Marco Polo

    Marco Polo was born in Italy in 1254. A traveller and businessman, he was one of the first Europeans to travel across Asia and into China. His journey lasted 24 years.

    He set out, aged 17, with his father Nicolo and his uncle Maffeo on their great journey to China. They sailed south from Venice, Italy and stopped off in the Middle East. They ofen carried on overland to Persia (now Iran), through the Pamir Mountains and the Gobi Desert before they got to Beijing, China.At that time, China was more advanced than Europe. They already had paper, so large numbers of books were available. They also used paper money in many parts of the country.

    After he got back to Italy, Marco Polo talked about his experiences in China, and he wrote a book describing the riches of Asia. His book was the first western record of porcelain(瓷器), coal, gunpowder, printing and silk.Unfortunately, not many people believed Polo's stories and he became known as “the man of a million lies”. He died in 1324.

Jacques Cousteau

    Jacques Cousteau was a French undersea explorer, environmentalist and inventor. He was born in France in 1910. When he was young, he was attracted by the sea, machines and filmmaking. In the French navy, Cousteau began exploring underwater and worked on a special breathing machine which allowed divers to stay underwater for several hours. This gave them time to really look around under the ocean. In 1948, Cousteau began travelling the world's oceans in his research ship Calypso.Cousteau produced many films and books about his underwater experiences, including the TV series The Underwater World of Jacques Cousteau, which introduced the public to the world of sharks, whales, dolphins and treasure.

    Cousteau started the Cousteau Society to protect ocean life. In 1989, he received a great honour: he was made a member of the French Academy. Finally, after a long and varied life, Cousteau died on 25^th June, 1997.

    Reports tell us that Americans work more and vacation less than people in other major industrial countries. Still, millions of Americans do try to get away from home for a week or two in the summer months. Some might even have the time and money to spend longer on vacation.

    For example, many retired Americans can be found driving around the United States in big recreational vehicles, known as R. V.'s. These serve as a home away from home. In fact, it might even be their only home as they see the country.

    Some American families get in their cars and drive to historic places like Colonial Williamsburg in Virginia. There, they can experience what life was like for early Americans. If that is not exciting enough, also in Williamsburg is a water park and an amusement park with rides.

    Other Americans visit national parks like Yellowstone or Yosemite out in the West. They want to spend time with nature. Or they take their vacation by a lake or the ocean. They might swim or fish. But many just want to sit and enjoy the feeling of doing nothing, except maybe read a book.

    Some families fly to other countries on vacation. Or they go on a cruise ship (大型游轮) and stop in different ports. Cruise ships are like floating cities.

    But not everyone goes someplace special on vacation. This might be the only time for people to work on things like home improvement projects. And while they do that, they might think of all the fun their friends are having.

    Explorers had been landing in America for some time before English settlers arrived in what is now Jamestown, Virginia, in 1607. But it was in that spot on the James River that English colonization(殖民化) began, and with it, the history of America.

    James I was the king of England at that time, and he had granted approval for a group of businessmen who were part of the Virginia Company to settle in this new land. In all, 214 people set sail for America. They reached it on May 14, 1607. Very soon after they landed, the English found themselves under attack from Algonquins, a native American tribe(部落) who had been living in that area for some time. The English managed to drive off the attackers and stay there.

Under the leadership of Captain John Smith, the English built a fort(城堡)and other buildings designed to protect their new colony. They also found friendly native Americans, like Powhatan, who was willing to trade with them.

    There was a terrible winter in 1609 and only 60 of the 214 settlers survived, which was also hard on Powhatan's tribe and other neighboring native Americans.

    One of the main crops grown by the English settlers was tobacco, which they sold to native Americans and to people back in England, beginning in 1612. Tobacco became a very popular crop because it was easy to grow and because it brought in so much money.

    Once the money started flowing in regularly, the Jamestown colony grew, as did other settlements in Virginia and in other states along the eastern coastline.

    America's first elected assembly (议会), the House of Burgesses, met in Jamestown for the first time on July 30, 1619. The year 1619 also saw another significant development: the first arrival of black workers on boats from Africa. These men and women were originally servants, who worked a small piece of land for a few years and then got to keep the land as owners. Jamestown was also the capital of Virginia and remained so until 1698.

    There have always been a lot of commonly believed but false ideas about being fat and doing exercise. Some people believe that they can't help putting on weight as they get older, while others hold that if they stop exercising, their muscles will turn into fat. Here are some more myths:

I'll never lose weight — I come from a fat family.

Wrong! While we can't change the body type we are born with, we can't blame our genes for making us fat. There's plenty of evidence that fatness runs in families, and the main reason is that they share the same habits of eating too much and exercise too little.

    I am fat because I burn calories slowly.

Wrong! Fatness is not caused by a slow metabolism (新陈代谢). If fact, although fat people consume more energy that slim people, they also fail to realize how much they eat! Keeping a diary can help you work out your daily food intake more accurately.

    Exercise is boring.

    Wrong! Anything will become boring if you do it many times. The key is to develop a balanced and varied program that's fun as well as progressive. If you enjoy a Sunday walk, take a different route. If you do Yoga, try a tai chi class. If you like swimming, set yourself a distance or time challenge.

    No pain, no gain.

    Wrong! Exercise is not meant to hurt. Indeed, pain is your body telling you something's wrong, and continuing to exercise could lead to serious injury. You may experience mild discomfort as you begin to exercise regularly, but this your body adapting to the positive changes in your lifestyle and the aches should disappear relatively quickly. If you don't, rest and seek medical advice.

    Dutch officials toasted on Tuesday the opening of what is being called the world's first 3D-printed concrete bridge, which is meant to be used by cyclists. There was applause as officials wearing hard hats and workmen's jackets rode over the bridge on their bikes at the opening ceremony in the southeastern town of Gemert.

    "The bridge is not very big, but it was rolled out by a printer which makes it unique," Theo Salet, from the Eindhoven University of Technology, told Dutch broadcaster NOS. Work on printing the bridge, which has some 800 layers, took about three months after starting in June and it is made of pre-stressed concrete, according to the university. "One of the advantages of printing a bridge is that much less concrete is needed than in the conventional technique in which a mould (泥浆) is filled," it said on its website, adding "a printer deposits the concrete only where it is needed."

    The eight-metre (26-foot) bridge crosses a water-filled channel to connect two roads, and it was tested for safety to bear loads of up to two metric tons in cooperation with the BAM Infra Construction company. Although designed for bikes, it could take up to 40 trucks, the designers said "We are looking to the future," said the head of BAM, Marinus Schimmel. "3D printing meant fewer rare resources were needed and there was significantly less waste," he added.

    The Netherlands is among countries, with the United States and China, taking a lead in the cutting-edge technology of 3D printing, using computers and robotics to construct objects and structures from scratch without using much traditional manpower. Last year a Dutch architect unveiled (提示) a unique 3D printer with which he hopes to construct an "endless loop" building. And a Dutch start-up called MX3D has begun printing a stainless-steel bridge, of which a third is already completed. The aim is to finish printing by March and lay the bridge over an Amsterdam canal in the future.

    Curiosity is what drives us to keep learning, keep trying, keep pushing forward. But how does one generate (产生) curiosity, in oneself or others? George Loewenstein, a professor of psychology at Carnegie Mellon University, offered an answer in the classic1994 paper, "The Psychology of Curiosity."

    Curiosity arises, Loewenstein wrote, "when attention becomes focused on a gap in one's knowledge. Such information gaps produce the feeling of deprivation (匮乏) labeled curiosity. The curious individual is motivated to obtain the missing information to reduce the feeling of deprivation." Loewenstein's theory helps explain why curiosity is such a force: it's not only a mental state but also an emotion, a powerful feeling that drives us forward.

    Scientist Daniel Willingham notes that teachers are often "so eager to get to the answer that we do not devote enough time to developing the question." Yet it's the question that stimulates (刺激) curiosity; being told an answer stops curiosity before it can even get going.

    In his 1994 paper, George Loewenstein noted that curiosity requires some basic knowledge. We're not curious about something we know absolutely nothing about. But as soon as we know even a little bit, our curiosity is aroused and we want to learn more. In fact, research shows that curiosity increases with knowledge: the more we know, the more we want to know. To get this process started, Loewenstein suggests, take steps with some interesting but incomplete information.

    Language teachers have long used communication in exercises that open an information gap and then require learners to communicate with each other in order to fill it. For example, one student might be given a series of pictures for the beginning of the story, while the student's partner is given a series of pictures showing how that same story ends. Only by speaking with each other (in the foreign language they are learning, of course) can the students fill in each others' information gaps.