【推荐1】Jane Goodall is best known for her 26-year study of the chimps in the wild. There, she made several revolutionary discoveries that made her one of the greatest field scientists of the 20th century.

Born in London in 1934, the expectations for Jane were standard for the time: a marriage to a nice man, followed by a few children. Fortunately, her mother never discouraged (劝阻, 使气馁) her interests: animals and the natural world. Once her mother discovered that little Jane had brought a handful of worms (幼虫) to bed; rather than screaming, she explained that her new little friends needed the soil to live, and together, they took them back to the garden.

Jane was a bookworm who admired Doctor Dolittle and loved the Tarzan novels. Reading did its usual quiet but life-changing thing: Jane developed a dream to go to Africa and live among the wild animals.

Jane realized her dream on July 14, 1960 when she arrived at Gombe Stream Game Reserve to study the chimps. However, for two months, the chimps escaped when they heard her coming. The only thing she saw was the back of a chimp，running away from her.

“The more I thought of the task I had set myself, the more discouraged I became,” Jane wrote in her first book, In the Shadow of Man.

Eventually, she became familiar with a male chimp and his big family. She observed them kiss, hug, pat each other on the back, shake their fingers at each other. She watched them act very human-like.

One day, moving quietly through the jungle, Jane saw the male chimp sit beside a large termite mound (白蚁土堆). He kept taking small braches from trees and putting them in the holes to fish the ants.

In any case, Jane’s discovery became the talk of the scientific world. Harvard’s Stephen Jay Gould observed, “We must now re-think what the words ‘tool’ (工具) and ‘man’ mean or accept chimps as humans.”

【推荐2】“I want my video to record my high school memory and that of everyone in China who has gone through gaokao,” said Lian Yingcheng, 20, a student from Shenzhen University. The 18-minute vlog got over 1 million views on Bilibili.

However, Lian said that he didn’t expect this video to go viral at all when he was making it. “I have loved using videos to record my life for a long time,” Lian said. “The idea of this long vlog has been in my mind since I started high school.”

Throughout the three years of high school life, Lian’s camera went everywhere. No matter if it was a tug-of-war (拔河) activity, before a big exam, or simply just a Tuesday noon when everyone was running towards the canteen, Lian was always there to catch the reactions (反应) of himself and his classmates. “I didn’t want to design any scene,” he said.

With Lian’s words in the background, the video tells the story of an ordinary high school boy who struggles to fight gaokao, repeatedly questioning himself and rebuilding his confidence. The friendship between him and his classmates, and his broad outlook after failure are all recorded in the scenes. “The original idea in my mind was to tell an encouraging story of gaokao, but then my gaokao result didn’t turn out that well. After dealing with the pain, I realized that accepting failure and regrets is a more important lesson to learn than ‘getting my wish’,” Lian said.

People online expressed how much they could relate to the feelings in the video. Some said that Lian did something they couldn’t do. “I realized that this means more than just recording my life and thoughts,” Lian said. “I want to keep on running this channel, to touch and warm more people in the future.”

【推荐1】Bookstores are fascinating places. There the books can take you to magical lands, help you learn a foreign language, or cook a delicious meal. But when your community doesn’t have enough space for a real brick bookstore, you have to make a compromise (妥协). A mobile bookstore that brings books around the country is the result. That is the case for Rita Collins, 70, who dreamed of opening a bookstore after retiring.

A business planning class convinced Collins that opening a bookstore in the small town where she lives would not be practical. Eureka, Montana, located just nine miles from the Canadian border, only has a population of 1,517. Collins asked her instructors about a traveling bookstore on wheels and they were doubtful. But she insisted.

Collins was inspired by Dylans Mobile Bookstore, a traveling bookstore in Wales run by Jeff Towns. She contacted Jeff for advice but she was largely on her own when it came to building her bookstore. First, she had to find a vehicle large enough to stand in. Then she had to have it refitted with shelves that would hold the books at a 15-degree angle so that they would stay in place while in transportation. Collins named her bookstore St Rita’s Traveling Bookstore, which has been on the road since 2015.

At first, she drove through Montana and then she made her first cross-country trip in 2016. Collins and her mobile bookstore have visited 30 states. Collins loves meeting people and making connections. She sets up a typewriter outside the store and encourages customers to write. One time, a young man typed an entire page about a friend of his. That’s something she never expected.

While she loves what she does, Collins doesn’t think she can keep doing it due to her old age. In several years, she hopes to pass her traveling bookstore onto another bibliophile (爱书者)who shares the same interest and will keep it on the road.

【推荐3】After the recent storms, many Texans have been in desperate need of a plumber (管道工). Unfortunately, with pipes burst all over the state, and plumbing materials difficult to find, many families have been left without water and with their homes flooded.

In response to the cry for help from overwhelmed plumbers in the south, Andrew Mitchell and his family loaded up their car with $2, 000 worth of materials and drove down to Texas to help.

The plumber, his wife, Kisha Pinnock, their two-year-old son, and brother-in-law, also his apprentice (学徒), Isiah Pinnock, made the 22-hour journey from their home in New Jersey with all the materials they could financially afford. Their first stop was to help Pinnock’s sister in Humble, Texas.

From there, Mitchell and his apprentice-who is actually a college senior--went to other homes to help. Mitchell’s wife said that the pair would come in at 2 a.m. and head back out at 7:30 in the morning.

"It’s really a blessing to be a blessing to other people and Andrew truly enjoys the work "she explained, adding, “plumbing is his passion.”

The family has been in Texas for nearly a week, and they wish to continue helping others as long as they have the materials to do so. There’s a huge need for their services, “A lot of the people we’ve helped were telling us they either can’t get a plumber on the phone or—if they do get one on the phone the wait to be serviced is three to four weeks out, so they can’t have water during that entire time, Pinnock pointed out.

Mitchell has said that he might make a return trip, so that he can continue to be the blessing he truly has been to his southern neighbors.

【推荐1】My roommate and I sat very still and held our breath to watch the showdown between ice skaters Yuzuru Hanyu of Japan and Nathan Chen of the United States at the Beijing Winter Olympics. But when Mr Chen launched himself into the air, it wasn’t his movement that caught my eye—it was the empty seats in the audience behind him. They looked familiar. Those seats were where my parents had stood, my dad holding a video camera to record my daily practice sessions.

Born and raised in Beijing , I began skating at age 8. I’d seen Chinese pair skaters Shen Xue and Zhao Hongbo’s performance at the 2006 Winter Games in Turin, Italy. They inspired a wave of national pride and made figure skating(花样滑冰) a mainstream sport in China. I joined the rush.

I spent most of my time outside school at the rink (溜冰场). One day, two intense years later, I’d had enough. The pressure was too much. I told my parents I couldn’ t do it anymore. Thankfully, they understood and let me stop. But even after I quit, guilt and pressure stayed with me. My parents had sacrificed so much for me, and I felt I’d failed to meet their expectations. Then I started a new athletic attempt—cross-country running that I still pursue today. Even so, I still enjoyed watching figure skating on TV from time to time.

Right before COVID -19 lockdowns began, I returned home to Beijing over winter break from college in the US. In my cupboard, I was surprised to find a shiny new pair of figure skates(滑冰鞋) my dad had bought for me. Then I brought the skates back with me to Boston.

This winter, I put on the skates again. I carefully stepped onto the ice at a Boston rink. And this time skating felt the way it had when I fell in love with it for the first time. I danced on the ice realizing that one cannot learn without falling sometimes—or often.

【推荐3】Callaghan, father of a teenage girl — Emma, couldn’t understand why he had developed a disease which normally affects men twice his age.

“I was by myself,” Callaghan recalled. “I thought it was a kidney stone (肾结石). I was in the doctor’s office for about 45 minutes that day. I don’t remember anything more than one minute of it.” He believed anyone who had his condition would live only 12 months. And he would take tablets every day, possibly for the rest of his life.

Callaghan began finding hope in a small act of love for Emma: handwriting notes of love on a napkin and placing it in her lunch box; nothing unusual or life-changing, just some words of encouragement to Emma to think of during the day. His numbered days meant numbered napkins. “The reason why I started writing notes to her is that I want to matter in her life,” Callaghan said. “I see so many working parents today who give up a lot of their parenting. I want Emma to be able to look at me at whatever age she is and say ‘My dad loves me. I need his advice, I need his love and I trust that my dad’s going to be there.’”

But what started out as a father’s way of showing his daughter his love quickly grew. His idea of sharing his inspirational napkin messages with friends and family on Facebook got a generous response from the media. His new book Napkin Notes shares each message he’s ever sent to his daughter as well as more about his brave battle against cancer and life lessons he hopes Emma and maybe even grown readers can learn.

Now Callaghan is still fighting for his life. “The act of taking a napkin, holding my pen and thinking of something to write down inspires me just as much as I hope it inspires my daughter,” Callaghan said.