Helicopter Aerial Tour

    Explore the Grand Cannon(大峡谷)from the eyes of the eagle. A wonderful 12-to 15-minute helicopter tour will soar through the canyon for an aerial experience of wonderful views. Our aerial tour is not available anywhere else in the world! Ticket: $120. 00 per person, plus 10% tax. Please call us at 1-888-868-9378 for seasonal rates, specials or to book by phone.

Helicopter-Boat Tour

    Helicopter tour starts at the Grand Canyon, West Side. Take a 4,000-fool fall to the Colorado River below. Helicopters fall 4,000 feet from the canyon side to the banks of the Colorado River where visitors can enjoy 3 15- to 20-minute boat ride down the Colorado.

Ticket: $150.00 per person, plus 10% tax.

Champagne Helicopter Tour

    Experience the beauty of the Grand Cannon: Soar above the Hoover Dam and the dead volcanoes. You go aboard a million-dollar helicopter with all forward facing scats allowing 180 degrees of views in air-conditioned comfort. You will see the Hoover Dam, the Colorado River, the Grand Cannon and more! You land to have a champagne picnic lunch at the Grand Cannon.

Las Vegas Adventure Tour

    Helicopter tours to the Grand Canyon West include a wonderful Las Vegas adventure tour. Aerial sightseeing tours originating in Las Vegas, Nevada include breathtaking views of Lake Mead, the Mohave Desert, and the west edge of the Grand Canyon. Aerial tours including the round trip as well as combination tours attract many visitors.

    Visitors arriving at the Hualapai elation's Grand Cannon West Airport may select one of the activities above.

Do you believe that things are connected for no scientific reason at all? For example, do you avoid saying the word "four" to avoid bad luck? If so, you have a superstition (迷信). And you're not alone – all kinds of people have them.

For example, Portugal's soccer superstar Cristiano Ronaldo always steps onto the pitch (球场) with his right foot first, according to The Telegraph. And sports players are not alone in having superstitions. A visitor once asked the Nobel Prize winning scientist Niels Bohr whether he really believed that the horseshoe he'd hung at his country home was lucky. "Of course not," the Danish physicist said. "But I understand it's lucky whether you believe in it or not."

One recent study found that even scientists at MIT and other top US schools tended to look for a meaning in natural events, similar to the connection between stepping on the pitch and playing soccer well, according to The Atlantic. When the researchers gave the scientists little time to answer questions, they were twice as likely to agree with statements such as "Trees produce oxygen so that animals can breathe" as they were when they had more time to think about their reply.

It seems that fear can make people think differently in this way, too. In a British study, students imagined meeting a "witch" who said she would cast (施魔法) an evil spell(符咒) on them. About half said a scientist should not be worried about the spell. Yet each of them said that, personally, they wouldn't let the witch do it to them.

So why are so many of us superstitious? Well, it seems to be our way of dealing with the unknown. "Many people quite simply just want to believe," Brian Crank, a professor of psychology at Missouri Western State University, said in a 2008 interview. "The human brain is always trying to work out why things happen, and when the reason is not clear, we tend to make up some pretty bizarre (古怪的) explanations."

    And these explanations aren't completely unhelpful. In fact, superstitions can sometimes work and bring real luck, according to psychologists at the University of Cologne in Germany in the May 2010 issue of the journal Psychological Science. They found that believing in something can improve performance on a task like an exam.

    So, what about you? What superstitions do you follow to keep you safe and successful?

    “Can't hold a candle to” is a popular expression. When there wasn't electricity, someone would have a servant light his way by holding a candle. The expression meant that the person who cannot hold a candle to you is not fit even to be your servant. Now, it means such a person cannot compare or compete.

    Another expression is “hold your tongue.” It means to be still and not talk. “Hold your tongue” is not something you would tell a friend. But a parent or teacher might use the expression to quiet a noisy child.

    “Hold out” is an expression one hears often in sports reports and labor news. It means to refuse to play or work. Professional football and baseball players ''hold out” if their team refuses to pay them what they think they are worth.

    The expression “hold up” has several different meanings. One is a robbery. A man with a gun may say, “This is a hold-up. Give me your money.” Another meaning is to delay. A driver who was held up by heavy traffic might be late for work. Another meaning is for a story to be considered true after an investigation. A story can hold up if it is proved true.

    “Hold on” is another expression, which means waiting or stopping. As you leave for school, your brother may say, “Hold on, you forgot your book.” It is used to ask a telephone caller to wait and not hang up his telephone.

    Our final expression is “hold the line”. That means to keep a problem or situation from getting worse—to hold steady. For example, the president may say he will “hold the line on taxes”. He means there will be no increase in taxes.

    From the loss of wildlife to rising sea levels, we're all well aware of the problems that climate change could cause.

    But while it may seem like such issues won't affect most of us directly，it looks like future generations could grow up without something that many of us now take for granted: chocolate.

    According to an essay published by the US National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration, changes to the climate in the regions that produce cacao - the plant from which chocolate is produced - may mean that it will soon become extinct.

    Most of the world's cacao grows in countries close to the equator，with over half of it growing in the African nations of Ghana and Ivory Coast.

It's predicted that by 2050, climate change will have accelerated the rate at which temperatures in these countries rise, making it extremely difficult for cacao to grow there.

    The problem doesn't lie in increased heat, however，but in lower humidity (湿度)，as it's believed that rainfall will stay at the same level if the temperature rises.

    “In other words, as higher temperatures squeeze more water out of soil and plants, it's unlikely that rainfall will increase enough to offset the moisture (含水量) loss,” Michon Scott, the essay's author, wrote.

    To help fight this problem, researchers from Berkeley University in the US are working on changing the DNA of cacao plants to allow them to survive in dryer conditions by using gene editing technology, according to US News.

    In the meantime, US company Mars, one of the world's biggest manufacturers of chocolate products, announced in January that it would spend $1 billion to help reduce the effects of climate change.

    “This is a world issue, and it requires everyone to work together,” Mars spokesperson Barry Parkin told Business Insider.

    The message here is that if we all do our part, we may be able to prevent some of the worst impacts of climate change. Or if we're unlucky, chocolate will become a thing of the past.

    Do you have the experience of digging out your suitcase, deciding what to bring and being afraid that you've forgotten something? {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Hope they can transform the way you pack.

Keep a Basket Handy

    Do you wait until the last minute to pack? Keep a basket in your bedroom, living room, or bath room that you can use to throw in items you need to pack as you come across them. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Besides, you can just put the contents of the basket into your suitcase if you are in a hurry to leave for the airport.

Buy Wrinkle-free Clothing

    You won't need to worry about carefully packing your items of clothing if they're made from wrinkle-free materials.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} They'll still look fresh and bright when you are in them at your destination.

Keep Old Packing Lists

    Chances are that you end up taking trips that require you to pack similar items. Keep old packing lists from former vacations to the beach, ski resort, and city - that way, you'll always have a list of at least the basics.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}So you don't need to waste your effort to remember where you left your hand-written packing lists.

Schedule a Packing Time

    Time can slip away from you before a trip — you may be caught up at work, at home, or be occupied with other responsibilities of daily life. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}That way, you will not need to do your packing frantically（狂乱地）from the last minute to 1 o'clock on the day you leave.

A. Buy necessary stuff when you arrive.

B. That's why I've distilled（提炼）the art of packing down to some essential trips.

C. Just roll them up or put them at the bottom of the suitcase.

D. Determine a night well in advance of departure to pack.

E. Rolling your clothes is the best way to save space for the suitcase.

F. The best way to do this is to save them on your computer.

G. This makes you less likely to forget the stuff.

    If you ask people to name the one person who had the greatest effect on the English language, you will get answers like "Shakespeare," "Samuel Johnson," and "Webster," but none of these men had any effect at all compared to a man who didn't even speak English-William the Conqueror.

    Before 1066, in the land we now call Great Britain lived peoples belonging to two major language groups. In the west-central region lived the Welsh, who spoke a Celtic language, and in the north lived the Scots, whose language, though not the same as Welsh, was also Celtic. In the rest of the country lived the Saxons, actually a mixture of Anglos, Saxons, and other Germanic and Nordic peoples, who spoke what we now call Anglo-Saxon (or Old English), a Germanic language. If this state of affairs had lasted, English today would be close to German.

    But this state of affairs did not last. In 1066 the Normans led by William defeated the Saxons and began their rule over England. For about a century, French became the official language of England while Old English became the language of peasants. As a result, English words of politics and the law come from French rather than German. In some cases, modem English even shows a distinction(区别)between upper-class French and lower-class Anglo-Saxon in its words. We even have different words for some foods, meat in particular, depending on whether it is still out in the fields or at home ready to be cooked, which shows the fact that the Saxon peasants were doing the farming, while the upper-class Normans were doing most of the eating.

    When Americans visit Europe for the first time, they usually find Germany more "foreign" than France because the German they see on signs and advertisements seems much more different from English than French does. Few realize that the English language is actually Germanic in its beginning and that the French influences are all the result of one man's ambition.