Make the most of the pleasant weather and enjoy the best walk of the year with friends and family. Use your 2 for 1 Entry in some of our favorite landscape gardens for a memorable day out.
Painswick Rococo Garden
Find beauty and quietness at the UK's only complete surviving Rococo Garden. Discover fanciful garden flowers, woodland walks, and beautifully framed (镶框) views across the valley. Dogs on short leads are permitted and the shop offers a range of seasonal and local produce.
Book at rococogarden.org.uk.
Open: closed 1-25 March, open 26-31 March, 10 am-4 pm, last entry 2:30 pm.
Nymans Garden
Walk down Spring Walk packed with seasonal flowers and pleasant smells, and enjoy the hedge (树篱) topped with frost. Routes include those with plenty of level paths to follow around the garden. Dogs are welcome every day from 1:30 pm, with a festive treat provided.
Book at nationaltrust.org.uk/ nymans.
Open: daily except 24-25 March, 10 am-4 pm.
Ventnor Botanic Garden
Even in early spring, there are typically over 200 varieties of plants to be seen flowering as you explore the 27 acres. Enjoy access to the coastal path and routes accessible for wheelchairs, and then warm up with coffee milk in the cafe afterwards.
Book at botanic.co.uk.
Open: daily except 25 March, 9 am-4 pm.
Gibside Garden
Enjoy walking paths at this Georgian landscape garden, featuring plenty of wildlife. Follow the winding river and turning valley for fantastic views up with hot chocolate and delicious biscuits in the second-hand bookshop.
Book at nationaltrust.org.uk/gibside.
Open: daily except 24 and 25 March, 10 am-4 pm.
When clouds of radiation(辐射)began streaming into the air around the Fukushima nuclear plant, 160,000 residents were told to simply cut and run. However, it seems only 159,998 residents listened. The other two, Naoto Matsumura and Sakae Kato, remained. Obviously, the city possessed not one, but two men whose love of animals cracked through their sense of self-preservation.
Living within the 12.5-mile exclusion zone (禁区) around the damaged reactor, the two men, unrelated to one another, both live alone while taking care of dozens of animals that were left behind when the evacuation (撤离) order was given.
57-year-old Kato has 41 cats in his home in the mountains along with a dog. Kato says he will stay with his cats and ensure they are comfortable all through their lives. Kato's generosity isn't restricted to his own animals, and he feeds local wild animals as well.
Matsumura left the city at first, but returned shortly after for his own animals. Once returned, the now 55-year-old realized that everyone else's pets and cattle were still there, so he began taking care of a broad community of animals including pigs, cats, dogs and cows. After it became clear no one was coming back to the neighborhood, he went around unchaining dogs from trees, letting cows out of their barns, and feeding anything that needed it, earning him the nickname the "Guardian of Fukushima's Animals".
According to scientists from JAXA, the Japanese national space agency, Matsumura is also the "champion"— the most irradiated man in the country. Despite this, they've advised him it will likely be 30-40 years before radiation begins to wreck his body, a timeline which will see him "likely dead by then".
Everything both Kato and Matsumura are doing is technically illegal, and police have ordered them both to leave the area. Yet they seemingly couldn't be less bothered by the government's demands, and both plan to stay there with their animals come what may.
Discoveries at the famous Sanxingdui ruins in Southwest China show that the region's ancient Shu Kingdom Civilization shared similarities with the Maya.
The Sanxingdui ruins belonged to the Shu Kingdom that existed at least 4,800 years ago and lasted more than 2,000 years, while the Mayan civilization built its city-states around 200 AD.
The bronze-made remains of trees unearthed at the ruins of the Shu Kingdom is similar to the holy tree, which symbolized the union of heaven, earth and the underworld in the Mayan civilization. "They are very important similarities," says Santos, a Mexican archaeologist stressing that "the representations of trees in both cultures provide a symbolism that is very similar".
The findings at the Sanxingdui ruins, considered one of the greatest archaeological discoveries of the 20th century, also show a new aspect of Bronze Age culture, reflecting the ancient civilization already had technologies that were thought to have been developed much later.
While the time period of the Shu kingdom and the Mayan culture is greatly different, the findings highlight the closeness between the two civilizations. They developed in areas with comparable climates and reflected their worldview through related symbols. "In the end, man is still man, independent of time and space. What we have is that, at this latitude (纬度), both the Shu people and the Mayans looked at the same sky and had the same stars on the horizon" the expert says.
One notable feature of the recent discoveries at Sanxingdui was the cross-subject work and technology applied by teams of Chinese archaeologists, which allowed the unearthing of relics as delicate as silk remains, which other types of less careful digging methods would not have been able to register.
Cooperation between Chinese and Mexican archaeologists could benefit projects in the Mayan world, where the rainy climate is challenging for the conservation of ruins.
"Every time our cultural knowledge increases, regardless of whether we speak one language or another, what it shows us is that we continue to be sister cultures and, therefore, the exchange of such knowledge is fundamental," says Santos.
Two years ago, enormous fires swept through some 46 million acres of forest in Russia, the country's worst fire season on record. Now, researchers have a clearer sense of just how significant the 2021 boreal(北方的)forest fires were in terms of emissions. The fires produced more planet-heating carbon dioxide than any other extreme fire event that has occurred since the turn of the 21st century, according to a study.
Boreal forests grow where it is very cold. The trees that live in this type of forest grow slowly and seal (封存) carbon in their trunks and roots for hundreds of years, including a collection of trapped emissions that researchers call a carbon sink. But rising temperatures and related drought in these historically cool regions have led to an increase in extreme wildfire activity and threaten to release the carbon stored in the trees that grow there, transforming a carbon sink into a carbon source.
In all, fires in boreal forests released the carbon sink and produced nearly half a billion tons of carbon in 2021.That's more carbon than the entire continent of Australia produced the same year, though some of the emissions produced by the fires will be reabsorbed as forests regrow.
The researchers got the data for their study by tracking concentrations of emissions in the atmosphere using satellites, and then they put that information into a computer model to determine where, geographically, those emissions came from. They found that boreal forests, which typically produce about 10 percent of the globe's annual wildfire emissions, accounted for 23 percent of the world's wildfire emissions in 2021—more than twice as much as normal.
Canadell, who led the study, is most concerned about the study's main point；Boreal forests have served an important and underappreciated role in preventing carbon emissions, but climate change threatens to release that carbon. "We need to be very careful with these systems in terms of their future development," he said.
Music is one of the most interesting art forms on earth. But did you know it is also a great way to learn English? We thought we'd take some time out to explore exactly how beneficial music is to your language development skills. Below is a list of all the ways that listening to music can improve your English skills.
Strengthen your vocabulary and listening skills. When listening to a song, you'll pick up new words that you haven't heard before. Those songs are full of new vocabulary and phrases that are difficult to forget. For example, listening to a song like "Friday, I'm in Love" by the Cure is a great way to memorize the days of the week! This exercise will also develop your listening skills. Music can help your brain be more receptive to hearing English.
Perfect your pronunciation. Once you have learned the lyrics, you can practice your pronunciation and explore different accents. Singing will help you to learn the correct pronunciation of the words and will also help you remind easily the new vocabulary you have learned.
Catch obvious grammar mistakes. If you have a good eye for mistakes, you can find many grammar "exceptions" songwriters usually use. Sometimes singers need to adapt the lyrics to the rhythm of the song. Therefore, they take some creative liberties and use grammatical mistakes on purpose. It's not funny when you catch them.
Music can also increase your cultural understanding. Many songs talk about great stories and can teach you a lot about love, life, tradition, history, philosophy, literature, and more. You can find lots of great examples of a storytelling song on the Internet.
A. Discover more about English culture.
B. Remembering the lyrics is very helpful.
C. We enjoy music because it makes us feel great.
D. Those accents depend on the areas the singers come from.
E. Write some storytelling songs to improve your English skills.
F. Listening to a new song per week can help you learn 52 songs a year.
G. It's very helpful to find these mistakes as a way to practice your English.
There have been countless books on living with teenagers, yet parents don't seem to have 1 how to get their children to pick up their clothes from the bedroom floor. It might be difficult to accept, but a new approach to dealing with difficult teenagers is for parents to look at their own 2.
"The key to getting teenagers to respect you is to respect them first," says Penny Palmano, who has written a best-selling book on teenagers. "You can't 3 to treat them the same way that you have been treating them for the previous years. Imagine if you'd spent two hours getting ready to go out for the evening and someone said, ‘You're not going out looking like that, are you?' You'd be very 4. You'd never say that to an adult, because it shows a total 5 of respect." Palmano has even allowed her girl to hold several teenage parties at her home. "I've found that if you have brought your kids up to do the right thing, and then 6 them to do it, usually they'll behave well," she says, "I make them sandwiches and leave them alone. But I make it clear that they have to clear up any mess. I've never had a(n) 7; in fact, the kitchen was sometimes cleaner than I'd left it."
She agrees that teenagers can be annoying, enjoying a world free of responsibility, yet 8 for independence. She doesn't think, however, that they are 9 to annoy you. Until recently, it turns out that the region of the brain that controls judgement and emotions is not fully 10until the early twenties. "This would explain why many teenagers can't make good decisions or control their emotions. 11, they may find it difficult to make the right decision between watching television and finishing their homework. It means that they do not 12 do the wrong thing just to annoy their parents," says Palmano.
The key to 13 for all is calm communication and compromise (妥协). If you want your teenagers to be home by 11 pm, explain why, but listen to their arguments as well. If it's Saturday, you might 14agreeing to midnight. If they are up to 20 minutes late, don't react angrily. 15, ask if they've had a problem with public transport and let it pass.
A new college graduate's decision to become a cemetery staff has set off a heated discussion on social (medium) about how young people nowadays can deal with social anxiety and benefit genuine interpersonal relationships. The student from Chongqing said she is very pleased with her job she only has four colleagues and does not need to worry about any complicated relationships. Her decision became a trending topic on Sina Weibo, with many netizens (say) they envied her position. "Young people would rather work in a cemetery than network," said one comment, received more than 10,000 likes.
Meanwhile, a 29-year-old man in Shenzhen, Guangdong province, made headlines after he (provide) with emergency assistance twice in a month because he was experiencing social anxiety. The man, surnamed Zhong, has a doctorate. He suffered from a panic disorder when he began work and had difficulty (adapt) to the pressure of his job and his new social circle. He also experienced two relationship breakups. (previous), he had lived isolated life and had not participated in social gatherings.
According to a survey (conduct) last year by China Youth Daily, more than 80 percent of the nearly 5,000 college students questioned said they had mild social anxiety disorder, with only 12 percent saying they did not have any problems.
Many years ago, in one of the Arabian tribes(部落),there was a man named Nabor who owned a beautiful horse. This horse was famous for being both fast and gentle. Now, an Arab named Jehu, who belonged to another tribe wanted this horse. Jehu had offered his camels and many valuable treasures for the horse but the owner would not sell it. Jehu then thought up a trick by which he hoped to get the horse for himself.
He decided to dress in rags, dirty his face and blindfold himself. Thus, he lay by the roadside to wait for the owner of the horse, who he knew would pass by that way. When he saw Nabor coming on his beautiful horse, he cried out in a weak voice, "I am a poor and sick blind man. For three days and nights I have been unable to move from this spot to find food. I am dying; help me please."
Nabor kindly offered to take him on his horse and carry him home, but Jehu replied, "I cannot stand; I have no strength left." Nabor felt pity for him and got off his horse. He led his horse to the man and, with great difficulty, helped him onto the horse's back. But, once Jehu was sitting in the saddle(鞍), he kicked the horse and galloped off, calling out as he did so, "I have the horse, and you will never see it again. Goodbye!" Nabor was, at first, surprised and sad but he soon ran after the thief, shouting to him to stop as he had something to say to him.
注意：
1. 所续写短文的词数应为 150 左右；
2.每段的开头语已为你写好；
Certainly, Nabor could not catch him on foot, so Jehu turned the horse and stopped a short distance from Nabor.
……
Struck with shame at these words, Jehu was silent for a moment.
