Don't you just love ice skating every winter?I am sure that since winter is approaching,your skates are set to come out,just waiting to be used.Impress your friends with your new trick on how to ice-skate backwards with the help of these tips.

Stand Straight

    The first thing that you need to do is,stand straight.If you feel that you are falling backwards,just put your chin up and slightly bend your knees.

Confidence is What You Need

    The most important step while learning how to skate backwards,is having enough confidence in what you are doing.How can you achieve this?By practice.Just practice rolling backwards down a gentle slope everyday or just by pushing off from a wall or something of that sort.But before you do that,make sure that the place where you are practicing is free from any kind of debris（碎片）because otherwise,you could land up in the hospital due to some accident.While going backwards,just get used to the feeling of moving backwards.One of the important ice skating tips and techniques is that if you feel that you are losing your balance,then scissor（做剪式运动）your skates.Keep practicing this till you are confident about it.

Maintain Speed

    Confident now?Great!Now the next step is to maintain your speed.While rolling in a straight line with one skate, with the other try sculling（划桨）,that is,keep pushing yourself backwards with an outwards stroke（滑动）.Make sure that you put most of your weight on the skate which is moving straight and not the one with which you are sculling.Now,try the same thing using the other foot.Again keep doing this till you are confident enough.

Increase Your Speed Now

    Once you are confident that you can scull with either foot,the next thing that you have to do is increase your speed.Try some of your own tricks now.Scull with either foot or with both at the same time. 

Scull and Be Aware

    While you keep one foot straight,keep sculling with the other.You can do that with both feet at the same time. Concentrate on what you are doing but don't get so absorbed,that you don't see where you are going.If you are not watching your back,you might bang（碰撞）against something or someone.

    The hottest“green”toy in Germany isn't made of organic or recycled materials.This one has a solar panel and only runs if kids remember to insert bright red “energy stones”that power the space station.Germany，a pioneer in many renewable energy initiatives，is also at the forefront of creating environment­friendly toys aimed at making kids think about where energy comes from and how much of it they can use，raising awareness through play.A number of high­tech green toys are on display at this year's Nuremberg toy fair，which runs through Sunday.

    Among them，there are hydroelectric­powered(水电动力的)toy cars，and doll houses with wind turbines and rainwater catchers.The bright green “Future Planet”space station features an inner atrium(中庭)with a fan that is powered by a functioning solar cell.Its aim is to get kids to use their imagination about how energy will be created in the future.

    Makers and retailers believe such toys will play an increasingly important role in their future—and that of our kids.“Energy is the question of the future and we are definitely thinking about this as we move ahead，”said Judith Schweinitz，a spokeswoman for Playmobil，maker of the solar panel­fitted space station.“It is increasingly being brought into our play concept.”Green toys—which range from those made of sustainable materials to ones like the space station that just raise environmental awareness—make up only a sliver of the $ 84 billion international toy market，but their share is growing，studies indicate.Environmental research firm Earthsense，based in Syracuse，New York，predicts that green toys will account for about $ 1 billion，or 5 percent of U．S.toy sales in the next five years.Parents are smart and they want information about what's in the product.That's what's really driving the market.

    It isn't often that zookeepers call on craftsman for help. But cold weather at the Wildlife SOS Elephant Conservation and Care Center in northern India was putting elephants at risk. So the center's staff joined forces with locals to find a creative way to keep the animals warm. Now the elephants are stepping out in style, thanks to volunteers who made use of their crafting talents to knit (编织) enormous sweaters to protect the animals.

    Wildlife SOS is a conservation group that has been taking action against animal cruelty and saving wildlife in danger since 1995. Their Elephant Conservation and Care Center is devoted to rescuing the large animals from abuse in circuses, illegal dealing, and other circumstances where they have been ignored or treated with extreme cruelty. There are currently 20 elephants living at the center, and the staff hope to take in 50 more of the creatures this year.

    Because most of the elephants housed at the center are recovering from injuries or are elderly and weak, they are particularly vulnerable to cold temperatures. When the staff reported near-freezing nighttime temperatures in the winter, volunteers from surrounding villages began knitting enormous sweaters to keep the elephants warm. The monumental sweaters are large enough to cover the elephants' backs, bellies, and legs.

    Making the sweaters is a big undertaking—each one takes approximately four weeks to create, with volunteers working together on the enormous clothes. Local villagers have already made sweaters for three of the 23 elephants on their own, each with a unique pattern and color.

    If you're also looking for something happy and heartwarming, this is it. The elephants usually wear blankets to keep warm during colder months and you can purchase a blanket for an elephant on the Wildlife SOS website.

    When was the last time you used plastic plates? Next time, why not try some edible ones? You'll help the environment and your guests won't go hungry. "I used to work in school catering and saw a lot of money being thrown away. I thought that was criminal, so I decided to do something about it," said Italian school chef Tiziano Vicentini.

    Now, Vicentini has an amazing range of edible plates for schools. The plates are made out of bread dough, so you can eat them afterwards. "These dishes cost a few pennies each and are either eaten by the kids, or go into recycling bins for animal food," explained Vicentini, 50, of Milan. But now other companies are developing edible plates, too. The Edible-Plate Company offers edible plates, bowls, trays and cups. Their products are environmentally-friendly, 100% biodegradable and can be used for all types of catering and home use. And they're made from a natural plant. After use, they can be fed to animals or left to degrade naturally.

    They also have a range of cutlery（餐具） made from corn and potato starch（淀粉）. These plates will also help reduce the amount of plastic; we create. Waste from plastic causes a lot of damage to the environment, as well as costing governments millions m waste management. Plastic bags often end up in landfill sites or on the street. And the burning of plastic waste causes toxic gases that pollute the air. In response to this, governments around the world are introducing tough recycling regulations. And many shops are offering biodegradable plastic bags and eco-safe packaging on their products. To help matters, the International Organization for Standardization (the ISO) has also developed a system to evaluate the biodegradability of products, with a certification and logo scheme, Meanwhile, how about a nice plate for lunch?

    As a capital city full of art and history, London is an important political centre and a huge financial marketplace. Whatever you think about London, visiting as a tourist is very different from living there. Each part of London has its own character. Some parts are richer than others, or more industrial, or have better housing.

    Let's start with the centre, the “Square Mile”. This is the oldest part of London. In the past, it was where all financial business was done. Not many people live here, but 300,000 people work here every day.

    Moving west, we come to the West End. This busy shopping and entertainment district is bursting with things to do. Take a walk down Oxford Street, and you will see big department stores like Selfridges and Harrods. Rents here are very high; a one-bedroom apartment may cost around 1,000 pounds a week. Further away is West London. This area is more residential(住宅的)and very fashionable.

    The East End contains the Port of London, which historically is where many immigrants first arrived. Waves of French, Belgians, Jews, Pakistanis and Bangladeshis have all lived here. This makes the culture of this area very various. London won the bid to hold the Olympics in 2012, so many Londoners hope that housing, education and employment for many people in this area will improve.

    It is difficult to be general about London. The city is made up of a " collection of villages”, each area with its own character and community. Put them all together, and you have London, an international capital.

    Being able to land safely is a critically important skill for all flying animals. Whereas terrestrial animals face no particular challenge when they need to stop running or crawling, flying animals move at much higher speeds, and they must be careful about how they land. Hitting the ground, or even water, at full flight speed would be quite dangerous. Before touching down, they must decrease their speed in order to land safely. Both bats and birds have mastered the skill of landing, but these two types of flyers go about it quite differently.

    In the past it was believed that, in terms of flying mechanics, there was little difference between bats and birds. This belief was based only on assumption, however, because for years nobody had actually studied in detail how bats move their wings. In recent years, though, researchers have discovered a number of interesting facts about bat flight. Bats are built differently from birds, and their wings incorporate(结合) both their front and hind limbs (后肢). This makes their limbs working together more difficult for bats and, as a result, they are not very good at flying over longer distances. However, a bat can quickly change its direction of flight or completely reverse it, something a bird cannot easily do.

    Another interesting characteristic of bat flight is the way in which bats land—upside down! Unlike birds, which touch down on the ground or on tree branches, bats can be observed flying around and then suddenly hanging upside down from an object overhead. How do they do it? A group of researchers recently used video cameras to film bats landing on nets suspended from the ceiling of their laboratory and studied the recordings in slow motion. They painted spots on the bats' wings to see in detail what happens to the wings in flight and during touchdown. It turns out that the bats flew in a straight line up to the net and then quickly flipped over and attached themselves to it upside down. One disadvantage to this landing routine is that the bats often slam into their landing spot with some force, which probably causes pain. However, not all bats hit their landing spots with the same speed and force; these will vary depending on the area where a bat species makes its home. For example, a cave bat, which regularly rests on a hard stone ceiling, is more careful about its landing preparation than a bat more accustomed to landing in leafy treetops.