【推荐1】Martin Luther King Jr. was one of the most important people in America’s fight for racial equality.

Born in 1929 in Atlanta, Georgia, King, like many others, experienced racial discrimination (种族歧视) from a young age. Under America’s so-called “Jim Crow” laws, segregation was carried out in Southern states, meaning Black people couldn’t attend the same schools as white people, go to the same restaurants, and more. In his autobiography, King wrote that at the age of six his white friend wasn’t allowed to play with him because he was Black. This may be where his anger of racial injustice began.

In 1954, King, whose father and grandfather were pastors (牧师), moved to Montgomery to become pastor at Dexter Avenue Baptist Church. A year later, Rosa Parks was arrested in Montgomery for refusing to give up her bus seat to a white person. This led to the 13-month Montgomery Bus Boycott. King was chosen to lead the Montgomery Improvement Association, which directed the boycott. He quickly became famous in America’s civil rights movement — which also made him a target. His home was bombed and his family was threatened. Worse still, he was stabbed (刺) while signing copies of his first book. But, inspired by the nonviolent activism of Mahatma Gandhi in India, King continued his peaceful fight for justice. After Montgomery, King and others founded the Southern Christian Leadership Conference to work with more protests. One of the most famous was the 1963 March on Washington. It was here, in front of over 200,000 people, that King gave his famous “I have a dream” speech.

In 1964, President Lyndon Johnson signed the Civil Rights Act, legally ending segregation in the US. That year, King won the Nobel Peace Prize. But in 1968, at age 39, he was shot and killed while standing on his hotel balcony in Memphis, Tennessee. King was awarded the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1977, and the Congressional Gold Medal in 2014. Since 1986, he has been honored on the third Monday of January, on what is known as Martin Luther King Jr. Day.

【推荐2】French explorer Jacques Cartier is known mainly for exploring the St. Lawrence River and giving Canada its name.

Like many other European explorers, Jacques Cartier went to North America looking for gold and perhaps a shortcut to Asia.     1     It became France’s main route into Canada.

Jacques Cartier was born on December 31, 1491 in Brittany, a province of France. In about 1534, the king of France asked him to lead an expedition(远征) to the New World in search of riches and a new route to Asia.

    2     There he and his crew explored the land around the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and met Native Americans. When he sailed back to France, he took with him two Native Americans.

    3     This time, Cartier sailed deeper into the Gulf of Saint Lawrence and into the Saint Lawrence River. The two Native Americans he had taken before had learned French, and they served as guides. About 260 miles inland, Cartier reached the Native American village of Stadacona. Today, the city of Quebec stands near that place.

Cartier and his men were among the first Europeans to winter in what is now Canada.     4     After returning to France he reported tales told by the native people of treasures farther inland.

Cartier once again crossed the Atlantic in 1541.     5     When he returned to France in 1542, he was told that they were just the common minerals pyrite(黄铁矿) (fool’s gold) and quartz(石英).

【推荐3】Human history has a few common themes, one of which is the written word. Humans have been printing as well as writing since 3, 000BC-the Ancient Egyptians as well as the Chinese used stamps like those available today to imprint images onto cloth. When the Chinese scholar Ts’ai Lun allegedly made the first piece of paper in 750 AD, printing boosted as well.

In Europe, books were literally hand written until around the 11th century. Producing books was a time consuming process at that period. Then, in the 11th century, Chinese provided the next innovation in printing. Pi Sheng, one of the most important men in the history of printing, created clay characters which formed the first moveable type. By the 12th century Europe was making its own paper, and by the 13th century bronze typefaces are being created. Books were being printed using these early techniques by 1397 AD.

As printing was expensive, most books were still written by hand. By 1507 people were exploring the world of colour printing. The printing press became cheaper to manufacture and quicker to use, meaning that more books were being printed. People became more educated as material was more widely available. In1837 colour printing began to resemble what we see today, with full colour adverts appearing for the first time. Offset printing(胶印)arrived in 1903 - this method is still widely used today for printing newspapers and magazines.

Today, digital technology has completely changed how we print. 3D printing was invented by Chuck Hull-the process is not printing as we traditionally think of it; it works by building up layers of plastic in order to form an object. It is thought that at some point it will be possible to “print” human organs, potentially saving thousands of lives; while it may seem impossible right now, the way printing has advanced, there’s no saying that it won’t eventually become a reality. Only time will tell where the printing industry will go.