6 . The only science fiction that ever really caught my attention when I was growing up, besides Star Trek and Robert Heinlein’s Stranger in a Strange Land, was the novel Contact by Carl Sagan. When I was 15, I saw the 1997 film version of this. Later, as a 17­-year-­old adapting to my first semester (学期) at university, I read the book. Contact eventually became the gateway for me to try more popular science books.

One thing that interested me was the bitter fights the researchers got into with one another about their different ways of measuring the expansion rate of space­time. On second thoughts, maybe this was a lesson I was supposed to draw from Contact, but, at the time, I didn’t regard such politics as a scientist problem. Instead, what caught my attention was the portrayal of Eleanor “Ellie” Arroway, a scientist who searched for alien intelligence. In the film version, Ellie is seen listening to space using a pair of headphones connected to the Very Large Array (VLA)—a real facility in New Mexico.

Astronomers don’t really do this for the purposes of actual research because there is rarely any point. This is the kind of detail that is unimportant for the film of Contact, but how it portrays radio astronomy is one of the inaccuracies I occasionally hear scientists complain about. I was lucky enough to observe the behaviour of some water molecules (分子) in the Orion nebula (猎户座星云) using the VLA for my third­year lab course. We didn’t listen to the data. Instead, we processed it so that we could look at it.

That was probably the only time I ever excelled in the lab, and I was so excited to be a real­life Ellie Arroway. Later, I was forced to think more about the human aspects of my working experience. I witnessed unnecessarily heated arguments between scientists, complete with shouting and chalkboard punching (用拳猛击). But, thankfully, Contact had not only introduced me to the idea of radio astronomy as a possible career path, it had also given me a road map for remaining calm in the confused conflict of astronomical wonder and human politics.

7 . Los Angeles residents Joe Blackstone and Jamie Mohn have long recognized the lasting impact storytelling can have on a child’s life. Shortly after getting married, the couple began volunteering to read books to elementary school kids. Then, when they became parents themselves, they created the J3 Foundation to help organizations devoted to children’s growth. But after learning two-thirds of fourth graders who cannot read effectively end up on welfare, Blackstone and Mohn decided to take a more hands-on approach: in 2018, they launched J3’s Cozy Reading Club.

Each session of the two-hour, after-school program is free and includes outdoor activities and a healthy snack. Then, it’s time for some comfortable reading. After teachers read a book aloud and the group talks about the storyline freely, the kids find a spot to sit while grabbing a book of their choice to look through. In the end, they get to choose two books to borrow and take home.

In its first year, J3’s Cozy Reading Club served 15 students in one L. A.-area classroom. As of 2022, it had expanded to 17 schools across four different districts, impacting a total of at least 400 students, the vast majority of whom live in underserved communities. With impressive statistics backing it up 90% of the students have significantly improved their reading scores, and 95% say they’ve started reading for fun since taking part in the program——its founders have much to celebrate.

“Having more than 5,000 culturally relevant books available to them is so exciting. I love it when our students can see themselves and their classmates’ lives reflected in the books they are reading. The hope of changing one kid at a time makes all the work worthwhile,” Blackstone said.

Currently, J3 is in the process of raising $864,000, so the Cozy Reading Club can expand to an additional 24 Los Angeles schools and double its book collection to 10,000. This is worthwhile. The National Assessment of Education Progress (NAEP) reported that 68% of U. S. fourth graders weren’t skilled at reading in 2022, up from 66% in 2019.

8 . Andrew Powell was pulling envelopes from the large mailbox outside his contemporary house when he noticed something ______: A tiny doll couple were sitting on a love seat inside the mailbox. A small note was attached.

“We’ve decided to live here,” the ______ read. It was signed from Mary and Shelley. Andrew initially figured that somebody must have left them there ______ . So he asked the neighbors whether anybody had left ______ in his mailbox, and everyone said no. Soon, Andrew and his wife discovered that the small couple had ______ a tea table, a pretty carpet and a pillow.

Over the next few months, additional items mysteriously ______: a bed, a painting and a wood-burning stove, to name a few. For Christmas 2022, a decorated tree was left with tiny presents. But the gifts were taken back right after Christmas ______ Andrew could open the boxes to see if anything was inside.

More than a year later, Mary and Shelley are still living rent-free in the mailbox, to the delight of the neighbors who now ______ Andrew’s updates on the village’s website to check the ______. Andrew first posted about the tiny dolls on Aug. 21, 2022, hoping his fellow villagers might help solve the ______.

“It’s just somebody out there who is having some fun, giving us all a little community ______. But whoever is doing this is obviously very ______ and clever,” says Andrew’s next-door neighbor.

Andrew says he now doesn’t want to know who is ______ for the mail-box affair because he’s hoping it will continue. “Also, people in the neighborhood are ______ it and some ask if I’ve thought about installing an outdoor ______ , but personally, I like the mystery of it.”