Making Music with Water

     Have you ever tried making music with glasses or bottles filled with water? I bet your favorite band hasn't. Experiment with your own special sounds by turning glasses of water into instruments, make some cool music and find out how it works.

     What you'll need:

     Five or more drinking glasses or glass bottles.

     Water.

     Wooden stick such as a pencil.

     Instructions:

     Line the glasses up next to each other and fill them with different amounts of water. The first should have just a little water while the last should be almost full, and the ones in between should have slightly more than the first.

     Hit the glass with the least amount of water and watch the sound, then hit the glass with the most water, which makes the higher sound?

     Hit the other glasses and see what noise they make. See if you can get a tune going by hitting the glasses in a certain order.

     What's happening?

     Each of the glasses will have a different tone when you hit with the pencil. The glass with the most water will have the lowest tone while the glass with the least water will have the highest. Small vibrations are made when you hit the glass, and this creates sound waves which travel through the water. More water means slower vibrations and a deeper tone.

    I have always had a love for traveling abroad. Last year, I took a trip to London alone. Those nights，I stayed in a youth hostel（青年旅社）. For me，hostels are places where I can meet and talk to different people. It is great fun for me. During the stay in the hostel, I met two girls, one from Brazil and the other from Slovakia. We three had very happy talks together. We shared our personal travel stories and the interesting people we met with one another. The girl from Brazil was actually a lawyer（律师）. 她帮助人们解决他们的家庭问题。 She was taking a trip to Europe all by herself. The girl from Slovakia had much interest in photography（摄影）. Because I was also a photography fan, we ended up talking all night and sharing experience in using a camera.

    The best part is that they both became close friends of mine. Even now, sometimes we still talk with each other online. Last month, I got some photos from the Brazilian girl. To my surprise, she had a baby daughter and they were laughing happily in the photos. I was so happy for her. And it's such a great thing to know that there are people remembering you from far away. Though you may just meet each other for a few hours, you have someone caring about you in the other side of the world. And I think that is the most amazing part of traveling. So if you have free time, maybe you can try to travel abroad to relax yourself as I do.

It 's the year 2123.With the help of the newly-invented time machine,Joe (J),a middle school student in the United States,travels back to 1886to interview Mark Twain (M).

J:Hi, are you Mr. Mark Twain?

M:Yes, I am. Do I know you?

J: My name is Joe. I come from the future. Nice to meet you, Mr. Twain! M: Oh, oh! What a big surprise!

J:You are my favorite writer! May I ask you a few questions?

M: Sure. 

J: So what encouraged you to become a writer?

M:Well, when I was young, I never thought I would became one. 

J:Then, what was your dream job?

M:In fact, I just wanted to make a living at that time. I was a riverboat pilot on the Mississippi. But in 1861, I moved west. 

J:What did you do there?

M:I worked as a gold miner(淘金者). But sadly I didn't find anything close to gold. 

J:What did you do there?

M:I enjoyed creating stories Maybe I had a talent for that. I sent some of my stories to The Territorial Enterprise. It was a leading newspaper at that time. The boss was so satisfied with them that he offered me a writing job. 

J:And then you became famous as a writer?

M:Um. . . you could say so. 

J:One last question, could I share this interview on the internet?

M:Wait a minute. What is this "internet" thing?

J:. . . 

In my school, once you are in the sixth grade you can create (创建) your own club. It can be anything! I create a classics (经典作品) club. Students can talk about the Latin language (拉丁语) or books in our club.

Running a club is not easy, so I ask a friend for help. To make the club useful, we plan to make a show during each of our meetings. We think of 20 different ideas! Some of those include "Why are classics still important?" "What does Harry Potter have to do with classics?" "How do classics write about women?" To make more students interested in our club, we have topics (话题) from science and maths in classics to arts and languages.

Last week, our school had a club show. It was the first time we had shown our club to others. We had 30 members that day. Now it's time for the club to finally start.

 What does a day look like for a high school student in the United States? Well,I can tell you about my day in high school.

 Our schoolday goes from 8:30 am to 5:30 pm. Sometimes I have cheerleading(啦啦队活动) practice or play practice at 6:30 am. If I have time,I eat breakfast at the school dining room.

 Then I go towards my locker(锁柜) and take my books for the first period. Each class goes for about 50 minutes and we have 10 minutes to get to the next class. We study many things, such as science, maths, French and PE.

I play the piano in a band, so one of my class periods is used for that. Lunchtime is usually at 12:30 pm, and then we have some time to hang out outside or by our lockers. At the end of the day there is a seminar (研讨会) period. It is used for studying or meetings.

 After school, I cheer at a basketball game, or have speech practice. My family always try to have dinner at around 7:00 pm, but there isn't always time. I finally start doing homework at around 8:00 pm or 9:00 pm.

 So there you have it! That's my day in high school.