Here are some undiscovered places around the world, which will surely impress you.

Byblos, Lebanon

    This quiet settlement north of Beirut in Lebanon has been around a really long lime. Today, its rich history is well-represented in its ruins, which include ancient temples and tombs and Neolithic houses. Three sites in particular steal the show: the restored Roman amphitheatre (圆形剧场）, the grand 12^th century Crusader castle, and the beautiful]y restored medieval open market.

Carreg Cennen, Carmarthenshire, Wales

    The ruins of Carreg Cennen must be among the most noticeable sites in Wales. Carreg Cennen is defended by two drawbridges and three gate towers, although it hasn't seen much action since it was partly damaged in 1462, during the Wars of the Roses. However, one rare feature of the castle is unchanged. Ifs the stone passage that leads down to a natural cave underneath.

Providence, Rhode Island, US

    Rhode Island is the smallest state in the US. Its capital, Providence, has many of the attractions. Ivy League member Brown University and the famous Rhode Island School of Design (RISD) give the city a strong student influence. Up on College Hill, east of the Providence River, are streets lined with 18^th century wood framed houses.

Sequoia National Park, California, US

    Not content with having the worlds tallest (coast redwoods) and oldest (bristlecone pines), California is also home to the largest tree—the giant sequoia (红杉树). It grows only to its lull size in the Sierra Nevada mountains. Many of these trees are found in the Yosemite National Park, but for more quality time with the trees, it's best to head south to the far less known Sequoia National Park, which gets a quarter of Yosemite's visitor numbers.

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    Nowadays airfare isn't getting any cheaper with fuel costs rising every day. Luckily, there are plenty of ways to find the most affordable fares and also avoid paying as many extra charges as possible when you plan ahead.

    Many years ago, I made a living by driving a car. One night I went to pick up a passenger at 2:30 am. When I arrived to collect, I found the building was dark except for a single light in a ground floor window.

    I walked to the door and knocked.“Just a minute,” answered a weak, elderly voice.

    After a long pause, the door opened. A small woman in her eighties stood before me. By her side was a small suitcase.

    I took the suitcase to the car, and then returned to help the woman. She took my arm and we walked slowly towards the car.

    She kept thanking me for my kindness.“It's nothing,” I told her, “I just try to treat my passengers in the way I would want my mother treated.”

    “Oh, you're such a good man,” she said. When we got into the taxi, she gave me an address, and then asked, “Could you drive through downtown?”

    “It's not the shortest way,” I answered quickly.

    “Oh, I'm in no hurry,” she said.“I'm on my way to a hospice(临终医院). I don't have any family left. The doctor says I don't have very long time.”

    I quietly reached over and shut off the meter(计价器).

    For the next two hours, we drove through the city. She showed me the building where she had once worked, the neighborhood where she had lived, and the furniture shop that had once been a ballroom where she had gone dancing as a girl.

    Sometimes she'd ask me to slow down in front of a particular building and would sit staring into the darkness, saying nothing.

    At dawn, she suddenly said, “I'm tired. Let's go now.”

    We drove in silence to the address she had given me.

    “How much do I owe you?”she asked.

    “Nothing,” I said.

    “You have to make a living,” she answered.“Oh, there are other passengers, ”I answered.

    Almost without thinking, I bent and gave her a hug. She held onto me tightly. Our hug ended with her remark, “You gave an old woman a little moment of joy.”

John keeps a record of new words and expressions in English. He usually writes them in a note-book. Then, later in the day, he asks his teacher about them. “Mrs. Thomas, these expressions are new to me. ‘She's blue today.'， ‘You're yellow', ‘A little white lie', ‘She has green fingers'.” After looking at the note-book, Mrs. Thomas says, “In everyday English, John，‘blue' sometimes means sad. ‘Yellow' means afraid. A person with ‘green fingers' grows plants successfully. And ‘a white lie' is not a bad lie.” “I don't understand. Please give me an example.” “ For example, I offer you some cake. The truth is that you don't like my cake. You don't say that. Instead, you say, ‘No, thanks, I'm not hungry.' That's a white lie.” John says, “I see , thanks for the explanation!”

Libraries

    Public libraries

    Most towns in Britain have a public library. A library usually has a large selection of books and other resources, which library members can use and borrow for free.

    Britain's First Public Library

    The first public library in Britain opened in Manchester in1852. It's first librarian was a man called Edward Edwards, Edwards attended the library's opening ceremony and two famous writers called Charles Dickens and William Thackeray were there too.

    How to Join a Library

    To join a library, go to your local library and fill in a form. You'll receive a library card which is needed when using library services.

    Mobile Libraries

    Not everyone can get a library. Some people live far away from towns and cities. Other people find it difficult to go out because they have an illness or a disability. Thanks to mobile libraries, these people can still borrow books.

    Unlike most libraries, which store books in buildings, mobile libraries usually keep their books in a mini-bus. The back of the mini-bus has shelves for the books, and it is big enough for borrowers to step inside and look around. A driver takes the mini-bus to a certain place at a certain time, so people know when to expect it. They can then return their books and borrow some more.

    All Aboard the Library!

    A school in London didn't have space for a library inside the building. However, everybody agreed that it was still important to have a school library. So the head of the school, Graham Blake decided to park an old bus on the school car park and changed it into a library. Pupils helped to paint the bus, and after eight months, the new library was ready.

Bruce, a parrot missing part of his beak （喙）,  creatively uses stones to clean feathers （羽毛）,  highlighting advanced intelligence in parrots. 

Bruce lost the upper part of his beak in 2012 and was sent to live at a reserve in New Zealand. The defect made Bruce unable to search for food on his own, let alone keep his feathers clean with his beak. But in 2021, when comparative psychologist Bastos arrived at the reserve with colleagues to study parrots, zookeepers reported something strange：Bruce had seemingly figured out how to select and use small stones to clean his own feathers with his beak. 

Over nine days, the team kept a close eye on Bruce, quickly taking, videos if he started cleaning his feathers. It turned out that Bruce had indeed invented his own way to do so, the researchers reported in Scientific Reports. 

"It's crazy because the behavior was not from the wild, " Bastos says. When Bruce arrived at the reserve, he was too young to learn how to clean his feathers. And no other bird in the reserve uses stones in this way. "It seems like he just invented this tool use for himself, " she says. 

Tool use is just one of parrots' many talents. They're famous for copying and even understanding human speech. Some species can also solve complex puzzles, like how to enter a covered rubbish bin or practice self-control. 

For a concept as abstract （抽象的） as intelligence, it's challenging to develop a definition that applies across animals. Researchers often point to features once thought to make humans special—enhanced learning, memory, attention and movement control—as signs of advanced skills. However, many of these abilities can also be seen in parrots, as well as other animals like chimpanzees, dolphins and elephants. 

"Parrots are our evolutionary （进化的） mirror image. These brilliant birds may teach us about how humanlike intelligence can appear, " behavioral ecologist Antone wrote in his 2022 book The Parrot in the Mirror. With powerful brains and a preference for words, these birds are "the very best example, " he writes,  "of nature's 'other try' at humanlike intelligence. "