Great Places to Spend New Year's Eve
These destinations around the world have a good reputation for traditionally spending a great New Year's Eve.
Dubai
The famous architecture Burj Khalifa holds the record for its top height worldwide and people gather at the footsteps to welcome a new year with an amazing fireworks show. Not too far away, Burj Plaza is a little quieter and popular with families. Dubai is building a reputation as a major food destination, so you may wish to enjoy in restaurants. And if you have shopping in mind, check out Dubai Mall, one of the world's largest.
Rio de Janeiro
The citizens of Rio de Janeiro know how to throw a good celebration. The main gathering at Copacabana Beach, which starts even before dark, traditionally features a variety of musical acts and fireworks. If you want to party in classic Rio style, pay a visit to Jobi Bar, a social custom in the city. Looking for a great view? Hang out to the Vista Chinesa, a small Chinese style tower sitting to provide a fantastic bird view.
Bangkok
Bangkok often tops the lists of Asia's best nightlife cities. Catch an amazing fireworks show at ICONSIAM, a major shopping and entertainment destination along the Chao Phraya River. You may want to continue the celebration at one of Bangkok's attractive bars such as Sky Beach Bangkok, the city's highest bar. If you want to escape from crowds, bright lights and noise, get some calming down time at a temple, Wat Pho.
Cape Town
Cape Town is one of the most beautiful cities in Africa. New Year's Eve fireworks make it more wonderful. If you're in the mood for a party, Aztecthemed Alcazar will feature 10 hours of performances on three stages. If you're looking for a place to dine, consider Pier, featuring a vegetarian menu. It's on the Victoria& Alfred Waterfront, which is a great spot to catch the fireworks.
A potato farmer, Cliff Young took part in a Sydney to Melbourne ultramarathon (超级马拉松) race in1983. Coached by his mother who was 81 at the time, Cliff Young started the marathon with work shoes and work clothes.
Competing against world-class marathon runners who were backed up by big sports companies and spent hundreds of hours preparing for the race, Cliff Young's training method was just running after his sheep. He told the organizers he could run after his sheep for a few days and that he could surely compete with other runners.
The ultramarathon generally took 5 days to compete and this potato farmer's decision seemed suicidal. In fact, some tried to stop him from running the super-difficult race because they thought Cliff Young could die because of the heat and fatigue(疲劳). After all, he was 61 years old!
To cut the story short, Cliff Young managed to finish the race. While the young racers slept, he continued to race throughout the night. The young athletes left him far behind until the very last night where he finally led the marathon. Not only did Cliff Young, a 61-year-old potato farmer, survive the race, but he even managed to win the marathon and actually broke the race record by 9 hours! He even gave away his prize money to the rest of the runners after him.
After the win, he continued to run in many ultramarathon races and even set standards in the world of endurance racing. His running style, named "The Young Shuffle" is a famous running technique used by many runners in the world today.
Cliff Young showed that being old is not a problem, and being a champion doesn't mean you need to have super-human strength, just super-human will!
I know what you're thinking: pizza? For breakfast? But the truth is that you can have last night's leftovers in the a.m. if you want to.
I know lots of women who skip breakfast, and they have a ton of different excuses for doing it. Some say they don't have time, others think they're "saving" calories, still others just don't like breakfast food.
But the bottom line is that eating in the morning is very important when you're trying to lose weight. "Eating just about anything from 300 to 400 calories would be better than nothing at all," says Katherine Brooking, R. D., who developed the supereasy eating plan for this year's "SELF CHALLENGE". And even pizza can be healthy if it's loaded with vegetables, and you stick to one small piece.
Breakfast is one meal I never miss, and the same goes for most weight loss success stories. Research shows that eating breakfast keeps you from overeating later in the day. Researchers at the University of Southern California found that breakfast skippers have a bigger chance of gaining weight than those who regularly have a morning meal.
So eat something in the morning, anything. I know plenty of friends who end up having no breakfast altogether, and have just coffee or orange juice. I say, try heating up last night's leftovers—it may sound crazy, but if it works for you, do it! I find if I tell myself, "You can always eat it tomorrow," I put away the leftovers instead of eating more that night. Try it…you may save yourself some prebedtime calories. And watch your body gain the fatburning effects.
In many places, a moonless night sky is no longer totally black. Artificial lighting can give the night a lasting light. This so-called light pollution can affect animals. Even moderate light pollution, a new study finds, can roughly double how long a house sparrow infected with West Nile Virus (WNV) remains at high risk of spreading disease. If bitten by a mosquito, that virus can now spread to other animals, including people.
"In the United States, house sparrows are about as widespread as artificial lighting. So they made a useful test species in a new first-of-its-kind study," says Meredith Kernbach. Her team used these birds to test whether light at night might affect the spread of the West Nile Virus.
Kernbach based much of her lab test on real-world conditions. In the study, some house sparrows in the lab spent the night in an area that was dimly (昏暗地) lit. These birds were slower in fighting off West Nile Virus infections than those that spent the night in full darkness.
WNV needs a mosquito to spread from bird to bird, or from bird to human. If a mosquito doesn't pick up enough viruses from the blood of an infected animal, its new victim might be able to avoid getting sick. House sparrows kept under a dim night light typically had enough viruses in their blood to be a source of virus for at least four days, Kernbach reports. House sparrows in full darkness had enough viruses to spread the disease only for two days.
What light does to the birds is only part of the story, points out Davide Dominon, a physiologist at the Netherlands Institute of Ecology in Wageningen. "Researchers will need to look for effects on the virus itself," he says. "And, of course, on the mosquitoes."
How to Appear Outgoing in a Conversation?
Some people seem naturally outgoing when chatting with others, while others find it hard to make it. Here are some tips to help you appear outgoing in a conversation.
Make eye contact. If you're in a social situation, such as at a party, try to make eye contact with the other people there. Once you've established eye contact, give the other person a friendly smile. If the person does not respond or does not expect to be approached, let them go their way. Part of being outgoing is knowing when and where to approach others and when to keep to yourself.
Ask some open-ended questions. It's easier to start up a chat with someone new if you invite them to share about themselves. If you've already exchanged eye contact and smiles with someone, and you're close by, start off with a question. Here are some ideas: How do you like that book or magazine? What is your favorite thing to do around here?
You might see some of the same people every day, but never acknowledge(致意) them. To become outgoing, it is important to start acknowledging the people around you more often. The next time you order a coffee or check out at the grocery store, smile at the person helping you and say "thank you" This small act will help you become more comfortable interacting with others.
Talk to everyone. After you become a bit more comfortable talking to people you know, try talking to new people as you go through your day. But the more you approach people and get comfortable with making conversation, the easier it will become.
A. Say thank you in public as much as possible.
B. Remember that they serve hundreds of people a day.
C. If the person smiles back at you, then go over to them.
D. It will probably make the other person's day a little brighter.
E. At first, you might feel uncomfortable talking with strangers.
F. These questions invite others to respond with more than a "yes" or "no".
G. Keep in mind that this approach doesn't always work well in some situations.
One day, my uncle brought home a parrot. My cousin and I called it Mitthu. My family were so 1 strongly that they trimmed (剪掉) its wings. They said if it left home, it wouldn't 2 outside without us.
As time went by, we grew and so did Mitthu. Its wings grew quite a lot. Mitthu wasn't kept in a cage. I sometimes wondered why it didn't 3. Maybe it was quite attached to us and didn't want to leave us, or it didn't want to leave the luxurious life and 4 the harsh reality of life.
As I grew older, I 5 that Mitthu's life wasn't very different from mine. I was pampered(溺爱) and 6 carefully. I was prohibited from really 7 the outside world. My house became my whole world, which was like an invisible 8 that had bound my spirit.
Now I'm sent out to study and told that I have the whole sky to fly, but 9, just as Mitthu, I am not able to do so. Mitthu and I might be two different beings but we are 10 in a similar situation. I am afraid of flying. I am afraid my behavior might hurt my parents' feelings. These emotions and 11 will never really allow us to fly independently!
It's good for parents to love and 12 their children, but, sometimes, over-protectiveness from parents might harm their children's future and 13 children's decisions. True 14 is to allow kids to grow freely and let them try 15 things. Thus, they will be brimming with confidence and courage.
December 5th is the International Volunteer Day. It (establish) by the UN in 1985. It has two aims: first, to thank volunteers around the world for (give) their time to help others; second, to encourage other people to do voluntary work. Without volunteers, many people around the world would be much (bad) off. In fact, the whole world would be darker place. Volunteers help other people and help animals, the countryside, the environment and many more things are important to us. The UN urges governments around the world (take) measures to heighten (aware) of the important contribution of volunteering.
There are thousands of volunteer organizations around the world. A search the Internet will give you a volunteer group on anything or anyone you want to help. You don't need to join a worldwide group to be a volunteer. Most voluntary work that takes place around the globe is done by (individual) helping their neighbors. We have probably all gone out of our way to help someone less fortunate. Most (important), volunteering makes you feel like a useful person. So, on this International Volunteer Day, think about how you can help, and offer your services.
Dear Jamie,
I'm sorry to hear that you are still not feeling very well after being infected with COVID-19.
……
Yours,
Li Hu
A few days before Christmas, while enjoying coffees, my friend and I noticed a woman trying to get her bank card to work.
"Do you know her?" I asked my friend.
"I do. Give me a minute. I'm going to go and see if I can help," she replied, standing up to walk over to her.
A few minutes later, my friend returned to the table with the woman. The woman looked upset. Her eyes were swollen, as if she'd been crying all night. She looked pale, tired, and messy. After I was introduced, my friend asked her if she was okay. She admitted she wasn't and burst into tears.
I could sense she was a little embarrassed by her emotional response. Wanting to put her at ease, I quickly told her not to worry. I shared that I was a new mom with many troubles and I'd already cried fourteen times that day. She laughed but soon her tears were flowing again.
For the next forty-five minutes, my friend and I both sat and patiently listened to her. She lost her husband before Christmas and their bank accounts were now left nothing. As a stay-at-home mom of two, in one split second, her entire life had come crashing down around her.
We tried our best to cheer her up. My friend even tried to give her some cash, which she refused. When she finally got up to leave, she wiped her tears, thanked us both for listening, and walked out.
As I drove home, I couldn't stop thinking about how depressed she looked when she left the cafe. No one deserves to feel that sad, I thought, especially right before Christmas. There must be something I can do to help. I racked my brain (绞尽脑汁) for an answer.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2. 续写部分分为两段，每段的开头已给出。
Gladly, a solution came.
……
The kids were overjoyed when hearing that Santa (圣诞老人) sent them gifts.
