Several safari camps operate as the base for this adventure, providing unique rides twice a day to explore deep into the delta. The camps have excellent horses, professional guides and lots of support workers. They have a reputation for providing a great riding experience.

              The morning ride, when the guides take you to beautiful, shallow lakes full of water lilies, tends to be more active. It is unlike any other riding experience. With rainbows forming in the splashing water around you and the sound of huge drops of water bouncing off your body and face. It is truly exciting. You are very likely to come across large wild animals, too. On horseback it is possible to get quite close to elephants, giraffes and many other animals. The sense of excitement and tension levels rise suddenly though, as does your heart rate, as you move closer to them.

              In the evening, rides are usually at a more relaxed and unhurried pace. With golden light streaming across the grassy delta and the animals coming out to eat and drink. Sedate though they are, rides at this time of day are still very impressive. As the sun's rays pass through the dust kicked up by the horses, the romance of Africa comes to life.

              Back at the camp you can kick off your boots and enjoy excellent food and wine. Looking back on your day, you will find it hard to deny that a horseback Safari is as close as you will ever come to answering the call of the wild.

    The writings of Shakespeare are today little read by young people in Britain. His young readership is limited to those who choose to study literature at university.

    Shakespeare's work, together with most other classics, is seen as remote, and written in a 400­year­old version of English that is about as inviting as toothache.

    Still, in Britain schools, it is compulsory to study the bard(诗人), and when something is made compulsory, usually the result is boredom, resentment(憎恨) or both.

    This was my experience of the classics at school. But when I reached my late teenage years, I had a change of heart. Like every other young person since the dawn of time, the world confused me. I wanted answers, so I turned to books to find them.

    I went on to take a PhD in literature and have taught it in Britain and China. I have never regretted it. There is something in literature that people want, even if they don't read books. You see this in the popularity of TV and movie adaptations of great works, the recent film version of Jane Austen's Pride and Prejudice being a case in point. These popular adaptations may help increase people's interest in the classics.

    Reading a simplified Romeo and Juliet may perhaps lead to a reading of Shakespeare's actual play. If that is the case, then I welcome the trend. But do not make the mistake of thinking that it is the same thing. Shakespeare is a poet. His greatness is in his language. Reading someone else's rewriting of his work is like peeling a banana, throwing away the fruit, and eating the skin. Take on the original. It really is worth the effort.

    When you're a parent to a young child, you spend a lot of time talking about feelings: about having to share, about being disappointed because you may not have a cookie instead of broccoli (绿花椰菜), about the great injustice of a parent pressing the elevator button before the child has a chance to.

    And in a parenting culture that's increasingly concerned with centering children's needs above all else, mothers and fathers have become skillful at talking about their kids' feelings while masking their own. But new research suggests that parents who hide their negative emotions are doing their children, and themselves harm.

    A study published this month says that when parents put on a faux­happy (假开心) face for their kids,  they do damage to their own sense of wellbeing and authenticity.

"For the average parent the findings suggest when they attempt to hide their negative emotion expression and overexpress their positive emotions with their children, it actually comes at a cost: doing so may lead parents to feel worse themselves," researcher Dr. Emily Impett, says.

    It makes sense that parents often fall back on amping up (扩大) the positivity for the sake of their children — there are a lot of things in the world we want to protect our kids from. But children are often smarter than we expect and are quite in tune with what the people closest to them — their parents — are feeling.

    There was a time about a year or so ago, for example, when I received some bad news over the phone; I was home with my four­year­old and so I did my best to put on a brave face.  She knew immediately something was wrong though, and was confused.

    When I finally let a few tears out and explained that Mom heard something sad about a friend, she was, of course, just fine. My daughter patted my shoulder, gave me a hug, and went back to playing. She felt better that she was able to help me, and the moment made a lot more sense to her emotionally than a smiling mom holding back sobs. I was glad that I could feel sad momentarily and not have to work hard to hide that.

    Relaying positive feelings to your children when you don't feel them is a move the researchers called high cost — that it may seem like the most beneficial to your child at the time but that parents should find other ways of communicating emotions that "allow them to feel true to themselves".

    But this is also about children seeing the world in a more honest way. While we will want to protect our children from things that aren't age­appropriate or harmful, it's better to raise a generation of kids who understand that moms and dads are people too.

    A first-year undergraduate student in Chengdu, recently complained online that her mother refused to raise her monthly allowance to 4,500 yuan ( $ 633) even when she said her current allowance 2, 000 yuan was not enough to cover her expenses, sparking a debate on how much money a college student needs per month. One expert shares his views on the issue with China Daily: Students should pursue education, not comfort.

    Even for a college student studying in a first-tier city in China, 2,000 yuan is enough to cover all his or her monthly expenses. In fact, for a college student in Chengdu a monthly allowance of 2,000 yuan is more than enough. According to a survey conducted by a bookkeeping platform, the average monthly expense for an undergraduate in cities other than Beijing, Shanghai and Hangzhou was less than 2,000 yuan in 2019； for Chengdu, it was 1,900 yuan.

    Claiming that she can hardly afford new clothing and cosmetics with her 2,000 yuan monthly allowance, the undergraduate student in Chengdu criticized her mother for refusing to raise her pocket money. Her "meager" allowance, she said, prevented her from buying branded goods that her hostel-mates enjoyed.

    By the time a person enters a college, she or he should have developed a healthy consumption habit. And a youth should adjust her or his consumption according to her or his family income. On a deeper level, the money they spend in college should depend on how much they value their parents' hard work. Besides, some college students could take UP part-time jobs to meet their monetary needs if they feel their parents don't or can't send them enough money. In this way they can also learn to meet the requirements of life in the future and develop healthy consumption habits. More importantly, they should always bear in mind that education is their top priority in college

When Jenny Benson was eight, her mother took her to soccer practice for the first time.

"She's never played soccer before," Mrs Benson told the coach. "I'm not sure how she'll do. "

Jenny ran onto the field and joined the other players. Over the next hour, Mrs Benson and the coach watched as Jenny outran many of the more experienced players.

"I knew then that soccer would be Jenny's sport. " Mrs Benson recalls. And she was right.

It may have helped that Jenny had spent much of her time trying to keep up with her three brothers. "I wanted to be just like them," Jenny says. "My family has inspired me for my entire life. "

Jenny has retired from the United States women's national soccer team. She started out on her professional career in the Philadelphia Charge, a team in the Women's United Soccer Association (WUSA). Later on, she joined FC Energy Voronezh, and then New Jersey Wildcats.

When the WUSA was being formed, league officials watched many college soccer games, looking for players good enough to join the league. They were very interested in Jenny, who played for the University of Nebraska.

"Throughout that college season, I knew I was being watched," Jenny says, "I knew I couldn't be perfect, so I just tried to be very consistent and have fun. "

As a professional, Jenny relied on her focused but funloving attitude. "In a game, I try never to put too much pressure on myself. The more I concentrate on having fun, the better I play. " She says. "I have good and bad days, just like everyone else, but I know the sun will always come up after a bad day. So all I have to do is to adjust myself, either to the change of my inner feelings or to the change of circumstances. That helps me get through anything. "

The Failed New Year's Resolution: Three Tips to Get on Track

January is officially over, and many people are taking stock of their progress towards New Year's resolutions. The fact is that you probably haven't kept up with them as much as you hoped. But that's not your fault. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} . If you feel like you have already failed, here are three tips before you let go.

Practice self-compassion

Many people talk to themselves in harsh ways when struggling with new habits, believing self-criticism will help them reach their goals. Research shows, however, that the opposite is true. Self-compassion is more effective for personal improvement, especially when facing failure. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}_ , try to be kind and gentle with yourself, just as you would with a loved one.

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Resolutions are often phrased as definitive goals. I will exercise daily. I will kick desserts. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} . But setting all-or-nothing goals can lead to all-or-nothing decisions that one gives up when faced with challenges. In contrast, intentions focus more on your values than specific actions. For example, the resolution "I will exercise daily" may become an intention of "I want to move my body because it feels good." This approach allows for more flexibility when unexpected stress arises.

Solve problems by overcoming barriers

If you are struggling to maintain your desired habits, there are evidence-based techniques available to help you. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} . This involves identifying the specific barriers that lead to your quitting something that you want to do. Perhaps you keep forgetting the new habit, or perhaps you don't understand how to do it. Whatever it is, identify the barrier and cope with it specifically.