4 . Most Scenic Train Rides in the World

The Jacobite Steam Train, Scotland

Starting in the Scottish Highlands town, this train journey winds through green hills, crystal blue lakes, deep valleys, and odd villages. A highlight of the trip is the crossing of the 21-arched Glenfinnan Viaduct (高架桥) with its graceful curves and towering columns, overlooking the Jacobite monument. Harry Potter fans will recognize this view as well as the steam engine and carriages which became the Hogwarts Express. The Jacobite Steam Train runs from April to October.

Grand Canyon Railway, United States

This round-trip journey begins about 30 miles west of Flagstaff and heads north to the Grand Canyon National Park. On the way, passengers are encouraged to get into the Old West spirit with musical entertainment, cowboy characters, and other surprises. In addition to the breathtaking landscape, guests might spot wildlife that includes mountain lions, deer, owls, etc. . The daily departure time is 9: 30 a. m. , and the trip takes two hours and 15 minutes.

Kuranda Scenic Railway, Australia

This journey takes guests through one of the world’s oldest rainforests in Queensland. The two-hour trip begins in Cairns and passes scenery that includes trees, waterfalls. mountains, and valleys. Barron Gorge, one of Queensland’s most popular national parks, can be viewed from the train or by driving a short distance from Kuranda at the end of the train line.

Kandy to Ella, Sri Lanka

This seven-hour trip takes passengers through remote villages, past waterfalls and lush green hills, and through the tea plantations for which the country is known. The train is a favorite way to explore the country, view the varied scenery, and observe villages and local people along the way. Kandy is located in central Sri Lanka with sacred Buddhist temples and scenic Kandy Lake.

5 . Wu Lidi, a 48-year-old cleaning lady at a student dormitory, was deeply moved by a special exhibition held by students in front of the entrance of a canteen in the Nanjing University.

The exhibition, titled “A Cleaning Lady’s Spring,” displayed Wu’s paintings on a blackboard hanging on the dormitory’s first floor where she works. Her artwork ranged from breathtaking natural landscapes and the colorful university campus to an imaginary world. During the exhibition, many students left handwritten messages of appreciation, gratitude and wishes to her. The messages included “Thank you for your blackboard paintings that have accompanied me through four years of my youth,” “You have painted a wonderful world,” and “I hope you will stick to what you love.”

Wu’s artistic journey began modestly. She never received any professional training in painting. Her interest in painting dates back to her youth when she often created blackboard designs for her class.

After becoming a cleaner at Nanjing University, her enthusiasm for painting was reawakened when she volunteered to enrich a blackboard with pictures. Initially, only a few characters “Welcome Home” were presented on the blackboard and it needed some color and life. Litle did Wu know, this seemingly small effort marked the beginning of her extraordinary journey of life in the university.

Wu has since become increasingly devoted to blackboard art, improving her skills with online resources in her spare time. Her paintings evolved from simple flowers and plants to complex landscapes, and her techniques shifed from chalk drawings to watercolor masterpieces. Her dedication earned her widespread popularity among the students who often lovingly referred to her as “a cleaning lady who could have become an artist.”

Despite her demanding responsibilities for cleaning an entire building, she still managed to spare time for her paintings. As she put it, “I take pleasure in painting, so I’m happy to do it.” Moreover, every student passing through the building could glimpse her creations. Wu hoped to bring a touch of happiness to the students’ life through her art.

Wu was grateful to the students who held the exhibition for her, acknowledging that their encouragement fueled her passion. She said she would continue creating more paintings for the lovely students.

6 . For centuries, bigger brains has been considered as a sign of our species’ unique intelligence. The last two million years of our evolution witnessed a significant four times increase in brain volume.

But growing evidence suggests our brains recently changed in an unexpected way. They diminished in size sometime after the end of the last Ice Age. This reduction was not insignificant. The loss of brain tissue is equal to the volume of an egg.

The precise timing of that brain shrink has remained a mystery until now. Initially, many scientists had believed the changes happened with the development of farming and a shift from hunting about 10,000 years ago. But a group of researchers, led by DeSilva, used a mixture of fossil and modern subject data to discover that this loss of gray matter happened between 3,000 and 5,000 years ago. The more-recent dates from DeSilva’s group point to booming of ancient civilizations in North Africa, the Middle East and South America as a potential factor.

Researchers proposed that human societies got so cooperatively organized in the past 3,000 years that they began relying on collective intelligence, “It is the idea that a group of people is smarter than the smartest person in the group.” said James Traniello, one of DeSilva’s co-authors. This inspiration came from insects such as ants. Ants form highly cooperative societies in which division of labor has favored smaller-brained individuals due to an advanced level of social organization.

The researchers also suggested that as highly social beings, we no longer needed expansive brains to store all information about food, social relationships, and the environment. This reliance on social networks and external sources of information, including books and the internet, reduced the demand on individual brains.

While human brain volume had remained roughly constant for the past 150, 000 years, it rapidly dropped by around 10% in recent millennia (几千年). The research said it’s crucial not to confuse brain size with smarts. Instead, it suggests that our brain became more efficient with better neural connections in a smaller form. “Like, computers used to be the size of a room, and now they fit in your pocket,” said DeSilva.

7 . Only a “cloud” away is how residents at the Dzilam reserve in Mexico think of the distance between Latin America and China, despite their geographical remoteness.

The “cloud” isn’t the one hanging up in the sky. What the residents refer to is in fact cloud technology, which has been applied to wildlife conservation in this Mexican reserve.

In recent years, with cloud technology, technicians and ecologists from China and its trans-Pacific partners have been able to work hand in hand under the Belt and Road Initiative to protect endangered species and their habitats in Mexico.

Home to many endangered species in Mexico, the Dzilam reserve, known for its biodiversity-rich habitats, has started to witness ecosystem degradation (衰退) over the years due to human activities and climate change. In 2002, the jaguar, the only big cat left in the reserve, was listed as “Near Threatened” on the IUCN Red List.

Local communities and environmentalists have tried to track the habitat of jaguars, but have found it rather difficult: These animals are often hidden in vast forests, rarely leaving obvious traces, making it hard to observe them under natural conditions.

To better protect wild animals and biodiversity, the Tech4Nature Mexico project was launched in the Dzilam reserve. The project collects video data from cameras recording 24 hours a day in the Dzilam reserve to monitor the biodiversity of the area and uses acoustic (声学的) technology to understand the existence of species and the health of ecosystems. The research team would use Huawei’s Al model to identify the areas where the big cat appeared by identifying sounds, studying their living habits and developing management plans to protect the species. In addition, when a threat is detected, the system immediately sends a real-time alarm with the location to local forest guards through an app for rapid intervention.

From September 2022 to May 2023, local experts, with the help of Huawei Cloud, have identified 119 species in the Dzilam reserve, including 88 species of birds, 22 species of mammals, five species of reptiles and four species of amphibians, of which 34 species are on the IUCN Red List of Threatened Species. They have also spotted at least five jaguars in the reserve.

Omelia Trejo, a resident of the Dzilam community, said their dream is “protecting jaguars for a lifetime,” but they worried that in the future, children might only see jaguars in photos. “Thanks to this project, our dream has come true.”

The     1     (话题) of this article is social networking.

Mark never stops socialising with his friends online. He is     2     (持续不断地) posting updates on social media and receiving messages and updates from the people he associates with online. His sister spent all her time c    3     that she needed to charge her phone. When it was charged, she just spent hours reading about her favourite popstar. They can’t drop their phones, because they are afraid to miss all the important     4     (约会), invitations and news updates.

But in reality, phones don’t bring people closer and people always feel     5     (沮丧的), dissatisfied and alone. Therefore, with cellphones, people are physically close, but mentally far away.

10 . Nineteen-year-old Simone Biles is one of the best gymnasts (体操运动员) who have ever lived. She has ______ more Olympic medals than any other American gymnast. While she now makes new gymnastics look simply, her road to the top was anything but ________.

When she was young, Simone’s parents were not able to ______ her and her little sister. They were ______ by their grandparents.

Simone first ______ gymnastics at the age of six. The coaches were very ______ at her natural talents. Simone soon attended a gymnastics program. With passion and determination, Simone kept ______. She got better and better. At age 8, Simone start training with a(n) ______ named Aimee Boorman. A few years later she started ______ in national and international competitions.

______ her Olympic teammate Gabby Douglas once said, “Gold medals are made out of your ______, blood and tears, and efforts in the gym every day.”

Simone’s efforts ____. When she was 16, she became the first female African-American all-around world gold medalist! ______, she made it in the Rio Olympics along with her coach, Mrs Boorman. Simone won five medals in Rio and is now compared to the ______ gymnasts in history.

Even though Simone kept advancing in her sport, she never forgot her faith (信仰) and ______. She attends church and plans to go to college in California.