【推荐2】Many languages are disappearing and languages such as English, Spanish and Chinese are increasingly taking over. Yet Maori promises to have a rosy future given that New Zealanders are showing great enthusiasm for speaking this local language 。

A "Maori renaissance(复兴）”blossomed in the 1970s as language activists championed their cause and Maori fought for greater political power. But until 2013, just 3.7 percent of New Zealanders spoke the language fluently, and many predicted it would soon die out. Now New Zealand's government is erasing prejudice and struggling to increase the percent of population who can speak basic Maori by 2040 to 20.Prime Minister Jacinda Ardem said last month that her newborn daughter would learn both Maori and English. “It's an official language, so why should we dismiss its universal availability and its much more common use?” said Ms.Ardem, adding that she also planned to study the language. Grassroots are also spreading it by word of mouth Answering the phone with the greeting"kiaora"(hello)or ending an email withunga mihi'(thanks)has become a fashion. Maori is gradually becoming part of New Zealand 's mainstream popular culture.

Ajit Kumar Samah, a famous professor in Auckland University, published a book— Coniagious： why Maori catches on. where he introduces readers to the popularity of Maori and expresses his great anxiety for the lack of teachers who have the competence to teach the Maori language・

People are not on the same wavelength, however. Suggestions on officially replacing English-language place names with traditional Maori ones have been rejected. So when a police car was designed using Maori, it was condemned by some as ridiculous because of the higher Maori rates of arrest and imprisonment.

【推荐3】Lightning is a powerful force of nature. In fact,   a lightning strike carries millions of volts（伏特）of electricity. Scientists say a bolt of lightning strikes somewhere on Earth every second. That is a lot of energy!

Think how wonderful it would be if we could capture lightning and sell it in a bottle. Sadly, that is not something you or I can do, at least not yet.

The phrase "to catch lighting in a bottle” means capturing something powerful or difficult. Then you are able to control it and perhaps show it to the world. This is where the "bottle” part is important.

We can also use "to catch lightning in a bottle" to describe an extremely difficult or unlikely success. In the world of sports , players and teams have also been known for catching lightning in a bottle. Anything physical that is "lightning in a bottle "can be described as a rare achievement. Climbing the top of Mount Everest is considered a rare achievement of endurance（忍耐力）.

Language experts do not know exactly where this expression comes from. Some say it may have started with Benjamin Franklin---the American diplomat, businessman and inventor. Benjamin Franklin is known for a scientific experiment involving electricity and lightning. As the story goes, Franklin once flew a kite in a lightning storm. He had hoped that lightning would strike the kite as it flew high in the sky. He thought the electricity would travel down the string to a metal key at the bottom. Then the plan was to catch the electricity in a glass jar, but that didn't happen. However, it did lead to the invention of the lightning rod and the understanding of positive and negative charges.

So, you can’t catch real lightning in a bottle. But hopefully, during your lifetime you'll have the experience of catching a little of your own lightning in a bottle・

【推荐2】One of the worst feelings you have as a professional athlete is the feeling after losing a game to a team that you should have beaten. That happened last night against the lowly Boston Celtics. They had only won 13 games the whole year and were really struggling. We had just come off a very good win against the Orlando Magic on the road and were feeling good about ourselves.

The day did not start out good for us when we learned that T-Mac was going to miss the game with the flu. When you lose your best players (Yao, T-Mac) everyone must play a little harder and do a little bit more on the floor. We inserted Bonzi Wells into the lineup (he was the only one to have a good game for us), in place of T-Mac.

It was a nasty game. We are usually one of the best three point shooting teams in the NBA and we only made 1 of 22 three point shots! I have never seen that happen. Never! Rafer Alston, Luther Head, and me combined to shoot 5 of 33 from the field. Ouch! You aren't going to win too many games like that. Even as poorly as we shot the ball, we STILL had a chance to win the game in the fourth quarter but failed to make the winning plays that you must make to leave the floor victorious.

In the locker room after the game, everybody felt terrible. When we play a bad game, we feel that we let our teammates down. There is a bad feeling in the pit of your stomach when you leave the gym and you just want to go home and not talk to anyone. It is a terrible feeling, but it is a feeling that makes you want to try harder and do better the next time.

I'll talk to you guys later.

Shane

【推荐3】Something strange has been happening to me lately: Women in the street have been telling me I’m brave.

My act of courage isn’t much—I just stopped coloring my hair. I had brown hair that started going gray when I was 30. So, like a lot of women, I started dyeing (把……染上颜色) it. It was expensive, messy and time-consuming. And my hair grows fast, so I needed to go back to the hair salon every five weeks.

Many people seem to enjoy holding on to their youth for as long as possible, giving off the impression that they don’t have much wisdom or many accomplishments. But our hair starts to turn gray, and suddenly we start spending $500 or more a year to cover something our male colleagues don’t need to cover.

Of course, people should do what they want with their own body—my mother is 91 and still has “blond” hair, and why not? I just wish more of us would feel that it was OK to be ourselves because going gray has done more for me than saving me time and money.

I like my natural hair, just as it is. I like how it has gotten curly and full again. It is recovering after years of being damaged by chemicals. I also like that it has given me some needed perspective in a society that makes youth seem so important, while being against maturity. It reminds me that I’m not a kid anymore—and this isn’t a bad thing.

Not being a kid anymore means I read the books I want and not the books I feel I should read. It means not wasting my time at events I don’t need to attend when I’d rather be with family and friends.

When I see my hair in the mirror, it’s a reminder that my time is not infinite, and I should spend it doing what matters. There’s nothing shameful about growing older. And pretending it’s not happening is a way of giving up our power.

I see my gray hair as a little act of rebellion against the idea that people lose value as they age, instead of gaining it. I see gray hair as my “flag”—and I’m letting it fly, proudly.