World Book Day author A.M. Dassu shares some tips
While helping out at her children's swimming lessons, author A.M. Dassu noticed that one boy always put on his socks too soon afterwards. He inspired her to write a picture book that she called Soggy Socks.
Today, many years later, Dassu has published lots of children's books. Every day, after taking her children to school, Dassu goes to her desk to write. "I leave my phone upstairs so I don't get distracted, and try to write 800 words every day," she says. Dassu believes that the key to being a successful writer is not necessarily talent but "getting your bottom on the seat".
The cyclist with far to go
After 527 days, Liam Garner has completed an amazing achievement. He has cycled almost 20,000 miles from Alaska, in the very north of the US, to Ushuaia-the world's southernmost city-in the South American country of Argentina. Garner, who was 17 years old when he set off, said his trip was inspired by a book he read about a similar journey.
Garner always wanted to have a "big adventure". During his trip, Garner travelled through 14 countries. He camped outside, stayed in hostels or was hosted by local families. He faced some challenges, including an accident that meant he had to take some time off. However, he recovered and finally reached his goal of being the youngest person ever to cycle from Alaska to Argentina.
A plastic-waste warrior
Licypriya Kangujam won an international award which celebrates people who spark global change. Licypriya, who is 11 and from India, won it for her Plastic Money Shop, where people can trade in their single-use plastic waste for useful items such as stationery, rice or young trees to plant.
Growing up in the Philippines, construction worker Johnny Manlugay combs the beaches each night for the eggs of sea turtles. He knows exactly what to look for, as he was trained as a child by his grandfather on how to locate the animals and their eggs. Back then, his family traded or ate them. It wasn't about getting rich as much as it was just a part of life.
Manlugay has since turned over a new leaf. Instead, he uses his tracking skills to protect the sea turtles that visit the beaches he lives by.
"I've learned to love this work," Manlugay acknowledged in an interview. "We didn't know poaching(偷猎)was illegal and that we should not eat turtle eggs and meat."
Manlugay delicately transferred each egg into a bucket he brought with him, as well as some sand from the turtle nests, to be handed over to Coastal Underwater Resource Management Actions(CURMA), the group leading the conservation program on the beaches.
Established in 2009, the CURMA conservation effort has gradually transformed sea turtle poachers into valuable allies(盟友). They manage this by offering training to ultimately save thousands of turtles and keep their eggs from ending up everywhere but their nests.
"We talked to the poachers, and it turned out poaching was just another means for them to earn a living," explained Carlos Tamayo, the director of operations. "They had no choice."
On average, sea turtles lay 100 eggs in a nest. The number of nests in the area ranges between 35 and 40 each season, which runs from October to February. Tamayo noted that the figures had doubled during the first year of the COVID pandemic. "Last season alone, for example, we had 75 nests and we released close to 9,000 hatching," he shared.
Once collected, the eggs are then transferred to CURMA's hatchery(孵化场) to be reburied in protected areas. Another former poacher, Jessie Cabagbag, grew up eating turtle meat and eggs like many people there. "I stopped poaching when we underwent training and were taught that what we have been doing was illegal and that these species of turtles are endangered," he explained. Now, he admits, "I am truly proud. I am happy that I get to contribute to the conservation of the turtles."
Do you often compare yourself to other people? Comparisons can help to make decisions and motivate you but they can also pull you into a comparison trap.
Whether it's the number of goals you've scored at football or how many books you've read, it's easy to compare yourself to someone else. Scientists say it's a natural behaviour that helps humans learn from each other, live happily together and achieve more. Although comparing can be good for you, it's not always helpful and you can find yourself stuck in a comparison trap. This is when you always measure yourself against others and base your feelings on how well they seem to be doing.
Becky Goddard-Hill is a child therapist (someone who helps children understand their feelings) and author of Create Your Own Confidence. She says that comparisons can make us feel good and bad about ourselves. "Comparing up" means seeing someone doing better than you and using that to inspire yourself to aim higher and try harder. However, Goddard-Hill says, "Sometimes it can make you feel rubbish about yourself and knock your confidence." "Comparing down" is when you see someone who seems like they're not doing as well as you. This might make you feel you're doing well, says Goddard-Hill, but it can also stop you wanting to improve.
If your feelings depend on what other people are doing, "Surround yourself with cheerleaders," suggests Goddard-Hill. Notice how people make you feel and spend time with friends who celebrate your strengths rather than compare themselves to you. If you follow social media accounts that make you feel you are failing in any way, unfollow them. "Find ones that make you laugh or show you lovely places instead," she says. Finally, focus on your own achievements and how you can improve. "The best person you can compete with is yourself," says Goddard-Hill.
Holding the large and heavy "brick" cellphone he's credited with inventing 50 years ago, Martin Cooper talks about the future.
Little did he know when he made the first call on a New York City street from a heavy Motorola prototype(原型) that our world would come to be encapsulated on a sleek glass sheath where we search, connect, like and buy.
Cooper says he is an optimist. He believes that advances in mobile technology will continue to transform lives but he is worried about risks smartphones pose to privacy and young people.
"My most negative opinion is we don't have any privacy anymore because everything about us is now recorded someplace and accessible to somebody who has enough intense desire to get it," the 94-year-old said in an interview in Barcelona at MWC, the Mobile World Congress, the world's biggest wireless trade show, where he was getting a lifetime award.
Cooper sees a dark side to the advances, including the risk to children. One idea, he said, is to have "various Internets intended for different audiences."
Cooper made the first public call from a handheld portable telephone on a Manhattan street on April 3,1973, using a prototype device his team at Motorola had started designing just five months earlier.
Cooper used the Dyna-TAC phone to famously call his opponent at Bell Labs, owned by AT&T. It was literally the world's first brick phone, weighing 2.5 pounds and measuring 11 inches.
Cooper spent the best part of the next decade working to bring a commercial version of the device to market.
The call helped kick-start the cellphone revolution (革命).
Cooper said he's "not crazy" about the shape of modern smartphones. He thinks they will develop so that they'll be "distributed on your body," possibly as sensors "measuring your health at all times."
Batteries, he said, might be replaced by human energy. The body makes energy from food, he argues, so it could possibly also power a phone. Instead of holding the phone in the hand, for example, the device could be placed under the skin.
For generations, the longest distance that many villagers in Zhadong, South China's Guangxi Zhuang autonomous region, could understand was that of the journey between their village and Nanning, the regional capital.
"The first time I came to Zhadong village, I was impressed by its natural beauty. The adobe(土砖) homes fit perfectly with the green environment." recalls Hansen Nico Rene, a 63-year-old retired policeman. "
.There was a fireplace, a table, and some chairs. The bathroom, if there was one, was in the pigsty. There was very little to suggest that they were living in the 21st Century."
The village Hansen visited is in a remote mountainous area in Guangxi's Hechi city. In 2015, of some 600 residents in the village, over half lived under the national poverty(贫困) line. At the time of Hansen's first visit, there were still some parts of the village that were not accessible by road.
"People surrounded him out of curiosity. They took pictures of him with their phones, as it was the first time we had seen a foreigner in our village."
During that visit, Hansen met Xie Wanju, then the first Party secretary of Zhadong. "We will never forget the first moment we met because this changed my whole life. I met the first Party secretary, and he was working for the government for poverty relief. That was amazing. I said if you need help, I have time," Hansen said.
Under Hansen's assistance, Xie, with the village's officials and other poverty relief workers, developed featured industries, including cattle and sheep raising and fruit planting. By November 2020, the whole of Zhadong village had successfully wiped out poverty. Now local authorities are leading the villagers on a new journey to rural vitalization(振兴).
A. Their efforts paid off.
B. That, in my view, is also a core spirit of the Party.
C. But when I entered the houses, I found people were poor.
D. Villager Bi Yonghong, 41, remembers the first time he saw Hansen.
E. Hansen returned to the city in May2021 after finishing his voluntary work.
F. In 2018, the arrival of a man from Luxembourg expanded their horizons across continents.
G. Since then, he became known by a new identity-the village's first Party secretary's assistant.
A 3-year-old girl is back home after a man found her wandering on the city's southwest side early Sunday morning.
Botello, who works for Villa Pizza and has seven children, said he was in the middle of a 1 around 3 a.m. when he saw a young girl 2 around the McConnell parking lot.
"I ran to the door and gave people their food," said Botello. "I went back looking for her but failed, so I drove around for a minute. Without finding her, I started pulling into the parking lots." He finally 3 the girl who was curled (蜷缩) up between two blocks, 4 nothing but a T-shirt, diaper (尿裤), and socks. Botello wrapped her in a hoodie (连帽衫), then called the police. "I had some 5 in my car, so she was drinking some water and I rubbed her back, letting her know she was okay and she started falling asleep," said Botello. "She was so 6 and cold." When officers arrived, they managed to make 7 with the little girl's mother, who didn't 8 she was missing and thought she was asleep. It's unclear how the girl got out or for how long, but the police believed it was an accident.
"I cannot 9 how her parents feel, but want them to go easy. I don't think it was anything 10, nobody lets a little kid out." said Botello. "I just did what I could. I assume somebody would do the same for my kids." Botello added that rather than cast 11, he hoped this incident pushed people to offer 12 in someone's time of need. "Sometimes you want to turn a 13 eye but, you never know who you're saving," said Botello. "Anybody could have 14 that little girl, there's lots of foot traffic over there, so I'm glad she 15 made it home safe."
Dutch artist Johannes Vermeer only created 37 known works during his lifetime. Now, art history (lover) have the opportunity to see 28 of these pieces in the (large) exhibition of Vermeer paintings ever. (host) at the Rijks Museum in Amsterdam, the exhibition features a series of well-known pieces from the artist's works that prove why he (know) as the "Master of Light."
Museums from around the world lent their Vermeer paintings for the exhibition that opened on February 10, 2023. Johannes Vermeer is famous around the world his paintings of calm scenes in domestic settings, and for his (impress) use of light, according to the museum.
Additionally, Vermeer's most famous painting, Girl with a Pearl Earring, (normal) held at the Maritshu is museum in The Hague, is on display at the Rijks Museum for limited time, while the rest of the exhibition continues until June.
The Rijks Museum is also offering a digital Vermeer experience for those who are (able) to see these pieces in person. Titled Closer, this online gallery features the voices of Stephen Fry (in English) and Joy Delima (in Dutch), give an overview of Vermeer's life and art.
Linda, a high school girl, was feeling depressed after she had failed her mid-term exams. She didn't answer her teachers' questions actively in class like she used to. Instead, she began to lower her head and got absent-minded easily. Her friends and classmates were worried about her, but she didn't feel like talking about it with them. Mrs. Green, her English teacher, noticed her changes and decided to do something before it got worse.
One day, Mrs. Green entered the classroom and asked her students to prepare for a surprise test. They waited anxiously at their desks for the test to begin. Mrs. Green handed out the question papers, with the text facing down as usual. After she handed them all out, she asked her students to turn the page and begin. To everyone's surprise, there were no questions, just a black dot in the center of the page. Mrs. Green, seeing the expression on everyone's face, told them the following: "I want you to write what you see there."
The students, confused, got started on the task.
At the end of the class, Mrs. Green collected all the answer papers and started reading them aloud in front of all the students. Just as Mrs. Green had expected, with no exception, all of them described the black dot, trying to explain its position in the middle of the sheet, etc. Mrs. Green then picked out Linda's paper and added,
"Linda, I like your idea. Would you please follow me to the office and talk about it?"
"Er... Yes, madam!" Linda was puzzled because she thought her idea was no better than anyone else's. Like others, she also described the black dot only and ignored the white part of the paper.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为150左右；2.每段的开头语已为你写好。
Feeling nervous, Linda went into Mrs. Green's office.
"Mrs. Green is right. I should focus more on the white part of the paper!" Linda got refreshed.
注意：1.写作词数应为80左右；2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；3.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Peter,
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
