1 . Choosing a hotel, restaurant or new product can be a difficult task. There’s so much on offer, and making a mistake can be expensive. This is why many people turn to online reviews—opinions and information written by people who have used a service or bought a product. But can we trust them?

About 70% of Americans say they believe online user reviews. According to experts, this is because when we read a review by another consumer, we feel like we’re getting a personal recommendation from a friend. But a recent study shows that about one third of online reviews are fake. Apparently, companies are so desperate for good reviews that they’ve started to “play” the system. So, how do they do it?

One trick is to give positive reviews to your own product or service. Best-selling writer RJ Ellory was recently caught writing 5- starreviewso fhisownbooksonAmazon.com. Using a pen name, he called one of his books a “modern masterpiece (杰作)” and said another would “touch people’s hearts”. RJ also wrote negative reviews of his competitors’ books.

Another trick is to “buy” good reviews. Last year, the Cove Hotel in Cornwall was caught giving guests discounts if they wrote “honest but positive” reviews on TripAdvisor. The trick worked—one guest called The Cove “a dream comes true”. Some people are even making a living by writing favourable reviews. In 2010, American Todd Rutherford started GettingBookReviews.com. For $99, Todd would write a positive review of your book on Amazon.com; and for $999, he’d write 50 reviews.

So, how can you tell a fake review? First, if the reviewer uses lots of highly positive language, it’s probably fake, Secondly, if the review reads like an advertisement, it probably is an ad. And finally, if the review is negative but also speaks highly of a competitor, it might have been written by that competitor.

2 . As far as fantastic drives go, few can compete with Highway 395. Here’s what you need to know before starting a road trip along it.

▲ What to Know About Driving on Highway 395

Highway 395 begins in Hesperia, a city about 90 minutes east of Los Angeles. It then continues for 1,300 miles until its end point at the Canadian border (边界). While the entire drive is beautiful, its most famous section runs from the Los Angeles area up to Reno, Nevada.

▲ Where to Stop Along Highway 395

CONVICT LAKE

Convict Lake, one of California’s clearest bodies of water, is a beloved destination for photographers. During your drive, you can pull over for a photo, or quickly hop on a boat and cast a fishing line to see what you can catch.

MAMMOTH MOUNTAINM

Just around the corner, you’ll find Mammoth Mountain, one of America’s best ski destinations. Mammoth is renowned for its extended ski season, often lasting until July, and offers excellent terrain (地形) for all skill levels.

YOSEMITE NATIONAL PARK

During your drive, pay n visit to Yosemite National Park, a UNESCO World Heritage site. Here, you can watch climbers make their way up Half Dome, feel the power of Yosemite Falls, and enjoy the beauty of Tuolumne Meadows.

▲ When to Drive on Highway 395

Because many attractive places along Highway 395 are all-season destinations, there’s really no wrong time to depart on this road trip. However, it’s important to remember the road can get rather dangerous in winter. Check the highway website before leaving to ensure you’re aware of the conditions.

3 . Travel with us to the heart of Fiordland National Park and take in the beauty and vastness of remote Doubtful Sound on our Wilderness Cruise (乘船游览). It will take your breath away as you experience its deep wilderness.

There’s no direct road access, so you’ll start with a boat ride across the picturesque Lake Manapouri , followed by a coach (大巴) trip over the epic Wilmot Pass through Fiordland’s rain forest and into the Sound. Along the way, you’ll pause to experience the dense Fiordland rainforest and view Doubtful Sound glistening below. The isolation makes this field a very special place. Only those in the know get to see it. In Doubtful Sound, you’ll board our spacious, purpose-built ship Patea Explorer for a 3-hour cruise.

Non-slip shoes/boots, waterproof jackets, warm sweaters, sunscreen, sunglasses, insect repellent and cameras.

5 . Each year, the discovery of new shark species underlines how little we know about ocean biodiversity. In a recent report conducted by Sibert and Rubin, they reported an unexpected finding: a large-scale extinction of sharks in the pelagic ocean, the largest ecosystem on Earth, about 19 million years ago. Their discovery suggests that some extinctions in the open sea of the past may have been mysterious.

The study of Sibert and Rubin takes advantage of a system by using tiny, hard bits of shark skin and bony fish teeth that naturally fall from their bodies to the seafloor. These extremely small fossils provide a rich record of ancient oceanic sharks and their abundance for thousands of years. By studying fossils from many regions, the diversity patterns can give major insights into evolution (进化) of the open sea that would be otherwise unknown.

Sibert and Rubin quantified(量化)a past extinction of sharks, reporting a 90% decline in number and >70% drop in diversity. They found that nearer-shore sharks appear to survive, but migratory ones go extinct. The finding of this study is that sharks had undergone a widespread extinction that reorganized their communities from 16 million to 20 million years ago.

Sibert and Rubin narrowed the disappearance of sharks to a window of time under 100,000 years around 19 million years ago, but the causes of this event remain unclear. Because this time period does not stand out as a period of major climatic change, the authors do not attribute(归因于) environmental factors as an extinction driver. As for other causes, the loss of shark diversity is directly linked to overfishing.

The loss of sharks from the oceans has profound, complex, and unavoidable ecological consequences because their presence reflects the stability of marine ecosystems. Yet, one-quarter of the global diversity of sharks is currently threatened with extinction. Despite recent improvements in conservation actions, shark communities never recovered from a mysterious extinction event 19 million years ago; the ecological fate of what remains is now in our hands.

6 . Torbjorn Pedersen is a Danish traveler who recently finished a trip around the world. But this wasn’t just any trip. Mr. Pedersen spent nearly 10 years ________ every country in the world.

As he began to plan his trip, he made a few ________: no flying, no visiting home, and spend at least 24 hours in every ________ . He hoped that he could ________ about $20 a day, and finish his trip in about four years.

It took him far longer. The first part of his trip was pretty easy. He ________ across Europe and North America, where his biggest ________ was not spending too much money. But as he ________ on to other parts of the world, things began to get much ________ . Mr. Pedersen says he had many difficult experiences. He was once ________at gunpoint and thought he might be killed. He also became ________ ill with malaria（疟疾）.

But he also had many good ________. Mr. Pedersen says that one reason he didn’t ________ was the help he got from people all over the world. “You might have to try 1,000 closed doors,” he says, “But there is always a（an）________ door somewhere. Never, ever give up.”

On July 26, 2023 Mr. Pedersen arrived back in Denmark after a 33-day boat ride. He was ________by about 150 people, including friends and family members. Mr. Pedersen says he plans to write a book and ________ what he learned in his travels around the world.

7 . A young man called Jerry King attended a show in his hometown of Tampa, Florida in 1918 and was deeply impressed by the unicyclists (独轮车手).     1    . It would take another 40 years for the dream to come true when he formed The Charles Riders, known today as The King Charles Troupe (剧团), a group of young African American kids who performed unbelievable basketball skills while riding unicycles.

Mr. King first taught his 6-year-old son Charles how to ride unicycle in the hallway of their house. When the weather turned nice they moved outside to the local park where Charles showed his skills to the other kids in the neighborhood.     2    .

In 1958, with the purpose of getting more people in the community involved, Jerry King started a unicycle club. The club, based out of the South Bronx, was made up of 100 kids, and Mr Jerry used it as an opportunity to build their character.     3    .

The first try of the troupe took place in 1961 on a sidewalk outside Madison Square Garden.     4    . A producer named Irving Feld, from Barnum and Bailey Circus, sensed immediately that the raw energy of these young athletes could be shaped into a high-quality production. The King Charles Troupe made its first public performance one year later, and thereafter began their road into the spotlight.

Now, on its 5th generation, the troupe has performed to over 100 million fans. “    5    . We’ve had difficult times, but they’ve only deepened our faith in those ideals.” said Harrison, one member of the troupe.

8 . Working for a big company in London on a salary (薪水)of over £100,000, you might expect Grayden Reece-Smith to have a luxurious (奢侈)lifestyle, going on expensive holidays or driving a sports car around south London, where he lives. In fact, the 28-year-old lives a very different existence from his colleagues. He gives away everything he earns over £42,000–a figure that he thought he could comfortably live on.

Over the past five years, Reece-Smith has handed over more than £250,000 to organizations such as International Care Ministries, which helps poor families in the Philippines, and the Against Malaria Foundation. He is part of a growing number of young professionals described as “effective altruists”. Effective altruists typically donate regularly to a charity which they think will have a great impact (影响). Some change careers to make more money, which can then be given away.

Reece-Smith considered working in the charity sector after graduating from university, but thought that he could make a bigger difference by donating a large part of his salary. He had volunteered as a teacher at a school in Tanzania, but then realized that earning and giving would be more effective. “The cost of my flights there could have paid the salaries of two teachers for an entire year,” he says. Instead, he could “stay at home, living a nice life and still make a huge difference in the world”.

He is not mean with money-last year he went to Cuba on holiday, and spent several thousand pounds on a new sofa. But his lifestyle isn’t as luxurious as some of the people he works with. “I usually don’t buy supermarket-branded food products, but I don’t own a car. Other people on my salary might have a bigger house. Some of my colleagues have four-bedroom houses, but we only bought what we needed-a two-bedroom flat.£42,000 is more than enough to live on and still save,” he says.

9 . Fly like superman!

Have you ever imagined how it feels when fresh air is in your face? Or to see the beauty of nature from the top? You can do it in a hot air balloon ride.

Hot air ballooning is the activity of flying in a basket hanging over a hot air balloon. Attractive parts of ballooning include the unusual quiet, the lack of a feeling of movement, and the bird’s-eye view. Since the balloon moves with the direction of the winds, the passengers feel absolutely no wind, except for brief periods during the flight when the balloon climbs or falls into air currents of different directions or speeds. Hot air ballooning has been recognized by the World Aeronautical Federation(WAF)as the safest air sport, and accidents seldom happen. However, you must follow some rules such as:

There are many regular (定期) gatherings of balloons and balloonists in Hidalgo around the year, which provide both a place for balloonists to interact as well as a place for visitors to entertain. You must try this activity at least once in a lifetime.

For adults who celebrate Chinese Lunar New Year, it’s a time for tying up loose ends, and     1     (look) to the year ahead. But for the younger generation, myself     2     (include), there’s only one thing on our minds: the Tray of Togetherness.

For those who haven’t had the     3     (please) of fighting with their brothers or sisters over the last White Rabbit sweet, the Tray of Togetherness is a platter (大浅盘), each compartment (分格) holding an array of candies, fruits, nuts, and coins. It     4     (be) a part of Chinese New Year celebrations for centuries.    5     (tradition), the tray is made of wood, and on the inside it is divided     6     six or eight compartments to indicate fortune, because these are lucky Chinese numbers.

Each item in the tray has     7     (it) own special symbolic meaning. If you pick melon seeds, for example, you’ll be granted with wealth and happiness. Candied melon indicates good health and growth, coconut brings happy friendships and unity,    8     nuts represent a long life with strong family ties.

Of course, the Tray of Togetherness is about more than just the sweets     9     it contains. In some regions of China, the platters     10     (bring) out for marriages and other festivities, thanks to their ability to well bring people together.