A 9-year-old boy in Indian stopped a would-be carjacker（劫车贼）on Christmas Day from running away with his father's truck.

    Kevin Cooksey was inside the One Stop Express gas station in Kokomo buying medicine for his wife when a man jumped into the driver's seat of his truck. Cooksey had left the engine running and the door unlocked.

    "When I saw my truck door open, I was astonished, 'Oh my God, what am I going to tell my wife?'" Cooksey said.

    His son, Larry, was sitting in the back seat. "As soon as he opened the door, I got frightened," said Larry. "So I pulled out the gun and pointed it to his head."

    This was enough to make the carjacker think twice and he jumped out of the truck to try another car. Parked beside Cooksey's truck was Kyle Sparling's black Trailblazer. He too had left the engine running as he went into the store. The man got in Sparling's SUV and took off.

    "I didn't know what to think, I just kind of ran outside and watched him," said Sparling.

    As the man sped off, Cooksey told Sparling to get into his truck and the two men began to run after him. The icy winter conditions made the driving difficult, but the pair followed at a safe distance as the carjacker drove in a "Z" way. After a few miles, the carjacker knocked into the sign of a local business, American Tool and Party Rental. Cooksey and Sparling called the police to the place.

    The police put 32-year-old Ollie Dunn into prison. Sparling's car was damaged in the wheel, and the windscreen got cracked after the sign fell on it. "I was just glad he didn't knock into anybody," Sparling said. "That was my biggest fear, I think."

    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.

    BEIJING (News Agency) — Children in China today spend five times more money than their parents did when they were young.

    So what are all these children buying? The list is long: iPads, cell phones and jeans are typical items that children “have to” buy. And they will do anything to get them. They ask their parents over and over until they buy them.

    But parents also need to take the blame(责备) for spending so much money. They want their children to have the best things. They end up competing with other parents over whether their children have the latest products.

    So it's no wonder children find it hard to learn the importance of saving money rather than spending it all the time.

    And it's hard to save when companies use advertising (打广告)and clever slogans (口号) to encourage young people to buy their products. They even encourage children to keep asking their parents for something until they get it.

    Today, you don't even need to have money in order to buy something. Banks give out credit cards and loans (贷款) all the time, so people are saving less and less. We are used to carrying lots of money around. And if you don't have much, you can always borrow some.

    But this hasn't always been the case. When our grandparents were young, there was very little money and everyone had to save hard for things they bought. They only bought things they needed, not things they just wanted.

    The older generation made the wise expression, “Money doesn't grow on trees.” This is as true now as it was 50 years ago. They give money a great deal of value. And we all have a lot to learn from them.

    "Mum, what does it mean when someone tells you that they have a skeleton（骨骼）in the closet（衣橱）?" Jessica asked. "A skeleton in the closet?" her mother paused thoughtfully, "Well, it's something that you would rather not have anyone else know about. For example, if in the past, someone in Dad's family had been arrested for stealing a horse. It would be a skeleton in his family's closet'. He really wouldn't want any neighbor to know about it."

    "Why pick on my family?" Jessica's father said with anger. "Your family history isn't so good, you know. Wasn't your great-great-grandfather a prisoner who was transported to Australia for his crimes?" "Yes, but people these days say that you are not a real Australian unless your ancestors arrived as prisoners." Gosh, sorry I asked. I think I understand now," Jessica cut in before things grew worse.

    After dinner, the house was very quite. Jessica's parents were still quite angry with each other. Her mother was ironing clothes and every now and then she glared at her husband, who hid behind his newspaper pretending to read. When she finished, she gathered the freshly pressed clothes in her arms and walked to Jessica's closet. Just as she opened the door and reached in to hang a skirt, a bony arm stuck out from the dark depths and a bundle of white bones fell to the floor, Jessica's mother sank into a faint（晕倒）, walking only when Jessica put a cold, wet cloth on her forehead. She looked up to see the worried faces of her husband and daughter.

    "What happened? Where am I?" she asked. "You just destroyed the school's skeleton, Mum," explained Jessica, "I brought it home to help me with my health project. I meant to tell you, but it seemed that as soon as I mentioned skeletons and closets, it caused a problem between you and Dad." Jessica looked in amazement as her parents began to laugh madly. "They are both crazy," she thought.

    What would it be like to live on Mars? Volunteers are spending eight months in an area that looks much like the surface of Mars. They are isolated(孤立)high on top of Mauna Loa, a volcanic mountain on the Big Island of Hawaii, living on a simulated(模仿的) or make-believe, Mars Base.

    The project called HI-SEAS is in the charge of Kim Binsted. She says this wild environment is as close to Mars as you can find on Earth. Because it is so high, the land is not warm or rich with plants, like the rest of Hawaii.

    "You will see there is really no visible plant life or animal life. And you have got this wonderful volcanic material."

    Mauna Loa, 2,500 meters above sea level, is geologically very similar to Olympus Mons on Mars and almost as tall as the Martian mountain. When measured from its base, deep in the ocean, Mauna Loa is the second largest mountain in our solar system, after the one on Mars.

    The six member HI-SEAS crew is mostly self-sufficient. Food and supplies are brought to them. But the individuals bringing those supplies cannot communicate with volunteers inside the habitat, or base.

    Kim Binsted says this experiment looks at how the astronauts get along with each other. "We study how well they work together, how we can keep them happy and supported, and not wanting to kill each other over these long durations (期间)."

    Crew members communicate with the outside world through e-mail and blogs. They also produce video on the YouTube website, like this one from mission commander Martha Lenio. "I am really enjoying this opportunity to live here and pretend that I'm on Mars and get to learn all sorts of new skills." One of them said. "Whoever gets there first, the trip will not be easy", says Kim Binsted, "It is going to be challenging."

    Nine years ago, when the closest and largest full moon fell on March 19, 2011, many people used the term, "supermoon", which we had never heard before. In 2012, we heard this term again to describe the year's closest full moon on May 6, 2012. Supermoons also appeared in 2013, 2014, 2015, 2017 and 2019.

    What does "supermoon" mean exactly? And how special was the March 19, 2011 supermoon?

    The word "supermoon" didn't come from astronomy. Instead, it came from astrology (占星学). In 1979, astrologer Richard Nolle defined it as a new or full moon which occurs at or near its closest point to the earth in its orbit. In short, the earth, moon and sun are all in a line, with the moon at its nearest point to the earth.

And the full moon of March 19, 2011 was the largest moon of that year. This "supermoon" was at perigee (近地点) — its closest point to the earth in its orbit. It was bigger and brighter than other full moons of 2011. Astronomers call this sort of close full moon a perigee full moon.

    That doesn't sound very special, does it? In fact, the March 2011 full moon lined up much more closely with perigee than Nolle's original definition. But were you able to notice with your eyes alone that this full moon was bigger or brighter than usual? Astronomers said no. But it was fun to stand outside under this full moon and know that the moon was closer than ever.

    In 2019, there were three supermoons. The first supermoon of 2019 was the Super Blood Wolf Moon on January 21, which occurred with a total lunar eclipse (月全食) at the same time, also known as a "blood moon". The second supermoon of 2019 was on February 19, also called the Snow Moon, which was the closest full moon of the year. The third and final supermoon of 2019, known by Native Americans as the Worm Moon, occurred on March 21. It fell on the day of the vernal equinox (春分), which signals the end of winter and the beginning of spring.