Rent（出租） a room

    Spare room? Not only will a lodger（房客）earn you an income, but also, thanks to the government-backed “rent a room” program, you won't have to pay any tax on the first ￡4500 you make per year. Try advertising your room on Roomspare or Roommateeasy.

Make money during special events

    Don't want a full-time lodger? Then rent on a short-term basis. If you live in the capital, renting a room out during the Olympics or other big events could bring in money. Grashpadder can advertise your space.

    Live on set

    Renting your home out as a “film set” could earn you hundreds of pounds a day, depending on the film production company and how long your home is needed. A quick search on the Internet will bring up dozens of online companies that allow you to register your home for free—but you will be charged if your home gets picked.

    Use your roof

    You need the right kind of roof, but some energy companies pay the cost of fixing solar equipment (around ￡14,000), and let you use the energy produced for nothing. In return, they get paid for unused energy fed back into the National Grid. However, you have to sign a 25-year agreement with the supplier, which could prevent you from changing the roof.

阅读理解

    If ever a drink were invented to satisfy the thirst of social media, this may be it.

    With its fantastic name, bright pink and blue twist topped with a pillow of whipped cream, Starbucks' new Unicom Frappuccino(独角兽星冰乐) practically asks to be posted on social media.

    And a glimpse at Twitter shows Unicom Frappuccino is indeed gaining attention.

    So what's in it? As Starbucks describes it: “A sweet dusting of pink powder, mixed into a Frappuccino with mango syrup and layered with a pleasantly sour blue drizzle. It is finished with vanilla whipped cream and a sprinkle of sweet pink and sour blue powder topping.”

    A look at the ingredients reveals a list less fantastic. The pink powder is actually sugar and "Fruit and Vegetable Color.”

    Starbucks advertises the drink “^,as rare as a unicorn." But unicorn food is actually a thing. The BBC reports, it's fashionable to post pictures of rainbow colored food which reminds of the fairy tale creature.

    Rainbow sushi, anyone?

    As for the Unicorn Frappuccino, Lori Aquino said the drink caught her eye on social media. Then people at work were talking about it. “I saw it was coming out today, so I decided to try it,” Aquino said at a Washington D.C. Starbucks. “I'll probably put it on Snapchat or Instagram.”

    She bought one to share with her two coworkers.

    And the opinion?

    “It's kind of nasty,” Aquino said.

    Letitia Winston agreed: "Nope. That will not be something I come looking for."

    But Moriam Animashaun was more forgiving. "It's not bad,” she said, “It's just really sweet.”

    A 16-ounce medium, or a grande in Starbucks speak, comes in at 410 calories, 59 grams of sugar and 16 grams of fat.

    One thing the women agreed on was the drink's appearance. “It's pretty," said Animashaun.

    “It looks nice," agreed Winston.

    And in the age of likes, snaps and tweets, the fantasy image may be all that matters.

    The Unicom Frappuccino is available April 19 through April 23 at participating stores in the United Stales, Canada and Mexico.

    Space is where our future is — trips to the Moon, Mars and beyond. Most people would think that aside from comets(彗星) and stars, there is little else out there. But, since our space journey started we have left so much trash(垃圾) there that scientists are now concerned that if we don't clean it up, we may all be in mortal(致命的) danger.

    The first piece of space junk was created in 1964, when the American satellite Vanguard Ⅰ stopped operating and lost its connection with the ground center. However, since it kept orbiting around the Earth without any consequences, scientists became increasingly comfortable abandoning(抛弃) things that no longer served any useful purpose in space.

    It is estimated(估计) that there are now over 500,000 pieces of man-made trash orbiting the Earth at speeds of up to 17,500 miles per hour. The junk varies from tiny pieces of paint chipped off rockets to cameras, huge fuel tanks, and even odd items like the million-dollar tool kit that astronaut Heidemarie Stefanyshyn Piper lost during a spacewalk.

    The major problem with the space trash is that it may hit working satellites and damage traveling spacecraft(飞船). Moreover, pieces of junk may collide(碰撞) with each other and break into pieces which fall back to the Earth. To avoid this, scientists have invented several ways for clearing the sky. Ground stations have been built to monitor larger pieces of space trash to prevent them from crashing into working satellites or space shuttles. Future plans include a cooperative effort among many nations to stop littering in space and to clean up the trash already there.

Because of his family's Jewish background, they are sent to live in the concentration camps (集中营). Scared and alone, Joshua one day makes friends with a little mouse he calls Bethlehem who becomes his closest friend.

in faith and to be a cure for chromic depression(长期抑郁) … cure to strengthen identity and purpose.

presents the highlights of his 83 years of life, including his trips to India and the study of the writings of several great spiritual leaders.

More things in Heaven will appeal to anyone who insists on finding the deepest meaning for their existence based on their own experience.


Creation or Evolution
Michael Ebifegha
ISBN9781450289023

Were humans created ,or did they evolve? How old is the Earth? The debate between science and religion continues to be heated. In Creation or Evolution, Michael Ebifegha examines these two opposed world views within the structure of empirical(实证的) science.


Seeking the Edge
Dr. Joseph L. Rose
ISBN9781462031795

    Half an hour into a cooking competition at Green Street Academy, Tyana Givens, 15, dipped a plastic spoon into a pot with tomatoes, bell peppers, onions, garlic and mushrooms over a burner in a science classroom. She and the two other students, Kalimah Ball and Maya Smith, were making meat sauce.

    The girls had spent the past five weeks learning how to grow their own produce using food computers-tabletop greenhouses controlled by computer programs-at Green Street Academy, a charter school in Baltimore. The course, which weaved together lessons on programming, food systems and agriculture, ended with an “Iron Chef”-style cooking contest.

    With the help of instructor Melanie Shimano, the girls finished their contest successfully using the food they planted in tabletop greenhouses. The tabletop greenhouses can control temperature, light and water inside using the computer code that the students wrote by themselves. Shimano, a 26-year-old entrepreneur, piloted(试行)the course as part of Green Street Academy's junior biotechnology class in the spring and will expand the program to other schools in the fall.

    “Technology is not something that a lot of teachers have a lot of resources for all the time, but it's something that's not difficult to do with a relatively low amount of funding,” Shimano said. “Baltimore is a center for startups and food, so kind of fostering that culture of being into technology and into design and seeing all the pieces fit together is really cool.”

    While her course is unique to Baltimore, it's part of a broader program born at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Media Lab called the Open Agriculture Initiative, or OpenAg, which aims to create inventive, sustainable food systems through open-source technology. In addition to 10 full-time staff and researchers, OpenAg is primarily an online community of about 1,400 educators, growers, chefs and retailers in 47 countries, according to Hildreth England, OpenAg's assistant director.

    “The interest level across the board generally comes from folks who are concerned about food systems and concerned about the environment, and it's usually a combination of the two,” England said.

    The softshell turtle species is officially listed as endangered by the IUCN Red List. Scientists long thought softshell turtles were extinct in the Cambodian part of the Mekong River until they discovered some stragglers (掉队者) in the early 2000s.

    The species had quite a wide historical range across Asia, but much of that range is now completely gone. Much of the turtle's habitat in Southeast Asia have disappeared due to urban and industrial development along the Mekong River. The sand where turtles multiply is routinely carried away for use in construction projects, while fishing nets lift up hatchlings. People also take turtles and their eggs to sell for food.

    Initial surveys in 2003 and in 2007 found two small populations of the softshell turtles along a 30-mile stretch (水域) of the Mekong River. Since then, conservation groups have worked with local communities and officials to increase the wild population of these endangered turtles, including a program to hire former egg collectors to help search for and protect nests instead of harvesting the eggs.

    For the last decade, WCS, Conservation International, the Turtle Survival Alliance and local groups have worked to protect turtle nests. Their goal is to ensure eggs will multiply and hatch, and that baby turtles grow strong enough to eventually take care of themselves in the wild.

    A team recently released 150 hatchlings back into their natural habitat, bringing the total to more than 7,700 baby turtles in the past 10 years.