Free Fall World Record Set by 108 Skydivers

A team of 108 US skydivers have set a world record for the biggest ever formation of people in head-first free fall. The 108 international freeflyers were carefully selected over a year of qualifications from events around the world.

In a potentially lethal race against the clock participants had just 40 seconds of free fall from 18,000 feet to find each other and complete their formation. Timing of the stunt was so crucial they had just one second after linking together to break off and prepare for a safe landing. Jumpers needed to begin preparations for a safe touchdown at just 7,000 feet.

Courageous team members jumped from five different planes and raced to join the first jumpers who had started the centre of the formation below them. To make sure all jumpers arrived at the same point in the air, those last to leave the plane needed to accelerate to speeds in excess of 180 mph in order to catch up with their colleagues.

World air sports officials judged the attempt and confirmed it as a record when the jumpers returned to their base.

Hope Can Set You Free

The Shawshank Redemption is a 1994 American prison drama film. In this movie, the hero—Andy was a young and successful banker whose life changed drastically when he was framed and sentenced to life imprisonment for the murder of his wife and her lover. Set in the 1940s, the film shows how Andy, with the help of his friend Red, the prison fixer, and his own wits as well as courage, turned out to be a most unconventional prisoner—he escaped from the Shawshank prison successfully, with a great number of money, led a free and peaceful life in the end of the film.

This famous film is an extraordinary tale of hope and survival inside a security prison. It encourages people to fight to preserve the dignity of human beings, to appreciate the beauty of life, and the most important is to keep hope forever. The film tells us even a man can live once, but if he keeps faith, keeps hope and works his life right, then once is enough.

【Classic Lines】

·Hope is a good thing, maybe the best of things, and no good thing ever dies.

·Fear can hold you prisoner, hope can set you free.

·A strong man can save h

Color That Isn't There

To show this interesting phenomenon which scientists call “subjective color”, copy the circle which you see in the picture and put it on cardboard. Push a pin through the centre and turn it quickly. You will see many circles of different colors! Now change the direction and the order of colors will also change.

A few years ago a television operator turned a large wheel of this sort, and people who were watching his programme saw the colors quite clearly on their black-and-white television screens. Scientists havent yet agreed on what makes these colors appear.

Five Pairs of Legs

Cody McCasland was born without a working set of legs—but now has pairs for just about any occasion: he has short ones for sitting and climbing and long fancy ones for when he wants to run really, really fast.

Cody arrived without any knee bones and had to have his legs cut off below the knee at 15 months. Two months later he was fitted with his first pair of prosthetic legs, and hasnt stopped moving since.

His mother said, “Hardly anyone takes to prosthetics so well. It was amazing—it was as if Cody had just been waiting for the chance to have new legs so he could walk.”

Cody now manages to run, swim, play soccer, golf, karate and ice hockey as well as being a boy scout and going rock climbing in his home state of Texas.

Mrs McCasland said, “Whatever Cody wants to do, we will do our best to let him have that opportunity. He wont let his disability hold him back.”

阅读中,你遇到“拦路虎”了吗?请参考:

harbor 藏有 alien外星人

Kepler telescope “开普勒”太空望远镜 habitable 可居住的

galaxy星系 Ames Research Centre埃姆斯研究中心

profound意义深远的 Star Trek星际旅行 qualification 资格

lethal 致命的 stunt 特技,绝技 touchdown 着陆

accelerate 加速 in excess of 超过 mph 英里/小时

drastically 剧烈地 framed 被陷害的

life imprisonment终身监禁 fixer 掮客

phenomenon 现象 subjective color 主观色 pin 大头针

prosthetic legs 假肢 prosthetics 修复术 karate空手道

ice hockey冰球 boy scout童子军

Keys

Are We Alone in the Universe?: It means “if we find 50 or more habitable planets beyond our solar system”.