1-1 Reading 1
Laughter is human. P
We laugh out loud when we hear a joke, see something funny, or feel happy. P
We laugh even in our writings, such as emails or texts, as we do in our conversations. P
How do we do that? "Ha-ha" is a form of written laughter. P
Everyone knows what it means. P
Actually, it has been used since long ago. P
Even Shakespeare used "ha-ha" in his works. P
Well, gentlemen, good night. P
And if anything important happens, find me and let me know. P
1-2 Reading 2
Another form of written laughter is LOL. P
It stands for "Laughing Out Loud. P
" People also use ROFL quite often, which means "Rolling On the Floor Laughing. P
" These expressions have become popular because they can be typed quite quickly. P
Have a safe trip 2mrw. P
Make sure u don't miss me too much. P
LOL OK. I'll try to make sure I don't miss u. P
LOL. Thanks for wishing me a safe trip. P
XD also represents laughter in text. P
It shows a laughing face with a mouth open and eyes closed tightly. P
XD is not a word. P
It's an emoticon, which is a group of letters or symbols used to represent a facial expression. P
The emoticon XD expresses our happy feelings more visually than ha-ha and LOL do. P
I can't wait to go to Disneyland. XD. P
1-3 Reading 3
These days, people use a "face with tears of joy.” P
This is a small picture called an "emoji." P
Lots of laughing emojis are available to use online. P
so people can express their laughter in various ways. P
I hit my head on the cupboard. Oh, my! Are you okay? P
I hit my head on the cupboard. Uh,oh! Is the cupboard okay? P
Some emojis have grown bigger, and some even move or make laughing sounds. P
So yesterday, I was in a restaurant, and I really needed to break wind. P
Well, the music was really loud, so I just did it. P
And then I realized I was listening to music with my earphones. P
1-4 Reading 4
Laughing marks can represent our facial expressions and deliver our voice tones. P
By using various laughing marks. P
we can show our friends how much we care for them or how happy we are with them. P
Laugh, even in written forms, and your friends will laugh with you. P
Me when it's cold out. This was me yesterday. P
2-1 Reading 1
I complained the whole day. P
My parents were making me work on the neighborhood project, but I had far better things to do. P
I didn't understand why we were working on this place. P
It was just the ugly, old, empty lot across from Johnny's Shop. P
It was full of wild plants, fast food wraps, old newspapers, broken glass. P
and every other kind of dirty trash you can imagine. P
As I looked at it that first morning, I thought, "I bet there are snakes in there, too. P
2-2 Reading 2
There were twenty of us all ages and sizes ready to work that day. P
I didn't think that we could clean up this awful mess and turn it into a garden. P
We were all wondering where to begin. P
Then Mr.Hernandez said, "The only way to do it is just to start. P
" Then, he divided the lot into four parts with string and assigned five people to each part. P
By lunchtime, I was hot, sweaty, and glad my dad had made me wear gloves. P
We filled fifty trash bags with waste and were ready to pull wild plants. P
As we pulled and pulled, dust filled the air and made us sneeze. P
At the end of the day, I had to admit the lot looked much better. P
2-3 Reading 3
That first day was the toughest. P
On the weekends that followed, we made rows, planted flower and vegetable seeds, and watered them. P
After about two weeks, I stopped complaining when I found the plants had started popping up! P
First, the lettuce and then the beans and the tomatoes. P
They grew so fast. I couldn't believe it! P
The bean plants grew an inch, and the tomatoes doubled in size in just a few days. P
Now, two months later, I like to go there every day to see what new flowers are ready to pop up. P
Lots of people in the neighborhood meet there to enjoy the sights and to talk together. P
2-4 Reading 4
Tonight, it suddenly hit me what a good thing we did! P
I'm proud I have been a part of it. P
I'm in charge of picking flowers for the nursing home on Fourth Street. P
The vegetables will go to every kitchen in our town. P
But even better, an ugly and dirty lot that people didn't like has become a pretty garden for everyone. P
3-1 Reading 1
“What happens when you walk backward while you are carrying a cup of coffee?” P
Han Jiwon, a Korean high school student, did research on this topic in 2015. P
Is this research project good enough to win a Nobel Prize? Maybe not. P
But how about an Ig Nobel Prize? He won one in 2017 for this fun research. P
The Ig Nobel Prizes are awarded for discoveries that “first make one laugh and then think.” P
They were started in 1991 by AIR magazine to increase people’s interest in science by honoring the unusual and the imaginative. P
3-2 Reading 2
The prizes are presented by real Nobel winners in Sanders Theater at Harvard University. P
The room is usually filled with people who are eager to cheer for the brave scientists with their “laughable” research. P
The U.K.Navy won the Ig Nobel Prize for Peace in 2000. P
To save money, the Navy made its sailors shout, “Bang!” instead of using real bombs. P
Is that funny enough for you to laugh out loud? P
Andre Geim also won an award that year. P
He succeeded in floating a live frog in the air by using magnets. P
“In my experience, if people don’t have a sense of humor, they are usually not very good scientists,” he said when he accepted his award. P
If that still does not bring a smile to your face, how about this? P
In 2005, Gauri Nanda won the Ig Nobel Prize in Economics for inventing an alarm clock. P
It keeps running away until the sleeper finally gets out of bed. P
3-3 Reading 3
Not only the winners’ fun studies but also the ceremony for the Ig Nobel Prizes makes people laugh. P
There are a number of interesting things that keep people from getting bored. P
The opening and closing speeches are just two words each: “Welcome. P
Welcome. ” and “Goodbye. Goodbye.” P
If someone talks for too long, an eight-year-old girl called Miss Sweetie Poo shouts repeatedly, P
“Please stop! I’m bored.” P
Each winner receives ten trillion Zimbabwean dollars, which is worth less than one U.S.dollar. P
Throwing paper planes is another fun tradition. P
4-1 Reading 1
I watched the movie Hidden Figures last weekend. P
It was a movie about three African-American women who worked at NASA. P
They began their career in the 1960s as “human computers.” P
However, they dreamed of becoming space experts at NASA and tried hard to get over difficulties. P
Katherine Johnson was one of the three “hidden figures” in this movie. P
She worked hard and showed a talent in math, and her manager Al Harrison recognized her ability. P
One day, he got upset when Katherine was missing from her desk for too long. P
Al asked where Katherine had been, and she answered. P
Katherine: The bathroom. P
There are no COLORED bathrooms in this building. P
I have to run half a mile away just to use the bathroom. P
4-2 Reading 2
Hearing this, I felt really sorry for her. P
However, I was glad that she had courage to talk to the manager about the problem. P
This made Al Harrison break down the “Colored Ladies Room” sign. P
Mary Jackson was the character I liked the most of the three. P
She wanted to learn more about rocket science, but she wasn’t allowed to go to a white school. P
So, she asked a judge to give her permission. P
I cant change the color of my skin. P
So, I have no choice but to be the first. P
Your Honor, of all the cases you’ll hear today, which one will matter in a hundred years? Which one will make you the “first”? P
The judge was impressed by what she said and finally gave her permission. P
Mary stood up for herself and for other African-Americans. P
That was what impressed me most in the movie. P
Finally, she became the first African-American woman engineer at NASA. P
4-3 Reading 3
Dorothy Vaughan was the last “hidden figure.” P
When IBM computers were installed at NASA in 1961, P
she was worried the “human computers” would lose their jobs. P
She studied a new programming language, FORTRAN. P
She also taught it to her team members. P
Later, when she was asked to be the leader of a new IBM team, she made a suggestion. P
I’m not accepting the offer if I can’t bring my ladies with me. P
We need a lot of people to program that machine. P
I can’t do it alone. P
My girls are ready. P
4-4 Reading 4
Thanks to Dorothy, her team members could become programmers. P
She wasn’t afraid of change and used it as a chance. P
That’s what I need to learn from her. P
Watching this movie, I could learn how to face challenges in life. P
I won’t forget the tears and laughter of Katherine, Mary, and Dorothy. P
5-1 Reading 1
Speaking to family members or friends in a foreign country is rather easy and simple today. P
But before the days of phones and the Internet, it was not that easy. P
People just sent a letter and waited for a reply for weeks. P
And it was a lot harder if they couldn’t read or write. P
This letter shows how people got over these difficulties. P
It was written in 1973 by a woman whose husband was far away. P
She lived in Sicily, an Italian island, while her husband worked in Germany. P
At the time, more than 5% of the people in Italy could not read or write, and she was one of them. P
This letter was discovered by Sicilian writer Gesualdo Bufalino. P
Here’s how he translated the pictures into words. P
5-2 Reading 2
My dear love, I miss you so much, and I reach my arms out toward you, together with our three kids. P
We are all in good health except for the little one. P
He’s a little sick, but not seriously. P
I already sent you a letter, but there was no reply, so I am sad about it. P
If I got a letter from you, I would be very happy. P
Your mother fell ill and I’m going to visit her in the hospital with some money and food. P
I’ll go there with our middle son while the oldest looks after the youngest. P
5-3 Reading 3
I had two workers prepare our field and plant seeds for 150,000 lire. P
I voted for the DC. P
The PCI lost so many seats that it almost seems dead. P
But whether one or the other wins, it’s the same. P
Nothing changes for us poor people. P
We worked yesterday, and we will work again tomorrow. P
We picked lots of olives from our olive trees this year. P
I hired a man whose sons are good workers. P
He knocked the olives down, and his two sons helped him, picking them up from the ground. P
I paid him 27,000 lire for the work. P
I spent 12,000 more for the olive press. P
I got enough oil to fill a large pot and a small one. P
I can sell it at a price of 1,300 lire a liter. P
6-1 Reading 1
Most people think of books as traditional paper books to read. P
However, there are many unique books around you. P
Let’s learn about a few of these books. P
I found this old book on a park bench yesterday. P
A note on the cover read, “Free Book! P
Take me home and read me!” P
Actually, this book had an ID number and was registered on a website. P
When I entered the number online, P
I found out that the book had traveled to many countries and that a number of readers in different countries had read it before me. P
How was that possible? P
6-2 Reading 2
There is a book-sharing project. P
First, register your book online and get an ID number. P
Next, leave it in a public place. P
When the next reader finds your book and reports back to the website, you can check where your book is. P
This way, the whole world can become a big library. P
The more books we share, the more we learn. P
6-3 Reading 3
This tiny book is really important to people in my town. P
It provides both the information and the tools necessary to make clean drinking water. P
It is called the Drinkable Book. P
You cannot actually drink the book, but you can use it as a filter. P
Simply tear out a page and pour dirty water on it. P
As the water goes through the page, it changes into clean drinking water. P
It is this filtered water that you can drink. P
This is possible because the book is made of special filter paper. P
This amazing book saves the lives of many children from diseases that come from dirty water. P
This is the most amazing book that I have ever seen. P
After you finish reading this book, plant it and water it. P
You will see new leaves growing on the book. P
In some bookstores in my town, you can see a copy of this book producing new leaves. P
6-4 Reading 4
The secret is that the book has seeds in each page. P
It is these tiny seeds that change the book into a tree. P
This book was made by a small children’s book publisher in Argentina. P
Though the company does not print this book anymore, P
this special project makes us think about where books come from. P
These are just a few of the unique books you can find. P
What other unique books do you want to make? P
What special project would you like to do with the books? P
The bigger your imagination is, the more wonderful your books will become. P
7-1 Reading 1
In October 2016, stories about scary clowns shook schools across the Washington area, P
but Danina Garcia-Fuller’s students didn’t believe them a bit. P
“Some people were getting scared because they saw things on social media,” P
said Patricia Visoso, one of Garcia-Fuller’s students. P
But they never checked up on who was saying this. P
The stories were actually made by teenagers, not by major newspapers or TV stations. P
They offered no hard evidence that clowns really were trying to attack students. P
The story turned out to be a complete lie. P
7-2 Reading 2
“I think a lot of people just look at one thing and believe it’s true,” P
Patricia’s classmate Ivy Brooks said. P
“It’s really important to look at the right sources and to pay attention to what is real and what is fake.” P
Like Garcia-Fuller’s students, P
many teenagers in America are learning to think critically about information they’re seeing in the news and on the Internet. P
This skill is getting more important these days as stories can spread very fast. P
and anyone can make a website full of false information. P
7-3 Reading 3
Garcia-Fuller said she was teaching her students how to tell fake news from real news. P
“One of the first steps is to slow down." P
If a story or a photo seems too good to be true, stop and think. P
Is there any evidence that supports what the writer says? P
And where is this coming from?” P
Garcia-Fuller’s students also learn how to tell fact from opinion in the news. P
“Opinions are good to read,” said 15-year-old McKenzie Campbell, P
“but you also have to check if they are based on facts." P
7-4 Reading 4
Garcia-Fuller also said sometimes it can be very hard to be a smart news reader. P
She tests her students with a website that appears to provide information on an animal called a tree octopus. P
The site is full of information on this animal, along with a few unclear photos of octopuses in trees. P
But like the story of scary clowns, it’s totally made up. P
The lesson, Garcia-Fuller tells her students, is to “check the information you’re seeing once more carefully” and to “question everything, even things that I say." P
8-1 Reading 1
Corky was a brave young man. P
He wanted to be a general, but the king said. P
“You’re the strongest man in my army, but you have much to learn.” P
He ordered Corky to go to a famous military school. P
“Wait there. In a hundred days, your training will start,” P
a voice said from inside the school gate. P
Corky got angry. P
But then he thought there might be a reason, so he waited. P
On the hundred and first day, the gate opened. P
An old man said, “You have learned to use your first weapon: patience. P
Patience is the most important thing to win a war. P
8-2 Reading 2
Then, the teacher told Corky to stand against a pole. P
Suddenly, he tied Corky to the pole. P
Above his head, he put a sign that read “Dangerous and Bad.” P
Many people passed by. P
Some gave Corky angry looks, and others shouted at him. P
Corky shouted back. P
He yelled, “Set me free, or you all will be in big trouble!” P
That made the situation worse. P
“I need to try another way,” he thought. P
Then, Corky began to speak softly. P
He said he was not dangerous or bad but was a good man. P
He kept saying this in all possible ways. P
Finally, the people let him go. P
“Now you control the most powerful weapon: words. P
Soft words are stronger than sharp swords,” said the teacher. P
8-3 Reading 3
Next, the teacher took Corky to a large hall with a chair in the middle. P
There were 19 other warriors who had passed their tests. P
“The first one to sit in the chair will be the winner,” the teacher said. P
Corky and the others began fighting. P
They pushed, pulled, ran, and jumped. P
They fought harder and harder, so Corky became tired. P
Finally, he said, “I will not fight anymore. Instead, I will take care of the injured.” P
The other warriors saw this and fought even harder. P
As they fought, more warriors became tired and hurt. P
Corky took good care of them, so they followed him. P
Soon, all the warriors except Thunder were following Corky. P
8-4 Reading 4
Thunder walked toward the chair to sit in it. P
Then, he saw Corky standing with his 18 followers. P
Thunder realized he was all alone. P
“I give up. You’re the real winner,” Thunder said to Corky. P
At that moment, the teacher appeared and said. P
“Of all the great weapons, peace is my favorite. P
Sooner or later, everyone wants to stand on the side of peace.” P
Corky returned to the palace after his training ended. P
When the king saw him approach, he gave Corky a wise and knowing smile and said, “What’s up, General?” P