How to Care for Your Ears?

        Ears not only let us hear, but they alsoplay a role in maintaining our balance, which is vital to our ability to function in daily life. Yet, we ignore them. We can't even see our ears, exceptin a mirror. We take for granted what they do for us day in and day out－untilwe notice something's wrong, such as when an earache strikes or when we starthaving to ask people to repeat what they say.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

◆ Clean your ear with a washcloth－coveredfinger only.

      Never put anything inside your earcanal, including cotton swabs (药签).{#blank#}2{#/blank#}．

◆ Leave earwax(耳垢)alone.

      Wax is your ear's way of eliminating(消除)anything foreign that gets into the ear canal.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}If you find you have too much earwax,use a few drops of earwax remover(去除剂) in the canal. After a few minutes,wash the ear with warm water.

◆ Avoid noisy places.

      Rock concerts and construction sites are just a few places that frequently have noise levels that can damage hearing.Any place where you have to shout to be heard should be avoided.

◆{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

      Be careful not to play MP3 too loud, especiallyif using earphone.

◆Be careful with illness andmedications.

      Respiratory (呼吸的) illnesses should be treated to avoid their spread to the ears. Certainmedications can damage hearing, so follow the directions carefully beforetaking them.

      See your doctor if you suffer fromsudden hearing loss or hear noises in your head.   

{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Most people don't need to clean waxout of their ears.

B. In such case, go to see a doctor assoon as possible.

C. These can be symptoms of a seriousillness which needs to be treated.

D. This article will show you how tocare for your ears.

E. Turn the volume(音量)down

F. Avoid using earphones while listeningto MP3.

G. Your ear canal is very narrow, and aswab can damage it.

    Homestay provides English language students with the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom and the experience of being part of a British home.

What to Expect

    The host will provide accommodation and meals. Rooms will be cleaned and bedcovers changed at least once a week. You will be given the house key and the host is there to offer help and advice as well as to take an interest in your physical and mental health.

Accommodation Zones

    Homestays are located in London mainly in Zones 2, 3 and 4 of the transport system. Most hosts do not live in the town centre as much of central London is commercial and not residential(居住的). Zones 3 and 4 often offer larger accommodation in a less crowded area. It is very convenient to travel in London by Underground.

Meal Plans Available

◇ Continental Breakfast

◇ Breakfast and Dinner

◇ Breakfast,  Packed Lunch and Dinner

    It's important to note that few English families still provide a traditional cooked breakfast. Your accommodation includes Continental Breakfast which normally consists of fruit juice, cereal, bread and tea or coffee. Cheese, fruit and cold meat are not normally part of a Continental Breakfast in England. Dinners usually consist of meat or fish with vegetables followed by dessert, fruit and coffee.

Friends

    If you wish to invite a friend over to visit, you must first ask your host's permission. You have no right to entertain friends in a family home as some families feel it is an invasion of their privacy.

Self-Catering (自助的)Accommodation in Private Homes

    Accommodation on a room only basis includes shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and often a main living room. This kind of accommodation offers an independent lifestyle and is more suitable for the long stay student. However, it does not provide the same family atmosphere as an ordinary homestay and may not benefit those who need to practice English at home quite as much.

    Junxi “Emma” Yang played Carnegie Hall before she got to high school. But her piano skills may have to take a back seat to her programming skill.

    According to World Journal, a US-based Chinese media organization, Emma, a 14-year-old student at the Brearley School in Manhattan, New York started coding when she was 6. Four years later, her beloved grandmother began developing Alzheimer's.

    When Emma's family moved to New York from Hong Kong in 2014, she became passionate about programming. By the time she was 10, her grandmother had already developed the disease.

    Emma got right to work. With her coding skills, she had a smartphone app created before long, designed to help people suffering from Alzheimer's.

    “Now, 'Timeless' has moved to the second stage of design,”says Emma.

    Emma hopes her grandmother can benefit from the artificial intelligence technology built into “Timeless,” the app Emma developed, to overcome her memory loss.

    Emma's newly finished app has gained support from Dr. Melissa Kramps, an Alzheimer's specialist, and from Kairo, a developer specializing in artificial intelligence.

    Timeless uses facial recognition to remind someone with Alzheimer's of vital information about the person whose photo they are looking at on their screen. It also signals whether they have just called somebody.

    The app also allows for the photo-talking, then moves to identify the people on the screen.

    The Timeless project is featured on the website Indiegogo for fundraising. Emma is hoping to raise $50,000 and work alongside professional programmers to have Timeless launched by the end of 2018.

    Many people have hailed Emma for her efforts. Bill Gates voiced his support, commending her on her bid to help bridge the gap between people with Alzheimer's and the ones they love.

    Over the past 40 years, China has helped more than 700 million rural residents out of being poor, and the poverty rate(贫困率) — the proportion of people living below the Chinese poverty line — had fallen among the rural population from 97.5 percent in 1978 to 3.1 percent at the end of 2017, official figures shows. China's achievements in poverty alleviation(扶贫) made the world look at China with admiration.

    "For me, it is unbelievable that over 40 years, that is, over the course of one working lifetime, China has gone from one of the poorest countries in the world to one that is about to eliminate(消除) absolute poverty," said Craig Allen, president of the US-China Business Council.

    Varaprasad Sekhar Dolla, a professor of Chinese studies at India's Jawaharlal Nehru University, also spoke highly of China's achievements in poverty reduction. "If global poverty came down greatly in the last three or four decades, it's partly because of the Chinese contribution to reducing poverty within its own national boundaries," said the Indian scholar.

    In the eyes of Khairy Tourk, a professor of economics with the Stuart School of Business at the Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago, "many countries look up to China to learn from its experience." "The Chinese experience is based on building a modern infrastructure(基础设施) and then on setting up special economic zones that would help underdeveloped countries to become more industrial," he added.

    In the government work report delivered at the opening of the annual NPC session (全国人大会议) on March 5, China promises to reduce its population of rural poor by over 10 million this year.

A rainy day can be a chance to recharge. While you relax on the sofa with a movie, the raindrops falling on your windows might one day provide the power for your TV. This is the idea behind an invention that harvests energy from water. 

The technology is based on the triboelectric (摩擦电的) effect. An engineer at the University of Hawaii, David Ma knew that it was possible to generate electricity by rubbing two things together. So, he thought, "Why don't we use water?"

A drop of water sliding across a surface coated with two different materials would generate enough friction(摩擦) to create an electrical charge. By placing metal wires that the drop of water touched as it moved, it should be possible to harvest electricity, he reasoned. 

It worked. In fact, the researchers lit up 15 LED bulbs with a single moving water drop. 

This is not the first time that scientists have got electricity from water-generated friction. Earlier experiments, though, harvested the charge produced in a surface by a sliding drop of water. There, the surface had acted as an electrode(电极). This is different. The energy of friction is being harvested from the water itself. 

"The technology could someday power phones, sensors or other small electronics," says Christopher Oshman, an engineer at the Colorado School of Mines. "This work is a step towards harvesting the energy of moving objects all around us, including ourselves, to power the electronic devices we use every day," he says. 

"Ma has shown that the technology can work in a lab," Oshman says. Next, the Colorado researcher would like to see it tried on a larger scale, such as on an umbrella. 

Standing on the South Pole at the start of the year with the wind blowing across the Antarctic, travel blogger Johnny Ward felt a wave of relief.

Just a week before, in early January 2024, he'd struggled through snow and ice to climb to the top of the Vinson Massif, Antarctica's highest peak. Years before, in 2017, he'd become the first Irish person to visit every country in the world.

Now, after decades of traveling and mountaineering, Ward could claim another world first—the Ultimate Explorer's Grand Slam (大满贯), which involves reaching the highest peak on every continent, and visiting both the North and South Poles in addition to visiting every country.

"I feel relieved," Ward recalled as he slowly made his way back to his home in Thailand after climbing to the top of the Vinson Massif and then setting foot on the South Pole. "But also I'm aware I'm a normal guy, not a world-class athlete, so I guess it was more about resilience and determination more than any ability. Although I met with lots of barriers, I overcame them one by one."

Ward had previously devoted a decade of his life, between 2007 and 2017, to visiting every country in the world. The incredible journey saw him hitchhike (搭便车) a ride on a container ship from Oman to Socotra in Yemen, travel overland from Cairo to Cape Town and travel from South Korea to Australia by bus and boat.

"It had been a huge life goal, over a decade of my life, and then when I finished that I was aimless and had no idea what to do next," he said. "I started eating badly, drinking too much, putting on weight and I ignored my business."

Ward decided that the best way to overcome this was to challenge himself again. He began running ultramarathons (超级马拉松) and climbing mountains, and soon found that with extreme purpose and direction, he was back to loving life again.

So where will Ward go next? Space? The bottom of the Mariana Trench, the deepest point of the ocean? "All good things come after suffering, and I want to share that with people. So that's the next plan," he said.