What's New this Week?

Now that's what you call an impressive domino chain!

Yeah, a Belgian book association has broken the world record for the longest book domino chain ever.

The record-breaking event was designed to celebrate books and promote reading.

A total of 4,845 books followed a pathway through the Antwerp book fair -spelling the Dutch words for "book," "fair" and "read."

It took forty volunteers two hours to set up the lines of books.

At the end of the 614-metre-long journey, which took only six minutes to complete, the books set off fireworks. Oh we do love a celebration!

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

High-fives and cheers at the iPad air launch.

"I've been waiting from 6pm. It was really fun and hard, but I like that I'm here now and I'm the first one. I was dreaming about this and this happened!"

Big things are expected of the lighter thinner tablet.

Reviews have been really good.

Including the one from CNET, Senior Editor Scott Stein:

"A lot of other people can't compete in providing something with that performance and that design and that platform support. You really look at the smaller tablets—I think is where you have a question of do you go budget? And you have a lot of competing people like that. You look at the iPad mini but in the large iPad, that $500 price even years later, I think that is still really tough to beat. "

And that's why he thinks people will pay up. For a full size tablet, the iPad Air is not even all that much more expensive than rival devices from Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung.

But that's the full size world—overall when it comes to tablets, who is Apple's enemy #1?

"I think it's Android. I think certainly there is a huge Android landscape out there, but I think that right now the way that the Android tablet landscape is set up is that a lot of it is about consumption—that Google play, and creating a usable multipurpose reading, video playing device versus something that you may be doing a ton of work on. "

Apple's answer to the smaller rivals, the new ipad mini with retina display, goes on sale later this month.

1. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

The Roma community of Farsala in Greece, where a mystery blonde girl was discovered, have been defending the couple who are accused of snatching the 4 year old.

The girl known as Maria was found after police raided the settlement. DNA tests prove she is not the couple’s child.

“Their children are crying all the time, they are crying over Maria, and their mother and their father, they are constantly crying.”

This Roma woman who has a blonde child says the couple are being unfairly stigmatised.

“The child was fine just there. Sure, she bought it. Children are bought for adoption if someone does not have children, that is what is done. This woman took the child to raise it. The mother who sold it, maybe she was poor, had problems and she wanted to give it to a good family.”

The couple denies they snatched the girl and say they took her under their care after her mother handed her to them shortly after giving birth. The discovery of Maria has prompted thousands of calls with leads from across the world as authorities try to track down her real mum and dad.

1. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

With Halloween just around the corner many are getting into the holiday spirit.
But one man has taken things to a whole new level.
Meet Dmitri Galitzine and his giant pumpkin boat.
I have always been fascinated by giant vegetables. When I found out they could float it seemed to make perfect sense.
Of course it did. Not content with being possibly the only British person to own a hollowed-out pumpkin boat, Dmitri has broken two pumpkin boat related records.
On Wednesday he set a world record in the 100m paddle.
Look at him go.
Luckily he has had supporters cheering him on every step of the way.
Then on Thursday he became the first to sail to the Isle of Wight. It was a beautiful, clear morning at Stokes Bay in Hampshire – perfect weather for sailing a giant fruit. A motor
was strapped to the 500-kilogram pumpkin boat.
After posing for a few snaps…
The Miraculous was carefully lowered into the water.
Following some last minute checks, Dimitri set sail.
The 27-year-old managed to cross one of the busiest shipping channels in a mere 1 hour 56 minutes.
The journey went so well, Dimitri even turned around and sailed back to Portsmouth.
There are now hopes his achievement will encourage more people to try and cross the Solent using other giant vegetables or fruit.
We are hoping for a massive watermelon.

1. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

If you've been waiting far too long for a lover to pop the question, perhaps it's best to look away now, for this is the most expensive diamond ever to go under the hammer. That's what auction house Sotheby's says, anyway.

It's called the 'Pink Star' and experts believe that at 59.6 carats, it could fetch as much as 40 million pounds. It was cut and polished from a 132.5 carat rough diamond mined by De Beers somewhere in Africa in 1999. It was then sold to an anonymous buyer in 2007. Not her. So let's hope whoever buys it this time around is luckier in love than she was.

Difficult words:

go under the hammer = to be sold at an auction (= a public sale where objects are bought by the people who offer the most money)

polish = to make something smooth, bright, and shiny by rubbing it

anonymous = unknown by name

fetch = to be sold for a particular amount of money, especially at a public sale – used especially in news reports

carat = a unit for measuring the weight of jewels

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

Meet China's Wang Wuka, the three-year-old with an exceptional talent.

The little snooker prodigy has wowed fans with his skills, in one video even potting 15 balls in just ten seconds.

And it's little wonder he's so good. His father, a keen snooker enthusiast, had the table installed when he was born, denying him any other toys.

And nowadays, at the tender age of just three, little Wuka spends five hours a day practising. Other toddlers take note!

Difficult words:

exceptional = unusually good

snooker = a game played especially in Britain on a special table covered in green cloth, in which two people use long sticks to hit coloured balls into holes at the sides and corners of the table

prodigy = a young person who has a great natural ability in a subject or skill

pot = to hit a ball into one of the pockets (=holes at the edge of the table) in games such as billiards, pool, and snooker

keen = someone who is keen is eager to work or learn and enjoys doing it

tender age = the time when you are young or do not have much experience
 

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

Diana Nyad is off again.

After saying goodbye, the U.S. endurance swimmer is on her fifth attempt to swim from Cuba to Key West, Florida.

Accompanied by a small fleet of five support boats and a crew of 35, the 64-year-old is braving sharks, man o'wars and poisonous jelly fish, among other challenges.

Jellyfish stings sank her last attempt at the 103-mile swim, but this time she's wearing a protective silicone mask.

"I think I have some luck in my favor with Mother Nature. And I'm ready and the jellyfish protection that we've spoken about—better than it's ever been. I think it's going to help me get through those animals."

Nyad says this will be her last attempt.

Only one other swimmer has swum the Florida Straits. Australian Susie Maroney conquered the swim with a protective cage in 1997.

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

A new safety car crash-test has found that half of the vehicles tested were rated "marginal" or "poor."

The test designed by the US-based Insurance Institute for Highway Safety sees a car crash into a five-foot barrier while travelling at 40 miles per hour (64 kilometres per hour).

The insurance group said that nearly a quarter of front-of-vehicle crashes result in serious injury or death.

These types of crash tend to involve a single corner of the car, usually on the driver’s side that comes into contact with another vehicle or object.

Half of the 12 small cars tested didn't meet the industry standards. The two-door and four-door models of the Honda Civic were the only small cars to earn the top rating of good in the test.

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

Chaos on a motorway in China as police try to catch a group of stampeding piglets.

Officers could be seen running after the agile animals in China's Guiyang province after the truck carrying them overturned.

Police finally outsmarted the runaways when they started cooling themselves under a rescue truck with the road eventually able to be reopened.

Difficult words:

stampede = when a group of large animals or people suddenly start running in the same direction because they are frightened or excited

piglet  = a young pig

agile = able to move quickly and easily

outsmart = to gain an advantage over someone using tricks or your intelligence

eventually = after a long time, or after a lot of things have happened
 

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…

Europe's top surfers gathered in Munich on Sunday which hosted the 3rd European Championships in Stationary Wave Riding to ride on what organizers say is the world's largest artificial wave.

The Munich championship is among the highlights for European surfers who compete on the 32 foot-wide and five foot-high wave.

This year for the first time, a so called "kicker" or jump was integrated into the artificial wave which allows surfers to perform special rides and tricks.

The winner gets the prize money of around thirteen-thousand dollars.

The contest is in four categories—Men Open, Women Open, Masters Open and for the first time "Grommets", those aged under 16.

A jury headed by Spaniard Juan Carlos Rubio judges the surfers' performance according to the rules set out by the international Association of Surfing Professionals.

Decisive criteria are diversity, control, style, creativity and the repertoire of manoeuvers and tricks.
 

1. Put the sentences in the right order.

2. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (easy)

3. Fill in the Blanks Quiz (difficult)

More Activities like this…