New Orleans, Louisiana, was established as part of the French Empire in 1718.

    Its location on the east bank of the Mississippi River gave it control of the American hinerland and it became strategically important to many nations. It was transferred from France to Spain, returned to France, and finally sold by Napoleon to the United States in 1803. The city was the site of a famous battle fought in 1815 between the British, who hoped to control it, and the Americans under General Andrew Jackson.

    The riverbed of the Mississippi is constantly silting（淤积）and the river is now actually higher than the city. Levees hold back the river and giant pumps are used to move water from the city into the river.

    Although New Orleans has been a part of the United States for almost two centuries, its population takes great pride in its French heritage. Louisiana still retains parts of the Code Napoleon which, for many years, was its only law.

    New Orleans is carefree city and it boasts its hot, spicy Creole seafood and its native Dixieland Jazz. The Jackson Square neighborhood maintains its French colonial homes and in other sections are pre-Civil War mansions. Visitors are surprised to find that behind this interesting surface of yesteryear is a busy industrial and port city. Grain and coal come from the Midwest and foreign goods are unloaded here. New Orleans is no longer a sleepy Southern town—but it's still fun to visit.

Position: Sales Manager

    A Sales Manager with Hilton Hotels and Resorts will develop a sales team and a sales plan that maximizes revenue (收益) by driving the sale of conference facility space and guest rooms.

    What will it be like to work for the Hilton Brand?

    One of the most recognized names in the industry, Hilton Hotels & Resorts offers travelers a world of authentic (可信的) experiences. The brand continues to be innovative and forward-thinking. With products and services that meet the needs of tomorrow's smart global travellers, we share experiences in which every guest feels cared for, valued and respected.

    If you understand the importance of upholding a brand's reputation, you may be just the person we are looking for to work as a Team Member with Hilton Hotels & Resorts.

    What will you be doing?

    As a Sales Manager, you will work with the Conference & Events Sales Department to maximize revenue opportunities. A Sales Manager will be directly responsible for performing the following tasks to the highest standards:

●Maximize all Conference & Events revenue opportunities

●Meet the hotel's set targets

●Understand the marketplace to ensure the hotel stays competitive in the local market

●Ensure the sales team is developed effectively and embraces a culture of high quality

●Work effectively to build relationships with colleagues in the hotel

What are we looking for?

A Sales Manager serving Hilton Worldwide Brand hotels is always working on behalf of our guests and working with other Team Members. To successfully fill this role, you should maintain the following attitude, behavior, skills and values:

● Strong leadership skills that motivate the Sales Team to perform beyond expectations

● Excellent selling capabilities

● Desire to coach the Sales Team in selling techniques

● Excellent organizational and planning skills

What benefits will you receive?

Your benefits will include a competitive starting salary and holiday entitlement. As an employee you will become a member of the Hilton Club, which provides reduced hotel room rates in our hotels worldwide, plus discounts on products and services offered by Hilton Worldwide and its partners.

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    The British are known for their sense of humor. However, it is often difficult for foreigners to understand their jokes. The main point to remember is that the British often use understatement.

    Understatement means saying less than you think or feel. For example, if someone gets very wet in a shower of rain, he might say, “Its a little damp (潮湿的) outside.” Or, if someone is very impolite and shouts at another person, someone else might say, “She isn't exactly friendly.” Understatement is often used in unpleasant situation or to make another person look silly. Understatement plays an important part in British humor.

    Another key to understanding British humor is that the British like to make fun of themselves as well as others. They often laugh about the silly and unpleasant things that happen to our everyday life when someone accidently falls over in the street. They also like to make jokes about people from different classes of society. They like to make jokes about their accents, the way they dress and the way they behave. What's more, the British love to watch comedies (喜剧) about people who do not know how to behave in society. The comedies series Mr. Bean is a good example of this kind of humor.

    Mr. Bean is the character created by British actor Rowan Atkinson in 1990. Mr. Bean doesn't talk often, and instead he uses his body movement and facial expressions to make people laugh. Perhaps what makes Mr. Bean so funny is that he does things that adults in the real world cannot do. Mr. Bean is popular in many countries around the world because you do not have to speak English to understand the humor. Because of this, many people have become familiar with the British sense of humor.

    Sharpshooters refer to those who are skilled at firing a gun and accurately hitting what they are aiming at. However, some fish are also called amazing sharpshooters. People wonder how they hit their targets without using tools? By spitting! The fish shoot so accurately that they rarely miss their target.

    These amazing fish are archerfish (印度射水鱼).There are several different types of archerfish living in Southeast Asia. They spit at their dinner to catch it. To catch dinner, a fish first sets itself in a certain place, for example just below the surface of the water. It puts the tip of its mouth so it barely breaks through the water. Then, the fish waits for an unsuspecting insect to land on a leaf or branch hanging over the water.

    When an unsuspecting, or unknowing insect lands, the fish attacks. The fish squeezes its gill (腮)covers very rapidly, which forces water into the fish's mouth. In the roof of its mouth the fish has a groove (槽）. The fish forms the small groove and its tongue into a narrow tube by pressing its tongue up against its groove. The water forced into the fish's mouth is forcefully pushed out of the fish's mouth through the tube. Archerfish have been known to send a stream up to 5 meters (16 feet). However, archerfish can only shoot insects up to 1-2 meters (3-6 feet) away due to their limited accuracy.

    When the unsuspecting insect is hit with a sudden stream of water, it is knocked into or falls into the water. Once in the water, the insect becomes dinner. Archerfish learn how to spit when they are young. They get more accurate with practice. Adult archerfish rarely miss.

    Within a meter, archerfish will often spring out of the water and grab an insect in their mouths.

    Chinese researchers say they have come up with a simple way to find out a person's biological age —how much the body has aged physically – through a urine (尿) test.

    Their findings will help researchers conduct numbers of ageing studies and even predict a person's risk of age-related diseases, according to a paper published in the journal Frontiers in Ageing Neuroscience.

    Another paper by researchers at the Beijing Hospital and the West China Hospital in Chengdu, Sichuan province, said on Tuesday that people aged at different rates due to changes in their genetic make-up and their environment.

    Chronological age – which is based on one's birth date —was not an exact measure of biological age so a more exact method was needed, the team said.

    Ageing is driven by the lifelong gradual accumulation(积累) of a broad variety of molecular (分子) faults in the body's cells. The team said they had identified a matter 8-oxoGsn that indicated increases in oxidative (氧化性) damage in urine as people's bodies aged.

    Cai Jianping, a co-author at the Beijing Hospital, said: “As we age, we suffer increasing oxidative damage and so the levels of oxidative matters increase in our body.” The team tested the levels of 8-oxoGsn in urine samples from 1,228 Chinese people aged two to 90 and concluded the marker helped accurately determine the stage of biological ageing in adults.

    They had previously found that 8-oxoGsn levels also increased with age in the urine of animals such as mice.

    The team has also developed a rapid analysis technique called ultra-high-performance liquid chromatography(层析法), which can process up to 10 urine samples an hour, according to the study.

    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.