Visiting Joshua Tree National Park, California

    Joshua Tree National Park is nearly 800,000 acres (英亩) large and surrounds parts of the Mojave and Colorado Deserts in South-central California. Although deserted at first sight, the park is full of wildlife and provides a variety of entertainment activities from hiking to climbing. Within a three-hour drive, Joshua Tree National Park takes at least a full day to visit.

Things to do

    Hiking opportunities within the park include several choices, from 12 self-guided nature routines to all-day back-country hikes.

    Joshua Tree NP has nine camping grounds, and back-country camping is also allowed.

    Rock climbing is a popular activity in the park, which has 10 mountains greater than 5, 000 feet in height.

When to visit

    Joshua Tree NP is open 365 days a year, although the best time to visit is October through April, when temperature is milder. The peak season is when the wild flowers bloom, and the summer months are the least crowded.

What to bring

    In addition to your camera and telescope, be sure to carry lots of water. Park and guiding maps can be picked up at any of the three visitor centers.

Fees

    Parking fees: You can buy a seven-day vehicle permit (周票) for $ 15, a single entry permit for $ 5, or Joshua Tree National Park annual (每年的) pass for $ 60.

    Camping fees: They vary by camping ground

    As sea levels climb, even Washington, D. C. could see more frequent and widespread flooding at high tide.

    Strong storms and high winds sometimes bring floods to coastal areas. But cities and towns along the US East Coast are flooding even in calm and sunny weather. Among them is Maryland's capital Annapolis. Tourists there must sometimes walk through water flooding downtown streets surrounding the habor. Sometimes water covers roads in Atlantic City, N. J. Even the yards and basements of coastal homes near New York City sometimes flood.

All are suffering from this trend—normal high tides surpass (超过) a rising sea level.

    Sea levels have climbed, on average, about 20 centimeters (8 inches) over the past 135 years. And a sharp increase in tide flooding is one of the more visible impacts affecting many coastal areas, notes William Sweet, an oceanographer.

    Sweet and his co-workers recently analyzed data from 45 tide gauges (计量表) along the US coasts. These tools record the changing heights of tides as they rise and fall. From these data, Sweet's team calculated the number of : “troublesome floods” in various coastal cities. These floods, Sweet explains, typically occur when water level is about 30 centimeters (1foot) above the historic level of the highest tides. In June 2014, the team reported finding a growing rise in these flooding events.

    In Charleston, S.C. from 1957 to 1963, the city experienced troublesome floods an average of 4. 6 days per year. Bur from 2007 to 2013, the occurring rate of troublesome floods jumped five times. Annapolis city was even more serious. From1957 to 1963，troublesome floods were roughly 3. 8 days per year. From 2007 to 2013, the average was 10 times higher- 39. 3days a year.

    “Over the next few decades, climate change probably drives sea levels even higher,” Sweet says. “So today's flooding problems promise to become only more widespread and frequent.”

    While elephants born without tusks (长牙)are not unheard of，they normally form just 2 to 6 percent of the population. However, that is not the case at Mozambique's Gorongosa National Park, where an astonishing 33 percent of female elephants born after the country's civil war ended in 1992 are tuskless. While that may appear to be just a coincidence, Joyce Poole, an elephant behavior expert, has another theory. The researcher thinks we may be witnessing unnatural evolution of the species due to the constant hunting of elephants for valuable ivory.

    Poole says before the country's 15-year-long civil war, the 100,000—acre park was home to over 4,000 elephants. However, by the time the conflict ended in 1992, about 90 percent of them had been killed for ivory to help finance weapons (武器)and meat to feed the soldiers. Of the less than 200 survivors, over 50 percent of adult females had no tusks. Therefore, it is not surprising that the park's tuskless elephant population has grown greatly.

    This is not the first time researchers have observed a great change in the population of elephants. At Zambia's South Luangwa National Park and Lupande Game Management Area ， areas which were heavily hunted in the 1970s and 1980s, 35% of elephants 25 years or older and 13% of those younger than 25 are now without tusks. A 2008 study published in the African Journal of Ecology found that the numter of tuskless females at the Ruaha National Park in Tanzania went from 10.5 percent in 1969 to almost 40 percent in 1989, largely due to illegal hunting for ivory.

    The recent ban on ivory in both the US and China should help get rid of, or at least reduce, elephant hunting. However, scientists are not sure how long it will take for elephants with a higher rate of tuskless females, to change the trend.

    Before the 1830s, most newspapers were sold through annual subscriptions in America, usually $8 to $10 a year. Today $8 or $10 seems a small amount of money, but at that time these amounts were forbidding to most citizens. Accordingly, newspapers were read almost only by rich people in politics or the trades. In addition, most newspapers had little in them that would appeal to a mass audience. They were dull and visually forbidding. But the revolution that was taking place in the 1830s would change all that.

    The trend, then, was toward the "penny paper"-a term referring to papers made widely available to the public. It meant any inexpensive newspaper; perhaps more importantly it meant newspapers that could be bought in single copies on the street.

    This development did not take place overnight. It had been possible(but not easy)to buy single copies of newspapers before 1830,but this usually meant the reader had to go down to the printer's office to purchase a copy. Street sales were almost unknown. However, within a few years, street sales of newspapers would be commonplace in eastern cities. At first the price of single copies was seldom a penny-usually two or three cents was charged-and some of the older well-known papers charged five or six cents. But the phrase "penny paper" caught the public's fancy, and soon there would be papers that did indeed sell for only a penny.

    This new trend of newspapers for "the man on the street" did not begin well. Some of the early ventures(企业)were immediate failures. Publishers already in business, people who were owners of successful papers, had little desire to change the tradition. It took a few youthful and daring businessmen to get the ball rolling.

    Shakespeare's Birthplace and Exhibition of Shakespeare's World

    Welcome to the world-famous house where William Shakespeare was born in l564 and where he grew up. The property (房产) remained in the ownership of Shakespeare's family until 1806. The House has welcomed visitors travelling from all over the world, for over 250 years.

    Enter through the Visitors' Centre and see the highly-praised exhibition Shakespeare's World, a lively and full introduction to the life and work of Shakespeare.

    Stand in the rooms where Shakespeare grew up.

    Discover examples of furniture and needlework from Shakespeare's period.

    Enjoy the traditional English garden, planted with trees and flowers mentioned in the poet's works.

    The Birthplace is within easy walking distance of all the car parks shown on the map; nearest is Windsor Street (3 minutes' walk).

    The House may present difficulties but the Visitors' Centre, its exhibition, and the garden are accessible (可进入的) to wheelchair users

    The Shakespeare Coffee House (opposite the Birthplace).