Thumbs Down to Texting （屈指发短信）

       Do you have a mobile phone? Do you send text messages to your friends and family?

       Text messaging or “texting” is becoming very popular. But, scientists have discovered that texting can give us problems with our hands. Be careful! Too much texting can cause swelling in our thumbs. Our thumbs were not made for pushing small buttons, over and over. Scientists call this problem RSI. We spoke to a doctor called Harriet Wilson, who treats many sick people with RSI. She says we need to see how much time we are spending in typing text messages. If we are spending more than 10–15 minutes at once, we could have problems in the future.

       As mobile phones develop, they are getting smaller with buttons closer together. Texting with a smaller phone is worse than using a larger phone with bigger buttons. Using a computer keyboard and playing video games can cause the same problem. So more and more people could find themselves with RSI. Among them, most are university students and teenagers, as they do not know the risks of spending so much time using computer, video games and mobile phones. If we don't do something about this, too many young people could grow up in terrible pain.

    Earth is our home. It has air that we can breathe(呼吸). It has water for us to drink. It has plants and animals that we can eat. Earth is not too hot or too cold for us. It has everything we need to live.

    We are on earth, but we call see things that are not on earth. Early in the morning, we can see the sun comes up. All day, the sun seems to move across the sky. Later in the day, we can see the sun goes down. But the sun is not really moving around us. We are the ones who are moving. Every morning, we turn towards the sun. Every night, we turn away from it. Every year, we go around it. Earth is our spaceship. All of us in the spaceship are riding around the sun.

    At night, we can often see the moon and stars. From earth stars look like little points of light because they are so far away. But stars are really big. A star is a great mass of burning gas. It gives off light and heat. Our sun is a star.

    There are eight planets moving around our sun. Earth is the third planet around the sun. Some of the planets have moons. A moon goes around a planet just as a planet goes around a star. Earth has only one moon. Some planets have more.

    In 1945，6 planes and 17 men disappeared without a sign, all in one day. This was Flight 19. Flight 19's captain was Lieutenant Charles Taylor. Flight 19 was a usual flight. It took off at about 2:10 p.m. from Miami. The weather was very normal on that December 5th of 1945. A message was received at 4：00 p．m.that told about pilot Taylor not knowing the way to go because his compass(指南针) was running around and around.

    After that，it was never heard from again.While searching for it，a search plane was also lost.The search for the both continued until December 10th of that same year.None of the things from Flight 19's planes，or from the search plane，was ever found.It is one of the most infamous disappearances. Searching for Flight 19 lasted five days，and covered 380，000 square miles. Dr. Kripke suggests that the accident happened because of a vortex(涡流).

Information Card

Having a cheetah （猎豹）as a pet in the house? Does it sound scary to you? But for a family in South Africa， one cheetah is treated as a VIP (Very Important Person) in the house. The big cheetah is named Jolie, after the film star Angelina Jolie{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. She can often be found eating from the kitchen table, taking a short sleep on the sofa, or even sleeping on Lucy and Jeff's bed. The big cat also sleeps and plays with the Browns' other pet, the more usual one— a sheepdog{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

Having a cheetah as a pet is unusual. Atfirst，Mrs.Brown wasn't willing to keep a cheetah as a pet. She said,''{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. But we are now happy that we did it— she is part of the family.''

    Just like her name, four-year-old Jolie has achieved a celebrity(名人) status（地位）in the Browns' hometown. Fans often come to take pictures of her{#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    However, a cheetah is always a cheetah{#blank#}5{#/blank#}. '' She makes a lot of mess in the house, urinating （小便）everywhere and chewing everything. It's her wild instincts (天性), said Mrs. Brown. There must be some problems of having a cheetah as a pet in the house, but some unusual fun must also be waiting ahead.

A. Interestingly, Jolie enjoys all the special attention that is paid to her.

B. An impossible friendship has happened between these two animals.

C. Though Jolie is now a pet in the home, she still has some wild habits.

D. She is surely the VIP at Lucy and Jeff Brown's home.

E. I was really against the idea of getting a cheetah as a pet.

        ①   In some Cultures, the foot of a rabbit is Carried as an amulet(护身符) believed to bring good luck. Belief is held in many parts of the world including Europe, China, Africa and South America.

       ②   Wishing upon a wishbone is an old Custom. It includes two people who would break the wishbone and the one with a Bigger piece makes a wish. The wishbone's shape just likes the letter" Y".

       ③   A In ancient days, old Boots or shoes were said to hold the good spirit and courage of their owners. Therefore, it was a Common Belief that an old Boot was a good luck Charm.

       ④   Clover is actually a type of wild plant with flowers shaped like Cotton balls and usually has three leaves on each stem. In fact, it is very difficult to find a four-leaf Clover.

    Most of us have never thought about building an educational toy by ourselves. If we need a learning toy or something, we simply go to the nearest store and buy it. However, things are not as easy in third world countries. With families even having no food to put on the table, buying toys, especially the educational ones, is the last thing on the parents' minds.

    So how can one get these kids interested in science？This was a question that worried the Indian engineer Arvind Gupta so much that he decided to give up a good job and spend his life making toys from trash, things that people no longer want or need!

    Mr Gupta began teaching in the 1970s. While still an engineering student at the Indian College of Technology, he volunteered to teach the children who could not afford to go to school. Upon graduation, he found a good job at India's Tata Motors and spent the next five years designing cars.

    But he soon realized that this was not something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. So he took a year's training course and took part in the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program whose aim was to make science fun and exciting for poor children using available materials.

    Mr Gupta found the whole project so satisfying that he decided to leave his high-paying job and focus his attention on designing educational toys that were not only cheap and easy to build, but also full of scientific principles(原理) , so that children could get interested in this interesting subject.

    When the Internet started becoming a more widespread learning tool, Mr Gupta created a toys from Trash website and also recorded over 250 You Tube videos.

    Today, over 50, 000 children and teachers visit the website daily to download the videos for the toy creations based on cool science, Some young children have become so inspired(鼓舞) that they have even won international science competitions with the help of his creations