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Elephant Reserve Country: Thailand This is a working vacation at a wildlife centre. Anyone can become a volunteer if he/she agrees to help the elephant keepers with tasks. Daily tasks Gather the elephants at 6:30 am. Take them to look for food in the forest. Clean the enclosure(围场). Swim with the elephants in the lake in the afternoon. If volunteers want to relax after work, they can watch satellite television. How this vacation helps If these elephants hadn't been rescued, they would still be living on the streets of Bangkok. The rural environment is much better for them than the urban environment where there is lots of pollution. Your Comment “I love working with these huge gentle animals.” |
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Gorilla safari(观赏野兽的旅行) Countries: Kenya, Rwanda and Uganda Departures(出发): 2—3 departures per month from Aug. to Dec. Extras: permit ￡220 If you're lucky, you'll see lions,
elephants and rhinos during this safari. The highlight(最好 How this vacation helps There are only about 600 gorillas left in the world as human activity has reduced the area where they can live. When you buy a permit, this will pay for the protection of the national park. Your comment “I'll surely go back as soon as I have enough money!” |
| Polar bear watching Area & Country: Arctic, Canada Departures: sixty trips between Oct. 1—Nov.19. Every October and November groups of polar bears gather in Hudson Bay. As they are normally lonely creatures, this is unusual. The bears wait for the ocean to freeze so that they can hunt for seals, so this is the perfect opportunity to see them. Extra activities include dog sledding(狗拉雪橇) and a night trip to see the Northern Lights. How this vacation helps If the Arctic ice cap melts due to global warming, polar bears will be in danger. We give a share of our profits(利益) to the charity that protects polar bears. Your comment “These terrible bears get all the liquid they need from their food.” |
C . To help deal with the pollution in cities.
D . To help solve the problem of global warming.
We've heard of robots and AI (Artificial Intelligence) taking human jobs, but I bet mayors（市长）don't really think their jobs can be threatened any time soon. They were wrong, and the AI running for the mayor of a Tokyo district was clear proof of that.
AI can't legally run for high-ranking public management positions yet, but one mayoral candidate from Tama City, Tokyo, intended to maximize the use of artificial intelligence in running city affairs. He was running his campaign (竞选运动) as "AI Mayor". Basically, he was suggesting replacing human public officials with AI and having them collect city data and create fair and balanced policies that will benefit everyone.
"For the first time in the world, AI will run in an election," human candidate Michihito Matsuda announced on Twitter. "Artificial Intelligence will change Toma City. With the birth of an AI Mayor, we will conduct balanced politics."
The AI Mayor was campaigning very much like its human competitors. Posters were shown all over Tama City and campaign trucks were blaring out(大声鸣响)promises of an AI utopia (乌托邦)and asking for support.
Some people called Michihito Matsuda's campaign a stunt (噱头), as a human would still be the one legally in charge. However, others said that they were excited about the future of AI running things in the background, adding that it had to be a better choice.
You'll need to take a deep breath before hearing this news. An astonishing 93% of kids around the world live in environments with air pollution levels that are damaging their health, according to a new report by WHO.
Air pollution is to blame for the deaths of 543,000 kids under 5 in 2016, with more than one in four deaths of children under five years old being related to environmental issues. Exposure (暴露)to air pollution can damage the health of kids in a variety of ways, either causing or being associated with everything from low birth weight to childhood obesity and so on.
"The large toll of disease and death revealed (揭示)by these new data should result in an urgent call to action for the global community especially for those in the health department WHO stated. "Strong action to reduce exposure to air pollution offers an opportunity to protect the health of children." The report stressed that health experts should communicate with families, communities and policy-makers about the serious risks of air pollution exposure. "Although more researches into how air pollution affects children's health will continue to be valuable, there is already evidence to justify strong, swift action to prevent the damage it clearly produces," WHO added.
Disease caused by dirty air is more common in low-and-middle in come countries, especially those in Africa, South-East Asia, and Western Pacific regions. Poor countries in these areas have the highest levels of exposure to household air pollution due to the use of polluting fuels and technologies for basic needs like cooking, heating and lighting.
Advised solutions include cleaner transport, cleaner cooking and heating fuels and technologies energy-efficient housing and urban planning, safer industrial technologies and better waste management.
It is widely believed that smiling means a person is happy, and it usually occurs when they're meeting another person or a group of people. However, a new study led by the body language expert Dr. Harry Witchel shows this isn't always the case.
In his research, he asked 44 participants aged 18-35 to play a geography quiz game consisting of nine difficult questions so that they often got the answer wrong. Participants seated interacted with a computer alone in a room while their faces were video recorded.
After the quiz, the participants were asked to rate their experience using a range of 12 emotions including "bored", "interested" and "frustrated". Meanwhile, their facial expressions were then computer analysed frame by frame in order to judge how much they were smiling based on a scale of between 0 to 1.
Dr Witchel said: "According to some researchers, a real smile reflects the inner state of cheerfulness or amusement. However, behavioral ecology theory suggests that all smiles are tools used in social interactions, meaning cheerfulness is neither necessary nor rich for smiling. Our study showed that in these human-computer interaction experiments, smiling isn't driven by happiness; it is associated with subjective involvement(主观参与),which acts like a social fuel for smiling, even when socializing with a computer on your own."
Surprisingly, participants didn't tend to smile during the period when they were trying to figure out the answers. However, they did smile right after the computer game informed them if their answer was correct or wrong. Participants smiled more often when they got the answer wrong. Dr. Witchel added: "During these computerized quizzes, smiling was greatly increased just after answering questions incorrectly. This behavior could be explained by self-ratings of engagement, rather than by ratings of happiness or frustration."
Your teacher hands back a test and you did poorly. At this moment, you wish you could hide from the world. But according to a research, what's more important is how you react in the long term. Scientists say students can be divided into two groups. The first, called "mastery-oriented learners" view poor results as challenges to do better in the future. The second, called "helpless learners" will respond just by giving up.
But surprisingly, this attitude is even more important than a student's natural intelligence. However smart, eventually you'll come across question you cannot answer. When you do, it's important not to fall victim to helplessness. Learned helplessness was first discovered in an experiment where some dogs suffered from electrical shocks they couldn't escape from. Later, their feeling of helplessness was so strong that they made no attempt to escape even when they could.
So what makes you a different learner? Mastery-oriented learners believe hard work is the key to success. Faced with failure, they simply conclude they need to try harder. However, helpless learners believe intelligence is inborn. Thus, when they have difficulties they conclude they are not smart enough and that improving on their intelligence isn't possible.
If you want to be a mastery-oriented person, you can. If you think you can do better, keep trying and the results will surely follow.
A. Start by not letting negative results discourage you.
B. It's feeling many students are familiar with.
C. It all comes down to your idea of intelligence.
D. That's because you should have worked hard.
E. Whether you're intelligent, ambition counts.
F. To them, success in school seems to rely on natural talent and ability.
G. As you would expect, the first group performs better than the second.
“A bird with broken wing will never fly as high.” I'm sure that John would agree with this saying, 1 he felt this way almost every day in school.
By high school, John was the most famous 2 in his town. He was always absent, didn't answer questions and got into 3. He had failed almost every exam by the time he entered his senior year, yet was 4 each year to a higher grade level. Teachers didn't want to have him again the following year. John was moving on, but definitely not moving 5.
I met John for the first time at a weekend leadership training program since John was one of 405 students who 6. At the start of the training, John was just standing 7 the circle of students, against the back wall. He didn't 8 join the discussion groups. But slowly, the interactive games drew him in.
The ice really melted when the groups started building a list of 9 and negative things that had occurred at school that year. John 10 some constructive ideas on those situations. The other students in John's group welcomed his comments. All of a sudden John felt like a 11 of the group, and before long he was treated like a leader. By the end of the training, he had joined the Homeless Project team. The other students on the team were 12 with his passionate concern and ideas. They 13 elected John co-chairman of the team.
John started 14 at school every day and answered questions from teachers for the first time. He led a second project, collecting 300 blankets and 1,000 pairs of shoes for the homeless shelter from house to house.
A bird with a broken wing only needs 15. Once healed, it can fly higher than the rest.
The Water Splashing Festival (泼水节) of the Dai ethnic minority falls in April. It is the most important festival (observe) by the Dai people in the Dehong area of Xishuangbanna, Yunnan Province.
During the festival lasts three or four days, people are dressed in their best clothes and participate in a variety of rich and colorful (activity). Dragon boat racing, fireworks displays and other performances such as Peacock Dance (hold) on the first day. And the most popular event (be) water-splashing on the second day. People splash water on each other, hoping to take away sicknesses and disasters. The wetter you get, the (lucky) you will be. The last day is usually for the young people to play games as a way (express) their love for each other.
The Water Splashing Festival (vivid) exhibits the Dai's respect for water and the culture of music and dance, food, and costumes. It is also a cultural bridge Xishuangbanna and Southeast Asian countries that share same festival culture of water-splashing.
注意：
1）词数100左右；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
3）开头和结尾已经给出，不计入总词数。
参考词汇： 流行病 epidemic；新型冠状病毒 novel coronavirus
Dear medical workers,
Good luck and stay well!
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
Robert and Henry were two friends in the same class. They always played together and went home together. One day Robert and Henry were going home from school, when, on turning a corner, Robert cried out, "A fight! Let's go and see！" "No," said Henry. "Let us go quietly home and not meddle with (插手) this quarrel. We have nothing to do with it and may get into mischief (trouble). Also our parents are expecting to have dinner with us together at home and I don't want them to worry about me."
"You are a coward, and afraid to go, "said Robert, and off he ran. Henry went straight home, and in the afternoon went to school as usual.
But Robert had told all the boys that Henry was a coward, and they laughed at him a great deal. From then on, they looked down upon Henry and didn't want to play with him together.
Henry was sad but he wasn't angry with Robert for his rude behavior, because he learned that true courage is shown most in bearing misunderstanding when it was not deserved, and that he ought to be afraid of nothing but doing wrong. Thus, he just ignored the other boys' laughter and continued to go to school and study as well. However, Robert didn't invite Henry to go home with him anymore. Instead, he had some other boys who also thought Henry was a coward. Every day after school, they didn't go home directly but went to the river or somewhere to play games and had a lot of fun.
A few days later, Robert was bathing with his new friends in a river, and got out of his depth. He struggled, and screamed for help, but all in vain. The boys who had called Henry a coward got out of the water as fast as they could, but they did not even try to help him.
Paragraph 1:
Robert was fast sinking.
Paragraph 2:
Thus, Robert's life was saved. Robert and his new friends were ashamed at having called Henry a coward.
部分) of the trip is the opportunity to see gorillas in the mountain forests. However, you must be in good health — if a gorilla caught a cold, it would be extremely harmful to its whole family.