More student than ever before are taking a gap-year (间隔年)before going to university.It used to be called the “year off” between school and university.The gap-year phenomenon originated(起源) with the months left over to Oxbridge applicants between entrance exams in November and the start of the next academic year.

    This year, 25,310 students who have accepted places in higher education institutions have put off their entry until next year, according to statistics on university entrance provided by University and College Admissions Service (UCAS) .

    That is a record 14.7% increase in the number of students taking a gap year. Tony Higgins from UCAS said that the statistics are good news for everyone in higher education. “Students who take a well-planned year out are more likely to be satisfied with, and complete, their chosen course. Students who take a gap year are often more mature and responsible,” he said.

    But not everyone is happy. Owain James, the president of the National Union of Students(NUS), argued that the increase is evidence of student had ship – young people are being forced into earning money before finishing their education. “New students are now aware that they are likely to leave university up to ￡15,000 in debt. It is not surprising that more and More students are taking a gap year to earn money to support their study for the degree.NUS statistics show that over 40% of students are forced to work during term time and the figure increases to 90% during vacation periods,”he said.

    Have you ever wondered why birds sing? Maybe you thought that they were just happy. After all, you probably sing or whistle(吹口哨) when you are happy.

    Some scientists believe that birds do sing some of time just because they are happy. However, they sing most of the time for a very different reason. Their singing is actually a warning to other birds to stay out of their territory.

    Do you know what a “territory” is? A territory is an area that an animal, usually the male, claims as its own. Only he and his family are welcome there. No other families of the same species(物种) are welcome. Your yard and house are your territory where only your family and friends are welcome. If a stranger should enter your territory and threaten you, you might shout. Probably this would be enough to frighten him away.

    If so, you have actually frightened the stranger away without having to fight him. A bird does the same thing. But he expects an outsider almost any time, especially at nesting(筑巢) season. So he is screaming all the time, whether he can see an outsider or not. This screaming is what we call a bird's song, and it is usually enough to keep an outsider away.

    Birds sing loudest in the spring when they are trying to attract a mate（配偶）and warn others not to enter the territory of theirs.

    You can see that birds have a language all their own. Most of it has something to do with attracting mates and setting up territories.

    Children's Activities (6—13 years) — Summer 2017

    There is no chance of children getting bored in the holidays with these action-packed weeks of fun and games. Days begin with team building activities to help“break the ice” and get the children in the mood. The wonderfully safe and secure environment of Port Regis enables the children to explore the woods and enjoy their own creative play.

    WEEK 1: Festival of Sport (Monday 12nd July to Friday 26th July)

    The summer activities kick-off with a wonderful week of sporting fun including cricket, athletics other great team games. Swims in the pool and games in the gym.

    WEEK 1: Let's Go Wild (Monday 29th July to Friday 2nd August)

    A Whole week in the great outdoors with treasure hunts, camp bed and cave building along with amazing team games in woods. This week guarantees to be like no other. Navigate yourself through the huge spiders' web and guide balls through the huge ball maze… this is a great week for making new friends.

WEEK 3: Sporting Madness (Monday 5th August to Friday 9th August)

    A wild and strange week of tournaments and twin (both traiditional and a few of the homemade variety) games, but be warned, you might get wet! Arts and crafts, fun in the gym and swims in the pool make this a hard week. Besides exhaustion you'd better learn to get used to challenges and accept any result. Activities will be dependent on the weather.

    WEEK 3: Make a Racquet(球拍)（Monday 12th August to Friday 16^th August）

    What a racquet this week brings with all the bat, racquet and club sport you could wish for…crazy golf, tennis, hadmintion, cricket and table tennis to name but a foe for the children to enjoy.

    WEEK 5: Having a Bull (Monday 19th August to Friday 23rd August)

    Quizzjes, arts and crafts, fun in the gym and swims in the pool are not to be witnin this week of Fun.

    WEEK 6: Mgdal Medley (混战）(Tuesday 27th August to Fridy 30th August)

This week re-runs the best bits of the last five weeks with great team games and tournaments, action-packed ball sports, floaty fun in the pool and adventures in the woods.

    Children will need to bring:

    Swimming kit, plenty to drink and break snacks. Dependant on the weather, children will need either sunscreen and sun hats or wet weather gear.

    A new discovery may change how scientists think about prehistoric humans. Human history is more of a war movie than a romantic comedy, at least as far as other animals are concerned; we may be causing one of the planet's great extinction events at the moment. But a recent discovery means humans might not be as destructive as we thought.

    Large animals have a history of disappearing when humans move to their areas. Scientists have long believed that humans simply hunted big animals because people are really good at hunting. For example, scientists thought humans arrived in Madagascar around 4,000 years ago, but only two thousand years later, giant lemurs, giant tortoises and elephant birds disappeared from the island. Many scientists thought humans had something to do with that rapid drop in biodiversity(生物多样性).

    At least, that's what scientists thought until a group of researchers dug up a lot of bones in Madagascar recently. These bones belonged to the elephant bird, a kind of extinct bird that weighed up to 1,000 pounds. The huge bones were covered in cuts that clearly came from a human hunter. The researchers found that the humans had killed the birds 10,000 years ago...Thousands of years before scientists believed humans had come to the island.

    "Our research provides evidence of human activity in Madagascar more than 6,000 years earlier than suspected, which shows that a different extinction theory is required to understand the huge biodiversity loss that has happened on the island." explained James Hansford, one of the researchers. "Humans seem to have coexisted with elephant birds and other now-extinct species for over 8,000 years, clearly with limited negative influence on biodiversity for most of this period."

    If humans lived among large animals for thousands of years without wiping them out, then maybe our species can't wipe other species out. Rather, extinction is more of a habit we've learned. Perhaps we can unlearn it too.

    In 2019, a big revolutionary technology shift will finally occur, which is called 5g. It is a once-in a-decade upgrade(升级)to our wireless systems that will start reaching mobile phone users in a matter of months. This new times will leap ahead of current wireless known as 4g by offering mobile internet speeds that will let people download an entire 120-minute movie within a second

    But this is not only about faster smart phones, but also will affect many other kinds of devices, including industrial robots, security cameras, drones(无人机), automatic cars, video games, sports, shopping and traffic data. With 5g technology, a clearer and truer 3D images will be formed and it can be off-loaded to other machines wirelessly, freeing users to move and making it easier to develop goggles(目镜)the size of eyeglasses. People can point a smart phone camera to a football game and see both live video on the display and player statistics or other data. Moreover 5g powerful effects extend to remote medical surgery and other fields that increasingly rely on high-speed connections.

    Officials in the United States and China regard 5g networks as a heated competitive edge. It can help spread the use of artificial intelligence and other cutting-edge technologies. Meanwhile, to get the benefits of 5g, users will have to buy new phones, while carriers will need to install new communication services, which will create a huge future market. In order to occupy it first, the famous world wireless service providers such as AT&T, Verizon, Samsung, Huawei have already declared that they will enter 5g business and showed their 5g new smart phones.

    However, in the United States, Verizon and AT&T will offer their 5g service with first use of high frequencies known as millimeter waves that can pump data at high speeds, but their signals don't travel as far. Instead Sprint and T-Mobile plan to start with lower frequencies, whose result may be somewhat slower initial speed, but wider range, although they all claim that they have mastered 5g technology. Thus they only first target the areas with large population. So 5g's full benefit to all are not expected until the main US key carriers upgrade their key switching equipment, which may happen in late 2019 or early 2020.

Four of the world's greatest national parks

 Komodo

 Location: Indonesia

 Area: 1,733km²

 Home to the world's largest lizard (蜥蜴), the Kcomodo dragon, Komodo National Park is made up of 29 islands in the centre of the Indonesian archipelago (群岛). The park's three main islands of Komodo, Rica and Pada r make ideal destinations for divers, as the surrounding coral reefs support a vast amount of oceanic diversity. With over 1,000 species of fish, 260 species of coral, and countless sea animals, this is an ideal spot to swim with sharks, whales, dolphins and more.

 Namib- Naukluft

Location: Namibia

 Area: 49,768km²

 In the world's oldest desert, the landscape moves. The golden dunes (沙丘) shift as winds blow and seasons pass. Visitors come to explore the dunes and it can be a real adventure. Jump in a 4×4 or hike across the sands on foot for a multi- day trail and you' ll soon find yourself deep in the Namibian wilderness. You' ll need a permit and doctor's letter to take on the longer hikes, but one- day hikes give anyone a chance to see more of the Namib.

 Tongariro

 Location: New Zealand

 Area:795km²

 As New Zealand's oldest national park, Tongariro National Park is home to three active volcanoes. And here's the Tongariro Alpine Crossing, a 19.4- kilometre hike that takes you across beautiful landscapes. This park also draws in skiers during the winter seasons. The biggest ski area, Whakapapa, covers 5.5km² and has 15 lifts in all.

 Teide

 Location: Tenerife, Spain

 Area: 190km²

 This park is home to Mount Teide, the highest peak in Spain. With a height of 3,718 metres, Mount Teide is also the third largest volcanic structure on the planet. Besides, Teide National Park possesses unique plants. The most unusual among the 139 recorded species is red bugloss, which has become the symbol of the park.