1 . Your Garden Escape

Even in the big city you can find oases (绿洲) of calm and beauty. From a royal palace to a classical garden, we recommend great green spaces to escape the hustle and bustle of London.

Horniman Gardens

Horniman Gardens cover 16 acres with breathtaking views of London. Visitors can enjoy the Sound Garden, Meadow Field, and even a Prehistoric Garden, which features a display of “living fossils.” The gardens are very popular with families, and dogs can be let off their leads in the Meadow Field.

Chiswick Garden

As a classical garden landscape in London, it was here that the English Landscape Movement was born with William Kent’s designs. Enjoy fresh bread, seasonal food, and natural wines in the award-winning cafe, while admiring the beauty of the naturalistic landscape, spotted with impressive art and statues.

Buckingham Palace Garden

The 39-acre garden boasts more than 350 types of wildflowers, over 200 trees and a three-acre lake. The garden also provides a habitat for native birds rarely seen in London. A tour of the garden can be completed by having a cream tea in the cafe overlooking the Palace’s famous grassland and lake.

Kew Garden

The Royal Botanic Garden at Kew is one of the world’s most famous gardens and a UNESCO World Heritage Site. Have a walk through the vast garden, spot local wildlife at the lake, or get your hands dirty by trying a gardening lesson. Be sure to visit the Temperate House, which contains some of the rarest and most threatened plants.

8 . English is full of funny expressions that don’t always make sense. Idioms are phrases and sentences that do not mean exactly what they say. Even if you know the meaning of each word, you may not understand the idiom because you don’t understand the culture behind it. Here are some English idioms based on animals.

When children jump around and act silly, their parents may tell them to stop “monkeying around”.To “monkey around” means to do things that are not useful or serious, or to simply waste time.

Many American families have and love pet dogs. But for some unknown reason, Americans use “dog” in a phrase that means to feel unwell. If you are “as sick as a dog”, you’re really, really sick.

Sometimes you may also hear cats mentioned in conversations, “I told you to keep that secret, but you have just ‘let the cat out of the bag’!” You probably guessed it — that idiom means to reveal a secret or tell facts that were previously unknown.

Dogs and cats don’t always get along, but they appear side by side in a commonly used idiom. When it rains heavily, people might say it’s “raining cats and dogs”．

Heavy rain often ruins people’s plans for outdoor activities. But on a lovely day, you can have a picnic. If a swarm (一群) of tiny bugs love your food and start to hover (盘旋) around you, it would be really annoying. That experience perfectly explains why people often tell someone who keeps bothering them to “stop bugging me”．

Idioms are very common in both spoken and written English. If you want to have a better understanding of English, you have to learn idioms.

9 . Every day, millions of people surf the Internet, and there are countless websites for them to visit. Here are four popular websites for online users.

https://www. cracked. com

If you’re old enough, you might remember Cracked, the monthly magazine that was founded in 1958. Although the magazine is no longer printed, the website hutps://uwww. crached. com is still alive. The content(内容)of Cracked is humorous and tries to tell readers something new and unexpected.

https://www. buzzfeed. com

Are you looking for links to big news on the Internet? Look no further than hutps://www. buzafeed. com. Each day the website offers the latest stories and pictures that are crazily spread. BuzzFeed covers different topics and its articles are written by staff members, site users, and partner sites like The Huffington Post and The Daily Beast.

https://www. reddit. com

Reddit calls itself“the front page of the Internet”, and that is exactly what it is. Just as many people used to read the newspaper while eating breakfast, one to two million Internet users read Reddit every morning to get their daily news. The content of this website comes entirely from the public, with users uploading(上传) videos, links, stories, pictures, etc.

https://imgur. com

Do you know many of the funny pictures, GIFs and emojis(表情符号) that hit your Facebook come from Imgur? It’s a free website where users upload 1. 5 million pictures each day. Imgur users are especially fond of pictures of cute animals and beautiful natural wonders. And it is free to read and use. You can download any photo you like.

10 . Christmas is a time for eating great food, giving and receiving presents, and most importantly spending time with your family watching some classic Christmas movies.

The Grinch (2000)

This is a Christmas must-watch and one of Jim Carrey’s best performances. It was also originally a nursery tale book written by Dr Seuss. It’s the story of a green monster who wants to ruin Christmas but in the end discovers the power of love and generosity. I promise it’s a great film with plenty of laughs along the way.

Love Actually (2003)

While this is not a personal favourite of mine, people in the UK absolutely love this film. It has many featuring actors and actresses. It might be a little difficult to follow as there are complex plots, so I recommend watching a translated version. However, the heart-warming elements of the film make it worth watching.

Home Alone (1990)

This amusing masterwork is one of my favourite films of all time. It tells the story of a boy, Kevin, who is left alone in his house when his large family forgets to take him on vacation with them. While other family members are away, burglars try to rob the house and Kevin must protect his home by setting traps. The trips, falls and traps will have you laughing out loud as you watch an 8-year-oldboy beat two grown men.

Miracle on 34th Street (1994)

You can’t have Christmas in an English-speaking country without watching this movie. It’s not funny like Home Alone or The Grinch, but it is incredibly touching. It’s about a man who claims to be Santa, but nobody believes him except a lawyer and a little girl. The storyline may seem a little childish but you can enjoy it at any age.