1 . Mahanakhon SkyWalk is one of the best attractions at the heart of Bangkok, combining wonderful views with an unmatched guest experience.

Mahanakhon SkyWalk facilities include:

1st Floor: In the Lobby (大厅) are the Main Entrance and Mahanakhon SkvWalk Ticket Counter (柜台). It conveniently linked to the elevator (电梯) lobby through a Bangkok-themed digital corridor. Feel the excitement of Thailand’s fastest elevators that are capable of reaching the 74th floor in just 50 seconds.

74th Floor: The Indoor Observation Deck affords 360-degree panoramic views of landmark destinations around Bangkok. It comes complete with interactive windows and Augmented Reality (AR) screen experience to capture and send postcards to loved ones direct from Thailand’s highest mailbox!

75th Floor: The Mezzanine offers restroom facilities and access to the glass elevator lobby.

78th Floor: The Rooftop and Outdoor Observation Deck comes alive with the excitement of “The Glass Tray”, a floor space that sits 310 meters from the ground. The viewing deck ranks among the world’s largest glass floors. Take your time as you take in the awe-inspiring view of the city skyline. It’s home to the highest rooftop bar with plenty of drinks and cocktails.

2 . The backfire effect is a very strong, psychological aspect in all of our minds. Due to this effect, whenever you are faced with information and facts that contradict something you believe, instead of changing your view or forming a new opinion, your original beliefs will often be strengthened. Yon will believe in your previously formed opinion even more vigorously (坚定地), despite seeing hard proof.

For example, remember that classmate you formed an opinion about too fast? And even though everything they did suggested otherwise, you didn’t want to believe you were wrong about them, so you convinced yourself that you weren’t wrong.

You found reasons, dwelt on minor things, and ignored the facts that contradicted your opinion. With all of this struggle, you believed that your opinion didn’t have to change. The huge amount of thought you gave it only strengthened your original opinion about your classmate.

The backfire effect is very powerful and a part of the mechanism of our minds as humans. We can’t get rid of it, but we can make ourselves more aware of it. Being aware that you may be straining your logic only to preserve your beliefs will cause you to keep your mind more open, allowing you to definitely change and learn much faster.

Arguments can be approached in better ways when you are aware of the backfire effect. Apart from being aware of it, you can keep your own mind open. You shouldn’t state facts that counter (反驳) the opposing person’s opinion. Instead, you should ask them questions that will make them question what they believe.

The Internet revolution has provided the ability to argue with people across the globe, even if you’ve never met them. Heated arguments you might have witnessed (or participated in) on the Internet between two people going back and forth about a very emotional issue will usually end in very raised tempers and no conclusions. This is because each side is really just strengthening the other side’s original opinion.

In my opinion, it is critically important to be aware of the backfire effect, because of how much it helps us grow. We can change and learn much faster if we allow our ideas of the world to be flexible, and not be so certain that our beliefs are superior.

The animated film Chang An is making history as a dark horse during China’s bustling summer movie-going season by     1     (take) in as much as 600 million yuan at the Chinese mainland box office and exciting the feelings of poetic romance in the hearts of moviegoers.

Sitting in the cinemas crowded     2     moviegoers of all age groups, the audience eagerly recited poetry alongside the main characters on screen as they headed down memory lane with a famous poet from the Tang Dynasty (618-907).

The story of the deep friendship between poet Gao Shi and the master of romantic poetry Li Bai     3     (offer) a glimpse into the star-studded history of the Tang era,     4     is often seen as a golden age in Chinese history due to     5     (it) economic prosperity and cultural integration and advancement.

As the unique charm and soul of the movie, 48 Tang poems help audiences travel from the     6     (sand) desert frontier to the mist-filled regions south of the Yangtze River. The movie is     7     (undoubted) a masterpiece showing the characteristics of Chinese culture to the world. These poems describe both the historical changes of a dynasty     8     people’ understanding and perception of the world. While older moviegoers may be familiar with the poems     9     (describe) in the movie, younger audiences get to enter a new and unique world through the movie, re-discovering and appreciating the essence and charm of Chinese culture.

The success of Chang An lies not only in its artistic expression, but also in its     10     (create) way of respecting and inheriting traditional culture.

Different sports filled my days in my youth. I dreamed or a big win some day, with a big trophy (奖杯). I was skillful and fast, or so I thought. However, I soon learned my skills seemed quite weak because the bigger, stronger boys seemed to occupy every corner of the playground. Once I was in the 100-yard hurdles, the only recognition I received for my performance was two bloody knees.

In college, I took a swim competition, dreaming of the glory! It turned out I achieved nothing. As an older adult, I still maintained an active lifestyle. In 2010 I signed up for a stair-climbing challenge to raise money for fighting against lung cancer. My father had died of the same disease, so this was a meaningful cause for me. Then, in 2019,the organization offered an even more challenging climb option: the vertical (垂直的) mile. So I would have three hours to climb up and down twenty-eight floors fifteen times, plus three more.

I trained hard. When the challenge started. I felt confident. But soon my legs started feeling heavy. What was worse, I began experiencing leg cramps (抽筋). My progress slowed dramatically and I quickly fell behind. When came down after finishing lap 14, it was past the time limit, so my big win had escaped once again.

Soon after the climb, I struggled to experience the sense of self-satisfaction. And I had, after all, set a goal for myself to prove what I was made of, what I had inside me. And what I had inside me was, “Nice try, but you didn’t make it.” So, a year later, at age 62 and after numerous workouts, I was back. Like last year, I was well ahead after an hour and I again started feeling some discomfort in my legs. I heard myself cry out loud, “Oh, no not again!” I finally stopped and sat down on the stairs, feeling quite depressed and wondering if my dream was over. A few climbers stopped to offer help. I was touched, but embarrassed to accept. Except for one climber. An angel climber, really.

Jessica, who I happened to know, was a salesman’s friend when I bought new running shoes at his store. And without that connection, she might have climbed past me as I sat on those steps, my legs shaking. But all those things did happen, and Jessica stopped to help.

When she saw I was cramping, she offered me some sports drinks containing electrolytes (电解质).

The cramps in my legs finally started to go away.

5 . From the roar of a crowd to the quiet of a library, sound and silence might seem like polar opposites. However, according to a new research, our brains perceive them in the same way. Silence may not be a sound, but scientists say we can truly hear it.

In this new study, researchers examined how people experience silence using well-known auditory illusions (错觉). The illusions are meant to test the perception of noise, but for the study, the team adapted them to measure people’s response to silence, instead.

“If you can get the same illusions with silences as you get with sounds, then that may be obvious that we literally hear silence after all.” Chaz Firestone, a co-author of the study and cognitive scientist at Johns Hopkins University, says in a statement.

In the study, participants were tricked by these “silence illusions” in a similar way to how people are typically fooled by the sound versions of the experiments.

The researchers prepared seven experiments and tested them on 1,000 study participants. In one experiment, researchers played a recording that sounded like background noise in a crowded place. In the first half of the recording, the background noise was interrupted by two separate periods of silence. In the second half, one continuous period of silence was inserted (嵌入). Researchers asked participants which silence felt longer- the combination of the first two periods of silence, or the second uninterrupted one. Most participants thought the continuous silence was longer, but it was actually the same length as the two shorter silences combined.

These results were consistent with previous research that examined auditory illusions, which used two separate sounds and one continuous sound. With that illusion, people also perceived the continuous sound as longer than the two separate ones together.

Similar findings across the seven experiments suggested that humans experience silence and sound in much the same way: They can distort (扭曲) our perception of time.

China has the     1     (large) network of high-speed railways in the world. As of 2022 it encompassed(包含) over 40, 000 kilometres (25, 000 miles) of high-speed rail or over two-thirds     2     the world’s total. It is also the world’s busiest with an annual ridership of over 1.44 billion in 2016     3     2.01 billion in 2018 more than 60% of total passenger rail volume. By the end of 2018, the cumulative(累计的)number of passengers     4     (deliver) by high-speed railway trains was reported     5     (be)over 9 billion. According to Railway Gazette International, select trains from Beijing South to Nanjing South on the Beijing-Shanghai high-speed railway have the highest average operating speed at 317. 7 km/h as of July 2019.

The improved     6     (mobile)and interconnectivity created by these new high-speed rail lines have generated     7     entirely new high-speed commuter(通勤者)market around some urban     8     (area). For example, commutes via(通过) high-speed rail between Beijing and     9     (surround) cities have become     10     (increase)common.

9 . A woman who has struggled to come to terms with her alopecia (脱发) since she was a teenager is now working as a ______.

“I first noticed it when I was standing in the mirror trying to ______ my hair in a ponytail (马尾辫) and saw a small patch with no ______ close to my forehead,” Hansson, 26, said, “I was young at the time so I was mostly ______ that it was cancer since that’s ______ the first thing you think of when you see hair loss.”

After her diagnosis, only Hansson’s closest friends and ______ knew about her condition as she tried to keep it a secret and ______ that she became “good at hiding it”. However, as she got older, Hansson learned to accept her aesthetic (美感) and says that she is now ______ going out in public without wearing a wig. In fact, she has even ______ a career in modelling, “Now I feel like I can be ______ and that I don’t need to ______ it anymore,” she explains.

Hansson ______ not accepting her alopecia sooner, and she says that she is now happy doing what she loves and ______ other sufferers to do the same. “Don’t hide,” she said. “It will only make you feel ______. A big stone of suffering will ______ your body if you can just be yourself.”

10 . 3D-Printed Violins

While professional violinists often have instruments that cost between $2000 and $10, 000, it is possible to have one that costs millions depending on how they were and who made them.     1     This can make it hard for many to access the instrument, especially for beginners and music classrooms.

However, the good news for them is that they will meet with low-cost and durable (耐用的) 3D-printed violins thanks to The Acoustical Society of America’s AVIVA Young Artists Program. The team’s inspiration roots in multiple places. Their goals were to explore the new world of sounds created by using new materials, to use the new technology of other fields, and to make music education accessible through the printing of more durable instruments.     2     The method of distribution has yet to be decided — it could involve shipping fully printed violins, sharing the 3D-printing files with makers, or a combination of both.

    3     The neck and fingerboard are printed in smooth ABS plastic to provide a comfortable grasp for the musicians, while the violin’s body is made of a plastic polymer substance, much like a typical acoustic (原声的) violin. The outcome is a violin that sounds darker and softer than traditionally built violins.     4    

“The next step is to lower the costs of production for making such instruments more widely available, especially in the field of education,” said Mary-Elizabeth Brown, director of the AVIVA Young Artists Program. Violins are not the only instruments that are produced through 3D-printing technology.     5     Effective results have been obtained from many of them.