Ottens was busy with a reel-to-reel tape recorder(盘式磁带录音机)one night in the early 1960s, trying to listen to a piece of classical music. He still remembered the hours he ultimately spent on the machine because the loose tape would endlessly unravel(散开)from its reel. At the time, Ottens was head of product development at Philips's electronics factory in Belgium. The next morning, he gathered his team and insisted that they create something foolproof: The tape had to be enclosed, and the player had to fit in his jacket pocket.

Trying to imagine something that did not yet exist, Ottens used a small wooden block as the target for what the future of tape recording and playback should be. The "compact cassette" was made public to the world in 1963, and he advocated Philips licensing(批准)this new design to other producers for free, paving the way for cassettes to become an influential worldwide standard. Billions of cassettes were sold before his team jointly introduced the compact disc (CD) with Sony in 1982.

Ottens was an extraordinary man. As a child, he managed to build a radio that enabled his family to tune in to a London broadcast that delivered speeches from exiled(流亡的)political leaders during the German occupation of the Netherlands in the 1940s.

Despite the remarkable changes of the music industry in the digital and streaming media age, the public's interest in cassettes has quickly grown in recent years. The return and growth of its popularity is believed to be driven by a mix of nostalgia(怀旧)and the appreciation of tapes' unique status as a format, which is flexible yet is also easily seen and touched.

In the 2016 documentary Cassette: A Documentary Mixtape, Ottens still seems surprised by the impact of the little device. "We knew it would be a success, " he says, "but not a revolution. "

A teenager has realized her dream of becoming a model—just three years after a car accident left her with a broken back.

Marita Davies was in a wheelchair for a year and had to learn to walk after she suffered terrible injuries. She feared her dream of a modeling career was over but just three years on, she is now in the running to be crowned(加冕)Miss Great Britain. She said, "I was shocked when I learned how serious my injuries were. I thought my dream of becoming a model was over. My leg was seriously injured and my back was broken. The accident had broken my confidence. "

But when she finally came out of the wheelchair she turned the corner. Marita decided she would still try to follow her dream, and sent her photos off to some modeling agencies. She did a few unpaid jobs while studying at college, and soon, paid commercial modeling jobs started coming in. Marita was a bit doubtful at first, because the accident had left her with huge scars on her leg and back. She was worried people wouldn't want her to model for them, but it didn't stop her.

She has done amazingly well in overcoming everything, which has been thrown at her in the last three years. Within months of learning to walk again, Marita signed up for advertising campaigns. She has also appeared in a TV ad. Marita was crowned Miss Nottingham City earlier this year, and is now competing against 59 other girls to be crowned Miss Great Britain.

Ever since I was a girl, I have been pushing my limits, living my life to (extreme) and putting extra efforts to set myself apart  my competitors. Some of my friends and family members are (concern) about me and my health,  makes me angry and defensive sometimes because they don't know  it takes to be a champion.

To be honest, I have fears as  professional athlete on a daily basis, thinking about not being the top. I am always tired. I also know that I (frequent) ruin family occasions for my training.

However, it boils down to this: If my goal is to be the best, I had better be committed to my sport, even if it means (get) injured. Doing what we do as athletes makes us outstanding. Call it imbalanced or abnormal if you want,  these are not the words for anyone (strive) for greatness.

I    .

What  Rice   most engineers is his constant desire for innovation and experiment.

   , he would not give up.

All those hours spent on courts have taught me how to     .