Extracts (摘录) From Information Booklet For Car Ferry Passengers
CAR DECKS
Car drivers are advised to use the handbrake before leaving their cars, to lock all doors and to take with them all belongings that may be needed during the crossing.
CURRENCY EXCHANGE
We regret that there are no facilities aboard for the exchange of cheques of any kind but most European currencies together with Euro cards and various types of international credit cards are accepted for payment in restaurants, shops, cinemas, etc. and to carry out other transactions (交易) on board.
PASSENGER FACILITIES ON BOARD
The following are a small selection of those available.
PROMENADE DECK (散步甲板) : Here you can enjoy a pleasant stroll, go for a jog, or sit or lie back in the sunshine in adaptable reclining seats (躺椅). We would however suggest passengers that decks may be slippery in wet or freezing weather.
VIEWING BRIDGE: This is situated below the Captain's Bridge and offers a view over the bow of the ship. The viewing bridge is reached from the promenade deck via the foremost stairway.
A LA CARTE RESTAURANT: This serves the same breakfast buffet as the main dining room. Scandinavian and international specialties are available at lunch and dinner times. No reservations required.
DUTY-FREE SHOP: This is a supermarket offering Scandinavian and international goods, foodstuffs, spirits, tobacco goods, sweets etc.
OPENING TIMES: The opening times of the various shops, restaurants and other facilities are shown on the relevant entrance doors as well as on the boards in the main halls on Decks 4.
Jamil Jan Kochai, the author of 99 Nights in Logar, searched for more than a decade for Susan Lung—the second-grade teacher who had changed his life over 20 years earlier. On Saturday night, the two were finally reunited at one of his book-reading events.
The writer was born in a refugee camp for Afghans in Peshawar, Pakistan, and his family moved to California when he was just a year old. At home, they spoke mostly Pashto and some Farsi, so by the time he reached first grade, he was at a total loss because he could hardly speak English. Then came Mrs. Lung, who quickly realized that Kochai was deeply struggling at Alyce Norman Elementary School.
The two got to work, meeting for one-on-one lessons nearly every day after school. At the end of the school year, Kochai won reading-comprehension competitions.
Lung and Kochai lost touch when Kochai's father got a job in another city and the boy moved on, with a new love of reading and writing. When he grew older, Kochai's parents encouraged him to find his former teacher to thank her. But despite his efforts, he failed to track her down.
"I didn't know her first name. She was always just Mrs. Lung to me, so when I called places to ask about her, they couldn't find any records of her," Kochai said.
Then, while promoting his first novel, he wrote an essay for Literary Hub magazine touching on the transformative impact that Lung had on his life. Lung's doctor happened to read it, and told the now-retired educator about that.
Lung's husband saw a Facebook post about Kochai's reading event on Saturday in Davis, California and suggested he drive his wife there.
"I had no idea they were going to be there," Kochai said. "It was just like a sweet dream. Mrs. Lung was sitting in the front row. She was just the same Mrs. Lung. Just as sweet, kind and warm as ever. "
Kochai and Lung hugged, and Kochai finally got the chance to express to her how much he still thought of her and how much she meant to him.
The world is wasting the opportunity to "build back better" from the Covid-19 pandemic, and faces disastrous temperature rises of at least 2.7℃ if countries fail to strengthen their climate commitments, according to a report from the UN.
Tuesday's publication warns that countries' current commitments would reduce carbon by only about 7.5% by 2030, far less than the 45% cut, which scientists say is needed to limit global temperature rises to 1.5℃, the aim of the Cop26 summit that opens in Glasgow this Sunday.
António Guterres, the UN secretary-general, described the findings as a "thundering wake-up call" to world leaders, while experts called for action against fossil fuel companies.
Although more than 100 countries have promised to reach net zero emissions around mid-century, this would not be enough to avoid climate disasters, according to the UN emissions report, which examines the shortfall between countries' intentions and actions needed on the climate. Many of the net zero commitments were found to be unclear, and unless accompanied by strict cuts in emissions this decade would allow global heating of a potentially disastrous extent.
Guterres said, "The heat is on, and as the contents of the report show, the leadership we need is off. Far off. Countries are wasting a massive opportunity to invest Covid-19 finance and recovery resources in sustainable, cost-saving, planet-saving ways. As world leaders prepare for Cop26, this report is another thundering wake-up call. How many do we need?"
Inger Andersen, the director of the UN Environment Programme (UNEP) said, "Climate change is no longer a future problem. It is a now problem. To stand a chance of limiting global warming to 1.5℃, we have 8 years to almost halve greenhouse gas emissions: 8 years to make the plans, put in place the policies, carry them out and deliver the cuts. The clock is ticking loudly. "
Emissions fell by about 5.4% last year during Covid lockdowns, the report found, but only about one-fifth of the economic recovery spending goes towards reducing carbon emissions. This failure to "build back better" despite promises by governments around the world cast doubt on the world's willingness to make the economic shift necessary to settle the climate crisis, the UN said.
In the run-up to Cop26, countries were supposed to submit national plans to cut emissions — called nationally determined contributions (NDCs) — for the next decade, a requirement under the 2015 Paris climate agreement. But the UNEP report found only half of countries had submitted new NDCs, and some governments had presented weak plans.
For the first time, scientists have measured what actually happens with face-to-face interactions when employees start to work at an open-plan office, and their results show these modern workspaces are not as cooperative as you'd think.
Two researchers from Harvard Business School and Harvard University wanted to test whether removing walls at a real-world workplace really increases interactions between co-workers. "To our knowledge, no prior study has directly measured the effect on actual interaction that results from removing walls to create an open office environment," Ethan S. Bernstein and Stephen Turban write in the paper. To that end, they approached two multinational companies that were re-organizing their office spaces at the global headquarters, and enlisted small groups of employees for two studies.
For eight weeks before the office redesign and eight weeks afterward, the researchers tracked employees' social interactions and locations. This data was analyzed together with email and instant messaging information from the company's servers to measure differences in how people were communicating with each other.
What they found was a pretty astonishing difference in face-to-face interactions — but not in the direction you might think. Across both experiments, employees' social interactions in person decreased by a crazy 70 percent, while emails saw an uptick by roughly 20 to 50 percent.
So, instead of spending more time cooperating with co-workers in the new space where everyone could see them, people got their heads down and tried to preserve their privacy any way they could. According to these results, it appears that being forced into a more open-plan environment can make people switch from chatting to others in person to sending an email or using instant messaging instead.
As the team notes, it's not automatically a bad thing, but it can certainly change work dynamics in an unexpected way. "That can have important consequences for how — and how productively — work gets done," the researchers conclude.
Even if you love fish, actually cooking it in your kitchen can be a commitment. Long after the fish has been eaten, the pots washed, and the plates put in the dishwasher, the fish smell still exits. Luckily, expert cooks have figured out how you can cook your fish without leaving a smell that exists for days.
First off, know that truly fresh fish really shouldn't have much of an odor (气味) at all. So if you unwrap a package of fish and take a step back from the smell that greets you, throw it away because it's not fresh.
A lot of the smell from cooking fish is because of the cooking method you use. However, other techniques, like cooking fish in paper, can put a lid on the problem before it starts. Cleaning experts recommend minimizing the odor before cooking by bathing fish in milk or a solution of lemon and water.
If it's too late and your home is beginning to smell like the parking lot of a seafood joint, then Good Housekeeping suggests mixing together vinegar and water and letting it boil for several minutes to get rid of the smell.
Shut any inside doors to keep the smell from spreading throughout the house and into bedrooms, but open up kitchen windows and doors to allow the smell to get out. And be sure to wipe any spills and throw away any trash containing fish bits. And the resulting sweet scent will make everyone forget about any fishy odor.
A. Frying can cause a big smell problem.
B. Prepare your home ahead of fish cooking time.
C. Here's how to make every room smell amazing.
D. Cooking fish wrong brings about terrible smells.
E. When all else fails, bake up some cookies for dessert.
F. But, admittedly, even the freshest fish can get a bit of smell once it's cooked.
G. It can be enough to put even the most devoted fish eater off cooking it regularly.
It's said that Mother's Day was first suggested in the United States by Julia Ward Howe in 1872 as a day dedicated to peace after the Franco Prussian War. The holiday gained its 1 majorly due to the efforts of Anna M. Jarvis.
Anna began a letter-writing 2 to gain support for a national Mother's Day holiday when her mother passed away in
1905. 3 influential leaders, including William Taft, Theodore Roosevelt, and John Wannamaker, Anna poured out a stream of requests for support of the idea. She believed, mothers 4 their own special day and that it would help strengthen family bonds.
She 5 her mother's church in West Virginia to celebrate Mother's Day on the second anniversary of her mother's 6 , the 2nd Sunday of May. By 1911 Mother's Day was celebrated in almost every state, and flowers quickly became a lasting 7 to express love on the occasion. In 1914, Congress 8 a law designating the second Sunday in May as Mother's Day, "a public 9 of love and respect for the mothers of our country". President Woodrow Wilson issued the statement, making it a(n) 10 US holiday.
But Anna's accomplishment soon turned 11 for her. Annoyed by the 12 of the holiday, she filed a lawsuit (诉讼) to stop a 1923 Mother's Day festival and was even arrested for 13 the peace at a war mothers' conference where women sold white carnations (康乃馨) — Anna's symbol for mothers — to raise money, "This is not what I 14 ," Jarvis said. "I wanted it to be a day of sentiment, not 15 !"
Today Mother's Day has become a very popular holiday in the USA.
—It was in the village we visited last month.
注意：1. 词数80左右；2. 可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Jason,
Li Hua
My best friend Carla Hernandez called me on Thursday afternoon. "Daniel, meet me in the park near the playground in five minutes. I have a great idea!" This worried me because Carla's great ideas almost always meant big trouble for me!
I dashed outside and jogged to the park. When I saw Carla, my heart sank because her large dog Perro was with her. I liked everything about Carla except Perro. I had never had a pet in my house, and I felt uncomfortable and nervous around animals. But I was embarrassed to say I was afraid of Carla's dog.
Upon my arrival, Carla smiled in a joyful voice. "Isn't this the perfect location for a pet show?" I was surprised at her words. Carla explained to me that all the kids in the neighborhood could show off their pets' talents and demonstrated the things they did well. Besides, there were plenty of comfortable benches for our parents and friends to sit on as audience. Carla added that I could be the announcer since I didn't have a pet for the show. What she said directly affected my mood because crowds always made me nervous and unsure. Looking into her eyes, I apologized, "I'm sorry, but that's impossible! Besides, I don't like animals, remember?"
"That's nonsense," said Carla. "There's nothing to be concerned about because you'll be great!" Just at that time, Perro leaped up, slobbered all over me, and almost knocked me down. "Yuck. Down, Perro! Stay!" I shouted. Perro sat as still as a statue. "Wow, you're good at that," Carla raised her voice excitedly. "Now let's get started because we have a lot to do. "
With her encouragement, I decided to have a try. After going back home, I couldn't wait to practice announcing each pet's act. By Saturday morning I had practiced hundreds of times. However, my stomach was doing flip flops by the time the audience arrived at the park. The size of the crowd made me feel even more anxious.
注意： 1. 续写词数应为150左右; 2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
When the show began, I took a deep breath and announced the first pet. Then it was Carla and Perro's turn. |
