【推荐2】Six months, five continents (大洲), forty-one countries, fifty-two thousand kilometers. At 19, Zara Rutherford has broken two Guinness World Records. She became the youngest female (女性) to fly alone around the world and the first woman to do so in a microlight aircraft (超轻型飞机).

The Belgian-British teenager landed in Belgium on Jan 20. “It’s just really crazy,” she told the news reporter.

With two pilot parents, Rutherford started learning to fly at 14 and got her first license in 2020. To realize her dream of flying around the world alone, she sold her car to pay for the trip. She also found some sponsors (赞助者). One of them is Shark Aero. The company provided her with a two-seat microlight.

In August 2021, when everything was ready, Rutherford set off. She planned to finish her trip in three months. Instead, it took nearly half a year because of bad weather and expired (过期的) travel documents (证件).

The most difficult part of the trip was flying over Russia’s Siberia (西伯利亚) region. “It was -35℃ on the ground and -20℃ in the air... If the engines were to stop, I’d be hours away from rescue (救援) and I don’t know how long I could have lived,” Rutherford said. She also faced storms, wildfires, typhoons and broken parts of her aircraft.

Rutherford hopes her flight will encourage more girls to choose careers (职业) in aviation (航空业). “If you don’t try and see how high you can fly, then you’ll never know,” Rutherford told the news reporter.

【推荐2】

Melati Wijsen and her younger sister Isabel are from Indonesia. In 2013, they started the “Bye Bye Plastic(塑料)” to ask people not to use single-use plastic bags in Bali. By 2018, aged 18 and 16, they asked the government(政府) to ban(禁止) single-use plastic bags. They were successful in July, the next year. Today, Bye Bye Plastic Bags has 50 teams in 29 countries.

Now the sisters have a new plan: call on young people everywhere to help make the world become better. “Every young person can make a difference(产生影响), but they might not know what to do,” said Isabel. So they plan to start Youthtopia to help them. The Youthtopia will share information with young people and teach them how to make a difference. They expect lots of young people can join Youthtopia and it can become the center of the young around the world. “You’re never too young to make a difference, and it’s not too late to take action. Everyone can do it!” said Melati.

The sisters are doing a good job. Join them to help make the world better now!

【推荐3】One night, the fist floor of the house suddenly caught fire. The fire was big, and soon became a sea of fire. On the second floor lived a little girl and her grandmother. The little girl’s parents had died. In order to save the little girl, the grandmother was burned to death, leaving the little girl crying for help loudly.

How could people enter the house? At the very moment, a man carrying a ladder (梯子) rushed to the fire and got into the window. When he appeared again in the sight of the people, the little girl was in his arms. He gave the child to the crowd, and then disappeared into the night.

After that, this little girl had no more family. Two months later a meeting was held to find a person to adopt (收养) the girl. A teacher was willing to adopt this child and said she could give her the best education; a farmer wanted to adopt this child, saying that village life would let the child grow up healthily and happily; a rich man said that he can give the child everything that others can do.

A lot of people wanted to adopt this child, but there was no smile on the little girl’s face.

At this time, a man, through the crowd, walked straight in front of the little girl, and opened his arms for the little girl. People were puzzled (困惑的), and they found that the man had terrible scars (疤) on his arms. The little girl let out a cry, “This is the man who saved me!” She suddenly jumped up and ran into his arms and cried. Naturally the man adopted the girl.

Once upon a time, Daedalus offered services to King Minos. However, King Minos did not let him return to his home after he finished his task. Instead, Daedalus and his son Icarus were imprisoned(关押) in a tower. Daedalus was sad and he expected to return to hometown with his son. Overlooking the Mediterranean Sea(地中海), Daedalus realized that even if they could get out of the tower, they weren’t able to sail far. He thought about how to escape. “Minos is king of the sea,” thought Daedalus, “but he’s not the king of the sky. I’ll make a pair of wings and fly away like a bird.”

Daedalus asked his son to collect pieces of wood. He built a wooden structure like bird wings. He also collected a lot of feathers. Then he told King Minos that he needed wax(蜡) for anew invention. Finally, he finished his invention by gluing(粘) the feathers firmly with wax. When everything was ready, he started from the short feathers to the long ones so that they formed a wing. Then he fastened the wings to his arms and began to flap them until his feet took off from the ground and he began to rise to air.

Daedalus and Icarus could not wait to try on their own. They practised flying into the sky until Icarus succeeded. Then Daedalus said, “Now, it’s time to leave. We shall fly home. Listen to my instructions and be sure to follow them to the letter. Do not change flight direction, or you will soon be lost. Do not fly too low, or your wings will get wet. Nor should you fly too high, since the sun will heat the wax and your wings will fall off. Have you got it?” Icarus nodded.

At first, Icarus felt frightened but soon he began to swoop(俯冲) up and down. His father called, “Icarus,take care!” Later, he could soar(高飞) upwards without any effort. He floated so high above the sea. “Icarus, come down right now!”, his father shouted. However, Icarus flew too high to hear his father. Icarus was close to the sun, and the wax began to melt. Slowly the wings began to fall off. Icarus flapped and shouted for help, but it was too late. He had lost the power of flight and fall down into the sea.

【推荐2】A video（视频） of an old Chinese woman showing her martial arts（武术） skills quickly became popular on YouTube in June 2021. It was watched over 440, 000 times and given more than 4, 500 likes. Now the old woman, Zhang Hexian, is known to fans as “kung fu grandma”. Although she is only 1.5 meters tall, her kung fu movements look strong and beautiful.

Zhang Hexian’s hometown is in a village in Zhejiang Province. Her village has had a long tradition of kung fu, and Zhang began learning it at age 5 from her father, a famous kung fu master （大师）. “I used to practice it every day when I was young, ” Zhang said. “Now I’m getting older and less powerful than before, but I still have the energy.” She gets up at 5 in the morning and cooks three meals every day. She usually visits her friends after lunch. In the afternoon, she practices kung fu.

Zhang is always ready to offer help. When learning the news that a primary school in the next town started a martial arts class recently, Zhang has volunteered to teach the children and offered all the help she could.

Feng Chuanyin, her youngest son, said that his mother and family wanted to pass down the spirit of kung fu to younger people, and hoped kung fu would help keep them healthy.