The holiday season isn't just about shopping and gifts. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} However, holiday travel can be more expensive than the gifts. Fortunately, the following tips will help keep your travel spending under control.

● Plan ahead. The earlier you book your travel, from airfare to hotels, the easier it is to find good deals. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Your best prices on airfare come when you book three weeks before the plane leaves for domestic flights. For international flights, consider booking 30 days in advance. Many experts point out that you should book travel between  one month and three months out for high-traffic holidays.

● Book your air travel on cheaper days. Traveling by air on Tuesdays and Wednesdays often costs less than traveling on Fridays and Sundays. During the holidays, it is not just about a specific day of the week. You also need to consider the days surrounding the holiday but days immediately before and after a holiday can be expensive. One of the best ways to save is to plan your air travel on the Day of the holiday. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

● Consider traveling overnight. Red-eye flights and overnight flights often cost less than those at more convenient times. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Traveling overnight can help you avoid a night in the hotel, as well as save your money on travel to your destination.

●{#blank#}5{#/blank#} You can't bring liquids with you on the airline, but you can bring sandwiches and other snacks. When you are on the road, you can buy food at local groceries to make your own meals. If you are staying in a hotel long-term, consider cooking your own food, especially if you have access to a microwave.

    Australia is a big country, but it is easy to get around. The untouched beaches that go for miles and deserts that touch the horizon(地平线) are just there, waiting to be reached and explored. You can explore the big country in different ways.

Air

    Flying is the best way to cover large distances in a short time. You can spend more time on the Australia's landscapes(陆地风光) and relaxing lifestyle. Moreover, competition among airlines makes great flying fees available for you.

Drive

    Australia has a big network of well-kept roads and some of the most beautiful touring routes in the world. You have no trouble finding car rental companies at major airports, central city and suburbs(怒火).

Bus

    Bus travel in Australia is comfortable, easy and cheap. Buses generally have air conditioning, reading lights, adjustable(可凋) seats and videos. Services are good for everyone, frequent.

Rail

    Train travel is the cheapest and gives you an insight into Australia's size, all from the comfort of your carriage. Scheduled services are a great way to get quickly between our cities and regional centers.

Ferry(轮渡)

    The Spirit of Tasmania runs a passenger and vehicle ferry service between Melbourne and Tasmania nightly. Extra services are running during summer rush hours. Sea-link ferries connect South Australia and Kangaroo Island several times a day. Ferries connect suburbs in our capital cities.

    Besides all of above, you can also experience some of the longest tracks and trails in the world in central Australia-impressive journeys of a thousand kilometers or more that can take several weeks to complete.

    For many of us, talking about money is embarrassing, especially revealing our income and spending habits in public. So it's no wonder that seeking investment advice from computer program is so popular.

    Consultancy firm Accenture found that 68% of global consumers would be happy to use robot-advice to plan for retirement, feeling it would be faster, cheaper, and fairer than human advice. “Many of our customers say they feel awkward in face-to-face meetings, preferring an online experience where they don't feel nervous,” says Lynn Smith, a director of robot-advice firm Wealth Wizards. So how does robot-advice work and is it really any better than traditional financial advice?

    Robot-adviser firms use algorithms (算法) to analyse your financial situation and goals and then work out an investment plan to suit you. Basically, you answer lots of questions online about your income, expenses, family situation, attitude to risk and so on, and then the algorithm allocates (分配) your savings to a series of investments, from index funds that aim to imitate a particular stock market index or sector, to fixed-income bonds.

    Robot-advice is certainly growing in popularity. But are we really happy to give up the human adviser completely? “No” is the short answer. Accenture finds that a significant proportion of us still want human interaction, particularly when our finances are complex. “When a customer needs advice surpassing a number of different regulatory regimes, human advice will be required, says John Perks, managing director of life and pensions at UK insurer LV, which launched its Retirement Wizard robot-advice service two years ago.

    The truth is that only about a quarter of funds managed by clever humans overcome the market as a whole, so when you take into account the much higher management fees you pay for that kind of service, the performance difference is likely to be marginal (微不足道的) for most of us.

    The robots may be coming, but in this case at least, they seem to be on the side of the small investor trying to save for a comfortable retirement.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics (AAP) (儿科学) just released its updated guidelines for children's media use.

    The recommendations reflect what all parents know: children need less screen time, which indicates that they desperately need more free time to develop their imagination, a sense of wonder and discover their passion and purpose.

    Our children are over-stimulated, over-scheduled and under pressure to perform academically and beyond school. This weakens their ability to build creative thinking skills essential to self-discovery. Creativity occurs when kids have time for curiosity and exploration. With children spending up to eight hours a day on media devices and additional hours engaging in scheduled activities, opportunities for growth disappear.

    What we are not so sure about is how to get our kids to want the free, screenless time which we know will benefit them. It may sound counter-intuitive (违背直觉的) but today's kids need coaching to experience and discover the benefits of free time.

What came to parents easily a few decades ago has become a challenge for our generation. It's not that yesterday's parents knew more about child development; they simply had fewer choices. Boredom and relaxation were an inescapable part of daily life. Today, they mean, "I'm a bad parent and not doing enough to get my kid ahead."

    Recently, I had an eye-opening revelation while watching my 11-year-old daughter play in a softball game. I have six children and have attended dozens of such game. I know the drill—or thought I did. Families settled in for the day with lawn chairs, cold drinks and cousins. These brothers and sisters would gradually chat with each other. Games of catch and hide-and-seek began, and friendships were formed then. At crucial moments, the newfound friends turned their attention to the field to cheer on their teams.

    But that wasn't happening. Though there were at least 15 children by the sidelines (球场边线), I didn't hear any of them. They sat in silence using their individual tablets (平板电脑). Even with the score tied in the final inning (垒球比赛的一局), not a single child watched the game or spoke to each other. The situation was strange and revealing: Kids have more planned activities and passive entertainment at their fingertips than ever before, but less free time to dream, imagine and focus on what they truly love.

I understand that making time for "nothing" is difficult in a world where we are constantly worried our kids will fall behind if they aren't good at academics. But I refuse to sit back and watch this loss of childhood. We are taking back childhood. Imagination needs time and space to blossom.

If your kids are like mine, asking them to imagine will at the beginning be difficult. That's because they haven't developed the skills and muscle memory to make it second nature. I hope the AAP guidelines prompt all of us to set needed screen time limits for our children. Personally, I am practicing strategies to "develop imagination" in my children. Imagination, like a sport, requires practice, training, motivational speeches, rewards and extreme patience.

    Even if trees cannot walk, they are still on the move.

    In parts of the Arctic, entire forests are moving northward. Across the Arctic, temperatures are rising faster than anywhere else in the world. As that happens, the tree line that marks where forests stop and the treeless tundra (冻原) starts has been shifting northward. Trees growing along the tree line must protect themselves from the cold wind. To dothis, plants tend to grow horizontal (水平的) branches low to the ground. The energy it takes for trees to grow this way means they don't have enough energy to make seeds.

    But as Earth's climate has been warming, trees no longer have to just grow horizontally. Many can instead grow up toward the sky. This takes less energy. And with all that leftover energy, these trees have started producing more seeds. This happens especially in places where white spruce (白云杉) grows.

    White spruce, which is a North American tree, is quite able to produce a lot of seeds, which can move long distances in the wind. When wind­blown seeds end up on the tundra beyond the tree line, they eventually can sprout(发芽) new trees. This explains how a forest can move. Of course, the process would work only if the tundra were warm enough. But in recent years, the whole planet has been warming.

    New trees will provide shelters for some snow. Keeping the sun's rays from making the white surface disappear. Instead, the trees absorb the sun's heat. This warms the surrounding air. The extra warmth encourages even more trees to produce seeds. That further boosts a forest's ability to expand. In addition, more trees will trap more snow, preventing much of it from being blown away. Snow can trap heat in the soil below, which encourages trees to grow. The recent rise of temperatures has helped more trees grow past the tree line. People worry about impacts on the animals that depend on frozen conditions for food and shelter.

    If there is one person who has left a deep impression on me, it's my teacher Mrs. Pathak who was my class teacher for three years. In my childhood, how I wished I had a mother or a sister like her. One moment she could be tough (严厉的) and strict, another moment caring and compassionate (富有同情心的).

    She always encouraged us to tell the truth. For instance, if one had not done the homework, he need not lie. She allowed us to make mistakes, saying we couldn't be perfect all the time, but we should try.

    Another thing she taught me early on was punctuality. She set a good example with her own behaviour. She was always on time, so we students tried our best to be on time.

    She surprised us with her sense of humour. Her classroom teaching was always humorous. After class, she talked to us and told us jokes.

    We really felt free to ask questions and Mrs. Pathak would give the answers. If she did not know — there had been some occasions (场合) — she would say so. We all then tried to find out the answers. Whoever came up with the answer was appreciated and given the due credit (应有的称赞). Now I sometimes wonder whether Mrs. Pathak was pretending just to encourage us to explore and find answers by ourselves.