If you can't wait until the summer for your sunshine fix, why not fly off on a winter break? Here are some great deals for all budgets.

    1. ST LUCIA

    The beachside resort(度假胜地)of St James's Club in Morgan Bay is fairly quiet—the local market is nearly 5 kin away—but it has six bars, six restaurants and four outdoor pools. There are plenty of water sports, you can travel through the rainforest, go on a jeep trip or enjoy dolphin-Spot-ting. Average temperature in March is 27℃.

THE DEAL:A seven-nightstay with flights from Gatwick for 1,429pp. From March 1.

    2. GOA

    With an average February temperature of 26℃, scenic Goamakes for a warm winter get away. In the village of Arpora, the Resorte Marinha Dourada is a 10-minute walk from the clear beach—the hotel provides transfers for guests. Alternatively, relax by the outdoor pool and have a drink at one of the hotel's two bars. A visit toArpora's lively Saturday night market is also recommended. Go bird-watching, beating on thelake, or fishing.

    THE DEAL: 10 nights' bedand breakfast with flights from Manchester for 1,157pp. From February 18.

    3. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

    Bayahibe is a beautiful fishing village on the shores of theCaribbean and it is also the Dominican Republic's premier scuba-diving destination. There are around 20 dive sites just off its coast. Enjoy golf, spas, watersportsand large outdoor pools. If you simply want to relax, the CataloniaGran Dominicus hotel is right on a pure white sandy beach, complete with palm trees. With average February temperature of 28℃, it's theperfect escape．

    THE DEAL: A seven-nightstay with Gatwick flights for 1, 403pp. FromFebruary 20.

    4. SOUTH AFRICA

    February is summer in South Africa, with average temperatures in the mid-20s℃. If you fancy chilling out in the sunshine, the Southern Sun Waterfront hotel has a large outdoor pool. But it is also in the heart ofthe city, which makes it easy to explore its many historic attractions. Take a cable car ride up TableMountain, or a shortboat trip to Robben Island，where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner.

    THE DEAL: 10 nights for 1, 662pp, with Heathrow flights. From February 18.

    Many English learners have difficulty deciding what kind of English accent they want to have. A US accent, perhaps imitates(模仿) a Hollywood star speaker? Or maybe you want to imitate the British accent of a BBC news reader?

    Young British people find the US accent attractive while young US people like a British accent. Especially when the person speaking is of the opposite sex(异性)! Let's listen to what they have to say.

    Stephen Yang, 17, from London, UK

    A US accent is cute, especially when a girl speaks it. Whether it's Jessia Alba speaking or the girl-next-door, the way US girls speak has a sweet tingle(感觉) that is really fashionable. A girl from Texas recently moved into our neighborhood. Her Texan twang(鼻音) had all the boys here on their knees within seconds of meeting her.

    To me, accents reflect the attitudes, characteristics(特征) and lifestyles of the people.

    Jennifer Sun, 16, from New Jersey, US

    From watching English actors like Daniel Radcliffe, my friends and I have developed a soft spot(好感) for British men. Some are attracted to the qualities of English males, while others admire their sense of style.

    Everyone, however, agrees that the most appealing aspect of an English man is his accent. For example, many American girls watch Harry Potter movies over and over again just to listen to the actors speak.

    The English accent seems almost like art.

    The bus was full of the sounds of laughing and yelling fifth graders. They were on their way to the zoo for a class trip. Mario was excited to see the zoo, but there was one problem. It was ten o'clock in the morning, but his stomach was already grumbling(咕咕叫). He reached down and grabbed his lunch bag. Opening it, he saw that it contained a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange, and two cookies. Mario sighed. He always had peanut butter and jell.

    “Trade you lunches,” he said to the boy seated next to him on the bus．

    “Okay,” said Mark as he handed his brown bag to Mario．

    Mario opened it and was hit with the smell of tuna(金枪鱼). Mario wrinkled his nose and quickly closed the bag. He leaned forward and tapped the shoulder of the girl in front of him.” Swap lunches, Toni?” he asked．

    “Hmm, okay,” said Toni．

    Mario smiled. This was fun. But when he looked into the bag, he frowned. What a disappointment! A ham sandwich, but no cookies! He had to have cookies．

    Mario turned in his seat. “Want to trade lunches?” he asked Juana．

    “Definitely!” said Juana. She grabbed his lunch and tossed hers onto his lap．

    He opened the lunch bag. Pizza! He reached into the bag to grab it. Oh, no! The pizza was hard. He could hit a home run with pizza that hard.

    Mario twisted in his seat. One last try, he told himself. “Hey, Mona! Trade lunches?”

    Three rows behind him, Mona seemed hesitant: Finally, she nodded. She passed her lunch forward, and he passed his back．

    Mario took a deep breath and opened the bag. It was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich, an orange, and two cookies. The sandwich was a little squashed(挤压), and one of the cookies was broken.

    Mario ate it anyway. And it was delicious.

    There lived in South Carolina a young woman named Eliza Lucas. Her father was governor of one of the islands of the West Indies. Miss Lucas often got seeds from her father, and then she planted them in South Carolina.

    Once, her father sent her some seeds of the indigo (靛蓝) plant. She planted some of them in March, but a frost (霜冻) came and killed all her plants. However, she decided to plant some more seeds in April. These grew very well until a cutworm found them and ate her plants. Once more Miss Lucas planted some of the seeds. This time the plants grew very well. She wrote to her father about it. He sent her a man who knew how to get the indigo out of the plant.

    However, the man tried not to show Miss Lucas how to make the indigo. He did not want the people in South Carolina to learn how to make it. He was afraid his own people would not get so much money for their indigo if other people made it as well. So he destroyed the indigo on purpose. But Miss Lucas watched him closely. She worked out how the indigo could be made. Some of her father's land in South Carolina was now planted with the indigo plant.

    Then Miss Lucas got married, and became Mrs. Pinckney. Her father gave her all the indigo growing on his land in South Carolina. It was all saved for seeds. Mrs Pinckney gave some of the seeds to her friends while her husband sowed others. They all grew and were made into the blue dye(染料) that we call indigo. In a few years, South Carolina was producing more than a million pounds of indigo every year. All the people were grateful to her.

    Most people who own iPhones use them as their alarm clocks―making it very easy to check emails one last time before falling asleep and hard to ever feel away from work and social networks.

    Several years ago, my boss fainted due to exhaustion after staying up late to catch up on work. She banged her head and ended up with five stitches (缝针) and became what she calls a "sleep evangelist (传教士)." Now she leaves her phone charging in another room when she goes to bed and encourages her friends to do the same.

    "I sent all my friends the same Christmas gift―a lovely alarm clock―so they could stop using the excuse that they needed their very attractive iPhones by their beds to wake them up in the morning." she said.

    If your phone wakes you up in the morning, it may also be keeping you up at night. A 2008 study showed that people exposed to mobile radiation took longer to fall asleep and spent less time in deep sleep. "The study indicates that during laboratory exposure to 884 MHz wireless signals, components of sleep believed to be important for recovery from daily wear and tear are severely affected," the study concluded.

    A quarter of young people feel like they must be available by phone around the clock, according to a Swedish study that linked heavy cellphone use to sleeping problems, stress and depression. Unreturned messages carry more guilt when the technology to deal with them lies at our fingertips. Some teens even return text messages at midnight.

    Most of us choose not to set limits on our nighttime availability. Nearly three quarters of people from the age of 18 to 44 sleep with their phones within reach, according to a 2012 Time poll. That number falls off slightly in middle age, but only people aged 65 and older are leaving the phone in another room as common as sleeping right next to it.

    Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.

    The trend, then, was toward the "penny paper" ­a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.

    This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy)to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830, but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer's office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny­usually two or three cents was charged­and some of the older well­known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase "penny paper" caught the public's fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.

    This new trend of newspapers for "the man on the street" did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业)were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.