Italy in the spring is like something out of a magical storybook. Whether you're looking for a relaxing Italian holiday with the one you love or a feast of water fun, Italy in spring offers something for everyone.
LAKE GARDA
Situated in northern Italy, Lake Garda offers some of the most incredible scenery in Italy. Surrounded by amazing peaks and historic castles, your spring in Italy is sure to be packed with adventure. On the shores of Lake Garda, family-friendly fun and excitement await. The largest lake in Italy is full to the brim with exciting activities, in and out of the water.
WHERE TO STAY: HOTEL CAESIUS THERMAE or GARDA SPA RESORT Hotel Caesius Thermae or Garda Spa Resort is a four-star hotel on the southern shore of Lake Garda.
TUSCANY COAST
Holidays to the Tuscany Coast take you on a tranquil Italian getaway filled with golden sandy bays, romantic sunsets, and charming restaurants. If you're after sunbathing bliss, the Tuscan Coastline offers kilometres of gentle sand for you to enjoy a day of exploring the crystal waters with water sports or simply wallowing in the waves.
WHERE TO STAY: GRAND HOTEL ROYAL Located on the coast of the Tyrrhenian Sea, Grand Hotel Royal offers four-star luxury on the beach.
TAORMINA
Step into one of Sicily's most beautiful towns, rich in Greek Mythology. Perched on top of Monte Tauro on the foothills of the mammoth Mount Etna, Taormina is an ancient town that allows you to step back in time and discover the well-preserved history. The coastal setting is also the best place for a romantic sunset cruise or water sports adventure.
WHERE TO STAY: HOTEL VILLA BELVEDERE Situated on the east coast of Sicily in Taormina, Hotel Villa Belvedere welcomes guests in traditional Italian style.
The following is part of an interview between Professor Bernard Feringa (a Nobel Price winner) and a CNN reporter.
Q: You often say that universities should be playgrounds. How can we make sure that this is a case?
A: I'm a strong believer in challenging students at all levels — to think, to discover and to go beyond the current knowledge. The universities have a special role here, because academic training and science should go beyond the current horizon. I think that we shouldn't forget that we shouldn't train our students for today or tomorrow; we should train them for 10 to 20 years from now. Because then they will be the innovators in our society, and they will be the persons that make a difference. Train our students for future means that they have to be able to surpass the border of our current knowledge. This is what I mean with playground. I mean that you have sufficient space to think, to discover and to be free to make mistakes, but in particular to make the next steps, be creative and not limited by what should be done. A lot of things happen by accident and suddenly you get a major breakthrough or new insight. Schools should encourage students to ask questions and be creative.
Q: What is it that you like so much about teaching?
A: I really enjoy the transfer of the beauty of knowledge: insights, questions, things that we don't know, or the limitations of what we know. I never get tired of my job. I think that you share with your students the opportunity to transfer some knowledge, but also get a lot of things back by asking questions and discussing. Across all fields, from natural sciences to humanities, you have knowledge and insights built upon generations and decades. At the universities we have to transfer a lot of knowledge and teach students the basic skills and techniques. But it's also our duty to go beyond that — to ask them questions about what we don't know and what improvements we can make for the future. Doing surgery in the hospital now might be taken over by robots in the future. How are we going to deal with that? Or will we be able to make fuel for airplanes? These are challenging and tough questions but to share those with the students is really nice. Most of all, I think the beauty of knowledge and the excitement of insights and discoveries is fantastic.
The message is drummed into us from childhood: forgive people who've wronged you, because it's the right thing to do. Forgiveness is a virtue, we're told—the only way for us to truly move on and heal, freed from the baggage of bearing ill will.
However, I'm not buying it. Forgiving someone can indeed be a beautiful thing, but it's not always what's best for us. In fact, if someone has hurt you deeply and the relationship isn't healthy, trying to "fix" things can do more harm than good.
Most of us would probably agree that forgiving a wrongdoer means letting go of negative feelings—like anger and resentment—towards them, as if nothing happened. Actually this isn't helpful. It pressures us to minimize our feelings and revise our boundaries—to say "it's OK" when for us, it isn't. While it's not a good idea to focus on negative thoughts, recognizing and processing all of that pain is an important part of the healing journey. And when someone doesn't make us feel seen or safe, forgiving them can actually reduce our self-esteem.
A 2010 research paper published in the Journal of Personality and Social Psychology found that folks who forgave partners that didn't make them feel valued had less respect for themselves. Letting minor offences that happen now and again slide can be great for any relationship, but repeatedly forgiving bad behavior can encourage that person to keep hurting you.
At least, that's what 2011 research by psychology professor James McNulty argues. He found that when a partner was more likely to forgive those acts, the aggressor was more likely to keep committing them. McNulty suggests that this is because facing the consequences of their actions is what motivates people to change their ways, and being offered a clean slate can be a kind of pass to avoid making changes. So forgiving frequent and major offences, like verbal or physical abuse, can do more harm than good.
For me, this speaks to the core tension in the idea. Instead of looking to forgiveness like a magic medicine, we can focus on recognizing what happened and coming to terms with it, however that looks for us and without any sense of obligation towards our offender.
The maker of ChatGPT recently announced its next move into generative artificial intelligence. San Francisco-based OpenAI's new text-to-video generator, called Sora, is a tool that instantly makes short videos based on written commands, called prompts.
Sora is not the first of its kind. Google, Meta and Runway ML are among the other companies to have developed similar technology. But the high quality of videos displayed by OpenAI — some released after CEO Sam Altman asked social media users to send in ideas for written prompts-surprised observers.
A photographer from New Hampshire posted one suggestion, or prompt, on X. The prompt gave details about a kind of food to be cooked, gnocchi (意大利团子), as well as the setting — an old Italian country kitchen. The prompt said: "An instructional cooking session for homemade gnocchi, hosted by a grandmother — a social media influencer, set in a rustic (土气的) Tuscan country kitchen." Altman answered a short time later with a realistic video that showed what the prompt described.
The tool is not yet publicly available. OpenAI has given limited information about how it was built. The company also has not stated what imagery and video sources were used to train Sora. At the same time, the video results led to fears about the possible ethical and societal effects.
The New York Times and some writers have taken legal actions against OpenAI for its use of copyrighted works of writing to train ChatGPT. And OpenAI pays a fee to The Associated Press the source of this report, to license its text news archive (档案) . OpenAI said in a blog post that it is communicating with artists, policymakers and others before releasing the new tool to the public.
The company added that it is working with "red teamers" — people who try to find problems and give helpful suggestions — to develop Sora. "We are working with red teamers-express in areas like misinformation, hateful content, and bias — who will be adversarially testing the model," the company said. "We're also building tools to help detect misleading content such as a detection classifier that can tell when a video was generated by Sora."
Hard work has been part of every laureate's journey towards the Nobel Prize. Many examples. Francoise Barré-Sinoussi spent time in the lab on the morning of her wedding. After Michael Brown's first daughter was born, he went straight back to discuss the next day's experiments. Early-career scientists often ask laureates (获奖者) about work-life balance.
Spend time with your family and friends. Many laureates stress the value of maintaining personal relationships. Doctor Brian Kobilka was awarded the Nobel Prize in Chemistry. However, despite a heavy workload, he also made time for his family. As Brian Kobilka explains, family provides essential support.
Sleep well at night. It is therefore tempting to finish work before health-promoting activities. However, this is a trap which Oliver Smithies advises against. Not only is sleep needed to stay healthy, but your brain needs sleep to function at full capacity so you can generate ideas and solve problems.
Family, work and sleep are all important to a scientist's success. But they don't all have to be a constant focus. Sometimes it will be important to avoid maintaining everything at a high level. Don't be daunted by the idea you have to do everything perfectly at once-you can have a different focus at different times.
Don't work too hard. Ultimately, working too hard won't be beneficial. Not only do you risk burning yourself out, but you are also restricted in your thinking. Taking time away from work can allow you to approach problems in a new way. Laureates often point out that working long hours doesn't always lead to efficiency.
A. My solutions may be of some help.
B. Their answers can be enlightening.
C. Focus on different aspects of your life.
D Never hesitate to bravely rise to challenge.
E. Sleep, exercise and eating well can all conflict with working long hours.
F. He would moonlight in an emergency room as well as working in the lab.
G. Going for a walk, for example, gives you the chance to take a step back and see things differently.
My son, Andrew, is nonspeaking autistict (孤独症的) .
For many years, we have 1 a picture chart, which Andrew uses to communicate. The chart is banged up and 2 . It has been lost, found and rebuilt. Andrew also uses a text-to-voice app on an iPad that conveys his 3 . Though far from 4 it helps, these tools offer him the simplest, quickest way to communicate. Years ago, we 5 that Andrew could communicate more than just his basic needs through the use of a letter-board-by pointing to individual letters on a board to 6 words, statements, thoughts. It's a simple but profound tool. We have 7 the letter-board on the back of his picture chart. Using the letter-board requires significant time and 8 for Andrew, but we persevere.
One Saturday morning on his 15th birthday, we went to a shoe shop to get him a pair of sandals.
We 9 the trip, arriving right when the store opened. Andrew prefers to go shopping when it's not 10 . "Size 41, please," I told the two clerks at the shop. Andrew slipped his socked feet into the shoes with no 11 or head banging (signs of distress we have seen in the past) . A perfect 12 . Everything was nice. We 13 them up and paid, and I thanked the staff.
As we headed toward the 14 , I said, "It's Andrew's birthday today. Fifteen! Got our new shoes and now we're off to celebrate with family." "Happy birthday!" the sales assistants replied. "Have fun!"
Instead of having Andrew point to the "thank you" symbol on the picture chart, this time, I paused, and asked Andrew how he'd like to 15 . As I focused on the effort of using the letter-board, and the shop assistants were quiet, watching, Andrew pointed to each letter, one by one: "Thank you."
Ban Zhao (Chinese: 班昭; 45-117 CE) , courtesy name Huiban, was a Chinese historian, philosopher, and politician. She was the first known female Chinese historian. She (complete) her brother Ban Gu's work on the history of the Western Han, the Book of Han. She also wrote Lessons for Women, an (influence) work on women's conduct. She also had great interest in astronomy and mathematics and wrote poems, commentaries, essays and several longer works, not all of survive.
Ban Zhao was born in Anling, near is now modern Xianyang, Shaanxi province. She married a local resident named Cao Shishu. (luck) her husband died when she was still young. She never remarried, instead devoting her life to scholarship. She was the daughter of the famous historian Ban Biao and younger sister of the general Ban Chao the historian Ban Gu.
Ban Zhao contributed greatly to the completion of Hanshu literally the Book of Han, the official dynastic history of the Western Han. After Ban Gu (imprison) and died in 92 because of his association the royal family, Ban Zhao helped finish the work by making up for the missing part of the Babiao (Eight Tables) . She added the genealogy of the mother of the emperor, (provide) much information which was not usually kept.
Ban Zhao's Lessons for Women, originally only (intend) for the daughters in Ban Zhao's family, was circulated immediately at court and in the communities. It was popular for centuries in China as a guide for women's conduct.
Every October, my neighborhood has a Halloween costume contest. And every October, my neighbor Ollie and I race to the announcement board in the park to find out the theme. One year, the theme was "Dress up as your favorite book character." Another year, it was "Be something scary." But this year, the theme was kind of, well, themeless.
"Be creative?" I said, reading the announcement board. "That's not really a theme, is it?"
Ollie hopped off his skateboard s to get a closer look. "You're right," he agreed. "I think my favorite theme ever was ‘Superheroes'. I loved my Super-Force Flying Eagles costume so much, I kept that thing hanging in my close t for years!"
"My favorite theme was ‘Farm Animals'." I giggled. "Remember how you insisted on being a Stegosaurus (剑龙)?"
"When I was five, dinosaurs were my world." Ollie laughed. "I would have loved to see a Stegosaurus out grazing with the cows."
"Now that's the creative spirit we need for this challenge!" I said. "Maybe, since we don't know exactly what we want to be yet, we should start by choosing some cool costume-making materials. "
"I've got it!" Ollie said, scooping up a bunch of fallen leaves.
"Really?" I said. "You're going to make an entire costume out of leaves?"
"Why not?" he said, scooping up some more.
"They're totally free, and I can guarantee, no one will be a tree as great as me."
"Don't you mean, a tree as great as we?" I grinned.
"Um, first, that grammar doesn't sound right," said Ollie. "And second, no way! Think of your own creative ideas."
"Aw, come on," I said. "You should be flattered that I like your idea so much. Plus, I just thought of the perfect way to make branches."
Finally, Ollie said OK.
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。
Paragraph 1: We ended up filling two jumbo bags with different kinds of leaves.
Paragraph 2: Then the big moment came.
