This is my origin story: when I was a teenager I wrote terrible poetry. Like really bad. Worse than yours, I bet. A lot of it about how every little thing reminds me that we're all going to die one day. I wrote collections and collections of these poems, thinking one day I would have my moment. I named one collection, ironically, The Eternal Optimist.

    In 1996, I found an advert for the International Poetry Competition. I was 16 years old and ready for my poetry to be released on the world. Not only was it a competition with a cash prize, but it was poetry, which I wrote, and international. This was my ticket to becoming world-famous. I submitted a poem called Trail of Thought. If you ever wrote bad poetry as a teenager, you'll have written something like it. In the poem, I went for a walk and noticed small poignant(辛酸的) things in nature, and each one reminded me that we were all going to die one day.

    I filled out the form, printed off the poem and sent it off, fingers crossed. I waited to hear back I carried on writing, I probably finished another collection. Then I got a letter from the International Society of Poets. I opened the envelope carefully, just in case a prize-winning cheque fell out I hadn't won. But, they liked my poem enough to include it in their anthology(诗选), Awaken to a Dream. I closed my eyes, I wanted to scream with happiness. I was going to be a published poet.

    All I had to do in order to be published was accept the terms and pay £ 45（plus £ 5 p & p）for an anthology. If I didn't buy a copy of the anthology, my poem wouldn't be included. I had to convince my mum, who thought my writing a meaningless pastime, to part with £ 50. She even asked the question: “Why do you have to pay to be in this book?” Nevertheless, she wrote a cheque for £ 50 and I returned it with my letter of agreement.

    I was 16 and about to be a published poet. This was what it had all been about. This is what it had all been leading to. The months waiting for the anthology were a torture. I hit some sort of writer's block, I couldn't write anything. It was almost as if, now I was published, it mattered more what I committed to page and I didn't want to write anything down unless it was good enough to go into an anthology like Awaken to a Dream.

    The book arrived through the post. Here it was. The first thing I had ever been published in a book called Awaken to a Dream, featuring a blistering take on the mundanity(世俗) of mortality by yours truly. I opened the package to find a book, containing my work. The first thing that struck me about the book was that it was bigger than A4. And it was thick. And on each page was a poem, next to another poem, next to another. The type was small and the paper thin enough to trace with. With three or four poems per page and more than 700 pages, I had a sinking realization. This was a scam, an illegal trick for making money.

    If each poem had cost the author £ 45, they were sitting on a fortune. I felt ashamed. Everyone who had submitted something to the International Poetry Competition had fallen for the same hustle（忙碌）as me. I couldn't bring myself to show my mum. And she never asked to see it. Perhaps she thought if the price of me learning a lesson was £50 we didn't really have, then so be it.

    But that stayed with me, that moment of realization. Because I determined to keep writing and ensure that my precious words always found a home worthy of them. Or at least that's how, more than 20 years later, I justify falling for a scam. Because your first time being published should be special, and if I don't convince myself that there was a reason for my first poem being in a vanity(无价值) book, then what good was it in the first place? And, strangely, someone is selling this book on Amazon at the moment. I wonder how many other writers who went on to do more stuff are in there.

    It's carnival season in Europe, a crazy time for parades, mask, music and dance. No one is sure where the tradition exactly comes from. But while its origin remains a mystery, this does not keep people from joining it.

    The Carnival of Binche, the most famous one that is staged in Belgium, has been announced as a masterpiece (杰作) of the Intangible Heritage of Humanity by UNESCO. The event usually takes place during a Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday, with performers known as "Gilles" dressed in clown-like costumes, dancing and marching along the streets. During parade, the Gilles throw oranges to the crowd as an act of well-washing and it is considered rude to throw them back.

    Venice is said to be the birthplace of carnivals. In the city, the annual carnival starts 58 days before Easter. It features various brightly-colored and well-made masks. Every year, thousands of visitors go to the city to be part of the festive event.

    The Germans, always considered serious-minded, also have their carnivals. The Cologne Carnival is one of the largest, with Rose Monday as the best part. On Rose Monday Parade, lots of gifts are prepared for the people who join it. For this year, 300 tons of candies and more than 300,000 souvenirs were thrown out of the various nicely-decorated floats (花车) to the crowd.

    The Nice Carnival in the southern French city of Nice lasts two or three weeks from February to march every year. It features floats, music, dance, performances and entertainment activities. The parade of lights and the final day carnival parade are the most exciting parts of the entire event. Compared to the Rio Carnival in Brazil and the Winter Carnival in Quebec, Canada, the Nice Carnival has a special artistic touch, and it is one of the three major carnivals around the world.

    Carnivals were first organized in the Middle Ages. They were supposed to be a time of eating and drinking before the Easter fast (斋戒). Nowadays, they have turned into winter tourism attractions of many European cities.

    Imagine a relay race. During this race, an athlete holds a stick as he runs a certain distance. Then he passes the stick to the next runner. That person runs faster, and then passes the stick to a third runner. Now imagine that the runners do not pass a stick. Instead they pass shiny silk, as well as gold, fruit, and glass. Imagine that the race does not move forward in just one direction. Instead the runners go back and forth along a road. They trade goods all along this route (路线) and at each end of it. Now imagine that the runners are businessmen. They lead caravans (商队) or lines of camels that carry things to sell. They travel on the ancient Silk Road to earn their living.

    The Silk Road was a complex trade network. It passed through thousands of cities and towns. It stretched from eastern China, across central Asia and the Middle east, to the Mediterranean Sea. Businessmen traveled on the Silk Road from about 200 B.C. to about 1300 A.D. Then sea travel began to offer new routes. Some people called the Silk Road the world's longest highway. However, the Silk Road included many routes--not just one smooth path. The routes ran through mountains and across deserts. They passed through an area that now includes 18 countries. The Silk Road had many dangers. These dangers ranged from hot sun and deep snow to thieves and wars. Only expert traders could survive.

    The Silk Road got its name from its most prized goods. People used silk as money. They could pay taxes or buy goods with it. Traders carried more than just silk, though. They had gold, silver, and glass from Europe. People in the Middle East and Asia wanted these things. Businessmen also took horses from flat, grassy areas in central Asia and brought them to China and other areas. The horses changed the way people farmed and ran their armies. Indian businessmen traded salt and rare, beautiful stones. Chinese merchants traded medicine and china. They also traded paper, which quickly replaced animal skins in the west. Businessmen carried apples from central Asia to Rome. The Chinese had learned to combine different trees to create new kinds of fruit. They taught this science to others, such as the Romans. The Romans began to grow apples for food. The Silk Road led to worldwide commerce 2,000 years before the World Wide Web.

    The people along the Silk Road did not share only goods. They also shared beliefs. Monks, priests, and other faith leaders taught their religions to others. The Silk Road created pathways for knowledge, diplomacy, and religion.

    A scientist once said: "I have concluded that the earth is being visited by intelligently controlled vehicles from outer space."

    If we take this as a reasonable explanation for UFOs (unidentified flying objects), questions immediately come up.

    "Why don't they get in touch with us, then? Why don't they land right on the White House lawn and declare themselves?" people asked.

    In reply, scientists say that, while this may be what we want, it may not necessarily be what they want.

    "The most likely explanation, it seems to me," said Dr. Mead, "is that they are simply watching what we are up to—that responsible society outside our solar system is keeping an eye on us to see that we don't cause a chain reaction that might have unexpected effects for the outside of our solar system."

    Opinions from other scientists might go like this: "Why should they want to get in touch with us? We may feel we're more important than we really are! They may want to observe us only and not interfere(干涉) with the development of our civilization  They may not care if we see them but they also may not care to say 'hello'."

    Some scientists have also suggested that Earth is a kind of zoo or wildlife reserve. Just as we set aside wilderness areas and wildlife reserves to allow animals and growing things to develop naturally while we observe them, so perhaps Earth was set aside ages ago for the same purpose.

    Are we being observed by intelligent beings from other civilizations in the universe? Are they watching our progress in space travel? Do we live in a huge "zoo" observed by our "keepers," but having no communication with them?

    Never before in our history have we had to face ideas bravely like these. The simple fact is that we, who have always regarded ourselves as supreme in the universe, may not be so. Now we have to recognize that, among the stars in the heavens, there may very well be worlds lived by beings who are to us as we are to ants.

Photographic self-portraits have existed for as long as cameras have been in human hands. But what about selfies in space? On Twitter last year, NASA astronaut Edwin Aldrin, who famously became the second man to walk on the moon in July 1969, laid claim to a spaceflight first: taking the first selfie in space during the Gemini XII mission in 1966.

"For me, it needs to be digital to be selfie," argues Jennifer Levasseur, a director at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. According to Levasseur, the concept of a selfie is directly linked to internet culture. "The thing that makes a selfie is sharing it," she says.

Still, astronauts have been carrying cameras aboard space vehicles since the 1960s. In 1966, Aldrin used a Hasselblad camera designed specifically for space. Hasselblad also painted the first camera in space a matte(磨砂) black to reduce reflections in the orbiter window. But cameras used in space need to survive extreme conditions, like temperature swings from -149° to 248°F, so Hasselblad painted later model silver.

Astronauts visiting the moon then had to take out the film and leave their camera bodies behind when they returned to Earth, because early space missions were limited by a weight limit on the returned trip. Then a big change in space camera technology came after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart on its return to Earth in 2003, Levasseur notes. "Fear that they'd never be able to bring film back from space and lose all that hard work accelerated the push for digital," she says.

Today, astronauts also have access to internet and social platforms in space and can post true space selfies made using digital cameras. Similarly, space robots are participating in selfie culture, capturing remote pictures of themselves in space or on other planets and sending them back to Earth.

PRACTITIONERS

Jacqueline Felice de Almania(c.1322) highlights the suspicion that women practicing medicine faced.Born to a Jewish family in Florence,she moved to Paris where she worked as a physician and performed surgery.In 1322 she was tried for practicing unlawfully.In spite of the court hearing testimonials(证明)of her ability as a doctor,she was banned from medicine.

Tan Yunxian(1461-1554) was a Chinese physician who learned her skills from her grandparents.Chinese women at the time could not serve apprenticeships(学徒期) with doctors.However,Tan passed the official exam.Tan treated women from all walks of life.In 1511,Tan wrote a book,Sayings of a Female Doctor,describing her life as a physician.

James Barry(c.1789-1865) was born Margaret Bulkley in Ireland but,dressed as a man,she was accepted by Edinburgh University to study medicine.She qualified as a surgeon in 1813,and then joined the British Army,serving overseas.Barry retired in 1859,having practiced her entire medical profession living and working as a man.

Rebecca Lee Crumpler(1831-1895) worked as a nurse for eight years before studying in medical college in Boston in 1860.Four years later,she was the first African American woman to receive a medical degree.She moved to Virginia in 1865,where she provided medical care to freed slaves.