Adventure Works World Tours

    How often have you said out loud, “I would love to see the Eiffel Tower someday…” or “My dream in life is to see the pyramids”? Now you can stop talking about it and do it! Our mission is to provide you with the most comprehensive and complete planning and travel services so that you can have the adventure of a lifetime that is exciting, comfortable and worry-free.

    We have several packages to accommodate almost any need, or you can let us create a custom travel package. Following is a small sampling of some of our packages.

Egyptian nights

    Travel with us to the land of the pyramids, where you'll see ancient mysteries displayed before your eyes! Our specialists will share with you their extensive knowledge of Egyptian history and artifacts as you admire ancient wonders like the Sphinx and the pyramids at Giza.

    Packages range from 7 days and nights to 21 days and nights, and all packages include hotel, tours, and meals. Priced from $1,000 per person.

Splendors of Italy

    From the leaning tower at Pisa to the Vatican (梵蒂冈) in Rome, you'll see the greatest sights in Italy. You'll visit Florence, Rome, Pisa, and villages in the Italian countryside. You'll even get a primer (入门书) in the Italian language from a world-celebrated linguist (语言学家). Plus, you'll visit a cooking school for a lesson on how to make real Italian lasagna! Priced from $800 per person.

Russian experience

    Explore the best of Russia, a place of cultural and historical beauty. You'll tour Moscow and St. Petersburg and see for yourself places like Red Square, the Kremlin, Moscow University and more. Learn about the history and the people that make up this remarkable place. Priced from $1,500 per person (does not include airfare).

    Let us create just the right custom package for you! Let us show you the world!

Adventure Works

One Main Street, Seattle, WA 75006

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    Scientists have been interested for years in the observation that ratios(比率）of finger lengths differ in men and women. In men, the ring (fourth) finger is usually longer than the index (second); their so-called 2D :4D ratio is lower than 1. In females, the two fingers are more likely to be the same length. Because of this sex differences, some scientists believe that a low ratio could be a marker for higher prenatal hormone(产前激素）levels, although it's not clear how the hormone might influence finger development. The 2D : 4D ratio has also been fingered in connection with brain-related characteristics—most often in males--such as depression, left-handedness, musical ability, and homosexuality.

    In the latest such study, psychologist Mark Brosnan and colleagues at the University of Bath in the United Kingdom photocopied the hands of 74 boys and girls aged 6 and 7.They compared the measurements of the second and fourth fingers with the children's scores on a standard UK test of math and literacy. In boys, the lower the ratio, the better their math score, the team reports in the May issue of the British Journal of Psychology, The boys with the lowest ratios also were the ones whose abilities were most skewed in the direction of math rather than literacy. These differences are small but significant, says Brosnan. With the girls, there was no correlation between finger ration and numeracy, but those with higher ratios—probably indicating low hormone levels—had better scores on verbal abilities.

    These sex-specific correlations show how tricky it is to define the roles of sex hormones, says psychologist S .Marc Breedlove of Michigan State University in East Lansing. The range of normal levels of the hormone is different in males and females, so comparable levels would have very different meanings depending on the sex of the individual. And the timing of hormone surges is as important as levels.

    Nevertheless, Brosnan believes finger measurements might be useful for predicting cognitive abilities—although he acknowledges that “we are not suggesting that finger length measurements could replace SAT tests”. Others are more cautious, pointing out that scientists still have not confirmed that finger ratio is a reliable marker for prenatal hormone levels.

    Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

    If I have learned anything in my 16 years, it is that communication is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let other person know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, you drift apart. When you are mad at your parents, or anyone else, not talking to them doesn't solve anything.

    Communication begins with the concerns of another. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore everyone. Even if you just say “Hi”, and see how their day was for five minutes, it is better than nothing.

    If you looked up the word “communication” in a dictionary, it would say “the exchange of ideas, the conveyance （表达）of information, correspondence （通信）, means of communication: a letter or a message”. To maintain (保持) a good relationship, you must keep communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if it's just by writing a note.

    When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as a parent. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you'll listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Yelling or walking away only makes the situation worse.

    This is an example: one night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks, but she didn't feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, not when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren't as mad and let the incident go. Communication is the key factor here. If Sophie's parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble.

    Communication isn't a one-way deal: it goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie's, telling the other person how you feel-listening is the key factor to communication.

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    According to a new study ,a smiley face emoji（笑脸符）in work-related e-mails may not create a positive impression and could even weaken information sharing. In formal business emails, a smiley is not a smile.

    In one of the experiments, people were asked to read a work-related e-mail from an unknown person and then tell about both the ability and warmth of that person. Before that, they all received similar messages. But some included smileys while others did not. The results suggested that contrary to face-to-face smiles, which increase both ability and warmth, the smileys in a business e-mail had no effect on the perception（感知）of warmth, and in fact had a bad effect on the perception of ability. The perceptions of low ability in turn weakened information sharing.

    In another experiment, the use of a smiley was compared to a smiling or neutral photograph. The findings showed that in the case（情况）of a photograph, a smiling sender was judged to be more able and friendly than a neutral one. However, when an e-mail on formal work-related maters included a smiley, the sender was thought to be less able. The smiley did not influence the opinion on the sender's friendliness.

    “People are easy to accept that a smiley equals a real smile, but the findings of this study show that in the workplace, this seems not the case, especially when first communications are concerned.” Dr. Glikson says. “In such a situation, it is better not to use smileys to people at whatever age. Smileys could hardly be a wise choice to a person you are not familiar with.”

    Crown shyness(树冠羞避) is a mysterious natural phenomenon in which the crowns of some tree species do not touch each other, but get separated by a gap clearly visible from ground level. The effect usually occurs between trees of the same species, but has also been observed between trees of different species.

    There are many theories going around, most of which make sense, but no one has been able to prove without the shadow of a doubt why some trees avoid touching each other.

    In his 1955 book Growth Habits of the Eucalypts, Australian forester M.R. Jacobs writes that the growing tips of the trees are sensitive to abrasion(擦伤), which results in crown shyness phenomenon. This theory was also supported by Dr. Miguel Franco. Some experiments have shown that if trees displaying crown shyness are artificially prevented from swinging in the wind and touching each other, they gradually fill up the gaps between them.

    But while the above theory is arguably the most widespread, it's certainly not the only one. Some scientists have suggested that crown shyness is a mechanism to stop the spreading of leaf-eating insects. These pests have been known to work together and create structures that extend up to 10 cm off of tree branches in order to reach other plants, so the gaps are the trees' natural defense method.

    One Malaysian scholar studied many trees, but found no traces of abrasions, despite their clear crown shyness. Instead, he suggests that the growing tips of the trees were sensitive to light levels and stopped growing when they got too close to other trees. Plants are able to sense how close they are to other plants and in order to get more light, they give off some chemical element to stop other trees from growing too close.

    Whatever the reason, one thing is for sure: plants are more intelligent than people used to think.

    Each year there are at least five million people around the world who develop serious flu (流感), and almost half a million deaths. When someone we know gets the flu virus, we expect them to be very careful not to pass it on to others. Doctors and nurses working with flu patients also need to protect themselves from the virus. But what is the best way to do this? This is the question that flu expert Professor Jonathan

    Van-Tam at Nottingham University is trying to answer. He wants to find out how flu is transmitted, so that he can stop doctors and nurses getting sick.

    Van-Tam explains their method, "There are 41 volunteers in my experiment. Some healthy volunteers are made to get flu first. When they show symptoms (症状), other volunteers, usually called recipients(接受者), enter the house. Everyone lives together in the small space for four days. Some of the recipients wear face masks, and wash their hands every 15 minutes, but some have no protection. In this way we can study who catches the flu and which ways of transmitting flu are important. During the four days when they are in contact with the virus, and for the ten days after that, the flu recipients are checked regularly."

    The experiment is not simple and it is very expensive. It is difficult to design correctly, and it is also difficult to plan and carry out. Just one study like this takes about 18 months to organize and needs hundreds of people working on it. But Van-Tam believes it is worth because the results will help to decide what type of protection is needed for people working in hospitals with large numbers of flu patients around the world. And perhaps it could reduce the number of deaths from flu each year.