Phil White has just returned from an 18,000 ­mile, around­ the ­world bicycle trip. White had two reasons for making this epic journey. First of all, he wanted to use the trip to raise money for charity, which he did. He raised ￡70,000 for the British charity, Oxfam. White's second reason for making the trip was to break the world record and become the fastest person to cycle around the world. He is still waiting to find out if he has broken the record or not.

    White set off from Trafalgar Square, in London, on 19th June 2004 and was back 299 days later. He spent more than 1,300 hours in the saddle (车座) and destroyed four sets of tyres and three bike chains. He had the adventure of his life crossing Europe, the Middle East, India, Asia, Australia, New Zealand and the Americas. Amazingly, he did all of this with absolutely no support team. No jeep carrying food, water and medicine. No doctor. Nothing! Just a bike and a very, very long road.

    The journey was lonely and desperate at times. He also had to fight his way across deserts, through jungles and over mountains. He cycled through heavy rains and temperatures of up to 45 degrees, all to help people in need. There were other dangers along the road. In Iran, he was chased by armed robbers and was lucky to escape with his life and the little money he had. The worst thing that happened to him was having to cycle into a headwind on a road that crosses the south of Australia. For 1,000 kilometres he battled against the wind that was constantly pushing him. This part of the trip was slow, hard work and depressing, but he made it in the end. Now Mr. White is back and intends to write a book about his adventures.

    A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life. Frank Hurley's pictures would be outstanding — undoubtedly first-rate photo-journalism — if they had been made last week. In fact, they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous ship wreck (海滩) by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival Many of the images were stored in an ice chest under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.

    The ship was the Endurance a small tight Norwegian-built three-master that was intended to take Sir Ermest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica's Weddell Sm. From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled across the continent. The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done. Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.

    As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and well-researched story The Endurance、adventuring was then a thoroughly commercial effort Scott's last journey, completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world's imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds Shackleton, a onetime British merchant-navy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908,started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography. Frank Hurley，a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic, was hired to make the images most of which have never before been published.

    One day a very skilled artist met a beautiful woman who immediately became the object of his affections. As he observed her and spoke with her, he admired her more and more. He showered her with kindness and words of praise until she consented to be his wife.

    Not long after they were married, however, the beautiful woman found out that she was more the object of his artistic interest than of his affections. When he admired her classic beauty, it was as though he were standing in front of a work of art rather than in front of a human being to whom he had pledged his love and promised his life. And soon he expressed his great desire to put her rare beauty on canvas.

    “Please sit for me in the workroom,” he pleaded, “and I will make your beauty permanent. The work will be my masterpiece!”

    She was humble and patient as well as flattered by his words, so she said, “Yes, my love. I will be happy to sit for you.” So the beautiful, young wife of the artist sat meekly for hours in his studio, not complaining. Day after day she sat patiently, smiling as she posed, because she loved him and because she hoped that he would see her love in her smile and obedience. She sometimes wanted to call out to him, “Please love me and want me as a person rather than as an object!” But instead, she spoke nothing but words which pleased him.

    At length, as the labor drew to close, the painter became wilder in his passion for his work. He only rarely turned his eyes from the canvas to look at his wife. As he stood there gazing at his beautiful work of art, he cried with a loud voice, “This is indeed life itself!” Then he turned to his beloved and saw that she was dead!

    Many years ago, people relied on the sun, the moon and stars to find their way around. Later, the compass was introduced. And now, we have satnav（卫星导航）systems to guide us. A satnav system uses groups of satellites to show the user's location. They send information to a receiver, such as a smartphone, to show us where we are.

    The earliest built satnav system is the Global Positioning Satellite System, which belongs to the US. Then there is Russia's Global Navigation Satellite system，the European Union's Galileo and China's own satellite navigation system, Beidou.

On October 18, 2017, an ARJ21-700 plane, which was the first domestically（国内地） produced jet equipped with the Beidou navigation system, successfully completed a test flight. The results showed the performance of the system developed by China matches that of similar systems produced abroad, according to the Commercial Aircraft Corporation of China.

    Since its introduction in 2000, the Beidou navigation system has been increasing numbers of applications linked to everyday life, from shared bikes to farming.

When it comes to shared bikes, smart locks that support Beidou chips offer more accurate positioning than others, making it easier to find a bike.

    Farmers can use Beidou-enabled tractors to plow（犁）the soil and use unmanned aircraft with Beidou to sow seeds, which can improve efficiency and make better use of resources. Beidou's farming applications have spread from Heilongjiang Province to Beijing, Liaoning, Shanxi, Hubei and other regions across China.

    With its many uses, the Beidou navigation system is even playing a big role in the Belt and Road Initiative（一带一路）. “To date, the Beidou system has covered most parts of the Asia-Pacific region, as well as countries along the Silk Road Economic Belt and the 21^st Century Maritime Silk Road,” said Yang Changfeng, chief designer of the Beidou system.

    Today, there are more than 20 Beidou satellites above our heads, and China plans to launch even more this year to expand the Beidou network to better serve the Belt and Road Initiative.

    “As Beidou expands its overseas reach, it will be increasingly popular in the logistics（物流） industry,” said Miao Qianjun, Secretary General of the navigation services association. “Ships, for example, can use it to position themselves while sailing across oceans to European countries, no longer limited to Southeast Asian regions in the near future.

    The other day I was shopping at the local Chinese grocery store. There was a line at the fish counter, but only one staff person was there to take care of the customers. Some customers ordered quite an amount of fish for that staff person to work on. At last I was the second in line; all I wanted was a couple of crabs and should get out of there in no time.

    Noticing it was very busy at the fish counter, another staff person came over to help. I was ready to be served,  but the staff person went to the end of the line and began to help a couple of ladies with snails （蜗牛）.The customer in front of me, being served, turned around and looked at me sympathetically, and the customer behind me called to the staff person, "You should start her, "pointing at me. He was, well, ignored.

    If someone asked me, "What is the most important rule to follow in America？"I would reply without hesitation, "Wait your turn at all times." Wherever you go here in this country, you will find people waiting in a line quietly to get anything: whether in the supermarkets, department stores, bus stops, or gas stations, it's just a matter of waiting your turn. In a larger sense, "wait your turn" is more than just a guideline﹣it is a very basic norm （准则）that reflects the fundamental value of the western cultures. But in some situations your turn does not always come based on when you get there and how long you have waited in line, just like my case at the store. Even though this did not often happen, it did make me feel upset.

    Taking your pulse during physical activity allows you to measure how hard you are exercising. You should exercise to stay within your target heart range.

    Increasing your heart rate is a key part of exercise but it is important that your heart rate is not too high or too low. If you are a beginner, you should also be able to breathe comfortably while exercising. This will ensure that you are exercising at a level that is safe and effective for your body.

    The chart below illustrates target heart rate ranges for exercise based on the maximal heart rate for selected ages. Here are the steps for using the chart: