1 . Who says you have to stay indoors when the temperatures drop? Here are favourite places to explore this winter.

Athens, Greece

In Athens, every November temperatures stay around the mid-20s, so have a trip to the Parthenon and Acropolis. A full afternoon is also necessary for exploring the Museum of Cycladic Art and its exhibitions — recently it has hosted Picasso’s.

In the streets of the Pysrri district is a hidden hole in the wall, from which one can go down to the basement restaurant, Diporto.

Huaraz, Peru

To some, Peru gives people images of students in printed shorts on a tour of Machu Picchu. There’s obviously so much more to do in the UNESCO World Heritage (遗产) site. Any hike through the surrounding Huascaran National Park will make you feel like you’ve stepped into The Lord of the Rings.

April and November are considered “shoulder season”, which means fewer clear days but you can enjoy the trails (路线) with fewer people.

Edinburgh, UK

Yes, it’s probably going to be freezing cold. Hot coffee steam up in a pleasing, romantic fashion in cafes. People can take a few minutes’ walk from the Scottish National Portrait Gallery.

For simple Scottish dishes there’s neighbourhood inn, the Little Chartroom. And the Sheep Heid Inn has been long enough to have served Mary, Queen of Scots. In the eight bedrooms at the 18th century Rock House, each is a mixture of ancient details and current fashion.

Valletta, Malta

Flights from the UK to Malta’s capital are only around £30, making it one of the best destinations for a November trip. This tiny city has a temperature of 17 or so and has changed itself into a year-round city break with artistic cafes, hotels and newly opened galleries — Muza opened last year and houses the former National Gallery collection.

2 . “What’s the story of your piano?” a friend asked over dinner. My piano just _________ in the corner of my living room. “It has a story?” I doubted.

“All pianos have stories,” she replied. Suddenly my piano’s story came _________ out of me as if I’d always had this tale to tell.

I’ve loved _________ since childhood. I started with the recorder and moved on to the violin and guitar. Playing the piano had always been my _________ which my family couldn’t afford. I grew up in a poor immigrant family in Toronto. My father _________ tables in a restaurant and my mother worked in a laundry. Though our childhood was _________, my brothers and I were always fed with     _________. I can’t remember which birthday it was when my mother _________ some money to buy me a doll. By then I’d outgrown wanting dolls but she worked too hard to know that and I never told her. I _________ accepted it.

So it was finally with my ____________. It was in my last year of high school. I took piano lessons for about a year before university forced me to ____________. I had to make a decision: to pursue（追求） a more ____________ goal of medical school or my love for music. The realist in me ____________ and I had to give up piano lessons ____________ as with my doll it was too late to learn to play the way I wanted. I ____________ the piano around with me over the next decade until my son was born. He showed an early ____________ in music so I put him in piano lessons. I played that piano through my son although guitar ____________ became his choice.

I gradually realized that I’d let all my pleasures ____________ for my job. I figured I’d get back to playing the piano when I retire. Maybe it’s time to get that piano tuned again before it’s too late to     ____________. Maybe that’s something we should do right now.

Sometimes a ____________ question can open a path of thinking and discovery. So what’s the story of your piano?

3 . Author Walter Dean Myers died at the age of 76 after a brief illness. Walter Dean Myers was the author of more than 100 books for children and young adults and received many top awards.

The prolific author was loved for his vivid description of the lives of African American children, and for writing books for young people that covered different subjects. “Myers has written about all those subjects with deep understanding and a hardwon, qualified sense of hope, ” said Leonard S. Marcus in 2008.

He was born in 1937 and was adopted by Florence Dean and Herbert after his mother died while giving birth to his younger sister. They loved him very much and his mother read to him from a very young age. Reading pushed him to discover worlds beyond his landscape.

He began writing at an early age. He wrote well in high school and an English teacher recognized this and advised him to keep on writing no matter what happened to him. “It’s what you do, ” she said.

He dropped out of high school at 17 and joined the army. After finishing his service, he entered a dark period in his life. Myers began writing at night to pull himself through that miserable time. In an essay published in The New York Times earlier this year, Myers described how a short story by James Arthur Baldwin helped change the course of his life. “I didn’t love the story, but I was lifted by it, ” he wrote, “for it took place in Harlem, and it was a story concerned with black people like those I knew. By humanizing the people who were like me, Baldwin’s story also humanized me. The story gave me a permission that I didn’t know I needed, the permission to write about my own landscape, my own map.”

“I write books for the troubled boy I once was, ” he wrote, “and for the boy who lives within me still.”

4 . AQUILA Children’s Magazine is the most intelligent read for curious kids. Full of enthusiastic articles and challenging puzzles, every issue covers science, history and general knowledge. AQUILA is a quality production, beautifully illustrated with contemporary artwork throughout.

 Intelligent reading for 8-12-year-olds

 Cool science and challenging projects

 Inspires self-motivated learning

 Exciting new topics every issue

AQUILA is created and owned by an independent UK company. It has 28 pages, printed on high-quality paper and there are no advertisements or posters. Instead it is full of well-written articles, thought-provoking (令人深思的) ideas and great contemporary artwork. Each monthly issue is centred around a new topic.

AQUILA works as a superb learning extension to current primary (or KS2 and KS3) curriculum (课程), but it is much more than that! Entertaining and always surprising, AQUILA is recommended because it widens children’s interest and understanding, rather than encouraging them to concentrate only on their favourite subjects. It gives children a well-rounded understanding of the world, in all its complexity.

The concepts in AQUILA can be challenging, requiring good comprehension and reading skills. Eight years is usually a good age to start. Some gentle interest from an adult is often helpful at the start.

In 2021 AQUILA will have been in publication for 29 years, but it has never appeared in newsstands or shops. We are subscription only.

AQUILA Subscription

UK：12 Months￡55－4 Months￡30

Europe：12 Months￡60－4 Months￡35

World：12 Months￡70－4 Months￡35

Birthdays

Select the Birthday option, write a gift message and choose the birthday month. We will dispatch to arrive at the start of the month you have entered. The package posts in a blue envelope marked “Open on your birthday”.

5 . Most foodies (吃货) agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be tough. Now there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their diets and their dining out experiences.

Cheese & Wine Pairing app

Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman's Cheese Wine Pairing can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and advises wines to pair with each. Max McCalman's Cheese & Wine Pairing is free for iPhones and iPads.

Calorific app

What does 200 calories look like? It can be hard to picture. Calorific provides images of 200 calories worth of food. The pictures can help people on a diet and those who just want to eat healthier food. The app is free for iPads and iPhones. There is also a version that provides more information for a price.

HappyCow app

Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. HappyCow is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world. A free version of HappyCow is available for Android that has ads and requires an Internet connection.

LocalEats app

Restaurant chains, like McDonald's, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. LocalEats is designed for that. It lists locally owned restaurants so users can try foods from that area. The app costs about a dollar.

7 . It was a cool October evening. Excitement and family members _______the hall. I was only a 7-year-old girl, but I was the center of _______. Finally, after weeks of preparation, I would _______all my hard work in a dance of performance. “Everything would be_______”, I thought. I waited backstage all _______ in my black tights with a golden belt. In a loud and clear voice, the master of ceremonies _______that my class was next.

My dance class was doing a routine on wooden boxes two feet by two feet, facing the _______. All I had to do in the next move was put one foot on the box next to mine and keep my other foot on my box. It really was an _______ move. I was concentrating so much _______the huge smile on my face and holding my head up that I did not look________I was going. I missed my partner’s box altogether and ________. There I was standing on the stage floor when my classmates were on top of their boxes. I could hear giggles coming from the audience, and I felt the ________rush to my face. I remembered my dance teacher had told us, “If you make a mistake, keep smiling so the audience will not ________.” I did my best to follow her ________ as I continued with the routine.

When the curtain dropped, so did my ________for the evening. I ________bitterly, tasting the salt from the tears that streamed down my face. I ran backstage, but no one could ________me down.

Recently I realized I had been a ________that night. I was ________, but I fought the urge to run off the stage. ________, I finished the routine with a smile on my face. Now when friends and family laugh about the time I slipped during a dance performance, I can laugh too.

8 . On February 22, 2021, cancer survivor Hayley Areeneaux was selected to be one of four crew members of the SpaceX Inspiration4 — the world’s first civilian astronaut mission. The 29-year-old will make history as the youngest American — and the first with a false limb — to travel to space.

Hayley’s space dreams began two decades ago, however, the young girl’s dreams were derailed a year later when she was diagnosed with osteosarcoma — a type of bone cancer. Fortunately, the fatal disease had been caught early and the experts at St. Jude’s Children’s Research Hospital in Memphis were able to reduce its spread through chemotherapy. Arceneaux said she never thought she would be able to go to space. But when the call came “out of the blue” from Jared Isaacman, CEO and founder of Shift4 Payments, asking her if she would like to go to space, she said without hesitation, “Yes, yes, absolutely!”

Isaacman had always intended to go to space. Hence when SpaceX announced the world’s first all-commercial astronaut mission, the 37-year-old billionaire, instantly booked the available four seats. The flying enthusiast announced that he would donate three seats to members of the general public. Hayley, the first crew member to be announced, will represent the pillar (支柱) of “hope” — a nod to her survival of cancer and frontline work as a physician at St. Jude. The remaining passengers, representing the pillars of “generosity” and “prosperity”, will be chosen randomly to raise $200 million for St. Jude, which treats children at no charge.

Before the mission launch later this year, the crew will undergo intense training. The mission, which will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, will be carefully monitored by SpaceX mission control scientists from Earth. Upon the mission’s completion, the Dragon will reenter Earth’s atmosphere for a soft water landing off the coast of Florida.

10 . I’d done it before, and so I had no reason to believe that this time would be any different. I was sure that when I returned home from my mission trip, as always, I’d bring back nothing more than some mud on my boots, a hole or two in my jeans and, of course, a lot of great memories.

The summer before my high school graduation, I went to West Virginia with others as volunteers to repair the homes of those in need. Arriving at our destination, my group was assigned the task of rebuilding sections of a home that had been damaged by fire. No sooner had we parked on the home’s dirt driveway than we saw an excited little girl, no more than six years old, standing in the doorway of the family’s temporary home. Shoeless and wearing dirty clothes and the biggest smile I’d ever seen, she yelled, “Ma, Ma, they really came!” I didn’t know it then, but her name was Dakota, and four more days would pass before she’d say another word near me.

Behind Dakota was a woman in a wheelchair — her grandmother, we’d soon learn. I also discovered that my job that week would be to help change a fire-damaged dining room into a bedroom for this little girl. Over the following days, I noticed Dakota peeking at us every now and then as we worked. A few times, I tried talking with her, but she remained shy and distant, always flying around us like a tiny butterfly but keeping to herself.

By our fifth and final day, however, this was about to change. Before I went to work on her home on that last morning, I spoke for a moment or two with the grandmother. I was especially pleased when she told me how much Dakota loved her new room — so much. As we talked, I noticed something I hadn’t seen before — Dakota was hiding behind her grandmother.

Cautiously, she stepped into view, and I could see that just like her clothes, her face was still dirty. But no amount of soil could hide those bright blue eyes and big smile. She was simply adorable. Slowly, she began walking toward me. It wasn’t until she was just inches away that I noticed the folded piece of paper in her tiny hand. Silently, she reached up and handed it to me. Once unfolded, I looked at the drawing she’d made with her broken crayons on the back of an old coloring book cover. It was of two girls — one much taller than the other — and they were holding hands. She told me it was supposed to be me and her, and on the bottom of the paper were three little words that instantly broke my heart: “Please don’t leave”. Now almost in tears, I couldn’t control myself anymore — I bent down and hugged her. She hugged me, too. And for the longest time, neither of us could let go.

I left for home early the next morning. I was returning with muddy boots and holes in my jeans. But because of Dakota, I brought back something else, too — a greater appreciation for all of the blessings of my life. I’ll never forget that barefoot little butterfly with the big smile and dirty face. I pray that she’ll never forget me either.