【推荐1】I grew up suddenly that winter night after we said goodbye to my aunt, because my mother told me that we would soon leave for America. On the bus, thinking of the fact that I would leave the place and people I liked, I couldn’t help crying. People on the bus were turning around to look at me curiously.

Finally, the day came. When we were leaving I thought about all the places I was going to see—the strange and mysterious places I had known only from books and pictures. I was completely at a loss.

The following four years taught me the importance of optimism, but the idea did not come to me at once.

For the first two years in New York I was really lost. I didn’t know what would happen in the future. Because of family moves, I had to study in three schools. Then my mother remarried, and things became even more complex for me. It took a long time for my stepfather and I got used to each other. I was often sad and wondered how long “the hard times” would last.

Since I knew English better than everyone else at home, I shouldered more responsibilities. I wrote letters, filled out forms, translated at interviews with immigration officers, took my grandparents to the doctor and translated there, and even discussed telephone bills with company representatives.

Slowly, from my experiences I have learned one important rule: those annoying troubles will finally go away.

Don’t give up, and something good is bound to happen in the end. I firmly believe that my life will turn out all right, even though it will not be that easy.

【推荐2】The wife of British superstar singer Sir Tom Jones has died after a short battle with cancer.

The news has come just weeks after Tom Jones suddenly announced the cancellation of planned concerts in Asia and the Middle East, saying it was for a serious illness in his family. He did not say at the time the patient was his wife. Lady Melinda Jones.

His tour would have seen him perform at concerts in Japan, Thailand, South Korea and then the Middle East at the end of 2016.

In a message on social media, the Wales-born singer announced that his beloved wife of 59 years. Lady Melinda Jones, known as Linda, passed away.

The 75-year-old singer said his wife had fought a “short but fierce battle with cancer" .

The statement added, “Surrounded by her husband and loved ones, she passed away peacefully at Cedars Sinai Hospital in Los Angeles."

“Sir Tom and his family have asked for privacy at this difficult time and no further information is accessible at present."

The couple had known each other since they were both aged 12, and were both the children of coal miners in South Wales. They started dating all the age of 15, and married a year later when they were 16. Next year would have been their 60th wedding anniversary. The couple had one son, Mark, who is Sir Tom's manager.

Jones has had 36 Top 40 hits in Britain and 19 in the United State, some of his famous songs include It's Not Unusual, Delilah, Green, Green Grass of Home and She's a Lady.

【推荐1】Antarctica, the great white continent and one of the last true wilderness areas on earth-largely unchanged since the early explorers, is home to the world's greatest concentration of wildlife.

Antarctica Expeditions

We offer an extensive list of trips to Antarctica at the best price. You may choose the trip which you like best among our various trips, according to your needs, in terms of price, duration and the type of excursion（短途旅行）.

The Antarctic season goes from late October to March.

CRUISES	FLIGHTS
AIR-CRUISES	SAILBOATS
CRUISES Cruises to Antarctic Peninsula, Polar Circle, Weddell Sea, South Georgia, Falkland Island and mid-Atlantic Islands. Budget from $4,720 to $21,499 Length from 9 to 32 days
FLIGHTS Fly from Punta Arenas, Chile to Antarctica or to the very South Pole. Budget from $5,400 to $68,500 Length from 1 to 9 days
AIR-CRUISES Combine both sailing and flying-flying to or from Antarctica takes around 2.5 hours, making you save the 2.5-day navigation across the Drake Passage that is made in a regular cruise. Budget from $3,995 to $19,795 Length from 5 to 9 days
SAILBOATS Sail to Antarctica on board of sailboats with a capacity of 9 or 48 passengers. Budget from $7,750 to $11,600 Length from 22 to 59 days

If you're looking to experience one of the most attractive and untouched regions of the world in an unhurried way away from the crowds, we have got a trip for you!

【推荐3】I used to ride my bike to work on quiet Sundays，and then gave it up when my work schedule changed. Concerns about traffic on the streets of Washington, D.C took away my confidence, but National Bike to Work Day made me try again.

This morning, at 6:45. I wheeled my bike out of the garage and joined a nation of first-timers and old-timers on National Bike to Work Day.

I bought a new bike last year with the intention of cycling regularly to the office. I started riding right away, but set the goal realistically low: just once a week.

In my favor was the fact that I worked on Sundays, a perfect riding day because of the low traffic. And so I enjoyed a series of nearly deserted morning rides from my bungalow in a Washington. D. C. neighborhood to the Monitor’s bureau., just two blocks from the White House.

But then I no longer needed to work on Sundays. And my bike stayed parked in the garage. The last part of my cycle route covered busy urban streets, and I worried about traffic.

Today made me give bike commuting (通勤) a second try. However, some of the cyclists roared (呼啸而行) down the path quite fast, and I nearly caused an accident; downtown, I made a wrong turn, and ended up on a busy street; unlike Sundays, I had to pack a change of work clothes; besides, there was no shower.

Bike commuting is on the rise in America, but I’m a fair—weather rider, easily influenced by rain or snow. This morning did little to calm my worries about commuter traffic. One of the problems is my inexperience, and I’m willing to learn from that. But I can see now that if commuter biking is to really take off, cities and workplaces need to encourage it, from bike lanes (车道) to workplace showers.

【推荐1】In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.

It quickly attracted famous names such as Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich as well as the big symphony orchestras(交响乐团). It became a fixed event every August and now attracts 400,000 people yearly.

At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge to the official festival. Eight uninvited theatre groups turned up in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house no longer used for years.

Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford, Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little-known playwrights(剧作家) in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.

Today the “Fringe”, once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

A paid administrator was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing(给……提供场地) 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.

【推荐2】What’s in the scream? It is thought that the sound of a scream has an acoustic(听觉的) signature - an acoustic DNA that tells the listener’s ear that they are hearing a scream, even if it is not. “The scream may initially run to scare the attacking predator(捕食者). The study of screaming has the potential to help us understand the evolution of emotional communication,” says Jay Schwartz of Emory university.

Jay Schwartz and his colleagues asked 181 volunteers to listen to 75 sounds that included laughter, crying, moans, groans, and yells from acted origins, like television or movies, and more natural sources, such as a YouTube video of a child opening a present and screaming in delight. The listeners indicated whether or not each sound was something they considered a scream. “We did not provide any type of definition for a scream because we were trying to get at what is it in people’s minds that distinguishes a scream,” says Schwartz, who presented his work at a meeting of the Acoustical Society of America on 14 May.

When they analyzed the sound files, they found that the ones listed as screams had acoustic similarities. People were more likely to consider a sound a scream if it was higher in pitch(音高), and had a varied change in pitch, first moving up and then down at the end.

Rapid changes in amplitude - perceived as a rough, gravelly quality - also tended to be classified as screams more than sounds with a smoother tone. This sound was classified as a scream by 64 percent of the listeners. Surprisingly, a recording of a whistle was categorized as a scream by 70 percent of the participants. “It was because the whistle exhibited a lot of the acoustic qualities that we found to be associated with a scream, including high pitch and roughness,” says Schwartz.

【推荐3】Parts of Africa are covered by a dark cloud. But this is no rain cloud. It is a living cloud made of billions of locusts (蝗虫) that are traveling across the continent eating everything in their path.

And now in the battle to stop this disaster, a radio station in Senegal, West Africa, is offering listeners 50 kilograms of rice if they can catch and kill 50 kilograms of locusts. “We think this idea will get more people to take part in the war on the locusts,” said Abdoulaye Ba, from Sud-Fm, a radio station in one of Senegal’s worst affected area.

This is West Africa’s biggest locust disaster in 15 years, and it is moving east, causing huge damage to crops. As they move they produce young and increase their number and will soon threaten (威胁) Sudan in the northeast of Africa. Some say it could reach Asia.

Experts say the harmful effect on crops in areas already suffering from food shortage and war could cause many people to go hungry. Governments in the areas are not well equipped to fight the pest.

Although leaders of 12 countries have agreed on a plan, it is not expected to be enough. “We are now treating 6,000 hectares (公顷) per day with pesticide (杀虫剂), but we need to treat 20,000 hectares per day in order to have any hope of controlling this disaster,” said Mohamed Abdallahi Ould Babah, director of locust control in Mauritania.

Requests are being made for international aid, which is the only way to limit the disaster, the UN’s Food and Agricul-ture Organization warned.