2 . Roald Hoffmann, a Nobel Prize winner in chemistry, poet and playwright (剧作家), is a tireless advocate of the wonders of science and the beauty of chemistry. Hoffmann successfully shares his understanding of science with the public at large through literature, educational television and even the stage. Here is an article he wrote:

Around the time of the Industrial Revolution, science left poetry. Nature and the personal became the main playground of the poet. That’s too bad for both scientists and poets, but it leaves lots of open ground for those of us who can move between the two. If one can write poetry about being a tree, why not about being a scientist? It’s experience, a way of life. It’s exciting.

The language of science is a language under stress. Words are being made to describe things that seem indescribable in words — equations (方程式), chemical structures and so forth. Words do not, cannot mean all that they stand for, yet they are all we have to describe experience. By being a natural language under tension, the language of science is inherently (内在地) poetic. Emotions emerge shaped as states of matter and more interestingly, matter acts out what goes on in the soul.

One thing is certainly not true: that scientists have some greater insight into the workings of nature than poets. Interestingly, I find that many humanists deep down feel that scientists have such inner knowledge that they don’t. Perhaps we scientists do, but in such carefully circumscribed pieces of the universe, poetry flies high, all around the tangible (有形的), in the deep dark, through a world we reveal and make.

It should be said that building a career in poetry is much harder than in science. In the best chemical journal in the world, the acceptance rate for full articles is 65%, for communications 35%. In a routine literary journal, far from the best, the acceptance rate for poems is below 5%.

Writing has become increasingly important to me. I expect to publish four books for a general or literary audience in the next few years. Science will be involved, but only as a part, a vital part, of the risky project of being human.

The medals don’t mean anything and the glory doesn’t last. It’s all about your happiness. The rewards are going to come but my happiness is just loving the sport and having fun performing.

—Jackie Joyner-Kersee

Today I am going to share my experience that is related to the quote that I just read. It all started last year when the drawing competition took place. I really wanted to win it and get the trophy(奖杯)of the best artist, so I started working really hard on my weak points in drawing and I started to plan on how I could win the trophy. I spent so many hours working on it that the time flew really fast.

Finally the big day came. I was so excited but nervous at the same time. I just hoped my plans would work to make me good enough to win the trophy and the competition.

I went to the hall where we had to draw. I saw my best friend so I waved to her and she waved back. When the drawing competition started, I drew what I needed to draw in the place and I was feeling very confident that I would finally get the trophy of the best artist.

Then came the day when they called out the winner. I was so confident to get the prize that I didn’t even bother to hear who was getting it because I knew I would be the one to get it. Then I heard my friend’s name being called and this shocked me so much.

How could she get it and not me? I congratulated her and went home making sure nobody saw how sad I was. I was happy for my friend but I was very disappointed at the same time, so I did something that I usually do when I am sad or disappointed—read a book.

I saw a book with some moral stories, which gave me a lot of inspiration.

After reading this story. I finally understood why I didn’t win the competition.

About a month ago, my husband and I found kindness in an unlikely place: standing in line at a Subway sandwich shop to pick up a quick dinner.

It was extremely busy on this particular night, and I noticed a dad behind us with his little girl, who looked to be around four. The man seemed as tired as my husband, but the little girl was cheerful and excited as she waited for her sandwich and cookie.

I watched as the man behind us got closer to the front of the line. He started to look worried. Right before we checked out, I heard the man say to the woman who had made his sandwiches that he was sorry to just leave his out because he didn’t have enough money to pay for them all. He looked very embarrassed. His little girl continued jumping around excitedly.

I quietly asked the cashier to add the man’s whole order to ours. I paid the $ 87.73, and we got out of there before the man behind us knew what had happened.

Like many others since COVID-19 hit, our family of five was living on one income. I was holding our debit card (借记卡) and knew that we only had $ 90.16 in our account. That was all we would have until payday three days later. But still, it felt great to be able to help that family, even though we would be out of money for a few days.

What happened next was amazing. My husband went back to that Subway the next week to pick up five sandwiches that I thought would cost $ 44.58. There was $ 47 in our account.

But it turned out that the dinner cost more than we had on the card. My husband told them to put his sandwich back because he couldn’t afford it. Then he paid for the four sandwiches and headed to our car.

As he opened the door, one of the female workers ran to him.

The two men nodded at one another and went on their way.

6 . New research into a little-known text written in ancient Greek shows that “stressed poetry”, the ancestor of all modern poetry and song, was already in use in the 2nd century CE, 300 years earlier than previously thought. It has been found sculpted on twenty precious stones and as a graffito (雕画) in Cartagena, Spain.

In its shortest version, the nameless four-line poem reads “They say what they like; let them say it; I dont care.” Other versions extend with “Go on, love me; it does you good.” The poem, unparalleled (绝无仅有的) so far in the classical world, consists of lines of 4 syllables (音节), with a strong accent on the first and a weaker on the third. This allows it to come into the rhythms of numerous pop and rock songs. So it became popular across the eastern Roman Empire and survives.

By comparing all of the known examples for the first time, Cambridges Professor Tim Whitmarsh noticed that the poem used a different form of rhythm to that usually found in ancient Greek poetry. As well as showing signs of the long and short syllables characteristic of traditional “quantitative” poem, this text employed stressed and unstressed syllables. The new study, published in The Cambridge Classical Journal, also suggests that this poem could represent a “missing link” between the lost world of ancient Mediterranean oral poetry and song, and the more modern forms that we know today. A lot of popular poetry in ancient Greek takes a similar form to traditional high poetics. This poem, on the other hand, points to a distinct and rich culture, primarily oral.