Welcome to Holker Hall & Gardens

    Visitor Information

    How to Get to Holker

By Car: Follow brown signs on A590 from J36, M6. Approximate travel times: Windermere—--20 minutes, Kendal—--25 minutes, Lancaster—-45 minutes, Manchester—--1 hour 30 minutes.

    By Rail: The nearest station is Cark-in-Carmel with trains to Carnforth, Lancaster and Preston for connections to major cities & airports.

    Opening Times

Sunday—Friday (closed on Saturday) 11:00am —4:00pm, 30th March –2nd November. Admission Charges

    Special Events

    Producers' Market 13th April

    Join us to taste a variety of fresh local food and drinks. Meet the producers and get some excellent recipe ideas.

    Holker Garden Festival 30th May

    The event celebrates its 22nd anniversary with a great show of the very best of gardening, making it one of the most popular events in gardening.

    National Garden Day 28th August

    Holker once again opens its gardens in aid of the disadvantaged. For just a small donation you can take a tour with our garden guide.

    Winter Market 8th November

    This is an event for all the family. Wander among a variety of shops selling gifts while enjoying a live music show and nice street entertainment.

    It is every kid's worst nightmare(噩梦) and six-year-old Jaden Hayes has lived it twice. First he lost his dad when he was only at the age of four and then last month his mom died unexpectedly in her deep sleep.

    "I tried and I tried and I tried to get her awake, but... I just couldn't," said Jaden.

    No one could imagine how heartbroken Jaden was.

    But there's another side to his sadness. A side he first made public a few weeks ago when he told his aunt, Barbara DiCola, and now his guardian(监护人)after both his parents died, that he was sick and tired of seeing everyone sad all the time. And he had a plan to fix it.

    "And that was the beginning of it," said Barbara. "That's where the adventure began."

    Jaden asked his aunt Barbara to buy a bunch of little toys and bring him to downtown Savannah, Georgia near where he lives, so he could give them away to anyone who will smile to him. "I'm trying to make people smile," said Jaden.

    Jaden targets people who aren't already smiling and then turns their day around. He's gone out on four different occasions now and he is always successful. Even if sometimes he doesn't get exactly the reaction he was hoping for.

    It is just so overwhelming to some people that a six-year-old orphan would give away a toy -- expecting nothing in return -- except a smile.

    "I'm depending on it to be 33, 000," said Jaden. When asked if he thinks he can make that goal, he answered: "I think I can."

    A large number of people enjoy listening to various types of music while they paint, write, or draw. Many believe that music helps creativity.

    However, an international study conducted by English and Swedish researchers is challenging that opinion. Psychologists from Lancaster University, The University of Gävle, and The University of Central Lancashire say that their findings show music actually blocks creativity.

    To come to their conclusions, researchers had participants( 参与者) complete verbal insight problems designed to inspire creativity while sitting in a quiet room, and then again while music played in the background. They found that background music “badly affected” the participants' ability to complete tasks related to verbal creativity.

    The tasks were simple word games. For example, participants were given three words, such as dress, dial, and flower. Then, they were asked to find a single word related to all three that could be combined to form a common phrase or word. The single word, in this case, would be "sun" (sundress, sunflower, etc).

    Participants completed the tasks in either a quiet room, or while exposed to three different types of music; music with unfamiliar words, instrumental music, or music with familiar words. "We found strong evidence of damaged performance when playing background music in comparison to quiet background conditions," says co-author Dr. Neil McLatchie of Lancaster University.

    To conclude, the findings challenge the popular view that music encourages creativity, and instead prove that music consistently disrupts creative performance in dealing with problems.

    Over the past 40 years, China has helped more than 700 million rural residents out of being poor, and the poverty rate -- 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.

    Learning a foreign language is more than just a help to your CV(简历) or convenient for travelling. It will make you smarter, more perceptive(透视的) and even better at English.

    You become smarter

Speaking a foreign language improves the ability of your brain by challenging it to recognize, understand meaning, and communicate in different language systems. Students who study foreign languages will score better on standardized tests than their monolingual ( 单语的) classmates, particularly in maths, reading, and vocabulary.

    You become more perceptive

    A study from Spain shows that multilingual(多种语言的) people are better at observing their surroundings. They are better at focusing related information and editing out the unrelated. Is it any surprise that Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot know several kinds of languages?

    You build multitasking skills

    Multilingual people, especially children, are skilled at switching between two systems of speech, writing, and structure. The research found that people who spoke more than one language made fewer errors in their driving.

    Educators often compare the brain to a muscle, because it functions better with exercise. Learning a language involves memorizing rules and vocabulary, which helps strengthen that mental "muscle." This exercise improves overall memory, which means that multiple language speakers are better at remembering lists or sequences.

    If you haven't spoken a foreign tongue since your A levels, your brain might not be gaining these bilingual benefits. People who begin language study in their adult lives can still achieve the same levels of fluency as a young learner, and still gain the same mental benefits, too.

A. However, it's never too late to learn a foreign language.

B. In one study, participants used a driving simulator (模拟器) while doing separate, distracting tasks at the same time.

C. Your muscle improves.

D. Below are several advantages of learning a foreign language.

E. They're also better at discovering misleading information.

F. Language speakers also develop a better ear for listening.

G. Your memory improves.

    Long long time ago, in a small and distant 1, there was a place known2 the House of 1000 Mirrors. A small, happy little dog learned of this place and 3 to visit it. When he arrived, he 4 happily up the stairs to the doorway of the house. He looked through the doorway with his ears lifted high and his tail 5 as fast as it could. To his great 6, he found himself staring at 1000 other 7 little dogs with their tails wagging just as fast as his. He smiled a great smile, and was 8 with 1000 great smiles just as warm and friendly. As he 9 the House, he thought to himself: This is a10 place. I will come back and visit it often."

    In the same village, 11 little dog, who was not quite as happy as the first one, was determined to visit the house. He 12 climbed the stairs and 13 his head low as he looked into the door. 14 he saw the 1000 unfriendly looking dogs staring back at him, he growled at them and was 15 to see 1000 little dogs growling back at him. As he left, he thought to himself, "That is a terrible place, and I will 16 go back there again."

    All the faces in the world are 17. When you smile at the world the whole world will 18 at you, and vice verse (反之亦然). 19, it is you who can choose to be happy or to be upset. And what kinds of reflections (思考) do you see in the 20 of the people you meet?

    I am Adam Rouse. I first (buy) cannabis(大麻) from a man in the street and continued to buy cannabis from him for six months and as a result, I got addicted to it. One day, the man offered (I) some crack cocaine, a more (power) addictive. When I went back to the man for more crack cocaine, he asked me a lot of money. (terrible), I was in pain when I couldn't afford to buy any drugs. (get) money, I broke into a house and stole something to sell for money. The more drugs I took, the more addicted I became. So I had to steal something every day to pay for the drugs. One day, I (catch) stealing and sent to the police station. The next day, doctor came to see me and told me that I could die I could stop taking drugs. I took his advice and stopped immediately. Now I work in a center for drug addicts, helping others to stop (take) drugs.

增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词；

删除：把多余的词用斜线(＼)划掉；

修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。

    I am Li Hua, that is chairman of the Student Union, from Xinhua High School. On behalf of our school, I'd like to tell you that if our school is going to organize series of English Club activities in the coming summer holiday. Ten students from your school is needed to work as volunteers to help us organize and carry out these activity. Through it, we can promote the friendship among our two schools.

    If you are interesting in the position, please apply for it. In my application, you'd better make a self-introduction first. Additional, the reason why you want this job should be included, too.

    Send your application to the Student Union. If you had further questions, contact us at 0797-1234567.

1）你的建议:旅行等。

2）你的理由。

注意：1）词数100左右；

2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。