There is an English saying that goes,“he who laughs last laughs the hardest.”High School Musical star Zac Efron is laughing a lot these days.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Because he was always the smallest in his class and was laughed at because he had a big space between his teeth. In sixth grade, Efron's basketball team made it to be the league championships. In double overtime(两个加时赛),with three seconds left, he rebounded the ball and passed it to the wrong team! {#blank#}2{#/blank#}.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Now at 21,Efron is one of People Magazine's 100 Most Beautiful People, graces(荣登)the cover of Entertainment Weekly Hollywood's most influential magazine, and is travelling the world promoting the third High School Musical film. Director Adam Shankman described Efron as “arguably the biggest teen star in America right now” Simply google “Zac Efron”, and you get more than 14 million responses. Yes, it seems Efron has a lot to smile about these days.

    Efron was born and raised in California. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} According to Efron,“he would flip out(发疯) if he got a B and not an A in school, and that he was a class clown.”It was his father who encouraged him to act. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} He also took singing lessons. He graduated from high school in 2006 and was accepted at the University of Southern California to study film. But he put it off —why study movies when you can star in them. Efron has risen all the way to the top of the movie business. And he can now laugh all the way to the bank.

A. He owed it a lot to his father that he succeeded.

B. But history, as they say, is a thing of the past.

C. He took part in school performances and acted in a local theater.

D. When he was young, Efron was an unqualified basketball player.

E. He took school seriously.

F. They scored and his team lost the game.

G.As a young boy, Efron was picked on by his classmates.

    Every year gray whales swim a 10,000 miles round-trip, from the cold waters near Alaska, down the coast of North America to the warm waters near Mexico, and back again. It is one of the longest migrations (迁徙) of any mammal (哺乳动物).

    All day, all summer long, in the cold waters near Alaska, gray whales eat and eat.

    Instead of teeth, gray whales have baleen (鲸须) they use to get food from ocean water. They get big mouthfuls of muck (淤泥) from the ocean floor, then push that muck right back out through their baleen. The mucky water flows through, but tiny animals get trapped in the baleen and licked up.

    When the water starts to freeze, the whales begin their long trip south. They swim night and day, without stopping to eat or rest. During the long journey, migrating whales may push their heads out of the water to see where they are.

    Two months later, the whales reach Mexico. Babies are born here in warm, shallow (浅的) waters called lagoons (濒海湖). Ocean lagoons have no food for the adults, but the babies are safer here than in the open seas. All winter the babies grow big and strong.

    In spring first the dads and teenagers leave the lagoons, then the moms with babies. Migrating gray whales swim close to shore, especially moms with babies. The ice is melting up (融化) north, and it's time for the hungry whales to make the long journey back to their summer feeding grounds.

Jennifer Fish, a weather forecaster may soon be replaced by something truly fishier—the shark.

    Research by a British biology student suggests that sharks could be used to predict storms.

    Laura Smith, 24, is close to completing her study on shark's ability to sense pressure.

    If her studies prove the theory, scientists may be able to monitor the behaviour of sharks to predict bad weather.

    Miss Smith had previously studied the behaviour of lemon sharks in the Bahamas.

    She then used their close relatives, lesser spotted dogfish (猫鲨), for further research at Aberdeen University.

Her work—thought to be the first of its kind to test the pressure theory—resulted from the observation that juvenile blacktip sharks off Florida moved into deeper water ahead of a violent storm in 2001.

    Miss Smith said: “I've always been crazy about traveling and diving and this led me to an interest in sharks.”

“I was delighted to have been able to research in the area for my degree. I know there's so much more we need to understand—but it certainly opens the way to more research.”

    It has been discovered that a shark senses pressure using hair cells in its balance system.

    At the Bimini Shark Lab in the Bahamas, Miss Smith fixed hi-tech sensors to sharks to record pressure and temperature, while also tracking them using GPS (Global Positioning System) technology.

In Aberdeen, she was able to study the effects of tidal (潮汐的) and temperature changes on dogfish—none of which were harmed. She also used a special lab which can mimic (模拟) oceanic pressure changes caused by weather fronts.

    She is due to complete her study and graduate later this year. She says she will be looking for a job which will give her the chance to enrich her experience of shark research.

    When I was a boy there were no smart phones, and our television only got one channel clearly. Still, I never felt bored. The fields, hills and woodlands around my home were the perfect playground whose adventures were only limited by my imagination. I can remember once hiking to nearby lake and walking slowly around it. At the back of it I was amazed to find an old dirt road that I had never seen before. It was full of muddy type tracks and deep woods bordered it on both sides, but exploring it still seemed like a fine adventure.

    I walked on and on for what seemed like hours. I was sure my guardian angel was whispering in my ears "turn around and head back home", but I was stubborn and walked on. There was still neither a car nor a house in sight I noticed that the sun was starting to go down and I grew scared I didn't want to end up trapped on this road, and I was worried that it would be dark before I could make my way back to the lake again.

    I continued to walk on with something growing inside of me. My heart was pounding and my legs were aching. I was almost in tears when I saw something in the distance. It was a house that I recognized. I jumped up and down and laughed out loud. It was still over a mile away, but my legs felt like feathers and I hurried back to my house in no time. I walked in with a big smile on my face just in time for dinner. Then I ended my adventure with a good night's sleep.

    I often thought of that experience recently. Actually, in our life, all roads, no matter how they twist and turn, can lead us home again. They can lead us to our homes in our hearts. May you always walk your path with love! May you always help your fellow travelers along the way! And may your roads always lead you home again!

    Do you believe in the power of music? If you're like most kids these days, you probably have an electronic device loaded with hundreds or even thousands of your favorite songs. At any moment in time, you can fill your headphones with the sounds of a particular song that suits your mood at that exact time.

    Are you getting ready for a big soccer match or do you need to get excited? Maybe some hip hop with a strong beat will do the trick! Besides, you might be ready to study for a big exam the next day. To calm your nerves and help you concentrate, a little bit of Mozart might make memorization more manageable.

    But is there any scientific evidence of these effects that music seems to have? You bet there is! Scientists have long recognized the power of music. Over the years, many studies have been conducted to examine in greater depth the nature and extent of the effects music has on people.

    For example, scientists at the University of Missouri have found that listening to music can have a positive effect on your mood. Their research gives scientific credibility(可信性)to the behavior that many people have already experienced on their own: listening to upbeat music can brighten your day and boost your mood.

    Other studies have shown that upbeat music isn't the only type of music that can be helpful, however. When people are sad or have suffered a personal loss, sad music can be helpful because people identify with the tone and lyrias(歌词)of the music. Likewise, people under a lot of stress or experiencing upsetting situations can benefit from listening to angry music. Although angry music might not help you if you're in a normal mood, its tone can benefit you when you are dealing with stressful and upsetting situations.

    Vacation in the U. S. usually means slower days, and no school teachers know, however, that vacation means students will likely fall behind, and forget things they learned during the year. Simon Vanderpool, a special education teacher in Lexington, Kentucky, decided to do something about it.

    He started a program called Books and Barbers. Children go to the barber, choose a book and read out loud while the barber cuts their hair. The child gets a sticker and can take the book home. And there is an added bonus: money. The kids get paid to read.

    Vanderpool says barber shops are places where kids can feel comfortable. "Once a student feels comfortable, that's whenever the brain opens up, and that they are able to start focusing on nothing but learning." Amir Shalash owns a barber shop. But he is doing more than cutting children's hair. He is listening to them read, and helping them with their reading.

    Most of the children getting haircuts at barber shops are boys. Vanderpool's idea was to do more than just help them with reading and money. The teacher wants to help kids who are growing up in a home without a father liike he did. Also, I created the program in order to provide a positive mentor(指导者）for the kids that go into the barber shop, and are able to have someone that they can rely on and they can trust in, and just build a bond between the two of them." Shalash says he and his fellow barbers like being mentors.

    "The biggest thing is that we try to influence as many kids as we can, and that was my whole intention of it."