It is probably the strangest sport anyone has ever invented. And at first sight, it looks like the easiest. Competitors have to do two things. The first is to stand still. The second is to place their hands anywhere on the body of a car, and keep it there.

    This is where things start getting difficult. Lots of people are doing the same thing. And the winner of the “handstand” contest is the person who can carry on doing it for the longest time. That person gets to own the car.

It still seems to be an easy thing to do. At the beginning it is. Anyone can stand still. But when the contest has been going for four or five days, standing still seems like the most difficult job in the world . And keeping the hand in place over this time becomes an act of serious attention. After a few days, the hand seems to belong to someone else—-someone who wants to go home and get some sleep.

    Competitors are allowed to take a five-minute break every hour to eat, drink or do whatever else is necessary. No one is allowed to lean on the car for support. Winners need to be able to show great powers of attention. They also need to be able to develop special skills.

    Maybe the popularity of the “handathon” is due to the fact that it is not necessary to be a trained athlete to enter. Competitors in the Longview handathon certainly don't seem to do much preparation. Most say they will prepare by “getting lots of sleep”. Others say they will “eat healthy food” or “pray for success”.  The whole event gives ordinary people the chance to do something interesting and win something in the end.

    Handathons are competitions, but there is little rivalry (竞争) between competitors. They help each other out and keep each other's spitits up. People who drop out early return with food, drink and encouragement.

    Here are some of the smartest animals in the world.

Pigs

    Pigs are actually very smart animals. Pigs are one of the cleanest if they are given a choice. If you provide them with enough space, they will make sure they separate their dining area from their living space. Studies have also shown that they can actually be good at video games. To get food, they will follow other pigs and then steal it from right under their noses. The victimized(受害的)pigs will then come out wiser from this. They will change their behavior next time to prevent other pigs from stealing from them.

Crows

    They are smart and creative, with the highest IQ among all birds. Crows have been known to throw nuts and shells on a road so that cars will drive over and open them. They also have the ability to make knives to cut leaves and grass.

Elephants

    They have extremely large brains, even bigger than humans'. They bury(埋葬)their dead families and friends properly, the only other animal to do this besides humans. They also know which leaves are medicinal and will eat specific plants depending on the sickness they are feeling. They also have the ability to recognize themselves in the mirror.

Bottlenose Dolphins

    They actually have the ability to watch television on the their own because of their ability to process acoustic and visual(视觉和听觉)information at the same time. They can also recognize themselves in the mirror, which they use to inspect their own bodies. Their comprehension skills are very high. Studies have shown that they even have the ability to choose the “I don't know” option during difficult tests.

    Most American students go to traditional public schools. There are about 88,000 public schools all over the US. Some students attend about 3,000 independent public schools called charter schools.

    Charter schools are self­governing. Private companies operate some charter schools. They are similar in some ways to traditional public schools. They receive tax just as other public schools do. Charter schools must prove to local or state governments that their students are learning. These governments provide the schools with the agreement called a charter that permits them to operate.

    Charter schools are different because they do not have to obey most laws governing traditional public schools. Local, state or federal governments cannot tell them what to teach. Each school can choose its own goals and decide the ways it wants to reach them. Class size is usually smaller than in traditional public schools.

    Governments strongly support charter schools as a way to re­organize public schools that are failing to educate students. But some education agencies and unions oppose charter schools. One teachers' union has just made public the results of the first national study comparing the progress of students in traditional schools and charter schools.

    The American Federation of Teachers criticized the government's delay in releasing the results of the study, which is called the National Assessment of Educational Progress. Union education experts say the study shows that charter school students performed worse in math and reading tests than students in regular public schools.

    Some experts say the study is not a fair look at charter schools because students in those schools have more problems than students in traditional schools. Other education experts say the study results should make charter school officials demand more student progress.

    For centuries, dolphins have got our admiration, and it is easy to see why. They are beautiful, cute and smart sea animals. Dolphins are not fish, but warm-blooded animals. They live in groups, and speak to each other in their own language. In this way, they are like other animals, such as bees and birds. But dolphins are very different from almost all land animals. It is said that dolphins are the world's second brightest creatures after humans and have many brain features related to intelligence. Their brain is nearly the same size as our own, and they live a long time at least twenty or thirty years.

    Like some animals, dolphins use sound to help them find their way around. They also make these sounds to talk to each other and to help them find food. We now know they do not use their ears to receive these sounds, but the lower part of the mouth, called the jaw.

    Strangely, dolphins seem to like man, and for thousands of years there have been stories about the dolphin and its friendship with people.

    There is a story about sailors in the 19th century. In a dangerous part of the sea off the coast of New Zealand, they learnt to look for a dolphin called Jack. From 1871 to 1903, Jack met every boat in the area and showed it the way. Then in 1903 a passenger on a boat called The Penguin shot and wounded Jack. He recovered and for nine years more continued to guide all ships through the area－except for The Penguin.

    Today, some people continue to kill dolphins, but many countries of the world now protect them and in these places it is against the law to kill them.

    Many people spend more than four hours per day on We Chat, and it is redefining the word “friend.” Does friending someone on social media make him or her your friend in real life?

    Robin Dunbar, a professor at Oxford University, found that only 15, of the 150 Facebook friends the average user has, could be counted as actual friends and only five as close friends. We Chat may show a similar pattern.

    Those with whom you attended a course together, applied for the same part-time job, went to a party and intended to cooperate but failed take up most of your WeChat friends. In chat records, the only message may be a system notice, “You have accepted somebody's friend request”. Sometimes when seeing some photos shared on “Moments”, you even need several minutes to think about when you became friends. Also, you may be disturbed by mass messages (群发信息) sent from your unfamiliar “friends”, including requests for voting for their children or friends, links from Pinduoduo.com (a Chinese e-commerce platform that allows users to buy items at lower prices if they purchase in groups) and cookie-cutter (千篇一律的) blessings in holidays.

    You would have thought about deleting this type of “friends” and sort out your connections. But actually you did not do that as you were taught that social networking is valuable to one's success. Besides, it would be really awkward if they found that you have unfriended them already. Then, you keep increasing your “friends” in social media and click “like” on some pictures that you are not really interested. But the fact is that deep emotional connections do not come with the increasing number of your friends in social media.

    If the number of your friends reaches 150, maintaining these relationships can be tough to you, and sometimes even will make you anxious. According to Robin Dunbar, 150 is the limit of the number of people with whom one can maintain stable social relationships.

    Jarrett Little was road testing his mountain bike outside of Columbus, Georgia, when his riding partner, Chris Dixon, stopped suddenly. Something in the distance moving among the trees had caught her attention. It turned out to be a sandy-colored five-month-old puppy.

    "He was really thin, ribs showing, and a broken leg," Little told John Parks, a reporter from CBS News. The cyclists fed the friendly pup and shared their water. They also quickly realized that the dog was coming with them, although they had no idea how. They were more than seven miles from downtown and riding bikes. "We couldn't leave him," Little said. "Out there next to the Oxbow Meadows, he was going to become the lunch of an alligator living in the river."

    Suddenly, Little had an idea. He carefully picked up his new friend and slipped the 38-pound dog's hind legs (后肢) into the back pockets of his cycling jacket. Then he hung the dog's front paws over his shoulders.

    "He was injured, so he wasn't trying to fight," Little says. "He was also happy that we were there, touching him, and hadn't taken off on him."

    The group's 30-minute ride into town ended at a bike store, where they got more water and food for the dog. That was when Andrea Shaw, an accountant from Maine in town on business, happened by. The dog made a headed straight for her, licking and "loving on her," says Dixon. Shaw was struck and, after learning what had happened, declared her intentions: "I am keeping this dog."

    Shaw called him Columbo and scheduled an operation on his leg. Today, Columbo is living the high life on a farm with a horse, a pony, a six-year-old boy, to keep him company. As Dixon told John Parks, "He is literally the luckiest dog alive."