Bangkok (曼谷) developed around the Chao Phraya River. Many of the city's hotels sit along the river. The areas of Siam and Ratchaprasong are the core of tourist Bangkok. Sukhumvit Road is home to mall after mall filled with every kind of shop.
For the best value, luxury (奢华的) hotels in the Bang Rak and Sathorn Districts are great choices since the area is more popular for office buildings than tourists. The Sathorn Vista, Bangkok is a perfect example. There are several restaurants, a full gym, a beautiful pool and outdoor areas.
Traditionally, the Khao San Road area has been the center of Bangkok budget lodging (住宿) and this is still true today. The Dang Derm Hotel on Khao San Road has clean, large rooms and a really nice rooftop pool. If you're on a budget but want to stay riverside, try the Ibis Bangkok Riverside, whose contents are always clean and well-managed. The riverside location is close to the ferry, and its location a bit south of the main tourist area gets you very low prices.
Mandarin Oriental, Bangkok is a great family hotel. The hotel, which has buildings on both sides of the Chao Phraya river, has been providing accommodation to travelers since 1876. For families there are a number of connecting room choices, and the hotel is also responsible for bringing in extra beds for children. There is a kids' club on-site, and parents can even sign older kids up for cooking classes. Another good option for families is Ariyasomvilla. This downtown Bangkok small hotel also offers a pleasant place in the city. It is set inside a beautiful garden and is a lovely change from the disorder of the city.
Amanda Gorman, a 22-year-old poet, recited her poem The Hill We Climb at the recent Presidential Inauguration (就职) Ceremony. Her words and performance were wonderful and were admired across the world. But what is even more wonderful is the story of how Amanda arrived at this moment and the lessons she offers other kids around the world.
Amanda was raised by a single mother, Joan Wicks, in Los Angeles. There was very limited television watching in their house. Encouraged by her mother, who was a teacher, Amanda fell in love with reading and writing. She gained confidence in these areas. Her passion for poetry started when she was about 8 years old.
But despite her interests and talents, she had some obstacles. Amanda has a listening processing disorder and is very sensitive to sound. She also had a speech disorder during childhood. This caused her to participate in speech treatment which helped her to turn her obstacles into gifts and strengths. As she told The Harvard Gazette in 2018, "I always saw it as a strength because since I was experiencing these obstacles in terms of my listening and speech skills, I became really good at reading and writing."
Amanda started to dream of becoming president when she was in 6th grade. As Amanda became more confident, she became more driven to transform the world for good. She went on to earn a degree at Harvard University. And then, Amanda became the world's first Youth Poet Laureate (获奖者) in history!
While Amanda looked calm, cool, and collected at the inauguration, she admits she is always nervous, like many of us, about public speaking. To ease this, she developed a spell that she recites to give herself confidence in moments of doubt, "I am the daughter of black writers. We are descendants (子孙) of freedom fighters who broke through chains and changed the world."
Felix Ruppert and Alexander Badri-Sprowitz at the Max Planck Institute for Intelligent Systems in Stuttgart, Germany, designed a half-metre-high robot called Morti and gave it the ability to teach itself how to walk, rather than to perform a pre-programmed step. The four-legged robot took only an hour to learn how to walk steadily, roughly the same amount of time as newborn horses need. And it's the first time that a machine learning technique has been so successfully applied to four-legged robots.
Morti is controlled by an artificial intelligence (AI) algorithm (算法) that doesn't have much information about the robot's legs, such as the exact shape of each element. "The AI, working like the central nervous system, gives walking instructions for Morti to follow. It then adjusts (调整) them based on readings from foot sensors that signal when the robot falls and loses contact with the ground. Initially (最初), Morti falls down, but after about an hour the AI finds the best way to make it walk," said Ruppert.
Because the AI learns rather than computing details of each leg's movement in advance, which can use a lot of energy, Morti walks using 42 percent less energy than when it first starts at the end of an hour-long learning process. Morti's process copies the way baby animals learn to move, as they also find the most efficient way to use their muscles by trying and initially tripping.
Dhireesha Kudithipudi at The University of Texas at San Antonio said that AI robots can often learn a specific task very well but can't readjust when the environment changes and that Morti's design, which relies on continually adjusting the robot's movements, may perform better in that regard. Ruppert said he and the team are working on adding more sensors and range of motion to Morti to make it a more animal-like robot.
Have you heard of Hispanic Heritage Month (拉美裔文化月)? We break down this monthlong celebration from September 15 to October 15 that recognizes the different Hispanic community in the United States and the varied and meaningful contributions they bring to our country and culture.
According to the Hispanic Heritage Month (拉美裔文化月) official website, it is observed "by celebrating the histories, cultures, and contributions of Americans whose ancestors came from Spain, Mexico, the Caribbean, and Central and South America". For generations, Hispanics have contributed to the food, music, business, science, and culture that we know as American, and the 30 days that make up Hispanic Heritage Month each fall is just one opportunity to show these achievements.
Hispanics are the country's second-largest racial group, behind white non-Hispanics according to the latest 2020 census (普查). Hispanics now account for 18.7 percent of the U.S. population, up 2.4 percent in the previous decade with 62.1 million Hispanics living across America with big concentrations in New York, California, Texas and Florida.
Hispanic Heritage Month first started as a week when it was signed into law by President Lyndon B. Johnson in 1968. According to Congressional history, the week was created to bring attention and awareness to "Hispanic-American contributions to the United States", along with networking opportunities for "grassroots and civil rights activists inside and outside the Hispanic-American community".
Almost 20 years later, Representative Esteban Torres of California, a proud Mexican-American, gave a bill to expand it into Hispanic Heritage Month saying supporters of the bill "want the American people to learn of our heritage. We want the public to know that we share a legacy (遗产) with the rest of the country, a legacy that includes artists, writers, Olympic champions, and leaders in business, government, cinema, and science". That bill didn't pass, but Senator Paul Simon of Illinois gave a similar bill that President Ronald Reagan signed into law after that in 1988 creating now what Hispanic Heritage Month is.
Some people cry during movies, while others only tear up for very sad or happy moments. Sometimes, we even cry randomly. Each has its own job and flows from your tear ducts (泪腺) for a different reason.
But if you tear up frequently for no reason, it might be a sign of a serious condition. If you notice that you're crying every day during normal activities, you may have depression. If you think you have depression, talk to your doctor right away to find the right treatment for you.
If someone begins to cry in front of you, your reaction may come from the discomfort you feel in this situation. Though you may not mean to, your response could cause the person who is crying to feel weak, embarrassed, or less understood. Instead of rushing to cheer a crier up or offer immediate help, sometimes it's best to give a person space to cry.
If you're around someone who is crying, respect their tears. Let them release (释放) their feelings and show them you care. Don't rush to offer advice or to say anything at all. Give them space to process and release their tears. Let them think and organize their thoughts. Accept the way they respond in the moment. Don't push them to feel a different way.
It's best not to hold in emotions all the time. If you need to control a cry, try to hold back your tears just until you're in a better place for them. This way you won't suppress (压抑) your emotions altogether.
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A. Don't talk too much. B. We cry different types of tears. C. Then how can we deal with crying? D. Crying can be normal in certain situations. E. Sometimes tears are needed to process emotion. F. We should pay attention to your emotional problems. G. However, sometimes it's important to hold back tears. |
"Do you need a vase for your purple carnations (康乃馨)?" a gentle voice1me in my hospital bed. It was one of those few2moments when no one else was in the room with me and I had slipped into sleep. Usually the room was full of3and their families.
"Yes, these are from a special friend," I4to sit up in spite of my weak body. She was a cleaner and while clearing the desk beside my bed, she5the flowers. But why would she care? And she said "purple carnations"6.
I asked her if she likes flowers. Her eyes lit up and she spoke in excited7. She loves flowers so much that every flower in her garden each day gets a special hug and 8from her before she leaves for work. My God! I can't believe it!
I told her that I've been9a lot of flowers from my relatives and usually I had them delivered to the nurse station. And I decided to give her the purple carnations just because of her
10about flowers.
She was in great11. But being the nice person she is, she still tried to12me to have half of them and she would happily take the rest home. I asked her if she could 13them with others instead. She was doubly happy.
She left, came back and said, "I will be thinking of you whenever I see purple." I almost 14. Such goodwill for something so15? I was really amazed and impressed by this cleaner!
Last year at Christmas time, my wife, three children and I were on our way from Paris to Nice. Somehow everything went wrong. Our hotels were "tourist traps" and our rented car broke down. On Christmas Eve, when we checked into a dirty hotel in Nice, there was no Christmas spirit in our hearts.
It was raining and cold when we went out to eat. We found a small restaurant poorly decorated for the holiday. Only five tables in the restaurant were taken. There were two German couples, two French families, and an American sailor, by himself. They were eating in stony silence except the sailor. He was writing a letter, and a half-smile lighted his face. In the corner a piano player was listlessly (无精打采地) playing Christmas music.
All of us were interrupted by an old French flower woman through the front door. She had a worn overcoat and her old shoes were wet. Carrying her basket of flowers, she went from one table to another. No one bought any. Exhausted and sad, she sat down at a table.
The sailor finished his meal and got up to leave. Putting on his coat, he walked over to the flower woman's table.
"Merry Christmas," he said, smiling and picking out a handful of flowers. "How much are they?"
"Two francs, sir."
The sailor put a twenty franc note in the woman's hand.
"I don't have change, sir," she said. "I'll get some from the waiter."
"No, ma'am, "said the sailor, leaning over and kissing the ancient cheek." This is my Christmas present for you."
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为80左右；
2）续写部分的开头语已为你写好；
Then the sailor headed for our table with the flowers in his hand.
