The tallest building in the United States, the One World Trade Center, opened on November 3, 2014 in New York. The building is 1,776 feet tall, making it the 3rd tallest building in the world. It has 104 floors. The building stands in the area where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood. On September 11, 2001, a group of terrorists destroyed these twin towers and killed nearly 3,000 people. It took 8 years to build the new One World Trade Center. Does the height of the building in feet reminds you of something in history? The number is the year when the United States declared(宣布) its independence (独立)from Great Britain.

 One problem with such a tall building is how to clean the windows. Well, a platform(平台) hangs from ropes, and workers on the platform clean windows. On November 12, while two men were busy cleaning windows, a rope of the platform broke near the 68th floor. The two men were saved by cutting a hole in the glass window.

 The two tallest buildings in the world are the Burj Khalifa in Dubai, UAE and the Makkah Royal Clock Tower in Mecca, Saudi Arabia.

    Parents, especially those of teenagers, care about their children's education more than anything else. They would do    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} for their children. Many of them spend most of their spare time {#blank#}2{#/blank#} their children with their studies. If they have no time or cannot do it themselves, they would hire family teachers {#blank#}3{#/blank#} send their children to after-class schools. It seems as if a better education is all that parents expect for {#blank#}4{#/blank#}.

    How can we explain the present situation? First of all, many parents have {#blank#}5{#/blank#} that future success depends more and more {#blank#}6{#/blank#} skills and education. Secondly, in a competitive(竞争的) society there are both losers and {#blank#}7{#/blank#}. Those who have better skills and more knowledge will enjoy {#blank#}8{#/blank#} opportunities(机会).

    Certainly, it is important to learn to succeed, but the {#blank#}9{#/blank#} thing to learn is how to survive(生存) and how to be a qualified citizen(合格的公民). {#blank#}10{#/blank#} this is included a good education, the children will surely have a bright future and he healthy in body and mind.

难度系数：★★★

Script Murder (剧本杀), also known as the mystery of murder, is gaining popularity among young people. A guest in the party secretly plays the role of the murderer without the knowledge of others while other guests, as players, need to find out the murderer through investigating (调查) and reasoning. In recent years, this game has gradually become a top choice for parties in China. 

There are two ways to play Script Murder, that is, online and offline. Most of the scripts provided by online apps are free; only a few high-quality scripts need to be paid. Players play role-playing games in a network "room" while offline stores usually set up scenes exactly the same as script settings. Players live in a "room", performing stories through language, expression, conversation, body movements and so on. This game often takes about 4 to 6 hours in total. 

In fact, murder-inspired board games, card games and party games have been around at least since the so-called golden age of British crime fiction in the 1920s and 1930s. The enduring popularity of these games presents a mystery of its own: What drives people to spend an evening investigating fake cases and hunting for "murderers"? 

One simple explanation might be curiosity (好奇心). When he's playing Script Murder in particular costumes, one feels like he's in that world. But that is not the full story. Instead, murder games follow a surprisingly complex set of psychological (心理的) rules, which can be educational and help people develop important thinking and acting skills. 

"People are considering the games as a way to simulate threatening plots (模拟威胁情节) and then play around with how they would react to it." Coltan Scrivner, a behavioral scientist, says, "After all, real-life violent (暴力的) crime is every person's worst nightmare."

Did you know that humans aren't the only species (物种) that use language? Bees communicate by dancing. Whales talk to each other by singing. And some apes talk to humans by using American Sign Language. 

A female gorilla(大猩猩), Koko, was born at the San Francisco Zoo on July 4th, 1971. Koko learned sign language from her trainer, Dr. Penny Patterson. Patterson began teaching sign language to Koko in 1972, when Koko was one year old. Koko must have been a good student, because two years later she moved onto the Stanford University campus with Dr. Patterson. Koko continued to learn on the campus until 1976. That's when she began living full﹣time with Patterson's group, the Gorilla Foundation. Patterson and Koko's relationship has been very close ever since. 

Dr. Patterson says that Koko has mastered sign language and known over 1,000 words, and that Koko makes up new words. For example, Koko didn't know the sign for ring, so she signed the words finger and bracelet(手镯). Dr. Patterson thinks that this shows meaningful and constructive use of language. 

Not everyone agrees with Dr. Patterson. Some argue that apes(类人猿) like Koko do not understand the meaning of what they are doing. Some people who don't believe that say that these apes are just performing complex tricks (戏法). For example, if Koko points to an apple and signs red or apple, Dr. Patterson will give her an apple. They argue that Koko does not really know what the sign apple means. She only knows that that if she makes the right movement, one which Dr. Patterson has shown her, then she gets an apple. The argument is not solved, but one thing is for certain: Koko is an extraordinary ape. 

It seems like Patterson and Koko have a good relationship, but not everyone agrees with it. Some people believe that Patterson is humanizing the ape. They think that apes should be left in the most natural state possible. Even Dr. Patterson struggles with these feelings. When she was asked if her findings could be duplicated by another group of scientists, she said, "We don't think that it would be ethical (道德的) to do again. " She went on to argue that animals should not be kept in such unnatural environment. 

As for the future, Dr. Patterson and the Gorilla Foundation would love to get Koko to an ape preserve (保护区) in Maui, but they are having trouble getting the land. So unless you have a few million dollars to give, Koko's going to be spending her time in Woodland, California with Dr. Patterson. Koko probably doesn't mind that. If she moved to Hawaii, she'd have to give up her Facebook page and Twitter feed, and she's got like 50 thousand "likes". Some may deny (否认) that she knows sign language, but nobody says that she doesn't know social networking.

I'm Mary from England. Now I'm in a middle school in Beijing. I'm in Class 5, Grade 7. Look! This is a photo of our classroom. There are twenty-one desks and forty chairs in it. Two students share a desk. And there is also a desk for our teachers in the front of the classroom.

Our classroom is big and tidy. There are two maps in the classroom. They are a map of China and a map of Beijing. There are no computers in the classroom. But there is a bookcase (书架).There are many books in it. We can read them, but we can only take one book at a time. There are only a few books on our desks. Most of our books are in our desks. We like our classroom very much. What about yours?