【推荐1】Sophie Chen is a l4-year-old girl from Taiwan. Let's see her Silk Road bike journey. When she was 6 years old she did something amazing. She finished a 2100-kilometer bike journey from Xi'an to Turpan (a city in Xinjiang) with her parents. It took them two and a half months to finish the bike journey. Sophie became the youngest child in the world to bike along the Silk Road. The Chinese novel Journey to the West inspired (激励) her to do so.

Now Sophie studies at Ta Hwa High School. She sees the journey as a special experience in her life. She learned history and geography better because of it.

On the way, the local people that she met were all friendly and she saw amazing things too. She even picked grapes. She said the grapes were bigger and sweeter than those in Taiwan.

She said the biggest challenge(挑战) was the bad weather and road conditions. So far, Sophie has biked in other countries, such as the United States and Turkey. In this summer holiday, she plans to ride a bike from Greece to Portugal in Europe.

Visiting Lake Tahoe(塔霍湖) during winter is great fun. Here are the tips for you.

The first thing you should do is to bring more than three layers(层) of clothing. If you don’t, you’ll feel cold. You should also go skiing or snowboarding for the whole day. If you don’t, your trip to Tahoe will be a waste.

Otherwise, there is just baby stuff(东西) like sledding(滑雪橇), snowball fights, or tubing(滑雪圈). Would you want to do these for your stay at Tahoe?

Moreover, you should visit Tahoe for at least three days. If you don’t, what’s the point? You may have to drive three hours and all you get is a day of skiing and a day of playing in the snow. It would be a waste of time and money. But if you stay for at least three days(two nights), then at least you will enjoy two days of skiing and a day of playing in the snow.

However, here are some things you shouldn’t do at Lake Tahoe.

First, don’t drive on the highway(公路) when it’s snowing. The highway has much traffic and it will be boring to drive.

My second advice would be not to buy ski resort(度假村) food. Last time I tried a ski resort’s fish and chips, they tasted like cement(水泥). You can buy some snacks at Costco or some other supermarket near your hotel.

My last tip is to be careful when you ski by yourself. Though you know how to ski, you still may fall down, get hurt, or even die. Millions of people get hurt every year when skiing or snowboarding.

【推荐3】The Tower of Pisa is one of the most beautiful bell towers in Italy. It is not only beautiful, but also strange—it leans to one side. Today it is known as “the Leaning Tower of Pisa”.

The building of the tower began in 1173. It took nearly 200 years to complete. In 1178, when the building got to the third floor, it started to lean. The builders tried to make the tower straight again when they built the upper floors, but failed.

Over the years, the tower has continued to lean further. Experts have done a lot of studies and tried to “rescue” the tower. In 1990, it was closed to the public for safety reasons. After a lot of effort, it reopened in 2001. Hopefully it will be safe for at least the following 300 years.