The winter vacation is just around the corner. With such a long holiday to spend, have you decided where to get yourself relaxed from the great pressure of school study? Our company specializes in civil tours. We take pride in offering you the best services and in providing you with a vacation that will be fondly remembered. The following places can be your unforgettable destinations in our country.

    A. The Australian Museum

    The Australian Museum has an international reputation in the fields of natural history and indigenous studies research and exhibitions. The museum was established in 1827 and is Australia's first museum of natural science and cultural artifacts.

    B. Sydney Olympic Park

    Home of the Best Games Ever and 2003 Rugby World, Sydney Olympic Park is a gold medal attraction and continues to serve as a major sport and social venue.

    Apart from its ultra-modern sport venues, Sydney Olympic Park is set in extensive parklands. Bicentennial Park, one of Sydney's most popular recreational areas, is criss-crossed with walking and bicycle tracks.

    C. Art Gallery of New South Wales

    Located within a short walking distance from Sydney's CBD, the Art Gallery of New South Wales is one of Australia's foremost art museums housing some of the finest works of art in the country.

    The Gallery has a rich and diverse collection including key works of the Heidelberg School and favorite modern Australian artists including Brett Whiteley and Margaret Preston, as well as permanent Australian, European, Asian, contemporary and photographic galleries.

    D. Koalas Park Sanctuary

    Koalas are on show every day. Shows are at 10:20 A.M., 11:20 A.M., 2:00 P.M., 3:00 P.M. where you can cuddle, feed, pat and have your photo taken with the Koalas. See free roaming Koalas as well, 10 acres of rainforest. Walk in and pat our kangaroos.

    Papa's jaw dropped when Mama told him that Sister had cheated on her final exams—not to succeed but to fail. “It's unbelievable!” he said. “Sister has always been so proud of her good grades!”

    “Yes, she has,” said Mama. “But it's not unbelievable. It just shows how badly she wanted off the swimming team.”

    “Wanted off the swimming team?” said Papa. “She never said anything about that to me.”

    “Of course she didn't,” said Mama. “She was afraid you'd blow your top. You already had her getting a swimming scholarship to college and winning gold medals at the Olympics. Can you imagine how much pressure she must have felt? For her, being on the team couldn't have been much fun.”

    “Oh, my god!” Papa said, clapping a hand to his forehead. “I've been so stupid! I just thought she'd want to be a champion swimmer because she's so good at it.”

    “It's like anything else, dear,” said Mama. “No matter how good at it you are, if it stops being fun, you won't want to do it anymore.”

    Papa put his head in his hands.

    “She must be really mad at me,” he mumbled. “Maybe I should say sorry to her.”

    Sister's footsteps could be heard on the stairs. She came into the kitchen and looked hopefully up at her parents.

    “Honey,” said Mama with a smile, “your papa and I have decided that there's no reason for you to be on the swimming team if you don't want to.”

    Sister's face lit up like a Christmas tree. “Yippee!” she cried.

    “And,” added Papa, “there's no need for any more drills. I'm sure you'll bring your grades back up all by yourself.”

    Sister ran to Papa and jumped into his arms. She gave him a big hug. “I'm going to go play cards with Lizzy!” she said. “See you later!”

    From the kitchen window, Mama and Papa watched their daughter run down the sunny road toward Lizzy's house.

    “It's good to see her happy again,” said Mama.

    “It sure is,” Papa agreed. “As for the swimming team, there's always next year.”

    “If?” Mama prompted him.

    “Oh, right,” said Papa. “If she wants to.”

    Mama smiled. “At least you're learning, dear,” she said. She kissed him.

    “Well, you know what they say,” Papa said. “Better late than never.”

    Shakespeare's Birthplace and Exhibition of Shakespeare's World

    Welcome to the world--famous house where William Shakespeare was born in1564 and where he grew up. The property remained in the ownership of Shakespeare's family until 1806. The House has welcomed visitors traveling from all over the world for over 250 years.

    Enter through the Visitors' Centre and see the highly-praised exhibition Shakespeare's World, a lively and full introduction to the life and work of Shakespeare.

    Stand in the rooms where Shakespeare grew up.

    Discover examples of furniture and needlework from Shakespeare's period.

    Enjoy the traditional English garden, planted with trees and flowers mentioned in the poet's works.

    The Birthplace is within easy walking distance of all the car parks shown on the map, nearest is Windsor Street(3 minutes' Walk)

    The House may present difficulties but the Visitors' Centre, its exhibition and the garden are accessible to wheelchair users.

    The Shakespeare Coffee House (opposite the Birthplace).

    As health care costs continue to rise, a growing number of companies are working out programs designed to keep their employees healthy.

    Thomas Chapple is the senior vice president. “It's really important to us because medical costs are going up like crazy, he says. This company spends more than 200 million a year on medical costs for its employees around the country. The best thing we have seen as a way to control the medical cost is individual fitness.”

    We have a fitness center, “Shawn Flaherty, director of public relations for Freddie Mac.,” says, “We have a health benefits plan that encourages people to work out three times a week, get cholesterol (胆固醇) checks, as well as 'not to smoke.' If they do that, it will cost them less for the health benefits.”

    Rachelle Clark works for Freddie Mac. “I feel great. You know the benefit is rewarding. I like to look good and feel healthy. I am just fortunate that I work for the company that provides some type of facility for the employees.”

    While on-site fitness centers are popular, some companies pay membership fees at local gyms for employees. The companies also offer classes such as boxing, yoga and dancing. Employees see those health programs as a valuable benefit.

    Tom Brook exercises five days a week. As a newspaper reporter he has a tight schedule, although Tom says it's not that difficult for him to make time for a workout. “It is great. It is right here where we work,” says Tom, “So everybody gets a chance to use it whenever they want to. I have lost weight and never been in better shape.”

    The programs may not be a magic cure for rising health costs, but they seem to have a positive impact on both employers and employees.

    It was dinner time for the Rangers, a group of mostly Indigenous (本地的) Australians who had spent a long day cleaning up the polluted beaches of the continent's northern coast. Soon they would be eating freshly caught fish and seafood cooked under the stars on an open fire, as their ancestors did.

    The Rangers are of more than 100 Indigenous groups spread across Australia who have taken on the job of protecting the land of their forefathers. In Arnhem Land, they are the protectors of 3,300 square miles of land and sea. They comb the beaches by hand, picking up as much rubbish as possible. The task is very difficult as each day it delivers waves of new rubbish.

    For the Rangers, cleaning the beaches is more than a vacation. For a people whose culture is strongly tied to the land, protecting the environment is equal to preserving their history.

    However, colonization forcefully broke their connection to the land generations ago. Indigenous people were displaced and their cultural practices outlawed. Tens of thousands of years of traditional land management ended, and as a result many parts of the country now face serious disasters from invasive plant and animal species, bush fires and land mismanagement.

    In recent years, the government has restored more than 20 percent of Australia's land to Indigenous owners. Since 2007, the Indigenous Rangers Organizations have been at work protecting this land.

    Luck, one of the few non-Indigenous employees working with the Rangers, said the combination of old and new techniques and an appreciation for the culture of Indigenous workers has been critical to the program's success.

    "You are working with staff who see the world different to you, so there is a much higher focus on the cultural aspects of work and life," he said.

    "Being a ranger is a source of confidence. You feel strong," said Terence, a senior ranger. "Here we still live on the land. The culture is still alive."

    When HarmonyOs, the Chinese self-developed operating system for Huawei mobile devices, was released on Aug 9, it quickly became a hot topic on social media. Many believe it not only represents the rise of the country as a tech power, but also shows respect to classical Chinese culture by naming the system "Hongmcng" in Chinese.

    "Hongmeng" is a classical word from Zhuangzi. In the ancient times of Chinese legend and myths (神话),"Hongmeng" was used to describe the original state of the universe before matter existed. For HarmonyOS, "Hongmeng" indicates the developers' aim to make an innovative operating system, unlike any other.

    Besides "Hongmeng'", Hunwei has also registered many of its products under the names of legendary creatures from Chinese myths. For example, the company's Kirin mobile chip got its name after a lucky monster called "Qilin". And its server chip is calked "Kunpeng", a creature that changed from a fish into a giant bird.

    Many Chinese Internet users and media have praised Huawei's use of these names," as they stand for Chinese wisdom and ancient people's imagination and spirit of exploration", Global Times noted.

    In fact, Huawei is not alone in using traditional culture for modern ventures. Ne Zha, the new film, also portrays traditional culture in a modern context. The movie is loosely based on the well-known work of classical Chinese myth The Investiture of the Gods. Earlier this month it became the biggest animated movie in China and was called "the glory of domestic anime (国产动漫)".

    Indeed, the long history and splendid classic works have given China a profound culture. Myths and legends are the creative works of tremendous imagination. As Global Times put it, today by revisiting a modern context, "ancient myths has the power to inspire imagination in young people". After all, imagination is the beginning of creation.