When I found out I was moving to India, it was beyond a nightmare. It was something I couldn't even imagine. The impression I had of India were only based upon a few summer visits to my grandparents, filled with heat, pollution and dirt. Even though I was only six years old, I know this would be a complete change from my comfortable life in Maryland.

    During my first six months in India, my expectations were met almost exactly. I hated my new apartment; I missed my school and friends back in Maryland, and I was sick of all the dirty marketplaces that filled the streets of New Delhi.

    After those six months were over I finally realized that I was going to be in India for a while. I knew that I had to start making the most of my new life. It was then that I became completely involved in my school. My school, the American Embassy School, was filled with international students: Europeans, Australians, Chinese, and Americans just like me. But they all welcomed me with open arms. It was amazing to be among such diverse students, who had such incredible experiences to share.

    Now, when I look back at my time in India, all I can think about is how fortunate I am to have had such a wonderful experience. My move to India not only allowed me to see a completely different side of the world, but I was also able to establish unbreakable bonds with so many interesting and amazing people. Even now, after quite some years, I am still in contact with my closest friends from the American Embassy School. I cannot even imagine what I would be like without having lived in India. I would have missed out on meeting so many extraordinary people, and I would be a completely different person today.

Choose Your One-Day-Tours!

    Tour A - Bath &Stonehenge: including entrance fees to the ancient Roman bathrooms and Stonehenge -￡37 until 26 March and ￡39 thereafter.

    Visit the city with over 2,000 years of history and Bath Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Costume Museum, Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments dating back over 5,000 years.

    Tour B - Oxford & Stratford  including entrance fees to the University St Mary's Church Tower and Anne Hathaway's -￡32 until 12 March and ￡36 thereafter.

    Oxford: Includes a guided tour of England's oldest university city and colleges. Look over the "city of dreaming spires(尖顶）"from St Mary's Church Tower. Stratford: Includes a guided tour exploring much of the Shakespeare wonder.

    Tour C - Windsor Castle &Hampton Court including entrance fees to Hampton Court Palace -￡34 until 11 March and ￡37 thereafter.

    Includes a guided tour of Windsor and Hampton Court, Henry VIII's favorite palace. Free time to visit Windsor Castle (entrance fees not included).With 500 years of history, Hampton Court was once the home of four Kings and one Queen. Now this former royal palace is open to the public as a major tourist attraction. Visit the palace and its various historic gardens, which include the famous maze (迷宫)where it is easy to get lost!

    Tour D -Cambridge including entrance fees to the Tower of Saint Mary the Great -￡33 until 18 March and ￡37 thereafter.

Includes a guided tour of Cambridge, the famous university town, and the gardens of the 18th century.

    What's the meaning of "dark horse"? It's someone who wins when no one expects it.Han Xiaopeng took China's first gold on snow. He became an Olympic "dark horse" by winning the gold medal in men's freestyle aerial skiing(自由式滑雪空中技巧) at Turin in Italy. He made two almost perfect jumps for the highest score. Han had never won a world gold medal before, let alone(更不用说) in the Olympics!

    "I never thought this would happen," said the 23-year-old. "I feel like I'm in a dream." It's China's second gold medal at the Turin Olympics. But more important, Han's gold was the country's first ever in a snow sport. In 2002, China's Yang Yang won the gold for speed skating at the winter Olympics in Salt Lake City, US.

    That Han's win was unexpected doesn't mean that he didn't work hard.

    Han grew up in Jiangsu Province. Before he started his training on snow, he used to be an acrobat(杂技演员) at a circus. In 1995, a coach found his talent(才能). The coach, Yang Er'qi, said Han had the agility(灵活性) and courage to be a ski jumper. When Yang first took the 12-year-old to northern China, the boy couldn't swim, skate or ski. But he wasn't afraid of the high platform(跳台) and kept on training.

    Han almost left the sport after hurting his knee months before the Salt Lake Games. In that Olympics he only got 24th. "I was hopeless at that time, but my family and the coach stood firmly(坚强地) behind me, helping me through," he recalled.

    Han Xiaopeng worked so hard that he won the gold medal in the Olympics at last. Because of his success, more and more people in China are becoming interested in skiing. We are proud of him and we hope he will have another big success in the next winter Olympics.

    Ideas of making the first weeks of high school easy

    Frank. aged 21

    I think almost every kid feels both nervous and excited before their first day. You will probably love it. I know I did. You should join some sports or activities that will make your high school experience more enjoyable. Good luck!

    Sharon. aged 22

    The most important thing to keep in mind when going into high school is to be yourself. Besides, I don't know what your middle school was like, but high school teachers will not care about things such as how much homework you already have in one night. It's best to just learn to deal with things and manage your time wisely so you can achieve everything you need to do.

    Eddie. aged 20

    When I started high school, I was really nervous too, especially since I had been home schooled all through middle school and didn't really know anyone. I suppose the best advice would be to just relax. The first couple of days can be a little bit hard, but things will become easier before you know it.

    David. aged 19

    I'm not going to lie. The first day is kind of frightening. But you'll get used to it. Don't be afraid of anyone; upperclassmen will pick on(J E )you more if you let them know you're afraid. Just take it easy. Making some friends and staying with them will greatly help you get used to high school quickly. After the first week it's really not bad at all. Don't worry.

    It's nice to have people of like mind around. Agreeable people boost your confidence and allow you to relax and feel comfortable. Unfortunately, that comfort can hinder the very learning that can expand your company and your career.

    It's nice to have people agree, but you need conflicting perspectives to dig out the truth. If everyone around you has similar views, your work will suffer from confirmation bias (偏颇).

    Take a look at your own network. Do your contacts share your point of view on most subjects? If yes, it's time to shake things up. As a leader, it can be challenging to create an environment in which people will freely disagree and argue, but as the saying goes: From confrontation(冲突) comes brilliance.

    It's not easy for most people to actively seek conflict. Many spend their lives trying to avoid arguments. There's no need to go out and find people you hate, but you need to do some self-assessment to determine where you have become stale(疲沓的) in your thinking. You may need to start by encouraging your current network to help you identify your blind spots.

    Passionate, energetic debate does not require anger and hard feelings to be effective. But it does require moral strength. Once you have worthy opponents, set some ground rules so everyone understands responsibilities and boundaries. The objective of this debating game is not to win but to get to the truth that will allow you to move faster, farther, and better.

    Fierce debating can hurt feelings, particularly when strong personalities are involved. Make sure you check in with your opponents so that they are not carrying the emotion of the battles beyond the battlefield. Break the tension with smiles and humor to reinforce the idea that this is friendly discourse and that all are working toward a common goal.

    Reward all those involved in the debate sufficiently when the goals are reached. Let your sparring partners (拳击陪练) know how much you appreciate their contribution. The more they feel appreciated, the more they'll be willing to get into the ring next time.

A seismic (地震的；重大的) shift in climate science might be heating up.

New research shows that sound waves, produced by earthquakes can be used to measure temperatures in the ocean which traps 90% of the heat Earth absorbs from the sun，making long-term changes in ocean warmth, a major factor in how the world might respond to global warming.

For years the main approach of measuring ocean temperature has been Argo, an array (阵列) of 4000 automatic floats, which drifts the globe, sampling ocean water and measuring its temperature. Yet Argo measurements stop at 2000 meters.

The new technique called "Seismic Ocean Thermometry", would be especially useful in detecting long-term changes in ocean temperatures deeper than Argo's reach.

"Ocean Acoustic Tomography", the basis for the current research, was first tested nearly 30 years ago. The initial studies created sound waves artificially, basically increasing the volume on giant underwater speakers. Scientists measured the sound's travel time from the speakers to receivers thousands of kilometers away. Because ocean temperatures affect the speed of the waves, the researchers could calculate average temperatures along their paths. But some believed the noise was a threat to ocean life and the technique never took off.

The new study instead uses a natural sound source for investigation: earthquakes making a low, continuous noise beneath the seafloor off the coast of Sumatra that drum up sound waves in the ocean. On the shores of the Chagos Islands in the East Indian Ocean, between 2005 and 2016 Seismic Station Diego Garcia recorded seismic waves produced by those earthquakes. Some of those waves created physical changes in land and sea as they traveled. Others were sound waves or T waves that moved through the deep ocean, delivering valuable data about ocean temperature.

12 years of data coupled with mathematical models pointed to a temperature change of roughly 0.044 degrees per decade, a trend larger than those predicted by Argo. The findings suggest that Seismic Ocean Thermometry is a feasible method to measure changes in ocean temperature. Further data from other regions of the globe and other timeframes would help improve the warning models and predictions.

And in future studies the researchers plan to listen directly for sound waves, using a network of hydrophones, microphones which detect sound waves under water. Sound waves set the tone for a deep dive into our warming oceans even if they fail to reach 60000 miles under the sea?