When it comes to car hiring,all car hire companies require that you should have a full driving license for at least one year,some of whom may ask for two years,especially for younger drivers.

    Most car hire companies will not automatically hire out a car to someone under the age of 25 or to people over 70. But there are exceptions. Some listed companies are normally prepared to serve people of 21 and over. And some may go over the age limit and provide service for older people( aged 70 and over) providing you have no record of breaking the law and valid license, and a doctor's letter of good health.

    Now read on for some information about national companies with many bases hiring out cars to people aged 21 and older drivers.

    One day a very skilled artist met a beautiful woman who immediately became the object of his affections. As he observed her and spoke with her, he admired her more and more. He showered her with kindness and words of praise until she consented to be his wife.

    Not long after they were married, however, the beautiful woman found out that she was more the object of his artistic interest than of his affections. When he admired her classic beauty, it was as though he were standing in front of a work of art rather than in front of a human being to whom he had pledged his love and promised his life. And soon he expressed his great desire to put her rare beauty on canvas.

    “Please sit for me in the workroom,” he pleaded, “and I will make your beauty permanent. The work will be my masterpiece!”

    She was humble and patient as well as flattered by his words, so she said, “Yes, my love. I will be happy to sit for you.” So the beautiful, young wife of the artist sat meekly for hours in his studio, not complaining. Day after day she sat patiently, smiling as she posed, because she loved him and because she hoped that he would see her love in her smile and obedience. She sometimes wanted to call out to him, “Please love me and want me as a person rather than as an object!” But instead, she spoke nothing but words which pleased him.

    At length, as the labor drew to close, the painter became wilder in his passion for his work. He only rarely turned his eyes from the canvas to look at his wife. As he stood there gazing at his beautiful work of art, he cried with a loud voice, “This is indeed life itself!” Then he turned to his beloved and saw that she was dead!

    I fondly remember road trips as a child, sitting in the sunny backseat of my mom's car, daydreaming about other worlds and fantastic adventures. As I've grown older, my daydreams have become increasingly occupied less with fantasy but more with the reality of my past and future. Nearly everyone daydreams about their future and reflects nostalgically (念旧地) or negatively on moments of the past. These moments can provide inspiration, but if you spend too much time daydreaming in this fashion, you may be reducing your success in the present.

    If you've ever planned a vacation, you're familiar with the impatient days tapping at your desk, dreaming of the lazy, relaxing days to come. Unfortunately, sometimes you end up comparing the real vacation to your imagined one, and it doesn't live up to the standard. Reflecting nostalgically on the past can also prevent present enjoyment. It is equally fun to reflect on past achievements or fun events, but it's possible to be so consumed with happy memories that you miss opportunities to create more.

    We've all made mistakes that we're ashamed of; reflecting on them is an important step in correcting those mistakes and becoming a better person. But dwelling（细想）too long on your past can also be negative. If you dwell too long on a past mistake, you can begin to equate（使等同）yourself with your past and feel farther away from the person you want to be. Train your brain to think quickly about the past and future, and take only the information and inspiration that you need in order to be the best person you can without resting on your glory moments or your mistakes.

    If your identity is not dependent on the past or future, every experience is new and every day is a blank page for you to write. A fun mental exercise is to always tell yourself that you're experiencing things for the first time. So take advantage of each moment you're given.

    A new study suggests climate conditions in the Sahara Desert, one of hottest, driest and most deserted areas in the world, have changed from wet to dry a about every 20,000 years.

    But previous evidence has suggested the Sahara did not always experience such extreme heat and dry conditions. At times, the Sahara Ranged to a very wet climate. This permitted plants and animals to develop and grow and led to the creation of human settlements. Now, they have discovered more evidence, which, the lead researcher David Mc Gee says, supports the idea that the Sahara's climate kept changing between wet and dry about every 20,000, years.

    McGee reported these climate changes were mainly driven by changes in the Earth's(地轴)as the planet travels round the sun .This process affects the amount of sunlight between seasons. Every 20,000 years the Earth receives more strong summer sunlight. When the Earth's axis changes again, the amount of sunlight is reduced. This season change happened continuously every 20,000 years. The other part of the season produced rainy conditions, resulting in a wetter, greener, plant-rich environment. When the rainy activity weakens, the climate becomes hot and dry, like the Sahara remains today.

    The scientists based their research on dust collected from ocean sediment(沉积物)in the Atlantic Ocean bottom off the coast of West Africa. The dust contained layers (层)of ancient sediment built up over millions of years. Each layer could contain traces of Saharan dust as well as the remains of life forms. This information was used to assess over what time period the dust had built up. This led to the overall finding that the Saharan changes from wet to dry climates happened every 20,000 years.

David McGee said that today we only see the Sahara Desert as an extremely deserted and "inhospitable" place. The new study suggests that the area's climate has changes between grasslands and a much wetter environment, and back to dry climates, even over the last quarter million years. McGee says he thinks the latest research can be valuable in studying the Sahara's history as it relates to human settlement.

    Bedtime on the Orient Express. We stood in the corridor while a woman pulled our bunk beds (双层铺) into place-- there wasn't room in the carriage for all three of us. Barking the news that she would be waking us at 7 a.m. with a cup of instant coffee and a piece of cheese, the woman left and we retired for the night.

    'Bunk beds?' you may be thinking. Small carriage? Instant coffee? This can't be the real Orient Express! Oh, but it is. This is a very real Orient Express indeed. In search of a long weekend in Vienna, there seemed no more attractive way for my friend and me to get there.

    The original Orient Express service was started in 1863. Luxury carriages ran the route from Paris, France to Giugiu, Romania. In 1934, Agatha Christie sent Hercule Poirot on just such a journey in her novel Murder on the Orient Express. However, there was a rise in air travel which was quicker and cheaper and eventually the whole operation was brought to a halt in 1977. The name was reused in 1982, when the Venice Simplon-Orient-Expresss took its first voyage between London and Venice.

    Admittedly I would have loved to take the Venice Simplon-Orient-Express, with its on-board shop and piano in the bar, but at around £1,700 per person for a four-night one-way journey, it was too expensive for us. So we chose this excellent way of buying into the romance for a small amount of the cost.

    But we loved it. Ours was no luxury bedroom, but it had its own rough charm-- not to mention the magic of travelling across international borders overnight. I haven't slept in a bunk bed since I was seven, and climbing up into it took 25 years off me. For one night only, it was comfortably appealing. Naturally, I took a copy of Murder on the Orient Express to read on the train. I smiled at the descriptions of airy dining cars and fresh coffee.

    My weekend in Vienna was wonderful and reunited with the cut-price Orient Express at the end of the holiday, we were rather delighted to see our little carriage again. Good old bunk beds. Terrifying old attendant. And best of all, nobody got murdered.

    I was in the seventh grade, and we had moved to New Jersey in November. By then, everyone already had had their own friends, and no one wanted to talk to a new girl. To make things worse, they put me in "Section L". I found out later that everyone called Section L "Loserville". It was sort of an open secret that it was the section for troublemakers and not-so-smart kids. When I found out, I wanted to scream. I had always been a good student and had amazing friends, and now everyone thought I was a loser!

     I did text my friends in Illinois almost every night, especially my best friend, Ana. At first my friends wanted to hear all about it. But then some stopped texting back once I said something about how miserable I was. One night when I was texting with Ana, I complained about another friend who had just done that.

     Ana's texts came really fast for the next few minutes and they surprised me. She said that she was tired of hearing about how bad everything was in New Jersey, too. She said she did not want to hurt my feelings but that I needed to stop feeling so sorry for myself all the time, I had to try to make things better.

     The next day, I thought a lot about what Ana had said. She was right!

     I wish I could say that everything changed overnight after that, but it didn't. I was still stuck in "Loserville", and some people were still mean to me, even though I tried to just stay out of their way.

     But what did change was me—I stopped feeling so sorry for myself and did something about making friends. I signed up to make sets for the school play. I met a lot of new people there, and suddenly I had friends to say hi to in the halls!

     I still miss Illinois sometimes, but life in New Jersey isn't so hard anymore. Even though I couldn't change my situation, I could change my attitude—and that made all the difference.