It's time to share the winners of this year's Invent It Challenge! Here are our four winners of the first round!
Glo Zone (Ages 5-7 Individual Winner)
Kabir from California came up with this cool invention after a not-so-fun experience. He was hit by four adults on a ski trip! To make skiing and snowboarding safe for nighttime (especially for smaller kids)， he created Glo Zone，a fun glowing(发光的)rainbow umbrella that is attached to skiers' helmets.
ProTech Helmet (Ages 11-13 Individual Winner)
Pooja from New Jersey has created a light, safe helmet designed for playing frisbee (飞盘)!She came up with the idea after getting hit right under the eye at a frisbee competition and realizing she could get blinded if it were any higher. The ProTech Helmet has a lining(衬里) made of a new technology called Spin.
Ace Attachment (Ages 8-10 Team Winner)
Levi and Albert from New York dealt with helping people with disabilities enjoy sports. The Ace Attachment makes it easier for wheelchair users to play golf. Unlike similar inventions, the Ace Attachment is easily adjustable.
Skate Shoes "DOOD" (Ages 14+ Individual Winner)
It's the worst when you ruin your favorite pair of shoes! Fortunately, Rommel from Mexico has come up with new skate shoes. These shoes have exchangeable parts that allow pieces of the shoes to be replaced with new ones when broken instead of getting rid of the whole pair.
Cast your vote!
Which of these fantastic inventions will you choose to win the Cricket Choice Award? While they are all outstanding, only one can win the popular vote! Cast your vote here by May 16!
China is a land of bicycles. At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country. Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle. Millions of them, all black. Cars were rare. Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year, I've found the opposite is true. There are millions of cars. However, people still use their bicycles to get around. For many, it's the easiest and cheapest way to travel today. Bicycles also come in different colors — silver, green, red, blue, yellow, whatever you want.
It's fun watching people biking. They rush quickly through crossroads, move skillfully through traffic, and ride even on sidewalks. Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about that cars just can't provide.
Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture, I decided to buy a bicycle. Great weather accompanied my great buy. I immediately jumped up on my bicycle seat and started home.
My first ride home was orderly (守秩序的). To be safe, I stayed with a “pack” of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times. I didn't want to get hit. So I took the ride carefully.
Crossing the streets was the biggest problem. It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States. The streets here were wide, so crossing took time, skill and a little bit of luck.
I finally made it home. The feeling on the bicycle was amazing. The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful. I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people. Biking made me feel alive.
At the beginning of Grade Two, I joined the cross-country running team in our school.
When I came to the first practice, I was filled with optimism. But as the distance we ran in each practice gradually increased from three to four, to six miles, I realized with surprise that no matter how hard I tried, I wasn't able to run as fast as others. In fact, I was one of the slowest on the team.
What was the point of putting myself through so much pain? After the first few weeks, I wanted to quit.
Then we had our first cross-country meet.
When we started the race, I felt the great pressure of expectations sink onto my shoulders. And after a while I stopped running and struggled to walk up the hill. But then I heard my coaches shouting my name from the top of the hill. I felt confused and embarrassed; why were they cheering for me? I was running terribly! As I tried my best to finish the race, I realized that my coaches didn't care how fast I ran. Neither did my teammates. During the rest of the season, they were always on the sidelines of every race, cheering for me just as loudly as they'd cheered for the front runner.
From then on, I began to put my effort into supporting my teammates instead of focusing on my own performance. In that way, I celebrated my teammates' victories as if they were my own; I felt their pain and exhaustion as if they were my own.
Cross-country running made me realize I don't need to be the best to be successful in life. It taught me to value my relationships with people more than my relationship with my ego. It taught me to cheer for others even if I don't know their names.
Johns Hopkins University researchers discovered precisely how spiders (蜘蛛) build webs in the dark. Their creation of a web-building playbook brings new understanding of how creatures with small brains are able to create elegant and complex structures.
Web-building spiders, which build blindly using only the sense of touch, have attracted humans for centuries. "The first step to understanding that is to study the behaviors and skills involved," said Andrew Gordus, a Johns Hopkins behavioral biologist, "But until now it has never been done, mainly because of the challenge of detecting and recording the actions."
His team studied a spider native to the western United States. To observe the spiders during their nighttime web-building work, the lab designed a stage with infrared (红外线的) cameras and infrared lights. They monitored and recorded six spiders every night and tracked millions of individual leg actions. "Even if you video record it, that's a lot of legs to track,"said lead author Abel Corver. "It's just too much to go through every frame (帧) and mark the leg points by hand so we trained machine vision software to detect the actions of the spider, frame by frame, so that we could record everything the legs do to build an entire web."
They found that web-making behaviors are so similar across spiders that the researchers were able to predict the part of a web a spider was working on just from seeing the position of a leg. "Even if the final structure is a little different, the rules they use to build the web are the same," Gordus said, "which confirms the rules are in their brains."
Future work for the lab includes experiments with drugs to determine which circuits (回路) in the spider's brain are responsible for the various stages of web-building. Corver said, "This work could help us understand larger brain systems, including humans."
Becoming Refreshed without sleeping
Sometimes there is just not enough hours in the day to get everything done and get a good night's rest. Once in a while you can get away with a sleepless night and still feel reasonably good by adjusting your meals and activities.
The last thing you want to do when you are tired is get warm and cozy, this will cause you to fall asleep. Keeping the air conditioner on will make you feel much more alert and refreshed.
Eat small amounts. Eating small amounts of healthy food will help refresh you. Fruit and nuts are a good choice because they are nutritious and will energize youTry to stick to low carbon meals to keep you going. Chewing gum after your snack or small meal will also help keep you awake.
Keep it bright. When it is dark your body thinks it is time to go to sleep. Turn on lots of lights, which will trick your body into waking up and feeling better. You get double the benefits if it is daytime.
Take a break. Taking a little break will help you in the long run. Turn up some energizing music to get yourself positive. Relax and talk to a friend in person or on the phone for a few minutes.
A．Keep it cool
B．Calm down and sleep
C．Avoid big, heavy meals as they will make you tired
D．Going outside whether it is day or night for some fresh air
E．Missing sleep regularly can make you sick and should be avoided
F．When you are tired, you may just want to sit around and do nothing
G．Having a good time for a few minutes will refresh you quicker than anything else.
Derlin Newey, an 89-year-old pizza delivery driver was in disbelief when the Valdez Family visited him. The local TV station was there to 1 the moment. "I don't know what to say," said Newey as he 2 tears of joy. Newey delivers 3 for others, about 30 hours a week. He said he couldn't live merely on social security.
4 being a delivery driver, Newey is also a rising TikTok star thanks to some loyal 5 inspired by his kindness.
The Valdez Family always ask for him when 6 pizza and started recording his deliveries as TikTok videos on their channel@vendingheads. "It's unbelievable. Everybody 7 him," said Carlos Valdez. The Valdez Family claimed his signature phrase with each 8 was, "Hello, are you looking for some pizza?"
With more than 53,000 followers, they often got comments asking why Newey was delivering pizzas at his 9 . The Valdez Family decided to use their platform for some good. They asked their followers to make a 10 to help Newey, and they were quickly able to raise $12,000. They presented a signed check to him as a gift from his "TikTok Family."
Newey didn't even know what TikTok was, but was 11 for the unexpected blessing. The Valdez Family said that the 12 couldn't have gone any better. "We just need to treat people with 13 and respect the way he does. He 14 our heart," said Valdez.
And if the cash wasn't enough, the Valdez Family 15 the surprise with a T-shirt that read, "Hello, are you looking for some pizza?"
Once, there lived a poor man in a small village. He was very clever but didn't want (work) at all. He lived on the villagers gave him every day. One day, he got a basket of eggs a kind lady. He began to think that he would save the eggs until they were in short supply. Then he could earn a small amount of money by (sell) them at a very good price. And then he would buy a couple of goats. Very soon, he would have large group of goats. The goat milk would bring him much more money. With the money, he would buy a cow. (it) milk would bring him a lot of money. He would become much (rich): build a big house and marry a pretty woman. They would have a lot of (child). While he was lost in thought, (luck), he fell over a stone and all the eggs dropped onto the ground. He was very sad. That (bring) an end to the man's beautiful dream.
注意：1．写作词数应为80左右(开头已给出，不计入总词数);2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答;
参考词汇：年夜饭 family reunion dinner
Dear Mr. Smith,
……
Yours,
Li Hua
Once, my uncle brought home a cute little baby parrot. At first, I and my cousins were a little scared, because we didn't know how to handle that little tender baby. My aunt eventually helped us out. She took it and kept it just as her baby. She fed it, she gave it occasional showers and eventually we became quite comfortable with it. Now there was another dilemma (困境) that we had — as we were not really aware of its gender (性别) we were unable to decide a name for the parrot. So finally my mom called it Mitthu. We agreed.
As it was growing, its wings started growing long, but my family was too possessive (占有欲强的) and caring towards Mitthu that they trimmed (修剪) its wings. They said if it flew, it wouldn't be able to survive outside.
As time went by, we grew, so did Mitthu...It had by now started talking quite a lot...I was amazed by the way my aunt cared for it. She fed it anything and everything they had before eating. Mitthu was never kept in a cage from the beginning...it is still not kept in a eage... at first its wings were trimmed to protect it...but now as it has grown quite a lot, even its wings are not trimmed...
I sometimes wonder, it has the whole sky to fly, it is neither in a cage nor its wings are trimmed, then why isn't it flying at all? Maybe it is now quite attached to us and doesn't want to leave us, or maybe it doesn't want to leave this comfortable life and go away and face the hard reality of life. The answer may be anything, depending on how we view the situation.
But as I grew older, I realized that the life of Mitthu is not really very different from that of mine. I was cared too and thus was protected from really getting along with outside world. I made my house my world, just as it was taught to me. I guess so did Mitthu. The comfort of my hope became, and I guess Mitthu's as well, the invisible chain that never actually will let us fly.
注意：1.续写词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡相应位置作答。
I guess not just I, but most of the girls feel the same.
……
The parrot flew today.
