Festival of Light, Longleat Safari Park, Wiltshire
Longleat is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year. Giant lanterns take the shapes of some of the park's animals, and there are also lots of fictional characters in Beatrix Potter's books, such as Peter Rabbit, Jemima Puddle-Duck, Squirrel Nutkin to mark the 150th anniversary of the author's birth. There is also a 20-metre-high birthday cake.
￡27.85, adult/ ￡20.65, child/ under-threes, free. 15 Dec.to 2 Jan.
Festival of Light, Enchanted Park, Gateshead
Enchanted Park is an interactive walk through Saltwell Park, just south of the town centre, along a trail (小径) of light with performances and sculptures. The story being told is a Midwinter Night's Tale, inspired by the 400th anniversary of William Shakespeare's death. Visitors can join stories and songs with Santa, and attend decorating workshops.
￡8,adult/ ￡2,child/ under-fours, free. 11-27 Dec.
Christmas Glow, RHS Garden Wisley, Surrey
The garden is glowing with giant lighted flowers. Some of the trees are brilliant, too. The glasshouse is decorated like a gingerbread house, and displays (陈列) seasonal plants. There are lanterns around the lake. The cafe serves hot chocolate and apple juice.
￡9.90,adult/ ￡3.60,child. 20 Dec.to 2 Jan.
Christmas at Kew Gardens, London
Kew is a special place to visit at any time of the day or year, but the festive light show gives it a magical twist, as the mile-long trail through the garden is decorated with 60,000 lights. Some of the garden's oldest and tallest trees are also beautifully lit along the way.
￡16,adult ￡10,child ￡48,family/ under-fours, free. 24 Dec.to 2 Jan.
Fifty years ago I had a young family of three boys. My husband Johnny and I left them with a friend while we made a rare trip to the cinema in Liverpool.
It was dark and pouring with rain but with the headlights shining on the road we saw something ahead of us. Johnny pulled to a stop and I jumped out, ran to the grass edge and grabbed a small, wet, and frightened creature. I wrapped it safely in my woollen hat and insisted that my husband turn back and head for home. We thought it was a baby rabbit because it had long ears and was grayish-brown in colour. Once home, we filled a box with torn-up newspaper and a warm towel. We named our new animal Bobsy as we had no idea of its sex.
Sadly though, on the third day with us, it caught its back foot in a door and we quickly realized it was broken. We rushed to the vet(兽医), who said, "It's only a rabbit, I'll put it to sleep." Our response was a very determined, "No way!" We found another vet and told that she was a baby hare. We were told we should continue to keep her in her box for a week and her foot would heal.
After her recovery, Bobsy learnt to use the kitty litter tray. She would comb her long ears with her front paws. The local paper heard about this and came to our house to take her photo and write a story about her. We had her for seven wonderful years before we moved to New Zealand and we will never forget her.
Studies have shown most people fail to realize how much time they spend on their smart phones each day.
Frank and Amelia's family were put to a test, using a free app called "Moment-screen Time Tracker". The Vascellaros—Frank, Amelia, 14-year-old twins Frankie and Joe, and 17-year-old Sam—all said they did not really know they were spending so much time on their phones each day.
"Honestly, I don't feel like I'm on my phone a lot," Amelia Vascellaro said. Amelia was on her phone far less often than Frank, according to the app. While Amelia spent about an hour per day on the phone, Frank spent close to four hours on his phone—which came as a shock to him. The children's times varied but they often spent more than a couple of hours on the phone as well.
Minneapolis-based Dr Kirsten Lind Seal sees phone usage come up a lot among families. Lind Seal said many family members' phone use has become problematic.
"If we hear more than once, ‘Do you have to be on your phone right now? Can you please put your phone down? Did you hear what I said?' it may be a sign that it is negatively influencing our family relationships and our daily lives," she said.
Lind Seal said actually paying attention to how much time one spends on the phone is a good first step in deciding when to put it down.
She asks parents to encourage more face-to-face communication for teens and young adults as they continue developing their social and emotional skills. "What we find is that we are really losing out on empathy—the ability to understand other people's feelings and problems——when we spend a lot of time on our smart phones to communicate with other people," she said.
Have you ever wondered why you sometimes take an almost immediate liking to a person you have just met? We often get the first impression of the person based on the color of the person's skin or the manner in which he or she dresses. Meaning is conveyed not only by words or verbal languages but also by nonverbal communication systems, such as body behaviour.
Nonverbal communication is important because we use the actions of others to learn about their emotional states. Our emotions are reflected in our posture, face and eyes—be it fear, joy, anger, or sadness—so we can express them without ever saying a word. For this reason, most of us rely heavily on what we learn through our eyes.
Nonverbal communication is significant in human interaction because it is usually responsible for the first impressions. More importantly, those first messages usually influence the perception(感知) of everything else that follows. Even how we select friends and partners is grounded in first impressions with nonverbal communication.
Nonverbal communication is important because it is culture-related. It is based on different beliefs, values and customs in different cultures. When, where, how, and to whom people display their specific nonverbal behaviour is greatly affected by cultures and contexts. Culture determines what the appropriate nonverbal behaviour is. For example, feelings of friendship exist everywhere but their expression varies. It may be appropriate in some countries for men to embrace each other and for women to hold hands; in other countries these displays of affection may be shocking. Each culture has its own specific interpretation on nonverbal communication. What is acceptable in one culture may be completely unacceptable in another. One culture may determine that snapping one's fingers to call a waiter is acceptable; another may consider this gesture rude.
The Ways to Help You Stand out in Interviews
Interview preparation has always been one of the most overlooked areas in the employment process. Perhaps you have done all your preparation and visited the company's website so many times that you know it by heart. Here are some ways to make you stand out.
Leave a positive impression.
Once you are inside the room, the main thing to remember is that you need to make eye contact, shake hands confidently and also smile.
Don't control the conversation .
Someone has remarked, the interview is a dialogue. You need to find out how do interviewers view the company and what their goals are. Those can often guide you when you answer their questions.
They always ask your greatest weakness. If you don't respond to them directly, then nobody will believe you. What they want to know is what you learned from a failure. Talk about the strategies to overcome any weakness so that it is always part of your development.
Show your passion and energy.
Most candidates range from being shy to showing off. But what will really make you stand out is your ability to actually convey the passion and the energy to various parts of your work. Yes, you can be modest about these but show that these are steps on the ladder.
A. Be frank about your weaknesses.
B. First impression is very important.
C. Be positive about your work experience.
D. But how do you actually do in interviews to get the job?
E. Whatever you do, do not talk too much and lead the interview.
F. These opportunities may come up during the interview, rather than at the end.
G. A great way to stand out is to show confidence, energy and passion for the job.
When I was young, my understanding of life was simple. This made it 1 for me to deal with the world around me. As I grew up, things seemed more 2 , which made life more challenging. Now, middle-aged, I find my 3 of the world is returning to the simple.
When I try to teach my daughter important 4 about life, I will break complicated things down into small pieces. One of those basics is 5 for yourself, and for others. I teach my daughter to 6 . To fail feels bad,7 , but not to have tried feels worse, because you can't respect yourself for it. And as the saying 8 , if you don't respect yourself, no one else will.
When I was seven or eight, I played at my cousin's house with his toys. His family was better off than mine, and he had many more toys. There was one in particular that I'd always wanted, and I 9 it into my pocket. But a moment later, I 10 , even at that age, that I would never enjoy playing with the toy. I would always know I had 11 , and my opinion of myself would 12 .When his mother dropped me off later that day, I shamefacedly 13 out the toy and gave it back. She knew, I'm sure, what had happened, but she thanked me and never spoke of it again.
I hope to help my daughter avoid similar 14 . She first has to gain self-respect before she can start respecting others. I believe in respect, because without it we're all enemies. I'm not 15 in this regard, far from it. But I try my best, and I respect others for trying their best in this changing world.
The robot lawn mowers (割草机) (design) by us have the following benefits besides saving your time and effort.
First, they are environmentally friendly.With global warming now (be) a major concern, you can have peace of mind with these mowers. They run on rechargeable batteries and do not use petrol or burn oil like conventional lawn mowers.
Second, they work very (quiet).After careful assessment, noise from them (find) to be about 60 decibels (分贝) lower than a typical lawn mower, so you can program them to work at night while you sleep.
Third, rain sensors in our robot lawn mowers warn the robot (return) to its shelter or stay in its shelter while it's raining. On other hand, if you are using a simple electric lawn mower, you will have to stay out in the rain while you get your mower under shelter it will be useless.
Fourth, bump sensors in our robot lawn mower protect the lawn mower from running over items may be lying in the yard, thus increasing its life and efficiency.
Last but not least, they are (benefit) for people with allergy problems — they can cut your grass while you sit far away, reading your favorite novel comfort.
