2 . 4 Best Places to Travel in 2023

2023 is the year when travel returns in a big way. To get you started, we’ve rounded up some of the best places to travel in 2023. All you need to do is pick the place that appeals to you.

Copenhagen

With its fantastic houses, clean streets and colorful architecture, Copenhagen is regarded as the most livable city on the earth. Named the World Capital of Architecture for 2023, Copenhagen will offer a series of major artistic events and programs sure to delight architects and design lovers.

Bhutan

For travelers with a sense of adventure and a love of discovery, Bhutan has always been a must-go destination. In 2023, travelers can once again explore the Trans Bhutan Trail, which runs 250 miles from east to west, offering visits to the century-old communities along the journey. The trail spans (横跨)18 major bridges and national parks and connects more than 400 historic and cultural sites.

Bordeaux

The coming years will be sporty in the historical wine region of Bordeaux in France. In 2023, the city will host the Rugby World Cup, an intense and stressful game. Beyond sports, Bordeaux is one of the favorite historical cities, with more than 350 structures that are either nationally or regionally listed as historical monuments.

Namibia

Wildlife and adventure lovers looking for a unique path in African Safari trips should head straight to Namibia in 2023 — this country in southern Africa is the perfect place to travel to reconnect with nature and escape the modern stresses of life. On the wildlife front, you may see lions along with giraffes and elephants.

4 . For thousands of years, Chinese writers have travelled all over the country to take down notes about the geographical conditions of each city. Among them, well-known Chinese geographer and writer Li Daoyuan, in the Northern Wei Dynasty (386-534), composed his book, Commentary on the Water Classics, after studying the original literary version, Water Classics. He later expanded the river records to 1, 252 from the original 137.

The book is now being studied again by Professor Li Xiaojie and his team from Fudan University. They have been using drawing software and 3D modelling to recreate the waterway situations on a map based on the book description. So far, they have completed research on four rivers.

“Ancient people knew really well how to apply the power of nature to technical considerations,”Li said, giving the example of Qianjin’e, one of the most famous ancient water conservation projects in Luoyang, Henan. In order to lead the river into the city for irrigation (灌溉) in ancient Luoyang, the officials built a canal branch by separating a northwest-southeast river. However, the canal water wasn't enough to support the citizens in dry seasons. To solve that, on the northern side of the canal branch, the officials built a reservoir (水库) and a channel to lead the water to the canal branch, where the waterways would converge and flow together to the city.

In Commentary on the Water Classics, a total of 2, 800 cities are recorded with details. Still, the process of recreation takes much effort. After doing a lot of text analysis and fieldwork, the team has gradually created the model with 3D modelling software based on repeated deductions (推论).

For Professor Li, the book is not only a record of the natural landscape over 1, 000 years ago, but also a detailed description of humanity and culture and a treasure for today’s reference.

5 . Sammie Vance approached her principal at Haley Elementary with the idea of installing “buddy benches” into her school playground to help others feel less lonely. The principal _________ of the idea. But wooden benches are _________. Just one would be worth nearly a thousand dollars. However, a bench made of _________ bottle caps would only be around $250. So Sammie _________ others in her community to collect enough caps to make one bench. _________, she managed to get bottle caps from 50 states. And thus, the initiative of “Sammie’s Buddy Bench Project” was _________.

Pretty soon, Sammie’s Buddy Bench Project began commanding the _________ of several news media. For her amazing efforts, Sammie has been chosen the receiver of several _________ and was _________ one of People magazine’s “Girls Changing the World”. And __________, more than 200 bottle cap buddy benches have been around at schools and parks across the country, plus Mexico and Australia.

This is, of course, not just a beautiful story about helping others. It’s also a major win for __________. It is reported that 1.3 billion bottle caps are used each year. These caps cannot be recycled in the same way along with plastic bottles __________ each has a different melting point, and when they are __________ in, it can ruin an entire batch (一批). And that’s when they get discarded. Millions of caps have been found in our __________ alone, which can be devastating to marine life. In fact, it’s one of the leading __________ of death. It’s big caring hearts like Sammie’s that help our planet heal against damage.

7 . In contrast to the brightly coloured species of birds, most of mammals are browns and greys, but with a small number of exceptions, of which the most famous is the giant panda. We’ve had some initial assumption about why they had their markings, but we need to confirm the reason for its mysterious pattern.

Viewed up close in a zoo, the giant panda is a strikingly notable mix of a white bear with black shoulders and legs, and an extraordinary face with black fur around the eyes and ears. By comparing with other carnivores (食肉动物), we learned that carnivores with white backs are found in snowy environments, and those with dark legs and shoulders are found in shady habitats. This suggested that the fur was an adaptation to be self-protective in different environments.

Nowadays, giant pandas are confined to forests in western China, where they live on their own and there are relatively few predators (捕食者). We are to confirm that the sort of self-protection is effective against giant pandas’ former predators from the days when they ranged right across China into Vietnam.

By comparing the amount of light reflected from the giant panda’s fur with natural objects in the background, it’s clear that their black fur patches (斑纹) match dark shades and tree trunks, whereas their white patches match bright leaves and snow. Also, pale brown, or muddy fur matches the color of the ground. This provides a medium color which bridges the gap between the very dark and very light visual elements in the natural habitat. Besides, a second form of self-protection lies in something termed misorderly colors and patterns-in which highly visible patches break up its outline by mixing with patches in the background.

Giant pandas show this form of defensive outline, especially at longer viewing distances of at least 60 meters away. At these distances, the giant panda becomes hardly identifiable as the black fur patches go with the background, dark rocks and tree trunks.

Although giant pandas in zoos are highly notable to us, it is because we see them up close and surrounded by artificial backgrounds. But when in the wild and at a distance, our research shows that they are beautifully protective to avoid detection.

9 . When we think of Antarctica, the first thing that comes to our mind is a picture of penguins and large areas covered with snow. Large amounts of white snow spreading over thousands of kilometers is a pretty good description of Antarctica.     1    

Research and observations conducted over the past few years have led to the conclusion that the Antarctic Peninsula's snow is turning green.     2     These algae (藻), even though they are individually incapable of being seen by eyes, are visible from space. These algae produce colonies called algal blooms, which spread over large areas.

    3     As a result, Antarctica is visible as many patches of green algae are on white snow from space. Algae are green because of the presence of the pigment chlorophyll, which helps in photosynthesis (光合作用). Not just green though, red algae have also been found on Antarctica's snow, leaving the snow painted red. These green and red algae are not just present on the surface of the snow.     4     When the upper layer of snow melts, the algal bloom remains visible in the layers below.

Scientists fear that such profound growth of algae can set off more global warming, causing even more snow to melt. To better understand that, we must consider that white snow reflects most of the sunlight that falls on it. However, as the surface of the snow darkens, it absorbs more and reflects less of the sunlight.     5     This will cause warming of the surrounding area at a faster rate, melting more snow day by day.

In southern China, there is a famous road     1    (build) across Poyang Lake, which lies in the north of Jiangxi Province, China and is known as China’s second     2     (large) lake. People in China also call it “the most beautiful road under the water.”

This road is sure     3     (attract) a lot of attention towards the end of May every year. A lot of people come out of     4     (curious). The water level of the lake is so close to the surface of the road,     5     makes the view ahead broad and bright when people drive along. It’s as though they were taking a boat across the lake. The feeling is     6     (simple) wonderful!

For the next few months, this road is not above the surface    7    under the water. When the water level of Poyang Lake starts to go up, the road surface becomes unseen. However, drivers can still drive across the lake safely     8     watching the guardrails(防撞护栏) fixed on either side of the road. For thrill-seeking motorists, it’s like     9     (drive) an amphibious(水陆两栖的) super car. Then in a few days, the entire road     10     (flood) with the continuously rising water. A few months later, the road will reappear.