2 . For some people, music is no fun at all. About 4% of the population is what scientists call “amusic”. People who are amusic are born without the ability to enjoy musical notes. Amusic people often cannot tell the differences between two songs.

As a result, songs sound like noise to an amusic. Many amusics compare the sound of music to pieces of metal hitting each other. Life can be hard for amusics. In fact, most people cannot understand what it feels like to be amusic. Just going to a restaurant or a shopping center can be uncomfortable or even painful. That is why many amusics have to stay away from places where there is music. However, this can result in social loneliness. “I used to hate parties,” says Margaret, a seventy-year-old woman who only recently discovered that she was amusic. By studying people like Margaret, scientists are finally learning how to identify (辨别) this unusual condition.

Scientists say that the brains of amusics are different from those of people who can enjoy music. The difference is complex(复杂的), and it is not connected with poor hearing. Amusics can understand other non-musical sounds well. They also have no problems understanding common speech. Scientists compare amusics to people who just can ’t see certain colors.

Many amusics are happy when their condition is finally diagnosed (诊断). For years, Margaret felt embarrassed about her music problem. Now she knows that she is not alone. That makes it easier for her to explain. “When people invite me to a concert, I just say   ’No, thanks. I ’m amusic, ’” says Margaret.

4 . I can’t remember if I was nine or ten years old. I do remember that it was the last day of the Boy’s Camp.     1     It hurt a lot. The day before for some silly reason I had gotten into a fight with another boy.

It didn’t take long for the bigger boys to pull us apart and call it a draw, but in truth I had lost.     2     We hadn’t talked since the fight either but only looked coldly at each other from across the room.

    3     I knew my Mom was bringing some of her homemade pizzas as a treat for my brother, me, and our friends. Soon I saw her walking up the sidewalk towards the steps of our cabin. She had been bringing these pizzas to us every Boy’s Camp for years now. I saw her smile as my brother and his friends all took the big pieces.     4     I thanked her with a smile and started to eat when I saw my fight opponent standing off to the side by himself. In that moment something moved in my heart.     5     We talked and laughed and ate. And for some reason unknown to me at the time, the pizza tasted better than ever before.

5 . Women have been making scientific discoveries since ancient times. Dozens of women have won the Nobel Prize in science, one of the highest honors in the world. Some women scientists never married, some worked with their husbands, and others raised large families. It has been difficult for women to be successful scientists.

In the early 1800s in England, Mary Anning became one of the first women recognized for her discoveries about the ancient history of the earth. Mary and her father collected fossils in their village on the south coast of Great Britain. Fossils are parts of plants or animals that have been saved in rocks for millions of years.

When she was only twelve years old, Mary became the first person to find the almost complete skeletons of several animals that no longer existed on earth. She didn’t become famous for her discoveries at that time because she often sold her fossils to get money to support her family.

In 1891, a young Polish woman named Marie Sklodowska traveled to Paris to study physics. She did so because she could not get a college education in Poland. She began working in the laboratory of a man named Pierre Curie. Marie and Pierre Curie got married and made many discoveries together. They received the Nobel Prize in Physics in 1903 along with another scientist. Marie Curie became the first person to be awarded a second Nobel Prize in 1911, this time in Chemistry. Marie Curie was one of the few women at the time that became famous as a scientist.

6 . Leaving everything behind to go after true happiness takes courage, and Sophie Matterson has enough to go around. The 3l-year-old enjoyed a good life in Brisbane, Australia, with a job in the TV and film industry, but it didn’t make her heart sing. That’s why she decided to try a different path. Now she’s trekking (跋涉) across the continent with five camels (骆驼) — and is the happiest she’s ever been!

In 2016, Sophie changed jobs and ended up somewhere she never expected: milking camels on a farm in Queensland.

“What I wasn’t anticipating was how much I would end up falling in love with these animals,” she wrote. “What was only going to be a six-month break from my ‘real job’ turned into five years of running after camels around Australia and other parts of the world.”

After taking tourists on camel treks for a while, Sophie decided to have an adventure of her own. She planned out a 5,000-kilometer trip from Shark Bay to Byron Bay before catching and training five wild camels in January 2019. Then she was finally ready to explore her country with Mac, Delilah, Clayton, Jude, and Charlie!

As one might imagine, the trip can be lonely at times, but Sophie’s camels make surprisingly good companions.

“It’s quite lovely and relaxing camping with camels,” she said. Best of all, she can see great views!

Sophie hopes to arrive in Byron Bay in the next nine months. In the meantime, she’ll be enjoying every second with her camel friends.

8 . A young Dutch inventor is widening his effort to cleanup floating (浮动的) plastic from the Pacific Ocean. He has developed a floating device (设备) to trap plastic waste moving into rivers before it reaches the oceans.

Boyan Slat was just 18 years old when he invented a system for catching waste in the ocean. He also founded an environmental group called “The Ocean Cleanup”. Its purpose is to develop the system. Last year, Slat showed the next step: a floating device which is called Interceptor. It removes plastic out of rivers. The device is powered by energy from the sun. “The 1,000 rivers are responsible for about 80% of plastic going into the world’s oceans,” said Slat. Three of the machines have already been used. Each machine costs about $775, 660, but the cost might drop as production increases.

Since they were used, the machines have been doing very well, collecting the plastic bottles and all the rubbish in the rivers. According to Slat, it is necessary to close “the tap”, which means preventing more plastic from reaching the ocean in the first place. He wanted to clean them all in the next five years. “This is not going to be easy, but if we do get this done, we could truly make our oceans again, ”said Slat.

The device is designed to be safe in rivers. Its nose is shaped to change directions to keep it away from larger floating things. It works by guiding plastic waste into an opening in the front of the device. The waste is then carried inside the machine where it is dropped into containers. The devices ends a text message to local operators that can come and empty it when it is full.

9 . Charvi Goyal is a high school student from Dallas, Texas, who helps out other classmates by tutoring them between classes.

When Goyal’s high school moved online last spring because of COVID-19, she decided to also take her teaching online. The 17-year-old junior and three of her fellow students created TutorScope, a program that offers free tutoring services to other children, including younger ones. It started with a small number of tutors who helped young people in their city. But it has grown into a group of 22 tutors from Texas, Arizona and Ohio. They have helped more than 300 students, some from as far away as South Korea.

TutorScope aims to give the one-on-one help that teachers have traditionally given while walking around their classrooms. But now, many teachers cannot provide that one-on-one support because they lack time or have issues with technology.

Sarah Newman said her children, 7-year-old twins, have had helpful TutorScope experiences. The service has freed up her and her 17 year old son. “With these tutors, I realize they have time,” she said. “I think they are very patient with these younger kids. I have patience with other things, but I don’t have patience to teach.”

What makes the TutorScope effort special is the connection between the teenage volunteers and the other students they are helping. Although the pandemic (传染病) has forced many students to look inward, Goyal said that working with others on a big project has permitted her to look outward. “My confidence level has increased,” Goyal said. She added that she has made friends with other students from her school. She said one of the best things about running a growing non-profit program is fliat it does help with the boredom of being stuck at home.