From Dusner (3 speakers) to Kelabit (5 thousand) to Yiddish (1.5 million), these languages are spread, but like the Indian elephant, they are in danger of dying out. Dr. Chris Mazdzer, a researcher at Oxford University, organizing a meeting on endangered languages thinks there could be a novel way to keep minority languages alive: social media. He says, “Because young people text each other how they speak, even if they don't know how to spell it.”

    Minority languages are often at risk of being drowned（淹死）out by the bigger ones, which are spoken at school and in the media. But the appearance of Facebook and Twitter might just have the unexpected effect. Dr. Mazdzer speaks Frisian, which has 350,000 speakers. Communicating with his own language has given him thought about how languages could be saved in the future. “In Friesland, young people who don't learn much Frisian at school send each messages on social media in Frisian”, he says. In this way, a new generation of Frisian speakers keeps the language alive.

    Though many of these languages only have a few speakers, it's not just a small number of speakers that make a language endangered. Some languages were once widely spoken, but lost speakers over time. This can happen for many reasons, like only one language spoken in school or people moving away from their home and losing their language.

    Tweeting and texting in Frisian (or Sorbian, or Breton) is not enough in the long term, though. There are many other things we need to do. But why is a language worth saving in the first place? Because our languages are natural creations. Natural beauty needs to be protected.

    Here is some general information about Edison Elementary School. For more information, you can visit our website which is printed on the cover.

    Attendance：

    Please contact the office at 480－472－5282 if your child is going to be absent.

    Renaissance Reading：

    The Accelerated Reader (AR) Program is a computerized reading enrichment program that combines great children's literature with computer skills. As an individualized reading program, it is designed to motivate students to read more and to read good literature. Students of different abilities can use this program. It is not a competitive program but one that improves any student's reading ability.

    Here is how it works. Students select books in their reading range from our Accelerated Reader Selection and read it at their own pace. Once the student has completed the book, he/she is ready to take an AR quiz. Each quiz consists of 5, 10, or 20 multiple choice comprehensive questions about the book.

    After taking the quiz, the computer shows the student how many questions he/she answered correctly, shows the correct answers for missed questions, and praises the students' efforts with an on­screen personalized message. Passing the quiz assures the teacher and the parent that the child actually read and understood the book. Each student tests independently—reading the quiz questions himself/herself.

    The computer keeps track of reading points, books, and average test scores, as well as other data. A student may test on a book only once and should, therefore, have thoroughly read and understood the contents before taking the quiz. Each student is responsible for reading the screen to be sure the quiz, by title and author, is the correct one he/she wishes to take.

    Students are recognized for their accomplishments with praise from the teachers and special recognition at the classroom level when individual and/or classroom goals are met.

    PTO：We have an active Parent Teacher Organization. They have monthly meetings, check the calendar for the meeting times and places.

    Memory, they say, is a matter of practice and exercise. If you have the wish and really make a conscious(自觉的) effort, then you can quite easily improve your ability to remember things. But even if you are successful, there are times when your memory seems to play tricks on you.

    Sometimes you remember things that really did not happen. One morning last week, for example, I got up and found that I had left the front door unlocked all night, yet I clearly remember locking it carefully the night before.

    Memory “tricks” work the other way as well. Once in a while you remember not doing something, and then find out that you did. One day last month, for example, I was sitting in a barber(理发师) shop waiting for my turn to get a haircut, and suddenly I realized that I had got a haircut two days before at the barber shop across the street from my office.

    We always seem to find something funny and amusing in incidents caused by people's forgetfulness or absent-mindedness. Stories about absent-minded professors have been told for years, and we never get tired of hearing new ones. Unfortunately, however, absent-mindedness is not always funny. There are times when “tricks” of our memory can cause us great trouble.

    "An apple a day keeps the doctor away" is one of the most common sayings in the English languages. This is because apples were one of the first foods that medical professionals recognized as healthy­their benefits became obvious when  quite simply, doctors found that people who ate apples were sick less often than those who did not. Today we have a more specific understanding of why apples are so beneficial to overall health.

    Apples can help keep your levels of bad cholesterol (胆固醇) down. The pectin (果胶) in apples helps you to maintain cardiovascular health and reduce LDL cholesterol(which is the "bad" kind). Apples themselves do not add cholesterol to your diet and are full of water and fiber to help prevent the cholesterol in other foods you might digest. According to Health Diaries, people who eat two apples per day may lower their cholesterol by as much as 16 percent.

    Apples are naturally low in calories and high in water content. Eating an apple can satisfy your hunger and keep you from reaching for high-sugar, high-calories snacks. By eating apples, you will be more able to maintain a healthy weight because they fill you up, potentially stopping you from eating food that encourages a waistline increase.

    Apples contain respectable levels of boron (硼) which helps build healthy bones, and can also prevent diseases like arthritis. Apples are rich in vitamin C, which is known to help build immunity.

    Studies have shown that apples can decrease the risk of breast cancer, colon cancer, and liver cancer. One theory is that the apple skins are responsible for this, so be sure not to peel your apple before you eat them, as you could remove some of the health benefits.

    Scientists in Western Australia claim to have made a new discovery—they have found gold in the leaves and twigs of trees. The researchers believe that the trees suck up the gold from deep underground, over 30 metres down. The discovery has been described as the first of its kind in the world. Australian gold exploration companies are pleased because it will make finding gold cheaper. Rather than drilling deep holes to find gold, they have more ways to examine tree leaves and branches. There is only a tiny amount of gold in the leaves. It would take 500 trees to make one gold ring. The gold is found using a special X-ray machine owned by an Australian government agency. A pure X-ray and a powerful microscope scan the leaves and branches.

    The claim that this is the first time that gold particles (微粒) have been found in living material might not be true, though. Ancient Chinese wisdom understood the connection between plants and the precious stones and minerals underneath them. They used plant life to find minerals and that was thousands of years ago. In the Zhou Dynasty, it was written in a book that a certain plant grew only near deposits of gold. Over the next 2,000 years, Chinese people wrote about different plants and how they grew, showed where minerals and precious stones such as jade, copper, lead, silver and gold were.

    Even more importantly, in the 1, 000s, Su Song described how copper, gold, silver, lead and tin were observed and taken from certain plants. These were amazing scientific discoveries. Meanwhile, this knowledge was unknown in the rest of the world until about 1, 600. This was when a British man realised that oak trees grew larger and greener where there was alum (明矾) in the ground. Maybe ancient Chinese has more knowledge to teach modern scientists.

    While it's books that make a library, being in lovely surroundings may provide inspiration and help you work a little bit harder. Here are some of the coolest libraries of the world.

    Library of Birmingham – Birmingham, U.K.

    The new Library of Birmingham is said to be not only Britain's biggest public library, but also the largest in Europe. Designed by Dutch architects, this replacement for the Birmingham Central Library was opened in 2013 and has a wealth of resources within its walls, including adults and kids' libraries, music collections, a Shakespeare Memorial Room, and even a gym room. Gardens crown the roof, while the changing seasons bring variations in the shadows and reflections inside.

    National Library of France – Paris, France

    The National Library of France, which now contains an astonishing collection of 30 million, dates back to the 14th century and this royal library was set up at the Louvre by King Charles V. The Library was moved to Rue de Richelieu site in 1868, with major design work carried out by French architects Henri Labrouste and, following his death, Jean-Louis Pascal. Here, the reading rooms are elegance itself. There are more than just books to be found.

    State Library of New South Wales – Sydney, Australia

    The public State Library of New South Wales holds the honor of being the oldest institution of its kind in Australia. It was originally set up as the Australian Subscription Library in 1826, but it wasn't until 1942 that its permanent home was ready. Designed by Sydney architect Walter Liberty Vernon and completed in 1910, the magnificent sandstone Mitchell Wing is one of the architectural highlights.

Seattle Central Library – Seattle, Washington, USA

    Seattle Central Library's distinctive design ensures it stands out. Architect Rem Koolhaas is one of the names attached to its design. Architects sought to envelop the 11-story building with "a layer of transparency", using a skin of glass and metal. The finished article houses about 1.45 million books and other things, as well as more than 400 computers available for public use. The building, which opened in 2004, was included on the American Institute of Architects' list of America's 150 favorite buildings in 2007.