At the beginning of the century there was a big farm called Hollywood Ranch. It was near Los Angeles in California. A few years later Hollywood was one of the famous places of the world. From 1910s to the 1950s Hollywood was the film center of the world. Every family knew the names of its film stars Charlie Chaplin, Grete Garbo, Bergman and hundreds more.

    The reason why people went to Hollywood to make films was the sun. At first people made films in New York on the east coast of the United States. But then they heard about Los Angeles where there are 350 days of sun every year. As they made all the films by sunlight, the west coast was a much better place to work.

    Also near Hollywood you can find mountains and sea and desert. They did not have to travel far to make any kind of film.

    When TV became popular in the 1960s, Hollywood started making films for television. Then in 1970s they discovered people still went to cinema to see big expensive films. After twenty years they are still making films in Hollywood and people watch them all over the world.

    For those concerned about wrinkly old skin, It might be a creative solution: an elastic(有弹性的) “second skin” that can be smoothed on to make aged tissue look more youthful.

    The wearable film, developed at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT), has shown promise in a series of small experiments where it was applied to wrinkles, under-eye bags and areas of dry skin. When applied to the face or body, the thin, transparent layer sticks to the skin and supports the tissue, making it look and behave like younger skin, its producers claim.

    “What we've been able to do is create a cream that you can put on the skin, and then when it's on the skin it can actually form, essentially, an elastic second skin,” said Bob Langer, who led the research. Tests in the lab found that the polymer film (高分子膜), which is only 70 thousandths of a millimetre thick, reduced the appearance of wrinkles and under-eye bags, and helped keep moisture in areas of dry skin.

    The layer is designed to be applied in the morning, then peeled off at night. In previous studies, the second skin withstood normal daily wear, and the stresses and strains of exercise and swimming, without falling off or causing irritation. It also survived exposure to rain.

    “It's something you can wear for a whole day or longer, depending on the physical forces thatget applied to the area where it is worn, "said Daniel Anderson, who helped develop the product at MIT. “You can't tell you're wearing it.”

    While normal cosmetics can mask imperfections on the skin, the new coating changes the way skin behaves by giving it the elasticity of young skin. It was developed with help from two companies.

    Jack threw the papers on my desk. “Next time you want to change anything, ask me first,” he said. I had changed a long sentence and corrected its grammar — something I thought I was paid to do.

    Several days later, he made me angry again. I went to his office, prepared to lose my job if need be, but not before I let the man know how I felt. “What?” he said nervously.

    Suddenly I knew what I had to do. “Jack, the way you've been treating me is wrong. And it's wrong for me to allow it to continue,” I said. “I want to make you a promise. I will be a friend.” The next day I brought some cakes to Jack's office. Every time I saw Jack in the hall, I smiled at him. After all, that's what friends do.

    One year after our talk, I was told that I had breast cancer . When I was in hospital, my friends tried to find the right words to say, but no one could. The last day of my hospital stay, the door opened and Jack walked over to my bed. “Tulips (郁金香),” he placed some bulbs  beside me and said, “If you plant them when you get home, you'll be there to see them when they come up.” Tears filled my eyes.

    In a moment when I prayed for just the right words, a man with few words said the right thing. After all, that's what friends do. Now, I have seen those tulips push through the soil every spring for over ten years.

    Artie Shaw was born in New York City in 1910. His parents were poor persons who had come to the United States from Eastern Europe. At the age of fourteen, he began to play the saxophone(萨克斯管) and then the clarinet(竖笛). From very young age, Artie Shaw wanted to play his clarinet better than anyone. He wanted his sound and music to be perfect, so he began working as a professional musician when he was fifteen, and he left home and began playing in bands across the United States.

    In 1927, young Artie Shaw traveled to Chicago, Illinois to hear the great trumpet (小号) player, Louis Armstrong. He immediately understood that Armstrong's great jazz sound was the beginning of something new and exciting. Artie left Chicago with a growing interest in jazz music. Soon after, he moved to New York City. He got work playing the clarinet for the Columbia Broadcast System radio network in1936. He was given chance to found his band and play at New York's famous Imperial Theater on Broadway. His group was not the top band in the show. But the crowd loved his music. This proved to be a major step in his career.

    In 1938, Artie Shaw and his band recorded what would be one of their most popular songs. It sold millions of records. It still sells several thousand each year. Shaw was surprised that it became so popular. The song is "Begin the Beguine" written by Cole Porter. However, the fame caused problems for Shaw. He could not go anywhere without being recognized. He no longer had a private life.

    On Dec. 13th, 2004, Artie Shaw died after a long sickness. He was ninety-four years old. He was the last great musician and bandleader of what has been called the "Big Band Era".

Have you ever heard of invisible ink? You may have seen it in movies. When light is shone on the paper which invisible ink is written on, you can read it!

As magical as this seems, the change in color is due to science. The ink is absorbing higher energy light and giving lower energy light. This reaction is an example of fluorescence (荧光) .

Light is a very broad term that describes a range of electromagnetic rays, including gamma rays, infrared light (红外光) and ultraviolet light. One part of the electromagnetic visible light is the colors that we can see with the human eye. These rays travel in curvy lines and each type of the ray is characterized by a different wave pattern. For example, Gamma rays have a shorter wavelength than infrared light. Shorter wavelength is connected with higher energy, so gamma rays also have more energy than infrared light.

Corals (珊瑚) are animals that live underwater. And the corals in the Red Sea exhibit fluorescence. Why is this happening? Scientists have shown that fluorescent objects absorb higher energy light and release lower energy light. Since the corals of the Red Sea are deep in the water where there is very little visible light, scientists theorize that these corals absorb ultraviolet light and produce visible light. They have special photo proteins, which enable them to change invisible light to visible light.

Fluorescence is not just used to create pretty colors. Corals have developed photo proteins for a biological reason. The visible light is used by algae (海藻) , which are eaten by the coral, to make food through photosynthesis (光合作用). The visual character of these photo proteins could also be used for biomedical research. They can highlight cells and cell structures under a microscope.

Isn't it amazing that a simple organism that we don't think very much of is not only grand but could also have so many potential uses in medical research!

Recently, my dad and I decided to take a day trip to the Florida Keys, a coral cay archipelago located off the southernmost coast of the US. I was super excited because I had not been able to go anywhere within the past nine months because of COVID-19.

With masks and hand sanitizer, we began our fun journey before sunrise. The Keys are about two hours away from where I live in Florida, so we would get there early to see the sun coming up over the ocean. On the road, we got to enjoy the Gulf of Mexico on one side and the Atlantic Ocean on the other.

When we stopped by Curry Hammock State Park, I was really amazed. The park contains 1,000 acres of land, which protects mangroves, rock land and seagrass beds that are important to the ecosyst (生态系统) in the Keys. During our time there, we were able to see some hawks flying by, and they followed the Gulf coastline of the Caribbean, migrating (迁徙) from Canada and as far south as Peru. These hawks put their wings out, "floated" up in the wide sky and then glided for long distances. After flying for thousands of miles, they still kept their fast flight patterns.

After that, we went to Key West and visited some iconic (标志性的) stops, like Duvall Street and Mile Marker 0. It was really cool because it is the very beginning of US 1, which is the longest road that runs from Key West to the Canadian border.

It was an amazing trip to the Florida Keys, and it was thrilling to have a change of scenery.