A terrible explosive noise was heard, immediately followed by strong shaking of the classroom building. Mrs. Li Lan, a country school teacher in Sichuan, who was giving a class, could hardly keep on her feet, and many of her pupils made panic cries. Mrs. Li realized at once that it must be a powerful earthquake hitting the area. Though she herself was scared, she managed (设法) to make the children calm down, opened the door right away and told the children to leave the classroom and get down to the playground as quickly as possible.

When all the children had left, she followed them to the first floor. The earth still kept moving violently (巨烈地). Some of the buildings nearby were falling down, and a great number of falling stones were rolling down from the hills behind the school. Suddenly, she found a little boy fell over and was hit by a big stone right on his body. She forgot the danger she was facing and ran over, trying to push the stone away. The stone was so big that it was not easy for her to move it. She kept pushing until the boy was pulled out, carrying him to the center of the playground. The boy was later sent to hospital and saved.

    I' m ready to do my first jump 10 months after a skydiving (特技跳伞) accident. I can't wait! That accident almost killed (杀死) me and it made me stay in hospital for half a year. During the boring long days, I didn't feel good. "How could I live without my favourite sport?" I thought.

    It all started one evening after a nine-to-five day. I was sitting at home when an ad (广告)came on the television. "Try skydiving," it said. The next day, I went to the skydiving school in my town, At the end of the day's lessons, ] knew I found the right sport for me.

    I will never forget my first jump. Five of us walked to the runway and got into a plane. I was afraid, but the others were talking and smiling, and I started to feel a little relaxed. It was a beautiful, cloudless day and the sun was just going down. Soon it was time to jump. As I jumped from the plane, I shouted. But then everything became quiet (安静的). It was the most wonderful four minutes of my life.

    From the first jump, I was hooked. I started spending all my free time skydiving. It became my reason (理由) for living. Things were going really well. Then an accident happened on my 104th jump. I broke my both legs, right arm and nose. I stayed in hospital for six months, but I still couldn't forget skydiving.

    My mother couldn't understand why the only reason I wanted to get better was to go skydiving again. But for me, skydiving is life, and life is skydiving.

    Mark Zuckerberg, the founder of Facebook, is an American computer programmer. His net worth (资产净值) is about $71 billion, ranking him the fifth richest person in the world. On 1 December, 2015, he and his wife announced that they would give 99 per cent of their Facebook shares to the Chan Zuckerberg Fund. Since 2010, Time magazine has named Zuckerberg among the 100 wealthiest and most influential people in the world.

    Born in 1984, he and his three sisters were brought up in a small village in New York. At high school, Zuckerberg was outstanding in class. He won prizes in science. He could also read and write French, Hebrew, Latin, and ancient Greek. Zuckerberg began using computers and writing software at middle school. His father taught him basic programming in 1990. He enjoyed developing computer programs, especially communication tools and games. During his high school years, he built a software program called ZuckNet that allowed all the computers between the house and his fathers dental office to communicate with each other. The following year, he built a music player called the Synapse Media Player. It used machine learning to learn the user's listening habit.

    In 2004, Zuckerberg launched Facebook from Harvard. He left Harvard in his second year to complete his project—Facebook. Helped by his college roommates and fellow Harvard students, Facebook expanded rapidly, reaching one billion users by 2012.

    In 2003, Zuckerberg met Priscilla Chan, at a party during his second year at Harvard. They have been dating since their Harvard days. In 2010, they got married and had their first baby, Maxima. The couple announced on their Chinese New Year video that their daughter's Chinese name is Chen Mingyu. On 18 March, 2016, while visiting Beijing, he posted on Facebook, "It's great to be back in Beijing! I kicked off (开始) my visit with a run through Tiananmen Square, past the Forbidden City and over to the Temple of Heaven." With a Chinese American wife and speech in Mandarin (普通话) in Tsinghua University, Zuckerberg is famous in China. He seems to be willing to take efforts to make Facebook available in the mainland to connect all people in the world.

    It is May, 2050. Frank and Mary wake up in their comfortable house in the morning. They turn on the bedroom computer to read the latest news. They keep on reading The Times for many years. The only difference is that they changed from paper newspapers to electronic newspapers. There is the usual news about space: another space flight has returned from Mars and scientists have discovered a new planet.

    After breakfast, as they watch the screen, Mary orders the cooking robot to make coffee for them. Frank is a computer engineer, working for several companies. He is going to take part in a video conference with his partners all around the world.

    Mary is a medical researcher. She usually works at home. Now she is looking at the shopping channels while her secretary robot is helping her check a new type of medicine.

    Their daughter, Louise, has her own study room at home. She goes to school only one day a week, to play with other students. Louise is studying Chinese in the present. Chinese has become an important language in the world.

    According to the family doctor, Louise will live to at least 130 years old. Her wish is to work for a few decades (十年) and then spend her time on music and painting.

    A feral child is a child who, from a young age, has lived with animals in the wild. What makes wild animals adopt these children and raise them as their own is a mystery. Since feral children have often had no contact with humans for a long time, they may be more like wild animals than people. Their stories, although often upsetting can teach us how people learn and use language — and perhaps even what it means to be human.

    In Uganda in 1991, a tribeswoman saw a naked boy living with a troop of wild monkeys in the jungle. The woman was shocked and quickly told the people in her village about the boy. When they tried to take him away from the monkeys, the frightened boy threw sticks at them and climbed up a tree to hide. The monkeys fought fiercely, trying to stop the tribesmen from taking him away, but they did not succeed.

    After his "rescue", the boy was taken to Kamuzinda Chritan Orphanage, outside Kampala, the capital city of Uganda. He was identified as John Ssabunnya, a boy who had disappeared three years earlier after his mother was murdered and his father went missing. John was only two years old when he disappeared.

    John couldn't speak when he arrived at the orphanage. It was obvious that he did not know how to act in a human way-- he knew only how to behave like a monkey. However, he soon began to talk and was found to have a beautiful singing voice.

    John shot to fame at the age of fourteen, when he toured the UK with a children's choir(合唱队). "His is a remarkable story. One day it could even be made into a film." said tour organizer Hillary Cook.