Tayka Hotel de Sal

Where: Tahua, Bolivia

How much: About $ 95 a night

Why it's cool: You've stayed at hotels made of brick or wood, but salt? That's something few can claim. Tayka Hotel de Sal is made totally ofsalt—including the beds (though you'll sleep on regular mattresses andblankets). The hotel sits on the Salar de Uyuni, a prehistoric dried-up lakewhich is the world's biggest salt flat. Builders use the salt from the 4,633-square-mile flat to make the bricks, and glue them together with a paste(糊) of wet salt that hardens when it dries. When rain starts to dissolve (溶解) the hotel, the owners just mix up more salt paste to strengthen the bricks.

Green Magic Nature Resort

Where: Vythiri, India

How much: About $ 240 a night

Why it's cool: Taking a pulley(滑轮)—operated lift 86 feet to your treetop room is just the start of your adventure. As you look out of your open window, there is no glass! You watch monkeys and birds inthe rain forest canopy(罩篷). Later you might test your fear of heights by crossing the handmade rope bridge to themain part of the hotel, or just sit on your bamboo bed and read. You don't evenhave to come down for breakfast—the hotel will send it up on the pulley-drawn“elevator”.

Dog Bark Park Inn B&B

Where: Cottonwood, Idaho

How much: $ 92 a night

Why it's cool: This doghouse isn't just for the family pet. SweetWilly is a 30-foot-tall dog with guest rooms in his belly. Climb the wooden stairs beside his hind leg to enter the door in his side. You can relax in the main bedroom, go up a few steps of the loft(阁楼) in Willy's head, or hang out inside his nose. Although you have a full private bathroom in your quarters, there is also a toilet in the 12-foot-tall fire hydrant(消防栓) outside.

Gamirasu Cave Hotel

Where: Ayvali, Turkey

How much: Between $ 130 and $ 450 a night

Why it's cool: Experience what it was like 5,000 years ago, when people lived in these mountain caves formed by volcanic ash. But your stay will be much more modern. Bathrooms and electricity provide what you expect from a modern hotel, and the white volcanic ash, called tufa, keeps the rooms cool insummer. (Don't worry— there is heat in winter.)

Madame Tussauds—London

    Welcome to Madame Tussauds—a 125-year-old museum loved by visitors for its life-like waxworks of famous folk from the past and present, plus interactive exhibits. The following are three ticket options we'd like to recommend to you.

Option 1: All Inclusive Open Dated Ticket

    Why not treat your friends and family to our All Inclusive Tickets? Ticket is valid (有效的) for one visit with all of the following fantastic features:

● Valid for one year from date of purchase—perfect for a gift!

● Priority Access admission in true celebrity style

● Your very own hand made of wax(蜡).

    With your ticket you can enjoy the heroic new experience in three floors of multisensory fun featuring a mix of interactive themed areas, realistic wax figures and an ALL NEW Marvel Super Heroes 4D film adventure.

Option 2: Late Saver 50% off

    If you book online in advance and arrive at Madame Tussauds later in the day, your tickets can cost as little as £14.00. That's 50% off the standard on-the-day price!

    The last admission into Madame Tussauds is 5:30 p.m in off-peak periods and 6 p.m in peak periods. This gives you loads of time to fully enjoy the attraction.

    This ticket is available for online purchase only. Tickets are subject to availability at all times and only a limited amount are available each day, so be quick!

Option 3: Top 3 London Attractions

    Combine your visit to Madame Tussauds with a flight on the World famous London Eye and SEA LIFE London Aquarium, and save 25% on your adult and child tickets, or 33% on your family ticket when you book your tickets at least the day in advance!

    Please note: Child ages are 4—15. Under 4s are free. A family ticket consists of 2 adults and 2 children, or 1 adult and 3 children.

    Please note: Your combined ticket only gives priority admission to Madame Tussauds and Sea Life London Aquarium—all others are general queue flights.

For more ticket options, please visit our website at : www.madame-tussauds.com

    For an increasing number of students at American universities, Old is suddenly in. The reason is obvious: the graying of America means jobs, coupled with the aging of the baby-boom generation, a longer life span means that the nation's elderly population is bound to expand significantly over the next 50 years. By 2050, 25 percent of all Americans will be older than 65, up from 14 percent in 1995.The change poses profound questions for government and society, of course. But it also creates career opportunities in medicine and health professions and in law and business as well. “In addition to the doctors, we're going to need more sociologists, biologists, urban planners and specialized lawyers,” says Professor Edward Schneider of the University of Southern California's (USC) School of Gerontology（老年学）.

    Lawyers can specialize in “elder law”, which covers everything from trusts and estates to nursing-home abuse and age discrimination. Businessmen see huge opportunities in the elder market because the baby boomers, 74 million strong, are likely to be the wealthiest group of retirees in human history. “Any student who combines an expert knowledge in gerontology with, say, an MBA or law degree will have a license to print money,” one professor says.

    Margarite Santos is a 21-year-old senior at USC. She began college as a biology major but found she was “really bored with bacteria.” So she took a class in gerontology and discovered that she liked it. She says, “I did volunteer work in retirement homes and it was very satisfying.”

    Last week my youngest son and I visited my father at his new home in Tucson, Arizona. He moved there a few years ago, and I was eager to see his new place and meet his friends.

    My earliest memories of my father are of a tall, handsome, successful man devoted to his work and family but uncomfortable with his children. As a child I loved him, as a school girl and young adult I feared him and felt bad about him. He seemed unhappy with me unless I got straight A's and unhappy with my boyfriends if their fathers were not as "successful" as he was. Whenever I went out with him on weekends, I used to struggle to think up things to say, feeling on guard.

    On the first day of my visit, we went out with one of my father's friends for lunch at an outdoor cafe. We walked along that afternoon, did some shopping, ate at the street table, and laughed over my son's funny facial expressions. Gone was my father's critical（挑剔的）air and strict rules. Who was this person I knew as my father, who seemed so friendly and interesting to be around? What had held him back before?

    The next day my dad pulled out his childhood pictures and told me quite a few stories about his own childhood. Although our times together became easier over the years, I never felt closer to him at that moment. After so many years, I'm at last seeing another side of my father. And in so doing, I'm delighted with my new friend. My dad, in his new home in Arizona, is back to me from where he is.

    The elephant was lying heavily on its side, fast asleep. A few dogs started barking at it. The elephant woke up in a terrible anger: it chased the dogs into the village where they ran for safety. That didn't stop the elephant. It destroyed a dozen houses and injured several people. The villagers were scared and angry. Then someone suggested calling Parbati, the elephant princess.

    Parbati Barua's father was a hunter of tigers and an elephant tamer. He taught Parbati to ride an elephant before she could even walk. He also taught her the dangerous art of the elephant roundup-how to catch wild elephants.

    Parbati hasn't always lived in the jungle. After a happy childhood hunting with her father, she was sent to a boarding school in the city. But Parbati never got used to being there and many years later she went back to her old life. "Life in the city is too dull. Catching elephants is an adventure and the excitement lasts for days after the chase," she says.

    But Parbati doesn't catch elephants just for fun."My work," she says," is to rescue man from the elephants, and to keep the elephants safe from man." And this is exactly what Parbati has been doing for many years. Increasingly, the Indian elephant is angry: for many years, illegal hunters have attacked it and its home in the jungle has been reduced to small pieces of land. It is now fighting back. Whenever wild elephants enter a tea garden or a village, Parbati is called to guide the animals back to the jungle before they can kill.

    The work of an elephant tamer also involves love and devotion. A good elephant tamer will spend hours a day singing love songs to a newly captured elephant."Eventually they grow to love their tamers and never forget them. They are also more loyal than humans," she said, as she climbed up one of her elephants and sat on the giant, happy animal. An elephant princess indeed!

In early November in 2023, a diver, swimming off the coast of Sardinia, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} （notice）pieces of metal on the ocean floor. He called the authorities and more divers were sent to look. The pieces turned out to be ancient Roman coins. The coins mostly lay {#blank#}2{#/blank#} （bury）in sand and seagrass not far from the coast. It is said that more than 30, 000 coins have been found, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} are close to 2, 000 years old. Experts call this a major historical discovery.