Nelle Harper Lee was born on April 28,1926. Since Lee’s mother was mentally ill, she was raised by her lather. She became very close to her father.

The naughty Lee loved reading, and would make up stories with Truman Capote, her neighbour who was two years older than her. Seeing his daughter’s imagination, Lee’s father gave her a typewriter.

In high school, Lee developed an interest in English literature. After graduating in 1944, she went to the all-female Huntingdon College in Montgomery. Lee stood apart from the other students. She could have cared more about fashion, make-up, or dating. Instead, she focused on studies and writing. Transferring (转学) to the University of Alabama, Lee was known for being a loner and an individualist. Before her final year in the University of Alabama, Lee dropped out to become a writer. She moved to New York City where her childhood friend Truman was already a famous writer. While there, she worked on her first book — To Kill a Mockingbird. It won her the Pulitzer Prize in 1961 and was made into an Academy Award winning movie the following year.

To Kill a Mockingbird tells the story of six-year- old Scout and her brother who live in the town of Maycomb, Alabama with their single father Atticus. Atticus is a lawyer who defends blacks. At a young age, Scout lives in the surroundings of the terrors of segregation (隔离政策).

Then, in 2014, the first draft (草稿) of a new book — Go Set a Watchman was discovered among Lee’s papers. It is the story of 26-year-old Scout who returns to Maycomb to visit her father. She is shocked to find her father a changed man. He has turned into a segregationist!

The story shows the mixed feelings Scout has about the changes that have taken place in her homeland and her father. A loner for most of her life, Lee stayed unmarried, preferring to lead a small town life. On February 19,2016, Lee passed away at the age of 89.

   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.

   Chances are the first Monday in September is a day off from school for you. If it is, you can _______ a man named Peter McGuire. Who's Peter McGuire?According to_______  , he's the founding father of Labor Day. On September5, 1882, McGuire led a_______ of 10, 000 workers in New York City一workers who took the day off from their jobs to hold a parade(游行) and a picnic. The_______ came to be known as Labor Day，and the idea_______ throughout the country. In 1887，Oregon became the first state to make it a statewide holiday, on the first Saturday in June. And in 1894，President Grover Cleveland_______ a bill that made . Labor Day a(n)_______ holiday, on the first Monday in September一the date we still celebrate to this day.

Labor Day began as a day for workers to protest, (抗议)_______ poor working conditions一long days, low pay and a lack of job security. Back in Peter McGuire's day, you could be_______ just for calling in sick -________  you were really too sick to work. Twelve-hour workdays were also________  . And workers had only short breaks for meals and other necessities.

McGuire went to work at the age of eleven, ________ newspapers on the streets of New York City. He had to help________ his family. McGuire saw poor working conditions first-hand. And he________ those conditions himself. That urged him to help________ the first trade unions in the United States.

The workers hoped strength in numbers would________ their employers to improve working conditions. They weren't always ________ . But' thanks to their________ the eight-hour workday and the five-day workweek became common practices. So did________ vacations and sick days. As for Labor Day itself, it became a day________  labor for most workers. So thanks to Peter McGuire, Labor Day means a day off from school for you and your teachers.

Jane Austen ever popular

This summer, the UK will honor its favorite writer, Jane Austen (1775-1817), by making her face on the new £ 10 note. In the 200 years since her death, Austen’s fame has increased from the modest amount she enjoyed in her lifetime to the global fame she receives today.

And yet Austen’s work is so very English that it’s rather strange she should be so popular all over the world. Her novels are so of her time that it’s remarkable that she’s still appreciated in this very different age. Her most famous works — including Pride and Prejudice, the one for which she is most known — are set in the world of the English gentry (绅士阶层) in the 18th century.

Most of her fiction is about young women of that time. Women of the gentry could not work so their chances of happiness or even basic living depended upon finding a husband. This is a very serious subject, of course, but the joy of Austen’s stories is her ability to make wonderful, but also touching comedy out of something so serious.

Take Pride and Prejudice as an example. Elizabeth Bennet is one of five daughters in a countryside family that struggles because daughters can’t inherit (继承) the property. Her mother wants to marry off as many of them as possible. The pushy and annoying Mrs Bennet is one of the great comic characters in English literature.

The main plot of the novel is driven by the love-hate relationship between Elizabeth and Mr Darcy, a wealthy noble. At first, they don’t get on. Elizabeth finds Darcy too proud; she feels he thinks he is better than everyone else in the countryside. She thinks that he looks down upon her family in particular. Darcy, while admiring Elizabeth, believes that she has treated him unfairly. The pleasure of the novel is reading how these obstacles (阻碍) are overcome and how the comical and unexpected ending is achieved.

If we think about this story, it’s obvious why Jane Austen is still popular 200 years after her death, and why readers can still identify with (与……产生共鸣) characters from the long dead world of the 18th century English gentry. Although there have been many changes since that time, it’s still the greatest challenge in life for men and women to find the partner of their dreams.

   Iggy Azalea doesn't look like a rapper（说唱乐歌手）.On May 17, she attended the 2015 Billboard Music Awards in Las Vegas, US, with pink hair and a blue coat. She looked like a model, but won big as a rapper. The Australian beat out big names like Nicki Minaj and Drake to win the award for Top Rap Artist.

It's a great achievement in many people's eyes, but Azalea knew what she wanted from the beginning. At 15 she dropped out of high school because she was only interested in art classes. She worked as a house cleaner to save money for her dream the following year. Before her 16th birthday, Azalea left her home, a tiny town in Australia, for the US, making up her mind to become a rapper. Moving from Miami to Houston to Atlanta, she started rapping in the Southern-style accent of her surroundings and her single Ignorant Art came out in 2011.From then on, she never looked back.

However, her style has caused lots of discussions. She might be one of the most polarizing artists. She raps with a southern American accent, even though she speaks with an Australian one. Many people say that she overuses black culture in her music.

Her supporters are against it. Female American rapper MC Lyte defended（为……辩护）Azalea in an interview, saying she should not be judged because of where she's from. "Hip hop is universal（全世界的）, and has no color line, "MC Lyte said. Azalea herself is proud of her music. "I really want to be focused on what I'm doing, "she said in an interview." That's really dangerous when you're trying to figure out ways to entertain people and make them happy. I don't want to be a part of that."