Thanksgiving Day is a special holiday in the United States and Canada. Families and friends gather to eat and give thanks for their blessing.

    Thanksgiving Day is really a harvest festival. This is why it is celebrated in late fall, after the crops are in. But one of the first thanksgivings in America had nothing to do with a good harvest. On December 4,1619, the Pilgrims from England landed near what is now Charles City, Virginia. They knelt down and thanked God for their safe journey across the Atlantic.

    The first New England Thanksgiving did celebrate a rich harvest. The Pilgrims landed at what is now Plymouth, Massachusetts, in 1620.They had a difficult time and the first winter was cruel. Many of the Pilgrims died. But the next year, they had a good harvest. So Governor Bradford declared a three­day feast (盛宴).The Pilgrims invited Indian friends to join them for their special feast. Everyone brought food.

    In time, other colonies (殖民地) began to celebrate a day of thanksgiving. But it took years before there was a national Thanksgiving Day. During the Civil War, Sarah Josepha Hale persuaded Abraham Lincoln to do something about it. He proclaimed (宣布) the last Thursday of November 1863 as a day of thanksgiving.

    Today, Americans celebrate this happy harvest festival on the fourth Thursday in November. Canadians celebrate Thanksgiving Day in much the same way as their American neighbours. But the Canadian Thanks­giving Day falls on the second Monday in October.

    We are all busy talking about and using the Internet, but how many of us know the history of the Internet?

    Many people are surprised when they find that the Internet was set up in the 1960s. At that time, computers were large and expensive. Computer networks didn't work well. If one computer in the network broke down, then the whole network stopped. So a new network system had to be set up. It should be good enough to be used by many different computers. If part of the network was not working, information could be sent through another part. In this way computer network system would keep on working all the time.

    At first the Internet was only used by the government, but in the early 1970s, universities, hospitals and banks were allowed to use it too. However, computers were still very expensive and the Internet was difficult to use. By the start of the 1990s, computers became cheaper and easier to use. Scientists had also developed software that made "surfing" the Internet more convenient.

    Today it is easy to get on-line and it is said that millions of people use the Internet every day. Sending e-mail is more and more popular among students.

    The Internet has now become one of the most important parts of people's life.

    What happens inside the head of a soccer player who repeatedly heads a soccer ball. That question motivated a study of the brains of experienced players.

    Researchers at the Albert Einstein College of Medicine in New York selected 34 adults, men and women. All of the volunteers had played soccer since childhood and  now competed year﹣round in adult soccer leagues. Each filled out a detailed questionnaire developed especially for this study to determine how many times they had headed a soccer ball in the previous year, as well as whether they had experienced any known concussions in the past.

    Then the players completed computerized tests of their memory and other learning skills and had their brains scanned. using a complex new M.R.I. technique which can find structural changes in the brain that can't be seen during most scans.

    According to the data they presented, the researchers found that the  players who had headed the ball more than about 1, 100 times in the previous 12 months showed significant loss of white matter in parts of their brains involved with memory, attention and the processing of visual information, compared with players who had headed the ball less.

    This pattern of white matter loss is "similar to those seen in traumatic brain injury", like that after a serious concussion, the researchers reported, even though only one of these players was reported to have ever experienced a concussion.

    The players who had headed the ball about 1, 100 times or more in the past year were also generally worse at remembering lists of words read to them, forgetting the words far more often than players who had headed the ball less.

    The vast majority of green sea turtles in the northern Great Barrier Reef are female because of warmer temperatures due to climate change, which influences their sex, researchers said. Scientists are concerned populations of these animals could turn almost completely female.

    A recent study by the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, California State University and Worldwide Fund for Nature Australia examined two genetically distinct populations of green sea turtles living in the Great Barrier Reef. The study found that a group of about 200,000 turtles living in the northern part of the reef was almost entirely female. While the southern population was 65 to 69 percent female, females in the northern group accounted for 99.1 percent of young turtles and 86.8 percent of adults.

    After combining their results with temperature data, the scientists found that most sea turtle populations are living above the most suitable temperature. The northern green turtles have been producing mainly females for more than two decades and that the complete feminization of this population is possible in the near future, making it clear that climate change is threatening the survival of these populations.

    Dermot O'Gorman, the chief executive of World Wildlife Fund Australia, said, “That's a very visible sign of the impact of climate change. But this is a quiet change.”

    O'Gorman said more urgent action on climate change is clearly needed, adding that some conservationists have already taken practical measures, such as using shade cloth on turtle nesting beaches to lower the sand temperature, and reducing by catch in the fishing industry.

    “Shade cloth can be used in certain places, but there's a limit to the scale you can do that,” he said, “Now every large male who can reproduce is going to be even more important.”

4-Day Classic Beijing Tour

    The 4-day classic Beijing tour is designed for tourists who come to visit China for the first time. It covers the most popular and typical places in Beijing, fully displaying the scenery, culture, history, local lifestyles and features, food and drinks, business, etc. for you.

Day 1: Arrival in Beijing

    Your guide meets you at Capital Airport, and helps you check in at your hotel

    Enjoy Beijing Duck as welcome dinner.

    Accommodation: Beijing downtown

Day 2: The Great Wall & the Summer Palace

    Start your day at the most famous part of the Great Wall, the Badaling Great Wall. Leave the downtown for the Great Wall at 8 am. Since it is a long drive to the Great Wall (about 2 hours' riding) have a break at the Jade Museum on the way. Lunch will be enjoyed in a local restaurant. In the early afternoon come back to the city and have a sightseeing tour of the Summer Palace.

    Recommended Activity: Beijing Opera Show (Liyuan Theatre, 19:30-21:10 every evening)

    Accommodation: Beijing downtown

Day 3: Beijing city sightseeing & Local experience

    Your guide meets you at the hotel at 8 am and set out for the day's touring: Tian'anmen Square and the Forbidden City.

    After visiting the two sites, have a break and get ready for lunch.

    Hutong visit: see some traditional arts of the old Beijing, such as paper cutting and kite making, and visit a local family.

    Accommodation: Beijing downtown

Day 4: Beijing Olympic sites

    Visit the Olympic sites: Bird's Nest, Water Cube and Olympic Park, witnessing the fast developing modern China. Enjoy some free time after visiting the sites.

    After lunch, it is shopping time and then the tour is over.

China Experience Tours

    China Experience Trip

    Beijing →Shanghai →Xi'an (8days)

    Price: Adult $1,517 p/p Under 17 $1,230

    Imagine you are a king or queen when entering the great Forbidden City

    Have a hike on the world famous Great Wall

    Discover the Terracotta Warriors (兵马俑)

    Admire Shanghai where east meets west and walk around some local markets

    Glories of China

    Beijing →Xi'an →Guilin →Yangshuo →Shanghai (11days)

    Price: Adult $2,219 p/p. Under 17 $1,650

    Discover more of China's extraordinary history from Beijing and Xi'an

    Visit the easy part of the Great Wall at Mutianyu

    Cycle near Yangshuo and admire the beautiful rural scenery

    Discover Shanghai lifestyles ancient and modern

    China Impression Experience

    Beijing →Xi'an →Yangtze River →Shanghai (11 days)

    Price: Adult $2, 329 p/p. Under 17 $1,810

    Explore both the ancient cultures and modern features, and relax on the yangtze river Cruise (乘船游览) to see the various ideas of China. Your guides will show you around not only the most classic spots, like the Forbidden City, the Great Wall, the Terracotta Army, and the Three Gorges but also take you for a local experience by visiting lovely giant pandas and local markets.

    Cultural and Natural Wonders of China

    Beijing →Xi'an → Zhangjiajie →Shanghai (11days)

    Price: Adult $2,159 p/p. Under 17 $1,360

    Wind your way from Beijing to Shanghai in style and discover. Climb up the Great Wall, walk around the Forbidden City while listening to the stories of kings, and see the Great "Avatar Mountain" in Zhangjiajie.