“Our aim is to take our art to the world and make people understand what it is to move,” said David Belle, the founder of parkour ( also called free running－a kind of extreme sport).

    Do you love running? It is a good exercise, yet many people find it boring. But what if making your morning jog a creative one? Like jumping from walls and over gaps, and ground rolls? Just like the James Bond in the movie Casino Royale? Bond jumps down from a roof to a windowsill and then runs several blocks over obstacles on the way. It is just because of Bond's wonderful performances that the sport has become popular worldwide.

    Yes, that's parkour, an extreme street sport aimed at moving from one point to another as quickly as possible, getting over all the obstacles in the path using only the abilities of the human body. Parkour is considered an extreme sport. As its participants dash around a city, they may jump over fences, run up walls and even move from rooftop to rooftop.

    Parkour can be just as exciting and charming as it sounds, but its participants see parkour much more than that.Overcoming all the obstacles on the course and in life is part of the philosophy(理念) behind parkour. This is the same as life. You must determine your destination, go straight, jump over all the barriers as if in parkour and never fall back from them in your life, to reach the destination successfully. A parkour lover said, “I love parkour because its philosophy has become my life, my way to do everything.”

    Another philosophy we've learnt from parkour is freedom. It can be done by anyone, at any time, anywhere in the world. It is a kind of expression of trust in yourself that you earn energy and confidence.

Look into hunters' eyes

    Have you ever been face to face with a cat or a sheep? If you have,you probably noticed that cats narrow their eyes to vertical (垂直的) slits (狭缝),while sheep have horizontal pupils (瞳孔).

     Why is the difference?

    Scientists from the Universities of California Berkeley and Durham in Britain may have the answer. Their research, published recently in the journal Science Advances, suggested that pupils' shapes could tell whether an animal is a hunter or gets hunted.

    The researchers took a close look at the eyes of 214 land animals.The challenge was to see if they could find a relationship between an animal's role in the food chain and the pupils' shapes.

    They found a pattern. Species with pupils that are vertical slits are more likely to be small ambush predators (捕猎者) – creatures that lie in wait for their lunch.In contrast,those with horizontal pupils are more likely to be plant-eating prey (猎物) species.

    Evolution chose the arrangement for a good reason.For hunters such as household cats,it appears that vertical pupils not only improve their ability to keep track of moving objects like mice,but also maximize (使最大化) their ability to judge the distances of the animals they hunt.

    However, an interesting discovery from the study is that the slit pupils are mostly linked to hunters that are close to the ground. Therefore, bigger cats who actively hunt down their prey, like tigers and lions, don't have slit pupils.

    On the other hand, for plant-eating prey animals, horizontal pupils give them a wider field of vision.When stretched (伸展) horizontally,the pupils allow for more light to enter from the front, back, and sides. Meanwhile, they also limit the amount of light from the sun above so the animal can see the ground better.“ Once they do find a predator,they need to see where they are running,” said leading researcher Martin Banks,a UC Berkeley professor of optometry (视光学).“They have to see well enough out of the corner of their eye to run quickly and jump over things.”

    But what happens when they bend down to eat? Researchers checked this by watching prey animals in the Oakland Zoo in California, US. They believe that when goats lower their heads to eat,their eyes rotate (旋转) to keep their pupils horizontal.

    So it seems that the eyes are indeed the window to the soul!

    Many people don't realize the importance of music education in the schools today. A new study showed, however, music education is extremely important.

    In college, music education is one of the largest programs. Teachers have to learn general education materials and techniques. They must learn to play every instrument; they must learn music history and music theory; they must learn instrument repair and teaching methods; they must learn conducting and so much more. At the same time, much of our culture and tradition is absorbed in music.

    Music plays a very important role in our education.

    Music helps with math and science. Students learn to count, and how to multiply and divide. Students also use science to help them discover what sounds good together and what doesn't. Students also need science to understand something called the “overtone series", which is about how music is produced by vibration（颤动）and why.

    Students learn a lot about languages through music．Many songs are written in other languages, including ancient ones. Students must learn to translate these works to understand what they are singing about. A song is likely to be a famous short work set to music; so students are exposed to that very often while singing.

    Students learn a huge amount of cooperation （协作）of body parts through music, so parts of the body can work better together. Students must use motor（肌肉运动的）skills in order to play an instrument. Singers and wind（管乐器）players must learn breath control and be in good shape to play.

    Students learn about art. Some famous pieces were written about important pieces of art, and students learn about the artists and styles as they're playing the music.

    Music education also brings higher thinking to our children. It allows them to think about complex patterns. Students have to be aware of what every other musician does at every time. In that way, it develops cooperation, as well. They tend to develop more ability for learning.

    As one can see, music is very important to education.

    What is stereotype? It is commonly known as a fixed, over generalized belief about a particular group or class of people, consisting of gender, age, occupation, etc.

    Gender stereotype refers to a judgment about someone according to their sex instead of believing in their ability. Men have been thought to be a leader, strong, aggressive and brave. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    Age stereotype is that someone judges other people's behavior and appearance because of the age. Children are often described innocent, naughty. Then, young people are usually stereotyped impatient, rebellious and indulge in comfort. Adults are related to responsibility. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Because the old people are stereotyped weak and sick, not moving flexibly, which means to be a big trouble.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} A concept can easily be formed that star is a descent and charming job with a lot of fun and more opportunities to contact fashion and celebrity, to dress up, and to taste delicious food in high-class restaurants. But not all stars can have these wonderful experiences. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} They have to work on the other business to earn money under the pressure of life.

    Some view stereotype a good way to enable them to response to different things, judging if they are good or bad, as well as adapt into a new environment. However, some stereotypes are not quite consistent with the reality. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}Society is developing every day, if we are always looking at it with stereotype, we will lose another side of it. Therefore, it is a good choice for us to deal with issues in wider perspective.

A. Women can also take charge of the nation and run their business.

B. There are more stereotypes about stars than other occupations.

C. Occupation stereotype also occurs in our minds.

D. So most people consider it easy to produce prejudice or misunderstandings.

E. Some stars' salary is lower than common white-collar workers.

F. But women are thought to be attached, weak, compromised and soft.

G. Nowadays, many adults are not willing to attend to their parents.

    Dujiangyan is the oldest man­made water system in the world, and a wonder in the development of Chinese science. Built over 2, 200 years ago in what is now Sichuan Province in Southwest China, this amazing engineering achievement is still used today to irrigate over 6, 000 square kilometers of farmland, take away floodwater and provide water for 50 cities in the province.

    In ancient times, the region in which Dujiangyan now stands suffered from regular floods caused by overflow from the Minjiang River. To help the victims of the flooding, Li Bing, the region's governor, together with his son, decided to find a solution. They studied the problem and discovered that the river most often overflowed when winter snow at the top of the nearby Mount Yulei began to melt as the weather warmed.

    The simplest fix was to build a dam, but this would have ruined the Minjiang River. So instead Li designed a series of channels built at different levels along Mount Yulei that would take away the floodwater while leaving the river flowing naturally. Better still, the extra water could be directed to the dry Chengdu Plain, making it suitable for farming.

    Cutting the channels through the hard rock of Mount Yulei was a remarkable accomplishment as it was done long before the invention of gunpowder and explosives. Li Bing found another solution. He used a combination of fire and water to heat and cool the rocks until they cracked and could be removed. After eight years of work, the 20­metre­wide canals had been carved through the mountain.

    Once the system was finished, no more floods occurred and the people were able to live peacefully and affluently. Today, Dujiangyan is admired by scientists from around the world because of one feature. Unlike modern dams where the water is blocked with a huge wall, Dujiangyan still lets water flow through the Minjiang River naturally, enabling ecosystems and fish populations to exist in harmony.

Do you like doing exercise? Do you want to know the benefits from the exercise? Let's learn something about exercise. 

Exercise is any action that gets you moving. You can run, ride a bike, swim, jump rope or row a boat. It's all good for you! 

There are three kinds of exercise. One is stretching(拉伸). You may do this in dance, yoga or at the gym. When you stretch, you keep your muscles(肌肉)bendable(可弯曲的). 

Aerobic exercise(有氧运动)makes your heart beat fast. You get this kind of exercise when you walk or run. Your heart beats fast when you swim, too. 

The last kind of exercise makes your muscles strong. You build strong muscles when you lift weights. When you sprint or run fast, you make your muscles strong, too. 

You get exercise when you play tag and hide and seek. Leapfrog and ball games are also good to do. So go outside and have fun! If you keep on doing exercise, you will know the more exercise you do, the healthier and happier you will be.