【推荐1】It’s midafternoon. You’re full from lunch. The day is warm. You’re starting to feel sleepy. Should you give in to the comfort of a nap (小睡)?

From the viewpoint of health, it may be worth it. Though there is a hassle when it comes to whether napping benefits everyone, we generally acknowledge that naps can improve at least some people’s cognitive (认知的) performance in the short term.

For example, scientists reviewed a past experiment that focused on healthy participants with regular sleep cycles. In that experiment, participants were given math problems that could be solved with a shortcut that they weren’t told about. Some participants were encouraged to take a nap before dealing with the problems. It was found that those who napped-and spent even just 30 seconds in the first, lightest stage of sleep-were 2.7 times more likely to figure out the math shortcut than those who stayed awake. But entering a deeper sleep stage had a negative effect.

The benefits of napping are strongest for people who have sleep debt, such as shift workers, new parents and elderly people whose nighttime sleep is always interrupted. They all seem to get a boost through napping: a 2013 study focusing on such people, for example, showed that taking a nap during one’s night shift work reduced sleepiness and improved overall performance, even if people were slightly inactive as they came out of their nap-a phenomenon called “sleep inertia (惰性)”.

There is something we can do to reduce sleep inertia. A 20-minute nap is good for recharging, and 60 to 90 minutes of sleep can be even more restorative. The nap to avoid is one lasting more than 20 minutes and less than 60 minutes, which is most likely to lead to sleep inertia.

【推荐3】In May 2020, as the first wave of the COVID-19 pandemic swept Texas, I went to an Austin nature store and bought several bird feeders. Various birds, drawn by seed and other food, came soon afterward. I wasn’t alone. Feeders have long been a popular way to connect with nature and draw in native or nonnative species. But over the past two years, bird feeding has suddenly increased in popularity.

The benefits of all of this supplying have tended to go unquestioned. After all, habitat destruction from human activity is a leading cause of bird population declines, so feeding birds seems like an obvious way to help make up for that loss. But a recent review paper raises a troubling possibility: bird feeding could be reshaping some local environments. “If you’re throwing millions of tons of additional nonnatural resources into an environment, you’re going to get massive, massive impacts,” says lead study author Jack Shutt, a conservation ecologist at Manchester Metropolitan University in England. “And they’re not always going to be the ones that you’re expecting.”

Bird feeding carries a few well-recognized risks. The first among them is disease spread. In 2005 scientists concluded that shared feeders in the U.K. may have helped dove trichomoniasis (滴虫病) jump into European Greenfinches, as a result, it killed up to half a million birds. In the U.S., trichomoniasis outbreaks connected with dirty feeders are common bird killers. “You’ve got different species pecking (啄食) at the same bit of plastic, which is covered in various bird bodily liquid,” says study co-author Alexander Lees, an bird expert at Manchester Metropolitan University. “It’s a cause of disaster.”

What’s necessary, Lees says, is taking the potential impacts seriously enough to carry out further study, which would allow experts to make much more recommendations about where to feed and where to avoid it. Such studies could also help researchers make targeted recommendations about what sorts of food to offer.

【推荐1】It’s hard to find a person who doesn’t like traveling. The human’s hopes to explore new areas drive us to visit new countries and discover new places. It’s a pity that it is impossible to explore every corner of the world even if you travel the whole life. So people search travel articles to learn more.

If you want to become a travel writer who helps people to choose a trip, you should know how to create an article about traveling experience. Maybe the following can help you.

Read different resources. Do you want to improve your skills and do great writings? Start by exploring how experts do. Start following famous travel writers and discover how they engage readers, which means you should know how to get readers’ attention. Also, it will help you to know about the latest news in the traveling.

For sure, anyone can create a blog (博客) about traveling. But the top travel writers don’t create articles according to stories of other people. They make every trip by themselves and share their experience in their articles. If you want to become a very successful writer, you should have a large background in traveling. It will help you create original (原创) articles and share your traveling secrets with your readers.

Don’t forget about your opinions when you discover how to write a travel article. If you want to copy someone’s story, you can rewrite it and collect a few points. But if you’re going to become a famous travel writer, you need to create original articles. Feel free to share your opinions and feelings.

Being a travel writer is exciting. You have to travel, explore new areas and share your experience with readers.

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【推荐1】On April 20, SpaceX’s Starship, the largest and most powerful rocket ever, exploded during its first test flight only minutes after it took off from Texas, US.

Even though the two-stage rocket ship made it less than halfway to the edge of space, climbing to just under 25 miles, the flight achieved its primary objective of getting the new vehicle off the ground despite some of its engines failing at liftoff. The plan was for Starship to soar into space at least 90 miles above Earth.

SpaceX CEO Elon Musk congratulated team members on “an exciting test launch” in a post-launch tweet and said they “learned a lot for the next test launch in a few months.”

Back in September 2017, Musk came up with the idea of developing a rocket that would be able to send astronauts to Mars, build a base on the moon, and allow commercial travel to anywhere on Earth in under an hour, according to The Guardian (卫报).

The most important aspect in Musk’s view, however, would be the rocket’s ability to be reused for multiple flights. This would allow for massive savings as it would reduce the number of spacecraft that would otherwise simply crash. Also, the rocket relies on low-cost fuel, methane (甲烷), making the cost of spaceflight drop dramatically.

The results of Starship’s first launch are not too far off from what Musk and SpaceX’s engineers had predicted. Musk himself gave 50-50 odds that Starship would reach orbit, but also stressed that “clearing the launch tower and not blowing up the pad (发射台) would be a win”.

In all, “it fell somewhere between a small step and their hoped-for giant leap, but it still represents significant progress toward a reusable super-heavy lift rocket,” said Jordan Bimm, a space historian at the university of Chicago, US.

Prepared for the likely outcome, SpaceX already has more boosters and spacecraft ready for more test flights, with the next full set “almost ready to go”. The plan is to fire off similar rockets in quick succession (连续) to gather data and start using Starships to launch satellites into low Earth orbit then put people on board. Each launch will take SpaceX a step closer to its ultimate goal of making commercial space flight a reality.

【推荐2】Almost everyone has a question or two about living in space. What is life really like in space? And what do astronauts do there?

Astronauts living in space have the same hygiene needs as people do on Earth. When they wake up, they wash their hair, brush their teeth and go to the bathroom as well. However, because of microgravity (微重力), astronauts take care of themselves in different ways. For example, they use a kind of special matter to wash their hair and leg restraints (腿部個定装置) to position themselves when they use the toilet.

Astronauts eat three meals a day: breakfast, lunch and dinner. Some food can be eaten in the natural form such as fruit. Other foods require adding water such as noodles. There are no fridges in space, so space food must be stored and prepared properly to avoid going bad.

Besides morning routine and eating in space, astronauts perform many tasks including checking the machines, updating computer equipment, etc. At the same time, the control center on Earth sends messages to the astronauts through voice or email with new instructions to assist them in their daily routines.

What’s more, living in space is not just all work and no play. A popular way of relaxation is looking out of the window. And they can also enjoy themselves by watching movies, reading books, playing cards and talking to their families during their free time.

【推荐3】Flight disruptions have periodically made it difficult for people to reach their destinations. Here are three of the biggest potential flight disruptors and what you can do about them:

Wild weather can hinder air travel, whether it’s an Arizona monsoon storm or a hurricane over the Atlantic Ocean or the Gulf of Mexico. That can affect whether your flight is delayed or canceled.     1     Extreme climate conditions also can disrupt air travel, as the Canadian wildfires demonstrated recently.

▶ Tip: If bad weather is expected, monitor the conditions in your flight path and take advantage of airline offers to reschedule without change fees. Download your airline’s app and enable notifications.     2    

In May, American Airlines and Southwest Airlines pilots’ unions voted to authorize strikes. While it appears unlikely that pilots will strike at either airline, a work stoppage could be a problem. The votes by the American and Southwest pilots’ unions to authorize a strike don’t necessarily mean a strike will happen.     3     A strike wouldn’t happen unless negotiations between the unions and the airlines’ management break down.

▶Tip: There is no reason to panic. If a strike appears likely, travelers can monitor the situation and consider switching to another airline.

Southwest Airlines experienced two nationwide computer outages last year.     4     Southwest conducted an internal review of its technology and began implementing a three-part action plan to address service disruptions from computer glitches, including fast-tracking operational investments.

▶ Tip: When issues emerge at the airport, technological and otherwise, the best thing people can do is to be patient. Read your airline’s policy on compensation for canceled flights.     5     The more patient that passengers can be, the better it will make everything smoother as they try to fix everything.