Tickets

Children at or under 120 cm tall don't need to buy tickets to take the train, but they cannot take the train by themselves. Children above 124 cm must buy a full-price ticket.
If you buy a round ticket, you can get on the train at Longyang Road Station or Pudong Airport Station, and get off at the other station. The return part of the ticket must be used on the same day.

Lots of students know what a marathon (马拉松赛跑) is, but perhaps they don't know what a triathlon is. The triathlon is a sport that has three parts-swimming, bicycling and running. It is not an easy sport, but a man named Joe Salter is very good at it. A few months ago, he finished a special triathlon—he juggled (抛起接住) three balls all the time during the triathlon. That is to say, he kept on throwing and catching three balls while he was swimming, riding a bicycle and running.

    31-year-old Joe is from Florida, the USA. He loves juggling and he started at the age of 8. Joe did well in juggling.  Later, he got the idea to do a triathlon and juggle at the same time to make it more fun. Many juggling fans laughed at his idea and thought it was just a joke. But Joe didn't give up and he kept practising it. Because of his hard work, he made it at last.

    Talking about his triathlon, Joe said swimming was the hardest part. "It was difficult and complex(复杂的)," he said. "I basically only used my legs, so it took quite a lot of work. Also, swimming in open water made it a little harder. It was not like in a pool."

Winter comes after autumn and before spring. It brings snow and ice. Here are different ways to know it's winter.

The days are short and the nights are cold. The winter solstice (冬至) is the start of the coldest days in winter, and it is the shortest day of the year!

The sun isn't warm in winter. There is lots of snow in winter. People and animals don't like to go outside.

In winter, when you look outside, you'll see a lot of brown things, not the green ones. There are no leaves on most of the trees.

Some animals hibernate. They sleep in winter. But others keep food in autumn to eat in winter, because it is difficult to find food. Many birds fly from the north to warm places for the winter. They will come back when spring comes.

This summer. I went for a budget trip(穷游). I visited Shandong with my father. What a special and surprising trip it was! My father and I only spent about 1,500 yuan on the trip. We tried some different ways to save money.

We didn't take planes because the air tickets were expensive. We didn't have enough money for air tickets. We decided to take trains. Hard seats were our first choice(选择). We chose the hard sleepers(卧铺) only when we were too tired. As for hotels, we chose to live in small and cheap hotels. We didn't want to spend money living in large and expensive hotels. We didn't eat out. We went to the shops to buy some vegetables and meat, and then we cooked meals in the hotel. We saved a lot of money in this way.

I learned a lot from the trip. I want to go for another budget trip next year. Would you like to go with me?

Sunshine Sports Center

One of the most modern sports centers in town, the Sunshine Sports Center, is a wonderful sports club!

Facilities

With a swimming pool for adults and teens, and a smaller one for children, our center has something for all the members of the family. Parents can relax while children play in the water. For anybody who is interested in competitive sports, our volleyball, tennis and basketball courts(n.球场)are the ideal places to work off stress.

Whether you just want to keep in shape, lose some weight or build your strength, there's the gym with super-modern equipment and three personal trainers to look after you and answer all your questions.

Lessons

It doesn't matter if you're five or eighty-five, there's something for you at the Sunshine Sports Center! We offer personal training in all sports if you want it, but there are also group lessons for all sports if you prefer teamwork.

Kids and teenagers

Take advantage of our special offer for younger members. For members between five and sixteen years old, there are special lessons in water polo, swimming and diving(n.潜水). There are many classes for swimmers of all levels with a lifeguard on duty from 9:00 a.m. when the pool opens until it closes at 7:00 p.m.

The caique(地中海轻巧小舟) is an important part of Greek culture. For centuries, these traditional wooden boats have been used for fishing and for sending goods, animals and people. But the art of building caiques completely by hand is now in danger.

Caiques from the Greek island of Samos are famous for their quality. Years ago, many locals made a living building caiques. Now, only four boat builders remain. Giorgos Kiassos is one of them. "Sadly, I see the craft(工艺) slowly dying," he said while working on a boat. "Boats made from materials like plastic are cheaper and sell better." Besides, few young locals are interested in taking up the craft. While caique building is seen as an art, the work is tiring. It usually takes more than five years of hard training to learn how to build a caique independently.

The good news is that help is on the way. Kostas Damianidis, a researcher in the field of traditional Greek boat-building, is setting up a new craft museum on Samos. He also hopes to open a boat-building school within the museum.

To achieve his goals, Damianidis is turning to Kiassos for help. "It' s important to have someone with plenty of experience," he said. After more than 30 years in the business, Kiassos knows when to cut down a tree and where each piece should go on the boat. With one mistake, the boat could have problems. When you get it all right, it combines(结合) beauty and strength.

Kiassos is now finishing two caiques. "When a boat leaves, I'm sad," he said. "Yes, I'm happy when everything's okay. But it's like something is leaving, like a piece of me."