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Have you got some paper, a pair of scissors and, above all, a desire to decorate your house? Then, we have the perfect holiday artwork for you: Make Star Wars snowflakes (雪花). Remembered as a cherished form of work in classrooms before the holidays, paper snowflakes have drawn many people's attention again.

The designer, Anthony Herrera, just recently released his 2013 collection. "The Star Wars snowflake designs began as just doing designs of characters that I and my daughter wanted to make three years ago," Herrera told us in an email. "The second year I introduced vehicles, and this year I decided to push further by designing battle scenes."

Sometimes, he feels a bit bored with his job. With each year, the designs have got more detailed and various, but the process of creating them remained the same: sketching (画) figures on paper with a pencil until a symmetrical (对称）pattern comes out, then scanning the designs and cut them with scissors. However, he says he has plenty of ideas for new flakes next year, so no two will ever be the same. Hopefully with Star Wars: Episode VII coming in 2015 he'll have even more work in the future.

    Check out your favorite finished versions of Herrera's flakes (from both 2013 and previous years) and download the pictures beneath them and then get down to creating your own work. A warning: Most designs aren't for the casual flake-maker, so patience you must have.

    Tornadoes are nature's most violent storms, which can cause deaths and destroy a neighborhood in seconds. A tornado appears as a funnel-shaped (漏斗状) cloud from a thunderstorm to the ground with whirling (飞快移动) winds that can reach 300 miles per hour. Damage paths can be over one mile wide and 50 miles long. Every state is at some risk from this disaster.

    Some tornadoes can be seen clearly, while rain or nearby low-hanging clouds obscure others. At many times, tornadoes develop so rapidly that little, if any, advance warning is possible.

    Before a tornado hits, the air may become very still. A cloud of debris (散片) can mark the location of a tornado even if a funnel can not be seen. Tornadoes generally occur near the edge of a thunderstorm, when the strong wind may die down. It is not uncommon to see clear, sunlit skies behind a tornado.

The following are facts about tornadoes:

    The average forward speed of a tornado is 30 MPH, but may also vary from still to 70 MPH. Debris is picked up or a cloud forms in the funnel.

    The average tornado moves from southwest to northeast, but tornadoes have been known to move in any direction. Tornadoes are most often reported east of the Rocky Mountains during spring and summer months.

    Tornadoes can happen together with tropical storms and hurricanes as they move onto land. Waterspouts are tornadoes that form over water.

    The tornado season in the southern states of America is March through May; in the northern states, it is late spring through early summer. Tornadoes are most likely to occur between 3 p.m. and 9 p.m., but can occur at any time.

    Last year, Claire Noble-Randall woke up at 5:30 am every morning. She had to catch two buses to arrive in time for first-period chemistry at Ingraham High School in Seattle, US.

    Ingraham starts at 8 am, but Noble-Randall often didn't go to sleep until after midnight. “It was really hard not to fall asleep in class,” she said.

Her mom solved the problem this year when she discovered that other parents had hired a private city tour bus to take their children to the school.

    “Now, she leaves the house at a much more reasonable time 7:10 in the morning…to catch the little tour bug at 7:23 am,” said her mother, Noelle Noble.

    That may be one way to help students get more sleep. But more than 3,300 people have signed an online petition (请愿) looking for a better solution from the Seattle school district. Those who have signed the petition want all high schools and middle schools to start no earlier than 8:30 am. Most of Seattle's high schools and middle schools start at 8 am or earlier.

    Later start times for teenagers is an idea that some parents around the nation, have wanted for years. They've provided plenty of scientific evidence that teenagers tend to be night owls and delayed start times improve their health, mood, attention, and, in some cases, learning.

    But attempts to delay start times for teenagers haven't worked. Coaches don't want late dismissals (放学) cutting into sports practices; community groups don't want to wait longer for gyms and fields and before- and after-school programs don't want to change their schedules.

    This time, however, they've got Seattle School Board. President Sharon Peaslee on their side. She herself is the mother of two high school students. Peaslee hopes other board members will pass her plan calling on the district to find a way to make the changes.

    If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.

    Men and women wearing old-fashioned, tattered(褴褛的)clothing dance in the street of towns and villages across the country during  the holiday periods. Women wear long，frilly (有 褶皱边的）skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.

    Some groups carry heavy black sticks which they bash (击打）against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air whilst they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when it's over, the dancers and spectators (观众）can sing some traditional folk songs over a pint of beer. The festivities (欢庆）will often continue long into the night, by which point most people are too drunk to think about performing again.

    Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis (危机).As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if nothing is done to change this trend, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.

    If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Putting it bluntly (直截了当地)，it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to be doing. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going clubbing (逛夜店)？ Or playing sport? Or doing anything else?

    However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and vibrant (有活力的)part of England's history and culture. It's important to look after some traditions and customs especially when it's something as harmless and happy as morris dancing. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.

    What do you want to be when you grow up? A teacher? A doctor? How about an ice-cream taster?

    Yes, there really is a job where you can get paid to taste ice cream. Just ask John Harrison, an "Official Taste Tester" for the past 21 years. Testing helps producers to be sure of a product's quality. During his career Harrison has been responsible for approving large quantities of the sweet ice cream –as well as for developing over 75 flavors(味道).

    Some people think that it would be easy to do this job; after all, you just have to like ice cream, right? No –-- there's more to the job than that, says Harrison, who has a degree in chemistry. He points out that a dairy or food-science degree would be very useful to someone wanting a career in this "cool" field.

    In a typical morning on the job, Harrison tastes and rates 60 ice-cream samples. He lets the ice cream warm up to about 12 F. Harrisonexplains, "You get more flavor from warmer ice cream, which is why some kids like to stir it, creating ice-cream soup."

    While the ice cream warms up, Harrison looks over the samples and grades each one on its appearance. "Tasting begins with the eyes," he explains. He checks to see if the ice cream is attractive and asks himself, "Does the product have the colour expected from that flavor?" Next it's time to taste!

    Continuing to think up new ideas, try out new flavors, and test samples from so many kinds of ice cream each day keeps Harrison busy but happy – working at once cool job.

Your 2019 Reading List, Provided by Bill Gates

Do you want to be a billionnaire? Most of us can't live like billionaire Microsoft co-founder Bill Gates, but we can read like him. Gates recommended four books in 2019—though some were published earlier.

Leonardo da Vinci, by Walter Isaacson (2018)

The bestselling biographer of Steve Jobs and Albert Einstein researched deeply into da Vinci's contributions beyond art, highlighting the breadth of his scientific, technological, and creative output. "Leonardo nearly understood almost all of what was known on the planet at the time. That's mostly because of his curiosity about every area of natural science and the human experience," said Gates.
The Best We Could Do: An Illustrated Memoir, by Thi Bui (2018)

Gates calls this graphic novel "really impressive". Bui is the daughter of Vietnamese refugees who came to America after the fall of Saigon, and becoming a parent inspired her to look into her own parents' miserable history. "I was struck by how the experiences Bui describes manage to be both universal and specific to their circumstances," said Gates.

Lincoln in the Bardo, by George Saunders (2018)

Saunders, a long-time short story writer, won high praise for this novel. The book imagines the ghosts that haunt (萦绕) the basement of Willie Lincoln, Abraham Lincoln's son, who died at 11 in real life. "Willie's death after the Civil War made the president have a new understanding of the grief he's creating in other families by sending their sons off to die in battle," said Gates.

Origin Story: A Big History of Everything, by David Christian (2018)

This new book is by the creator of Big History, a free, online social studies course. It traces history in wide, sweeping movements, starting with the Big Bang, and it provides, in effect, a short course in modern science. This is a brief history of the universe. "David gets a little stuck on the current economic and political problems in the West, and I wish he talked more about the role technology will play in preventing the worst effects of climate change," said Gates.