【推荐1】Paying off student loans (贷款) can be challenging and stressful. It may mean starting out one’s life with debt. This is exactly what college basketball star Anthony Leal did not want for his beloved sister.

Anthony Leal, smart and athletic, is a business major at Indiana University and plays as a point guard for the Indiana Hoosiers. When he found out that his sister had a huge amount to pay in student loans, he thought of taking advantage of the benefits he could get from playing basketball. In 2021, NCAA allowed college athletes like Leal to earn promotional money through photograph signing, social media interactions, advertising campaigns, and even teaching camps and lessons. Thanks to it, Leal was able to save money and helped take off the burden on his sister’s shoulders.

On Christmas day, he surprised his sister Lauren by letting her know what he’s been up to in the past two years. Lauren was very emotional after reading her brother’s heartwarming note. “There is no doubt that I have made it to where I am today because of you,” Leal wrote. “Someone like you deserves no burdens or restrictions in life, and I feel that the best way to help with that is by paying off your student loan debt.” Besides looking back on several precious moments in their childhood, Leal also mentioned in the note that he didn’t expect his sister to pay back the money. Instead, he hoped she would pay it forward.

Lauren was grateful for her brother’s huge efforts to pay off her student loans. “After those things were done, I was going to sit down and get a settled plan,” said Lauren. “I can go full steam ahead in my future and what I want to accomplish, what I want to do, without having that just weighing me down and holding me back. So it’s just incredible,” she said.

【推荐1】Mozart was one of the greatest composers who ever lived. He was born in Salzburg, Austria, in 1756. Even when he was very young, Mozart loved music. His father, who was the leader of an orchestra, was very happy that his son was so interested in music. When Mozart was three years old, he learned to play the harpsichord, which is a kind of piano. Mozart began to compose music at the age of five, and his father took him to play in front of the kings and queens of Europe.

At one concert, one of the violinists was missing from the orchestra. Mozart picked up a violin and played the music without a mistake. Mozart’s father and the other players in the orchestra were surprised. Mozart had never been taught to play the violin! Mozart continued traveling around Europe with his father, who was his teacher in everything. He composed many pieces for the piano, the violin, and later for full orchestra.

Mozart could write down a piece of music even if he had heard it only once. One day, he went to hear a group of people singing in a big church in Rome. The song was very special. The church leader said that people could sing the song only once a year, and only in his church. No one else was allowed to have the music. Mozart listened to the song. Although it was very difficult and long, Mozart went back home and wrote down the whole piece from memory. The head of the church heard about this, and instead of being angry with Mozart, he gave him a prize. When Mozart grew up, people were not so interested in him. He worked as a teacher and pianist, but he did not make much money. In 1791, at the age of 35, he died. He was so poor that there was not enough money for him to have a proper grave. No one knows where he is buried.

【推荐3】The apples that hang invitingly from trees in Tom Brown’s orchard(果园)are likely not found in your local supermarkets. They are the 1, 200 varieties that Brown has recovered from six southern states. Most haven’t been sold for a century or more; some were transplanted from the last known trees of their kind. All are finding a new life here in Tom Brown’s orchard.

One such apple is the Junaluska. It came from the Cherokee Indians more than two centuries ago and was named after a 19th-century leader. It was popular in the South before disappearing from commercial(商业化的)production by 1900. Brown came across the Junaluska in 2001. At first, he became curious about its unfamiliar name. Then, Brown found that its shape, color, and taste were like no apple he had ever seen before. With the farmer’s permission, he took a clipping(枝条)from the tree for his orchard and set about reintroducing the apple to the world.

Hearing that other lost apples might still be found in the area, Brown went in search of them. However, one dead end led to another. He had no choice but to reach out to local newspapers for help. The articles he ran led to suggestions from readers, and soon Brown was tasting many more varieties that were once thought lost.

In 1905, there were more than 7, 000 apple varieties in the United States. Then things changed. People moved to cities and grew less of their own food, while large businesses preferred selling ones that were familiar and shipped easily. Brown is anxious to bring back as many of the extinct or nearly extinct varieties as possible.

“These were foods that people had once cared about deeply, and that had been central to their lives, ”Brown says. “It felt wrong to just let them die and be lost forever. Everyone is responsible for protecting agricultural heritage. ”