【推荐1】I sat in my old room, looking at the football on the shelve, feeling it laughing at me.

In college at Baylor, I’d been a star wide receiver, dreaming of making it big in the NFL, But I wasn’t picked in the NFL draft. Then I started as an undrafted free agent with the Indianapolis Colts. However, Colts called me back to practice. A second chance! Then something went wrong with my knee and I had to give it up. The next season, the Seattle Seahawks invited me to minicamp. They cut me at the end of the preseason.

Was that my fate? How would I move forward? I wept bitter tears. Then I got a call unexpectedly. A guy asked me to speak in his school. I wrote down all I should say. But the minute I stepped on stage, my mind went blank. I had no idea how to help these teens. All I could talk about was what I’d been through.

Those kids asked me questions afterward, hungry for more. I got a huge welcome, bigger than I ever got on the football field. That’s when it hit me: You needn’t be perfect to help people. All you have to be is real.

My life was coming. Without planning it, I had a whole new calling. I began posting to YouTube every day. The videos took off, getting thousands of views. It was inspiring. The comments and questions came pouring in. People came to ask for advice and help I’d never be able to offer if I were playing on Sunday.

Today I do many speaking engagements. Every day I post a video and respond to all those questions from people, always speaking from the heart, I’m still in progress. We all are, having   so many ways to grow, and so much to learn and pass along.

【推荐3】I’ve worked in the factories surrounding my hometown every summer since I graduated from high school. But making the transition between school and full-time blue-collar work during the break never gets any easier. For a student like me who considers any class before noon to be uncivilized, getting to a factory by 6 o'clock each morning is torture. My friends never seem to understand why I’m so relieved to be back at school or that my summer vacation has been anything but a vacation.

There are few people as self-confident as a college student who has never been out in the real world. People of my age always seem to overestimate the value of their time and knowledge. In fact, all the classes did not prepare me for my battles with the machine I ran in the plant, which would jam whenever I absent-mindedly put in a part backward or upside down.

The most stressful thing about blue-collar life is knowing your job could disappear overnight. Issues like downsizing and overseas relocation had always seemed distant to me until my co-workers told me that the unit I was working in would shut down within six months and move to Mexico, where people would work for 60 cents an hour.

After working 12-hour shifts in a factory, the other options have become only too clear. When I’m back at the university, skipping classes and turning in lazy re-writes seems too irresponsible after seeing what I would be doing without school. All the advice and public-service announcements about the value of an education that used to sound stale now ring true.

These lessons I’m learning, however precious, are always tinged (带有) with a sense of guilt. Many people pass their lives in the places I briefly work, spending 30 years where I spend only two months at a time. “This job pays well, but it’s hell on the body,” said one co-worker. “Study hard and keep reading,” she added.

My experiences in the factories have inspired me to make the most of my college years before I enter the real world for good.

【推荐1】It’s not easy to step out of your comfort zone. In fact, it’s scary. But at the same time, you’ll experience and learn amazing things. So you need to step out of your comfort zone and experience new cultures abroad.     1     You’re exposed to different languages, smells, colors, sights, sounds, and people. If you’re not convinced yet, read on.

It’s a big world out there.     2     When you live in another country, you can open your eyes to the beliefs and values of other people. You will discover new social norms (规范) and lifestyles. It will not only change your perspective(观点), but it will reshape your personality as well.

    3     Who doesn’t want to have a second language under their belt? Learning a second language will give you the ability to step inside the mind of a culture and see things from a whole new perspective. It’ll also give you an advantage in the job market. Being in a foreign country helps you learn a new language much faster.

Don’t you want to greatly improve your development as a person? Traveling to a different country and experiencing a new culture allows that. Exposure to multi-cultures or diversity will lead to a better judgment.     4     You will also learn fun skills such as cooking among others.

    5     This is the most fun part of traveling. You meet people with different backgrounds, perspectives, and experiences. You will learn valuable lessons and hear stories from each person you meet, which will make the trip even more memorable.

【推荐2】After shopping for deals in stores on “Black Friday”, or online on “Cyber Monday”, Americans and people worldwide are preparing for newly popular “Giving Tuesday”. Starting in 2012, now the global event that is celebrated annually on the Tuesday after Thanksgiving is the brainchild of 92nd Street Y, a cultural center in New York City and United Nations Foundation.

As the name indicates, Giving Tuesday is meant to restart the charitable season and therefore observed by raising funds for local nonprofits and schools, organizing food and clothing drives, and conducting random acts of kindness. In 2015, 700, 000 people from 71 countries came together to donate $116.7 million in cash. An additional $1.08 million was spent on gifts.

While the easiest way to participate is by donating to your favorite charity, this day can be celebrated in many other ways too. You can give back by volunteering at your local shelter or food bank, or even by donating blood. If all else fails, a purchase from the growing number of organizations that give a portion of their sales to charity will do the trick.

But perhaps the best way to celebrate the day is by helping those nearest and dearest to you. Assist a family member with a simple chore like folding laundry, cooking dinner, or even reading to a younger sibling. No matter what you do, be sure to share you good deed on social media and inspire others to celebrate Giving Tuesday as well!

【推荐3】The world is colorful, where different languages, skin colors, and different cultures exist.     1    A way to develop this appreciation is to try to learn about other cultures around the world.

There are several ways to become knowledgeable about different cultures.     2     . Reading works by authors who have a close relationship with a particular culture allows people to gain an accurate understanding of the food, music, language, religion, and way of a life of a particular group of people. For example, when you really wish to expose your students to a different culture, you can often read them stories based on a cultures folktale.

    3    . A variety of language-learning books, software, and audio programs are available at the public library or bookstores.     4    . Moreover, making contact with people who are native speakers of the language also allows you to gain firsthand knowledge of a particular culture, which, on the other hand, can help you learn more.

    5    . Whether you want to learn more about regions in Japan, the Middle East, Africa, or any other world culture, becoming familiar with its food is a giant step in the right direction. Food is an important part of different cultures and allows people to gain insight into a particular cultural group's way of life.

【推荐1】The Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change released a report stating that the world is quickly running out of time to keep global warming below 1.5 degrees Celsius. To get there, the world would have to cut current emissions by 45 percent by 2030. That sounds absurdly unlikely.

But before we give in to despair, we should remember that the technology to address climate change is going along at a high speed. The largest source of U. S. carbon emissions is transportation, and a Green New Deal for motor vehicles would be quite straightforward.

The reason is simple: with some subsidies(补贴), electric cars and buses are now cost-competitive with fossil-fuel vehicles. Electric buses have made the greatest speed into the market, because they are a logical choice for electrification. By the end of 2018, electric vehicles were displacing about 280.000 barrels of oil demand per day——about 84 percent of which was due to buses.

But the electric car market is also reaching maturity(成熟), with appealing designs, longer range, and a quickly-expanding rapid charging network in many countries. It’s worth emphasizing that most of the infrastructure(基础设施) necessary to recharge electric vehicles already exists. People often tend to assume that we would need to replace every gas station, but virtually all homes and businesses already have an electrical connection which can be easily improved for fast charging. All that is needed to go fully electric is enough battery capacity and fast charging stations to deal with long trips.

Now America would have to repair its electricity production, freight rail, shipping, and so on to fully decarbonizes(脱碳)the transportation sector, which taken together will be considerably more difficult than simply extirpating fossil fuel vehicles from the market.

But greening America’s vehicle would be straightforward, relatively cheap, and a huge stride forward on climate. The politics of climate change are so fearful that despair can seem logical, but the first step to achieving a tough goal is the confident belief that it can be done. And this particular step wouldn't even be that tough.

【推荐2】The origin of coffee? I never really thought about it. When I was a kid, coffee was always around. My parents drank coffee, my grandparents drank coffee, and all the adults I knew drank coffee. I thought I would drink it too when I was older, and of course. I did.

But there must have been a time before coffee. I don't remember coffee making an appearance in any of the Bible(圣经)stories I learned. Jesus changed water into wine, not coffee. Maybe if coffee had been around, he would have changed some of the water into coffee. Maybe that's what “B. C." in those timelines meant: "before coffee."

According to popular legend, the origin of coffee can be traced to a thousand years ago, when an Abyssinian(Ethiopian)goatherd(牧羊人)named Kaidi observed his goats dancing and jumping. When Kaidi investigated, he saw that the goats were happily eating the red berries（浆果)of an unfamiliar tree. Kaidi decided to try some, and when he did he joined the dancing goats and became “the happiest herder in happy Arabia''.

Some time later, a passing monk(和尚)observed Kaidi and the goats. When Kaidi told him about the berries, the monk thought they might be the answer to his prayers(祈祷). It seems that the monk was always falling asleep in the middle of prayers. When he ate the berries, he stayed awake. The unnamed monk came up with the idea of drying and boiling the berries. It came into the world. His fellow monks loved the new drink because it encouraged them to pray and it tasted good too.

So now that I know about Kaidi and his goats, if someday-in the far, far future, of course someone calls me an "old goat", I'll just smile, take another sip of coffee, and maybe do a little dance.

【推荐3】The best books of the year 2020

Daddy by Emma Cline

Emma Cline was an American author whose first novel, The Girls, was a highly praised victory. Now her collection of short stories, Daddy, has also been well received. The stories explore the darker side of human experience and focus on the power dynamics（权力动力学）between men and women, parents and children, and the tensions between past and present.

More Than a Woman by Caitlin Moran

The British journalist and author Caitlin Moran is already known for her funny, smart observations about girlhood and womanhood. Her 2011 book, How to be a Woman, had a huge influence; her latest, More Than a Woman, is a reflection on what it means to be a woman in middle age. Themes include caring for teenaged children and long-term relationships.

Transcendent Kingdom by Yaa Gyasi

The Ghanaian-American author of Homegoing, Yaa Gyasi, has followed up with a story of a single family told by a young woman, Gifty, who is a PhD student. Her struggles and troubles and her relationship with her mother are relayed（接力）, and the themes of science are central.

Dearly by Margaret Atwood

Before being a novelist, Margaret Atwood was a poet, and Dearly is her first collection in more than ten years. It covers some familiar Atwood themes like closely observed descriptions of nature. “A deep yet playful collection of poems about endings and departures（告别）, it contains clever, sharp humour, “says The Telegraph.