London's four wonderful hotels
Here's a pick of four wonderful hotels, each different in terms of size, style and location, but all performing to an exceptional standard.
The Goring Hotel
Since first opening in 1910, it is London's oldest family-owned luxury hotel with the second-largest privately-owned garden in London after Buckingham Palace. The rooms of this hotel are smaller than those of many other London's top hotels. There are 12 interconnecting rooms, which are ideal for families.
The Beaumont Hotel
This 1926 building, formerly a parking garage, has been transformed into one of London's hottest hotels. Its art collection, personal service, elegant rooms and hot restaurant make it a favorite on our London list. There's also an impressive 2.5 staff to every person and a 24-hour doorkeeper to make sure that guests' needs are met around the clock.
The Bulgari Hotel
This hotel has some of the largest accommodations in the capital. It's very modern and huge with six floors below and nine above ground. It feels big, but there are only 85 rooms and suites spread over six floors, indicating how spacious (宽敞的) they are. The Bulgari Hotel has many child-friendly rooms and activities to keep the kids busy：a swimming pool, a cinema, PlayStations, Xbox and lots of other games. The Bulgari spa is spread over two stories. And the doorkeeper can also arrange babysitting.
The Rosewood Hotel
Rosewood is within walking distance of many of the city's main attractions. From the outside, the building is large and impressive with an elegant courtyard designed for horse-drawn carriages (四轮马车). There is also a great spa and fitness center. As for activities for kids, there are food activities, art and wildlife. The doorkeeper can arrange trips to the London Zoo.
Elaine Su shared her experience of asking her neighbors to put up Lunar New Year decorations, helping her two-year-old son experience the festival as part of the large community. In a neighbourhood mostly consisting of non-Chinese residents, more than half of the households complied the tradition as well.
Interviewing her for the story provoked my own memories of celebrating Lunar New Year. The holiday was a big deal for me as a kid growing up in Jiangsu.
Legend says the holiday originated with the fight against a mythical beast called Nian, who came down from the mountains to hunt people on New Year's Eve. Villagers discovered that Nian feared the colour red, candle light and loud noise. So they began to decorate with the vibrant hue, light their homes with lanterns and set off firecrackers to prevent its return.
On New Year's Eve, my family would come together to celebrate with food prepared by my grandma. Moments before the countdown, the sound of firecrackers would fill every corner of our apartment and the celebrations continued into the next day.
For breakfast, we would eat yuan xiao, a kind of glutinous rice ball, which symbolizes the idea of reunion. Then, it was off to visit my grandparents, who were already awaiting us and my other extended family with lucky money and more traditional delicacy!
My favourite part of the holiday came after the adults were playing mahjong. My cousins and I were finally freed from our parents. With all the lucky money, we hit the streets and bought more snacks and more firecrackers!
Having immigrated to Canada for years, I further lost touch with my Chinese culture as I gradually dived into my new life in a new country. Maybe it's time for me, like her, to reclaim Lunar New Year.
Electric cars are supposed to help the world go green and stop hurting the planet. Engineers at Brown University and the University of Maryland are taking that goal to another other level, with a new idea for batteries made from trees, according to new findings published in Nature.
Lithium-ion batteries (锂电池) have become the new form of rechargeable batteries thanks to their extraordinarily long charge. You're probably reading this story from a device powered by such a battery. Most electric cars like ones made by Tesla use lithium-ion batteries. These batteries use a liquid solution that conducts lithium ions from the battery's cathode and anode (阴极和阳极), but the liquid is not what helps ensure electrical power goes from the battery to the device it's powering. The problem is that this liquid is made of harmful materials that are sometimes unstable. They sometimes have explosive results. A solid conducting structure would prevent this from happening, but it could be likely to crack and break, making the battery useless.
An ideal material for solid state lithium-ion batteries would be thin and flexible to resist structural stresses, and it is wood from a tree. The team in charge of the new research developed a mixed material made of copper (铜) and fibers coming from wood. They tested it out as a model for conducting ions back and forth in a lithium-ion battery, and found it works 10 to 100 times better than other solid-state conductors-a record high.
The new findings are just based on basic model tests, and a rechargeable battery made of trees is still quite a way off. But if it passes test as a practical form of energy, it can very well replace rechargeable batteries. It is not hard to imagine electric cars having better sales for their real green, but saying that their batteries are just made from trees is beyond our imagination.
A new smartwatch app warns users who are deaf or hard of hearing about nearby sounds, such as microwave beeps or car horns.
"The main motivation came from my own experience, and conversations that my colleagues and I have had with deaf and hard of hearing people over several years," says Dhruv Jain, who presented the system, called SoundWatch, at the virtual ASSETS conference on October 28.
Jain, who is hard of hearing, uses SoundWatch at home to avoid sleeping through a smoke alarm. "On a nature walk, it'll tell me that there's birds chirping（吱喳叫）, or there might be a waterfall nearby," he says. "Those sounds make me feel more present and connected to the world. "
Sound awareness apps for smartphones exist. But Jain prefers the immediate sound notifications（提示）on his wrist, rather than in his pocket-and surveys of people who are deaf or hard of hearing show he's not alone.
The SoundWatch app pairs an Android smartwatch and phone. The watch records surrounding noises and sends that data to the phone for processing. When the phone detects a sound of interest, the smartwatch vibrates and displays a notification.
Jain, a computer scientist at the University of Washington in Seattle, and colleagues designed the app to identify 20 noises. In experiments, SoundWatch correctly identified those 20 sounds 81. 2 percent of the time. When set to listen only for urgent noises-a fire alarm, door knock or alarm clock-the app was 97. 6 percent accurate. Eight deaf and hard of hearing people who used SoundWatch around a university campus gave the app broadly favorable reviews, but noted that the app misclassified some sounds in noisy outdoor settings.
Jain and colleagues are now working on a version of SoundWatch that users can train to recognize new sounds, such as their own house alarm, using just a few recordings.
As most children have a natural interest in both cooking and screens, playing free cooking games online with your child may be an excellent way to introduce them to the world of food at an early age. . They provide a number of developmental and educational benefits as well.
Cooking games for kids develop creativity. by letting them experiment with raw materials, recipes, and preparation methods. Such games can help kids develop a growth mindset, creativity, and the freedom to make their own choices.
Cooking games can improve social skills. Most cooking games offer an in-built social space. For example, playing multiplayer or two-player games allows children to interact with others, solve problems in cooperation, and so on. This is especially convenient for those who have difficulty reaching out to others in the real world. Online games can help them practice their communication skills. .
Cooking games boost confidence and independence. When kids take the initiative, finish a task, or follow directions correctly, they feel good about themselves and proud of what they've done. , they are more likely to grow up with a feeling of confidence, responsibility and independence.
. The act of cooking, whether virtual or in the real world, requires a lot of counting and measuring, which promotes the development of fundamental mathematical abilities. Additionally, they require kids to perform various kitchen tasks or read the recipes or lists of raw materials and then follow the directions, teaching them to read, and improving their vocabulary.
A. If they have trust in their own skills
B. When they learn how to solve disagreements
C. Cooking games promote math and reading skills
D. Many cooking games are more than just a fun activity
E. Playing in the kitchen helps kids learn to solve problems
F. They encourage kids to try new things and think outside the box
G. Therefore, they eventually feel more confident making friends in real life
Ryder was born with a serious illness and has never been able to walk. When he started attending preschool, he had to be 1 to the end of the road in the 2 to wait for his school bus by his parents every day. As Ryder was unable to 43 for this bus if he was late like his schoolmates, he would have to wait for up to 15 minutes out in whatever 4 there was. Although his father had 5 a patio (露台) umbrella at the end of his driveway to provide some 6 from harsh weather, he still would get wet.
Then his father 7 for help on Facebook looking to see if someone might have an old bus hut (小屋). After the post, he was suggested to reach out to the 8 class at Westerly High School.
9 , he sent an email to Dan McKena, who had been teaching construction technology at Westerly High School, asking if he'd be 10 in this kind of project. Delightfully, Dan 11 with an "absolutely" and then he worked hard on the hut with his students for weeks.
The hut made of wood was 12 enough to shelter both Ryder and one of his parents or a nurse comfortably and was finally 13 to the home six weeks later. Now, Ryder 14 it every day and his parents wait inside it every day while they await his returning home. He considers the hut 15 and does like to hang out in it from time to time.
Before becoming a web novel writer in 2018 Disha Florence from Dhaka, Bangladesh, now 25, was trying to find a way to free(she) from the long-existed restrictions(face) by a woman, a wish she has had since she was 8.
It was then that she observed that being a girl meant she could not go to play in the park like boys. She needed to learn household chores but boys could play all day. "I lost many(opportunity) because, I had to listen to my parents and I regretted it. That's when I thought that if I had(free), I wouldn't have to listen to others," says Florence. As she grew up. she realized thatany experience and knowledge, it is impossible to be free. Therefore, while(continue) her study, Florence went to work asvolunteer in an NG,O.
At 22, she(read) online fiction in English on Webnovel translated from Chinese when she noticed that the website was hiring authorswere said to have the chance (make) a great deal of money. "Without thinking further, I started writing, and became a professional web novelist," she says.
When I graduated from the university, I devoted myself to teaching English in a small village school. One day, a lady called me and told me she was Simon's mother. She said she wanted to call on me at a right time. Honestly speaking, I had been worried about myself. It made me feel a little fearful of seeing her because I was a new teacher and I gave an honest account of the students' work. In Simon's case, the grades were very low. He had never spent much time finishing his schoolwork carefully so that he couldn't even read his own handwriting, not to mention listening to his teachers in class. But he was a bright student. He discussed adult subjects with nearly adult comprehension. His work in no way reflected his abilities.
So when Simon's mother entered my office and appeared in front of me with a broad smile on her face, my palms(手心)were sweating. I was completely unprepared for her kisses on both my cheeks. "I came to thank you," she said, which surprised me beyond speech. "Simon has become a different person. He talks of how he loves me, and he has begun to make friends, and for the first time in his twelve years, he has recently spent an afternoon at a friend's house. I want to tell you how grateful I am. You have helped my son develop his self-respect," she continued. Then she kissed me again and left.
I sat, feeling really shocked, for about half an hour, wondering what had just happened. How did I make such a life-changing difference to that boy without even knowing it? At the very moment, I just failed to find out a reasonable explanation for what I was going through.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右;2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
A few days later, coming out from nowhere, a scene occurred to me and explained everything.
From that day on, I noticed some changes in Simon.
