Special breaks: four UK's creative places
Chair-making, Leicestershire
Spend a week in the National Forest woodlands learning to make your own chair. People having different levels of experience are welcomed. Beginners can make a single Windsor chair, while the more advanced learners can design their own chairs or try a child's chair.
Price: £ 650 per person (including accommodation)
Dates: 21-27 Jun., 31 Jul.-6 Aug., 23-29 Aug., 4-10 Oct.
Drawing, North Yorkshire
Learn how to create beautiful pen and ink drawings on this four-day art holiday in the North York Moors. Aimed at beginners, it teaches a range of styles and techniques to build confi dence and improve various drawing skills. The course is mainly based at Larpool Hall, a Georgian house with views over the Esk Valley.
Price: £ 405 per person (including accommodation and meals)
Dates: 25-28 Sept.
Celtic woodturning (木工车床加工), County Armagh
Guests stay at Bluebell Lane Glamping at the foot of Slieve Gullion in the Ring of Gullion area of outstanding natural beauty, near Newry. The three-night break includes a full-day beginners' woodturning workshop, where participants make their own bowl from locally sourced wood, learning how to use a lathe (车床), sharpen tools, sand and fi nish. There is also a break for a guided walk through the 11-hectare woodland surrounding the site.
Price: £ 238 (including meals)
Dates: 21-23 Aug.
Wildlife photography, Dorset
Red squirrels are now very rare in England, but Brownsea Island has a large population of red squirrels. On this two-night trip, guests will explore the island and learn how tophotograph the creatures in the woodlands. Led by Emma Healey and Sean Weekly, the course is an opportunity to take advantage of the best light of the day to take wildlife photographs.
Price: £ 475 per person (including accommodation, meals and student fees)
Dates: 14 -15 Sept.
I've always enjoyed the idea of travelling and volunteering for a few months in southern Europe and living close to the sea, surrounded by nature, staying with the locals and exploring their culture. So when I had a chance to make this daydream a reality, I decided to apply for my first experience on a farm in Portugal.
The farm is located a few kilometers away from Lagos, in a remote location in the hills. It was designed around the idea of connecting nature and technology in a green way and with a self-sustainable approach. My host, Lucio, is really passionate about the do-it-yourself initiative or maker culture. He built and decorated his house using natural materials. He changed the shipping container into an electronic lab...
When my host learned that I majored in electronics at college, he was very trusting and encouraged me to work on one of the most important issues on the farm — the water well's pump operation. Since the well was the only water source for the entire farm, it turned out to be a tough task for me. I wasn't even sure if I could do it in the beginning, but with my host's encouragement, I gradually made progress and was able to build a working prototype (原型).
Lucio was very excited when we connected the DIY prototype I built to the pump control panel successfully. I still remember the moment when Lucio shook my hand with a big smile and thanked me for solving one of the farm's most difficult problems. With his trust, I got to work on more complex projects afterwards too!
Before this volunteer experience, I never thought my help would be so appreciated. I realized that I could make a very positive impact on people's lives by sharing knowledge to build something useful.
Though diet and exercise are recommended as ways to improve health, newUC Riverside research in mice is the first to examine the long-lasting, combined effects of both factors when they are experienced early in life.
"Any time you go to a doctor with concerns about your weight, almost without fail, the doctor recommends that you exercise and eat less," said researcher Marcell Cadney. "That's why it's surprising that most studies only look at diet or exercise separately. In this study, we wanted to include both," he said.
The researchers found that early-life exercise led to reduced anxious behaviors and an increase in adult muscle and brain mass. When fed Western-style diets high in fat and sugar, the mice not only became fatter, but also grew into adults that preferred unhealthy food.
To obtain the findings, the researchers divided the young mice into four groups — those with access to exercise, those without access, those fed a standard, healthy diet and those who ate a Western diet. Mice started their diets immediately after weaning (断奶), and continued with them for three weeks until they reached adulthood. After an additional eight weeks of "washout", during which all mice were housed without wheels and on a healthy diet, the researchers did a behavioral analysis and measured levels of several different hormones (激素).
One of those they measured, leptin, is produced by fat cells. It helps control body weight by increasing energy consumption and signaling that less food is required. Early-life exercise increased adult leptin levels in adult mice, regardless of the diet they ate. Previously, the research team found that eating too much fat and sugar as a child can change the microbiome (微生物群) for life, even if they later eat more healthily. Going forward, the team plans to study whether fat or sugar is more responsible for the negative effects they measured in Western-diet-fed mice.
This study offers great opportunities for health interventions in childhood habits. "Our findings may be related to understanding the potential effects of activity reductions and dietary changes associated with overweight," said Marcell.
A new unnamed species of crocodile (鳄鱼) indigenous to Australia has been found in the middle of the outback. The species of crocodile presently on extinction, belonging to the Baru crocodile, is new to experts despite the fact that the animal wandered around the Australian continent 25 million years ago.
Adam Yates, senior leader of earth sciences, said that Australia's suitable instance of the crocodile's bone was discovered in 2009 at the site of Alcoota Fossil which is eight million years old and is 200 kilometers north-east of Alice Springs, Australia. Dr. Yates revealed that other specimens (样本) had been discovered before. He said, "This specific specimen is one of the last of its kind. It is the nicest and the bone of the Baru crocodile is the most complete among all that have ever been discovered so far." Thanks to the bone's condition, Dr. Yates said that it
would turn into the name-bearing specimen or what he referred to as "the holotype (正模标本)" of the new species.
Dr. Yates revealed that the modern Australian crocodile is known for being ancient and fixed, but that is not really true. "The current Australian crocodiles are truly new arrivals on the Australian continent. They are part of the genus Crocodylus, which likely has its origins in Africa," he said. "This species of crocodile immigrated and conquered Australia just a few million years ago. However, Australia's main native crocodiles, like this one, have totally gone extinct," he continued.
Dr. Yates also revealed that the size of this Baru crocodile can be compared to a recent saltwater crocodile; however, due to the fact that the bone is strong, it would have had more weight. He said it is likely that it weighed more than a saltwater crocodile of an equal length. So they are looking towards many hundreds of kilos. Studying the details of the bone will bring hintsnot only to the altering state of Australia's environment from ancient times till now, but also to how this specific crocodile varies from other species that are known.
He also said they have to get down to the details of its structure and make a demonstration on why the structure of this one is sort of different from all the other species of ancient crocodile from Australia that are known.
Dr. Yates said the size of the bone shows that the animal was very powerful. "Its actually powerfully built heavy, thick, deep jaws, and really large teeth all imply that this was a crocodile that specifically takes megafauna (巨型动物)," he said. He added that modern crocodiles mostly survive on small prey and small fish. This guy didn't survive on small things. Dr. Yates said modern saltwater crocodiles also had the ability of taking larger animals.
How to make a cooking video on TikTok
You may think sharing your cooking videos on TikTok isn't a big deal. We've asked some experts for tips on how to film, edit and post cooking videos on TikTok.
Keep it simple
"Simplicity is key when creating food content on TikTok," says MacKenzie Smith, creator of Grilled Cheese Social. "My Baked Feta Pasta that went viral (走红) earlier this year is a good example of how simple food trends can take over the social landscape," says Smith.
Show off kitchen skills
Film something you do special or share a helpful tip some viewers may not know. Smith, who's partnering the National Mango Board, says she's been starting all her videos for the campaign with a demonstration of the best mango cutting technique.
Film from different angles
If you have two smartphones or cameras, try setting them up on tripods (三脚架) at different angles, so you can edit with a diversity of different shots, both overhead and from another good point. Only have one device? No worries.
Break the rules
Just like cooking, the rules of TikTok are meant to be broken. So if you want your viewers to keep coming back to your videos, never be afraid of trying creative ideas. Make what you want to make. Who knows what will become a trend, and what was a waste of your time?
A. Actually, it isn't as easy as you think.
B. Keep your videos between 30 and 60 seconds.
C. Consider filming your content in natural lighting.
D. Film various parts of your cooking from a few perspectives.
E. That's because the golden rule of social media is to be creative.
F. An approachable recipe is key to connecting with a larger audience.
G. Before leaping into full-on recipes, consider showing off your cooking skills
Teenage pilot Zara Rutherford has become the youngest woman to fly around the world solo. The 19-year-old Belgian 1 Kortrijk-Wevelgem Airport in western Belgium on Thursday, completing a 41-country journey, spanning over 52,000 kilometers.
"I 2 it," Rutherford, who received a warm welcome on her 3, tells reporters.
Not only has she 4 the record held by American Shaesta Waiz, who was 30 when she circumnavigated (环游) the globe 5 in 2017, Rutherford also now holds the 6 for the first woman to circumnavigate the world in a microlight.
7, the teenager's route to glory hasn't been without 8 . When Rutherford departed on August 18, 2021, she believed her flight would take about three months. But she was troubled by setbacks, including month-long 9 in both Alaska and Russia due to "visa and weather issues", pushing her schedule back eight weeks. Moreover, she was also forced to make an 10 landing in Redding, California due to poor visibility as a result of the wildfires.
"I'd say the 11 part was definitely flying over Siberia — it was extremely cold," says Rutherford. "If the engine were to stall (熄火), I'd be hours away from 12 and I don't know how long I could have survived for."
Her adventure was intended to 13 greater visibility of women in aviation (航空). Last year, Rutherford spoke of her 14 at the fact that just 5.1% of airline pilots around the globe are women. She hopes her success will 15 more females to consider a career in aviation. "If you don't try and see how high you can fly, then you'll never know," she says.
Every weekend, hundreds of bookworms crowd around Liyuan Library in Jiaojiehe village, a book sanctuary (圣地) surrounded by chestnut, walnut and peach trees branches are used to decorate the building.
Deep in heart of a rocky valley in the suburb of Beijing, the wooden library sits seemingly in the middle of nowhere. It was (careful) designed by Professor Li Xiaodong, from the School of Architecture at Tsinghua University. (decorate) with about 40, 000 firewood sticks outside, the bookstore features 10,000 books ranging from literature to history.
The library, which opened in 2012, draws hundreds of visitors every weekend, many of whom (attract) by the design. With space just 40 people at a time, visitors line up (enter) the library, which only opens on weekends.
"We have now banned people from (take) pictures inside, as some of them come here just for it. They even come in costumes as if they are going to give a (perform)," owner Pan Xi complained. "That's really (disturb). We still want to give those who really love reading a quiet and peaceful environment."
57-year-old Sean Currey knew the value of treating others in the way he intended to be treated. Hence, he lived by that principle in his whole life, which eventually took him off the streets at the right time.
Sean Currey became unemployed during the pandemic, and ended up homeless, searching through dustbins (垃圾桶) around San Rafael, California, to meet his needs. Once, he made an unusual find at the bottom of a dustbin just behind a coffee shop. Looking through the purse, he discovered a series of credit cards, debit cards, healthcare cards and a business card, identifying the purse's owner as an 80-year-old woman, Evelyn Topper.
Interestingly, the woman lived in Mill Valley, about six miles away from his location. Knowing how discouraging it was to lose one's possessions, Currey figured he needed to return the purse to its rightful owner. Then Sean Currey gave Topper a call, using the contact details on the business card. His guess was accurate, as the elderly woman had been extremely worried since losing her purse days ago.
According to Evelyn Topper, she stopped by a coffee shop on December 9 to get a hot drink and a bubble tea for her 12-year-old granddaughter. She paid for both drinks and put the purse into her pocket. Unfortunately, the purse fell off somewhere along the way, and by the time she reached home, she discovered her purse was gone.
Evelyn Topper contacted the coffee shop immediately, receiving the heartbreaking news that her purse was not there. Next, she checked her car, and all the rooms in her apartment, but did not find it. Eventually, she concluded the purse must have been dropped somewhere on the way home.
Just when she gave up finding her purse, Topper received Currey's call. She screamed in delight when she learned he had her purse. They met up immediately in front of a nearby shopping center, where Currey returned the purse. The woman called her daughter and granddaughter, Mikayla Gounard, to tell them what had happened. That was when Mikayla decided to repay Currey's kindness.
注意：
1）续写词数应为150左右；
2）请按如下格式作答。
It was Mikayla's twelfth birthday.
……
The money collected at the birthday party changed Currey's life.
