【推荐2】A bicycle may be seen by most people as just another vehicle(交通工具), but for many Londoners, cycling is a way of life. According to an official UK government survey in 2017, about 570,000 bike journeys are made every day in London. In fact, almost half of the vehicles that pass over London Bridge each day are bikes.

London introduced a public bike-sharing system in 2010. “There can be no doubt that our trusty bicycles have changed the way people get around our great city,” Johnson told The Guardian in 2015.

In London, bikes are used for more than just taking short trips to and from the subway. No matter where you want to go in the city, taking a bike is usually the quickest and easiest choice.

And it’s not just shared bikes that the government is encouraging people to ride. In many companies across the UK, the UK government’s Cycle to Work scheme(骑行倡议) allows employees to buy a brand new bike without having to pay any tax(税). This means that it’s common to see many people cycling to and from work, and some employers even provide workplace showers and lockers(储物柜) for their workers. More importantly, a cycle-friendly boss may let you off for being late if you rode a bike to work.

Not only is it great for the environment and our body, cycling is also good for the mind. According to National Geographic Magazine, “Bike riding can improve people’s happiness.”

【推荐3】Welcome to the home page of the Photography World website. We offer a range of useful services for photographers and photography lovers.

Camera Club

Join our club and enjoy a range of benefits. You’ll get invitations to our regular events, such as members’ film shows, exhibitions and talks by experts. You can apply for Full membership, Associate membership or Junior membership. Full membership includes free entry to all events and 10% discount when ordering equipment online. Associate membership gives you half-price tickets to events. Junior membership(proof of age required) allows youngsters to enjoy the benefits of Full membership. Costs (per year): Full membership $20, Associate $12, Junior $10. Most new members joined as the result of recommendations from current members.

Advice Center

Take advantage of our Advice Center. Ask our experts your questions about cameras and photography. Whether you’ re looking for solutions to problems or fresh ideas for interesting photos, you’ll get response here. Simply email your questions to advice@ cameraclub.com or leave a recorded message on 0800-565656. We guarantee to send you a reply by email within five days. Please note that since we fail to provide information about repairs to cameras, you should contact the manufacturer about these.

Competition

Our competition is held every year and is a great chance for new and experienced photographers to win one of our great prizes, which range from albums to keep your photos in to one-day courses or a set of state-of-the-art camera equipment. Entries can only be accepted from members. They can be sent in prints, on a CD or memory stick, or by email. Please note that photos can’t be returned, so make sure you have copies. The topic—for example, wildlife, transport, people—is announced each year here on the website when the competition opens.

【推荐1】Tourist Guide to the National Gallery

Opening hours: Daily 10: 00 am- -6: 00 pm; Friday 10: 00 am- 9: 00 pm

Closed: 2426 December

Reasons to visit:

With over 2, 300 paintings in the collection, there are hundreds of reasons to visit the Gallery. Here are some to get you started...

Get into great art. From Leonardo da Vinci to Vincent van Gogh: See priceless works of art for free.

Get creative. Brush up your skills, and create your own great works of art...

Learn about art. Discover more about paintings...

Regulations:

Talk in a low voice when you use your cellphone in the gallery

Please do not touch the paintings or other exhibits. Do not take pets in or cross the barriers.

Consume food and drink in designated areas only i.e. not in rooms that contain paintings.

Follow our no smoking policy in any part of the building.

Follow our no photograph policy in exhibitions where a sign is displayed.

Access:

The National Gallery aims to make access to the paintings enjoyable and welcoming to the widest possible public. There are a range of facilities to help you see the collection, visit exhibitions and come to events.

The Gallery offers British Sign Language-interpreted talks on paintings for visitors who are deaf, and special art sessions(展期) for visitors who can't see.

Address: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DN

Click here to find more information.

【推荐2】China’ Forbidden City----traditionally off-limit at night for anyone except emperors and visiting dignitaries (显要人物）---- was decorated with lanterns as China celebrated the end of the Chinese New Year holiday. The complex, home to Chinese emperors for five centuries, was opened at night for the first time since it was reopened as the Palace Museum 94 years ago.

The complex and palace walls were illuminated with red lanterns and a light show, designed to recreate the feelings of the royal court, while the China National Traditional Orchestra and the Peking Opera performed. An image of a treasured scroll called A Thousand Li of Rivers and Mountains was cast onto the palace roof.

Most of China’s 1.3 billion people, however, had to watch the show on television. Only 3,000 people were allowed in: 2,500 invited guests and 500 people who booked their tickets online. “The 3,000 visitors can show off for the whole year,” one person said on Weibo. When booking for the second day opened at midnight, the booking system crashed for more than an hour due to great demand. The free tickets were quickly taken when it reopened. A lively secondary market soon appeared. Scalpers were selling tickets for as much as 9,999 yuan on online trading sites.

The Palace Museum is now on a campaign to attract more visitors, with its former curator Shan Jixiang saying he wants to make traditional Chinese culture more accessible to the general public. More than 80 percent of the palace is now accessible to visitors, up from 30 percent in 2012. Shan has set a target of 85 percent by 2020 to mark the palace’s 600th anniversary . Creativity today has made the Palace Museum younger and drawn traditional culture closer to the public.

【推荐3】Many animals move from one place to another at certain times of the year. This annual movement is called migration. They migrate to find food, seek a partner, or in search of warmer weather. One of the most wonderful migrations in nature is that of the North American monarch butterfly.

Every autumn, millions of these beautiful insects with fine black and orange wings begin a long and difficult journey. Somehow they manage to travel around 4, 000 kilometers south and find their way to California or Mexico. However, until recently no one knew how they did this.

A team of scientists led by Professor Eli Shlizerman at the University of Washington has now found the answer. They have found out that the monarch is able to tell the time of day. It uses its eyes to measure the position of the sun. These two pieces of information—the time of day and the point where the sun is in the sky—allow the butterfly to determine the way to go. Eventually, it manages to reach the places where it will spend the winter.

The solution to the mystery of the monarch’s amazing ability comes at a time when it is in serious trouble. Its population has crashed by as much as 90 per cent in the last few years. Sadly, human activity is the main reason why the number of monarch butterflies is falling. In many of the places where the butterfly can be found, people are destroying the natural environment. They cut down trees and use chemicals that kill the plants that monarch caterpillars eat.

The research on the monarch’s behavior has however led to a greater awareness of this creature. People have been working together to record its migration and make sure that there are enough plants for it to feed on. If this works, there may come a time when the number of monarch butterflies increases once again. The more we know about this lovely creature, the greater the chance it will survive and keep its place in the natural world for a long time to come.