As far as fantastic drives go, few can compete with Highway 395. Here’s what you need to know before starting a road trip along it.

▲ What to Know About Driving on Highway 395

Highway 395 begins in Hesperia, a city about 90 minutes east of Los Angeles. It then continues for 1,300 miles until its end point at the Canadian border (边界). While the entire drive is beautiful, its most famous section runs from the Los Angeles area up to Reno, Nevada.

▲ Where to Stop Along Highway 395

CONVICT LAKE

Convict Lake, one of California’s clearest bodies of water, is a beloved destination for photographers. During your drive, you can pull over for a photo, or quickly hop on a boat and cast a fishing line to see what you can catch.

MAMMOTH MOUNTAIN

Just around the corner, you’ll find Mammoth Mountain, one of America’s best ski destinations Mammoth is renowned for its extended ski season, often lasting until July, and offers excellent terrain (地形) for all skill levels.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

During your drive, pay a visit to Yosemite National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here, you can watch climbers make their way up Half Dome, feel the power of Yosemite Falls, and enjoy the beauty of Tuolumne Meadows.

▲ When to Drive on Highway 395

Because many attractive places along Highway 395 are all-season destinations, there’s really no wrong time to depart on this road trip. However, it’s important to remember the road can get rather dangerous in winter. Check the highway website before leaving to ensure you’re aware of the conditions.

Once upon a time, there was a small village in the center of a big forest. All the villagers were used to their robotic farm work and none of them had the imagination or the will to try something new, except for one girl named Jo. Most villagers could not read or write, and Jo was an exception.

One afternoon, when Jo was on one of her adventures in the forest, she came across an abandoned cottage. Though she’d been warned to stay away from abandoned places, her curiosity got the best of her. She slid in and was amazed to find a room full of books! Jo’s excitement was huge when she realized she had found a hidden treasure.

She ran to tell the villagers everything, thinking that they would share her excitement but instead, she heard roars of laughter! Jo was confused by this reaction and a little hurt too, but she did not give up on her books.

She came to the cottage every day and got down to reading the books. For her, each page was an adventure with characters who challenged difficulties with their determination and who struggled for good. Knowing the power of stories in impressing on people the values of life, she decided to share the stories with the villagers, though she knew it would be a difficult journey. Making this her mission, Jo started telling stories every day at her cottage.

In the beginning, only a few came to the readings. But word spread rapidly, causing more and more people to come, some of whom even traveled from far away to just listen to her stories. She also conducted workshops in which she taught people how to read and write. She was remembered and lived in her stories even after she was long gone.

Virtual reality is quickly becoming the new technological frontier. Tech companies everywhere seem to be racing to get their foot in the VR door. However, virtual reality has a set of challenges and hurdles that it must overcome in order to work well. It should be noted that VR is heavily dependent on being very fast, very accurate and very good-looking. If it isn’t, the viewer will feel motion sick or disconnected from the world that VR is trying to create.

Now that we can actually build VR headsets that begin to meet these requirements, we are seeing a rising interest in VR. As it rises, so does the interest in creating new media to be experienced in using virtual reality. Journalism is a medium built on relevance. Journalists should always be finding new ways to tell stories and deliver content. It is a goldmine for storytelling. What better ways to tell a story to someone than to put them right in the center of it?

Virtual reality is a powerful tool for journalists. The consumer isn’t just reading or watching something play out; they’re experiencing it. The immersive nature of VR allows for people to connect with the subject matter on a much deeper level than just reading about it. The experience is emotional, speaking more to our instinct than our intellect. The possibilities for storytelling here are legion, and any storyteller wanting to do something more interesting than their peers should surely be considering the sheer power of VR.

The question of virtual reality, though, is not how powerful it is. That is immediately apparent. The question of VR is one of viability and availability. Telling stories must be easy to do, and access to those stories must be readily available. This is the biggest challenge that VR faces. If the tools to tell a story with VR aren’t easy to pick up and learn, VR will fail. If VR technology isn’t both top-of-the-line and affordable, VR will fail.

Accessibility was one concern for Thomas Hallaq, assistant professor of journalism and mass communications, who said that current VR technology is pretty exclusive right now. Despite that, he said he doesn’t think the exclusivity of this technology will be a problem in the long run.

“I think it’s very promising,” Hallaq said. “We’re seeing more technology become accessible, and more people having access to that technology. Just look at smartphones.” Like radio, TV and the Internet before it, virtual reality will change the way we tell stories.

“Let’s go to grandpa’s room and see if it still smells funny,” said Tommy.

“Last time it smelled like cheese...” replied Lil.

Sure, these lines from “Rugrats”, a cartoon series that aired in the 1990s, were meant to be funny. But they also may have a basis in real life, relating to the widely held view that the elderly send out a particular and easily recognizable body odor (气味).

The smell has been described as unpleasant, or simply “old person”. In one study, Japanese researchers traced the odor to a chemical compound (化合物) called 2-nonenal. The compound is a byproduct of other chemical breakdowns and sends out a “greasy” or “grassy” odor as the molecules (分子) exit the skin and are released into the air. Researchers discovered that 2-nonenal was the only odor compound whose presence became stronger with age.

In the study, in which 22 people aged between 26 and 75 were asked to wear odor-collecting shirts to bed, researchers analyzed molecules that stuck to the cloth. The amount of 2-nonenal was three times as much in the oldest subjects as it was in the middle-aged group. The youngest members of the study produced the least amount of 2-nonenal. Researchers assume the increase in 2-nonenal may have a lot to do with the breakdown of omega-7 unsaturated fatty acids (不饱和脂肪酸), because these molecules were also present in the shirts worn by the study’s oldest subjects.

Although the biological purpose behind “old person” smell is still unclear, some researchers believe it’s connected to a built-in age-detecting feature possessed by humans and animals. For instance, some animals can distinguish between older and younger animals by smell alone, and some animals are driven to mate with older animals. It’s possible that the capability to tell the smell of older animals meant that long-term survivors were revealed and these survivors had a genetic (基因的) advantage that boosted their chances of survival. In truth, the scent called “old person” smell could be an advertisement for better genetic quality. It gives a whole new meaning to the term “silver fox”.

Psychologists tell us that there are four basic stages that human beings pass through when they enter and live in a new culture .This process, which helps us to deal with culture shock, is the way our brain and our personality react to the strange new things we encounter when we move from one culture to another .

Culture begins with the “honeymoon stage”.     16     .We are thrilled to be in the new environment, seeing new sights, hearing new sounds and language, eating new kinds of food.     17    .

    18     .After we have settled down into our new life , we can become very tired and begin to miss our homeland, our family, friends, and even pets. All the little problems in life seem to be much bigger and more disturbing when you face them in a foreign culture. This period of cultural adjustment can be very difficult and lead to the new arrival rejecting or pulling away from the new culture .

The third stage is called the “adjustment stage”.     19     .Your sense of humor usually becomes stronger and you realize that you are becoming stronger by learning to take care of yourself in the new place. Things are still difficult, but you are now a survivor!

The fourth stage can be called “at ease at last”. Now you feel quite comfortable in your new surroundings.     20     .You may still have problems with the language, but you know you are strong enough to deal with them.

Several weeks ago I got a call from a good friend whose husband had just been diagnosed with cancer. “Do we tell the kids?” she asked. “_________.” I answered. “The boys deserve to know the truth, however _________ it is,” I continued.

Adults always insist that children be honest, _________ how many of us are honest with our kids, particularly about the _________ stuff: death, disease, corruption or our own failings?

I believe in telling children the truth. I believe this is vital for their understanding of the world, their confidence, and the development of their morals and values. This doesn’t mean kids need to be unnecessarily frightened or told more than they can _________. Kids also have an unusual _________ when there’s something wrong. They know a fake smile when they see one. They realize when we’re uneasy, and they can _________ when we’re lying.

One night I was in the car with our two oldest daughters. It was dark and cozy — the _________ time for a heart-to-heart conversation. One of our girls asked, “Mom, have you ever smoked cigarettes?” I stalled (故意拖延) a little, but the girls _________. They had me and they knew it. __________, I told them the truth. What happened next was an honest and direct __________ about the lure and danger of cigarettes, worthwhile and impressive. I believe my honesty was much more __________ than warnings or platitudes (老生常谈).

Time marches on, and so do __________. __________ I’ve made mistakes as a parent, I do have clear and open relationships with each of our children. I believe my being truthful with our children has __________, because I’m pretty sure that now they are honest with me.