【推荐3】Endeavour (奋进号航天飞机) successfully completed 25 missions into space, including the first service mission to the Hubble Space Telescope as well as the first mission to add a U. S. component to the International Space Station.

When first launched in 1981, it became the world’s first reusable spacecraft to carry humans into orbit. Over the thirty-year course of the space shuttle program, the shuttles and their crews assembled parts of the International Space Station, deployed and serviced the Hubble Space Telescope, repaired and relaunched satellites, sent probes to Venus and Jupiter and more.

The space shuttle was actually made up of several separate components. What people call the “shuttle” is the orbiter—the part of the shuttle that held the crew. The main engines are part of the orbiter. In addition to the orbiter, each shuttle included two solid rocket boosters and an external tank. All were reusable except for the external tank, which by design burned up in the atmosphere.

Many newer features were added to Endeavour during construction, such as updated steering mechanisms, upgraded electrical connections to allow for longer missions and a drag chute that reduced wear and tear on the shuttle’s brakes and tires. Many of the innovations were added later to the other shuttles.

Endeavour made several historic missions to the International Space Station, including STS-88, in which the crew added the first U. S. component to the ISS. On STS-100, Endeavour delivered the Canadarm2 robotic arm and hand. On STS-123, Endeavour added a robotic arm—Dextre. Endeavour’s final mission, in May 2011, delivered spare parts to the International Space Station. Endeavour leaves an amazing legacy in space.

【推荐1】Lamar Giles is the author of several praised novels and short stories for young adults. His most recent novel is called The Getaway (Scholastic Press, 2022).

I recently spoke with Giles via video. Born and raised in Virginia, he has had a passion for writing, he told me, since he was a child. “It was just amusing to me,” he said.

Growing up in Hopewell, Giles experienced poverty and racism. He recalled a frightening moment when he and his friends were stopped by police officers. “They were pulling out really big, scary weapons,” Giles recalled, “threatening us for no reason, other than the fact that we were young, Black children.”

When Giles was in his early 20s, he met professional authors who showed him that he could make a living doing what he loved. At age 21, he saw one of his stories published in a little-known magazine. It took another decade for Giles to write and publish his first novel.

The challenges Giles met with when growing up proved to be a catalyst (催化剂) for his writing. “When something scares me, I’ll write about it,” he said. “If I write a story around it, it makes me feel better about the fear and anxiety.”

The author’s thriller (惊险小说) for young adults, Fake ID (Amistad Books for Young Readers, 2015), tells the story of Nick Pearson. The character, who is Black, faces racial profiling in his hometown, as Giles did. Nick is suspected of committing a crime because of his race and his “shady” neighborhood. In one scene, he is held at the county jail after being falsely accused by a governor of a state.

Giles is also a co-founder of We Need Diverse Books. The nonprofit organization promotes diversity initiatives in the publishing industry, supporting authors whose stories are often ignored. The goal, Giles said, is to enable all kids to see themselves in the books they read.

【推荐2】Mark Twain was a great writer in America. He was also a funny man. There were many interesting stories about him.

In his city, a man didn’t like Mark Twain. On April Fool’s Day, the man wanted to play a joke on the great writer. A newspaper in New York said that Mark Twain died. All his friends around the country were sad when they read it. Then they decided to visit his home. When the friends got there, they found Mark Twain writing in front of his desk. They got a big surprise and thought the newspaper did a bad thing. But Mark Twain didn’t get angry. He smiled and said, “The report(报道)about my death is right. But the time is too early.”

【推荐1】Basic tips to help us truly get into poetry

    1    . In school, we are usually told that the way to engage with a poem is by trying to understand it and be able to write an essay about it. Actually, that keeps us from really developing personal relationships with poetry.

Don’t worry about getting the right answer.    2    , we still put pressure on ourselves to answer some unanswerable questions about what the poet was trying to say. Don’t do it!

Read it out aloud. We have to remember that poetry is an oral art form before anything else and that oral tradition has been with us for thousands and thousands of years. So a lot of information can be gained from reading poems out aloud.    3    : Enjoying every word and every syllable, trying out the shapes of the word in our mouths, or acting like we’re explaining something really difficult to someone else.

Visualize the poem. A poem might offer us a lot of images, but there are plenty of blanks to fill.    4    ! Think of the poem like it’s a movie or a play and we’re the director and keep asking ourselves, “What kind of setting is there? If there’s light, what kind of light would it be? Would it be indoors or outdoors?”    5    . Again, keep in mind the first two tips: this isn’t school, and there isn’t a single answer. What we see is what we see.

【推荐2】The Canadian Authors Association (CAA) is a non-profit national arts service organization with a local presence devoted to promoting a flourishing community of writers across Canada. The association offers professional development opportunities to writers of all levels in all genres, with the aim of helping writers develop skills in both the craft and business of writing, and providing access to a Canada-wide network of writers, and publishing industry professionals. Over the century, some 25,000 writers have been members, including Roberts W. Service Bliss Carman and. E.J. Pratt.

In follow-up to the 101st anniversary of the Canadian Authors Association, the National Capital Region Branch invites all writers to take part in the 36th Annual National Capital Writing Contest.

The 36th Annual National Capital Writing Contest

Deadline: March 21, 2023 at 1:59 pm.

Short Story: maximum 2,500 words, unpublished, in English.

Poetry: maximum 60 lines including the title and blank lines, unpublished, in English.

Awards: Awards Night will take place on Wednesday, June 14, 2023, with cash awards for 1st, 2nd and 3rd placements ($300, $200, $100) and three honorable mentions for each category. Entry Fees: Poetry: $5 per single poem; Short Story: $15 per single story.

The contest is open to all Canadian citizens or landed immigrants living in Canada. Names or other identifiers must not appear anywhere in the story or poem as entries will be blind judged. The judges’ decisions are final. No entries will be returned. For multiple entries, each must be accompanied by its entry fee and separate cover.