With the summer holiday just around the corner, it seems like everybody is busy planning their vacations. Here are some tips that can helpyou enjoy your holiday without emptying your pocket:

Travel off-season

Go to your desired destination while the demand is low and takeadvantage of huge discounts. During the peak season, the hotel and flightprices increase quickly, and you'll likely spend more of your vacation timestanding in line due to the rush of tourists.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

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      Websites can help you find discount hotel rooms. Look for placesthat do not charge extra for children if they use the existing bedding. Staywith the locals. If you and your family are going to stay for a longer period,renting a small apartment is a good choice.

Eat like a local

      Why eat at big chain restaurants when you can experiencesomething new?{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

During your family trip, try new food where the locals eat. Thiswill not just save money, but also provide you with a new and differentexperience. For smaller meals and snacks, avoid restaurants and try street foodor other takeout.

Don't hesitate to bargain

      Tourist- heavy places are known for overcharging for just abouteverything. Clothes, travel goodies, souvenirs, etc. are very expensive atthese places. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Bargain hard to get the best price.

Choose local transportation

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      Instead, take buses, railways or subways, which are alwayscheaper. If you are planning to stay for a while, you can consider renting acar. Hiring a car is much easier than carrying your bags everywhere if you aremoving around a lot.

A. Save on hotels.

B. Surf the Internet while traveling.

C. Therefore, avoid buying anything there.

D. So it's best to find out when the off-season starts.

E. Planning your meals is another way to reduce your travelcosts.

F. For this reason, you shouldn't feel ashamed to ask forbargains.

G .As a tourist, avoid taking taxis whenever possible, sincethey are expensive.

        Since the day of its birth, the United Nations has been the subject of much debate.

{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Others think that it is too weak. We can better understand this debate if we learn more about the U.N. and its history.

        The U.N. was started for two reasons. First, when the idea wasborn, people all over the world were tired of war. They felt that there must be peaceful answers to the world's problems.

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        The second reason was that modern science had developed newbombs and airplanes.

{#blank#}3{#/blank#} National borders were beginning to lose theirmeaning. Science would develop even more dangerous weapons in the future. Onlyan international organization would be able to control modern science.

        Franklin D. Roosevelt, U.S. President at the time, believed thatthe Allies (联盟) should plan for peace before the war ended. On December 1, 1943, Roosevelt, Britain's Winston Churchill and Joseph Stalin from Soviet Union agreed to start anorganization for world peace.

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        During the next year and a half, the idea of such anorganisation was debated around the world. Then came the big day. On April 11,1945, the first international meeting of the United Nations took place in SanFrancisco. The goal of the meeting was to write the U.N. Charter (宪章). All of thefifty-one nations at the meeting had their own ideas to offer for the Charter.

{#blank#}5{#/blank#} Every nation present voted for the Charter. Noone voted against it.

A. The U.N. Charter is a beautiful piece of writing.

B. After a long debate, a final Charter was agreed upon.

C. Even the smallest country on earth can have its voice heard.

D. They asked all countries, large and small, to join theorganization.

E. These weapons made it almost impossible for a country todefend itself.

F. Some people attack the organization because they think it istoo powerful.

G. They also felt that only an international organization couldkeep world peace.

    Guinness World Records has long been recording some of the most amazing and astonishing travel and tourism facts. Here we are sharing some of the most unbelievable record-breaking accounts, all fully fact-checked and Guinness-approved.

Largest Ice Structure—The Ice Hotel in Sweden

    Each year, the ice hotel in Jukkasjarvi, Sweden, is rebuilt from blocks of frozen ice from the nearby River Torne. Covering an area of 5,500 square metres, the hotel is unsurprisingly open seasonally, from December to March, when it melts away. In 2015, the hotel celebrated its 25^th anniversary, complete with an ice bar, an ice church and ice bedrooms—one even featured a London Tube carriage made entirely of ice.

Tallest Waterfall—Angel Falls, Venezuela

    The largest waterfall by vertical(垂直的) area may be Victoria Falls, which sit on the border between Zimbabwe and Zambia, but it's South America that's home to the world's tallest.

    Angel Falls, located in Bolivar, Venezuela, has an impressive, uninterrupted drop of 807 metres.

    It was actually named after the American pilot, Jimmie Angel, who first recorded it in his logbook on November 16, 1933.

Largest Area of Glowing Sea—Indian Ocean, near Somalia

    Bioluminescence(生物体发光) is the production and emission of light by a living thing and can be used to explain the surprising phenomenon(现象)of “glowing oceans.”

    It was in 1995 that scientists detected glowing sea in the Indian Ocean—just off the coast of Somalia-via satellite, The water was more than 250 kilometres long, and it was all thanks to the bacteria called phytoplankton.

Most Expensive Hotel Room—The Royal Penthouse Suite at Geneva's Hotel President Wilsom

    This particular suite is just the ticket, costing as much as US$83,000(£53,760)per night.

    But the high price will gain you access to 12 bedrooms and 12 marble bathrooms across 18,000 square feet.

    WELCOME TO THE VIRTUAL REALITY CINEMA AMSTERDAM

    World's First Virtual Reality Cinema

    Going to the VR CINEMA offers you the opportunity to watch movies like you've never done before. You can see 360 degree movies using a VR headset. In the VR CINEMA, ringing mobile phones and noisy visitors belong to the past. Furthermore, traditional red cinema chairs or the big white screen are nowhere to be found. Instead, a Samsung Galaxy S6 (smart phone) together with the Samsung Gear VR (virtual reality glasses) transports you to a completely new world. Headphones shut out background noise, and above all, offer super sound quality. Turning chairs allow you to freely look around and see what's happening above, below, behind, in front, on the right and on the left side of you. So no sore neck, we promise.

    In the VR CINEMA, you will experience 30 minutes of the coolest virtual reality films. We proudly present four film selections in different themes in order to please every virtual reality lover. Are you brave enough for our scary films? Will you immerse (沉浸于) yourself in VR documentaries from around the globe? Do you prefer to go on an adventurous journey like no other? Or do your kids want to swim with dolphins, interact with magical characters, and experience the moving stories beyond imagination? Supernatural, Documentary, Journey and Fun are waiting for you!

    For kids, young and older ones, there's the cheerful and colourful selection. The only thing you have to do is sit back, relax and enjoy the VR experience of your choice.

    Location: Oosterdokskade 5, 1011 AD Amsterdam The Netherlands

    Tel: +31(0) 6 27 00 69 16

    E-mail: mail@thevrcinema.com

    Ticket Price: ￡12.5

    Opening hours: Wednesday, Thursday & Friday: 14:00-21:00

    Saturday & Sunday: 12:00-22:00

The Coolest Inventions

    An Oceans Vacuum(吸尘器)

    There's a collection of plastic trash in the middle of the Pacific Ocean. It's bigger than Texas and growing. The way to clean it up now is to catch it with nets. That is both costly and slow. Instead, the Ocean Cleanup Project proposes a 62-mile-long floating barrier that would use natural currents to trap trash. If next year's trials succeed, a full cleanup operation would aim to start in 2020. It could reduce the trash by 42 % over 10 years.

    Easy-On Shoes

    In 2012, Matthew Walzer, a high school student with a disability, sent a note to Nike. "My dream is to go to college," he wrote, "without having to worry about someone coming to tie my shoes every day." Nike assigned a design team to the challenge. This year, they came out with their solution: the FlyEase. The basketball shoe can be fastened with one hand. A pair of Nike FlyEase shoes sells for $ 130.

    An Airport for Drones (无人机)

    As Amazon, Google, and others get ready for drone delivery service, there is one big question: What kinds of home bases will their drones have? Rwanda, in Africa, may have the answer. There, workers will soon start work on three "drone ports". The goal is to make it easier to transport food, medical supplies, electronics, and other goods through the hilly countryside. Construction is set to be completed in 2020.

Do you know of anyone who uses the truth to deceive? When someone tells you something that is true, but leaves out important information that should be included, he can give you a false picture.

For example, some might say, "I just won a hundred dollars on the lottery. It was great. I took that dollar ticket back to the store and turned it in for one hundred dollars!"

This guy's a winner, right? Maybe, maybe not. In fact, he bought $200 worth of tickets. He's really a big loser!

He didn't say anything that was false, but he left out important information on purpose. That's called a half-truth. Half-truths are not technically lies, but they are just dishonest.

Some politicians often use this trick. During Governor Smith's last term, her state lost one million jobs and gained three million jobs. Then she seeks another term. One of her opponents says, "During Governor Smith's term, the state lost one million jobs!" That's true. However, an honest statement would have been, "During Governor Smith's term, the state had a net gain of two million jobs."

Advertisers will sometimes use half-truths. It's against the law to make false statements sol they try to mislead you with the truth. An advertisement might say, "Nine out of ten doctors advised their patients to take Yucky Pills to cure toothache." It fails to mention that they only asked ten doctors and nine of them work for the Yucky Company.

This kind of deception happens too often. It's a sad fact of life: Lies are lies, and sometimes the truth can lie as well.