【推荐2】Nikole Evans is 16 years old, but she has already been a volunteer and peacemaker for a number of years. In her opinion, young people can share their feelings about violence freely. In order to help the young have a right idea about violence, she created www.y2kyouth.org. two years ago, which now covers issues that young people care about from race and religion to overpopulation.

Evans grew up in a low­income area of Kennewick, a town in southeastern Washington State. Since early childhood, she has played with children from Nigeria, Ukraine, Mexico, Bosnia, Kosovo, and so on. She has always been a natural peacemaker, working as a volunteer for local nonprofit organizations.

Evans has spent hundreds of hours in the community working as a camp volunteer for disabled youth, stocking shelves at the food bank, cleaning up yards for old people and playing games with people at a nursing home.

Evans also helps set up programs aimed at creating safe schools and preventing youth violence. She now uses her technological skills to develop “Youth Speak Out”, in which she shares her thoughts on the topics of violence, religions, wars and poverty. With her unbelievable determination, she teaches others how to use the Web to support peace.

Evans has become a role model for other kids, encouraging them to take action and help others. For this and all her other efforts, she has been honored at the United Nations. She often says, “The more of us that are helping others, the better our world will be.”

【推荐3】At first sight, Ronny looked like every other kid in the first-grade classroom. Broken shoes, a little hit of dirt behind his ear. On closer inspection, though, the dirt on Ronny’s faced told me he didn’t get dirty at school.

I worked with all the students on a one-on-one basis to improve their reading skills. Each day, Ronny’s eyes followed me as I set up in a corner. “Pick me!” When it was Ronny’s turn, he’d run across the room immediately. He tried to sound “Bud the Sub.” It sound more like “Baw Daw Saw” when he said it because of his speech impediment.

At the end of this year, I gave him a hook as an award for his improvement in reading. Tears rolled down his face, together with the dirt as he held the book tightly to his chest.

A few days later, I noticed Ronny on his seal, the book open on top of his legs. I could see his lips move as he read to himself. His teacher appeared beside me. He hasn’t put that book down. He wears it like a shirt, close to his heart. Did you know that’s the first book he’s ever actually had?” Fighting back tears, I got closer to Ronny and asked, “Will you read me your book, Ronny?” He looked up. And then, for the next few minutes, he read to me with more expression and confidence than I’d ever thought possible from him. The pages were already dog-eared, like the book had been read thousands of times already. When he finished reading, Ronny closed his book and said with great pleasure, “Good book.”

【推荐1】Edgar Allan Poe was an American writer who helped shape the course of American literature. His life was full of tragedies, but he had great influence on the 19th-century American literature and continues to influence writers to this day.

The early life of Edgar Allan Poe was quite miserable. Born in 1809, Poe was not yet three years old when his parents died. Adopted by a wealthy family, he got into trouble at school. He entered the United States Military Academy at West Point, but he dropped out without graduating. His calamity continued to his adult life. Later, because of a failed marriage, he suffered from mental illness. He was so upset about real life that he turned to writing. Expressing himself in an unreal and imaginary world was his only comfort.

The tragedies in Poe’s life influenced the tone, style and contents of his writing. His stories usually include death, which helps build his reputation as a master of “dark” literature. In his The Tell-Tale Heart, the main character goes crazy and kills his roommate, while in The Black Cat, the main character kills his cat in a fit of madness.

Poe died at the age of 40 in 1849. His life is short, but his influence is very great. Poe is credited with creating detective fiction, and many say he contributed greatly to the appearance of science fiction. Fascinated by the scientific theories and new inventions of his time, he wrote about imaginary societies in the future. Writers such as Arthur Conan Doyle, the author of Sherlock Holmes, regarded Poe as the father of detective fiction. Jules Verne, a French writer who helped popularize science fiction, said Poe’s work had a direct influence on the stories he wrote.

【推荐3】A degree in what?

How many people in the world have a university degree in enigmatology? Well, not many. As a matter of fact, the number of enigmatology graduates in the whole world is just one: a man whose job it is to design puzzles for newspapers and magazines. American Will Shortz is an author and crossword editor. He has worked on over a hundred books, and he owns the world’s largest collection of puzzle books and magazines. The oldest title in his collection was published in 1545! And because his work is also his hobby, he has always been interested in learning as much as possible about the subject.

Obviously, because he is the only enigmatologist in the world, there were no university professors who could teach him an established course of studies. He did not go to lectures and classes like his fellow students. Shortz designed his own research programme, which the university accepted, and he completed his course and received his bachelor’s degree from Indiana University in 1974.

So the question remains, what exactly is enigmatology? It is the study of puzzles: their types, their history, and their popularity. It’s a mixture of history, maths, logic and cultural studies.

There were some people who criticized the university for offering a course in such a strange subject, and they were also critical of Shortz, claiming that he had taken advantage of Indiana University’s flexibility. But Shortz has his fans too, such as the former US president Bill Clinton. He sent Shortz a personal note on his 50th birthday because he loves the New York Times crossword, which Shortz edits. Shortz has also been a guest on several television shows, including an episode of the famous cartoon The Simpsons, and the comedy series How I Met Your Mother, where he played himself.