1 . It was Jennifer Williams’ mother who got her interested in books. As a librarian, Williams’ mother read to her three children every day. “From when we hadn’t gone to kindergarten,” Williams told vadogwood.com, a local news site, “until we went to college.”

When Williams, who is now 54, became an elementary school teacher and tutor in Danville, Virginia, she wanted her students to be falling in love with reading just as she had. But early on, she realized that some kids had little chance to get enough books to read.

To Williams, the solution was simple: give kids books. In 2017, she donated (捐赠) 900 used children’s books over three days. “I wanted to do something that’s going to continue my faith,” she said.

So she started a new project for herself: give away one million books. It sounds like an unreachable number, but as Williams posted on Facebook: “Don’t complain in the stand if you aren’t willing to work hard out on the field.”

She got to work, first by persuading her friends to donate books or money to buy books. Before long, as news of Williams’ project spread, strangers started leaving varieties of books on her front walk way. As quickly as the books came in, Williams gave them to local schools—free of charge —and also supplied 41,000 books to little free libraries around the city just over the North Carolina border. She also hosted a book club for prisoners in the local prison.

Over the four years she’s been doing all this. The Book Lady, as Williams has come to be celebrated, has given away more than 78,000 books—only 922,000 more to reach her goal! And she’s not slowing down. “Reading can take you anywhere,” she told CNN. “You can travel in time and space. If you can read, you can learn almost anything.”

3 . The surface of Venus（金星）has never seemed very hospitable. Temperatures change around 470°C（900°F）, the result of a runway greenhouse effect，and the pressure of its atmosphere, thick with carbon dioxide and sulfuric acid, is some 90 times that of Earth’s. Lead（铅）would flow like water on Venus, and water cannot have existed in liquid form for perhaps a billion years.

Now NASA’S Magellan spacecraft seems to have found one more horror in the nasty landscape: active volcanoes. Last week the space agency released the first detailed map of Venus and the most dramatic images ever made of its surface. The picture offer the best evidence to date that a planet once assumed dead is actually a lively pot of geological change.

The most amazing image is of Venus’s second tallest mountain, Maat Mons, which rises 8km（5 miles） . Most of the planet’s many peaks, including 9.5-km-（6-mile-） high Maxwell Montes, look bright in the radar pictures Magellan takes from its orbit above the permanent could cover. That means they are strong reflectors of radar waves. But Maat Mons is dark; like the Stealth bomber, it absorbs much of the radar falling on it.

This interesting fact, say project scientists, is a strong hint that the mountains has recently been covered with lava（^§S）. Rock that sits on the surface of mountaintops appears to weather quickly in the hot，chemically reactive atmosphere, creating a soil that is rich in iron sulfide（硫 化铁）• It is this mineral, the scientists believe, that can easily be seen on radar. If Maat Mons doesn’t have any, it has probably been resurfaced, perhaps within the past few years.

Such resurfacing has undoubtedly taken place in Venus lowlands: earlier images of the planet showed vast areas that are remarkably free of craters（火山坑）.That would be easy to explain on a Planet like Earth, where cratering from meteor strikes is erased by steady erosion. But while there is some evidence of wind erosion on Venus, the best explanation for the lack of cratering is periodic lava flow. Magellan has found direct evidence of such flows, including domelike upwellings and hardened streamed of rock trailing down the sides of Venusian peaks. There are also signs of other geologic activities, including dramatic faulting and several distinct incidents of mountain building. But the evidence can’t indicate whether they really occurred millions of years ago. The case for active Venusian volcanoes is not yet proved, but Magellan, which is now well into its second complete survey of the planet’s surface, may eventually settle the issue.

4 . Rich and Famous

Twenty years ago the most common ambition of American children was to be a teacher, followed by working in banking and finance, and then medicine. But today’s situation is quite different.     1     Instead they most commonly say they want to be a sports star, a pop star, or an actor—in other words, they hope to become a celebrity .

According to experts, young people desire these jobs largely because of the wealth and the fame.     2     Let’s take athletes and singers as an example. Their careers are short-lived. Many athletes’ best time only lasts a few years and singers can have a very limited career. The field that was once the focus of their lives becomes something they have little or no involvement in. As a result, they’ll have a feeling of worthlessness and a lack of control.     3    The truth is quite simple: they have been so far removed from it for so long.

In spite of these disadvantages, there is greater ambition than ever among young people to achieve that status. They are not satisfied just making a living—they want to be rich and famous. Globally, more and more TV shows provide talent competitions where winners can achieve their goals in just a few weeks or months.    4    They unrealistically believe that this lifestyle is easily obtained and leads to great satisfaction.

While many people argue that there is nothing wrong with having such ambitions, others feel that this trend will finally lead to dissatisfaction as more and more people are unable to reach their goals.     5     That means they ignore the simple fact that great effort is needed before success. As a result, many people won’t realize their childhood dreams, which could have a negative effect on their happiness.