Discover the highlights of Madeira on our 7-night guided tour departing on the 19th of March! Known as the "floating flower garden", this beautiful small island is nestled between the Canaries and Portugal.
Return flights from London Gatwick.
B&B 3-star accommodation for 7 nights.
Explore the eastern coast of Madeira, including a visit to Santana.
Uncover Pico dos Barcelos, Eira do Serrado volcano craters & Ribeiro Frio natural park on guided excursions.
Unwind with plenty of free time to relax or uncover more of Madeira independently with tips from our local guide.
Visit the charming village of Monte & its beautiful gardens.
Enjoy a typical Madeiran evening of food and entertainment.
Was £999 Now only £949 per person (pp) using code RD50!
CLICK HERE for more information or to BOOK TODAY
Travel Department is delighted to partner with Reader's Digest and offer readers with membership exclusive discounts across any new 2024 holidays. Click here to reveal the current money-off offers, or simply call 0203-966-0527 and mention Reader's Digest to learn more about the savings available.
Offer price of £949 pp is valid （有效的） at the time of publishing and based on departures on 19th March 2024 and only applies with discount code RD50. Prices may vary. Other dates also available.
I used to believe that only words could catch the essence of the human soul. The literary works contained such distinct stories that they shaped the way we saw the world. Words were what composed the questions we sought to uncover and the answers to those questions themselves. Words were everything.
That belief changed.
In an ordinary math class, my teacher posed a simple question: What's 0.99 rounded to the nearest whole number? Easy. When rounded to the nearest whole number, 0.99=1. Somehow, I thought even though 0.99 is only 0.01 away from 1, there's still a 0.01 difference. That means even if two things are only a little different, they are still different, so doesn't that make them completely different?
My teacher answered my question by presenting another equation (等式): 1=0.9, which could also be expressed as 1=0.99999… repeating itself without ever ending.
There was something mysterious but fascinating about the equation. The left side was unchangeable, objective: it contained a number that ended. On the right was something endless, number repeating itself limitless times. Yet, somehow, these two opposed things were connected by an equal sign.
Lying in bed, I thought about how much the equation paralleled our existence. The left side of the equation represents that sometimes life itself is so unchangeable and so clear. The concrete, whole number of the day when you were born and the day when you would die. But then there is that gap in between life and death. The right side means a time and space full of limitless possibilities, and endless opportunities into the open future.
So that's what life is. Objective but imaginative. Unchangeable but limitless. Life is an equation with two sides that balances itself out. Still, we can't ever truly seem to put the perfect words to it. So possibly numbers can express ideas as equally well as words can. For now, let's leave it at that: 1=0.99999…and live a life like it.
In 1835, William Talbot finally succeeded in producing a photograph of his country house. He declared that his was the first house ever known to have drawn its own picture. The drawing was formed "by the action of light upon sensitive paper." Photography offered nature a "pencil" to paint herself through optical （光学的） and chemical means alone.
By the mid-nineteenth century, people no longer needed to hire a draftsman to draw detailed images because the process could be completed instantly with a camera. Advocates for the technology stated that not only was it more precise than the human hand-it was faster and cheaper.
The removal of human fallibility in the creating process was one of photography's biggest selling points, but this also started debates about the new medium's implications for visual culture. Could images made largely by a machine be considered art? If so, where did human creativity fit in this process?
As the twenty-first century becomes increasingly automated （自动化的）, more and more people attempt to identify where human agency exists in the technologically driven world. Images generated with artificial intelligence by companies like OpenAI are stimulating questions like those that emerged with the coming of the photograph. By typing a sentence, users can generate "new" images composed from images collected across the internet. The result has been a flood of AI-generated images in places that are previously unique to human authors. Painting competitions, commercial graphic design and the fashion of portraiture （肖像） have all since collided with the technology in troubling ways.
The fine arts were thought to be a final hold-out of human creativity, but the surprisingly high quality of AI-generated images is producing deeper questions about the nature of originality. If the history of photography tells us anything, it's that the debate won't be settled quickly, straightforwardly or by the institutions we typically associate with cultural gatekeeping.
In order to meet growing food production and energy needs in low-and middle-income countries, solar-powered groundwater irrigation is rapidly gaining ground. More than 500, 000 solar pumps （泵） have been set up in south Asia over the last few years and a major expansion is planned across sub-Saharan Africa. 648
Dustin Garrick, professor in the School of Environment, Resources and Sustainability, along with an international team, examined the trend toward solar pumps as a clear opportunity for boosting agricultural yields and reducing poverty, but the opportunity comes with risks.
While replacing electric or gas pumps with solar-powered irrigation holds the promise of reducing carbon emissions, it is not guaranteed. Farmers who have access to these pumps may expand production of crops or diversify into other activities, which are not emissions neutral. Solar pumps will increase groundwater pumping efficiency, which may be desirable in regions that support such increases, but this could worsen groundwater lessening in regions that are already stressed. The cheap clean energy of solar pumps may lead to increased groundwater development, without necessarily decreasing overall emissions.
Despite these challenges, the clean-energy boost can serve as a stimulus for positive change in water and energy management but will require enhanced regulation and planning in both low-and high-income settings. Garrick and his team advocate for improved data collection initiatives, with a shift from separated to integrated approaches. They suggest using technology to measure water pumping and collecting remotely sensed data to monitor land use changes. As well, regulatory improvements are crucial, with mounting limits for carbon emissions and groundwater lessening established at various levels.
With groundwater management already a difficult challenge, we must act fast to understand the implications of the clean energy boost and poverty reduction acts to avoid these gains being won away by wells running dry. The rapid adoption of solar irrigation intensifies the urgency, demanding adaptation from governments and institutions to sail through these complexities.
Discovering Your True Self Is Vital to Happiness!
Have you found focusing on yourself is at the bottom of the to-do list, because you feel everyone else in your life comes first? Now is exactly the perfect time to get to know yourself in order to understand yourself.
This isn't just about identifying your favorite outfit, haircut or flavor of ice cream. It's an opportunity for personal growth that can help you make better choices for your wellbeing and lifelong happiness.
There are many tools to help you develop a deeper sense of yourself, including journaling and other forms of creative expression. You can use a guided journal to explore your thoughts and feelings or just free write whatever comes to mind. It's up to you what you want to do. .
Take note of how you respond to people, what makes you happy, and what makes you unhappy. This can help you identify patterns that are holding you back, such as feeling insecure or being easily angered. Once you've identified these patterns, you can work to change them.
An often overlooked yet very important factor in self-discovery is having healthy boundaries in your personal life. Clearly communicating your boundaries is also a way to show others that you are in control of your own behavior and can expect the same from them. This is a sign of maturity and respect, two characteristics that are key to having healthy relationships.
A. It's one thing to know your personality type. B. It's a great way to show that you care about others. C. Taking time for ourselves has been looked down upon. D. Another way is to observe your behavior in different situations. E. It allows you to focus on the needs of yourself without ignoring others. F. But try not to get caught up in the criticism or judgment of your writing. G. It's about understanding your inner world and how you fit into the outer world. |
One of my main concerns when I am helping people achieve their life goals is how they measure success. I see individuals getting frustrated as they 1 hard for success.
One of the main 2 that cause this frustration is that people allow their 3 of success to be determined by someone or something else. Another is that they become frustrated at their own 4 lack of success when comparing themselves with other people.
We are all individuals with individual wants, skills and experiences. We should look at our own skills to 5 what is successful to us. We should look 6 to determine what it would mean for us to be successful in our own mind rather than someone else's.
Evaluating successful people 7 looking at their own pathway to success, their 8 and their determination, and 9 those into their own experience to see how they can 10 themselves.
You must 11 your own course of action, and stay on your course. You alone must determine what success means to you and achieve your own goals not 12 else's. Do what you do to the best of your 13 and the rest will take care of itself. For example, I believe that I am 14 but I am not a millionaire! Others may not see me as a success in their eyes but that does not 15 ; it is how I see myself that is important to me and my life.
Here is the 16 . Being a success is doing your best, not being the best. Success is not something you become-it is something you 17 being. When you get to that 18 , you will experience a lot more joy and a lot less 19 . And that sounds good! Remember the great quote from Napoleon Hill, "If you cannot do great things, do small things in a 20 way."
Many years ago, a dance between clay and fire gave rise a tangible piece of art: porcelain （瓷器）. In the flames (burn) in kilns （窑） around China in the Xia and Shang dynasties, porcelain was born. Porcelain (make) by heating raw materials, often a mix between China stone kaolin clay, in a kiln at a temperature as high as 1,200 degrees Celsius. Temperature is the key to (produce) porcelain.
Porcelain has also been carrier for cultural exchanges. Along with China's silk and tea, porcelain was one of the first goods (receive) worldwide trade.
As it travelled around the globe through the ancient Maritime Silk Road, porcelain enjoyed great (popular) among royal families and upper classes in Europe, were attracted by these beautiful containers they named after China, a product that could be produced only in the far East. As a memory that can be felt with both hands, porcelain is (absolute) the touch able history.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧）并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2. 只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
This winter holiday, my classmates and I played the game called drum topping. Eight students tried to control a drum by pulling strings attaching to it and bounce a ball on top of them at the same time. With the ball bouncing on the drum, our feelings rose and fell down with eagerness. It was much tough than expected as it called for quick reaction and perfect cooperation. Everyone was clumsy at first, and we gradually got the trick of determining the ball's drop locations and what to control the ball. We have fun with the game. However, what mattered most was we learned from failure and finished our task perfect through teamwork in the end.
