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一步一杀UID: 2368111

以下是我找的一些名人故事素材~~~各位可以参考概括下以后在写作文中可以作为例子用~

Kenyan environmentalist and human rights campaigner Wangari Maathai has won the Nobel Peace Prize. She is the first African woman to be awarded the peace prize since it was created in 1901.
A surprised Mrs Maathai broke the news to reporters minutes before the official announcement.
The prize committee says Mrs Maathai, Kenya's Deputy Environment Minister(助理环境部长), is an example for all Africans fighting for democracy and peace.
The delighted 64-year-old professor said the award was completely unexpected.
"This is extremely encouraging to the people of Africa and the African woman," she told the BBC.
"It is a recognition of the many efforts of African women, who continue to struggle despite all the problems they face."
In the late 1970s, Mrs Maathai led a campaign called the Green Belt Movement to plant tens of millions of trees across Africa to slow deforestation(采伐森林) .
The movement grew to include projects to preserve biodiversity, educate people about their environment and promote the rights of women and girls.
Known as "The Tree Woman" in Kenya, Mrs Maathai celebrated by planting a Nandi flame tree(凤凰木) in her home town of Nyeri, in the shadow of Mount Kenya.
She said she was delighted that the vital role of the environment had been recognised.
"The environment is very important in the aspects of peace because when we destroy our resources and our resources become scarce, we fight over that".
"I am working to make sure we don't only protect the environment, we also improve governance," she added.
The committee says she has combined science with social engagement and politics, and has worked both locally and internationally.
The professor was the 12th woman peace laureate since the first award was first made in 1901.
A spokesman for the Kenyan government said his country was honoured.
"This is a great moment in Kenyan history. To us this shows that what Wangari Maathai has been doing here has been recognised," Alfred Mutua said.
"We're very proud of her and she deserves all the credit."
Mrs Maathai beat a record 194 nominations, including former chief United Nations weapons inspector Hans Blix and the head of the UN energy watchdog, Mohamed ElBaradei, to win the prize.
Mrs Maathai is the second woman in a row to be awarded the peace prize, which last year went to Iranian lawyer Shirin Ebadi for her work for the rights of women and children in Iran.
The award, which includes 10 million Swedish kronor ($1.3m) is awarded in Oslo on 10 December each year.


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一步一杀UID: 2368111

Reeve was real-life 'Superman'

Although he will always be remembered for portraying "Superman," the greatest role of actor Christopher Reeve's life was as a champion of sufferers of spinal cord injuries(脊椎损伤患者中的斗士) and an advocate of stem cell research(干细胞研究).

Unlike the man of steel, he wasn't faster than a speeding bullet, more powerful than a locomotive and he couldn't leap tall buildings in a single bound.

But the courage and determination Reeve displayed in trying to overcome his paralysis from a 1995 horse-riding accident far surpassed any of the feats of the comic book hero(连环画英雄).

"He became a real-life Superman. His heroism, his courage was extraordinary," Colin Blakemore, the chief executive of Britain's Medical Research Council(英国医学研究学会主任) said.

"Like many people who suffer some terrible injury, Christopher Reeve was reinvented(彻底改变) by that experience and brought the kind of energy and enthusiasm that made him successful as a film star to an entirely different issue, with huge effect."

Reeve, 52, died on October 10 of heart failure(心脏功能衰竭) after having treatment for an infected pressure wound(伤口严重感染) without realizing his dream of walking again.

But in the nine years since his accident, he made personal progress to regain some feeling(重新获得了人们的尊敬和欣赏), established the Christopher Reeve Paralysis Foundation, a non-profit research organization, and used his fame to raise millions of dollars for research into spinal cord injuries.

He also provided hope and inspiration to other patients and lobbied for scientists to be allowed to conduct stem cell research in the hopes of eventually curing paralysis and other illnesses such as diabetes and Alzheimer's and Parkinson's disease(糖尿病、阿兹海默症和巴金森氏症).

"He has been our champion. If you think of spinal injuries you automatically conjure up(想起、回忆) a picture of Christopher Reeve," said Paul Smith, executive director of the Spinal Injuries Association in England.

It is because of Reeve that spinal cord injuries and stem cell research are so widely discussed, according to Smith. The fact that it happened to Reeve showed it can affect anyone, even Superman.

Reeve did not live long enough to see whether stem cell research could help restore movement to the paralyzed. The research is still in its early days and no one knows what advances it may bring.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Adventurer Fossett launches solo balloon trip

The giant high-altitude balloon, bathed in the desert's golden morning light, drifted slowly into the sky above Northam, a small mining town 100 km (62 miles) east of Perth, just after 7.00 a.m. (2300 GMT).

Fossett had delayed inflating the aircraft for six and a half hours due to unfavourable winds, but with time running out before the arrival of the morning's hot thermals, he gave the order to fill the balloon with helium for a dawn launch.

Fossett waved to around 100 townsfolk as he entered the capsule for an eastward circumnavigation that he expects will take 15 days.

"I am a bit nervous about the first night," Fossett said before take-off.

"On the first night I will find out if everything works, if there are any leaks in the balloon, if there are any failures in communications and if the all-important heating works," he said.

The millionaire former stockbroker has made a series of failed attempts to fly solo in a balloon around the world.

The last attempt to inflate the giant balloon for a launch on June 17 from the Australian gold mining town of Kalgoorlie ended in disaster when a freak wind tore it apart.

Fossett's fourth solo bid ended in near disaster in 1998, when a thunderstorm off Australia's northeastern coast shredded his canopy and sent him plummeting 29,000 feet (9,000 metres) into the Coral Sea. He was unhurt.

This year Fossett, 57, decided to launch in western Australia, some 600 km (400 miles) from the Indian Ocean, to have a better chance of avoiding thunderstorms in the South Pacific and gain time to detect problems while still over land.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Laughing Matter-Woman Resorts to Comedy to Confront the Trauma of Cancer

"In a flash moment, I went from being a happy expectant mother, to being someone afraid for her life," she told reporters.

Minutes after doctors delivered Nate by emergency C-section, Southcott went into surgery. The diagnosis was ovarian cancer.

Suddenly tears and chemotherapy overtook her life. But the lowest moment came after she lost all her hair and a free wig arrived.

She tried it on as her older son Kyler watched.

"I thought I can cry about this bad wig and he'll remember it, or I can laugh about it and he will remember that," Southcott said.

That was when she started laughing a lot, and found it was the perfect medicine.

"I spent a lot time looking for anything humor based for cancer patients," she said. "And I'll tell you what: There isn't much out there."

Using herself as a bald model, Bonnie started her own line of greeting cards and a calendar. Each pose pokes fun at the tribulations of chemo.

"We desperately need to laugh," she said. "It's vital to our joy."

Even though Southcott's ovarian cancer is in remission, the diagnosis is no laughing matter - a 25-percent chance she will live for another two-years.

She plans to appreciate every moment of motherhood. And she plans to laugh.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Spacewoman Stuck in Orbit with Too Much Shrimp

Peggy Whitson, the American astronaut spending her 130th day in space, said on Sunday that she was happy in orbit, but maybe she brought along too much shrimp.

"Sometimes, when you come to space, your tastes change. One of my favorite foods on the ground is shrimp, and up here I can't stand it," said Whitson, the science officer on the International Space Station .

A quick check of the station's manifest showed that Whitson had planned more than 40 shrimp meals for her stay.

"The guys like it because they get all my shrimp," she said, referring to her two Russian crewmates, Valery Korzun and Sergei Treshcvev.

The three members of the space station's Expedition Five team held a joint news conference with the six astronauts from the space shuttle Atlantis on Sunday.

"I'm having a great time up here. It's fun to live here and do the science," said Whitson, a biochemist conducting and monitoring dozens of studies on the station.

When someone asked about her plans for Christmas, Whitson said "It's hard to imagine being back home because I guess I feel like this is my home right now. I don't have my husband, but other than that, this is my home."

Whitson, due to return to Earth with Korzun and Treschev aboard a U.S. shuttle in November, said some changes in space take more getting used to than others.

Salsa can usually overcome space blandness. "We could probably eat paper if we had it with salsa," she said.

But calluses are another matter. In weightlessness, she never actually stands, but does sway about with her feet in foot restraints.

"It was really interesting to me to lose the calluses from the bottom of your feet and to get calluses on the top of your feet after being up here for a few months," she said.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

'Professor Popsicle' Proves Cold No Barrier

During a cold stretch that had many Canadians scurrying indoors, a researcher known as "Professor Popsicle" has found humans can successfully spend days on end in the bitter cold.

Gordon Giesbrecht has spent the past 26 days skiing the isolated, frozen expanse of Lake Winnipeg as part of his research for the University of Manitoba on how the body copes with the cold.

Temperatures averaged 15 degrees below zero and dipped as low as 31 below during his 240-mile trek on cross-country skis.

"Now when I'm outside and it's -25 C, it's not really a big problem," he told reporters by satellite phone from his small tent on the world's tenth largest lake.

"This has been more a test of just dealing with the cold and living with it, and getting your clothing and your actions coordinated so that you don't end up getting frostbite or anything," explained Giesbrecht.

Soft, deep snow made for some tough slogging with his backpack and sled carrying his food and gear. On two mornings, Giesbrecht emerged from his tent to find the wind so fierce that his tent was almost flat.

"The most vulnerable time of the day is when you are trying to set up your tent, and I was not about to take that chance," he wrote on a Web site updated by his family.

Other than numb fingertips, which will likely take a month to return to normal, Giesbrecht said he feels fine.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

The flying Frenchman set to smash round the world record

They are calling him the Bob Beamon of sailing. And just like Beamon, who astonished the world with his record-breaking long-jump in 1968, the French sailor Francis Joyon is rewriting the nautical record books in an unprecedented fashion.

Joyon, 47, is now in the final stages of an incredible voyage and on course to smash the existing non-stop solo round-the-world record by 20 days. Once he crosses the finish line off the Channel port of Brest on the morning of February 3, he will have completed one of the greatest feats of single-handed sailing in history.

Just like Beamon, whose leap at the Mexico Olympics in 1968 broke the world record by an almost unbelievable 21in - which stood unbeaten until 1991 - Joyon's expected time of 73 days for the 26,000-mile global course will have far exceeded what most thought possible for a solo sailor.

Joyon set sail in November on an adventure some predicted would end in disaster. The father of four from La Trinité-sur-Mer in Brittany was undertaking the voyage in the 90ft trimaran IDEC, a boat of tremendous power with a huge rotating mast that had been built to be raced by a crew of up to ten.

Many were worried that Joyon would end up exhausted and IDEC would simply flip over as she ran out of control in the Southern Ocean.

Others predicted that Joyon would be unable to handle IDEC's enormous sails or that the boat could lose her mast in the rough conditions that any round-the-world sailor inevitably would face.

There were also all the usual dangers - collision with debris in the water, with ice around Antarctica or the possibility that Joyon would collide with a ship while sleeping.

When he set off, the solo record stood at 93 days. Although Joyon was sailing a much faster boat than the previous record-holder, most saw little chance of him getting even close to 80 days.

Joyon had other ideas and over the past 71 days he has enjoyed good fortune with the weather, rarely running out of wind. He has, however, also displayed extraordinary stamina, determination and seamanship in keeping IDEC running close to her full potential.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Ronaldo: King of the World

　　Ronaldo Luiz Nazario de Lima was born on 22 September 1976 in a poor suburb of Rio de Janeiro. Like most of his childhood friends, Ronaldo began his soccer career playing barefoot in the streets of his neighborhood. At the age of 14, he joined S?Cristovo soccer club and only two years later became the star of Cruzeiro Belo Horizonte scoring a total of 58 goals in 60 matches and earning himself a reputation for his explosive pace and outstanding finishing skills. His goal-scoring record and unusual agility led him to be included in the Brazilian World Cup winning team the following year. After the World Cup, many top European football clubs were trying to sign him. Many people, including Brazilian football legend 　Pelé, 　referred to him as the most promising footballer of his generation.

　　Since his transfer to Dutch team PSV Eindhoven, Ronaldo s biography is one of success after success. Two Copa América s, a UEFA Cup, a Dutch Cup, a Spanish League Cup, and two awards as best player in the world, all in the space of two years, are some of Ronaldo s impressive achievements. On arrival to Inter-Milan in 1997, Ronaldo became the idol of the local fans who refer to him as “il Fenomeno.”

　　Since the 98 World Cup he has suffered two serious knee injuries that have severely limited his appearances. Just when people began to wonder whether Ronaldo would be able to continue with his football career, he proved to the world that he still could play. In the World Cup held in Korea and Japan, the magical striker won the Golden Shoe award and tied Pelé's Brazilian record for career World Cup goals with 12. He helped Brazil capture its fifth World Cup championship on June 30 with a 2-0 win over Germany. It was the third time that Ronaldo has ever played in the World Cup.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Hewitt: I Came, I Saw, I Conquered

　　Lleyton Hewitt was born in Adelaide, Australia on 24 February, 1981. His mother is a former champion netballer, his father is a league footballer, and his sister is already ranked number one in Australia for her age in tennis. She has achieved already more in tennis than Lleyton had at the same age.

　　The Hewitt's have a grass court at their home. This was where young Lleyton began his tennis career. When Lleyton showed an unusual ability for a 4-year-old and he was hitting balls consistently over the net, his parents decided it was time to find him a coach.

　　“Rather than get into bad habits, it was best he learnt how to hit the ball correctly.” says his father. Two years later, they got Peter Smith as his coach.

　　At the age of five, when most children that age are playing hide and seek or getting into all sorts of trouble, Lleyton and his family would make the trip to Melbourne for the Australian Open. Lleyton would sit for up to 12 hours a day watching players practise.

　　Lleyton's career as a tennis player was planned by his parents who tried their best to keep him away from football. Lleyton's parents thought it was too risky to play football since he might get hurt. Had Lleyton played football, it is quite possible he may have ended up playing for his favorite team—the Adelaide Crows. As his mother says, “I guess we've guided him into things we felt good for him before he did.”

　　　By the time Lleyton was eight, he was winning “under-10 games” and always won a year ahead of his age. A professional career was looking very promising. Lleyton officially turned pro in 1997.

深海lavenderUID: 2350207

都考过了．．．ＳＩＧＨ．．．

一步一杀UID: 2368111

￡400,000 advance for student's first novel

An 18-year-old author has received a ￡400,000 advance for her debut novel, one of the biggest deals for a young author in British publishing history.
Helen Oyeyemi, a first-year student at Corpus Christi College, Cambridge, is now in the top bracket of British authors and shares an accountant with J. K. Rowling and Zadie Smith.

Ms Oyeyemi struck a two-book deal with Bloomsbury after the publisher was bowled over by her novel The Icarus Girl. The story concerns Jessamy, an eight-year-old genius who, while on a visit to relatives in Nigeria, meets Tilly Tilly, a friend whom only she can see.

Their relationship is friendly at first but becomes darker as it appears that Tilly Tilly is a ghost who wants Jessamy's body for her own.

In an interview, the Nigerian-born author said that she was astonished at the speed with which she was snapped up. "I had to sign the contract between my exams. It was on the day of my theology A level," she said.

Ms Oyeyemi, whose father is a teacher and whose mother is training to become a driver for London Underground, began writing at the age of seven.

"I rewrote Little Women so that Laurie married Jo because I thought that was a better ending."

She began writing The Icarus Girl last year when she was in the sixth form of Notre Dame School. Her agent, Robin Wade, showed the book to Alexandra Pringle, editor-in-chief at Bloomsbury, who is also Donna Tartt's editor. "The prose sings immediately right from the first page," Ms Pringle said.

Ms Oyeyemi does not believe that she will become a full-time writer, however. "I don't think that many people can do that these days," she said. "I would quite like to be a literary agent."

一步一杀UID: 2368111

101-year-old man parachutes into record book

A 101-year-old man is believed to be the world's oldest skydiver after he accepted a dare from friends and jumped out of an airplane at nearly 10,000 feet.

Frank Moody, from Holloways Beach on Australia's northeastern coast, beat the record set by a 94-year-old Norwegian in 1999, said Amanda Pilkington, from Skydive Cairns, which organized the jump.

On the morning of June 16, Moody jumped in tandem with an experienced skydiver from more than 9,900 feet, she said.

"He's an absolute legend. It was a bit of a drunken dare by some of his mates at the local Holloways Beach football club. He said: 'Sure, I'll go jump out of an airplane,'" Pilkington quoted him as saying, adding she nearly fell off her chair when she first heard Moody go for the record.

"We decided to attempt to beat the record as well as giving Frank an awesome experience and one that he'll remember for the rest of his life. He's very switched-on and very witty and charming. It's an absolute pleasure to have done this for him," she said.

Pilkington said the club would send video of the jump and other details to the Guinness Book of Records head office in London and expects confirmation of the record shortly.

Moody went down to the football club with his son John after the jump to have a Guinness beer to celebrate and collect on bets place by his friends.

"He's been given his footage and photographs so he's got proof and evidence that he's done it," Pilkington said.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Briton who saved Jews remembered

A British agent who saved thousands of Jews from the Nazis is being remembered with a plaque being placed outside the British embassy in Berlin.

Frank Foley was based in Berlin in the 1930s, working as a passport control officer, and using his position to provide papers for Jewish people.

It is believed Mr Foley saved tens of thousands of lives, even hiding people in his own home.

Foreign Secretary Jack Straw described him as "a true British hero".

Eyewitnesses recall Mr Foley as an unassuming hero - a small, slightly overweight man with round glasses .

But he was actually Britain's top spy in the city.

He not only interpreted the rules on visas loosely, enabling Jews to escape to Britain and Palestine, but he also helped to forge passports.

And, despite not having diplomatic immunity, he gave shelter to some people in his own home.

Mr Foley's efforts have already been recognised by Israel, which declared him a righteous gentile, like Oskar Schindler, and he has also been honoured by his home town of Stourbridge in the West Midlands.

Michael Smith of the Daily Telegraph, who wrote a book about him, said that although it is not known exactly how many lives Mr Foley saved, archive evidence would suggest the number was in the tens of thousands.

He said, "With Schindler you had 1,400 people working in a factory, working with him, they worked closely together. Their lives were together.

"So when they moved to Palestine, which later became Israel, they are all talking to each other, they are still on the phone to each other even if they are not living in Israel - they have a collective memory of what Schindler did.

"But with Foley a lot of the people he helped probably didn't even know he helped them.

"They were helped in ones or twos or in small family units - five or six people perhaps. They have got to Palestine. They have a visa they know they shouldn't have - they are not going to talk about it."

一步一杀UID: 2368111

The Firm Helen Keller

In 1882 a baby girl caught a fever that was so fierce she nearly died. She survived but the fever left its mark - she could no longer see or hear. Because she could not hear she also found it very difficult to speak.
So how did this child, blinded and deafened at 19 months old, grow up to become a world-famous author and public speaker?
The fever cut her off from the outside world, depriving her of sight and sound. It was as if she had been thrown into a dark prison cell from which there could be no release.
Luckily Helen was not someone who gave up easily. Soon she began to explore the world by using her other senses. She followed her mother wherever she went, hanging onto her skirts; she touched and smelled everything she came across. She copied their actions and was soon able to do certain jobs herself, like milking the cows or kneading dough, she even learnt to recognize people by feeling their faces or their clothes. She could also tell where she was in the garden by the smell of the different plants and the feel of the ground under her feet.
By the age of seven she had invented over 60 different signs by which she could talk to her family, if she wanted bread for example, she would pretend to cut a loaf and butter the slices. If she wanted ice cream she wrapped her arms around herself and pretended to shiver.
Helen was unusual in that she was extremely intelligent and also remarkably sensitive. By her own efforts she had managed to make some sense of an alien and confusing world. But even so she had limitations.
At the age of five Helen began to realize she was different from other people. She noticed that her family did not use signs like she did but talked with their mouths. Sometimes she stood between two people and touched their lips. She could not understand what they said and she could not make any meaningful sounds herself. She wanted to talk but no matter how she tried she could not make herself understood. This makes her so angry that she used to hurl herself around the room, kicking and screaming in frustration.
As she got older her frustration grew and her rages became worse and worse. She became wild and unruly. If she didn't get what she wanted she would throw tantrums until her family gave in. Her favorite tricks included grabbing other people's food from their plates and hurling fragile objects to the floor. Once she even managed to lock her mother into the pantry. Eventually it became clear that something had to be done. So, just before her seventh birthday, the family hired a private tutor - Anne Sullivan.
Anne was careful to teach Helen especially those subjects in which she was interested. As a result Helen became gentler and she soon learnt to read and write in Braille. She also learnt to read people's lips by pressing her finger-tips against them and feeling the movement and vibrations. This method is called Tadoma and it is a skill that very, very few people manage to acquire. She also learnt to speak, a major achievement for someone who could not hear at all.
Helen proved to be a remarkable scholar, graduating with honors from Radcliff College in 1904. She had phenomenal powers of concentration and memory, as well as a dogged determination to succeed. While she was still at college she wrote 'The Story of My Life'. This was an immediate success and earned her enough money to buy her own house.
She toured the country, giving lecture after lecture. Many books were written about her and several plays and films were made about her life. Eventually she became so famous that she was invited abroad and received many honors from foreign universities and monarchs. In 1932 she became a vice-president of the Royal National Institute for the Blind in the United Kingdom.
After her death in 1968 an organization was set up in her name to combat blindness in the developing world. Today that agency, Helen Keller International, is one of the biggest organizations working with blind people overseas.

一步一杀UID: 2368111

Bill Gates in His Boyhood

As a child-and as an adult as well-Bill was untidy. It has been said that in order to counteract this. Mary drew up weekly clothing plans for him. On Mondays he might go to school in blue, on Tuesdays in green, on Wednesdays in brown , on Thursdays in black, and so on , Weekend meal schedules might also be planned in detail. Everything time, at work or during his leisure time.
Dinner table discussions in the Gate's family home were always lively and educational. "It was a rich environment in which to learn," Bill remembered.
Bill's contemporaries, even at the age, recognized that he was exceptional. Every year, he and his friends would go to summer camp. Bill especially liked swimming and other sports. One of his summer camp friends recalled, "He was never a nerd or a goof or the kind of kid you didn't want your team. We all knew Bill was smarter than us. Even back then, when he was nine or ten years old, he talked like an adult and could express himself in ways that none of us understood."
Bill was also well ahead of his classmates in mathematics and science. He needed to go to a school that challenged him to Lakeside-an all-boys' school for exceptional students. It was Seattle's most exclusive school and was noted for its rigorous academic demands, a place where "even the dumb kids were smart."
Lakeside allowed students to pursue their own interests, to whatever extent they wished. The school prided itself on making conditions and facilities available that would enable all its students to reach their full potential . It was the ideal environment for someone like Bill Gates.
In 1968, the school made a decision that would change thirteen-year-old Bill Gates's life-and that of many of others, too.
Funds were raised, mainly by parents, that enabled the school to gain access to a computer-a Program Data processor(PDP)-through a teletype machine. Type in a few instructions on the teletype machine and a few seconds later the PDP would type back its response. Bill Gates was immediately hooked- so was his best friend at the time, Kent Evans, and another student, Paul Allen, who was two years older than Bill.
Whenever they had free time, and sometimes when they didn't, they would dash over to the computer room to use the machine. The students became so single-minded that they soon overtook their teachers in knowledge about computing and got into a lot of trouble because of their obsession. They were neglecting their other studies-every piece of word was handed in late. Classes were cut. Computer time was also proving to be very expensive. Within months, the whole budget that had been set aside for the year had been used up.
At fourteen, Bill was already writing short programs for the computer to perform. Early games programs such as Tic-Tac-Toe, or Noughts and Crosses, and Lunar Landing were written in what was to become Bill's second language, BASIC.
One of the reasons Bill was so good at programming is because it is mathematical and logical. During his time at Lakeside, Bill scored a perfect eight hundred on a mathematics test. It was extremely important to him to get this grade-he had to take the test more than once in order to do it.
If Bill Gates was going to be good at something. It was essential to be the best.
Bill's and Paul's fascination with computers and the business world meant that they read a great deal. Paul enjoyed magazines like Popular Electronics, Computer time was expensive and, because both boys were desperate to get more time and because Bill already had an insight into what they could achieve financially, the two of them decided to set themselves up as a company: The Lakeside Programmers Group. "Let's call the real world and try to sell something to it!" Bill announced.