A house of cards? Sounds unbelievable, doesn’t it? Not if the architect is 31-year-old Bryan Berg. He’s made a career out of building fantastic card houses, stadiums, capitols, castles — and the world’s tallest card tower. How does he do it?
Bryan’s structures are amazing because they are made entirely of perfectly balanced, freestanding playing cards. He never uses glue, tape, or anything else to hold the cards together. Nor does he fold the cards. He’s discovered another way to make a strong house of cards, using a trick from nature.
To make plants strong, nature builds them with cells that have tough walls. Rows and rows of these cells form a grid(格子) that helps leaves and stems keep their shape. Bees use the same kind of repeating pattern to create strong honeycombs, where they live and store honey. Bryan designs similar grids, using cards to create a repeating pattern of cells.
He begins with a single cell made by balancing four cards against one another to form a box. Then he repeats the cell over and over, expanding outward to form the grid, which makes a good foundation for a strong card structure. The larger the grid, the more weight it can carry. Sometimes Bryan uses several cards, instead of just one, to construct the cell walls, making the grid even stronger. The trick, he tells kids when he speaks in classrooms, is to place your cards as tightly together as possible when laying out your grid, making sure the cards are not leaning at all.
After building this solid base, Bryan lays cards across the top to make the floor for the next “story” of the building. He may add towers, columns, steeples, or domes. Using the principle of repeating cells, Bryan builds structures of amazing strength.
In the Cards
Not surprisingly, Bryan has always been interested in building things. Growing up on a “big, old farm” in rural Iowa, he had plenty of room to play. “We were in the middle of nowhere,” Bryan remembers, “with lots of space to do whatever we wanted. I was always making something, using things like sticks or bales of hay.”
Bryan’s grandfather taught him how to stack cards. Bryan’s two interests — building and card stacking — soon combined. But stacking in his family’s farmhouse was challenging. “Our old house had wood floors that weren’t all level,” he reports. “And they weren’t very firm. When people walked around, it was like ‘earthquake action.’ It was a challenge to build something that wouldn’t fall down immediately.”
Bryan constructed tower after tower; he went through a lot of trial and error before he built anything taller than himself. When he placed a few decks of cards on top of his grid, he discovered how strong it was. Bryan’s towers began to grow taller.
How Tall Is Too Tall?
Bryan’s first Guinness World Record for the world’s tallest card tower came in the spring of 1992, when he was in high school. Learning that the world record was 12 feet 10 inches, Bryan built a slim tower that topped out at 14 feet 6 inches. Done as a project for his geometry class, it took him 40 hours and 208 decks of cards. Since then he’s gone on to win world records for even taller buildings. His latest winner measured 25 feet 3.5 inches and used about 2,400 decks of cards. The building, which tapered to a high, narrow point, had 131 stories.
Why don’t these towers fall down? The key is in a good solid base, a repeating pattern of stories, and a tapering top. Bryan likes to point out how card buildings resemble real ones. They are built cell by cell, story by story. The separate parts make one strong whole. The heavier the building, the stronger and more stable it is. But the weight can’t all be at the top.
After spending so much time building something so cool, Bryan admits it’s sometimes painful to see his structures destroyed. But he compares his work to the building of a sandcastle or an ice sculpture.
“They wouldn’t be as special if they were permanent,” he points out. “My buildings are like snowdrifts, or clouds in the sky. They can’t last forever.
1.According to the article, which natural structure is a model for Bryan’s card structures?
A. A sand dune.B. A honeycomb.
C. A snowdrift.D. A thundercloud.
2.What was Bryan’s first world record?
A. The tallest card tower.B. The widest card dome.
C. The heaviest card house.D. The sturdiest card structure.
3.Bryan’s hobby is the result of combining which two boyhood interests?
A. Plant cells and honeycombs.
B. World records and geometry.
C. Building things and stacking cards.
D. Playing cards and designing houses.
4.Why was it a challenge for Bryan to build card structures in his family’s farmhouse?
A. The floors of the house were uneven.
B. The ceilings in the house were too low.
C. The floors of the house were slippery.
D. The windows in the house were windy.
5.In the underlined sentence, the word “tapered” means the top of the building was_________.
A. olderB. shinierC. strongerD. thinner
Successful athletes today are able to earn enormous salaries and many of them choose to share the wealth they have by donating to charities.
Perhaps the generosity displayed by these athletes will inspire others to join them in helping the less fortunate.
1.What do we know from the passage?
A. Donating to charities is common among famous athletes.
B. All the athletes mentioned in this passage are famous basketball players.
C. Some athletes mentioned in this passage will donate all their money in future.
D. Successful athletes will be scolded if they don’t donate their money to people in need.
2.Who has a foundation that is named after him/ her?
A. Ron Artest.B. Steve Nash.
C. Tiger Woods.D. Hannah Teter.
3.How many athletes mentioned by the author mainly help the school children?
A. Two.B. Three.C. Four.D. Five.
4.This passage was written in order to___________.
A. tell us the successful athletes are generous
B. tell us there are a lot of charities in the US
C. inspire more and more people to help the needy
D. praise the successful athletes for their good deeds
“Tell me again how you learned to ride a horse,” I would ask my father when I was a little girl in Denmark. I was no more than four years old—too little to learn to ride a horse by myself. But I liked to hear my father tell his story. And then he would begin.
“When I was a little boy, as little as you are now,” he would say, “I wanted to ride the horses. But I was too small to mount a horse. So I would slip into my father’s stables to be with the horses and admire them. Such big, powerful animals they were!
“The gentle workhorses stood quietly in their stalls, eating their hay. I would climb up the side of one of the stalls and slide over onto the horse’s back.
“Then I would hold its mane and imagine us running quickly over the grasslands, down to the shore, and even into the sea.
“When I grew tall enough to mount a horse,” he said, “my wish came true.”
“You swim with the horses now,” I said. “You even swim with Fiery. And he has spirit!”
Everybody knew about Fiery, the great black male horse with the fierce temper, and how he behaved when he first came to the stables. He raised itself on its back legs with the front legs in the air. He snorted and kicked. He rolled his eyes. And everyone was afraid of him. Everyone, except my father.
I wanted to hear more. “Now tell me how you made Fiery your friend,” I begged. This was my favorite story.
“Well, little Else,” my father went on, “I just talked to him. I talked as a friend. You must talk to a horse like Fiery.
“I’d say, ‘No, little horse. No, my friend. You can’t run free. You must learn to let me ride you.’
“And soon Fiery began to listen. He knew from my voice that I would be his friend.”
So Fiery let my father teach him to carry a rider. Then Fiery would take my father across the soft green grasslands or even into the lively waters of the northern sea. I loved to see Father riding Fiery without a saddle(马鞍) into the sea. There they swam, Father and Fiery, out in the cold, clear water.
Often I would watch them from the shore, holding tight to my mother’s hand. They swam so bravely. I was so proud of them!
Then Father and Fiery would come splashing out of the water and run along the shore toward us. They made a fine stop—just in time!
Fiery towered over us. He tossed his head and shook sea water from his shining black coat.
Father was laughing and patting Fiery’s neck.
And I was making a wish.
I wished that someday I could have a horse, too . . . but a smaller one!
1.What is Fiery like when he first comes to the stables?
A. He is quiet and lazy.
B. He is wild and full of spirit.
C. He makes friends with everyone.
D. He only lets Else’s father ride him.
2.Where does Else most like to watch her father ride Fiery?
A. At the seashore. B. On the farm.
C. In the grasslands. D. In the stables.
3.In the passage, the underlined word “mount” means___________.
A. feed withB. talk about C. fasten to D. climb onto
4.How does Else feel about horses after watching her father ride Fiery?
A. She wants a horse just like Fiery.
B. She has no interest in riding horses.
C. She would like to have a smaller horse.
D. She thinks horses should not go into the sea.
5.What does Else learn from her father’s story?
A. How to train a workhorse.
B. How to swim with a horse.
C. How to make friends with a horse.
D. How to ride a horse without a saddle.
In 1972, I returned to Miami Beach High School to speak to the drama class. Afterward I asked the drama teacher any of my English teachers are still there. Irene Roberts, he tells me, is in the class down the hall.
I was no one special in Miss Roberts’ class — just another student who did okay work. I don’t recall any one special bit of wisdom she passed on. Yet I cannot forget her for language, for ideas and for her students. I now, many years later, that she is the perfect example of a teacher. I’d like to say something to her, I say, but I don’t want to her from a class. Nonsense, he says, she’ll be to see you.
The drama teacher Miss Roberts into the hallway where stands this 32-year-old man she last saw at 18. “I’m Mark Medoff,” I tell her. “You were my 12th-grade English teacher in 1958.” She her head to one side and looks at me, as if this angle might remember me in her . And then, though armed with a message I want to in many words, I can’t think up anything more memorable than this: “I want you to know,” I say, “you were to me.”
And there in the hallway, this lovely woman, now nearing age, this teacher who doesn’t remember me, begins to weep; and she encircles me in her arms.
this moment, I begin to sense that everything I will ever know, everything I will ever pass to my students, is an inseparable part of a legacy(遗产) of our ancestors.
Irene Roberts holds me in her arms and through her tears whispers my cheek, “Thank you.” And then, with the briefest of looks into my forgotten face, she back into her classroom, to what she has done thousands of days through all the years of my .
On reflection, maybe those were, , just the right words to say to Irene Roberts. Maybe they are the very words I would like to speak to all those teachers through my life, the very words I would like spoken to me one day by some returning student: “I want you to know you were important to me.”
1.A. thatB. ifC. asD. when
2.A. justB. almostC. nearlyD. about
3.A. kindnessB. respectC. friendshipD. love
4.A. knowB. learnC. realizeD. believe
5.A. selfishB. self-confidentC. self-consciousD. selfless
6.A. callB. dragC. pushD. pull
7.A. upsetB. delightedC. interestedD. annoyed
8.A. bringsB. takesC. fetchesD. introduces
9.A. bowsB. raisesC. risesD. puts
10.A. thoughtB. brainC. attentionD. memory
11.A. announceB. speakC. deliverD. tell
12.A. usefulB. importantC. hopefulD. beneficial
13.A. retirementB. enjoymentC. employmentD. happiness
14.A. RemindingB. ExplainingC. RememberingD. Forgetting
15.A. happilyB. straightC. calmly D. briefly
16.A. againstB. withC. offD. beyond
17.A. escapesB. gathersC. disappearsD. fails
18.A. longsB. continuesC. goesD. returns
19.A. absenceB. classC. workD. task
20.A. or ratherB. in additionC. as usualD. after all
— Tom! Corey has broken the glass.
— ______. Such things happen.
A. What a pityB. No way
C. It doesn’t matterD. By no means
She was greatly shocked at the scene before her eyes. Never did she expect that the local conditions ______ be so awful.
A. couldB. should C. would D. might
