Do you love traveling? If the answer is yes, then have you ever thought about why? You may argue that traveling can help you enrich your knowledge, especially geographical and historical learning. It will provide more chances for you to enjoy food and try on clothes that you otherwise cannot possible have. A famous English author Francis Bacon (1561-1626) makes a point when he says that, “Travel, in the younger sort, is a part of education; in the elder, a part of experience.”

    Evidence of leisure travel can be traced as far back as ancient Babylon. This year, according to the World Travel & Tourism Council, the 1 billionth tourist will cross an international boundary before the end of this month. That means that one in seven people on the planet traveled this year, something that would not have been possible a few decades ago. Around 20 years ago only the rich could travel.

    While the US and France remain the two largest destinations for world travel, experts say much of the explosive growth in tourism has been to countries like Guatemala, the Dominican Republic, and the Ivory Coast, which weren't even on the world tourism map a decade ago. The top five destinations in the world, according to the United Nations World Tourism Organization, are Paris, London, New York, the Mediterranean, Turkey.

    Several factors have led to the boom in world travel. The prosperity (富裕) of people in Asia is one factor. People in Asian developing countries have lifted their incomes above middle-class levels in the past few years. And a lot of them have used their new wealth to travel. In addition, travel costs have been reduced thanks to the rapid development of transportation, and competition between airlines to give customers the best prices.

    London has become a cycle-friendly zone after the launch of a new bike hire scheme.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

   {#blank#}2{#/blank#}First you have to sign up to the scheme to be sent a key. The key will unlock one of the bikes, which are kept at docking stations in and around central London. You have to pay an access fee for the key and then you pay as you go, for the length of time you use the bike.

    Transport for London, which runs the scheme, are hoping to have 6,000 bikes and 400 docking stations in place by the end of the year. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}London Mayor Boris Johnston launched the scheme and said London has been “filled with thousands of gleaming (发光的) machines that will transform the look and feel of our street and become as commonplace on our roads as black cabs and red buses”.

{#blank#}4{#/blank#} On the first day some people found they couldn't dock their bike properly and their usage of the bike had not registered. Transport for London did admit they had been expecting a few “teething problems” and have said they would not charge for the first day as a “gesture of goodwill”. Some other people have criticized the lack of docking stations and locks for the bikes as well as the price it costs to hire the bicycles.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}“My crusade for the capital to become the greatest big cycling city in the world has taken a great pedal-powered push forwards.”

A. So how does it work?

B. How do you like it?

C. However, there have been a few problems since the scheme was launched last Friday.

D. Despite the comments, the green-thinking London Mayor still says with certainty.

E. However, the London Mayor is confident of the scheme.

F. It has been designed to encourage more people to cycle in and around central London.

G. The new hire system is hoping to ease congestion(拥挤) in London and is expected to create up to 40,000 extra cycle trips a day into the city centre.

    The guzheng is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither（齐特琴）family of string instruments. It is the parent of many musical instruments of some other countries.

    The guzheng should not be confused with the guqin, another ancient Chinese zither but without bridges. Now the guzheng is zither with movable bridges and usually 21 strings, although it can have from 15-25 strings. The guzheng's strings were formerly made of silk, though most players used metal strings by the 20^th century. Since the mid-20^th century most performers use steel strings. The guzheng has a large resonant cavity（共振腔）.

    The guzheng has existed since the Warring States Period and became especially popular during the Qin dynasty. The number of strings on the guzheng has always fluctuated. There were as few as 6 to as many as 23 strings during the Tang dynasty. The earliest record of the guzheng belonged to the historian Sima Qian. Until 1961, the common guzheng had 16 strings, although by the mid-20^th century 18-string guzheng were also in use. In 1961, Xu Zhenggao, together with Wang Xunzhi, introduced the first 21-string guzheng after two years of research and development. In 1960, they also invented the “S-shaped” left string rest, which was quickly adopted by all guzheng makers and is still used today. This curve allows for greater ease in tuning the strings and, combined with strings of different thickness, allows for greater resonance in both the deeper and the higher pitch（音调）ranges. The 21-string guzheng is the most commonly used one, but some traditional musicians still use the 16-string one.

    “Long time no see” is a very interesting sentence. When I first read this sentence from an American friend's email, I laughed. I thought it was a perfect example of Chinglish.

    Obviously, it is a word-by-word literal translation of the Chinese greetings with a ruled English grammar and structure! Later on, my friend told me that it is a standard American greeting. I was too surprised to believe her. Her words could not convince me at all. So I did a research on google.com. To my surprise, there are over 60 thousand web pages containing “Long time no see.” This sentence has been widely used in emails, letters, newspapers, movies, books, or any other possible places. Though it is sort of informal, it is part of the language that Americans use daily. Ironically, if you type this phrase in Microsoft Word, the software will tell you that the grammar needs to be corrected.

    Nobody knows the origin of this Chinglish sentence. Some people believe that it came from Charlie Chan's movies. In the 1930s, Hollywood moviemakers successfully created a world wide famous Chinese detective named “Charlie Chan” on wide screens. Detective Chan likes to teach Americans some Chinese wisdom by quoting Confucius. “Long time no see” was his trademark. Soon after Charlie Chan, “Long time no see” became a popular phrase in the real world with thanks to the popularity of these movies.

    Some scholars refer to America as a huge pot of stew. All kinds of culture are mixed in the stew together, and they change the color and taste of each other. American Chinese, though a minority ethnic(少数民族的成员) group in the United States, is also contributing some changes to the stew! Language is usually the first thing to be influenced in the mixed stew.

    You can have some other examples than adoptions（采用）from Chinese, such as pizza from Italian, susi from Japanese, and déjà vu from French etc. There is a long list! Americans do not just simply borrow something from others. They will modify it and make it their own, so you would not be surprised to find a tofu and peanut butter hamburger in a restaurant, or to buy a bottle of iced Chinese green tea with honey in a grocery store. Since Americans appreciate Chinese culture more and more nowadays, I believe more Chinese words will become American English in the future. In this way the American stew keeps adding richness and flavor.

    Shakespeare's Globe Exhibition & Tour is a unique international resource to explore Shakespeare's work. Open all year round, it gives you an opportunity to learn more about the most famous playwright, Shakespeare, and helps you seek to further the experience and international understanding of him.

Group Visits to the Exhibition & Tour

Opening Hours

    Theatre Tours:   Monday - Sunday          9:30 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

    Exhibition:      Monday - Sunday          9:00 a.m.- 5:00 p.m.

    Groups of 15 people or more are required to pre-book their visit, and each group will have its own guide for free. To make a reservation, please fill in a Group Request Form and return it to us via email.

    Exhibition and Tour Prices

    Adult:                             $15.00

    Senior (60+):                    $13.50

    Student (with valid ID):        $11.50

    Child (5-15):                     $ 8.00

    Complimentary:                Every 16th person free

    Getting here

    Shakespeare's Globe 21 New Globe Walk, London SEl9DT, UK

    Visitors are advised to arrive by public transport or by taxi. There is a car park on Thames Exchange on the north side of Southwark Bridge (open 24 hours, seven days a week). Cabs may be found all year round on Southwark Bridge. It may also be possible to pick one up from outside the entrance hall on New Globe Walk.

Where to eat

    Swan at Shakespeare's Globe serves modern British seasonal food for dinner, afternoon tea or drinks in our beautiful bar and restaurant set over two floors, available for pre- and post-theatre dining.

    Swan Restaurant

    Monday- Friday:    12 noon - 2:30 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.- 10:30 p.m.

    Saturday:             12 noon- 3:30 p.m. & 6:00 p.m.

    Sunday:               12 noon- 9: 00 p.m.

    So often I hear people justify（为……辩解）their lack of family trips because their children are not old enough to remember them. This reason is so confusing to me. Who would travel based on another person's memory?

    Of course the kids aren't going to remember anything in infancy（婴儿期）, but you will. You will remember all the sweet memories you had with them.

    My parents would take me to Guatemala as a child. I don't remember a lot of the trip, but I do know that when I went back as a young adult, I felt comfortable in my surroundings. I didn't spend my time there discovering a new way of life. I spent the time having fun with my family. I love looking at pictures that we took together when I was my son's age. I don't remember them, but that's not the point. The point is, I was there with my family, and I know I was happy.

    Now that I'm a parent, I can't help but do the same. Last year, we took our 2-year-old son to Disney alongside his great-grandmother. His great-grandmother had recently begun to suffer from Alzheimer's. That trip was timed in the most magical way — right before my son was old enough to remember it and right before his great-grandmother began to forget. This makes me want to cry for them both. How did we get so lucky to have this moment to share with each other before big changes influenced our family forever?

    Realistically speaking, many families do not have the opportunity to travel internationally or visit pricey theme parks. I understand this more than you know, but I'm talking beyond that. They are young but these forgettable moments are still changing them. They will shape your child into who they will be tomorrow. The memories we absorb as their parents are also as influential as we have not finished learning our truths either.