This column is part of a series on websites that are useful for English language learning.

Activities for ESL Students

    Includes various types of tests, exercises and puzzles designed to help people studying English as a second language（ESL）.The activities include grammar, vocabulary and idiom tests at easy, medium and difficult levels. The specially designed Chinese-English vocabulary tests can help Chinese memorize English words.

http://a4esl. org/

Interesting Things for ESL Students

    Contains a comprehensive list of audio clips（听力剪辑）from the Special English programs of Voice of America（VOA）.The list covers news of all kinds on VOA. The listening and vocabulary exercises and the word list designed with the clips will help English learners improve listening ability and increase vocabulary.

http://www.manythings.org/voa/

World-English

    This site provides a list of radio or TV channels offering English news clips. It includes the BBC radio program clips from England, CNN and ABC news clips from the US, and other news clips from other English-speaking countries. Click on the links and you will be taken to channels where you can listen to clips. This is a good way to practice listening.

http://www.world-english.org/listening.html

Listen to English

    Offers a large number of materials for English learners to practice listening. The materials include business English, English literature, history, movies, and politics. Students can improve their English while enjoying the beauty of the English of literature, songs, movies, and news in different countries.

http://eleaston.corn/listen, html

    On a Sunday morning, I was driving down a road and saw something I couldn't believe. A little girl, less than two, was pushing her stroller (婴儿车) across the road. It was Sunday morning and traffic was not heavy.

    I stopped my car at once and ran toward her. This little girl knew enough to run from a stranger. I tried to catch her in order that I could get her out of the road. Suddenly her father came running down a hill across the road from where I had parked my car. He ran right to her and caught her up, saying “bad girl” to her. I picked up the stroller and gave it to him. The father grabbed（抓住） the stroller and walked toward where he came from without a word. I went back and sat in my car for a few minutes with my son. My hands were shaking and tears were about to run out of my eyes. “Do you feel cold, Mom?” asked my son. I just shook my head.

    After this happened, I thought about how thankful I am. Even though the father didn't say thank you, I feel that I did something good. Doing something for someone else is pleasing, even when it's only a matter of being in the right place at the right time. I didn't really “save” her, but I feel like it was important that I happened to be there. It is sad that I was the only one who stopped. It really made me a little disappointed that no one else stopped to help.

    Teachers' Day around the world is not celebrated on the same day. In some countries, Teachers' Day is celebrated on working days. However, in other countries, it is celebrated on holidays.

    Here we are giving you a list of countries that celebrate Teachers' Day on holidays.

China

    The Teachers' Day was proposed(提议) at National Central University in 1931. It was adopted(被采纳) by the central government of Republic of China in 1932. In 1939, the day was set on August 27th, Confucius's birthday. People's Republic of China government called it off in 1951. It was reestablished in 1985, and the day was changed to September 10th. Now more and more people are trying to celebrate the Teachers' Day back to Confucius's birthday.

India

    In India, Teachers' Day is celebrated on September 5th, in honor of Dr Sarvepalli Radhakrishnan, the second President of India. Because his birthday was September 5th. At schools on this day, students in India celebrate this day to show their respect and love to their teachers.

Russia

    In Russia Teachers' Day is on October 5th. Before 1994, this day was set on the first Sunday of September.

USA

    In the United States, Teachers' Day is a holiday on the Tuesday of the first full week of May.

Thailand

    January 16th was adopted as Teachers' Day in the Thailand by a resolution(决议) of the government on November 21, 1956. The first Teachers' Day was held in 1957.

Iran

    In Iran, Teachers' Day is celebrated on May 2nd every year. It is in honor of the famous Iranian professor Ayatollah Morteza Motahhari who died on May 2, 1980.

    Although different countries celebrate Teachers' Day on different days, the activities people take to celebrate it just stay the same.

    Thomas Hardy, probably the most searching and knowledgeable novelist of our time, was born on June 2, 1840, in Dorsetshire, England. He died on January 11, 1928. In his youth, Hardy read much and dreamt of becoming a poet, but he studied and practiced architecture as an assistant to a London architect, winning a prize for design. The fine descriptions of structure in his novels were probably somewhat due to his architectural training.

    For five years he worked hard to practise writing poetry, but when he was twenty-seven, Hardy turned to fiction. His first story was accepted two years later, but upon the advice of George Meredith he decided not to publish it. His first novel, Desperate Remedies, appeared in 1871. During the next twenty-five years he published fourteen novels and two collections of short stories.

    Under the Greenwood Tree (1872) he never surpassed (超越) in happy and delicate perfection of art. This and his next novel, A pair of Blue Eyes (1873), begin to show deep irony (讽刺) which is so obvious throughout Hardy's writings.

    Far from the madding Crowd (1874) was his first popular success. In it is shown Hardy's amazing power of describing nature as symbolic background for his characters, an organic part of the action of his story. This was the earliest of what he called his novels of character and environment, which included The Return of the Native, Tess of D'Urbervilles, his masterpiece, and Jude the Obscure. Not until he was fifty-eight years old was his first collection of poems published, and he was sixty-four when the first part of The Dymats, surprised the literary world.

In 1998, people in Na Doi, a quiet village in northwest Thailand, noticed that their fish catches in the nearby Ngao River were declining. The fish they did manage to net were also getting smaller. Together, Na Doi's 75 households decided to try a new solution: they would set aside a small stretch of river to be strictly off-limits to fishing.

The rules are usually simple: no fishing of any kind in an agreed-upon area marked by flags or signs. While freshwater reserves won't solve everything, in places where fish populations are under pressure, they can give species much-needed breathing room to rebuild their numbers, ultimately making them better able to weather other environmental problems.

Na Doi was the second village in the Ngao River valley to adopt this pioneering approach to freshwater fisheries management. Since the late 1990s, at least 50 other villages there have done the same. As a whole, the entirely grassroots-led reserves have been surprisingly successful, according to findings recently published in Nature. Most importantly, the Thailand case provides probably the best real-world proof that fisheries reserves can benefit not just oceans, but freshwater, too

In 2012. Aaron Koning, then a doctoral student at the University of Wisconsin, began investigating the Ngao River valley reserves to see how widespread and successful they truly were. Koning found, not surprisingly, that older and bigger reserves were more successful, because they offered more time and space—including more kinds of habitat—in which to rebuild fish populations and re-establish rare species. But even reserves established in the last couple of years showed clear benefits from being spared intense fishing pressure. "Reserves that were located closer to a village tended to have an advantage," Koning says, "probably because villagers were better able to enforce the rules."

By comparing different systems and approaches around the world, Koning and his colleagues hope to identify common factors for success that could be tailored to diverse rivers and lakes.

Looking to take your four-legged friend on holiday? Here are the best pet-friendly hotels in the UK.

Sentry Mead, Isle of Wight

Sentry Mead is a beautifully decorated destination with charming bedrooms. Guests delight in features such as piles of books, homemade cakes and even a pillow menu. Dogs are welcomed with a bowl at the gate and are allowed everywhere except the dining room. There are extra blankets just for them, not to mention walks from the door to Alum Bay, and treats and towels on your return. 

No. Twenty 9, Norfolk

This hotel offers a lively stylish atmosphere and charmingly odd features. Rooms are spacious and light, each named after a music or movie legend. Dogs get their own "fur baby welcome present", containing a treat, bowls and a bathrobe. A spa shower in the garden washes off the sand on your friend after a long day on the beach before settling down in the bar together.

Mayfair Townhouse, London

Mayfair Townhouse is spread over a row of townhouses on Half Moon Street. Inside it offers an abundance of personality and a touch of oddity with nods to the famous writer Oscar Wilde. Puppies stay for free and receive a blanket, bowl and "screaming" ball for their stay. There are walks nearby in Green Park, and your pet can join you in the fancy bar for a "Pawsecco".

Halfway Bridge West Sussex

In the heart of the South Downs national park, Halfway Bridge is a welcoming village pub with rooms, famous for its delicious food. Dogs can stay in select rooms with garden access. In addition to a bed, bowl and sausage breakfast, treats for four-legged friends are available in the bar, and there's always a water bowl to hand.