If you really want a taste of the everyday swing of Dutch life, a bike tour through Amsterdam is the way to go.
What is included in an Amsterdam bike tour
The bicycle is of course provided and included in the price of the tour. Some tours offer coffee and tea after the tour finishes. Every tour especially has its own theme and route. You can compare them by visiting webpages dedicated to a particular tour.
A tour itself is a beautiful experience. Amsterdam's architecture, markets, bridges, plazas and street atmosphere are memorable and comfortable to see from a bike seat. See them like most citizens of Amsterdam do.
Amsterdam bicycle tour basics
These tours are usually between one and two hours long. They are guided by friendly and knowledgeable tour guides who are well capable in Amsterdam information. What's more, the tour guides usually know many languages and are used to overcoming language barriers(障碍).
Important during the bicycle tour of Amsterdam
Please don't become so Dutch that you ignore( 忽视) the traffic laws. It is a fact that some Amsterdammers often cross a street or a bridge when they feel like doing it. That is why staying alert (警惕的) and a little bit of biking experience can help you to go through the small city streets during an Amsterdam bike tour. Also, unless you are 100% sure that the weather will be sunny, you'd better bring a jacket. When you start moving on the bike, the wet Amsterdam's air can get quite cold.
I've just arrived from New York City at the airport in Rome and already I'm lost, wandering left and right and searching for the right exit. I'm supposed to meet my wife Elvira, who lives in Italy now, and then drive to Guardia Sanframondi, the little town where we own a house, to meet our newborn granddaughter Lucia, now all of 11 weeks old.
But I takes a wrong turn, and then another, all in vain. I'm lost for 15 minutes, then 30, and finally about 45, unable to get my passport properly scanned and pick up my luggage. This is more than mildly inconvenient. After all, I've just flown more than 4 ,000 miles, a flight into my future.
But suddenly I see Elvira, who is holding baby Lucia in her arms. I'm found.
I stay in Italy for three weeks. It's impossible for me to get enough of Lucia, and so I follow a strict agenda. Hold Lucia in my arms. Kiss Lucia all over her face. Wheel Lucia in her carriage in the most public places available. Make faces at her and even sillier gestures and sounds.
Today, at 70, I'm a permanent resident of Italy, with Lucia living a five—minute walk away. We visit her at her house and she visits us at ours almost every day. In most American families, adult children with grandchildren live in different towns and states far away. Italian families, on the other hand, are more likely to live near each other. Sometimes three generations here even stay together in the same home. I've happily turned my life upside—down to be a grandpa Italian—style. Lucia is just what I need right about now. If I'm lucky, I'll be just what she needs, too.
Yellow is usually the color of happy, joyful emotions. But according to a new study, not all people associate the color with good feelings.
To find out what factors might play a role，researchers tested a new hypothesis (假设): What if people's physical surroundings affect their feelings about certain colors? For example, if someone lived in cold and rainy Finland, would he feel differently about the color yellow from someone who lived near the Sahara Desert?
The researchers looked at color-emotion data from an ongoing international survey of 6, 625 people in 55 countries. The survey asked participants to rate 12 colors on how closely they were associated with feelings including joy, pride, fear, and shame.
The researchers paid particular attention to the data for yellow, and analyzed how different factors—including hours of sunshine, hours of daylight, and the amount of rainfall—were associated with the emotions people reported for the color. The two best predictors(预测物) of how people felt about yellow were the annual amount of rainfall, and how far they lived from the equator (赤道).
Overall, people were more likely to associate yellow with joy when they lived in rainier countries that lay farther from the equator, researchers reported in the Journal of Environmental Psychology. In Egypt the possibility of yellow being associated with joy was just 5.7%, whereas in chilly Finland it was 87. 7%. In the United States, with its mild climate and amber (琥珀色的) waves of grain, people's yellow joy association levels were between 60% and 70%.
The researchers also checked whether associations changed with the season—whether, for example, people in a certain country liked yellow more in the winter than they did in the summer. They found that opinions about the color remained fairly constant all year round—even when the weather changed, the data on yellow-joy associations were as good as gold.
If you're in the market for a new food or water dish for your cat, you might want to check out Free the Ocean's Bamboo Cat Bowls. These are made of bamboo fibers and rice husks (稻壳) and are more eco-friendly than traditional plastic.
The presence of bamboo—used as a renewable filler—is part of what makes the bowl greener. Bamboo, which is technically a grass, grows 30% faster than trees and as much as 1.5 inches per hour! Not surprisingly, it produces 30% more oxygen and absorbs 35% more carbon dioxide than trees, according to Mimi Ausland, founder of Free the Ocean. "It's a cut-and-come-again plant, which means it can be cropped without disrupting the root ball, reducing carbon giving off when it's harvested."
Rice husk is a byproduct(副产品) of rice production that is a challenge to farmers because it is hard to break down and of no great value. Its use as a filler provides a purpose for an otherwise useless material and, along with the bamboo.
Ausland said, "Plastic cat dishes have bacteria(细菌), which can put your cat's health at risk. Even if pet owners clean them regularly, they cannot be fully sanitized. Plastic bowls are the main cause of cat diseases.
However, the bamboo cat bowl will not leach (渗人) harmful chemicals into your pet's water the way that traditional plastic can and it is naturally free of bacteria.
Cats will like the bowls, as they have low edges. With an easy-to-pick-up handle, they come in four colors.
One customer commented, "My cats prefer these cat food bowls just like me. The cats like the low lip that makes it easy to eat out of. And the fact that they're made of bamboo and that buying them makes a difference to the environment is amazing! And it is easy to wash in the dishwasher."
How many books have you finished since high school? Between study, work, family, and social lives, trying to find time to read needs more effort than a relaxing hobby. How can you get reading books into your full schedule?
Borrow more books than you can read. Libraries have very large "limits" on books you can take out.Return anything you don't like. Some of the most efficient readers return five out of six books unread. This is not something to be ashamed of.
If you have a whole morning to read, you might hope for more kinds. People who read a lot have something going to suit all tastes.
Try the 50-page rule. If you feel you have to finish all the books you start, you may be stuck in something boring and not read again for weeks.You'll find something else you love more soon.
Don't care about any thoughts about what you "should" be reading. It is OK if you are not so interested in the world's great literature. Read what you want.If you're only reading because you "should" read, then over time, reading will drop from the top of your list down to laundry level or going to the dentist.
A. Read more than one book at a time.
B. You may have trouble deciding what to read first.
C. Here's how to make more time for your favorite books.
D. So go crazy and borrow anything that looks interesting.
E. Quit after a few dozen pages if you're not feeling into it.
F. Reading is one of the most pleasurable activities out there.
G. People don't do well with the feelings of suffering long term.
Most schools are trying to create harmonious environments for everyone. Fourth grade teacher Kari noticed students struggling to1 with Leisa, a food service worker at the school cafeteria, she decided to do something to2 .
Since Leisa has3 problems, students used to just point at the4 they wanted her to serve them. Not only that, but no one could offer Leisa a simple5 like "good morning" or say "thank you" in sign language.
Kari once took American Sign Language, so she decided to6 her students a few words to make ordering lunch7 along with making Leisa feel the8 of the community. When headmaster Dr. Janet9 Kari's lessons, she decided the entire school learned a sign a week and practiced it every day! What started in one fourth —grade classroom ended up10 throughout the school.
The kids were11 to learn, and they worked hard to make sure they could communicate in a language Leisa could12 . Many kids said being able to speak with Leisa made them feel happy. Leisa, of course, was13 moved with the new movement in the school.
Learning someone else's language is the sweetest14 that little kids could give. We're happy to hear that Leisa is feeling so loved and15 at her work!
Start of Summer or "lixia" is the seventh of 24 solar terms on the Chinese lunar calendar,(mark) the beginning of summer. This year it happens on May 6. When it arrives，the temperature rises (obvious), and summer heat arrives. There is alsoincrease in thunderstorms, and crops enter their peak season for growth.
It means a lot for Chinese farmers,still carry out their agricultural activities since ancient times (base) on the change of solar terms. The temperature conditions are most suitableplanting early rice around lixia. It's also the busiest season for tea farmers( pick) tea leaves, otherwise they over-matures(成熟).
There are a(various) of customs to celebrate the occasion, such as eating eggs. People believed a round egg symbolized a happy life and eating eggs on the day of lixia was a prayer for a (health) body. They put leftover tea into boiled water together with eggs and the original "tea egg"(create). Later people improved cooking methods and added spices(香料) to the eggs to make them taste delicious. Today tea eggs have become a traditional snack in China.
注意：1.词数80左右；2.可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Sir/ Madam,
……
Yours,
Li Hua
My dad got a new job. We had to pack up and move away from everything we were familiar with. There were so many changes. We came from the north, and now we were almost as far south as possible. We landed in South Florida, and we were total strangers. We moved over during the summer vacation, so I didn't have to deal with school right away. Summer passed by while we unpacked, arranged furniture, found stores we liked, and adapted to the Sunshine State.
School was coming, and I was afraid of it. I was not an adventurous person. Being shy and quiet, I read a lot and did not make friends easily. My head was full with fears and worries. Would I make friends? Would I fit in? Would I survive in this strange new world? Anyway, there I was, attending a new school full of people I didn't know.
I had a difficult time adapting to the new school. However, I still loved learning and reading. I even loved homework, and I was good at doing my homework. Loving books and reading helped me to get good grades. Teachers loved that about me. Other kids, though, did not. Although I always answered questions in class, I seldom talked with my classmates. I was unpopular. I felt like a total failure and nobody would like me.
Then one day, a tall boy walked over to me after an English class. He introduced himself and told me he was in the school basketball team. I knew him—he was the star player! "Hey." he said. "You do really well in English class. And you know, my teammates and I spend much time competing and practicing. The subjects, especially English, really bother us. Do you think you could help us?" "Yes. Oh, definitely yes. I could, and I would," I replied with surprise. We made the deal with an exchange of smiles.
注意： 1. 续写词数应为150左右；2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Something gradually changed after that.
……
Meanwhile，the basketball players taught me how to play basketball.
