A kite is not a kind of toy but a handicraft (手工艺品). It is said that Lu Ban in the Spring and Autumn Period (770—476 B.C) ________ the first kite. Inspired (得到灵感) from the sparrow hawk spiraling in the sky, Lu Ban made one with bamboo and called it “bamboo sparrow”. Paper was used to take the place of bamboo later, ________ the kite was named “paper bird” then.

According to historical records, Emperor Liangwu of the Northern and Southern Dynasties (420—589 A.D.) used a kite to send ________ for help when he was besieged (包围) in a city. In the Song Dynasty (960—1279 A D.), people put fire powder on a kite to attack (进攻) the enemies by ________ it into the sky above the enemy camp. Then it was thrown into the camp. ________ the fire powder exploded (爆炸), they would soon begin to attack their enemy.

From the Tang Dynasty (618—907 A.D.), a kite turned into a kind of toy for fun only for ________. At that time, paper was quite expensive. As it got cheaper in the Northern Song Dynasty (960—1127 A.D), paper kites were seen among either the rich or the poor.

Weifang is ________ the kite capital of the world. It has a long history as China’s No. 1 kite making area. The Weifang International Kites Festival is held in April every ________. People from all over the world come to Weifang to fly their own kites.

In Weifang, there is a special museum, that is, World Kite Museum of Weifang. It is China’s first kite museum. ________ the museum, there are kites of all shapes and sizes, old and modern from different places. These kites ________ tell visitors stories about the kites’ history.

Welcome to Frankie Zoo in New York! Our open time is from 8:30 am. to 11:00 pm.

Here are some new animals this month in the zoo. Which one may interest you?

Ren Keyu, 14, is a junior high school student from the city of Leshan, southwest China’s Sichuan Province. He applied for a Guinness world record as the world’s tallest male teenager.

An officer with the Guinness World Records came and visited Ren in Leshan on Sunday in October, which was also Ren’s birthday. He had talks with Ren’s family as well as his neighbors. According to the rules, the challenger (挑战者) needs to be between 13 and 18 years old. The previous (之前的) record-holder has already been too old. The officer measured Ren’s height at 8 a.m., 2 p.m. and 8 p.m., on Sunday, and got a result of 221 cm, 221.1 cm and 221cm, according to Li Song, a doctor with the hospital who helped measure Ren’s height.

This result will possibly make Ren the new record-holder after it passes evaluations (评估) at the London headquarters (总部) of the Guinness World Records. The result will come out in November, 2020.

The previous record-holder of the world’s tallest male teenager was Kevin Bradford from the United States. He was born on October 27, 1998, with a height of 215.9 cm measured in 2015. The previous record-holder of the world’s tallest female teenager was Rumeysa Gelgi from Turkey. Born on January 1, 1997, she was measured to be 213.6 cm tall in 2014.

Making your family life better can help make your family members closer and stop arguments (争吵) from getting in the way of everyone’s happiness. Luckily, there are some steps to make your time with your family more friendly and enjoyable.

※ Do housework together.

In fact, few people enjoy doing daily housework. However, if every one of the family members does their own part of housework, they may love their family better. They feel happy to live in a brighter and warmer house. Try to make doing housework as fun as possible, such as by playing music or doing it as a game. For example, the one who finishes his work first can choose the weekly movie to watch together.

※ Do not compare (比较) your family with others.

It can be easy to believe that other people are always happy, because they have their pictures and videos to make you feel that way. If you start to think someone else’s family is better, just tell yourself that you don’t know what their life is really like. They may have family arguments and other issues just like everyone else. Remember, even if someone else’s family takes more vacations or has more expensive things, it doesn’t mean that they are happier than you and your family are.

※ ________________________________

While you need more freedom (自由) as you get older, remember that your parents are still your parents. Their job is to keep you safe. If your parent doesn’t let you go out without an adult or makes you go to bed early, remember that they have your best interests in mind. Remember to talk to your parents in a polite and friendly way. Speak clearly and don’t shout to them even if they say no.

For many native English (英语母语) speakers, Chinese is one of the most difficult languages to learn in the world because of different reasons.     36     Second, they do not use the same grammar. Third, pronunciation style and sound between the two languages are even different.

Many people want to study Chinese,     37     However, after years of hard work they would still find it difficult to speak like native Chinese. Usually,     38     if they want to be good enough to read the morning newspaper without too much difficulty. However, the language has tens of thousands of characters.     39    

Moreover, because the written forms of Chinese words have nothing to do with the pronunciation, they should be learned separately (独立地). However, because there are more than 67% of the words having two or more characters,     40