{#blank#}1{#/blank#} one of the best things you can possibly do is to start you own club. it's great fun especially if you are the sort of person who feels there's never anything to do during the school holidays.

    the first thing you need to come up with is an idea for your club. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} pets, clothes, pop music or dancing groups, sports, making things? the list is endless.

    next you need some friends to be in your club with you. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} all you need is three or four other people who are interested in the same thing as you.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} you should all sit down somewhere together with lots of pieces of paper and write down every name you can think up. that'll keep you busy for ages.

    at your first meeting you should make up a rule book. and the first rule should be no grown-ups or little/big brothers or sisters! the best clubs are always secret!

    now you have just about everything you need, except membership cards. these are very important and again you can spend a lot of time making them.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} why not leave some space for a photo of yourself? that will make the membership card really look like it.

    so there you are, get clubbing! once you get started you'll think of loads of more interesting things to do!

A.that's easy.

B.enjoy your own club!

C. invite a designer to join you.

D. what are you interested in?

E.some vacation is just around the corner.

F. then you need to pick a name for your club.

G.use a bright thick pen to make a special design.

    For thousands of years comets have been a mystery to man. They travel across the sky very fast and have a bright “tail” of burning gas. The comet Tempel 1 has an orbit（轨道） far outside the orbit of the furthest planet in our solar system, Pluto. It has been there for 4.6 billion years, 133 million kilometers from Earth. Last week a little American spacecraft crashed into Tempel 1. The spacecraft had a camera and it took a photograph of the comet every minute before it finally crashed into its surface.

    The space mission to Tempel 1 cost $335 million and was called Deep Impact. The spacecraft was travelling at 37,000 kilometers per hour when it hit the comet and the crash completely destroyed the spacecraft. But before it hit the comet, the spacecraft took some amazing photographs. The last one was a close-up picture which the spacecraft took just 3 seconds before it crashed into the comet.

    “Right now we have lost one spacecraft,” said a delighted NASA engineer. Deep Impact was like a American Independence Day fireworks display. It took many years to plan and ended in an enormous explosion. 

    The spacecraft which crashed into the comet was made of copper and was the size of a washing machine. It was dropped from a mothership into the path of the comet and the mothership then photographed the cloud of ice, dust and organic chemicals that rose from the surface of the comet after the crash.

    The crash completely destroyed the spacecraft but nothing really happened to the comet: experts believe that the crash slowed the comet down by no more than 1/10,000 of a millimeter a second.The aim of the mission was to study for the first time the interior of a comet.

    The mothership was 480 km from the explosion and observed the crash and the explosion with instruments for 800 seconds. Seven satellites, including the Hubble space telescope, watched the moment of drama, and over the next day and night about 50 telescopes on Earth were watching the distant comet.

    Do you often lose things? Don't worry. Now a new tool that can be connected to any object you might lose may be the way to solve your problem. The Tile, a small square connected to your iPhone or iPad by means of Bluetooth, allows you to see how close you are to your missing item, within a 50-to-150-foot range (范围). If the item goes out of your phone's 150-foot range, it can still be found on other smart phones with the same app.

    When you drive the app on your phone, it shows you, with green bars that increase or decrease, how close or far away you are from the Tile. You can also program it to make a sound when you get close to the Tile. And you can connect your phone with up to ten Tiles. And if your lost object—a dog, for example, or a stolen bike—go out of your own phone's 150-foot Bluetooth range, you can set it as a “lost item”. If any of the phones with the Tile app comes within range of your lost item, a message will be sent to your phone, telling you its position. The Tile app also has the ability to remember where it last saw your Tile, so that you can easily find where you left it.

    Since the Tiles use Bluetooth rather than GPS, they are never out of battery or needn't to be charged, and they work for one year before needing to be replaced. And the app works with all generations of iPhones and iPads.

For further information, please visit www.tile666.com.

    If you want to convince the boss you deserve a pay rise or promotion, the solution could be simple —eat the same food as they do. Psychologists have discovered managers are much more likely to instantly trust us if we choose the same dishes as them.

    During experiments, discussions over wages and work conditions were much more successful if both sides chose to snack on the same treats. And shoppers were much more likely to buy a product advertised on TV by someone eating a similar food to them at the time.

The reason is thought to be so - called similarity attraction theory—where people tend to like others who have similar tastes or habits to themselves. But this is believed to be one of the first studies highlighting the role of food in this relationship. Researchers at Chicago University in the US conducted a series of experiments to examine food's role in earning trust.

In a test, participants were told to watch TV — where someone pretending to be a member of the public praised a certain product. The volunteers were given Kit Kat bars to nibble, while the TV people ate either a Kit Kat or grapes as they talked.

    The results showed viewers were much more likely to express an interest in buying the product if the TV showed the other person eating a Kit Kat too.

    The researchers added, “Although similarity in food consumption is not a sign of whether two people will get along, we find consumers treat this as such. They feel more trusting of those who consume as they do. It means people can immediately begin to feel friendship and develop a bond, leading to smoother transactions from the start.”

    Harley Street psychologist Dr Lucy Atcheson said it was already known that wearing similar clothes could instantly create trust. But this was the first report that food had the same effect. She said, “This is really interesting. It makes sense as people feel they have common ground and can trust the other person. That means negotiations are more likely to be successful.”

    In 2011, the old style Malta buses were taken off the road and replaced by modern vehicles. Most of the old buses were deserted, a few were sold, and about 100 of them were put into storage in the hope of showing them in a museum at some stage.

    A pre-2011 visit to Malta wouldn't have been complete without a ride on one of the colorful buses. Until 1973 you could tell the destination of the bus just by looking at its color — Sliema was green and white, Zabbar was red and white with a blue stripe(条纹)etc. . Later, the buses all had numbers. For a while, they were all painted green and white before the ‘final' orange, yellow and white.

    In their prime, walking around the Triton fountain at the Valletta bus station, you would have found it very difficult to see two buses of exactly the same design. Most of them had locally built bodies. On the front of the buses carried names like Dodge, Leyland, Bedford etc. You were equally likely to find football pennants(锦旗)and the like decorating the cabs. Real bus experts would have recognized that these were there mainly for decorative reasons, and were seldom an accurate reflection of the vehicle's origins.

    Nowadays much more modern buses are to be found at the Floriana bus station. They are more environmentally friendly and possibly even more comfortable than the older types. However, I miss the old buses. I remember, when you boarded your bus, you had to prepare the correct change to pay the usually bad-tempered driver as you got on. If you were seated anywhere near the front, you would have noticed that most drivers sat well to the right of their steering wheel. The reason for this, as any Maltese would tell you, was to leave space for their pet to sit alongside them. I wonder where the pet sits these days.

Scholastic Art & Writing Awards

The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards are among the most famous awards for student achievement in the literary and visual arts. Past winners include such short story masters as Donald Barthelme, Joyce Carol Oates, and Stephen King.

The contest offers several categories relevant to short story writers: short story, flash fiction, science fiction, humor, and writing collection (graduating seniors only).

Who can enter? The contest is open to students in grades 9 to 12 (including homeschool-ers) in the US, Canada, or American schools abroad.

What do winners receive? The contest offers a variety of scholarships (some as high as $ 10,000) and cash awards (some as high as $ 1,000) at both the regional level and he national level. Winners may also receive certificates of recognition and opportunities for publication.

How are entries judged? The awards have three judging standards: originality, technical skill, and the reflection of a personal vision or voice. Be sure to read past winners to get an idea of what's been successful. The judges change every year, but they always include people who are highly accomplished in their field.

When is the deadline? Competition guidelines are updated in September, and submissions are usually accepted from September through early January. Regional Gold Key winners will automatically advance to the national competition.

How do I enter? All students begin by entering a regional competition based on their ZIP code. See the guidelines for additional information.