【推荐2】A tiny Alaska village has experienced a boom in tourism in recent years as polar bears spend more time on land than on Arctic sea ice.

More than 2,000 people visited the northern Alaska village of Kaktovik in 2018 to see polar bears in the wild. The far north community lies in an area where increasingly higher temperature has sped up the movement of sea ice, the primary habitat (栖息地) of polar bears. As ice has gradually moved to deep water beyond the continental shelf, more bears are remaining on land to look for food.

Polar bears have always been a common sight on sea ice near Kaktovik, but villagers started noticing a change in the mid­1990s. More bears seemed to stay on land, and researchers began taking note of more female bears making homes in the snow on land instead of on the ice to raise their babies. U.S. Fish and Wildlife Service biologists began hearing reports of the increasing number of polar bears in the area in the early 2000s. As more attention was given to the plight (困境) of polar bears about a decade ago, more tourists started heading to Kaktovik.

The village had fewer than 50 visitors annually before 2011, said Jennifer Reed, of the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. “Today we’re talking about hundreds and hundreds of visitors, many from around the world each year,” Reed said. Most tourists visit in the fall, when bears are forced toward land because sea ice is farthest away from the shore. Bruce Inglangasak, a local hunter who sometimes offers wildlife­ viewing tours, said he's been offering polar bear tours since 2004. Most of his clients (客户) are from China and Europe, as well as from the lower 48 U. S. states. Many tourists stay several days in the village, which has two small hotels. The villagers have benefited a lot from that. In turn, they provide more effective protection for polar bears with financial support from tourism development.

【推荐1】“Well，we're in our new house.Let's get a new pet to go along with it，”Mrs.Brown said to her husband.

“That sounds like a very good idea，”he answered.“Do you want to see the ads in the newspaper？”

“Let's go to the animal shelter.Many pets there need homes.Since tomorrow is Saturday，we can both go，”she said.

The next morning the Browns met Mr.Snow at the animal shelter.“We want to be sure that the pets here go to good homes，”Mr.Snow said，“So I need to ask you some questions.”

After they talked for a while，the Browns decided to get a small dog.It wouldn't need a big house or a big yard.A small dog would bark（吹）and warn them if someone tried to break intotheir house.After Mr.Snow gave the Browns a book on pet care，they chose one and wanted to take her home right away.But the animal doctor hadn’t examined her yet.So Mr.Snow told them to return on Sunday.

On Sunday afternoon the Browns went to the animal shelter.The animal doctor said，“Shadow has had all of her shots（预防针）.She will be healthy.”The Browns thanked the doctor and took Shadow home.

【推荐2】When I was only 3 years old, my mother taught me to memorize and recite poems. She was my first teacher of the arts, and my father was the first to appreciate my performance. Even at that young age, I had a simple understanding of how art and culture affect us as human beings and how we can connect to each other through the arts, which shapes my life to this day.

When I was growing up, my parents supported my interest in taking acting classes and doing community theater. Their faith in me and the professional training I was getting from my theater teachers gave me a sense of purpose and a sense of self-confidence. I learned what artistic achievement actually was and what hard work the business was. Although many people see the rosy picture to our business, I was really learning what it would require for me to become a professional.

I became an actress, but arts education isn’t just about preparing our young people for a job in the arts. I recently talked to some of the kids attending theater education. Some of them want to work in theater, and some don’t. They are learning not only theater skills, but also about the world around them. They learn about discipline(纪律) and hard work and what’s required and what they have to do to bring themselves to the work. They learn how they can be of service in the world through the arts. They learn how to work with a team. By studying the arts, these students are open to worlds and lives that they might not have any other way of knowing about or any other way to connect with in their lives the way they are right now.

These young people are our future. We are passing the torch to them. And I think that’s one of the most important reasons why we need to foster(培养) the arts.

【推荐3】In the 1940s, Lena Horne was the first African­American in Hollywood to sign a long­term contract with a major movie studio. Her deal with MGM stated that she would never play the role of a servant. During this period, African­American actors were mostly limited to playing servants or African natives.

But this refusal also limited her movie career. Horne was generally only offered the role of a nightclub singer. Her characters did not interact with white characters in these movies. This way, her part could be cut from the version of the movie that played in Southern States.

Lena Horne later wrote that the movie producers did not make her into a servant, but they did not make her into anything else, either. Lena Horne once said that World War Ⅱ helped make her a star. She was popular with both black and white servicemen. She sang on army radio programs and traveled to perform for the troops. During one event, she noted that German prisoners of war were permitted to sit closer to the stage than black soldiers. These experiences led to Lena Horne's work in the civil rights movement.

She protested racial separation at the hotels where she performed. She took action so that she and her musicians would be permitted to stay in those hotels. Black musicians at the time generally stayed in black neighborhoods. Lena Horne also sang at civil rights gatherings. She took part in the March on Washington protest in 1963. It was during this event that Martin Luther King Junior gave his “I Have a Dream” speech.

Lena Horne performed in a strong and expressive way. One expert said she was not warm and amiable like white female singers at the time. Instead, she was a fierce black woman.

【推荐1】When I read a post about taking someone to the movies, I was reminded of something that happened a couple of years ago.

I used to drink Cokes and they had a promotion where there was a code inside the bottle cap. You went to a website and entered the code and maybe you won something. I won some free Cokes. But then I won the grand prize! I was surprised and pleased.

The grand prize was free movies for a year. They pointed out that one movie a week was that free movies for a year meant. All of the tickets had a deadline later than a year from the day I received them. So I must use them in the following year. I used quite a few by taking friends to movies we all wanted to see.

But the best thing I did with them was that I donated 22 tickets (all I had left by that time) to the local Women’s Transition House, a place where women and their children could go when avoiding a bad situation in general and get help to make a new start.

My workplace team had decided to help people in need, so we collected donations for that particular New Year’s Day. I knew the Women’s Transition House provided childcare for the women so they could go for job interviews.

I put those tickets in a box and wrote a note, asking the Women’s Transition House staff to give movie tickets to women there over the holidays to have something fun to do, with or without their children. It made me really happy to do this.

【推荐2】Richard Rudd was so forgetful that he sometimes forgot what he was talking about in the middle of a sentence. His wife had to always remind him about his about his appointments, his classes—even his meals ! Since Rudd was a professor at a well-known university, his forgetfulness often caused him a lot of trouble. It wasn’t that he was unintelligent. He was just very, very absent-minded.

One hot summer day, Professor Rudd decided to take his children to the beach. The seaside town he planned to visit was about a three-hour train ride away. To make the trip more interesting for his young children, he kept the name of the town a secret. Unfortunately, by the time Rudd had arrived at the train station , the poor forgetful man had forgotten the name of the town. Luckily, a friend of his happened to be in the station. He offered to take care of the children while Rudd went back home to find out where he was going.

The professor’s wife was surprised to see him again so soon ,but she was amused when she heard what was the matter. She distrusted his memory, so she wrote the name of the town on a piece of paper. Satisfied that she had solved the problem, she sent her husband off again. Ten minutes later she was astonished to see him outside the house again. What was the matter now? The professor had forgotten where he had left his children.