully developed. So we can see what we should do.”

【推荐2】National Space Center, Leicester

An interactive museum of super-size space experiences: from a giant planet Earth you can touch to the UK’s biggest domed planetarium (穹顶天文台) and a 42-meter rocket tower. You can’t miss the latter as you drive into Leicester—the structure looks like it’s wrapped in giant inflatable pillows. Inside, it houses Blue Streak and Thor Able rockets. Take in the full scale of them by riding a glass-sided lift up to the viewing platform. Elsewhere, there are six galleries with plenty of buttons to press and screens to touch. It’s all under cover so it’s a good place to visit on a rainy day!

What about lunch?

The Boosters Cafe serves reasonably priced hot and cold snacks and drinks (hot dog from ￡4.95, plus jacket potatoes, soups, sandwiches and salads)at the foot of the center’s two rockets The cafe offers vegetarian and vegan options too.

Getting there

There is a regular bus service (No.54 with a stop two minutes’ walk from the center, as well as a park and ride service from Birstall. East Midlands Trains and Cross-Country Trains operate services to Leicester station, from which the center is a 25-minute bus ride. If driving, it’s just off the A6, north of the city center. Parking is ￡3 for the day.

Value for money

It’s not cheap- adult: ￡15, 5 to 16-year-olds: ￡12, but once you’ve paid you can revisit as many times as you want in a year, and admission is free for kids under five.

Opening hours

10 am—4 pm Monday to Friday, 10 am—5 pm weekends and school holidays.

【推荐1】When you think of symbols of the United States, you probably think of the Golden Gate Bridge, Mount Rushmore or the Mississippi River. But the symbol that can stand, more than any other, for freedom stands in New York Harbor: the green Statue of Liberty. However, it turns out that she was not designed to be green, nor was she always that color.

The Statue of Liberty was given to the United States in 1885 as a gift from the people of France. She was built over several years out of copper（铜）(over 30 tons of it!). So how did she become green?

It has nothing to do with paint. As the name of the material would suggest, the statue was a bright copper color at the very beginning. How-ever, once she was set in New York Harbor, a chemical reaction called oxidation began. The copper on the surface began to react with the oxygen in the air. That reaction created tenorite, a dark brown-black material. So her copper color got darker before it got lighter.

After the chemical makeover, sulfuric acid in the air (much of which comes from New York air pollution) reacted with the copper, turning the outside of the Statue of Liberty green. By 1906, the color of copper was gone and the statue was the color we know today. However, in the early 1900s, the U.S. government collected money for repairs, suggesting that the statue be painted to what it had looked like - but people remonstrated, and the “repairs” never happened.

But with all of these reactions, will the Statue of Liberty be changing color again any time soon? Will we see a purple Statue of Liberty? Luckily, no. Green will continue to stand for liberty for generations to come.

【推荐2】The phone ID flashed, “Emergency Vet”. “Oh no” I whispered. I could not lose Merlin now.

Ron and I had tried to have children for a long time with depressing results. I threw myself into my work. Any maternal feelings I had were spent on Merlin.

I couldn’t wait to get home from work each night. I wanted to pick up that warm bundle of loving fur and nestle him. I wanted to sing “Rock-a-bye Merlin”, as I did every night as he would put his paws around my neck.

Merlin was my comfort especially at times when I wondered if God was listening. But last night something had changed. Not only did I sing “Rock-a-Bye Merlin”, but I asked, “What will I do after you’re gone?”

Although Merlin was 19 years old, a senior in the age of a cat, he didn’t look or act that way. I didn’t want to accept the fact that he was nearing the end of his lifetime. My job at the law firm was so demanding and stressful that I couldn’t imagine getting through the day without Merlin waiting to greet me at home.

The next morning I called the vet. Merlin had survived the night.After driving to the vet, I went into the examining room. The nurse brought Merlin and placed him on an examining table on his side. His eyes were tightly shut. I thought he died already. I carefully edged my hand to reach his body. His body felt warm, but when I spoke his name there was no response. No response to his name or that I was there and that I loved him. I was extremely sad.In that examining room I felt helpless. I wondered how many people in an examining room felt as helpless as I did. Feeling driven to prayer I yelled, “God this isn’t good enough. I need to see my Merlin the way I remember him, I need a miracle and I need it now!”

At that moment, God granted a miracle. Merlin’s favorite compliment entered my mind. I said,   “Merlin, You are Beautiful and You are Gorgeous, do you hear me?”

One eye opened.

I said “Gotcha”. I kept repeating those words.

Merlin opened the other eye and, one limb at a time, got up. He was waiting for that phrase. He wanted to hear that he was beautiful and gorgeous again.

Then I experienced another miracle.

There was no sound in that examining room until Merlin started walking to me. From out of nowhere, or maybe from heaven, I clearly heard a song we sung in church often: “It Is Well With My Soul.” I remembered thinking, “Yes, it is well with my Soul. I got to see my little boy cat one more time.”

Merlin walked to me. He put his face in mine, which he had never done before. He rubbed a circle around my face twice. Merlin said goodbye with his face and marked me for life.

Ron appeared shocked that Merlin was up and had walked to me. I said to Merlin, “Tell God you are a good boy and how much we love you” and then handed him back to the nurse.

Tears of gratitude poured forth in memory of a miracle. You see for nineteen years God spoke to me through a special cat named “Merlin.” On Merlin’s last day, God proved he heard me when he granted a miracle. That miracle gave me time to say goodbye.

【推荐3】Christopher Thomas, 27, was a writer by night and a teacher by day when he noticed he was always tired and was losing weight fast. Diagnosed with diabetes(糖尿病), Thomas would need to inject himself with insulin（胰岛素）three times a day for the rest of his life or risk nerve damage, blindness, and even death. And if that weren’t bad enough, he had no health insurance.

After a month of feeling upset, Thomas decided he’d better find a way to fight back. He left Canton, Michigan for New York, got a job waiting tables, nicknamed himself the Diabetic Rockstar, and created diabeticrockstar.com, a free online community for diabetics and their loved ones—a place where over 1,100 people share personal stories, information, and resources.

Jason Swencki’s son, Kody, was diagnosed with type diabetes at six. Father and son visit the online children’s forums together most evenings. “Kody gets so excited, writing to kids from all over,” says Swencki, one of the site’s volunteers. “They know what he’s going through, so he doesn’t feel alone.”

Kody is anything but alone: Diabetes is now the seventh leading cause of death in the United States, with 24 million diagnosed cases. And more people are being diagnosed at younger ages.

These days, Thomas’s main focus is his charity, Fight It, which provides medicines and supplies to people—225 to date—who can’t afford a diabetic’s huge expenses. Fight-it.org has raised about $23,000—in products and in cash. In May, Thomas will hold the first annual Diabetic Rockstar Festival in the Caribbean.

Even with a staff of 22 volunteers, Thomas often devotes up to 50 hours a week to his cause, while still doing his full-time job waiting tables. “Of the diabetes charities out there, most are putting money into finding a cure,” says Bentley Gubar, one of Rockstar’s original members. “But Christopher is the only person I know saying people need help now.”