【推荐1】Teenage summer camps

We helped on a nature reserve (保护区) for a week. We did different things every day, including cutting the reeds (芦苇) by the lake. Every day, we took turns to cook, in teams of five. When it was our team’s turn, we made a simple dinner of pasta and salad for everyone. Judging by the fact that there was none left, we didn’t do too badly!

—Adam

We stayed with families who had kids of our own age, and because they were on a mid - term break, they came with us on all the trips. So except when we were actually in a language class, we were spending time with our new friends. It was a great way to practice English we had been working on in the classroom.

—Oliver

Every morning we had the same breakfast, and then cleaned up the camp. When it was all completely tidy, we could head off for the day. The first time we went into the city, we were put into teams and given lists of things to spot, like statues, squares and other landmarks. With some help from the locals, my team found almost all of the things on our list and came second. We went to different museums and galleries in and around the city every day. It was a great chance to learn about another country and its history.

—Sarah

【推荐3】Teaching idioms (习语) is a lot of fun. Here are some good books that can teach children idioms.

THE WORLD IS YOUR OYSTER

It has idioms that are widely used. Each idiom has a picture to go with it. It is for children in the 1st grade & up. It is written by Tamara James.

THERE’S A FROG IN MY THROAT

This book has 440 idioms about animals. Each idiom is given a short explanation to tell what it means. It is for children in the 2nd grade—6th grade. It is written by Loreen Leedy.

BUTTERFLIES IN MY STOMACH

It shows a boy’s first day of school through idioms. It is for students in the 1st grade—4th grade. It is written by Serge Bloch.

MAD AS A WET HEN

It is a book for teaching classic idioms. It is for students in the 3rd grade—5th grade. It is written by Marvin Terban.

MY TEACHER LIKES TO SAY

It is about idioms used by teachers. It is for students in the 1st grade—4th grade. It is written by Denise Nelson.

【推荐1】Do not merely think that you are going to become great; think that you are great now. Do not think that you will begin to act in a great way at some future time; begin now. Do not think that you will act in a great way when you reach a different environment; act in a great way where you are now. Do not think that you will begin to act in a great way when you begin to deal with great things; begin to deal in a great way with small things.

Do not think that you will begin to be great when you get among more intelligent people, or among people who understand you better; begin now to deal in a great way with the people around you.

If you are not in an environment where there is opportunity for your best powers and talents you can move in due time; but meanwhile you can be great where you are. Many great people were as great when they were common as when they became great; as common people they did common things in a great way, and that made them great.

You are not made great by the location in which you happen to be nor by the things with which you may surround yourself. You are not made great by what you receive from others, and you can never show greatness so long as you depend on others. You will show greatness only when you begin to stand alone. Dismiss all thought of reliance on externals ternals, whether things, books, or people. As someone said, “Shakespeare will never be made the study of Shakespeare. Shakespeare will be made by the thinking of Shakespearean thoughts.”

Never mind how the people around you, including those of your own household may treat you. That has nothing at all to do with your being great; that is, it cannot get in your way of being great. People may look down on you and be unthankful and unkind in their attitude toward you; does that prevent you from being great in your manner and attitude toward them？

【推荐2】Your glasses may some day replace your smartphone, and some New Yorkers are ready for the switch. Some in the city can’t wait to try them on and use the maps and GPS that the futuristic eyewear is likely to include.

“I’d use it if I were hanging out with friends at 3 a. m. and going to the bar and wanted to see what was open,” said Walter Choo, 40, of Fort Greene.

The smartphone-like glasses will likely come out this year and cost between $250 and $600, the Times said, possibly including a variation of augmented reality, a technology already available on smartphones and tablets that overlays information onto the screen about one’s surroundings. So, for example, if you were walking down a street, indicators would pop up showing you the nearest coffee shop or directions could be plotted out and come into view right on the sidewalk in front of you.

“As far as a mainstream consumer product, this just isn’t something anybody needs,” said Sam Biddle, who writes for Gizmodo.com. “We’re accustomed to having one thing in our pocket to do all these things,” he added, “and the average consumer isn’t gonna be able to afford another device that’s hundreds and hundreds of dollars.” 9 to 5 Google publisher Seth Weintraub, who has been reporting on the smartphone-like glasses since last year, said he is confident that this type of wearable device will eventually be as common as smartphones.

“It’s just like smartphones 10 years ago,” Weintraub said. “A few people started getting emails on their phones, and people thought that was crazy. Same kind of thing. We see people bending their heads to look at their smartphones, and it’s unnatural,” he said. “There’s gonna be improvements to that, and this is a step there.”

【推荐3】Harry Potter and the Cursed Child Tickets

Lyric Theatre      214 West 43rd Street                  New York,NY 10036

Experience J.K.Rowling’s magical universe like never before.

This show is presented in two parts.

You may buy tickets for each part together or separately.

Show Information

GalaPro,a free app for on-demand captioning(说明文字)and audio description that you can use on your personal smartphone device.GalaPro makes theatre accessible for audience who are hearing or sight challenged,or just don’t want to miss a word of the show.

【推荐1】In a long-sleeved shirt and jeans, Dieudonne Twahirwa looks nothing like the traditional African farmer. The 30-year-old owner of Gashora Farm knows what a difference that makes.

“You need more role models, " he said, standing among knee-high rows of chilli （辣椒)plants. "If you have young farmers, they have land and they drive to the farm, others may think, “Why can't I do that?”

Mr. Twahirwa, a university graduate, bought a friend's tomato farm six years ago for $ 150. He made $ 1,500 back in two months, "You have to link farming with entrepreneurship (创业者)and real numbers, he said.

Many young Africans are abandoning areas in the countryside, choosing not to work hard and for a long time in fields — a job made tougher by climate change.

But Twahirwa is one of the growing band of successful farmers working to make agriculture's image on the continent more attractive. Some 1,000 farmers now produce chillies for him. He is starting a fourth farm of his own, and exports fresh and dried chillies and oil to Britain, the United States, India and Kenya.

Africa has the world’s youngest population and 65 percent uncultivated arable land (耕地后备资源). Yet accessing land and loans is difficult, and African productivity is low with crop profits just 56 percent of the international average.

Agriculture is mainly associated with suffering and no young person wants to suffer," said Tamara Kaunda. She believes African agriculture needs a change to get rid of its old-fashioned image of very hard and tiring work with a hoe. "Show young people with tractors, green fields, nice irrigation systems smart phones, she said.

Getting young people involved in agriculture does not mean they have to work on a farm. For example, in coffee production, the beans go from the farm to the washing station, then to be separated from the husks (外壳).

【推荐2】Samuel L. Clemens, also known as Mark Twain, started off his writing career (事业) in 1865 with his big hit story The Celebrated Jumping Frog of Calaveras County — a story-within- a-story told to a listener by an old California miner. From that day on, the works of the great humorist always had different animals.

Some members of Twain’s literary (文学的) animals were based on real animals, such as the Clemens family’s named pet cats. Some were imaginary, like that celebrated jumping frog.

As a boy in Missouri, he got pleasure from knowing the animals of the woods; in old age,   he felt a deep relationship with the animals large and small that he met in his travels. His cats, family dog, horses, donkeys, and calf also won his three daughters’ love at their Hartford home. On March 22, 2018, to mark this part of Twain’s personal life, The Mark Twain House & Museum opened a new exhibition (展览), Tails of Twain: How Animals Shaped the Man & His Work. The exhibition was rich with exhibits from the museum’s collections.

The king of the animals in Twain’s world was the cat, “the only creature in heaven or earth or anywhere that don’t have to obey (听从) somebody or other, including the angels.” He was known to be the proud pet parent of 19 cats during his childhood. As an adult, the Clemens   home always had a named cat. Even on vacation, the Clemens family borrowed cats from locals to live with them. Dogs were considered second-class pets, but Twain liked them. Twain once wrote an ode (颂诗) to his dead dog Burns: “She lived a quiet harmless life in Hartford ...”

In true Twainism, humans were not as loved as the “Higher Animals”. Even the most low- down animal, however, was superior in Twain’s eyes to “the human race.” After all, he did write once “Of all the animals, man is the only one that is cruel.”

【推荐3】A fully electric seaplane has made its first flight over the mouth of the Fraser River near Vancouver, Canada. The flight represents a milestone in the long process of reducing the aviation industry’s emissions and costs by electrifying short-to-medium distance commercial flying.

Several hundred people crowded the river bank on Tuesday morning to witness what they hoped would be a historic moment. They were not disappointed. Among cheers, the battery-powered Harbour Air seaplane lifted off into the sky. The plane flew a short round-trip downriver before landing five minutes later.

“It was magical. It was much quieter than I had expected it to be,” said Nicki Malcom, one witness from Auburn, Washington. “It’s definitely the future,” said Chip Jamison, who came from Portland to see the electric plane he produced parts for. “You can see it with automobiles. Planes are next. It’s right in front of us.”

The test pilot was the only person on board the six-passenger DHC-2 de Havilland Beaver. He was the CEO and founder of Habour Air, Greg McDougall. McDougall’s seaplane airline teamed up with a Redmond, Washington-based electric motor maker named MagniX to transform the classic de Havilland Beaver plane. MagniX CEO Roei Ganzarski sees the seaplane’s first flight as a milestone, similar to the first jet takeoff.

“Today you witnessed the first shot of the electric aviation revolution,” Ganzarski told the two companies’ staff, contractors, media and other celebrators. “Let’s start the revolution.” Ganzarski laid out a case for how battery-powered flight offers lower noise, zero pollution and could reduce fuel and maintenance costs. “Lower operating costs for airlines like Harbour Air will mean lower ticket prices for all of you,” he said. “Lower operating costs mean they can now fly to more destinations that we couldn’t fly to before.”

It will be some time before regular folks can book a ticket on a clean, electric seaplane.