Blind people can read. They do so by running their fingers along a line of raised points or dots on paper. Of course, they first have to learn the code（代码）. Here are some examples of it. One dot stands for the letter “A”. Two dots side by side mean “C”. Four dots arranged to look like a box（：：） stand for the letter “G”. By placing the dots in special patterns, all the letters of the alphabet can be formed.

This code was made up by a Frenchman called Louis Braille. Though he could see at birth, he became sightless when he was only three. Braille was cutting leather in his father’s shop. His knife slipped and cut his eye. Infection（感染）spread to both eyes, and he became blind.

At 10, he was placed in a home for the blind. But young Braille had great talent. He became a skilled musician and soon got a job as a church organist（风琴弹奏者）in Paris.

Because he had talent and was quick, he became a teacher at a school for the blind. While there, he heard that a captain had sent messages to his soldiers that they could read at night without light. His messages were in the simple form of raised dots and dashes. This was the clue Braille needed. At the age of 15, he worked out his own six-dot code. Each group of dots is called a cell. The cells are three dots high and two dots wide. For the rest of his life, Braille taught his young flock to read both written and musical works using his code.

For the last 17 years of his life, Braille was ill with tuberculosis. He died at the age of 43.

   For years considered as a foxy politician, Thomas Cromwell has been greatly rehabilitated (恢复……的名誉) by Hilary Mantel’s prize-winning novels, Wolf Hall (2009) and Bring Up the Bodies (2012). It’s true that he planned Anne Boleyn’s fall, and made a large fortune in a dishonest way, but he was also a good husband and father, charming and modest, a self-made man.

Certainly, he is one of the outstanding figures from Henry VIII’s court. Extremely hard-working, he was a productive reporter. It was not unusual for him to start work as early as 5 am and finish well after midnight.

Yet in researching the biography of Cromwell, I have discovered frustrating gaps in sources, particularly in relation to his early life.

The man who would one day become the most powerful in England was raised from such humble (卑微的) origins that nobody knows when or where he was born. As the son of a blacksmith, he suffered a miserable childhood.

I had the portrait (肖像), which now hangs in the Frick Collection in New York, of a thoughtful but rather bad-tempered official in mind. It seems to describe a cruel man of business, which was what I thought before I read Wolf Hall. But Mantel’s portrait of a rude but intelligent man who was as loyal to his family and friends as he was cruel to his enemies is really convincing.

His last letter to Henry VIII, written from the Tower in June 1540, is desperately moving. “Most gracious Prince,” he wrote with his trembling hand, “I cry for mercy, mercy, mercy !” Henry was said to have read the letter three times. But it was not enough to save Cromwell from the axe.

Within weeks of Cromwell’s death, his royal master was regretting the loss of “the most faithful servant”. But Henry’s daughter Mary destroyed all of that. Debate has taken place ever since — among historians, novelists and film-makers alike — as to who was the real Cromwell.

   It isn’t easy being a princess. A princess addresses large crowds and uses perfect manners. A princess must always be polite and sweet and sometimes repairs car engines and fixes tires. Princess Elizabeth Ⅱ really did so.

Before she was Queen of England, Princess Elizabeth wanted to join the ATS, a female branch of the British military. It was in World War Ⅱ , and women worked at jobs traditionally held by men.

Elizabeth was a teenager and first had to convince (使信服) her parents about her plan. Her parents thought it was too dangerous, but she would not take no for an answer. “ I ought to do as other girls of my age do,” she said firmly. After some months, her parents finally agreed. Princess Elizabeth did not receive any special treatment in the ATS. The only thing different was that she returned to Windsor Castle each night to sleep.

When she arrived at the ATS camp for her first day of training, she was greeted by a jacked-up car with its wheels off. In the following weeks, she learned to take apart an engine and then assemble (组装) it. The princess loved the training, admitting, “I’m a mechanic at last. I’ve scraped the skin off my knuckles.”

Princess Elizabeth worked on cars, trucks, and even tank engines. She also learned to read maps and drive cars, ambulances, and military trucks. To complete her ATS training, she was required to drive a big truck on her own.

The King and Queen thought driving a truck was too dangerous, but before they could let her know how they felt, they discovered Elizabeth driving a truck onto the palace grounds. She had driven from the ATS camp through the busy London streets all by herself.

Now at her old age, she still drives — sometimes in London but more often around her large property at Balmoral Castle in Scotland. Being a queen requires a lot of hard work, but it can be fun as well. Queen Elizabeth loves horses and still rides four times each week. She also still likes to get a little dirty. She actively manages her estate farm at Balmoral and is often seen hiking through the countryside there.

   John B. Goodenough, an engineering professor from the University of Texas at Austin, has been awarded the 2019 Nobel Prize in Chemistry-jointly with M. Stanley Whittingham, a chemistry professor from the State University of New York and Japan’s Akira Yoshino, a professor of Meijo University-for the development of lithium-ion batteries (锂电池). According to the Nobel Committee, the three scientists “have created the right conditions for a wireless and fossil fuel-free society, and so brought the greatest benefit to humankind”.

Goodenough, born in 1922, identified and developed the key materials that can power portable electronics, leading to the wireless revolution. Today, batteries containing Goodenough’s innovations are used worldwide for mobile phones, power tools, laptops, tablets and other wireless devices, as well as electric vehicles.

Goodenough received a bachelor’s degree in mathematics from Yale University and a doctorate in physics from the university of Chicago. He beat the odds against him, first overcoming dyslexia (阅读困难症) as a child, and then the claim of a teacher who told the doctoral student in his 20s that he had started too late to be successful in physics.

He began his career in 1952 at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology’s Lincoln Laboratory, where he laid the groundwork for the development of random-access memory (RAM) for the digital computer. After MIT, Goodenough became a professor and head of the Inorganic Chemistry Laboratory at the University of Oxford where in 1979 he discovered it would be possible to store energy in rechargeable batteries through lithium cobalt oxide (锂钴氧化物).That discovery helped develop the lithium-ion battery. Goodenough joined the University of Texas at Austin in 1986, where his groundbreaking work continued.

At 97 years old, he still continues to push the boundaries of materials science. Despite the lithium-ion battery being well developed and available as a commercial product, it has its limitations. It can’t be charged too fast or overcharged. Goodenough still wants to see some new developments.

“I hope Ut-Austin still keeps me employed,” Goodenough once joked.

   Even though we are probably not aware of it， on our path. through life， we are setting goals all the time. However， many things will not only depend on how firmly we set a' goal， but how _______ we act in achieving it.

A story shows how smart acting can turn a seemingly _______ crisis （危机） into a（n）_______ . During Roosevelt's third campaign for president ，millions of leaflets （传单） with the president's campaign speech were _______ . People who had no chance to see and hear Roosevelt live would be able to _______ it， hopefully like it and _______ him. Of course，his picture was on the front page. Too _______ no one had noticed that under the picture was a tiny but _______  name， George Moffet， who had taken the picture.

By law， Moffet would have had to be. asked for the right to _______ this picture. As the campaign managers

had. ________ to do so， the choices looked hard：either burn the millions of leaflets，________ losing the campaign and pay the high price to print new leaflets with a ________ picture， or ask Moffet's permission（许可）. Both choices seemed ________. What could they do?

It was the campaign boss George Pekins who ________ the tables. He sent a telegram to Moffet with a great ________ telling him that Mr. Roosevelt's campaign team was planning to print millions of leaflets with Mr. Roosevelt's ________ . It would for sure be a great ________ for the photo studio. How much would he bewilling to ________ for using it?

Moffet said he would pay $ 210. Roosevelt's campaign boss ________ . So， a hard problem was solved wisely. The ________ ? Think of things in different ways.