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Tail Spin

    Two dolphins race around in a big pool in the Ocean Park. The smaller dolphin Grace, shown off a few of her tricks, turning around and waving hello to the crowd. The most amazing thing about her, however, is that she's even swimming at all. She doesn't have a tail.

Grace lost her tail as a baby when she got caught up in a fish trap. When the dolphin arrived at the Ocean Park in December 2005, she was fighting for her life. “Is she going to make it?” Her trainer, Abbey Stone, feared the worst. Grace did make it — but her tail didn't. She ended up losing her flukes and the lower part of her peduncle.

Over the past six years, she has learned to swim without her tail. Dolphins swim by moving their flukes and peduncle up and down. Grace taught herself to move another way—like a fish! She pushed herself forward through the water by moving her peduncles from side to side.

    The movement put harmful pressure on Grace's backbone. So a company offered to create a man-made tail for her. The tail had to be strong enough to stay on Grace as she swam but soft enough that it wouldn't hurt her.

    The first time Grace wore the artificial tail. She soon shook it off and let it sink in the bottom of the pool. Now, she is still learning to use the tail. Some days she wears it for an hour at a time, others not at all. “The tail isn't

necessary for her to feel comfortable,” says Stone, “but it helps to keep that range of motion(动作) and build muscles(肌肉).”

    Now, the dolphin is about to get an even happier ending. This month, Grace will star in Dolphin Tale, a film that focus on her rescue and recovery. Her progress has inspired more than just a new movie. Many people travel from near and far to meet her. Seeing Grace swim with her man-made tail gives people so much courage.

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    You may like chewing gum (口香糖) after meals to stop your breath smelling bad; or your mother might use a special neutralizer (调理剂) to protect her permed hair (烫发). But have you thought about the chemical principles behind such everyday actions?

    On March 2, the Senior 3 students from the IB (International Baccalaureate, 国际文凭) classes at Beijing Huijia Private School presented their discoveries, all in fluent English. This kind of seminar is held every year to show the achievements of the IB chemistry experiment lessons offered by the school. IB is a qualification based on a common curriculum (课程) for students aged 16-18 in any country and is recognized by universities everywhere.

    "Once I saw an advertisement for xylitol (木糖醇) gum," recalled Zhang Xinju. "Suddenly an idea came to my mind: are there any chemical reactions when the xylitol is working on our teeth?"

    Zhang and his partner Bu Xuan visited several hospitals to try and find out. "Doctors know that xylitol can protect teeth, but few could explain how the chemical reactions happen," said the 17-year-old boy.

    Presenting the results of their research in English to an audience of Chinese and foreign judges was never a problem for the students.

    "Textbooks for IB students are in English, and our teachers speak in English," explained Wei Duan and Han Yu, whose research topic was "The Acid-Base Reaction (酸碱反应) in the process of Hair-Perming".

    "In Senior 1 we often referred to Chinese textbooks, but we found we could understand and express it all in English by the second year."

    Lu Jiang, the school's IB chemistry teacher and China's only IB vice-examiner, is proud that her students can apply scientific theories they learn in class to daily life.

    "You might have learned these facts from you kindergarten teachers, but few think about the theories behind them," Lu said. "This kind of practice is intended to develop the scientific thinking they will need in their future studies."

Absence   

    If a student is absent, parents are asked to contact the school and report that absence. Simply ring the school and you will be directed to the absence phone system. You should then give the name of the student and their tutor teacher.

Attendance

    School hours are 08:35 to 15:00. If a student is late, they must sign in at the Student Office.

    School times are as follows: Monday, Tuesday, Thursday and Friday.

08:35 - 09:35  Period 1

09:35 - 10:35  Period 2

10:35 - 10:50  Tutor Time

10:50 - 11:10  Interval

11:10 - 12:05  Period 3

12:05 - 13:00  Period 4

13:00 - 13.45  Lunch

13:45 - 14:05  School-wide reading

14:05 - 15:00  Period 5

Wednesday Only

09:00 - 09:55  Period 1

09:55 - 10:50  Period 2

Rest of the times are the same as for the other days.

Cellphones

    The current cell phone policy is that, although permitted at school, they must not be used or turned on during class time.

    Do you like eating processed meat? If you do, think twice now if you want to eat such meat for the sake of your health. Why? It's because eating processed meat can cause cancer, World Health Organization (WHO) experts said last Monday.

    Processed meat is the meat that has been preserved by salting, smoking, drying or canning. Experts from the WHO's International Agency for Research on Cancer (IARC) in Lyon, France studied 800 patients. The experts connected processed meat, such as hot dogs and bacon, with at least three kinds of cancer. A person who eats 50 grams of processed meat per day—about two pieces of bacon—increases his or her risk of bowel(肠) cancer by 18 percent.

    The IARC has included processed meat in its Group 1 list, for which there is “enough evidence” of connection with cancer. Tobacco is also on the Group 1 list.

WHO experts also say red meat, including beef, lamb and pork, is “probably” carcinogenic (致癌的) to humans. Dr. Kurt Strait is with the IARC. He said in a statement that the risk of cancer increases with the amount of meat a person eats. Health experts in some countries advised against eating large amounts of red and processed meat. But those suggestions had been centered on the increased risk of heart disease and obesity.

    However, meat industry groups protest the result of the WHO study. They say that meat is part of a balanced diet. They also say the causes of cancer are broad, and include environment and lifestyle factors.

    The WHO report cites the Global Burden of Disease project, which shows that diets high in processed meat lead to 34,000 cancer deaths per year worldwide.

    Nola (August 21, 1974 -November 22, 2015) was a northern white rhino who lived at the San Diego Zoo Safari Park near Escondido, California. At her death, she was one of only four remaining northern white rhinos in the world. The other three lived in Kenya. World Rhino Day, held on September 2, is to raise awareness(意识) of the less than 30,000 other rhinos left on Earth.

    “Rhinos need our help today, not tomorrow,” Nola's lead keeper Jane Kennedy said. “Last year we lost over 1,200 rhinos just in South Africa. If we continue to lose more than 1,000 rhinos a year, in 10 to 20 years all the rhinos on the planet will be gone.”

    “Unfortunately, most animals are in danger of dying out because of humans,” Kennedy says.“ Humans have either poached animals, or because there are over seven billion of us, we've taken up too much of the world's resources”. Poachers illegally hunt rhinos for their horns. They sell the horns for thousands of dollars per pound, to be used for art, jewelry, and decorations. Experts believe that one rhino is poached every eight hours.

    In 1975, the San Diego Zoo Institute for Conservation Research started the Frozen Zoo, a program through which researchers have collected cell (细胞) samples from more than 8,000 different types of animals, including the northern white rhino. Scientists hope that by studying the rhino cells, they will get greater understanding of it, and will find ways to increase its numbers.

    Jane Kennedy describes World Rhino Day as “a celebration of rhinos along with an awareness campaign for everybody across the world to know that rhinos need our help.”At the San Diego Zoo, children and adults are welcome to visit and speak with zookeepers to learn about rhinos. But you don't have to live in San Diego to celebrate World Rhino Day. It is observed around the world, with zoos and wildlife parks holding special events and programs to teach people about rhinos, and enable them to see the animals up close. For more information, go to www.worldrhinoday.org.

    Before you make friends, you have to decide who you want to be your friends.

    Most people like to have friends who like to do the same kind of things they do.

    The quickest way to make a friend is to smile. When you smile, people think you are friendly and easy to talk to. It may not be easy at first to smile, but remember most people will stay away from a scaled or angry looking.

    One easy way to start a conversation with someone is to say something nice about him. Think about how great you feel when someone says something nice to you. Doesn't it make you want to keep talking to that person?

    Ask your new friends questions about themselves. Who's their favourite singer, where do they live, what do they do after school are all good questions to start a conversation. Make sure you have something to add to the conversation, too. Then someone asks you a question, do have an answer for it. There is nothing that will stop a conversation quicker than a shrug for an answer.

    Kids who show an interest in other kids and who are kind and friendly make good friends. Remember, everyone wants to be around people who like to do similar things and people who are nice to them.