Orville Wright was born on August 19, 1871 in Dayton, Ohio, USA and died on January 30, 1948. Together with his brother, Wilbur, he was the first airplane builder. The brothers created the first controlled, powered and heavier-than-air human flight.

    His parents were Milton Wright and Susan Catherine Koerner and besides the two famous brothers they had five children. One day after a trip his father brought as a gift a small helicopter. The kids loved it and as they played daily with it after a while it broke. The brothers managed to create a new one. Wright even let go his plans of attending Yale. He spent his time helping his ill mother and reading in his father's library.

    In 1884 the family decided to move to Dayton and they remained there until the 1870's. A printing press was built by the two and Wilbur was an editor. In 1892 they started being fascinated by the aeronautical （航空的） events of that time. Then they started to create an airplane and Wilbur was considered the head of the team. They were the inventors of “three axis-control”, which permitted the pilot to steer the aircraft's balance.

    In 1900 they had their first attempts to make a functional glider（滑翔机）— of course it didn't have a pilot. After three years they thought of introducing an engine to the glider. At first, their patent(专利) application was refused in 1903, but after one year it was accepted.

    Orville's first flight lasted 12 seconds and had 36.5 meters. He was responsible with the public shows near Washington in the United States. On September 9, 1908 his flight was 62 minutes and 15 seconds long and the success was huge.

    In our daily life, it is necessary to make small talk in some situations. It helps to fill time between people when it is very quiet. You may not feel like talking with someone else or you are very shy at the beginning, but it is sometimes thought to be not polite to say nothing.

    People use small talk almost every day. It usually takes place when you meet someone you don't know at all or someone you're not familiar with. For example, waiters and hairdressers often make small talk with their customers（顾客）. If you happen to be outside when the postman comes to your door, you might make small talk with him, too.

    Most often, small talk happens in places where people are waiting for something. For example, you might talk with another person who is waiting for the bus to arrive. People also make small talk in a doctor's waiting room, or when they are waiting in a line to buy something. At the office, people make small talk in lunch rooms, especially if there is a line-up. Mingling is often required（要求）among people who don't know each other very well at a party. That is to say, they are expected to walk around and talk with others.

    The most common time for small talk to happen is the first time you see or meet someone on a given day. For example, if you see a neighbor in the waiting room of the airport you might say hello and discuss the sports or weather. However, the next time you see each other you might just smile and say nothing. If there is very little noise, it might be the right time to start a pleasant conversation. If someone is reading a book at the bus stop, it is probably not a good idea to start a conversation. Another good time to make small talk is during a break in a meeting when there is nothing important going on. However, it is important to recognize the signal when the other person wants the conversation to stop.

    At first, Michael Surrell didn't see the black smoke or flames shooting from the windows of his neighbors' home. Then they got a call from one of his daughters: "The house next door is on fire!" He went over and saw three women crying madly on their porch (门廊).

    "The baby's in the second floor!" one of the women cried. Though the fire department had been called, Surrell, then 64, bravely ran inside. "The baby" was Tiara Roberts, the woman's granddaughter and a playmate of Surrell's three youngest kids.

Entering the burning house was like "running into a bucket of black paint," Surrell says. The thick smoke caused him to stumble blindly around, burned his eyes, and made it impossible to breathe. The conditions would have been dangerous for anyone, but for Surrell, who has chronic obstructive pulmonary disease(慢性阻塞性肺病), they were life-threatening.

    Taking a deep breath, he moved around in the overwhelming darkness. Because the house had a similar layout to his, he found the stairs and made it to the second floor. Then he heard a soft but clear moan. Still unable to see, Surrell fell to his knees on the hot wood floor. He crawled toward the sound, feeling around for any sign of the girl. Finally, he touched something. A shoe, then an ankle. He pulled Tiara toward him, scooped her into his arms and stood. Turning, he fought through the smoke and ran blindly into the blackness…

    Surrell woke up in the hospital a couple of days later and spent over a week in the hospital. Tiara was released from the hospital after a few days. The fire worsened Surrell's pulmonary condition, and he feels the effects even two years later. As a result, he takes extra medication that helps open his airways. "It's a small price to pay," he says. "I'd do it again in a heartbeat. I wouldn't give it a second thought."

    Director James Cameron went to new depths for his film-making on Sunday by setting the world record for the deepest ocean dive by a single person.

    This type of extreme research is nothing new to the director. Cameron, 57, is most famous for directing Titanic (1997) and Avantar (2009). During the several years of research for Titanic, he famously traveled to the bottom of the ocean to visit the sunken ship. He also visited the deep sea as research for his fictional 1989 film. The Abyss, which is about a submarine that comes across an alien species. "Most people know me as a film-maker," Cameron said. "But the idea of exploring the ocean has always been the stronger drive in my life."

    Cameron and his team had been preparing for the trip for seven years. On Sunday, Cameron took more than two and a half hours to make the dangerous 6.8-mile journey down to the Trench, an area with near-freezing temperatures, no sunlight, and heavy water pressure. Cameron traveled in a 24-foot-long mini-submarine he helped design, equipped with lights and 3D cameras for filming the adventure. It also had a mechanical arm for collecting samples of soil and deep-sea creatures. Humans had not visited the Mariana Trench since two divers first reached the deep-sea spot in 1960. The divers Don Walsh and Swiss oceanographer Jacques Piccard spent 20 minutes there but could hardly see anything. They took no pictures.

    In his well-equipped submarine, Cameron was able to spend three hours in the Trench, exploring and filming. He plans to use his recordings in a 3D film production for movie theaters and for a National Geographic TV special. "I see this as the beginning," Cameron said. "It's not a one-time deal. This is just the beginning of opening up this new frontier."

Land of fire and ice: Iceland

    Join an unforgettable tour of Iceland's splendid landscapes, timed to arrange four days filled with volcanic and geological adventure, and evening opportunities to see the Aurora Borealis.

    Day 1: Vatnajokull Glacier (冰川)

    Today you'll take a walk on Europe's biggest ice cap-Vatnajokull-which has around 30 glaciers flowing out from it. No experience is necessary to take part in the hike. It's discouraging to think that the glacier is retreating due to rising world temperatures, and in future years the glacier may be gone. If you prefer a relaxing morning you can explore the surroundings of the farm stay and head to the Thorbergur Centre.

    Day 2: Secret lagoon (泻湖) and Reykjavik

    This morning we make our way to the Lava Centre which is an interactive, high-tech educational exhibition describing volcanic activity, earthquakes and the creation of Iceland over millions of years. After our visit, we will continue to the Secret Lagoon natural hot springs, located in the small village called Fludir, giving you the opportunity to relax in the warm waters before travelling to Reykjavik.

    Day 3: Reykjanes peninsula (半岛)

    Head out to the Reykjanes Peninsula. It is a land-born highly volcanic counterpart of the Mid-Atlantic Spreading Ridge where two tectonic plates part at an average rate of 2.0-2.5 cm/yr. Four volcanic systems and fissure (裂缝) groups line the peninsula from SW to NE. They contain open fissures, normal faults, high-temperature fields and volcanic fissures.

    Day 4: Depart Reykjavik

    Today is departure day and time to say "sjaumst". Your group departure transfer will take you to the airport for your flight home.

Rosie, a first-year university student in Beijing, entered a classroom for her oral English exam and slid her topic across the table to Joe, a foreign teacher. My Story, it read. "In middle school, my classmates laughed at me for having deaf-mute parents," she began softly. "From that moment on, I decided not to tell anybody. But today…"

It's widely considered taboo(忌讳) in Chinese to discuss the details of an unhappy family life with anyone other than very close friends. However, as Joe has noticed, many Chinese students appear surprisingly comfortable discussing emotional moments from their lives when they speak with foreign teachers in a language different from their own.

"Speaking English," one of his Chinese students told him, "I feel like another person." When speaking Chinese, he is kind of reserved; in English class, he is more open. English, to the Chinese speaker, may be like a mask, creating a buffer(缓冲物)between speaking the truth and the listener's reaction. Students focus on how to speak rather than what is being said. If there's a misunderstanding, English can take the blame.

Another reason why Chinese students are more comfortable sharing their secrets during English class may be the distinct approach to teaching used by their foreign teachers. "I always try to come to each student, make eye contact, have a 20-second conversation and see how they are doing," Joe said. Classes taught by Chinese teachers, in contrast, are more formal. Many students said they had never been asked their opinion in class.

Rosie's English vocabulary is now extensive, but she still can't find the words to describe her feelings towards the English language. "English makes me feel I am different," she said. "English is beautiful."