Opened in 1847, the London Zoo is the world's oldest scientific zoo. Today it houses over 760 different species of animal and is the only zoo in London where you can experience big animals.

    Explore the “Into Africa” exhibit (展览) where you can come face to face with some of Africa's most unusual animals including hunting dogs, or try “Meet The Monkeys” an exciting walk-through experience. Other top exhibits include the Butterfly Paradise, where you can enjoy many species of butterfly as they fly around you.

    Make sure you don't miss feeding time at the Penguin Beach and find out more about these popular creatures from the zoo's experienced keepers. Penguin Beach, with a very large pool and underwater viewing areas, allows visitors to be close to the penguins like never before.

    Built in 2013, Tiger Territory is a great experience taking visitors deep into the world of these wonderful creatures.

    Rainforest Life is London's only living rainforest, where visitors can meet a variety of beautiful rainforest species including. In the all-new “Night Life” area you will discover the bats, and rats.

    With over 12,000 animals to see and incredible animal displays taking place throughout the day (including feeds and keeper talks), no visitor leaves disappointed. Learn more about London Zoo in our Interview with a Zoo Keeper on our London Pass Blog.

    You can visit the London Zoo for free with a London Pass—a fantastic saving of £23 for adults and over £16 for children. Children aged 3-4 will be charged on entrance fee for London Zoo.

    Today, I made the time to listen to a person new to me, who I met was parking my car, “Perfect”, he said as he walked by me as I checked how considerately I parked. He was a clean cut gentleman sharing his feelings about his grown kids, parenting mistakes he is aware of, while expressing a realization to slay clear of destructive addictions.

    I listened patiently and kindly. He seemed quite comfortable with me, in need of some treatment letting go of his thoughts and emotions. After talking for a while, I had to go inside, and I asked him to wait on the sidewalk and I'd be right back with some gifts for him. He was so receptive all along, and I could feel the desires of his heart. I returned to him with bookmarks. I encouraged him, also, with a couple of inspirational thoughts to live by: To focus on what you want — how you want to feel and how you want to live and experience life.

    This experience is a good thing to me, meeting this gentleman as I am experiencing the challenges of trying to be a positive encouragement to my daughter Angel in fighting her illness. I know Angel has the desire too, although in a different way and at a different level in her growth.

    I've received little to no reaction from Angel about the positive encouragement of the family. On the other hand, this gentleman paid attention. Some of this, of course, is the big age difference, I imagine. Anyhow, I extended myself in friendship to have a walk and talk with my daughter early tomorrow morning, so as to be a curing support, and it feels good for me, too — although far outside my usual comfort zone.

    Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle when you are happy.

    Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of the time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.

    Do you know what a "territory" is? A territory is an area that an animal ,usually the male, claims(声称)as its own .Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species(物种)are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.

    If so, you have actually scared the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time ,especially at nesting(筑巢)season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird's song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.

    Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.

    You can see that birds have a language of their own. Most of it has to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.

    Ever since mobile phones became widely used around the world, there have been concerns about how safe they are. All mobile phones give off a small amount of radiation when in use, which many believe could be a cause of cancer. However, two recently published studies tried to finally answer the question of whether using mobile phones actually brings a dangerous risk to humans.

    Carried out by the US government, the studies exposed rats and mice to radiation over the course of two years. A small number of the rats were found to have developed heart tumors (肿瘤) as a direct result of the radiation exposure. However, John Bucher, one of the study's authors, said that the animals were exposed to far more radiation than even the heaviest mobile phone user would usually be, reported The New York Times. Bucher also added that the findings didn't make him want to change his or his family's mobile phone usage habits.

    Indeed, the US Food and Drug Administration said it believes that it has “not found enough evidence that there are negative health effects on humans” from mobile phone use. Although mobile phones do give off radiation, it's a different type of radiation than that given off by dangerous sources.

    High-energy radiation – such as that given off by nuclear waste – is known to be very dangerous to humans as it is able to damage our DNA, leading to cancer or even death. On the other hand, low-energy radiation – such as the one given off by mobile phones – is considered to be harmless.

    We're exposed to this all the time, as it's given off by everyday objects like WiFi routers (路由器), televisions, and even bananas. Some argue that when it comes to human health, however, you can't be more concerned, even if the risk is only small. For those people, an earphone is advised when they are making phone calls and the time spent using mobile phones can be limited.

    But don't worry: there's no need to take bananas off the menu.

    Language learning apps are very popular now and offer opportunities to learn vocabulary and practice grammar. But there has been a discussion about just how effective such apps can be.

    Among the most popular apps are Duolingo and Busuu. A previous research found positive results on the use of them. But it mainly concentrated on studies with learners who had signed up to language courses and these apps worked as an after-class support, so the results were not always reliable. A recent study of 4,095 Busuu users has been carried out aimed to find out if users can actually learn a language with an app.

    Busuu provides learning materials for 12 different languages. It offers special model where some content is available for free while some content is not. We find that its users are an even mix of men and women. More than half consider themselves to be at the beginner level as there is a decrease in users as their language levels go up. Most people use the app because of personal interest, or because they want to study or live abroad. Female users tend to use it less often but for longer periods of time than male users.

    Getting any feedback on Busuu depends on whether your answer is correct or not. While it is helpful, this is not the sort of feedback language teachers prefer, as it does not explain why the answer is right or wrong. In spite of this, feedback in the app is very highly rated.

    More than 92% of respondents state that the app has met their expectations and 86% rate the app as very good or good. In fact, more than 80% of the users surveyed strongly agree that using the app has helped them improve their knowledge of the language they are learning.

    Besides, language learning apps also create an environment where mistakes are only known to the users, and this can address the performance anxiety that many learners suffer from when asked to speak a foreign language. So language teachers should encourage their students to use them to do the grammar work, leaving precious class time for more language communication.

    Have you ever wondered how your favorite NBA team received its famous name? All NBA teams have an interesting story or a history behind their names. Some of the names reflect the city's culture or history, others came from previous owners and many were selected through "Name the Team" contests.

    For teams like Los Angeles and Utah, the names were not always a reflection of the city. Even though Los Angeles has no lakes, the Laker name has been a city treasure for almost 40 years. Before going to Los Angeles, the team originated in Minneapolis, Minnesota. In 1948, team officials chose the name for its direct relationship to the state's motto, "The Land of 10,000 Lakes." The team name went unchanged after moving to Los Angeles in 1960.

    Because Utah's team originated in New Orleans, Louisiana, it was called the Jazz. In 1974, New Orleans club officials chose the name to represent the city for its reputation as the "jazz capital of the world." The name stayed with the team even after finding a new home in Salt Lake City, Utah in 1979.

The Chicago Bull's original owner, Richard Klein, named the team the Bulls. He picked the name because a fighting bull is relentless, and never quits. Klein, who founded the club in1966, believed these qualities were necessary for a championship team and hoped his Chicago athletes would live up to the team name. A belief that Bulls—winner of the six NBA championships have definitely followed.

    In 1967, the Indian Pacers selected their team name in a different way from most other teams. Their decision was based on what they wanted to accomplish in the NBA. Team officials chose the Pacers name because the organization wanted to set the "pace" in professional basketball.