Family Traditions

    Where are your family traditions? The following information comes from several readers：

JARED:{#blank#}1{#/blank#}We take turns picking a movie to watch together. It's fun because I watch something my parents like, and they watch something I like. My mother likes old black and white movies, so I see a lot of them! We also make pizza and eat it in front of the TV.

WINNIE:{#blank#}2{#/blank#} My favorite meal is spaghetti and meatballs. My mom usually cooks, but my dad and sister help. On my sister's birthday, we eat pizza. On my mom's birthday, we have chicken, and on my dad's birthday we have steak. Of course, we always have a birthday cake, too. What are your family tradition? The following information comes from several readers:

DANNI:{#blank#}3{#/blank#}My family is really busy. We have a large family, and it's not easy for everyone to get together at the same time. On that day, we go to a nice restaurant and we talk and talk and talk.

SUZIE:{#blank#}4{#/blank#}After dinner, we go to the living room and play a board game, such as Scrabble  or Monopoly. We have about seven different ones we play, but we only play one game a night. I plan to keep this tradition after I start my own family.

ROB:{#blank#}5{#/blank#}I get up early and make something special, such as a mushroom omelet with fruit salad. Then I put it on a tray with a newspaper and a flower, and bring it to my mother for breakfast in bed. She always acts surprised, but I do it every year.

Albert Einstein(1879-1955)

Early Life

    Albert Einstein was born on I4th March,1879 in Germany. He was an extraordinary (非凡的)person since he was born. Einstein wasn't able to speak a word until three. He was curious(好奇的)and imaginative. He loved watching things carefully and asked a lot of questions about them

His questions were often hard to answer for teachers.

Schooling

    Einstein started school in 1885. Though he did well in maths and science, he failed in many subjects like history geography and languages. He was not the teachers' favourite. He didn't enjoy going to school. Einstein finished high school in Switzerland and entered a university in Zurich. He graduated（大学毕业）as a teacher of maths and physics in1900.

Scientific Work

    After graduation. Einstein worked at the Patent Office. He spent much time studying physics. By 1909, Einstein had become a top scientist. Though he became successful in the field of science, he still put great effort in scientific research. Finally, he won the Nobel Prize for physics in 1921.

Later life

    Einstein kept at his research until he died in 1955. Scientists studied his brain(脑)after his death to see if there was anything special about it. However there was no conclusion(结论).

    Today, many famous scientists still think Einstein is the smartest man in the world.

    People who are scared of heights should try not to drive over a new bridge in Guizhou. The new bridge, called the Beipanjiang Bridge, is the highest one in the world. Located near Bijie in Guizhou Province, the bridge stands 565 meters above a deep river. It connects the mountainous provinces of Guizhou and Yunnan. Just how high is the new bridge? Think of a 200-storey(层) building.

    Guizhou Province is already home to seven of the ten highest bridges in China. The Beipanjiang Bridge has just overtaken (超过t ) the Sidu River Bridge in Hubei Province to become the world's highest。

    The building of the Beipanjiang Bridge started in 2012 and it was opened to traffic (通车) on December 29 ,2016. It cost about 100 million yuan.

    The Beipanjiang Bridge is part of a highway（高速公路) connecting Hangzhou City in Zhejiang Province and Ruili City in Yunnan Province. The bridge is 1, 341 4 meters long and it cuts the travel time from Liupanshui in Guizhou to Xuanwei in Yunnan from around five hours to just over an hour。

    China is no stranger to record-breaking bridges. The second- and third-highest bridges in the world are also locateed in the country. The Beipanjiang Bridge is five meters higher than the previous（先前的）record holder.

Where: the world's third-heighest bridge, {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

A. lisa is a young singer. She loves kids and she is planning to do something for them. She has a lot of free time during the week.

B. Sam loves animals. He takes good care of his two dogs at home and he has a two-day weekend every week.

C. Judy often volunteers with many of her friends. She likes talking with people and is always full of energy.

She is usually free after three in the afternoon.

D. Ann is 20 years old. She will graduate from a medical college this July. She's looking for a chance to be a volunteer.

E. Helen is an English teacher in a city school. She always pays attention to improving rural children's English. She is never afraid of any difficulty in life.

    Have you ever ridden a Ferris wheel lately? Can you imagine the flying feeling as you are pulled up to the top and then moved down to the bottom quickly again?

    Today a Ferris wheel is usually 40 to 60 feet tall. That seems very high when you are on the top looking down. But the first Ferris wheel was 264 feet high- taller than a twenty-story building! Can you imagine the view from the top of that?

    The first Ferris wheel was built for the 1893 World's Fair in Chicago. The people who planned the fair were looking for an attraction that would bring people to Chicago. George Ferris handed a drawing of a giant wheel that people could ride on. At first everyone laughed at his strange idea. But Mr Ferris did not give up, and finally the idea was accepted. The ride opened in June of 1893.

    Today's Ferris wheels have 12 to 16 seats, which each carry 2 or 3 people. But that first one had 36 enclosed cars, each holding 60 passengers. When filled, it carried 2,160 people. During that summer in Chicago, about 1.5 million people rode the Ferris wheel.

After the fair, the ride was moved to a nearby amusement park built especially to show off the wheel. In 1904, it was moved again一to St. Louis for the Louisiana Purchase Exposition. After the fair there, the wheel stood unused. In 1906, it was finally sold to a company for scrap metal(废金属).

    Luckily a Chicago bridge builder, W.E. Sullivan, figured out how to make a smaller Ferris wheel that could easily be taken apart and put together. In 1906, he started the company that still makes many of the Ferris wheels used today.

    But, whenever you ride one, remember that it all began with George Ferris's strange idea!