DOHA, Sept 18 —The “Hello, Beijing” Photography Exhibition     1     (hold) on Monday herein the Qatari capital Doha, showcasing historical and cultural emblems (象征) of the Chinese capital. It also showed how the big city succeeds     2    becoming a world famous tourist destination.

Themed “Capital, Ancient Charm, New Look, Humanity and Ecology”, the exhibition    3     (feature) 79 photography works that highlight the natural beauty,    4     (tradition) charm, and cultural significance of Beijing.    5     (photo) of world cultural heritage sites such as the Great Wall and the Forbidden City, as well as iconic Olympic venues (场地) like the Bird’s Nest and the Water Cube, and beloved giant pandas, are all on display at the exhibition.

Abdulaziz Al Anzy,    6    Qatari civil engineer who brought his families to the exhibition, told Xinhua that     7     (see) these photos brought back many of the good memories in Beijing. “I love Beijing, particularly love the city in winter, as it’s the first place    8    I’ve ever seen snow,” he said honestly. “I hope there will be more events like this in the future    9     (bridge) both countries through tradition, culture and art. China is    10     (true) beautiful, and the Chinese people are very friendly. I often tell my family and friends that they must visit China to experience it for themselves,” Anzy added.

3 . If you’re ready to fire up your imagination, writing a short story or novel is one of the best ways to let your creativity run wild! To make your own story, all you’ll need is something to write with and a bit of inspiration. We’ll walk you through the best ways to beat writer’s block and create your own story right now.

    1    You’ll want a main character or characters, people with whom they are friends and with whom they are enemies. Authors find that actually planning the entire story, though it may take months, is beneficial to creating a smooth, connected story. Developing your characters is important and conveying them correctly in your work is even more so.

Use action and plot to progress your story.    2    Instead, show them. The readers can figure out your characters’ personalities better when they observe the characters’ reactions to different situations. For example: your main character, Mary, is very diligent. Don’t write, “Mary was a very diligent woman” write, “Mary always stayed in the library for hours, picking through reference book after reference book.”    3    

Choose a setting, or time and place, where your story will take place. Try to come up with a setting that the reader can find believable. Even if it’s a fictional setting, it should have elements that ground it in reality.    4    Make up your own town or state if you want. For example, Harry Potter has a very fictional setting, but the idea of school and the importance of friends and family are very real and very universal and make the fictional elements feel more realistic.

Brainstorm your plot and organize it in an outline before you get writing.    5    Then, when you write, all you have to do is look at the outline.

4 . Traditionally, it has been assumed that cultivating food leads to a loss of biodiversity and negative impacts on an ecosystem. In a recent study, researchers looked at 28 urban community gardens across California over five years and quantified biodiversity in plant and animal life, as well as ecosystem functions such as carbon sequestration (碳封存), food production, pest control and human well-being.

“We wanted to determine if there were any biodiversity and impacts on ecosystem function in those unban gardens,” says Shalene Jha, the lead author of the study in Ecology Letters. “What we found is that these gardens, which are providing tremendous nutritional resources and increasing well-being for gardeners, are also supporting incredibly high levels of plant and animal biodiversity. It’s a win-win.”

Previous assumptions by scientists about the negative effect of food production on bio diversity have been almost entirely based on intensive rural agriculture enterprises that tend to grow on one or two types of crops, often at a massive scale. Urban community gardens, private gardens, and urban farms and orchards tend to grow more types of plants in smaller areas. The new study is the first to explore the effects of urban gardens across a wide range of biodiversity measures and ecological services.

“It’s estimated that by 2030, about 60% of the world’s population will live in cities,” Jha says. “And urban farms and gardens currently provide about 15%-20% of our food supply, so they are essential in addressing food inequality challenges. What we’re seeing is that urban gardens present a critical opportunity to support both biodiversity and local food production.”

The study also found that the choices that gardeners make can have a large impact on their local ecosystem. For instance, planting trees outside crop beds could increase carbon sequestration without decreasing food production from too much shade. And covering only within crop beds could help improve soil carbon services, while avoiding negative effects on pest control.

5 . In order to escape from bats’ hunt through sound, some of the moths have therefore evolved a “stealth coat” — made of tiny hairs and a layer of scales(磷片) — that reduces their detectability through echolocation(回声定位).

Mare Holderied, a biologist at the University of Bristol, wanted to know how good the moths were at hiding from bats. So he shaved off their hairs and then sent sound waves towards them, imitating how bats might echolocate to find their prey.

It turned out the moths’ one and-a-half-millimeter layer of fur reduced their detectability by just over 40％. In addition to the fur, moths also have a thin layer of scales, tens to hundreds of thousands of them, on each wing. The scales each respond to specific frequencies of sound waves and when a bat’s echolocation signals hit the moth’s wings, the scales start to shake. The acoustic energy (声能) from the echolocation is thus absorbed.

Dr. Holderied and his colleagues tested how well the scales worked and found that they were as good at absorbing sound as the fur. They absorbed as much as 87% of the incoming sound energy, but at only one tenth of the fur’s thickness. In terms of their ability to absorb sounds, the moth’s scales outperform and are much thinner than any human-designed soundproofing(隔音) used in homes and offices.

Recognizing the significant impact of noise on human health, especially in urban environments, Dr. Holderied’s team has been taking inspiration from the sound-absorbing proper tics of moths to design wallpaper that can reduce the noise of road traffic. Dr. Holderied concluded, “One day it will be possible to adorn the walls of your house with super-thin sound absorbing wallpaper, using a design that copies the mechanisms from moths. Moths are going to inspire the next generation of sound absorbing materials.”

6 . Anthony Wood remembers sitting in the classroom one snowy morning as his teacher eyed the flakes(雪花) flying outside the window. “Please boys and girls”, she said, “pray that it stops snowing.” How little she grasped the mind of children, Mr. Wood observes, “We were praying，alright -- praying that it would snow-until June.”

Everyone knows children loves snow. Mr. Wood’s new book is meant for adults who remain passionate. It is less a systematic history than a discussion through various snow-related subjects -- beginning with the snowflake itself, which the author describes poetically as “the DNA of God”. Monster snowstorms interest Mr. Wood, such as the great white hurricane of 1888, during which hundreds of people in the north-eastern United States died of severe coldness. Winter storms that prevented the transportation from functioning normally were disasters for cities like New York and Philadelphia. But snow also contributed to the development of subway systems.

His chapters touch on the impact of unpredictable snowfall on the water crisis in California and on winter fun everywhere. He offers some frustratingly disconnected guesses about how climate change will alter future snowfalls. The short answer is that there will probably be more snow in places where the amount of water in the air increases, and less where temperatures become too high to keep it.

And he reflects, if briefly, on snow’s delights and unusual charm. Why do people either love it or hate it? Many long for it, Mr Wood proposes, because of the splendid isolation(隔离) that it brings. It can direct attention inward, and help people return to themselves.

7 . Many of the world’s most wondrous and beautiful destinations are in danger of being destroyed by a combination of environmental and social factors. Below are some popular locations worth visiting before they disappear.

Glacier National Park

United States and Canada

Glacier National Park contains some of the most beautiful and primitive wilderness in the Rocky Mountains. There are more than 200 glacier-fed lakes and much wildlife. However, the latest warm period has caused the number of glaciers to decrease from 150 in 1850 to 26 today. If current global warming trends continue, there will be no glaciers left in the park by 2030.

Venice

Italy

With as many as 40 floods per year between March and September, Venice is slowly sinking at an estimated rate of 2.5 inches every ten years. A severe flood in December 2008 brought renewed attention to Venice’s vulnerable(脆弱的) state and approaching fate as an underwater city.

Taj Mahal

Agra, Uttar Pradesh State, India

The Taj Mahal is considered the finest example of the late style of Indian Islamic architecture. The building is visited by three to four million tourists each year. The crowds and air pollution, however, have caused irreversible(不可逆转的) damage to the building, making tourism officials consider closing the historic site to the public.

Pyramids of Giza

Giza, Egypt

The Pyramids have witnessed a heavy traffic in this sightseeing area for centuries, but the pollution and great number of visitors have caused damage to the ancient structures, which are not protected by Egyptian officials. Although camel and horseback tours are now banned from the site, the structures are still difficult to see through the crowds and vendors.

I had a secret. I had been considering the decision for some time, but hadn’t discussed it with anyone. As an English Language Arts teacher in my fourth year, I had to leave my beloved profession.

I kept praying for a sign to stay, but my father was very ill and needed someone to take care of him. Although many students liked my class and I had received hundreds of letters from former students appreciating my influence on their lives, I still made this difficult decision.

It was nearing the end of what I had come to think of as my last year. A senior named Lyric, who was my assistant, asked if I could meet him and another student named Ari for dinner to discuss how to prepare for college. I agreed but didn’t think anything of it.

It was on a Saturday evening and my schedule for that day was already packed. I attended an academic conference that morning and then spent the next four hours at the boys’ basketball game where I was the assistant coach of the school team. By the time the game ended, I had about an hour to get to the dinner. I was so tired that I almost called Lyric to re-schedule. But I had promised, so I got in my car and headed to the restaurant.

As I was walking up to the restaurant, I saw Lyric, Ari, and Sal, another former student, all dressed up. I asked Lyric, “Why are you guys so dressed up?” He responded, “Follow us and you’ll see. “The three of them led me to the outside patio (露台) where there was a long table full of some forty students. They had decorated the patio with fairy lights and flowers, and the table was adorned (装饰) with a beautiful tablecloth and candles. They had even prepared my favorite dishes and drinks!

When they saw me, they all stood up and started clapping.

A week later, I was voted Teacher of the Year.