Four Best Classic Books for You to Read
If you've always wanted to tackle the classics but never known where to begin, we've got you covered. We've selected four best classic books for you to read.
The Man Who Would Be King by Rudyard Kipling
This short novel tells the story of two British men visiting India under Britain's control. The men trick their way to a remote region where one of them comes to be respected as King. A tale warning against letting things go to your head, this funny story has been made into a classic film starring Michael Caine and Sean Connery.
Midnight's Childrenby Salman Rushdie
Born in the first hour of India's independence, Saleem Sinai is gifted with the power of an extraordinary sense of smell. He soon discovers that there are 1,001 others with similar abilities, who can help him build a new India. The winner of the Booker prize in 1981, Salman Rushdie's groundbreaking novel is a great achievement of magical realism. This great success was followed by his another novel Shame(1983).
A Christmas Carol by Charles Dickens
If you're not familiar with Dickens, his evergreen Christmastime classic is the perfect introduction. It's a slim 104-page book - a true Christmas surprise from an author with a tendency towards the tome(大部头书) like his Great Expectations, which is another classic! It's the perfect book for you to read in winter just when you want to feel that warm holiday atmosphere.
The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers
Meet John Singer, a deaf and mute (哑的) man who sits in the same café every day. Here, in the deep American South of the 1930s, John meets various kinds of people and acts as the silent and kind keeper of their stories -right up until an unforgettable ending that will blow you away. It's hard to believe McCullers was only 23 when she wrote this classic.
I am an ecologist from Zimbabwe, but I've been based at the National University of Lesotho in Maseru for more than 13 years. Lesotho is a mountainous inland kingdom in southern Africa. Its high-altitude(高海拔的) wetlands support the Lesotho Highlands Water Project, which delivers water to the Vaal River System in South Africa, generating both income and electricity for Lesotho.
I study the ecological balance that keeps those areas functioning properly: The wetlands trap water when it rains and release it gradually during dry periods. An important part ofthis is to map the plants, animals and general environmental conditions, and how they change over time.
One of our team projects monitors the soundscapes of those areas to identify the animals that live there. We put sensitive recording equipment in the field for weeks at a time. This is of great help because, although that site is just 180 kilometers from my university in the capital of Lesotho, it can take up to four hours to drive there.
The data we gather are huge, and although we do listen to the recordings, we mainly use software to help us analyze the data. We want to compare our recordings between seasons, between dawn and dusk (晨昏) and between day and night, to understand the rhythms of the ecosystem. We also compare our recordings from different wetland types. High-altitude areas are easier to be affected by climate change and, in my view, it is the greatest threat those protected wetlands face.
Listening to the recordings makes me happy because I enjoy hearing a variety of sounds, especially the singing of different birds. In a small country like Lesotho, there are so many knowledge gaps to fill-it's one of the benefits of being a researcher there. I hope that in the future some of you in this classroom will contribute to this as well.
A humanoid robot can transmit(传输) video and touch sensations to a person wearing special gloves and a virtual reality(VR) headset hundreds of kilometers away, offering a way for people to attend events without traveling.
The iCub 3 robot is a 52-kilogram and 125-centimetre-tall robot with 54 points of articulation(关节点) across its body. Its head contains two cameras where a human's eyes would be and an Internet-connected computer where the brain would go. Along with the cameras, sensors covering its body send data to the robot's "brain". These sensations are then copied on a suit and VR headset worn by a remote human operator.
When the operator reacts to what they see and feel, the suit's sensors pick up the movements and the robot matches them. "The key is to translate every signal and bit of numeric data that can be sent through the network," says Stefano Dafarra, who is part of the iCub 3 team. There can be a small delay of up to 100 milliseconds to collect and transmit the visual footage, but the operator can improve this by moving slightly slower than normal.
The team has demonstrated the robot at the Venice Biennale, where it wandered through an exhibition while its operator stood 290 kilometers away in Genoa.
Dafarra hopes people will use iCub 3 to attend events remotely, reducing the need to travel. "But at present, a fall could be hugely damaging to the robot, and it's uncertain whether it could stand up again on its own," he says.
"iCub 3 is an interesting robot and has clear advantages over the previous version," says Jonathan Aitken, whose laboratory owns a prior version of the robot. However, he is disappointed that the team wasn't clear in its research about the data transmission requirements of the new version of the robot. "It would be good to know just how much data was required, and what the upper and lower bounds were," he says.
As humans, we might believe that we are the smartest and perhaps the only creatures in the world capable of having feelings and subjective experience, but is this really the case? A new study finds that bumblebees(大黄蜂) like to play. They like to roll around small wooden balls with no apparent motivation - it likely makes them feel good.
Previous evidence suggests that bees have positive and negative emotion-like states usually when they are given food rewards to test their abilities. However, in an experiment of the new study, some researchers had trained bumblebees to roll balls into a target in exchange for a sweet treat. They noticed that sometimes bumblebees would roll the balls outside of the experiment area for no reward.
This observation gave rise to new questions: What are they doing? Why? Is this random or intentional?
To answer these questions, the researchers set up more experiments. In the latest experiment, they watched 45 bumblebees in an enclosed area where they could walk through a clear path to reach a feeding area, or they could go off the path into areas with wooden balls. They found the bumblebees went out of their way to sit on the balls or push them. Each rolled the balls between one and 117 times during the experiment.
The researchers say that because they did it repeatedly with no food payoff, it suggests that the ball rolling was rewarding.
"The behavior was voluntary," says study first-author Samadi Galpayage. "Bees have a reputation for being hard workers, but the prospect of bees engaging in something like play is really novel and exciting because it shows that bees may experience pleasure and don't only carry out duties that are strictly essential for immediate survival. "
Galpayage adds, "Personally, I find this behavior fascinating because it tells us that bumblebees, like many other animals, are more than little robotic beings, but have a richer behavior and life than we would have previously thought."
Most of you may want your kids to stay away from social media because it can bring harm. But social media can have a positive effect on them, like helping them learn how to communicate with others, improve relationships and deal with somebody who isn't being kind to them.. If you decide to let your kids use social media, follow a few tips to help them better explore the social media world.
Talk to your kids. From the beginning, it's important to have an open and honest conversation with your kids about what social media is and what it can be used for. Ask why they're interested in having an account on a particular platform and what they want to use it for..
Limit screen time. The American Academy of Pediatrics (JL科) recommends limiting screen time to two hours a day for kids., but parents should also focus on a bigger picture making sure your kids are getting enough physical activity and face-to-face interactions.
Monitor their usage., whether that's scrolling through(滚动浏览) their tablet or phone or using a social media monitoring tool. "See what apps are there and familiarize yourself with those," psychologist Kate Eshleman says. "Ask yourself if this tool is going to fit your goal."
. Easier said than done, right? But practicing safe and healthy social media behaviors in front of your kids really matters. "It's much harder for kids to understand the potential dangers or risks of social media when parents engage in the same behaviors themselves," Eshleman says.
A. Be a role model
B. That's a good guideline
C. Check on what your kids are consuming
D. Put a ban on improper social media behaviors
E. As they start venturing into the world of social media, keep talking
F. Parents should know how to interact with their kids on social media
G. Therefore, no social media at all might not be the best solution for your kids
After more than 40 years of service to the Sunset Hills Community, Ricky Woods, a beloved bus driver, said goodbye to his role.
Two days before his1, Woods was greeted with a2 as he arrived at his usual working spot. The streets were lined with signs bearing warm messages and a celebratory cake3 him. Deeply touched, Woods expressed, "It was unexpected and very emotional. My heart is4."
Woods' impact on the community was5. His acts of kindness and willingness to go the extra mile made him an6 part of Sunset Hills.
One neighbor7 recalled an instance where Woods8 in an emergency. "One day, my grandfather had a heart attack. It was Ricky who took immediate action and9 to take my grandfather to hospital. My grandfather received timely10 and recovered," the neighbor shared.
Woods'11 nature extended beyond just people. Besides kindly interacting with kids, Woods always had a treat on hand for their12.
To show their13, the community came together to create lasting memories for Woods. Neighbors14 their resources to make a plaque(牌匾) gifted to Woods, which reads, "In appreciation of your many years of15."
The Fahai Temple, located at the southern foot of Cuiwei Mountain in the western part of Beijing, houses Ming Dynasty frescoes(湿壁画) dating back nearly 600 years.
The temple, which (build) in 1439 during the time of Zhengtong in Ming Dynasty, is known as one of the three major fresco (site) in China, together with Dunhuang of Gansu province and Yongle Palace in Yuncheng, Shanxi province. These impressive frescoes originating from the royal family were completed by 15 artists, used traditional techniques that led to the frescoes with vivid effect.
Despite the brilliance of this Ming Dynasty fresco art, it did not maintain (it) splendor throughout history. With the fall of dynasty, the golden time of the art came to a sudden end.
Today, a brand-new art center has been set up at the foot of the mountain, where visitors can immerse(使沉浸) themselves in a digitalized journey of discovery. "By (employ) modern technology, we can bring the (value) frescoes to life," says Liu Xiaobo charge of the Fahai Temple Mural Art Center.
(current), the original frescoes are being protected and opened to the public in a controlled manner.
Visits are arranged by appointment, with each viewing session limited to about 20 minutes. Visitors can only use cold light sources throughout the visit, allowing the original frescoes (rest) more.
In a small town located in the mountains, there was a young boy named Owen. He was crazy about basketball more than anything else in the world. He would spend hours every day practicing his dribbling(运球), shooting and passing. He dreamed of one day winning games on a team.
Owen's town had a small basketball court that was often empty. Owen would go there every day after school to practice. One day, as he was shooting hoops (投篮), he heard a voice behind him, "Hey, kid! You're pretty good!"
Owen turned around to see a tall man with a friendly smile. The man introduced himself as Coach Johnson and asked Owen if he wanted to join his basketball team. The team was made up of kids from all over the town, and they practiced every day after school.
Owen was overjoyed because he had never played on a team before. He wanted to start and win games. Owen quickly became the star player of the team.
However, the team never won a game. "I had trained so hard and performed excellently, but we were always losing! Jack should have run much faster towards me and Kris should have passed the ball to me!" Owen kept complaining to the coach.
The complaint seemed understandable! Owen was admired by his teammates because he was fast and had incredible shots. However, Johnson knew Owen lacked something important. He told Owen to learn to play with his teammates as a team instead of just focusing on himself. Owen didn't quite understand that at first and insisted he just needed to practice harder to win games.
However, disaster struck. Owen injured his ankle one day and had to sit out for several weeks, which let him fall into anxiety. He felt his dream was slipping away.
During his recovery at home, Owen refused to see anyone on the team, except his coach. Johnson handed Owen a phone downloaded with some videos about the best basketball teams and some cards from Owen's teammates.
注意：
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Owen couldn't wait to watch those videos.
After recovering, Owen returned to his team as a changed player.
