The Asian elephant has been respected for centuries and is still used today for ceremonies and religious purposes. It is respected, not only because it plays a role in Asian culture and religion, but also because it is a key biological species in the tropical forests of Asia.

    The Asian elephant is the largest land mammal in Asian. It is smaller than the African elephant, with relatively smaller ears. Asian elephants have a single “finger” on the upper lip of the long trunk, while African elephants have a second on the lower tip. A number of adult male Asian elephants have no tooth, and the percentage of males carrying ivory(象牙）is different from only about 5% in Sri Lanka to 90% in south India. Asian elephants keep their ears in constant motion in order to free the heat they produce. The species is reported to have well-developed hearing, vision, and smell , and they are also fine swimmers.

    Asian elephants prefer to convey something to form groups surrounding 6 to 7 related females that are led by the oldest female. Like African elephants, these groups occasionally join others to form herds, although these associations are relatively temporary.

    More than two thirds of the day may be spent feeding on grasses, but large amounts of tree bark, roots, leaves and small stems are also eaten. Crops such as bananas, rice and sugar plants are favored foods. Besides, they need to drink at least twice a day so the source of water is quite important.

    The Asian elephant used to live from modern Irap and Syria to the Yellow River in China at first, but it is now found only from India to Vietnam, with a tiny population in the extreme southwest of China's Yunnan Province. More than 100,000 Asian elephants may have existed at the start of the 20^th century. The population is estimated to have fallen by at least 50% over the last 60-75 years.

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    The value-packed, all-inclusive sight-seeing package that combines the best of Sydney's harbor, city, bay and beach highlights. 

    A Sydney Pass gives you unlimited and flexible travel on the Explore Buses: the ‘red' Sydney Explorer shows you around our exciting city sights while the ‘blue' Bondi Explorer visits Sydney Harbor bays and famous beaches. Take to the water on one of three magnificent daily harbor cruises(游船). You can also travel free on regular Sydney Buses, Sydney Ferries or City Rail services (limited area), so you can go to every corner of this beautiful city.

    Imagine browsing at Darling Harbor, tasting the famous seafood at Watsons Bay or enjoying the lights on an evening ferry cruise. The possibilities and plans are endless with a Sydney Pass. Wherever you decide to go, remember that bookings are not required on any of our services so tickets are treated on a first in, first seated basis.

    Sydney Passes are available for 3,5 or 7 days for use over a 7-calendar period. With a 3 or 5-day pass you choose on which days out of the 7 you want to use it. All Sydney Passes include a free Airport Express inward trip before starting your 3,5 or 7 days, and the return trip is valid (有效的) for 2 months from the first day your ticket was used

Sydney Pass Fares

*A child is defined as anyone from the ages of 4 years under 16 years. Children under 4 years travel free.

**A family is defined as 3 adults and any number of children from 4 to under 16 years of age from the same family.

    Four teenage girls from Minnesota, US. 120 hours of non-stop togetherness. No cellphones. This is not a reality show, but an adventure journey.

    "It was really perfect," said Julia Ruelle of her recent adventure to the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness with three of her childhood friends. "By unplugging, we had an amazing time."

    Last year, the 16-year-old took part in an essay contest and carried off a prize. The award was a 5-day canoe and camping adventure with up to three friends. No parents or guides would be there. So Julia invited her friends Anna Wander, Madeline Wilson and Julianna Torelli.

    The four Minnetonka High School juniors arrived in Ely for training the day before they began the journey. They set out the next day at 7 a.m., quickly developing a routine.

    "We were done paddling by noon," Julia said. "We ate lunch at the campsites and then it was time for hammocks (吊床), reading, making friendship bracelets (手镯) and talking."

    The girls had all had experience in the outdoors before.

    Anna had been to the Boundary Waters with her family. "I love how you are separated from everything in your life, especially technology," Anna said. Without her phone, she said, "I'm less worried about things." Madeline, too, had been to the Boundary Waters a few years back. "But this time, I had to paddle right and set up camp," she said. The girls made fire and cooked meal together. No one was ever hungry or homesick, but they were nervous the final night as they waited out a thunderstorm. They left wet sleeping bags in one tent, and squeezed into another for the night. "Every thunderstorm in the Boundary Waters feels huge," Julia said.

    On the car ride home, they were all on their phones catching up with friends. "It was a little at a loss turning my phone on," said Anna. "Mental health can be improved so much in the Boundary Waters. It really helps to get away and reconnect with yourself."

    Here's an idea whose time has come: A flu shot that doesn't require an actual shot.

    For the first time, researchers have tested a flu vaccine patch (疫苗贴) in a human clinical experiment and found that it delivered as much protection as a traditional injection with a needle. Doctors and public health experts have high hopes that it will increase the number of people who get immunized (免疫的) against the flu.

    Seasonal flu is responsible for up to half a million deaths around the world each year according to the World Health Organization. A team led by Georgia Tech engineer Mark Prausnitz has come up with an alternative method that uses “microneedles”. These tiny needles are so small that 100 of them, arranged in order on a patch, can fit under your thumb (拇指). Yet they're big enough to hold vaccine for three types of flu.

    None of the study volunteers had serious side effects. The groups that got patches had mild skin reactions that were not seen in the regular needle group, while the volunteers in the regular needle group were more likely to experience pain. Overall, 70 percent of the volunteers who got vaccine patches said they'd rather use them again than get a traditional flu shot. The study authors declared it a success on all fronts.

    The biggest beneficiaries could be people in low- and middle-income countries, where flu vaccines are hard to come by. Reducing pain is nice, but other benefits—the patch costs less, is easier to transport, doesn't require refrigeration, can be self-administered and doesn't cause waste of needles—are even better.

    "Microneedle Patches have the potential to become ideal candidates for vaccination programs," wrote Katja Hoschler and Maria Zambon of Public Health England.

    It is rightly said one can share any secret with a true friend. He may know your deepest fears and weaknesses and yet will never take advantage of you. However, keeping a friend's secrets to yourself and not telling the world is what makes the bond grow strong and last forever. You need to develop trust and mutual (互相的) understanding before you start sharing secrets with each other. With friends, secret talks never seem to end and it can get really amusing to know what has been going on in your friend's mind.

    There is a certain time in life especially from the teenage years when one starts having a personal periphery (界限) in life and parents are excluded (排斥) from it. It is because there are certain things that they can't understand and we can't discuss with them. That is when friends become the best secret sharers. They are the ones to whom one reveals one's feelings and best kept secrets.

    It is a general belief that only girls share secrets. But boys have their own secrets that they discuss with only closest friends. The secret talks can range (变化) from relationships, talks about fights with parents, secret activities and anything that is not supposed to be known to others! If you think secrets are limited to only teenagers, get your facts right! Secrets can be shared at any age and there is no hard and fast rule that secrets are shared only among youngsters.

    Sharing secrets with a friend is not just fun, but it also helps to develop a lasting trust in one another. Sometimes, sharing secrets will tell you more about the person. You will come to know whether your friend is reliable and trustworthy and whether it is worth sharing your secrets with them. You can call it a test of friendship.

    In the first few years of their lives, children brought up in English-speaking homes successfully master the use of hundreds of words, including those for objects, actions, emotions, and many other aspects of the physical world. However, when it comes to learning colour words, the same children perform very badly. If shown a blue cup and asked about its colour, typical two-year-olds seem as likely to come up with "red" as "blue".

    Cognitive (认知) scientists at Stanford University in California supposed that children's incompetence at colour-word learning may be directly linked to the way these words are used in English. They are used mostly in pre-nominal position (e.g. "blue cup"), in contrast to post-nominal position (e.g. "The cup is blue."). The difficulty children have may simply come down to the challenge of having to make predictions from colour words to the objects they refer to, rather than from the objects to the colour words.

    To explore this idea further, the research team recruited 40 English children aged between 23 and 29 months and carried out a three-phase experiment. It considered of a pre-test, followed by training in the use of colour words, and finally a post-test that was identical to the pre-test. The pre- and post- test materials comprised six objects that were unfamiliar to the children. There were three examples of each object in each of three colours — red, yellow and blue. The objects were presented on trays (托盘), and in both tests, the children were asked to pick out objects in response to requests in which the colour word was either a pre-nominal ("Which is the red one?") or a post-nominal ("Which one is red?").

    In the training, the children were introduced to five sets of familiar items (balls, cups, crayons, glasses, and toy bears) in each of the three colours. Half the children were presented with the items one by one and heard them labeled with colour words used pre-nominally, while the other half were introduced to the same items described with a post-nominal colour word. After the training, the children repeated the selection task on the novel items in the post-test. Correct choices on items that were consistent across the pre- and post-tests were used to measure children's colour knowledge.

    According to the assessment, children's performance was consistent when they were both trained and tested on post-nominal adjectives, and worst when trained on pre-nominal adjectives and tested on post-nominal adjectives. Comparing the pre- and post-test scores across each condition revealed a significant decline in performance when children were both pre- and post-tested with questions that placed the colour words pre-nominally.