Everybody has his or her favorite movie. Do you want to know my favorite movie? Let me tell you. Kung Fu Panda is my favorite movie. Why do I like it very much? Well, there are three reasons.

    First, I like pandas very much, so I like the panda called Po in the movie. He is fat but he is very funny.

    Second, I like Chinese Kung Fu very much. In this movie, many animals can do Chinese Kung Fu.

    Third, the story is very wonderful. It is about how a panda becomes a real hero. I should learn from Po and become a good boy.

    What about you? What's your favorite movie?

    If you want to travel from Xi'an to Chengdu by train, it will take about 16 hours. But starting this month, the new Xi'an-Chengdu high-speed railway will shorten this travel time to three hours.

    The 643-kilometer line is China's first high-speed railway to run through the Qinling Mountains, which form a natural boundary (分界线) between China's north and south. With a speed of 250 km per hour, it's also the first mountain-heavy train line to provide a 4G network. Along the way, the train passes through two areas for rare (稀有) wild animals — one for pandas and the other for crested ibises (朱鹮).

    To reduce the railway's influence on the animals, workers and experts have designed and built the railway to be environmentally friendly. There were 345 wild pandas living in the Qinling Mountains. China currently has 1,864 wild pandas in total, according to the Xinhua News Agency.

    To avoid disturbing the pandas, the railway was designed to run through tunnels (隧道) within the area. Protective shields (防护屏) are placed near the entrance of each tunnel to stop animals from going in.

    To protect the thousands of crested ibises that fly near one part of the railway, protective nets have been set up to make sure the birds will not fly into a train.

    The nets are about 32 km long and 4 meters high. Experts tested different shapes and materials for building the nets before making their final choice.

    One morning more than thirty years ago, I entered the Track Kitchen, a restaurant where everyone from the humblest(卑微的) to the most powerful came for breakfast. I noticed an empty chair next to an elderly, unshaven man, who looked somewhat disheveled. He was wearing a worn-out hat and was alone. I asked if I might join him. He agreed quietly and I sat down to have my breakfast.

    We cautiously began a conversation and spoke about a wide range of things. We never introduced ourselves. I was concerned that he might have no money and not be able to afford something to eat. So as I rose to go back to the counter and buy a second cup of coffee, I asked,

    "May I get you something?"

    "A coffee would be nice."

    Then I bought him a cup of coffee. We talked more, and he accepted another cup of coffee, Finally, I rose to leave, wished him well, and headed for the exit. At the door I met one of my friends. He asked,

    "How did you get to know Mr. Galbreath?"

    "Who?"

    "The man you were sitting with. He is chairman of the Board of Churchill Downs."

    I could hardly believe it. I was buying, offering a free breakfast, and feeling pity for one of the world's richest and most powerful men!

    My few minutes with Mr. Galbreath changed my life. Now I try to treat everyone with respect, no matter who I think they are, and to meet another human being with kindness and sincerity.

    Putting a dinosaur skeleton(骨架)together is not easy. The skeletons are usually very incomplete. Many dinosaur fossils(化石) are discovered badly damaged. Bones are often found crashed (压碎) or bent by the great weight of the dirt and rock above. Sometimes parts from different creatures are mixed together. This just adds to the confusion.

    Unfortunately, some scientists have not been careful enough in their descriptions of dinosaurs. They have told grand stories of how dinosaurs looked and behaved. All of these descriptions are based on guesswork – the imaginations of people who have never seen a living dinosaur. Some scientists have made complete pictures of dinosaurs based on just a single bone or tooth or leg. Such pictures are based on many guesses and very little facts. The scientists' ideas often turn out to be wrong when more facts are discovered.

    Dinosaur fossils are not found with labels attached showing what the animals looked like. That is why no pictures of dinosaurs are exactly right. Every dinosaur painting is sure to contain at least some wrong information. No artist in the twentieth century ever saw the living, breathing animals -- complete with skin, flesh, and color.

    For instance, imagine never having seen or heard of a peacock. One day you find the jumbled bones of it buffed in the ground. You try to put the bones together to form a skeleton. And then you try to draw a picture of what the animal looked like when it Was alive. But bones cannot tell the whole story. Even if you are a very good artist, it would be a miracle if you drew a tree picture of a peacock just from the bones and your imagination.

    In this Pennsylvania city, Pittsburgh is shrinking but getting wealthier. Since 2000, its population has declined by 95,000 while its income per capita (人均) has shot up 24 percent. The trend is taking hold in many other cities, like Buffalo in New York, Providence in Rhode Island and New Orleans.

    Some of these areas have created more high-paying jobs in energy, health care or education. Others have managed to reshape their producing industry for a new economy. Higher-paying jobs have a greater effect because they create demand for additional services. "The story in Pittsburgh is very positive, and other areas are looking at it as an example of the transformation that might be possible,” said Guhan Venkatu, who wrote an economic history of the area called “Rust and Renewal” for the Federal Reserve Bank of Cleveland.

    Carnegie Mellon University and the University of Pittsburgh have helped bring tech jobs and innovation(革新) to the area by sponsoring tech centers that help graduates start companies without moving to Silicon Valley or San Francisco. This has helped keep Pittsburgh's educated young population growing even as the entire population in the city has dropped.

    Pittsburgh has more STEM (science, technology, engineering and math) jobs than other shrinking cities, about 80, 000 or 7% of all jobs. STEM jobs add productivity and income growth to the area. Manufacturers of high-tech medical equipment in the Pittsburgh area also have doubled employment in the last 10 years.

    However, some experts question whether growing income per capita can really make up for a declining population. According to Patrick Adler, a researcher at the University of Toronto, population loss does matter if it means lower-skilled workers have fled because of a lack of opportunity. What's more, high-paying jobs in education and health care can disappear if the population declines too greatly. So it'd be wise to find ways to increase the population.

    Saturday, 22 April, 2017

    We are currently on a camp site near Calais, on our way to the UK, and it is pouring with rain. As if gods want to prepare us for the UK at all costs. As if we don't know what rain is… Our ferry to the green isles will leave tomorrow at 10: 30 and despite the rain, I am really looking forward to it.

    It has taken us a while to get here, as we already left EI Chorro on 4 April. After rushing through Spain in two days, however, we came to an inevitable slow-down when we entered France. Inevitable, as France has simply too much to offer for us, so as soon as we crossed the Pyrenees, our driving sequence became something like driving a few kilometres, visiting a castle, driving a few kilometres, taking pictures of a nice church, driving a few kilometres, having a quick peek at a flea market, driving a few kilometres, visiting a museum etc. When we entered Brittany the real sightseeing started, in Vannes, in Lorient, in Brest and then on to Normandy: Le Mont St Michel, Bayeux and finally, finally the D-Day beaches. I always wanted to visit these, for obvious reasons I would say, but my father, realistic as he was, calculated the chances that it would rain a considerable amount of days of a three-week holiday and always decided against it. But a few days ago I finally stepped onto Gold Beach (where the Brits landed) and I was greeted by the Norman sun. A beautiful day.