2 . Enter for a Chance to Win a Montana Adventure

Imagine yourself hiking on the same route that Lewis and Clark once explored, fly-fishing and white-water rafting in beautiful lakes and rivers, learning how to speak Blackfoot, digging for ancient dinosaur remains, and standing at the edge of a 6,000-year-old glacier in Glacier National Park. You have the chance to do all of this and much more with the National Geographic Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge Expedition Team. The Hands-On Explorer Challenge is heading west in 2022 to Montana.

Montana is home to many species of plants and animals. Follow in the footsteps of legendary explorers and get a close-up view of waterfalls, wildflowers, and wildlife.

Some of the most important dinosaur discoveries have been found in Montana. You’ll discover treasures yourself as you dig for ancient dinosaur remains in Montana’s High Plains.

Montana has eleven Native American tribes ― each one filled with a unique heritage and lots of rich traditions. View the world as they see it through their dances, songs, food, games, and languages.

1. Write an original, personal essay in English of no more than 300 words telling us how you explore your world and what it is about exploration that inspires and excites you.

2. Take a photograph of what, where, or how you explored the subject of your essay.

3. Enter by January 7, 2022. Open to kids who will be ages 9 — 14 as of July 1, 2022.

4. Send your entry (参赛) form, essay, and photo (as described in the Official Rules) to: NG Kids Hands-On Explorer Challenge, National Geographic Kids magazine /CDH, 1145 17th Street NW, Washington, D.C. 20036.

FOR MORE INFORMATION, GO TO KIDS. NATIONALGEOGRAPHIC. COM/KIDS/CONTESTS/EXPLORER - TRIP-2022.

5 . A car weighing only a few hundred pounds, can travel 500 miles per hour, repair itself and cost less than other cars. It might be hard to imagine such a cat, let alone a spaceship. But NASA is trying to make a spaceship that is much better than other ships.

The spacecraft has to be as light as it can be. Weight costs money! A new discovery might allow spacecraft to be lighter. A new material called a "carbon nanotube（碳纳米管）" might be the answer to the weight problem of building a super spaceship. This material is 600 times stronger than steel.

One of the big problems with space travel is space radiation （辐射）.In space, astronauts need protection against harmful rays. You might think that the metal on a spaceship is the answer. But, metals are the worst for protecting against very dangerous space rays. These rays are made of little pieces called ions （离子）.When the ions hit metals at very high speed, they can break an atom and cause another type of ray to form. These new rays can be worse than the radiation the metal skins were supposed to stop. Thus, it is very important to block these rays.

But we could use carbon nanotubes to make the skins of spacecraft. Things that are light in weight seem to work the best against these ions. The rays are stopped outside the spacecraft and new rays aren't made.

In addition, our super spaceship needs to be able to repair itself. Humans can feel the smallest pinpricks （针刺）because of tiny sensors that send signals to our brains. Tiny sensors like ours could be built in the new ships. Each sensor could send messages to the computer “brain" of the spacecraft. If something needed to be fixed, the computer could tell the ship to do it.

Just as amazing as a car would be to someone 200 years ago, our nanotube spaceship might seem to us. We might actually make the spacecraft of tomorrow, using the technology of today.

6 . Maybe in the near future, driverless cars may become common on the roads. Driverless cars have already been test-driven thousands of miles.     1     For instance, it helps reduce the number of accidents and traffic jams.

    2     That is because there are many issues that must be solved before the widespread use of them. One problem is that a driverless car cannot predict problems far down the road like a driver can. The driverless cars react to an emergency only when it actually occurs. For instance, a driver starts to slow down when he sees a child riding her skateboard directly into the road 0.2 km away.     3    

Driverless cars are not suitable for extreme weather conditions.     4     They don't predict or "feel" that the roads have become icy like an experienced driver would. For instance, when a road is icy, a human driver would step on the brakes more gently than when the roads are clean and dry.

Another issue is that driverless cars have maps programmed into their memory, but these maps aren't always updated and accurate. New roads are built, and old roads are closed down.     5     Perhaps one day, driverless cars will be everywhere, but we are not ready for that just yet.

7 . The shadow play is a typical traditional entertainment that has survived and thrived over the centuries. It is taken as an earliest ancestor of modern cinema.

Legend has it that more than 2,000 years ago, Emperor Wu of Han was very depressed about the death of his favorite concubine (妃子). To help him get over his sadness, a minister made a puppet out of cotton and silk in the likeness of the concubine and projected its shadow on a curtain for the emperor to see. The show brought the emperor some comfort. He somehow believed the shadow was his lover's spirit. This is thought to be the beginning of the shadow play.

One mouth tells stories of thousands of years; a pair of hands operate millions of soldiers. This is how the shadow puppeteer works. Nicknamed “the business of the five”, a shadow play group is made up of five people. One operates the puppets, one plays a suona and a yueqin, one plays the banhu, one is in charge of percussion instruments (打击乐器), and one sings.

During performances, “actors” are held close to a white curtain with their colored shadows cast on it by a strong light from behind. The operator plays five puppets at the same time, each of which has three threads. Ten fingers handle fifteen threads. Moved by guiding sticks, the puppets play roles with musical accompaniment, The popularity of the shadow play in some way lies in the equipment being light and easy to carry, the small number of people needed for a performance, and the flexible requirements for performance places. The plays can be quite dramatic and, when it comes to myths or kung fu stories, the “actors” may be made to ride on clouds or perform unusual feats, to the great enjoyment of the audience, especially children. The audience can tell a figure's character by seeing his mask. Like the masks in Beijing opera, a red mask represents loyalty and bravery.

Nowadays, the shadow play has been industrialized and developed a series of tourist products for the promotion of Chinese culture and tourism.

8 . A few years ago, my father arranged to send me a mail-order fruitcake at Christmas time. Although I had a good job and apartment in Manhattan, he feared my cupboards might be bare. I had recently moved from California, where my parents still lived in their suburban bungalow (平房) of 50 years, the house I grew up in.

He wanted me to have a particular brand of fruitcake. A fruitcake, in his mind, was a perfect Christmas gift. Made in Texas, it was famous among fruitcake lovers — or at least, among people who gave fruitcake to those who were assumed to love them.

I knew there would be plenty to eat in California. For each Christmas, in addition to my mother’s cookies, fudge (乳脂软糖), and other treats, my father always gave my sister and me each a large bag of assorted foods he called, rather plainly, the “Food Bag”. One year, I secretly listed the contents of my Food Bag in a notebook for the day when I might not get a Food Bag for Christmas. That year, my bag contained a can of mixed nuts, a box of whole-wheat crackers, a Belgian chocolate bar, some English breakfast tea ₉and many other items.

I was 44 when my father gave me that Food Bag, and he was 72.

That day before my flight to California, the fruitcake still hadn’t arrived. When my father called to wish me a safe trip and he said “Did you receive it?”

“Not yet,” I said. “Maybe it will be there today.” He regretted deeply about the lost fruitcake.

He remained hopefully the fruitcake would come by New Year’s Eve. But January, February and March came and went with no fruitcake. Though my father continued to ask about it. I never considered lying. Instead, I would say, “That cake is orbiting earth and sooner or later will land.”

As time went by, he would bring up the journey of his fruitcake. “I wonder where it is now.” he’d say.       

Early last December, nearly a year after my father died, I got a call from a staffer of my apartment building, “You have a package.”

I went downstairs to pick it up. The brown box had a FedEx label with a return address in Texas.

9 . Welcome to Tropical North Queensland—the only place in the world where the Great Barrier Reef meets World-Heritage-listed rainforest. Home to two World Heritage-listed natural wonders—the grand Great Barrier Reef and the ancient Daintree Rainforest. Tropical (热带的) North Queensland is famous for having some of most specific natural attractions on earth.

Stretching 2000km and holding more than 3000 reefs (礁石) and corals (珊瑚), the Great Barrier Reef is one of the world’s most popular holiday destinations.

No matter your age or ability, you can easily explore the reef by taking a glass-bottom boat trip, scuba diving (水肺潜水), trying an ocean walk or flying overhead in a helicopter or plane.

There are also numerous ways to experience the beauty of the planet’s oldest tropical rainforest without having an impact on its clean environment, thanks to a huge range of eco-friendly options. While exploring these sites is on every visitor’s must-do list, there also are countless other exciting discoveries to be made in this wonderful sun-kissed corner of Australia.

Keep this important information on hand during your holiday.

Emergency

Police and fire services Ph: 000

Cairns Police Ph: +617 4030 7000

Cairns 24 Hour Medical Centre Ph: 617 4052 1119

Bank & shopping hours

Most banks are open from 9 am to 4 pm weekdays.

Major shopping centres are open 9 am-5 pm Monday to Saturday (with extended shopping until 9 pm on Thursday) and 10 am-4 pm Sunday.

Transportation

Sunbus, a local bus service, runs from the northern beaches to the southern suburbs through the Cairns CBD.

Visit www.sunbus.com.au or Ph: +617 4057 7411.

Cars, recreational vehicles, four-wheel drives, and bicycles are available for hire.

Visit www.transportation.com.au or Ph: +617 131 008.

10 . First and foremost, “The Great Salmon Run (鲑鱼洄游)” looks amazing. It is beautifully filmed, done in completely natural and sometimes friendly way and never looking still. The editing is always brief and smooth and the scenery is pure magic. A wide diversity of the different landscapes are included rather than just one habitat. The music fits very well, beautiful and appropriate.

Again, like so many Attenborough’s nature/wildlife documentaries, “The Great Salmon Run” fascinates, teaches, moves, entertains and attracts. In terms of the facts there is a very good mix of the known ones and the unknown. Some facts are familiar to us while some are going into details about the different animals, their challenges and some truly amazing wildlife events in their struggles for survival and interaction with other animals whether prey (猎物) or predator (捕食者).

Certainly the salmon are a thing of beauty but the brown bears similarly have impressive moments as well. It may not be novel territory for Attenborough, but animals are what one can’t get enough of. Besides, there is so much freshness to the material that it won’t make one feel going round in circles but absorbed.

Narration (解说) by Attenborough helps significantly. He clearly knows his stuff and knows what to say and how to say it. He delivers it with his usual richness, soft-spoken enthusiasm and sincerity, never talking down to the viewer and keeping them wanting to know more. Viewers care for what goes on in front of and behind the camera.

At no point does “The Great Salmon Run” ever feel like just a series of scenes. Instead, it feels like its own story and journey, with real, complex emotions and conflicts and animal characters, all of which are developed in a way a human character would in a film.

Overall, amazing.