Australia has promised to introduce the most comprehensive （全面的） carbon trading program outside Europe in 2010. The government in Canberra plans to cut greenhouse gas emissions (排放) by at least five percent by 2020, but it could make bigger reductions if other countries agree to tougher targets.

    The Australian government warns that without tough environmental measures the country could lose key industries and jobs. Climate Change Minister Penny Wong says the economy is under threat and decisive action is needed.

    Central to the government's climate change plan is a carbon emissions trading program that will be introduced within two years. It would involve one thousand of the nation's biggest companies and would cover about three-quarters of Australia's greenhouse gas emissions.

    Many scientists believe that greenhouse gases, such as carbon dioxide and methane, contribute to global warming. Many of them are released by burning fuels such as coal and oil.

    Companies will be required to buy permits for each ton of carbon they emit, although big polluting exporters will receive up to 90 percent of their carbon licenses free.

    Many business leaders want the government to delay the plan because of the current global financial crisis, which is slowing the Australian economy. Peter Anderson from the Australian Chamber of Commerce and Industry says it is irresponsible to bring in a carbon trading plan now.

    Environmentalists, on the other hand, say Prime Minister Kevin Rudd has not properly addressed the threat of climate change. Activists had sought a minimum emissions cut of 25 percent.

    Instead, the Rudd government aims to cuts carbon emissions by at least five percent of 2000 levels by 2020. That amount could rise to 15 percent, if future global agreements set such a target.

    Ray Nias of the environmental group WWF says Australia will pay the price for low targets. “This is a deeply, deeply disappointing target,” Nias said. “It commits Australia to long-term climate change. It will make Australia's ability to negotiate (协商) global agreements very, very difficult. It is much lower than even we had imagined.”

    Australia has one of the highest per-person greenhouse emissions rates in the world because of its reliance on coal for electricity.

    Some scientists warn that the vast, dry Australian continent, which has been suffering a series of droughts in recent years, could be one of the region's hardest hit by global warming.

    British English may have come first, but around the world, the American way of spelling is now far more popular.

    A recent examination of the English language shows that publications now largely use the American version swapping words like “centre” for “center” after the 1880s. To get data, researchers used Google's Ngram Viewer to analyze the words found in all English-language publications from 1800 to 2000. Entering a word into the viewer will show how frequently it occurs within the massive corpus(语料库)of books around the world.

    According to the data, this shift was further strengthened around World War I. Since then, English-language publications have preferred “gray” and “flavor” instead of “grey” and “flavour”. The American spelling has continued to grow over the years, with “liter” passing “liter” around 1900, and “center” becoming the more common choice over “centre” in 1913. “1913 marked a turning point in British spelling, as the American alternative became more frequently used in literature,” the post explains, in regard to “center”. This was just a year before the beginning of World War I, which many views as a key period in America's rise to superpower status.

    Though this switched again between 1920s and the late 1930s, the American, spelling took over for good around 1940, during which time the spelling “airplane” shifted dramatically over “aeroplane”.

    Ever since the middle of the 19th century, even the British Isles have slowly rejected the old spelling. The future is gray for British English.

The Museum of Science and Industry

    The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry will give us a more wonderful interpretation of the museum. The 2.8 hectare museum was rebuilt on the site of a huge Victorian warehouse and the world's oldest passenger train station. The number and type of collections are ranked first, and in the power exhibition hall, steam engines used during the Industrial Revolution can still be seen. The display of the railway here is rich and vivid in content. Understanding the history of the Industrial Revolution, the Manchester Museum of Science and Industry is a good choice.

    Power is the central theme of the museum, whether it is a bicycle or a steam engine, not to mention an old car. The history of mankind, as this museum shows, has been constantly running. All human inventions can't be separated from this idea. Life is also about exercise. All the exhibits in the museum are alive. The workers oil and wipe every day. Finally, steam is imported into the machinery to make them run as usual as they did a hundred years ago. Time is also reversed.

    In the power exhibition hall, the steam engine that had been used during the Industrial Revolution was still roaring, and the influence was not reduced. If you want to understand the Industrial Revolution and the role of Manchester in it, you must come and visit it, and you will find answers from the many wonderful exhibitions here.

    The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry completely reproduced the British Industrial Revolution, and ensured that the machines of its scientific and technological inventions operated daily, so that visitors and school children could experience the Industrial Revolution. Therefore, the museum has become an outstanding model for preserving industrial heritage.

    Manchester was known as Cotton Capital, Northern Capital, Second City, and Warehouse City for the Industrial Revolution. The Manchester Museum of Science and Industry is located in the center of Manchester City. It records the cradle (摇篮) of the Industrial Revolution with historical details. Manchester City's history, textiles, energy, communications, aviation, transportation and other industries have risen and fallen with the development of science and technology.

    More information: visit https://www.msichicago.org/

    Address: 150 Deansgate Manchester M3 3EH

    Main traffic: Bus 255 to Manchester City Centre

    Open daily: from 10:00 to 17:00

    Tour tickets: free

    A survey said the average Asian dad spent one minute a day with his children. I was shocked. I mean, a whole minute? Every day? Get real. Once a week maybe. The fact is, many Asian males are terrible at kid-related things. In fact, I am one of them.

    Child-rearing (养育) doesn't come naturally to guys. My mother knew the names of our teachers, best friends and crushes. My dad was only vaguely aware there were short people sharing the apartment. My mother bought healthy fresh food at the market every day. My dad would only go shopping when there was nothing in the fridge except a jar of butter. Then he'd buy beer. My mother always knew the right questions to ask our teachers. My dad would ask my English teacher if she could get us a discount on school fees. My mother served kid food to kids. My dad added chili sauce to everything, including our baby food.

    The truth is, mothers have superpowers. My son fell off a wall once and hurt himself all over. I demanded someone bring me a computer so I could google what to do. My wife ignored me and did some sort of chanting (咏诵) phrase such as" Mummy kiss it better," and cured 17 separate injuries in less than 15 seconds.

    Yes, mothers are incredible people, but they are not always correct. Yet honesty forces me to record the fact that mothers only know best 99.99 percent of the time. Here are some famous slip-ups.

    The mother of Bill Gates:" If you're going to drop out of college and hang out with your stupid friends, don't come running to me when you find yourself penniless." The mother of Albert Einstein:" When you grow up, you'll find that sitting around thinking about the nature of time and space won't pay the grocery bills." The mother of George W. Bush: "You'll never be like your dad, who became President of the United States and started his own war."

    It was the final climb on his search to reach the highest top on all seven continents. When Christopher Kulish finally reached Mount Everest's 29,035-foot peak, he joined an elite group known as the "Seven Summits Club"(七峰俱乐部). But the 62-year-old Colorado attorney died suddenly Monday after returning to the first camp below the mountain's summit. He's the second American to die in the past week after reaching Everest's highest point. His family believes the cause was a heart attack, according to theDenver Post. "He saw his last sunrise from the highest peak on Earth," his brother, Mark Kulish, said in a statement to the Denver Post. "We are heartbroken at this news."

    Last week, 55-year-old Donald Lynn Cash of Utah collapsed and died just after reaching the Everest peak. He too had reached the highest point on all seven continents. Including Christopher and Cash, at least 11 people have died on Mount Everest this year.

    The deaths come among reports of overcrowding on the popular mountain. The Nepali government granted a total of 381 permits to climb Everest this year, a number that doesn't include guides who are on the mountain as well. For some climbers, that traffic has meant longer wait times — some told the Himalayan Times the wait has been over two hours between the last camp and the peak. Mountaineer Vanessa O'Brien, who has also climbed the seven summits, said when there's a crowd, being a more experienced climber won't help you. "It doesn't matter if you're the best racecar driver in the world. If you're stuck in traffic, you're stuck in traffic," she said in an interview.

    And when a climber is stuck in that traffic, "their body is starting to deteriorate(恶化)." O'Brien, who set a record as the fastest woman to reach the highest peak on every continent, also said the descent(下降) is often harder than the climb.

    Climbing expert Alan Arnette said there's no simple explanation for the string of deaths. He said weather that has led to a shorter climbing season is one factor causing overcrowding. He also said the cost to climb Mount Everest has decreased, which means more people are making the journey. He urged the governments in charge of granting(同意)permits to limit how many people can be on the mountain at once.

    Still, Christopher was no beginner. His family said he'd been mountain climbing for five decades. He arrived at the base camp nearly two months before his climb so he could give himself time to adapt to the conditions. When he made his journey, his family said he was climbing with a small group in almost ideal conditions after some of the overcrowding had cleared.

    His brother described being a lawyer as a "day job" for Christopher. Climbing was his love. "He was an inveterate climber of peaks in Colorado, the West and the world over," Mark Kulish said. "He passed away doing what he loved."

    If you think American cooking means opening a package and throwing the contents into the microwave oven (微波炉), think again. On the one hand, it's true that many Americans have cold cereal for breakfast, sandwiches for lunch and instant (方便的) dinners. From busy homemakers to working people, many Americans enjoy the convenience of fast food that can be ready to serve in 10 minutes or less. On the other hand, many Americans realize the importance of cooking skills. Parents—especially mothers'—see the importance of training their children—especially daughter's. Most Americans think that there's nothing better than a good home-cooked meal. But with cooking, as with any other skill, good results don't happen by accident.

    Probably every cook has his or her own way of cooking. But there are some basic skills that most people follow. For example, baking is a main method of preparing food in America. For that reason, Americans would find it next to impossible to live without an oven. American cooks pay special attention to the balance of foods, too. In planning a big meal, they try to include meat, a few vegetables, some bread and often a dessert. They also like to make sure the meal is colorful. Having several different colors of food on the plate usually makes for a healthy meal.

    For those who need guidance in their cooking, or for those who have just run out of ideas, recipes are a great help. Recipes list all the ingredients for a dish (generally in the order used), the amount of each to use, and a description of how to put them together.