【推荐1】As a boy, I wanted to go to the South Pole. As a teenager, I decided I'd like to go to the North Pole too. And yet, I haven't done either. It had taken me 31 years to just make it to the Arctic.

I was traveling with a film crew from Northern Ireland, following the footsteps of Lord Dufferin who, in the 1850s, sailed from Scotland to the Arctic. As an early adventure tourist, he was driven by the desire to see what lay at the ends of the world.

As we sailed north, icebergs of the size of buses floated past our small boat. Finally, we reached our destination—English Bay, where Dufferin landed- and stepped off onto the horseshoe-shaped beach.

This was what I'd dreamt of: standing somewhere so pure and primitive. However, for many early polar explorers, the results were far less pleasant. The south, in particular, was source of extreme danger.

My childhood interest in the South Pole was fueled by the unsuccessful yet heroic adventures of Emest Shackleton. He died in 1922 while preparing for his fourth adventure. The stories of Robert Falcon Scott are also well-known: he and four companions died on their way back from the South Pole.

So why do explorers put themselves at such risk?

Much of it seems to lie in the purity of the challenge. Scott talked of the appeal of a place that had been “unreached and unseen by humans.” “With a view over shining lands covered by ice-sheets of inconceivable extent, you have the feeling of living over the control of death,” said Fridtjof Nansen, a Norwegian explorer.

On the homeward journey the weather turned and we were left for a few days at the mercy of a storm. We experienced a small taste of helplessness when faced with the raw power of nature. We should be grateful for the great explorers’ spirit and stories. I know I am.

I’m 28 and live in Aix­en­Provence in the south of France. I have walked 975.5km(605 miles)for the environment, from Aix­en­Provence to Paris, picking up all the rubbish left on roads: 810kg in total. I left my home on July 12 with my green bin, wanting to raise awareness of the state of the planet and its climate change problem.

Over 57 days, I managed around 17km of walking a day. I picked up 61kg of recyclable plastic, 3,977 cigarette packets and 2,083 cigarette butts (烟蒂), 117kg of glass, 162.5kg of metal and 325kg of non­recyclable waste.

I got the idea to do a walk for the environment during a trip to Latin America. I had gone to Brazil for the World Cup, and then I took a bus to see my friend Lola, who was studying in Peru at the time. The whole way, I found it amazing that so much rubbish was collected up along the roads. The plastic bags, cans, boxes, empty bottles...a total shock. Lima was playing host to the COP 20 climate summit, which was the precursor (前身) to the climate summit (顶点) in France.

After the UN climate summit in Paris, I’ll keep going with an organisation called Petra Patrimonia. We’ll be able to do so much if we can keep recycling and sorting (分类；整理) our rubbish properly. It’s a strategic step in promoting clean energy. Lola and I will also fight against the plant to be built in Gardanne, which apparently needs wood from Canada to work.

【推荐3】Employees working around the clock, cake pans shipped overnight from the supplier. For six weeks, Bill Hanisch of Hanisch Bakery in Red Wing, Minnesota, pulled out all the stops for high school seniors.

When COVID-19 shut down schools in Red Wing, seniors missed major important events. Bill realized they’d miss out on in-person graduation too. Graduation is the final vital moment of watching these kids grow up through school,“ he said. ”It’s even more important in smaller communities like Red Wing.“

Bill knew that kids didn’t always see what was special about their hometown, which was part of why he wanted to bake cakes for the high school seniors. ”I’m hoping that at their 10-year or even 25-year reunion, they’ll think it was pretty special,“ Bill said.

After receiving calls from parents and school administrators, Bill sat down to do the math. He usually sells cakes for $28 a pop to turn a profit but figured he could break even(收支平衡)selling graduation cakes for $15. He posted on Facebook that he would love to give cakes to graduating seniors in all the towns but couldn’t do it financially with the pandemic.

To his surprise, donations rolled in alongside orders. What began as an idea to celebrate the seniors of Red Wing quickly grew into a race to bake and deliver 1,200 cakes to 15 towns. Hanisch Bakery got to work. On May 19, Hanisch Bakery delivered its first round of cakes, to the happy graduates at Kenyon. Then May 20, another school delivery. May 22, two more schools. After that, the daily deliveries didn’t stop until June 11, the end of graduation season.

With the graduation season finally over, Bill looked over the numbers to survey the damage. After adding up all the donations, Bill realized he’d broken exactly even at $15 a cake. Did it keep Hanisch Bakery going through such hard times? Bill said happily. “That’s the icing on the cake.”