B

    Atlantic puffins（角嘴海雀）are specially used to living on the open sea. Their feathers allow them to stay warm as they float at the ocean's surface or swim underwater. Diving as deep as 60m, they swim by flapping their wings as if flying through the water. There, they hunt herring, capelin, and sand eels.

    Atlantic puffins are also excellent fliers. Flapping their wings at up to 400 beats per minute, puffins can reach speeds of 88km/h.

    April to mid-August is the breeding season for puffins. When a puffin is around three to five years old, it will choose a partner at sea to mate with for life. It is thought that the birds' colourful bills and feet, which fade in the winter and brighten in the spring, help puffins find their potential（可能的）mates.

    Puffins create shelter（庇护所）, about 90cm, in rocky cliffs either in the soil or between rocks. Often, couples will return to the same shelter year after year. At the back of the shelter, they build a nest lined with grasses, seaweed, and feathers. After the female lays a single egg, both parents take turns incubating（孵化）the egg for about 40 days.

    Once the chick hatches, the mother and father will take turns bringing it fish to eat several times a day. Atlantic puffins have the ability to carry several fish in their beaks at one time. The ridges（脊）at the top of their bill hold the fish in place, which allows puffins to keep their mouth open to catch more fish without losing any. In general, they can hold around ten fish in their beak at one time.

    In the wild, puffins can live around 20 years. Their main predator is the great black-backed gull, which can capture a puffin mid-flight or attack a puffin on the ground. Gulls are also a threat because they steal puffins' fish (sometimes right from their mouths), and they pull puffin chicks or eggs from their nests.

    High school in Austria is a fantastic way to experience life overseas while growing academically.

    Activities

    Austria's close proximity（接近）to lakes, forests and mountains enables it to offer a great variety of activities. Alpine skiing began with local competitions in the Austrian Arlberg area. Snowboarding, surfing, sailing, horseback riding, soccer, tennis and volleyball are also popular activities.

    Program Dates

    Dates subject to change

    Academic Year

    Dates: August-June

    Application Before April 15th

    US$ 500 Early Application Discount Apply by February 2nd.

    Fall Trimester

    Dates: August-November

    Application Before April 15th

    US$ 300 Early Application Discount Apply by February 2nd

    Fall Semester

    Dates: August-January

    Application Before April 15th

    US$ 500 Early Application Discount Apply by February 2nd

    Spring Trimester

    Dates: January-April

    Application Before October 1st

    US$ 300 Early Application Discount Apply by July 2nd

    Spring Semester

    Dates: January-June

    Application Before October 1st

    U$ 500 Early Application Discount Apply by July 2nd

    Eligibility（资格）

    You should:

    Be between 15 and 18 years of age.

    Be from the United States or Canada.

    Have a high school grade of at least 2.75/4.

    Be in great mental and physical health.

    Have a genuine interest in becoming a part of your host family and community.

    Be willing to learn the German language.

    Costs

    Academic Trimester: US$ 8,820

    Academic Semester: US$ 12,470

    Academic Year: US$ 14,160

    A great woman once said, “Women must try to do things as men have tried. When they fail, their failure must be a challenge to others. “These are the words of US pilot Amelia Earhart（1897- 1937）, a pioneer in aviation（航空领域）, who was the first woman to fly across the Atlantic Ocean

    Her story ended in mystery when she disappeared without a trace（踪迹）during a flight over the Pacific Ocean. Theories about what happened to Earhart were proposed, but nothing was ever confirmed—until now. A study published in March conducted by Richard Jantz from the University of Tennessee, US, determined that bones found in 1940 on a remote Pacific island belonged to Earhart. Following the discovery, the world's memories of the legendary female pilot were brought back to life.

    Earhart was born in 1897. When she was young, she was very interested in stories about women who were successful in male-dominated（男性为主的）professions, such as engineering and law. But in 1920, Earhart's life changed after her first experience of being a plane passenger. As soon as the plane left the ground, Earhart knew that she loved flying, so she found herself a teacher and started to learn how to fly for herself. To pay for the lessons and buy a plane of her own, she took all sorts of jobs.

    In 1932, Earhart flew solo（独自地）across the Atlantic, becoming the first woman ever to do so. She also designed a flying suit for women and went on to design other clothes for women who led active lives. When she was nearly 40, Earhart was ready for a final challenge—to be the first woman to fly around the world. Her first attempt was unsuccessful but she tried again in 1937 with her navigator（领航员）Fred Noonan. But one month later, they disappeared in bad weather in mid-flight.

    Even though it's still not clear how she ended up on the island, we're one step closer to finding the answer. And no matter what, Earhart will be forever remembered as a brave pioneer, both as a pilot and as a woman.

    Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

    Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an ID number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

    Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”

    Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

    People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

    BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back the “real” and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

Mark Twain's First Money

      Mark Twain was asked one day if he could remember the first money he ever earned. He thought a long time and then said, "Yes, it was at school. I can remember everything about it. School boys in those days did not take good care of their chairs and desks. There was a rule in our school that if anyone damaged his desk or chair, he would have to pay five dollars or the teacher would beat him in front of the whole school."

    "One day I damaged my desk in some way, I had to pay five dollars or be beaten before the whole school. My father said it would be too bad to have our family disgraced in front of the whole school. He agreed to give me five dollars to hand over the teacher. But before he gave me the money, he took me upstairs and gave me a beating."

    "But as I had one beating and I decided I would take another beating at school and keep the five dollars. So that's what I did. That was the first money I ever earned."

    Traveling abroad for leisure is becoming more and more popular for Chinese. The UK is high up in the list of places that the Chinese want to visit. There is a sense of mystery about the UK: it's often the images of England's green parks, countryside and Victorian houses that people point to as an alternative to polluted, overcrowded cities such as Beijing and Guangzhou.

    The capital is viewed as modern and dynamic, while being filled deep with history. When asked what other images are thought of by the UK, the reply is often "the Queen, tea and Oxbridge". So what's stopping them actually coming? Sebastian Wood, the British ambassador in Beijing, has described the UK as a "fortress", and while this is perhaps an exaggeration (夸张), Britain does have a reputation as a country that is harder to access.

    The main problem for Chinese tourists is obvious. Although visa applications are now completed online, visitors are still required to visit one of 12 UK centers across the country for a face-to-face interview and fingerprinting. If you don't live near one of these centers already, you'd have to travel some distance to get there.

    Another problem is also to be mentioned. If travelers from China visit the UK, they also want to cover as much ground as possible. But the UK is not included in the Schengen visa, which allows access to a host of 26 European countries such as France and Germany. So it makes the former seem less worth it.

    There is also the issue of cost:￡47 for a Schengen visa, ￡82 for the UK. On top of this, the UK is viewed as stricter in its handling of visas compared with the rest of Europe, fed by urban legends of rejected applications. In the end, the decision comes down to one question: Is Britain worth a visit?