Keeping the kids busy over the school holidays can be discouraging and cost parents a lot. But we've found some cheap and cheerful ways to enjoy family time this Easter from free days out to fun-filled theme parks which won't cost you much. We've done the homework so you can get started on having a great time.

    Theme Parks

    Save from 10% to 25% off the price of tickets for Legoland in Windor by booking in advance online. A family of four can save up to £ 45.90 on a one-day ticket, paying £ 137.70.

    Book seven days in advance and save £ 43 off the price of a family of four ticket for Drayton Manor Theme Park. Cali 0844-472-1950 or book online and you'll pay £ 65 on the day.

    You can pick up a family of four ticket for a day at Alton Towers in Staffordshire for £ 43.80 off the day price.

    Save £ 16 off the price for a family trip to The Making of Harry Potter by buying a family ticket (two adults and two children) online. Family of four £ 101, compared to £ 117.

    Activities

    Students looking for a cut-price trip to see the animals can save 15% off the ticket price at Bristol Zoo and pay £ 12.71 rather than the full adult price £ 14.53. Teens should show their identity as students.

    Freebies

    Let your kids discover what it's like to be an animal on the African Plain or in the ocean. Or, they can learn to love leaf beetles or become a scientist for the day at the Natural History Museum in London.

    Have you ever been to France before? It is not only a country of great food, fashion and art. It's also home to the most influential painters in the world.

    Edouard Manet

    He was one of the first artists to paint modern life. He began to paint in his own style, but still used some of Couture's techniques like thick lines and dark colors. He was greatly influenced by Claude Monet and Berthe Morisot, which can be seen in his use of light shades. Most of his paintings had scenes of daily life on the streets of Paris. His works include Olympia and The Absinthe Drinker.

    Camille Pissarro

    In his early years, Pissarro painted scenes of a river or a path from memory. After meeting Claude Monet and Paul Cezanne, who painted in a more realistic style, he changed his course to Impressionism. During his career, he experimented with various styles, and finally formed his own one. His works include Old Market at Rouen and Sunset at St. Charles.

    Vincent van Gogh

    He had a huge influence on art in the 20th century. His early works were most painted in somber tones. However, influenced by Monet, Pissarro, and Bernard, he adopted brighter colors in his works, and started creating his own techniques. Although he had produced more than 2,000 works of art, the artist sold only one painting during his lifetime — Red Vineyard at Arles. His works include The Potato Eaters, Starry Night and Bedroom in Arles.

    Claude Monet

    He was the founder of the Impressionist movement and completely changed the French painting in the 19th century. Although he first started by selling charcoal caricatures（木炭讽刺画）in Paris, he soon started painting with oil after meeting Eugene Boudin, who taught him to use oil paints and also encouraged him to paint outdoors. And then he painted with his own style. His works include Impression, Sunrise and The Water Liles.

    Finding a mountain goat resting high on a cliff(悬崖) might thrill many of the millions of tourists who visit Wyoming's Grand Teton National Park every year, but park officials say it might be time for the bearded animals to go.

    The problem, according to the park, is that Grand Teton's 100 or so mountain goats threaten about 80 bighorn sheep. The bighorn sheep numbered as many as 125 just a few years ago. The strong goats spread disease and compete with bighorn sheep for food. Unlike small-sized bighorn sheep, Grand Teton's mountain goats aren't native to the park. They were introduced to the park in the 1960s.

    Grand Teton spokeswoman Denise Germann said, “We've got a management responsibility to protect the native species. After hearing from the public on the proposal (建议) in January, park officials expect to decide as soon as mid-February on what to do about the mountain goats.”

    The goats are reproducing rapidly. Now might be the best time to reduce the animals before they're too many to bring under control, according to the Park Service.

    One wildlife biologist who studies bighorn sheep praised the proposal. Mountain goats' original habitat is nowhere close to where they've been introduced in the U.S. to provide hunting opportunities, said Rob Roy Ramey II, with Nederland, Colorado-based Wildlife Science International, Inc.

    Wildlife managers should get rid of mountain goats not only in Grand Teton but elsewhere to help struggling bighorn sheep, Ramey said. “Unfortunately, state wildlife agencies sell nonnative wildlife viewing opportunities to the public,” Ramey said. “This is not a zoo in the wilderness. It should really be for native wildlife.”

    "You're going to the doctor," your mum tells you. But why go to the doctor when you're not sick? Regular checkups (健康检查) are a good idea for kids. These visits happen when you're feeling fine and are sometimes called "well-child" visits because you're well.

    It's a chance for the doctor to see that you're growing and developing normally. It's also a chance for your parents to talk with the doctor about any issues, such as safety or nutrition, so they can help you stay healthy. And it gives you a chance to ask any question you might have about your health. You might wonder when you will grow taller, for example, or if you weigh the right amount.

    A checkup may start when a nurse calls you and your parents from the waiting room. He or she might start by checking your weight and height, as well as your blood pressure and maybe your temperature.

    Blood pressure: This shows how hard your heart is pumping blood throughout your body.

    Body temperature: Using a thermometer, the nurse can find out if your temperature is in the normal range. If it is higher, it means that you have a fever and your body is working to fight off an infection (感染).

    The nurse may check your hearing and vision. If you have trouble with either one of these, you might need to see a hearing expert or an eye doctor. Urine (尿) can tell whether something is wrong with the way a person's body is working.

    All of these numbers, measurements, and test results will go into your medical record, so the doctor can look them over. Then it's time to meet the doctor.

    A university in southwest China's Chongqing City set up a reading room as part of a campaign(活动)that stops students from taking their mobile phones with them in case the device distracts(使分心)them from focusing on their studies.

    Reportedly a student named Hu Xiaopeng taking part in the campaign studied 530 minutes without using his mobile phone. Unlike Hu, another one picked up his mobile phone in less than 20 minutes. "Having seen many students use their mobile phones in the library, a habit that shortens their study time and negatively affects their learning, we decided to open this reading room," said Zhang Shuran, the person responsible for the project at the university.

    Zhang added that students can keep their phones in appointed bags with numbers on them. The bags are placed on a desk near the door of the reading room. "Staff members at the reading room will check the phones when there's a call," said Zhang, adding that they will inform students when their parents or teachers call them, but will not tell students if an unknown person is calling or when there is a text message. Based on the time students hand in their phones when they come to the reading room and the time they get them back when they leave the room, Hu Xiaopeng from College of Animal Science and Technology of the university set a record of the longest time. Hu spent 530 minutes studying without using his phone. Though feeling somewhat surprised, Hu said, "It's bad to keep mobile phone with you when you are reading or studying."

    The campaign has attracted nearly 200 students since it was started a week ago. Some Internet users praised the campaign. One user named Liu Jingchang said, "It's good. I don't bring my phone when going to the library in case I get distracted."

A new study examined scientists' peer reviews, or researchers' official statements on others' work, across multiple AI-related conferences. At one such conference, those peer reviews used the word "meticulous" — a buzzword often associated with generative A.I., like ChatGPT — almost 3,400 percent more than the previous year. Other major conferences showed similar patterns. In other words, many researchers were handing, at least, parts of their peer review over to A.I.

What's going on in science is a slice of a much bigger problem. Any viral post on social media now almost certainly includes A.I.-generated elements. There are synthetic videos for children on YouTube, like music videos about parrots where the birds have eyes within eyes, singing in an unnatural voice. The narratives make no sense, and characters appear and disappear randomly.

As a neuroscientist, this worries me. Isn't it possible that human culture contains within it cognitive micronutrients — things like reasonable sentences, narrations and character continuity — that developing brains need? Einstein supposedly said: "If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy tales. If you want them to be very intelligent, read them more fairy tales." But what happens when a child is consuming mostly A.I.-generated waste? We find ourselves in the middle of a vast developmental experiment.

A.I.'s cultural pollution is driven by a desire to fill the Internet's appetite for content as cheaply as possible, which in turn pollutes our culture. And despite public appeals to act against it, A.I. companies are dragging their feet because it goes against the industry's bottom line to have detectable products, which they fear might weaken the model's performance, although there is no current evidence.

To deal with this general refusal to act, we need a Clean Internet Act. Perhaps the simplest solution would be to force built-in watermarking to A.I. generated outputs, like patterns not easily removable. Just as the 20th century required action to protect the shared environment, the 21st century is going to require actions to protect a different but equally critical resource: our shared human culture.