Enrique Iglesias is a most successful singer! Born in 1975 in Madrid, Spain, Enrique is the child of the famous singer Julio Iglesias. Enrique's mother is a journalist. His parents divorced in 1978. Although Enrique lived with his mother, she sent him to live with his father because of concerns about her son's safety. Enrique wanted to be a singer secretly, hedidn't wish his father to know that and didn't want to live under his shelter. He sought his dream on his own.

    Enrique released(发行) his first album “Enrique Iglesias” in 1995. This album had a collection of rock ballads(民谣) and fivesingles from it went straight to the top spots in Latin music. This album was followed by another “Vivir” in 1997. Three singles from this album occupied the top spots on the Latin charts yet again! Enrique also found himself nominated(提名) for the“Favorite Latin Artist” at the American Music Awards. By 1998, he had releasedhis 3^rd album, “Cosas Del Amor”. This year Enrique won the “Favorite Latin Artist”. “Bailamos” got him great fame. One of the songs in this album was also used in a movie. With the success of “Bailamos”, Enrique now already had many loyal fans. The album, “Enrique”, was released in 1999.

    The year 2001 brought more success for him. His album, “Escape”had a few singles that reached the top spots. Enrique became a house hold name.This album is his biggest successful album so far. “Hero” and “Don't Turn Offthe Lights” soon turned Enrique into a super star. His next release in 2002 was a Spanish album “Quizas”. This album brought Enrique a “Latin Grammy Award” for the Best Pop Vocal Album. In 2007, he released another album “Insomniac” andthe song “Do You Know” became an instantly popular song.

    How fit are your teeth? Are you lazy about brushing them? Never fear: An inventor is on the case. An electric toothbrush senses how long and how well you brush, and it lets you track your performance on your phone.

    The Kolibree toothbrush was exhibited at the International Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas this week. It senses how it is moved and can send the information to an Android phone or iPhone via a Bluetooth wireless connection.

    The toothbrush will be able to teach you to brush right (don't forget the insides of the teeth!) and make sure you're brushing long enough. “It's kind of like having a dentist actually watch your brushing on a day-to-day basis,” says Thomas Serval, the French inventor.

    The toothbrush will also be able to talk to other applications on your phone, so developers could, for instance, create a game controlled by your toothbrush. You could score points for beating monsters among your teeth. “We try to make it smart but also  fun,” Several says.

    Serval says he was inspired by his experience as a father. He would come home from work and ask his kids if they had brushed their teeth. They said “yes,” but Serval would find their toothbrush heads dry. He decided he needed a brush that really told him how well his children brushed.

    The company says the Kolibree will go on sale this summer, for $99 to $199, developing on features. The U.S. is the first target market.

    Serval says that one day, it'll be possible to replace the brush on the handle with a brushing unit that also has a camera. The camera can even examine holes in your teeth while you brush.

    Dubai(迪拜)is one of the economically richest places in the world. With its numerous malls, hotels, and beautiful beaches, Dubai has always been a popular holiday destination. This city was visited by around 5 million tourists each year. The government wanted to increase this number to 15 million. However, Dubai has only 45 miles of coastline, which is nowhere enough for so many people. To solve this problem, an island that looked like a palm tree was built in 2006, and named the Palm Jumeirah.

    The plan for the island was extraordinary. It was to host several hotels, shopping malls, restaurants, and homes. Although the initial plan was to build the island from concrete(水泥), a decision was taken to create it from sand and gravel(砾石), so as to give it a natural look.

    To make sure that this project was a success, the best engineers from across the world were employed. Engineers from Holland formed the majority in this group. To begin with, the engineers calculated the strength of storms at sea, and also the expected amount of rise in water levels due to global warming. And then they found that, the proposed location for the island was neither very wide nor deep.

    One of the difficulties the engineers came across was to put sand on the sea bed to create the breakwater(防浪堤).Finding the right sand for the project was also a daunting task, as the sand from Dubai's deserts was too fine. Instead, sand from the sea was used, as it was coarser(粗糙). Once the breakwater was built, construction of the island began.

    The Palm Island are really impressive in terms of engineering. However, these projects are so large that they may have changed the ecology of the region. Also, an immense amount of money and resources go into maintaining the islands, which is a major concern at the moment. Only time will tell if building the Palm Islands was actually a good decision.

    In China we can see more African students in universities, which is a signal of a deeper China-Africa relationship, and the same trend is happening in Africa as well. Most Chinese students choose to study in universities in South Sudan, Egypt, Kenya, Ghana, Ethiopia and South Africa.

    There are three types of Chinese students in Africa. One type is language students who major in local African languages such as Swahili in China and go to African countries to study the language. Another type is non-language students who major in law, economy, culture, education or agriculture and go to African universities for six months to a year to learn more about the culture or for research. The above two types of students are all funded by Chinese government.

    A third type has been growing in recent years. More Chinese choose to develop their career and build a life in African countries, and some of their children tend to receive higher education in African countries. Some Chinese who work in Africa also further their study in their free time. Many Chinese choose to join the MBA program, since they work in a Chinese state-owned enterprise, and an MBA degree could help advance their career.

    In addition, as China and Africa's relations and cooperation are heating up and more Chinese companies and investors come to Africa under The Belt and Road Initiative(一带一路), more talents that understand Africa are needed. Besides, the new generations have more internationalized, curious attitudes, and are more willing to see and experience Africa themselves without any stereotypes(刻板印象), rather than just reading about it in a textbook.

    Many children are interested in dinosaurs (恐龙). If you have a child who loves dinosaurs, then here is some good news for you. There is an exhibition of dinosaurs at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum in Wembley, Albert A. You can plan a family road trip there. Give your child a surprise and you'll enjoy your time there as a family.

    Sitting just 19 kilometers west of Grande Prairie, the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum was opened in 2015 and has collections that include fossils（化石）of sea animals, art works from different dinosaurs, a large family theater, as well as an outdoor discovery fossil walk, a large outdoor playground and the onsite Dine-O-Saur restaurant. Experience the dinosaurs' world like never before as you watch dinosaurs coming alive in movies. Learn about how these animals lived and breathed.

    You can check out Dinosaurs Unearthed and all of the other exciting exhibitions at the Philip J. Currie Dinosaur Museum on the following days/ time periods:

    September 1st—May 31st:

    Tuesday—Sunday 10: 00 a. m. — 6: 00 p. m.

    Closed on Mondays

    June 1st—August 31st:

    Saturday—Monday 10: 00 a. m. — 6: 00 p. m.

    Tuesday—Friday 10: 00 a. m. — 8: 00 p. m.

    Admission (门票):

    Adults: $ 14 each

    Seniors (65+): $ 11 each

    Students (with ID) and children (5—17): $7 each

    Children under 5: free

    Family (2 adults and up to 4 children): $40

    If you want to see a National Geographic film or a full-length film during your visit, it is an extra $2— $4.

    For more information, please visit the museum's website at www.dinomuseum.ca.

(2023年·广州二模)

In 1977, Irene Pepperberg, a Harvard graduate, decided to investigate the thought processes of another creature by talking to it. To do this, she would teach a one-year-old African gray parrot(鹦鹉), Alex, to reproduce the sounds of the English language.

Pepperberg bought Alex in a pet store, where she let the store's assistant choose him because she didn't want other scientists to say that she had intentionally chosen an especially smart bird. Given that Alex's brain was just the size of a walnut, most researchers thought Pepperberg's communication study would be futile(徒劳的).

But with Pepperberg's patient teaching, Alex learned how to follow almost 100 English words. He could count to six and had learned the sound for seven and eight. But the point was not to see if Alex could learn words by heart. Pepperberg wanted to get inside his mind and learn more about a bird's understanding of the world.

In one demonstration, Pepperberg held up a green key and a green cup for him to look at. "What's the same?" she asked. "Co-lour," Alex responded without hesitation. "What's different?" Pepperberg asked. "Shape," Alex quickly replied. His voice had the sound of a cartoon character. But the words—and what can only be called the thoughts—were entirely his. Many of Alex's skills, such as his ability to understand the concepts of "same" and "different", are rare in the animal world. Living in a complex society, parrots like Alex must keep track of changing relationships and environments.

During the demonstration, as if to offer final proof of the mind inside his bird's brain, Alex spoke up. "Talk clearly!" he commanded, when one of the younger birds Pepperberg was also teaching mispronounced the word "green". Alex knew all the answers himself and was getting bored. "He's moody," said Pepperberg, "so he interrupts the others, or he gives the wrong answer just to be difficult." Pepperberg was certainly learning more about the mind of a parrot, but like the parent of a troublesome teenager, she was learning the hard way.