Lonely Planet's Top Places to Go in 2024
Are you looking for inspiration for your next travel destination? Lonely Planet has published its yearly list of top places to go. Whether you' re looking for adventure, culture, or value, there' s something for every type of traveler. Let' s explore the. top picks for travel destinations in 2024.
Top City: Nairobi
Nairobi, the Kenyan capital, was chosen for its unique music and dance culture, and impressive local restaurants. Nairobi National Park, just a short drive out of the city' s central business district, is a must-see, where visitors can see over-400 species wandering the open grass plains while skyscrapers twinkle on the horizon.
Top Country: Mongolia
Mongolia is loved for its wide-open spaces, adventure activities, and unique food. The Mongolian government has announced 2023 through. 2025: as: the " Years to Visit Mongolia" , easing entry conditions for international travelers and improving public facilities, including a new $ 650 million airport.
Top Sustainable Travel Destination: Spain
The publisher also recommended Spain for the country' s efforts to expand renewable energy, to develop off-season travel, and to bring tourism to new destinations, such as the port city of Valencia, easing pressures on hot spots such as Barcelona.
Top Best-Value Location: The American Midwest
The American Midwest, including the cities of Chicago and Detroit, is also on the list, as it offers a high-quality travel experience at a reasonable cost. Visitors can enjoy excellent services and facilities. such as old warehouses transformed into art studios, new eco-design hotels, and Michelin-starred restaurants, without having to spend too much money.
Top Beach Destination: Donegal
Donegal Ireland' s most northwestern county, has the country' s longest coastline and over 100 beaches, where visitors can enjoy the highest sea cliffs in Europe and miles of beautiful coastal hiking trails.
On December 16, 2023, the first section of Maya Train officially opened, which runs between Campeche and Cancún, carrying up to 231 passengers across 290 miles and stopping at 14 train stations.
Built as an ambitious effort to promote tourism and boost Mexico' s economy, the rail system connects the major cities and tourist regions of the Yucatán Peninsula-from Cancún' s beaches to Tulum' s archaeological (考古的) wonders. Once the project is completed, the entire rail system will link tourist destinations across five states. However, environmentalists and archaeologists argue that the train route will cause great damage to the environment and ancient Mayan sites.
The Maya Train passes through six UNESCO World Heritage sites, and thousands of archaeological sites. One particular area of concern is the Calakmul biosphere reserve, which is home to many endangered species, such as jaguars and over 500 other animal species. The train lines, more than 60 meters wide, could act as artificial barriers that may limit the movement of these animals within the reserve, making it difficult for them to move around and access food and water sources.
Opponents also express safety concerns. Certain sections of the rail system will be built right on top of the aquifer' s (地下水层的) most fragile points of contact with the surface. " It' s like wanting to build over eggshells, says Guillermo Christy, a water treatment consultant. " Putting trains weighing thousands of tons on top could cause the underground caves to crash down. To construct the train infrastructure (基础设施) also requires driving long piles deep into the ground, which poses a big threat to this fragile ecosystem and leads to water shortages.
In the ongoing debate of Maya Train, it is crucial to consider the delicate balance between economic development and environmental preservation. While Maya Train may provide economic benefits, we must not overlook the potential environmental and cultural losses, as well as the safety risks it may bring. Achieving harmony between progress and conservation may be a significant challenge for the project, but we must take into account the long-term consequences of our actions.
Geologists have long been fascinated by a missing piece of Earth' s history — a lost continent called Argoland. Around 155 million years ago, the 5,000-kilometer continent broke off from Western Australia and began drifting(漂移), leaving behind a basin deep below the ocean known as the Argo Abyssal Plain. But where did Argoland actually go?
The seabed structure suggests that the continent drifted northwestward and ended up Southeast Asia. But surprisingly, there is no large continent hidden beneath those islands, only small continental fragments(碎片) surrounded by ancient oceanic basins. Using this theory, geologists at Utrecht University discovered that Argoland hadn' t really disappeared but survived as a " very extended and fragmented collection" under the islands to the east of Indonesia.
Unlike other continents like Africa and South America, which broke neatly into two pieces, Argoland split into many smaller fragments that were dispersed, which made it difficult for scientists to locate and study the continent' s geological features. However, with advanced technology and the discovery, scientists can now piece them together.
Tracing the continents is vital for understanding processes like the evolution of biodiversity. It could help explain something known as the mysterious Wallace line, which is an imaginary boundary that separates mammals, birds, and even early human species in Southeast Asian islands. The boundary has puzzled scientists because of how clearly it separates the island' s wildlife. To the west of the line are placental mammals like apes and elephants. But these are almost completely absent to the east, where you can find marsupials and cockatoos — animals typically associated with Australia. Researchers have theorized that this may be because Argoland carried its own wildlife away from Australia before it crashed into Southeast Asia, which helps explain why different species are found in different nations.
The story of Argoland is not one of complete disappearance but of transformation. As the world continues to evolve, this lost continent serves as a powerful symbol of the fragility of life on this planet, and a reminder of the importance of respecting and protecting the world that we live in.
A lot of manufactured glass today made from sand and sodium carbonate (碳酸钠) can be reused or melted down and recycled into new items, but it doesn' t break down in the environment and will sit in landfills for thousands of years. A team of Chinese scientists aimed to deal with this environmental concern by developing an eco-conscious alternative.
In a study published recently in the journal Science Advances, a team at the Chinese Academy of Sciences' Institute of Process Engineering describe how they engineered biodegradable glass made from amino acids (氨基酸). That glass would have a smaller impact on the environment and can break down in a few weeks or in several months.
In a test, glass beads (珠) made out of amino acids were placed under the skin of mice, and the breakdown of the beads and the skin healing process were observed for 30 days. A diagram from the study shows how the mice' s bodies broke down the beads. In that month, the glass implant degraded beneath the skin, the wound site healed, and fur grew back. " Throughout the experimental period, no mice exhibited any pain-related behavior that may have been caused by the glass implantation, and none of them experienced obvious weight loss," the researchers wrote in their paper.
Although amino acids do degrade over time in the environment, this biodegradable glass is not as durable as traditional glass, because amino acids can break down quickly in heat. In order to overcome this hurdle, the researchers chemically modified the amino acids using the heating-cooling procedure applied in glass manufacturing. This is when materials for the glass are heated to become soft and then rapidly cooled so as to make the glass tougher.
" It' s important to point out that this biodegradable glass is currently in the lab stage, and far from large-scale commercialization," emphasized Yan Xuehai, a professor involved in the study, in a press release.
If you have ever looked closely at the tires on your car, you have probably seen little hairs sticking out of the black rubber. Are they there for any safety reasons? Those little bits are one of the strange car features some people may stop to think about.
Located on the vertical part of the tire, these curious little rubber hairs are known as " vent spews (轮胎毛刺)" . They are crucial in the tire-making process. As the tread pattern mold (胎面花纹模具) is pressed into the tire' s rubber, the extra rubber requires a way to escape the mold.
Curiously, there' s no set number of hairs each tire will have. But the presence of tire hairs is universal. They are nothing more than remnants (残余部分) of the complex process that makes strong and durable tires.
Because they are found on the part of the tire rubber that doesn' t hit the road, and they have no impact on how well your tire grips(抓牢) the pavement in rainy weather. These rubber hairs also don' t have any impact on road noise or why your tires squeak when you' re driving. They are merely evidence of the new tire' s arrival in the world.
Tire hairs are naturally worn away during normal driving, and the presence or absence of these hairs doesn' t determine if a tire is safe. There is one instance, however, where the lack of tire hairs can matter. As a responsible car owner, you should monitor the health of your tires regularly.
A. Why do tires have hairs?
B. Tire hairs don' t have any effect on safe driving.
C. Are there any other interesting facts about cars?
D. They look funny, yet every new car tire has them.
E. It could be a sign that tires are worn, old and need to be replaced.
F. The exact number varies based on the design and size of the tires.
G. Because tiny-size escape vents are created throughout each mold, little tire hairs are born.
One sunny afternoon, Jack and I rode hard towards his house. The sun shone 1 on Jack' s black bicycle. You would never see his bike with 2 on it. As I bent over, I took a glimpse of Jack' s shining school 3 . Jack was always neat and tidy, but his clothes were old and 4 . I often 5 if he owned anything else.
We turned into a street lined with small, old railway houses. Jack opened a gate and we went through it. I got off my bike and 6 it against the garage wall. It was a small, whitewashed house. The tiny area of lawn was neatly 7 .
We went in by the back door. The kitchen had a cupboard, a small dining table with three chairs and an ancient cooker. Everything was 8 clean.
In Jack' s room, it had a bed, a one-door closet, and a table. Several books were 9 against the wall on one corner of the table, and on the other corner 10 a model steam engine. Jack demonstrated to me how the engine 11 . I looked at Jack' s face and a broad smile spread over it.
Feeling ashamed, I reflected that I grew up in a 12 wealthy home. My closet was 13 with new and fashionable clothes. I had a state-of-the-art ten-speed racing bike. 14 , I often did not appreciate what I had. I took it all for granted. By contrast, Jack had almost nothing, but he was happy and 15 . Thank you, Jack, for unknowingly teaching me the value of being satisfied with what I' ve got.
It' s a race against time, as generations of cultural heritage conservators at the Dunhuang Academy make a great effort to protect the artistic charm of the Mogao Caves, UNESCO World Heritage Site.
The team (devote) to protecting the 45, 000 square meters of murals (壁画) and more than 2, 400 painted sculptures of the 735 caves of the site, the construction of takes about a thousand years, from the 4th century to the 14th century. The cultural relics are the product of the cultural exchanges that took place over (century)on the ancient Silk Road.
Commonly (see) " diseases" affecting the murals include cracking and flaking, as well as erosion that is caused by changes in temperature and humidity of the caves, and the deposition of salts. To restore a mural requires an all-rounder. Restorers should know painting, master the skills of a mason (石匠) and have some knowledge of chemistry and physics, (be) able to recognize the problems and their (correspond) causes and deliver a solution. They must also select proper materials and tools, and conduct experiments, formally carrying out the restoration and evaluating the effect afterward.
The restoration should respect the original work and aim to maintain the status quo of the murals rather than repainting them. When the restorers find some parts of murals missing fading away, they never repaint them to create a " perfect" (appear) in restoration.
As the sun dipped below the horizon, casting a warm glow over the animal shelter, Sarah walked through the rows of cages until her eyes landed on a small, trembling dog huddled (蜷缩) in the corner. " I think I' ve found the one, " Sarah whispered softly to herself as she looked into the dog' s sad eyes. This timid, abandoned dog had no idea that a journey of transformation with friendly people lay in store for him.
The shelter staff explained that the dog, named Buddy, had a difficult past and was very shy and scared. Sarah extended a hand, offering a soothing tone, " Hey sweetie, you must have a story to tell, but from now on, you' ve got a buddy in me. "
Bringing Buddy home was just the beginning of their journey, which was rocky at first for him. Everything was strange and new, causing him to hide under furniture and startle at every sound. Therefore, Sarah provided a cozy bed, delicious meals, and most importantly, heaps of love and comfort.
Slowly but surely, he started to emerge from his shell, wagging his tail tentatively and gazing at Sarah with a glimmer of hope in his eyes. Under Sarah' s patient and loving guidance, Buddy flourished, even learning tricks and commands, and forming a deep bond with his new owner.
The journey of healing turned out to be a success. But Sarah had never expected it would bring about another one.
One day, while scrolling through social media, Sarah came across a heartwarming story about dogs being trained to assist children with autism (自闭症). Those children had social communication difficulties and had few facial expressions and gestures. Without hesitation, she inquired about the program and soon, Buddy was enrolled in training to become a certified therapy(治疗) dog. But she was unsure whether Buddy would be comfortable with the new challenge.
注意：
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Their first day at the therapy center was filled with uncertainty.
As the weeks progressed Sarah noticed a remarkable change both in the children and Buddy.
