【推荐1】One day when a famous artist was on his way home, a young man stopped him and required to have a word with him. The artist accepted his request.

The young man asked, "How can you produce so many beautiful paintings and achieve your fame?"

The artist said, “It seems that you have been thinking of becoming famous every day.”

The young man nodded, "Yes. I have been dreaming of being a person as notable（著名的）as you. Every minute I am thinking of how to become reputable（著名的）.I don't know when I can achieve my fame.

The artist told him, "Don't worry, young man, If you want to be a famous man this way, you will have to wait until you die!”

“Why should I?” the young man was puzzled.

The artist said, “What your dream is actually a high building. You never think of how to build it with bricks. Thus the building will never come into reality. However, your story can serve as a mirror. People will remember you because of your idleness（闲散，无聊）and laziness. They will often speak of your name while they give warnings to their children. Aren't you a notorious（声名狼藉）person by then?"

【推荐2】Last May, “eco-mermaid (生态美人鱼)” Merle Liivand broke her own world record for swimming with a single fin (鳍). She swam the distance of a full marathon in the rough waters of Biscayne Bay, Florida. She even picked trash out of the water as she swam.

Liivand was born in Estonia. As a child, she had health problems, and engaged in swimming to help her lungs get stronger. She was soon taking part in open water swimming contests, sometimes even in icy water.

Eleven years ago, Liivand moved to Miami, Florida, where she continued swimming in the ocean. In one training session, she nearly wound up swallowing some plastic that was floating in the sea. That experience made her think of all the sea animals that faced similar pollution every day. She decided to make people more aware of plastic pollution, which she calls a “plastic pandemic”.

Thinking about sea creatures gave Liivand the idea of swimming with a special single swimming fin attached to both of her feet. This rubbery “monofin” allows her to swim by kicking both of her legs together. “Swimming with the monofin without using my arms is similar to how dolphins and other marine animals swim,” says Liivand. She believes that swimming with a monofin sends a bigger message.

Liivand first set the world record for swimming with a monofin in 2019, when she swam 6.2 miles off the coast of California. In 2020, she broke the record again by swimming 12.8 miles in Miami, Florida. On 7 May last year, Liivand broke the record once more, this time swimming the length of a full marathon. It took her 11 hours and 54 seconds to swim 26.2 miles. The water was rough, and she ran into a few problems, but she didn’t stop. “I got stung (蛰) by jellyfish,” she said, “and kept telling myself that it was not the time to cry.”

Liivand picked up all the trash she found and put it in a kayak (皮划艇). By the end of her marathon, the kayak held three bags full of trash. “This isn’t just about a record. It’s about helping the community and the world,” she says.

【推荐3】Diana Ross, American pop singer and actress, achieved international popularity, first as the leader singer of the Supremes and later as a solo(独唱的) artist. Diana Ross was born on March 26, 1944, in Detroit, Michigan. She was the second of six children of Fred and Ernestine Ross, who lived in one of Detroit’s poor districts. Because her family were closely connected with each other,Ross almost didn't notice the difficult life as she grew up.

Ross professional career began in 1959, when she joined several neighborhood friends to form the Primettes. The group was renamed the Supremes after signing a recording contract (合同) with Motown late the following year. The group produced many number-one hit singles (热门单曲) on the US Billboard hot 100, including Baby Love, Stop! In The Name of Love and Someday We Will Be Together. In 1967, the group was renamed Diana Ross and the Supremes, foreshadowing（预示） Ross’solo career,which she started in 1970.

Beginning with Ain’t No Mountain High Enough from her first solo album, Ross enjoyed more than ten years of great success with her hit singles. Ross also developed a film-acting career in the 1970s, beginning with a starring role as blues singer Billie Holiday in Lady Sings the Blues and continuing with Mahogany, for which she also recorded the theme song Do You Know Where You’re Going To.

However, in the mid-1980s, Ross saw her career begin to wane. Most of her albums were re-recordings of earlier material. In 2006, she produced I Love Y ou, a collection of love songs by many artists, and she started an energetic concert tour the following year to make the album publicly known. Although you can’t find her songs on the US Billboard Hot 100 now, Ross remains popular as one   of the leading musical performers of all time.

【推荐2】Every superhero, no matter how small, needs a cape (披风). That was Robyn Rosenberger’s motivation when she started sewing superhero capes for kids with cancer, heart defects, and other serious diseases.

It all began when she was making a cape as a birthday present for her nephew. Rosenberger heard of a girl named Brenna who was battling a potentially deadly skin condition called harlequin ichthyosis (丑角样鱼鳞病). Anyone going through what she was going through had to be tough. “I had an aha moment,” Rosenberger says. “Brenna was a superhero! She needed a cape.”

So Rosenberger sent her one, and Brenna’s mother was delighted. Rosenberger found ten more kids online and sent out ten more capes. Before long, she quit her job at a software company to dedicate herself full-time to tinysuperheroes.com, a website where people can buy handmade capes for brave kids facing illness and disability.

Since 2013, Rosenberger and her small paid staff have sent more than 12, 000 handmade capes to kids in all 50 states and 15 other countries. The capes come in pink, blue, purple, or red and can be decorated with the child’s initials or specialized patches, including a heart, a rocket, or a lightning bolt. One recipient was eight-month-old Gabe, who was born with imperfection, which causes distinct facial features. Rosenberger sent him a red cape with a bright yellow G in the center. It was a hit. Gabe is now a fixture on the company’s social media posts. “The Tiny Superhero community has been a wonderful connection to have,” says Gabe’s mom, Kate Glocke. In fact, two years later, “we still bring Gabe’s cape with us to every hospital appointment.”