After I mastered my first (协奏曲) at age 14, my parents decided to get me a nice violin. I tried out dozens of instruments before I found my match: a German violin. It was beautiful, but what I liked best about it was its voice. Confident and strong, it was everything I longed to be.

    I'm not sure how much that violin cost, but my parents made me promise never to let it out of my sight. They didn't understand that dragging a large violin case ran counter to my daily middle school task of being invisible (看不见的). I was a strange, absent-minded kid. When I spoke up in class, my comments brought confused silence from teachers and wild laughter from students. Like a deer in a wolf pack, I tried to be quiet and still.

    In contrast, my new violin was almost shockingly loud. Together, we could drown out the rest of my middle school orchestra(管弦乐队) — which was encouraged, since the other kids made sounds like cats' crying. For one glorious hour every day, I was showered with attention. Everyone wanted to hear what I had to say.

    Between classes, I bent under the combined weight of my violin case and a backpack filled with books. My posture suffered, but my confidence grew. With my violin by my side, I found my voice. More and more, I contributed to class discussions and even made a couple of friends.

    Today, I'm just an amateur violinist with a regular day job. As I sit in my community orchestra, sometimes I feel jealous(嫉妒的) my fellow musicians' instruments with their elegant voices. I may not be the best violinist around, but at least I'm still the loudest.

    Experts say there are about 6, 500 languages spoken throughout the world. But the United Nations estimates that about half of these languages are in danger of disappearing.

    One non-profit organization seeking to save world languages is a New York-based group called Wikitongues. Officials from Wikitongues say the organization has a simple goal: to provide the tools and support that people need to save their languages.

    Udell is the co-founder of Wikitongues. He said when a language disappears, many other things can go away as well. For example, parts of a community's culture, knowledge and identity can also be lost. Because of this. Udell believes the process of bringing languages back must be done by community members themselves, “from the ground up,” he said.

    “There is no way an outside organization can save someone's language for them.”

    Wikitongues was launched in 2016 as an open internet collection of world languages. The self-described “community” is operated by volunteers from around the world. The collection is in the form of language videos that people add to the Wikitongues website.

    There are currently more than 400 languages and dialects represented on Wikitongues' YouTube channel. Udell says more than 1,500 people from 70 different countries have added videos to the system.

    “We have people from India who record dozens of languages, which is beyond their own.” he said.

    One of Wikitongues'volunteers is Kolokwe, who lives in Namibia. His native language is Subiya, however, he does not get the chance to speak his native language every day. Like many other educated people from his area, he speaks a lot of English and Afrikaans.

    Kolokwe is hoping his involvement with Wikitongues call help keep Subiya and other African languages from going extinct. He wants the world to know about his language. But his goal goes beyond just sharing his language with others through video. He is also working to create a dictionary and language teaching materials that can be used in schools.

    Breakdancing is set to make its first debut (亮相) as an Olympic sport at Paris 2024, Tony Estanguet, head of the Paris organizing committee, said on February 21st. Skateboarding, sport climbing and surfing, which have already been added to the programme for the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, have been invited to return in Paris four years later.

    Tony Estanguet said the choices responded to a need to make the Olympics "more urban" and "more artistic". We have chosen to present the International Olympic Committee (IOC) with the four sports because they are creative, appealing to youth and completely in line with our vision. They reflect perfectly Paris 2024's identity.

    Breakdancing is an example of a sport "Which can be played anywhere and anytime in urban and other environment." It appeared at the 2018 Youth Olympics in Buenos Aires in the form of head-to-head "battles". In competitive breakdancing, "breakers" face off in "battles" against each other, either as individuals or teams. Breakdancers use a mix of physical and artistic skills combining elements from gymnastics or acrobatics (杂技).

    The IOC had announced that the number of competitors at Paris 2024 would be restricted to 10, 500, which limited the opportunity to add sports. But the organizers said the inclusion of the four sports in Paris would not necessitate the construction of permanent facilities and would involve just 248 competitors, of which 32 would he in breakdancing. The surfing events are likely to be held in established surf centres such as Biarritz or Lacanau in southwest France.

    The inclusion still need to be rubberstamped by the IOC, which is expected to decide on which sports to add in Paris after next years' Tokyo Games.

    Everyone knows that if a dog's ears are up and its tail is wagging vigorously, it is definitely pleased to see you, but now scientists using a robot have found that the way dogs use their tails is more complicated than we thought, and that dogs which wag them to the left may he more friendly. The animal psychologists discovered that when real dogs approached a life-sized robot dog, they were less cautious about it when it was wagging its tail to the left, while if it was wagging its tail to the right, far fewer dogs approached it in a confident manner.

    In the first experiments, 56 percent of the animals approached the model without hesitation when the tail was wagged to the left, while only 21 percent did so in the other situation. When the researchers excluded (排除) owners from being present, the result were: 31 percent of the dogs approached continuously when the tail was wagging to the left, while only 18 percent did so when it was on the right.

    Animal psychologist Roger Mugford said it added to the growing evidence that does were even more complicated communicators than the animals more closely related to man such as monkeys. He said, "We know that dogs, in a sense, have languages, but it is more complicated because it is not just them wagging their tails, but also giving out chemical displays."

    He adds, "The research confirms earlier studies suggesting that dogs, like humans, had a left-side preference. If you are going to present a signal to a dog, it is sensible to put it on your left-hand side because that is where dogs, unlike most other animals, tend to look. It is another example of the similarity between dogs and humans. They are a lot more human than we give them credit for."

    It is rightly said that one can share any secret with a true friend. He may know your deepest fears and weaknesses and yet will never take advantage of you. However, keeping a friend's secrets to yourself and not telling the world is what makes the bond(关系)grow strong and last forever. You need to develop trust and mutual(互相的)understanding before you start sharing secrets with each other. With friends, secret talks never seem to end and it can get really amusing to know what has been going on in your friend's mind.

    There is a certain time in life especially from the teenage years when one starts having a personal periphery(界限) in life and parents are excluded (排斥)from it. It is because there are certain things that they can't understand and we can't discuss with them. That is when friends become the best secret sharers. They are the ones to whom one reveals one's feelings and best kept secrets.

    It is a general belief that only girls share secrets. But boys have their own secrets that they discuss with only closest friends. The secret talks can range(变化) from relationships, talks about fights with parents, secret activities and anything that is not supposed to be known to others! If you think secrets are limited to only teenagers, get your facts right! Secrets can be shared at any age and there is no hard and fast rule that secrets are shared only among youngsters.

    Sharing secrets with a friend is not just fun, but it also helps to develop a lasting trust in one another. Sometimes, sharing secrets will tell you more about the person. You will come to know whether your friend is reliable and trustworthy and whether it is worth sharing your secrets with them. You can call it a test of friendship.