Some Top Coast Destinations to Visit
Britain has over 18,000 miles of coastline to explore: from white soft sands and vibrant seaside resorts, to wild nature reserves filled with puffins（海鹦），dolphins and various thrills. Wherever you＇re heading，here＇s where to splash， surf, dive, swim-and perhaps even sunbathe-on Britain's shores.
Why we love Kent
From ice-cream shops to towns that are on the map for cutting-edge food and art, the 'Garden of England'is meant for discovery. Just a short hop from London takes you to Margate-home to the Turner Contemporary gallery and Dreamland theme park. Tuck into delicious oysters and other seafood in Whit stable or try bohemian Rams gate for a weekend away. Relax among the candy-coloured beach huts of Broadstairs, or bring the past alive in the surrounds of time-honored Dover Castle, Leeds Castle or Canterbury Cathedral.
Why we love the Jurassic Coast
Welcome to dinosaur territory. Over 200 million years old, the Jurassic Coast's beaches and rocks are strewn with ancient fossils and footprints-yours to discover on walks,bike rides and picnics. But that's not all. This 95-mile coastline also offers countless ways to explore: from kayaking between the chalk-white towers of Old Harry Rocks and swimming in West Bay's clear waters,to watching the sunset over the sea from Portland Bill Lighthouse.
Wherever you venture, here's what to look out for, and the best places to stay.
Why we love the Wales Coast Path
This isn't just a walking trail -it's the route to adventure, culture, wildlife and more, serving up 870miles of breathtaking sea views, glorious beaches, wildflower-topped cliffs and charming harbour villages. Even a short walk is a starting point to discover the treasures of coastal Wales: from surfing, sailing and swimming, to horse-riding on beaches and cycling through forests.
You don't have to be a long-distance hiker to enjoy the Wales Coast Path: wildlife lovers, thrill seekers, day trippers-this one's for you.
When the parcel arrives, the remote-controlled car inside is broken. That could easily result in an unhappy child -but not this time.
The package has come from a British start-up that hopes to equip the nation's youngsters with an endangered skill: the ability to fix gadgets when they fail. The aim is to encourage 10 to 14-year-olds to try fixing electronic devices and learn how they work, by sending them faulty toys that they have to take apart and repair themselves. The company, Team Repair, has been founded by five engineering graduates from Imperial College London. Having begun as a university project， its ultimate goal is to steer children into careers in science and to nurture（培养）a new generation of engineers and inventors.
"Every month, we'll send children an electronic gadget with a carefully planned fault," said Patrick McGuckian,22,the chief operating officer. "The idea is that they learn key repair skills, and that they also learn the science and technology behind how the components inside it work. "
It is estimated that two million tonnes of electrical and electronic items are thrown away in the UK each year. "Meanwhile, the UK has a Stem [science, technology, engineering and maths ] skills shortage costing£1. 5 billion a year,"McGuckian said. "We wanted to help solve those two problems. "
The service-currently in a testing phase-will cost £28 a month, with each kit designed to keep a child occupied for several hours. Once a gadget has been mended, you post it back so it can be broken again for somebody else to fix. There is also an app to provide instructions on how to perform the repair, and also mini science lessons. "As a society we've been tuned to replace rather than repair," McGuckian said. "We want to encourage a different mindset in the next generation-and on top of that, we want them to be creative, to be engineers, to be inventors that solve the biggest problems. "
It isn't just people who get road rage. Robins, a kind of small brown European bird, in the countryside become more aggressive when they hear the sound of traffic, according to a study.
When a robin arrives uninvited on another bird's territory, they adapt their songs to ward the rival away, and adopt visual displays including swaying from side to side and threateningly baring their red chest feathers, before closing in and even going on the attack. Previous studies had found that robins living in cities were more physically aggressive than their rural cousins. The latest research suggests that noise pollution could play a part.
To explore the connection, scientists from UK and Turkey put a 3D-printed plastic model of a robin on another robin's place at two locations: an urban park in Istanbul that was close to busy roads, and a quiet wooded area outside the city. The model intruder（闯入者）was also equipped with recordings of robin songs. Then, through a separate speaker nearby, they added traffic noise.
"In normally quiet surroundings, we found that additional traffic noise leads to rural robins becoming more physically aggressive, for instance approaching the model bird more closely, " said Dr Çaglar Akcay, the study's lead author. But when they played the extra traffic to the urban birds, they did not become any more aggressive-instead they responded by singing less, suggesting they had perhaps learned to "sit out" temporary increases in noise.
Akcay and his team believed that the traffic noise was interfering with robins' natural communication through song. "The high levels of noise that exist day and night in urban habitats, such as from traffic or construction equipment, may permanently interfere with the efficient transmission of acoustic（声音的）signals and this is likely to be the key reason why urban robins are typically more aggressive than rural birds, " he said.
For more than a century, Paul Cézanne (1839-1906)has been celebrated as an artist's artist. For nearly as long, the banker's son from Aix-en-Provence has been credited with laying the groundwork for the 20th-century avant-garde（前卫派思想）. But the curators（负责人）of the largest Cézanne exhibition since 1997 decided that more could be learned about the great French post-impressionist simply by looking more closely at his paintings.
Of the 80 oil paintings in this show, which will later travel to London's Tate Modern, eight have been subjected to infrared X-ray and other imaging technologies to determine how he made each mark. The curators' conclusion: What made Cézanne a pioneer and enduring inspiration is that in every landscape, still life, portrait, and figure painting, he was trying to communicate emotion with every brushstroke, building each image sensation by sensation.
Unlike other artists, Cézanne seems "less concerned about what he is depicting than how he is building a picture," said Kyle MacMillan in the Chicago Sun Times. In paintings such as Still Life With Apples (1893-94),"standard rules of perspective are overthrown and the objects look like they are about to slide off the table. " But the impact that Cézanne had is obvious in this show, which "goes to great lengths" to highlight which works were collected by fellow artists, said J. S. Marcus in The Wall Street Journal. Claude Monet, Pablo Picasso, and Henri Matisse all owned Cézannes, and Jasper Johns has loaned the show one of Cézanne's drawings of female bathers, a favorite subject of the earlier artist that is showcased in this exhibition's final room. The figures in these works "often have an impassive（冷漠的）quality，leading many critics to wonder if he filled his celebrated apples with greater emotion than his human subjects. "
But not that the show tells you how to interpret Cézannes. "It's up to you to wind your own way. It's what Cézanne did, after all. "
The Healing Power of Water
It has been a rough few year. Many of us are finding ourselves exhausted, burned out, struggling to build balance back into our lives. Neuro scientists say that spending time near oceans, lakes, rivers and other blue spaces can provide a range of benefits including reducing anxiety, easing mental fatigue and refreshing us.
Participating in water activities such as swimming or surfing can help us enter a "flow state, " where we become fully immersed in what we're doing. When we become skilled at an activity, our brain changes, making it even easier to enter a state of flow in the future.
Bodies of water also can produce a glorious sense of awe-the emotional response to something vast that expands and challenges how we see the world.
Water has special properties that may boost nature's positive impact. Its smell can provoke positive memories and associations. When we are near water, there is often less visual and auditory information to process. Our mind can rest. When we're floating in water, our bodies can rest too, in a way we never can on land.
It moves rhythmically, producing a play of light, color and sound that is spellbinding. It holds our attention, but not in an overly demanding way. Researchers call this soft fascination. It gives our brains a break from the intense, focused attention that much of daily life requires.
A. Most important: Water is dynamic.
B. We need to recharge and water can help.
C. The sound of water, typically steady and soft, soothes us.
D. We can spend time on the water anywhere, anytime in our mind.
E. This calms the mind, which is often absorbed by worry and anxiety.
F. It's not just our bodies that need the element of life-it's our minds too.
G. Such sense of awe can decrease stress and help us put things into perspective.
Into the Rapids
Wyatt and his team were on the Arkansas River, paddling（划桨）through one of Colorado's deepest canyons.
Brody, their guide had 1 them that some parts of the stream would be rapid. Just seconds earlier, they had 2 another raft trapped on a rock by intentionally hitting it. But the momentum（冲力）had caused their own raft to enter some 3 rapids too quickly.
Before they could do anything, the raft 4 into the canyon wall. As they bounced back, Wyatt lost his 5 and was thrown backward, right into the 6 . The water tossed him around violently, but he caught breaths whenever he could. Looking over his shoulder, he 7 to see Brody throwing him the lifeline, but he'd already moved 50 yards ahead of the raft.
He knew he had to get out of this situation himself. "Dn't 8 . "Wyatt told himself, trying to remember the safety talk Brody had given to them. He rolled onto his back, pointing his feet downstream to cushion（缓冲） any possible 9 .
When the river 10 for a moment, Wyatt was able to catch his breath. Around the 11 , he saw a stretch of riverbank. Then he saw something even more 12 :the raft they'd freed earlier was pulled up alongside the riverbank. Its crew 13 Wyatt and started waving crazily. "Swim!" they shouted. "Swim to us!"
His hopes ignited, Wyatt 14 onto his stomach and swam. He gave it everything he had. Finally, he felt strong hands grabbing hold of his life vest and 15 him from the river.
A traditional festival closely related to spring, which had remained silent for centuries, is back in bloom, thanks to grow) enthusiasm for traditional Chinese culture andincreasing demand for seasonal sightseeing tours.
Huazhao Festival is said to be celebrated as the birthday of the flower goddesthe second month on the Chinese lunar calendar. Its origin cantrace) to the period before the Qin Dynasty (221-206BC) and was (official) set as a festival during the Sui(581-618) and Tang(618-907)dynasties. During the Tang Dynasty, the festival,was one of the three nationwide celebrations back then, fell on the 15th day of the second lunar month. The other two were Lantern Festival on the 15th day of the first lunar month and Mid-Autumn Festival on the 15th day of eighth lunar month.
However, the timing of the festivalvary) between regions, because of the difference inflowering begins. As a result, many parts of the country take turnslaunch) their celebrations as if presenting a feast for the eyes in relay. Despite various highlights, this March the festive celebrations across different regions spontaneously shared the features of hanfu—a traditional Chinese style of clothing-and flora（植物群）(appreciate).
The little bird perched itself on the tree branch outside Vanessa＇s bedroom window. It trilled（啼啭）an energetic song as the first pale yellow rays of sunshine peeked over the horizon.
"Oh my gosh, what is that noise? "she complained to herself, pulling her bed sheets over her head in an attempt to drown out the chirping. It was no use, and she knew it. The loud tweeting signaled the coming of the day. To confirm it, Vanessa's mom knocked twice on her door, and then came in with a smile. "Time to get up, Sleepyhead," she whispered. "The early bird catches the worm, you know. "
"Ugh," mumbled Vanessa into her pillow. "What does that even mean?"
"It's just an expression, Honey," her mom replied. She gave Vanessa a kiss on the cheek and urged her to get out of bed. Vanessa rolled over and slept for a few more minutes.
Vanessa shuffled her way downstairs for breakfast, ate slowly, and missed her bus. When she finally got to school, she had missed attendance and had to get a late pass. She missed the first part of math class, so she didn't understand the lesson and had to get extra help. Her teacher gave her extra homework to make sure she knew it. This day was no fun.
The next morning, Vanessa was woken up by the same loud, twittering song. Instead of ignoring it, today Vanessa walked over to the window and opened the curtains. Soft light filled the room. "Well, hello there, little fellow," she said when she saw the pretty bird outside, still chirping happily. It was startled by her voice and flew down to land on the fresh dew of the morning grass. As she watched, the bird cocked its head, plunged its beak into the wet ground, and plucked out a wiggling worm for breakfast.
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:"Hmm,"thought Vanessa," maybe I can try being an early bird for once. "
Paragraph 2:Vanessa couldn't help humming a merry tone on her way home.
