Many small American towns are known for their beautiful scenery, but very few have something special to offer. The following are known for their unique styles.
Scottshoro, Alabama
This attractive town is known as "The Lost Luggage Capital of the World" thanks to the unclaimed luggage center, where lost items such as snow skis, instruments and engagement rings are for sale. In addition to the store, which has become one of Alabama's top tourist and shopping attractions, the city's parks and heritage centers are popular places to visit.
Hope, Kansas
Hope is a city in southern Dickinson County, Kansas, with a population of 317. It's the home of Klipsch Museum of Audio History, President William Jefferson Clinton's birthplace and several antique shops. Hope's motto, which is also the name of the town's song, is "There will always be 'Hope' in Kansas".
Branson, Missouri
Although its population is just over 10, 000, Branson hosts over 9 million visitors each year. When the best-selling novel, The Shepherd of the Hills, written by Harold Bell Wright, was released in 1907, readers rushed to the Ozark hills to experience its famous views. Now tourists also get to visit the World's Largest Toy Museum, the world's largest Titanic Museum Attraction and the record-breaking theme park, Silver Dollar City.
Leavenworth, Washington
Leavenworth is a European-inspired destination, offering a collection of outdoor activities all year long. It welcomes almost 2million tourists each year and is home to the Nutcracker（胡桃夹子）Museum, which has more than 7，000 nutcrackers from around the world. Many of its visitors travel to the village in December during its annual holiday festival to see it light up with more than one million Christmas lights.
As the world has changed, so has education. Since 2018, Nelly Cheboi and her non-profit TechLit Africa have been bringing computer technology into schools in Kenya, helping students join the digital world, and unlock their potential. With its own software programs, curriculum（课程）and teacher training programs, this non-profit hopes to change Africa.
In 2012, Cheboi received a scholarship to College in Illinois that changed her life. She grew up in poverty in rural Kenya, watching her mother struggle to support her family alone. Cheboi had no experience with computers before moving to the US to study. She hand wrote papers and then struggled to type them out on a laptop computer. Somehow she fell in love with computer science and began a career in the field. But she did not lose sight of her origins. "As an undergraduate, I invested all of my income from various campus jobs into my community back in Kenya, "she said on the TechLit Africa website. But soon she wanted to do more for it and that is how TechLit Africa began.
Cheboi recalled how her background helped her understand how important technological knowledge could be for children living in poverty. She built a school with the idea of bringing computer science as part of kids' curriculum growing up. But she found that it was going to be really hard to impact as many people as possible, because it was so hard to fund raise. Then in order to reach more students, she introduced computer training to existing schools. Cheboi physically dragged over 40 recycled computers that had been donated to them by various tech companies to Kenya in suitcases.
Now, since the non-profit has grown, it works with various companies that help them clean the donated computers of data and send them to Africa. TechLit Africa runs its own curriculum with its own software programs in 10 Kenyan schools, and the hope is to increase to 100 throughout Africa by next year. The students love learning about computers, and in turn are gaining skills that will help them make use of their talents into a way out of poverty.
A Purdue University invention could save millions of taxpayer dollars and significantly reduce traffic delays. The new invention, a sensor that allows concrete to"talk", decreases construction time and how often concrete pavement（路面）needs repairs while also improving the road's sustainability and cutting its carbon footprint. Fixed directly into a concrete pour, the sensor sends engineers more precise and consistent data about the concrete's strength and need for repairs than is possible with currently used tools and methods.
"Traffic jams caused by repairs have wasted 4 billion hours and 3 billion gallons of gas, on a yearly basis. This is mainly due to insufficient knowledge and understanding of concrete's strength levels, "said Luna Lu, who has been leading development of the sensor since 2017. "For instance, we don't know when concrete will reach the right strength needed to accommodate traffic loads just after construction. The concrete may be put into use too early, leading to frequent repairing, "she added.
With the technology Lu and her team invented, engineers can directly monitor the fresh concrete and accurately measure many of its properties at once. The sensor notifies engineers via a smartphone app exactly when the pavement is strong enough to handle heavy traffic. The stronger the pavement is before being used by vehicles, the less often it will need to be repaired. By decreasing road repairs and construction timelines, this technology could reduce carbon dioxide that vehicles would have given off while waiting in traffic to get around a construction site.
Methods that the industry has used for more than a century call for testing large samples of concrete at a lab or onsite facility. Even though these tests are well understood by the industry, differences between lab and outdoor conditions can lead to inaccurate estimates of the concrete's strength due to the different concrete compositions and temperatures of the surrounding area.
A study from the University of Montreal and the Montreal Museum of Fine Arts, published in Frontiers in Medicine, found that regular virtual visits to museums could help seniors stay mentally active and come with a host of additional health benefits. That's because these digital connections can make retirees feel less lonely and isolated（孤立的）.
Social isolation has been associated with the risks for heart disease and the decline of recognition abilities in seniors and the pandemic（疫情）increased the risks due to the need for seniors to stay home and isolate, according to a press release from the university.
The researchers investigated the potential benefits of weekly virtual visits for a three-month period. The participants were people aged 65 and older who lived in Montreal. Half of the participants took part in online visits and a discussion afterwards, while the control group did not participate in any. cultural events at all. The group who participated in the virtual visits showed improvements in their quality of life. "Our study showed that art-based activities may be an effective intervention, " lead author Dr. Olivier Beauchet, a professor at the University of Montreal, said in the press release. "On a global scale, this participatory art-based activity could become a model that could be offered in museums and arts institutions worldwide to promote active and healthy aging. "
The initiative reflects approaches recommended by the World Health Organization to manage certain diseases, according to Beauchet. For instance, the WHO launched the Aging and Health Program in 2015 that included using community-based organizations to promote culture as a key component of improving health. Traditionally, these sorts of preventive health activities have taken place in schools, community centers, and workplaces. "While these are suitable locations that reach a great number of people, there are additional organizations and sectors that could become partners in public health research and practice development, " Beauchet said. "Museums are among such potential partners. They are aware of the needs of their communities and are consequently expanding the types of activities they offer. "
It seems a bit strange to imagine ancient Egyptians celebrating their birthdays with layered cakes topped with lighted candles.
The first birthday cakes were nothing of what they are today and weren't even called birthday cakes. At that time only they could afford to celebrate with something sweet. That is how cake became associated with special occasions.
Ancient Egyptians are credited with "inventing" the birthday celebration. And ancient Greeks borrowed the tradition but rightfully realized that a dessert would make the celebration all the more meaningful. So they baked moon-shaped cakes to offer up to the moon.
It wasn't just the ancient Egyptians and Greeks who celebrated with sweet cakes. And it's believed that the original birthday cake came from them. Rather than just celebrating birthdays, though, ancient Rome was known for celebrating all things with a cake including wedding, but there was an exception—the birthdays celebrated were only for men who were citizens, and they had to be famous.
Modern birthday parties are said to get their roots from the 18th-century German celebration. On the morning of a child's birthday, he or she would receive a cake with lighted candles that added up to the child's age plus one. The birthday child would make a wish, try to blow out all the candles in one breath, and dig in.
A. Ancient Romans also had their traditions.
B. Rather, they were symbolic of the noble class.
C. Ancient Greeks made the first birthday cakes.
D. On birthday, children would eat cakes made by their mums.
E. They also decorated the cakes to make them shine like the moon.
F. This extra candle was called the light of hope for another new year.
G. However, they're the ones who first came up with the idea to do so.
In 2015, my husband Robin took a new job in Ghana. We relocated from London, where I worked as a photographer, to the capital, Accra. Robin worked, but my visa didn't permit me to, and I was left homesick and lacking1. With few people around, I turned to2. I photographed horses and considered the outdoors the place where I felt most3.
In September 2020, after one bad thunderstorm, I found a bird, barely a month old, on the ground. He was4by his flock（群）. His eyes were shut, too young to5alone. I placed him in a cardboard box and stayed up all night, researching how to6him. I spoke to an expert who said it would take 12 weeks to prepare him for the7.
For the next 84 days, the8bird lived on me. He would fly alongside me. As he learned to fly, he'd make short9from my hand, to my shoulder, and then settled on my hair. I10 named him because I had to11myself that he needed to return to the wild. In return for putting his life back on course, he12me by giving me purpose. Three months later, he was 13 enough and flying farther from me. It was time for him to go. Then on a clear day when his flock returned, Robin and I took him out and the little bird flew away with them.
14him taught me how to live in the present. Last year, I joined local conservation efforts. That, along with the15that any little creature can make a difference, is what he left me.
The Beijing 2022 Olympic Winter Games opening ceremony (begin) at the National Stadium in Beijing on the evening of February 4, 2022. duration of the ceremony was reduced to about 100 minutes because of the cold weather and the COVID-19.
The use of (advance) technologies such as artificial intelligence, machine vision, 5G and cloud broadcasting added to the novelty of the opening ceremony. The performances, (carry) forward the theme of global peace and a shared future for humankind, focused on environmental protection, and human health and physical (fit).
(reduce) the carbon footprint of the Winter Games, all the Olympic venues were run on clean energy. Also, during the preparations for the Games, all the work was done an environmentally friendly manner. For example, about 70 percent of the materials used in the Games (obtain) through lease(租用), including new sporting equipment, furniture in the Olympic village.
In line with Beijing 2022's concept of hosting a green Olympic and Paralympic Winter Games, the medal platforms were made of recyclable materials, can help build a healthy social environment for China to realize (it) targets of an eco-friendly society.
Alvin Bamburg, 66, was deep in the woods in Grand Cane, Louisiana, last December when something caught his eye. Twisted in a fallen tree, it looked like litter. As Alvin approached, he saw that the object was a broken balloon. Attached was a piece of paper decorated with sparkly star stickers. It was a child's Christmas wish list.
"Dear Santa, " the handwritten note read. "My name is Luna. I am four years old. I live in Liberal, Kansas. This year I have been nice. I would like candy, Spider-Man ball, Frozen doll, puppy. With love, Luna. "
Alvin's heart hammered in his chest. Ever since he was a child, he had dreamed of this very scenario（情景）. He believed this was his childhood wish coming true. And he decided to make Luna's wish come true too. Given the distance of more than 650 miles from Grand Cane to Liberal, Alvin followed the advice from his wife, Lee Ann Bamburg, and posted a photo of the balloon and the Christmas list on his Facebook page, asking for help locating the sender.
Meanwhile, Leticia Flores-Gonzalez, the mother of four-year-old Luna and her twin sister, Gianella, had no idea that such an effort was underway. It had been a hard year for Leticia and her girls. As COVID-19 spread, the family felt lonely, scared, and isolated, with no relatives living nearby.
On a particularly tough day last December, Leticia had come up with the idea of having the girls send letters to Santa by balloon. She told them that Santa would grab the balloons while he flew through the air on his sled. The twins were excited. Leticia helped them write down all the things that they dreamed Santa might bring them, and put the notes into Christmas red balloons. Then she took them outside to release their wishes to the universe on the chilly windy morning.
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。
One day in January, a friend called Leticia and said, "Someone found Luna's balloon. "
In April, Alvin and his wife made a trip to meet the girls.
