If you can't wait until the summer for your sunshine fix, why not fly off on a winter break? Here are some great deals for all budgets.

    1. ST LUCIA

    The beachside resort(度假胜地)of St James's Club in Morgan Bay is fairly quiet—the local market is nearly 5 kin away—but it has six bars, six restaurants and four outdoor pools. There are plenty of water sports, you can travel through the rainforest, go on a jeep trip or enjoy dolphin-Spot-ting. Average temperature in March is 27℃.

THE DEAL:A seven-nightstay with flights from Gatwick for 1,429pp. From March 1.

    2. GOA

    With an average February temperature of 26℃, scenic Goamakes for a warm winter get away. In the village of Arpora, the Resorte Marinha Dourada is a 10-minute walk from the clear beach—the hotel provides transfers for guests. Alternatively, relax by the outdoor pool and have a drink at one of the hotel's two bars. A visit toArpora's lively Saturday night market is also recommended. Go bird-watching, beating on thelake, or fishing.

    THE DEAL: 10 nights' bedand breakfast with flights from Manchester for 1,157pp. From February 18.

    3. DOMINICAN REPUBLIC

    Bayahibe is a beautiful fishing village on the shores of theCaribbean and it is also the Dominican Republic's premier scuba-diving destination. There are around 20 dive sites just off its coast. Enjoy golf, spas, watersportsand large outdoor pools. If you simply want to relax, the CataloniaGran Dominicus hotel is right on a pure white sandy beach, complete with palm trees. With average February temperature of 28℃, it's theperfect escape．

    THE DEAL: A seven-nightstay with Gatwick flights for 1, 403pp. FromFebruary 20.

    4. SOUTH AFRICA

    February is summer in South Africa, with average temperatures in the mid-20s℃. If you fancy chilling out in the sunshine, the Southern Sun Waterfront hotel has a large outdoor pool. But it is also in the heart ofthe city, which makes it easy to explore its many historic attractions. Take a cable car ride up TableMountain, or a shortboat trip to Robben Island，where Nelson Mandela was held prisoner.

    THE DEAL: 10 nights for 1, 662pp, with Heathrow flights. From February 18.

Dear Seth,

    You're only three years old, and at this point in your life you can't read, much less understand what I'm going to try to tell you in this letter. But I've been thinking a lot about the life that you have ahead of you, about my life so far as I reflect on what I've learned, and about my role as a dad in trying to prepare you for the trials that you will face in the coming years.

    You won't be able to understand this letter today, but someday, when you're ready, I hope you will find some wisdom and value in what I share with you.

    You are young, and life has yet to take its toll on you, to throw disappointments and heartaches and loneliness and struggles and pain into your path. You have not been worn down yet by long hours of thankless work, by the slings and arrows of everyday life.

    For this, be thankful. You are at a wonderful stage of life. You have many wonderful stages of life still to come, but they are not without their costs and perils.

    I hope to help you along your path by sharing some of the best of what I've learned. As with any advice, take it with a grain of salt. What works for me might not work for you.

    Life Can Be Cruel

    There will be people in your life who won't be very nice. They'll tease you because you're different, or for no good reason. They might try to bully you or hurt you.

    There's not much you can do about these people except to learn to deal with them, and learn to choose friends who are kind to you, who actually care about you, who make you feel good about yourself. When you find friends like this, hold on to them, treasure them, spend time with them, be kind to them, love them.

    There will be times when you are met with disappointment instead of success. Life won't always turn out the way you want. This is just another thing you'll have to learn to deal with. But instead of letting these things get you down, push on. Accept disappointment and learn to persevere, to pursue your dreams despite pitfalls. Learn to turn negatives into positives, and you'll do much better in life.

    You will also face heartbreak and abandonment by those you love. I hope you don't have to face this too much, but it happens. Again, not much you can do but to heal, and to move on with your life. Let these pains become stepping stones to better things in life, and learn to use them to make you stronger.

    But Be Open to life Anyway

    Yes, you'll find cruelty and suffering in your journey through life … but don't let that close you to new things. Don't retreat from life, don't hide or wall yourself off. Be open to new things, new experiences, new people.

    You might get your heart broken 10 times, but find the most wonderful woman the 11th time. If you shut yourself off from love, you'll miss out on that woman, and the happiest times of your life.

 You might get teased and bullied and hurt by people you meet … and then after meeting dozens of jerks, find a true friend. If you close yourself off to new people, and don't open your heart to them, you'll avoid pain … but also lose out on meeting some incredible people, who will be there during the toughest times of your life and create some of the best times of your life.

    You will fail many times but if you allow that to stop you from trying, you will miss out on the amazing feeling of success once you reach new heights with your accomplishments. Failure is a stepping stone to success.

    Life Isn't a Competition .You will meet many people who will try to outdo you, in school, in college, at work. They'll try to have nicer cars, bigger houses, nicer clothes, cooler gadgets. To them, life is a competition — they have to do better than their peers to be happy.

    Here's a secret: Life isn't a competition. It's a journey. If you spend that journey always trying to impress others, to outdo others, you're wasting your journey. Instead, learn to enjoy the journey. Make it a journey of happiness, of constant learning, of continual improvement, of love.

    Don't worry about having a nicer car or house or anything material, or even a better-paying job. None of that matters a whit, and none of it will make you happier. You'll acquire these things and then only want more. Instead, learn to be satisfied with having enough — and then use the time you would have wasted trying to earn money to buy those things … use that time doing things you love.

    Finally, know that I love you and always will. You are starting out on a weird, scary, daunting, but ultimately incredibly wonderful journey, and I will be there for you when I can. Godspeed.

Love,

Your Dad

    A student is learning to speak British English. He wonders: Can I communicate with Americans? Can they understand me? Learners of English often ask: What are the differences between British and American English? How important are these differences?

    Certainly there are some differences between British and American English. There are a few differences in grammar. For example, speakers of British English say “in hospital” and “Have you a pen?” Americans say “in the hospital!” and “Do you have a pen?” Pronunciation is sometimes different. Americans usually sound theirs in words like “bird” and “hurt”. Speakers of British English do not sound theirs in these words. There are differences between British and American English in spelling and vocabulary. For example, “colour” and “honour” are British, “color” and honor” are American.

    These differences in grammar, pronunciation, spelling and vocabulary are not important. However, for the most part, British and American English are the same language.

    If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.

    Men and women wearing old-fashioned, tattered(褴褛的)clothing dance in the street of towns and villages across the country during  the holiday periods. Women wear long，frilly (有 褶皱边的）skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.

    Some groups carry heavy black sticks which they bash (击打）against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air whilst they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when it's over, the dancers and spectators (观众）can sing some traditional folk songs over a pint of beer. The festivities (欢庆）will often continue long into the night, by which point most people are too drunk to think about performing again.

    Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis (危机).As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if nothing is done to change this trend, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.

    If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Putting it bluntly (直截了当地)，it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to be doing. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going clubbing (逛夜店)？ Or playing sport? Or doing anything else?

    However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and vibrant (有活力的)part of England's history and culture. It's important to look after some traditions and customs especially when it's something as harmless and happy as morris dancing. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.

    The year is 2094. It has been announced that a comet (彗星) is heading towards the Earth. Most of it will miss our planet, but two pieces will probably hit the southern half of the Earth.

    On 17 July, a piece four kilometers wide enters the Earth's atmosphere with a massive explosion. About half of the piece is destroyed, but the remaining part hits the South Atlantic at 200 times the speed of sound. The sea boils and a huge hole is made in the sea bed.  Huge waves are created and spread outwards from the hole. The wall of water, a kilometer high, rushes towards southern Africa at 800 kilometers an hour. Cities on the African coast are totally destroyed and millions of people are drowned.

    Before the waves reach South America, the second piece of the comet lands in Argentina. Earthquakes and volcanoes are set off in the Andes Mountains. The shock waves move north into California and all around the Pacific Ocean. The cities of Los Angeles, San Francisco and Tokyo are completely destroyed by earthquakes. Millions of people in the southern half of the earth are already dead, but the north won't escape for long. Because of the explosions, the sun is hidden by clouds of dust, temperatures around the world fall to almost zero. Crops are ruined. The sun won't be seen again for many years. Wars break out as countries fight for food. A year later, no more than 10 million people remain alive.

    Could it really happen? In fact, it has already happened more than once in the history of the Earth. The dinosaurs were on the Earth for over 160 million years. Then 65 million years ago they suddenly disappeared. Many scientists believe that the Earth was hit by a piece of object in space. The dinosaurs couldn't live through the cold climate that followed and they died out. Will we meet the same end?

    Whales, like all mammals(哺乳动物),need air, and come to the surface to breathe through a blowhole. A drone(无人机)that floats over the blowholes of humpback whales as they are making annual journey along Australia's east coast is being used by Australian scientists for collecting nasal mucus(鼻腔粘液)of whales.

    Vanessa Pirotta, a biologist at Macquarie University says that nasal mucus indicates the health of the whale. "It is the biological mixture that you see as a whale takes a breath as it surfaces from the water," she said. You can hear sounds of sharp breaths as a whale breathes because, after all, they are animals like you and I. So as they take a breath it is a lot of lung bacteria coming out from their lungs, which we can collect to provide a brief idea of whale health.

    Australian researchers have attached a special dish that is used in scientific tests to a drone which flies through the whale's nasal mist. As a whale comes to take a breath—you can actually see it coming to the surface on really good weather days —the drone then lowers, the dish is then opened, collecting nasal mucus for later research.

    The research could help to solve one of the secrets of another impressive creature of the deep —the Southern right whale. Its numbers have recovered on Australia's west coast since hunting became suppressed but its population on the eastern seaboard remains stubbornly low.

    In the past, studies into whale health had to rely on examining whales that were either killed or those whales that had been trapped on a beach. Drones allow scientists to collect nasal mucus from free-swimming whales to gather information in a safe way.