【推荐3】Evelyn Glennie is a unique musician. She is a percussionist (打击乐手) who plays with classical orchestras. When she performs, she hits the gongs, snare drums, vibraphones, timbales, cymbals, conga drums, bells, and bass drums that are in front of her. Although classical musicians usually wear formal clothes in concert, Glennie performs in bare feet. What really sets her apart, though, is that she is a musician who cannot hear. Glennie has been almost totally deaf since she was 12 years old. Despite being deaf, she has become the first solo star to play her type of percussion instruments in classical music.

Glennie was born in Aberdeen, Scotland. At the age of eight, she started taking piano lessons. She found that she preferred the drums, so she began to concentrate on other percussion instruments. Her doctors were never able to find out why she started to lose her hearing. By the time Glennie was 12, most of her hearing was gone. Glennie stayed in her school and learned to read lips. She also continued her music lessons. She learned how to play percussion instruments by using her sense of touch. She learned to feel the difference between high and low notes. She became very sensitive to the vibrations created by different sounds. Glennie took off her shoes to make it easier for her to feel the vibrations made by her instruments.

Glennie was very talented. At 16 she was accepted to the Royal Academy of Music in London, England. She was the music school’s first solo percussion student, graduating when she was 19. To build her career, she performed anywhere she could. There was very little solo music written for her instruments, so she asked for percussion music to be written for her. She then performed the new pieces in her solo concerts. Glennie attracted attention by performing in radio and television concerts. One 1988 concert was recorded live and made into a CD. This recording earned Glennie her first Grammy Award for a classical music performance.

Today Glennie performs all around the world. In addition to classical orchestras, she plays with folk musicians and rock stars. She has written music for movies, television shows, and commercials. Every year more new compositions are written for Glennie to perform. She has even taken up a new instrument: the bagpipes. Glennie considers herself a pioneer in music, not because she is deaf but because she has become a solo percussion star in classical music.

【推荐3】On a Saturday afternoon, you find most kids outside playing games. Kids are made for the outdoors, with their endless energy and the easy way in which they make friends. It’s not different for Kameron, an ordinary, fun-loving 7-year-old girl who loves to draw out the world’s longest hopscotch (跳格子) on the sidewalk.

In between jump-rope games, basketball shootouts and skateboard races, Kameron takes time to do something special for her elderly neighbors. Kameron’s neighborhood is home to a good mix of young families and elderly neighbors whose children have long since left home. Kameron first started waving to them. Most of them smiled back.

Then Kameron decided that some of them needed a little pleasure. So she ran home, took her violin and made the rounds. “Can I play you a song?” she asked, after knocking on the door.

Gustav smiled wide. He has beautiful white hair and a soft accent (口音). He grew up in Scandinavia and is a wood finisher. His wife Vivian has a smile that fills their tiny home. She stood awkwardly, and had difficulty moving about. It looked terribly uncomfortable. Vivian has had muscular dystrophy (肌肉萎缩) for over 20 years. Gustav is her full-time caregiver. They’ve replaced their daily walks with afternoon drives, but even those are getting too difficult for Vivian.

Gustav let Kameron in, and Vivian took hold of both their arms and pulled to her chair. On the table beside her was a photo of her with Gustav when they were young and energetic, traveling around Europe, Egypt and Iceland. In the photo, Vivian is very beautiful, and Gustav is handsome.

“Want me to play your favorite song?” Kameron asked. Of course,” Gustav answered. It was the only song Kameron knew.

The small violin rested seriously under Kameron’s chin (下巴). She played as best she could. Vivian beat her leg to keep rhythm (节奏) for Kameron. Gustav held Vivian’s other hand. It was not the performance that was moving, but the memories it brought.

【推荐1】Tony Gemignani started rolling pizza dough (面团) when he was 17. “I loved it and customers loved it,” said Gemignani.

More than three decades later, Gemignani, now 49, is a famous pizza acrobat(杂技演员)with 13 world titles. He has also won several Guinness World Records.

Pizza acrobatics (杂技) has been around since the 1980s. The sport is throwing stretched pizza dough in the air and using it to perform exciting tricks. Seeming to have no gravity (引力), the do ugh is thrown straight into the air in perfect round plate.

It might seem like an unusual hobby, but throwing pizzas is no joke. Like other com-petitive sports, it requires focus, physical strength, and—perhaps most importantly—practice. Lots of practice.

“It’s difficult. You need to move quickly and easily,” said Gemignani, who initially practiced turning pizzas with wet towels, which he cut and attached together to form a 16-inch circle. “It takes a bit of perseverance (毅力).”

Also, he added, pizza dough can be easily broken. For example, warm weather makes dough softer, which is easier to tear in midair. “It’s flexible, it can tear, and it changes shape,” Gemignani said. However, the challenge is part of what attracts Gemignani to the sport.

Although Gemignani has performed thousands of times, “I still get nervous,” he said. In addition to competition, he has traveled from London to Thailand—throwing pizzas at cancer camps, local festivals, sports games, talk shows, and other gatherings large and small. He especially loves performing for children. “It’s so rewarding,” said Gemignani, who has an 8-year-old son.

“I could never get tired of pizza,” said Gemignani. “Pizza always takes you back to a time when things in life were much simpler,” he said. “No stress. It’s all about eating good food and having a good time.”

【推荐2】Charles Darwin was a very famous scientist who lived in the 1800s. His ideas about evolution (进化) completely changed the way scientists understand the natural world. He recorded his ideas in notebooks marked with letters of the alphabet (字母表), which have been considered extremely important for showing how he developed the evolution.

The Cambridge University Library had several of Mr. Darwin’s notebooks. The two that were missing were kept in a small box, and were last seen in 2000. In 2001, someone noticed that the box was missing. Luckily, the library had taken pictures of the notebooks’ pages, so the information wasn’t completely lost.

In 2020, the library made a huge effort to find the books. Workers searched through the 10 million books and other things in the library, but they didn’t find the notebooks. Finally, the library asked people around the world to help look for the books. They officially reported the missing notebooks as stolen so that the police around the world would search for them.

Nobody could ever have expected the way in which the notebooks were returned recently: in a pink gift bag with a note that said “Librarian, Happy Easter, X”. People at the library quickly recognized the blue box that the notebooks had been stored in. Inside a brown envelope they found the two missing notebooks, tightly wrapped in plastic. After the police had examined the package, library workers were able to open and carefully study the notebooks. They were pleased to learn that the notebooks were in good shape. They hadn’t been damaged and they weren’t missing any pages.

The timing of the return is perfect. The library was planning a show called “Darwin in Conversation”, which is set to open in July. Now the missing notebooks can be part of that show.

【推荐3】Dillon Helbig, 8, is in second grade. He lives in Idaho. Late last year, he wrote a Christmas adventure story. He drew pictures for it. He filled up 81 pages of a red-covered notebook. Once he finished, he came up with a plan. He brought the notebook to the library. He put it on a children’s picture-book shelf (书架). Nobody saw him do it.

The book’s title is “The Adventures of Dillon Helbig’s Crismis.” It is signed “by Dillon His Self.”

Dillon later told his mother what he’d done. They went back to look for the book. It was gone. His mother called the library to ask if anyone had found it.

Alex Hartman runs the library where Dillon left his book. “It was a secret act,” Hartman said, laughing. He and the staff (职员) had found and read the book. Hartman read it to his 6-year-old son, Cruzen. Cruzen laughed and said it was one of the funniest books he’d ever seen.

The library staff agreed that Dillon’s book should be in the library. The story was good. It was fun to read. So Hartman asked the Helbigs if the library could put a bar code (条形码) on the book. That would allow others to check it out. The answer was a happy yes.

A local news channel reported on Dillon’s story. After that, more and more people wanted to read his book. By late last month, there was a list of 55 people waiting to check it out. Often, if a book has a long waiting list, the library buys a second copy. They can’t do that with Dillon’s book. But Hartman is talking to Dillon’s mom about making it into an e-book to share. The book even won a prize. The library gave Dillon its first Whoodini Award for Best Young Novelist.