The Darjeeling Himalayan Railway may be the slowest train in the world. Every day the train (climb) over 2250 meters. Although the entire trip is 80 kilometers, it takes up to ten hours. The railway (build) in 1881 and has been carefully protected for its cultural importance. Today the train is attractive to the passengers who come from other places (see) the railway and the surrounding mountains. They seem to get a lot of pleasure its slow speed. For (fan) of this train, being slow is actually a good thing. As these people say, “slow” has four letters, so has life; “speed” has five letters, so has death.
I think my memory is good. I use a simple trick to remember people's names (clear). When I meet someone and hear the person's name, I imagine that I can see the name (write) on the person's face. So the next time I see that person I also see the name on his or her face, and that is I never forget a name. When I have to memorize things for school, I walk up and down in the room, (read) the notes aloud. The methods are very effective and I (use) them for many years. Compared with me, my brother has a very bad memory. He never remembers his promises. I always have to remind him.
Bradley's Bicycle
When our son Bradley was ten, the new bicycle he had received earlier that year was missing. Having a bike was a big deal to our children. They spent hours and hours on their bikes, 1 up and down the footpath, and at the front of the house. We also rode as a 2 at holidays, when all the members enjoyed staying together. Bicycling was a great way to get the kids out of the house and into the fresh air 3 spending any money.
Bradley discovered that his bicycle had been 4 from our backyard when he and his sister went outside for a morning ride. He couldn't 5 that someone would do this. 6, none of the other bicycles were touched and nothing else was missing.
Bradley painted a sign (告示) on a large piece of cardboard,7 for the bicycle to be returned, and 8 it to the letterbox. The following morning, when I went out to collect the mail, I found a white 9 with the magical words, "Buy yourself a new bike." It took me a little while to 10what it was inside it. It was a $100 banknote.
We were very 11that someone had the heart to do this. We've never been able to thank the person but we 12 that it may have been one of our wonderful neighbors. Bradley painted a big "Thank you" on the sign and we 13it outside for a couple of weeks afterwards in case it was someone who drove down our street.
Bradley was able to 14 a new bicycle. As the years went on, bicycles became bigger and more expensive but remained just as 15 for those family bicycle rides. Now the kids have grown up and cars have 16their bicycles. Bradley is twenty-five this year. Sometimes I 17 the days when receiving a bicycle was the best thing in the world to them.
All these years later we are still grateful to that incredibly kind 18. A young boy's sorrow turned to joy when he got his19. We were a young family with three little children and it meant a lot to us. We still talk about it and, even now, 20who actually gave us the help.
Planning to get away? Think passport first
If you're planning to get away from it all this year, you should think passport first. Checking you have a valid passport before you book your trip takes minutes but could save you the trouble and cost of not being able to go.
Renewing (更新) your passport before it runs out
You can renew your passport up to 9 months before it can no longer be legally used. So take the time now and save the tears later.
Applying for a passport for the first time
Our eligibility (资格) checks mean that it takes a minimum of one week to issue (颁发) a passport. So make sure you don't leave it to the last minute, and apply in plenty of time.
Help with your application is just around the corner
Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents offer a Check and Send service that helps you with your application. It's convenient and you should receive your passport within 2 weeks.
If you need to apply for or renew a passport, you can either:
Pick up a Passport Application Form at Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents.
Or call the Application Form Request line on 0901 4700 100 or visit www.passport.gov.uk
If your need is urgent, call 0870 521 0410 for an appointment at one of our offices. We can't guarantee to see customers without an appointment.
From 14th January a guaranteed same day (passport renewals only) or one week service will be available from passport public counters.
Calls will be charged 60p per minute and the cost per call should not normally be more than 90p.
Calls are charged at national rates.
A Teenage Inventor
The world could be one step closer to quick and inexpensive Ebola detection thanks to a teenager from Connecticut.
Olivia Hallisey, a junior at Greenwich High School, was awarded $50,000 in the Google Science Fair for her new method that detects Ebola, a virus that causes bleeding from different parts of the body and usually causes death. Olivia's method is to ask patients to put their saliva (唾液) onto a testing card. The card changes color if the person is catching Ebloa. Present Ebloa tests take up to 12 hours and cost $1,000. Olivia's method, however, can be done just in 30 minutes for about $25. Besides, the sample (样本) doesn't have to be put in a refrigerator thanks to the silk material Olivia uses to produce the testing cards.
Olivia was inspired to deal with this global problem after watching the news that more than 10,000 people died from Ebola in West Africa. She was particularly worried about the fact that, while the acts of involvement can improve survival rates, present detection methods are costly, time-consuming and require complex tools. Olivia got help from her science research teacher. She drew out directions from past research, and figured out detection systems that have proven to work with other diseases, including Lyme disease and yellow fever.
"What affects one country affects everyone," Olivia told CNBC. "We have to work together to find answers to the huge challenges which cause harm to the global health." The Connecticut's teen, who hopes to become a doctor one day, was named the Google Science Fair winner in the competition of 20 competitors from across the globe. The fair is open to young people between the ages of 13 and 18 in most countries.
Olivia hopes her success will inspire other girls interested in science and computers. "I would just encourage girls to try it in the beginning, and remind them that they don't have to feel naturally drawn or feel like they have a special talent for maths or science," she told CNBC, "but just really look at something they are interested in and then think how to improve something or make it more enjoyable or relate it to their interests."
Palaces are known for their beauty and splendor, but they offer little protection against attacks. It is easy to defend a large building, but usually these buildings are not designed with the comfort of a king in mind. When it comes to structures that are both beautiful and defensive, the European castle is a big success.
Castles were originally built in England by the Normans in 1066. They built towers and walls to secure the land they had taken. These castles provided the Normans with a quiet and safe place. They also served as bases of operation for attacks. In this way castles served both defensive and offensive roles. Besides, castles served as offices for governors. Those that were socially beneath the governor would come to report affairs and express their respect. They would address problems, handle business, feast, and enjoy festivities in castles. So castles served as social centers as well.
The first castles were made from earth and wood, and they were likely to suffer from attacks by fire. Then wooden castles were gradually replaced by stone, which greatly increased the strength of these towers and walls. However, attackers could throw flaming objects into castles through the windows or burn the wooden doors. This led to moving the windows and entrances off of the ground floor and up to the first floor to make them more difficult to access.
During the Middle Ages, attacks increased in regularity, so castle defenses were updated. Arrow-slits were added. They were small holes in the castle, which allowed defenders to fire without being hurt. Towers were built from which defenders could provide fire on both sides. The towers were connected to the castle by wooden bridges, so that if one tower fell, the rest of the castle was still easy to defend. A lot of rings of castle walls were constructed, so that even if attackers went past one wall, they would be caught on a killing ground between inner and outer walls. All of these increased the defense of castles.
The end of castles can be attributed to gunpowder. During the 15th century, artillery, a kind of large guns, became powerful enough to break through stone walls. This greatly made the role of castles less effective. Though castles no longer serve their original purposes, remaining castles receive millions of visitors each year who wish to experience the situations of ancient times.
Maths and Music
An excellent way to kill a conversation is to say you are a mathematician. Tell others you are also a musician, however, and they will be hooked. Although there are obvious similarities between mathematical and musical activity, there is no direct evidence for the kind of magical connection many people seem to believe in.
I'm partly referring here to the "Mozart effect", where children who have been played Mozart compositions are supposedly more intelligent, including at maths, than other children. It is not hard to see why such a theory would be popular: we would all like to become better at maths without putting in any effort. But the conclusions of the experiment that expressed the belief in the Mozart effect were much more modest. If you want your brain to work better, you clearly have to put in hard work. As for learning to play the piano, it also takes effort.
Surely a connection is quite reasonable. Both maths and music deal with abstract structures, so if you become good at one, then it is likely that you become good at something more general that helps you with the other. If this is correct, it would show a connection between mathematical and musical ability. It would be more like the connection between abilities at football and tennis. To become better at one, you need to improve your fitness and coordination (协调). That makes you better at sport and probably helps with the other.
Abstract structures don't exist only in maths and music. If you learn a language then you need to understand its abstract structures like grammar. Yet we don't hear people asking about a connection between mathematical and linguistic (语言的) ability. Maybe this is because grammar feels mathematical, so it wouldn't be surprising that mathematicians were better at learning grammar. Music, however, is strongly tied up with feelings and can be enjoyed even by people who know little about it. As such, it seems different from maths, so there wouldn't be any connection between the two.
Let's see how we solve problems of the "A is to B as C is to D" kind. These appear in intelligence tests but they are also central to both music and maths. Consider the opening of Mozart's Eine Kleine Nachtmusik (小夜曲). The second phrase is a clear answer to the first. The listener thinks: "The first phrase goes upward and uses the notes of a G major chord (和弦); what would be the corresponding phrase that goes downward and uses the notes of a D7?" Music is full of puzzles like this. If you are good at them, expectations will constantly be set up in your mind. The best moments surprise you by being unexpected, but we need the expectations in the first place.
Gardening 380 Kilometers above Earth
Astronauts have to go through physical, psychological, and technical training. They also go through training in how to care for plants. These “astronaut gardeners” share their work and living space with plants.
Taking seeds and plants along on a trip isn't a new idea. As space trips become longer, it will be necessary to grow food in space. Because of this, it's not practical to send everything needed for a long journey, only to be used once and thrown away.
Plants can serve many uses on a space journey. They can provide more fresh things. Also, plants can help to make air quality better because they produce oxygen. They can improve the quality of the air inside the spacecraft—the only air the astronauts can breathe.
Due to the lack of gravity in space, the oxygen that the plants produce stays around the plants. This can actually kill them, so fans are needed to circulate the air. Without gravity, roots don't “know” to grow down, leaves don't “know” to grow up, and water doesn't easily travel up the roots to the leaves. Besides, soil is too heavy to send to space, and special liquid gels (胶) are used to help plant growth.
Scientists are also working on the plants themselves. They are trying to make plants grow more rapidly and grow with less water and light in space, and they are looking for ways to make plants more resistant to disease. Imagine that deserts may one day provide lots of fresh food for local people, saving transportation costs. Similarly, plants that are resistant to disease could provide an important food supply. With the world's population now at seven billion (十亿) people, our astronaut gardeners may help discover ways to feed those billions.
A. Every plant grown in space must have several uses.
B. However, there are challenges with growing plants in space.
C. Such methods may result in improvements back here on Earth.
D. The cost of taking anything into space is about $22,000 per kilogram.
E. Specialized containers are being developed to help the plants grow correctly.
F. Astronauts will welcome the addition of fruits and vegetables to their diet of dry foods.
G. Currently all oxygen is taken aboard in tanks and then caught again so it can be reused.
