Blind people usually possess one advantage over other people who can see. Their sense of hearing is far more acute. Bats, whose sight is poor, use a sound location system to help them avoid blocks in the dark. They send out pulses of sound waves, pitched at 50,000 cycles per second, far above the limits of the human ear, which can hear sounds up to frequencies of about 20,000 cycles per second. As the echoes bounce back off obstacles such as trees and walls, the bats are able to take proper action.

    The first steps to help blind people to see with sound are based on exactly the same principle. The sound is given off by an ultrasonic (超声的) torch, whose shape is different from a normal electric torch. It is double-barreled. It works in a similar way to a sonar (声呐) unit on a warship or submarine. The unit's transmitter sends out pulses of ultrasonic waves at the same frequency as the bat and the receiver picks up the returning echoes. Because these are still above the frequency at which the human ear can pick them up. The echoes are filtered (过滤) through circuits that turn them into “bleeps” which can be clearly heard before passing them into headphones.

    This means that a person holding the torch can point it ahead of him and scan the area for obstacles over a range of about 25 feet. If there are no return echoes coming through the headphones, then there is nothing in the way. If echoes do come back, then the closer the obstruction the faster the succession of bleeps and the deeper the pitch of each bleep. With practice, the torch could help a blind person to lead a more normal life.

    At present, the experimental ultrasonic torch requires a shoulder bag to carry the batteries, cables for the power supplies and earphones, as well as the torch itself. Fortunately, reducing the size of the electronic equipment is progressing and it should not be long before the whole set-up can be reproduced in a form small enough to fit into a pair of glasses. The wearer would face in the direction he wanted to check, and lift or lower his head just as a sighted person would.

    Ask someone what they have done to help the environment recently and they will almost certainly mention recycling. Recycling in the home is very important of course. However, being forced to recycle often means we already have more material than we need. We are dealing with the results of that over-consumption in the greenest way possible, but it would be far better if we did not need to bring so much material home in the first place.

    The total amount of packaging(包装) increased by 12% between 2010 and 2015. It now makes up a third of a typical household's waste in the UK. In many supermarkets nowadays food items are packaged twice with plastic and cardboard.

    Too much packaging is doing serious damage to the environment. The UK, for example, is running out of it for carrying this unnecessary waste. If such packaging is burnt, it gives off greenhouse gases which go on to cause the greenhouse effect. Recycling helps, but the process itself uses energy. The solution is not to produce such items in the first place. Food waste is a serious problem, too. Too many supermarkets encourage customers to buy more than they need. However, a few of them are coming round to the idea that this cannot continue, encouraging customers to reuse their plastic bags, for example.

    But this is not just about supermarkets. It is about all of us. We have learned to associate packaging with quality. We have learned to think that something unpackaged is of poor quality. This is especially true of food. But it also applies to a wide range of consumer products, which often have far more packaging than necessary.

    There are signs of hope. As more of us recycle, we are beginning to realise just how much unnecessary material we are collecting. We need to face the wastefulness of our consumer culture, but we have a mountain to climb.

    Every man wants his son to be somewhat of a clone（克隆）, not in features but in footsteps. As he grows you also age, and your ambitions become more unachievable. You begin to realize that your boy, in your footsteps, could probably achieve what you hoped for. But footsteps can be muddied and they can go off in different directions.

    My son Jody has hated school since day one in kindergarten. Science projects waited until the last moment. Book reports weren't written until the final threat.

    I've been a newspaperman all my adult life. My daughter is a university graduate working toward her master's degree in English. But Jody? When he entered the tenth grade he became a "vo-tech" student (技校学生). They're called "motorheads" by the rest of the student body.

    When a secretary in my office first called him "motorhead", I was shocked. "Hey, he's a good kid," I wanted to say. "And smart, really."

    I learned later that motorheads are, indeed, different. They usually have dirty hands and wear dirty work clothes. And they don't often make school honor rolls (光荣榜).

    But being the parent of a motorhead is itself an experience in education. We who labor in clean shirts in offices don't have the abilities that motorheads have. I began to learn this when I had my car crashed. The cost to repair it was estimated at $800. "Hey, I can fix it," said Jody. I doubted it, but let him go ahead, for I had nothing to lose.

    My son, with other motorheads, fixed the car. They got parts (零件）from a junkyard, and ability from vo-tech classes. The cost was $25 instead of $800.

    Since that first repair job, a broken air-conditioner, a non-functioning washer and a non-toasting toaster have been fixed. Neighbors and co-workers trust their car repairs to him.

    These kids are happiest when doing repairs. They joke and laugh and are living in their own relaxed world. And their minds are bright despite their dirty hands and clothes.

    I have learned a lot from my motorhead: publishers need printers, engineers need mechanics, and architects need builders. Most important, I have learned that fathers don't need clones in footsteps or anywhere else.

    My son may never make the school honor roll. But he made mine.

    Ahead of the summer travel season, airlines in the United States usually compete to sell tickets and fill seats. But the airlines that operate the grounded Boeing 737 Max planes have a new problem: there are not enough seats to meet the demand.

    The revenue(收益)is right in front of them. They can see it, but they can't meet it, said Mike Trevino. He is an airline industry expert for Southwest Airlines Pilots Association, The grounding of Boeing's 737 Max came after two deadly crashes in five months. Southwest Airlines is the world's largest 737 Max operator. The company has 34 of the planes.

    American Airlines operates the second-most, with 24. These planes have been removed from use until at least August, The grounding of the planes has led Southwest to cancel 160 of its 4,200 daily flights between June 8 and August 5.

    American Airlines will cancel 115 daily flights, or 1.5 percent of its total summer flights .Southwest only flies Boeing 737s. It had estimated $ 150 million in lost revenue between February and March 31--mostly because of MAX cancellations.

    The 737Max was grounded worldwide in March following a deadly Ethiopian Airlines crash. It came five months after a Lion Air crash in Indonesia. All on board both planes died.

    Boeing is under pressure to provide additional software. Experts are examining the original software as a possible reason for the crashes.

    Boeing must prove to worldwide regulators that the plane is safe to fly. That process may take more than 90 days. Planes in the United States are usually mostly full during the months of June, July and August.

We understand that in light of the latest government CORONAVIRUS TRAVEL ADVICE, your travel plans will be changing. To reflect this, some terms & conditions for refunding tickets or changing journeys are different to usual.

Refunds on Unused Tickets for Travel

• You can apply for refunds up to four weeks from the last day that the ticket was valid.

• Unused Anytime, Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak tickets can be refunded and a service fee applies. Advance tickets are not refundable. Alternatively, you can change your ticket io travel at a later date — See 'Changing Tickets or Requesting a Travel Voucher' below.

• PLEASE NOTE that if the train you are booked on does not ran or is canceled due to irresistible forces, refund: will be made on ALL TICKETS TYPES with no service fee.

If you are uncertain about travelling, you may wish to consider purchasing a more flexible ticket — such as Anytime or Off-Peak - for travel.

Changing Tickets or Requesting a Travel Voucher

• If you bought an Advance ticket before the National Lockdown was announced on 4^lh January and will no longer be travelling, you should apply for a travel voucher or reschedule your journey free of charge. You need to do this be lore your first train departs and pay the difference if your new ticket is more expensive. Please note you will not be entitled to a travel voucher if your Advance ticket was purchased after 4^lh Jan. Speak to the original retailer of your ticket for advice.

• Anytime, Off-Peak and Super Off-Peak tickets are more flexible and can be changed any time before you travel There is no fee to change these tickets. you will only need to pay any difference in fare.

Refunding Season Tickets

•Unexpired(未逾期的)Season Tickets can be submitted for refund at any time and train companies calculate how much is refunded by bow much value is left on your ticket, they do this by deducting (扣除)the value of any other tickets you could have travelled with in the same lime until you stopped using and return your Season Ticket Refunds can only be backdated with evidence that illness prevented you from travelling. (National Rail Conditions of Travel. Condition 40.4).

• To see how much you could get back from your Season Ticket, try the Season Ticket Refund Calculator below. For more information, including if you require a refund due to sickness that prevented you from using a Season Ticket see the link here,

• Customers can still claim refunds remotely online, minimizing contact between customers and staffs keeping everyone safer. Please see your retailer's website for details.

Travelling on Another Train Company's Service

• In areas where there is cancellation, train companies may agree acceptance of tickets routed via another company For more details, please contact your rail service provider.

Dickens House Museum

Type: Historic House / Palace

Address: 2 Victoria Parade, Broadstairs, Kent, CT10 1QS

About

Dickens House Museum, Broadstairs celebrates Charles Dickens' long connection with Broadstairs from 1837 to 1851, through personal items and letters. Guided tours available.

The museum is housed in the cottage that was Charles Dickens' inspiration for the home of Betsey Trotwood in David Copperfield. David's description of Betsey's cottage with its square gravelled garden full of flowers, and a parlour of old fashioned furniture still fits today.

The character Betsy Trotwood is based on Miss Mary Pearson Strong who lived in the cottage that is now the museum. According to the reminiscences of Charles Dickens' son Charley, he and his father regularly had tea and cakes in the parlour (会客室) with the kindly and charming Miss Mary Pearson Strong. He also remembers that Miss Pearson Strong was completely convinced of her right to stop the passage of donkeys along the cliff top in front of her cottage. This belief became the donkey incident for the character of Betsy Trotwood, with the famous quote: "Janet! Donkeys!"

Spread over four floors, the Charles Dickens Museum holds the world's most important collection of paintings, rare editions, manuscripts, original furniture and other items relating to the life and work of Dickens. Perhaps the best-known exhibit is the portrait of Dickens known as Dickens' Dream by R. W. Buss, an original illustrator of The Pickwick Papers. This unfinished portrait shows Dickens in his study at Gads Hill Place surrounded by many of the characters he had created.

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