Plan on traveling around the USA? There are a number of outstanding websites that can make your American dream come true.

www.101usaholidays.co.uk

    This is the latest offering that features 101 holiday ideas to the USA. It's a diverse selection, ranging from touring in the footsteps of Martin Luther King to a golfing break in Arizona and a cycling and wine-tasting trip in California's Napa Valley. Narrow down what you're looking for—whether by price, region, theme and who will be traveling—and then just the photos of the relevant holidays remain on view. It's a really clever design.

http://byways.org

    The National Scenic Byways Program covers 150 memorable roads. Some are natural scenic routes, such as Route 1 along the California coast. Others focus on history (such as Route 66) or man-made attractions (the Las Vegas Strip). For each, you're provided with a map telling the route's length and how long is allowed.

www.oyster.com

    This is the best website for reviews of hotels in US cities and tourist sites. There are photos of each hotel. Importantly, these are not promotional photos provided by the hotels, but more honest and revealing ones taken by inspectors. From the 243 hotels reviewed in New York, you can narrow down what you are looking for by locations, facilities and styles, or just pick out a selection of the best.

http://seaworldparks.com

    SeaWorld in San Diego can make dreams come true, but the price is not affordable for the majority of people. So turn to long-established http://seaworldparks.com, giving big discounts on tickets, hotel and dining at SeaWorld.

    Meet the amazing Eliot Schrefer, and see why we're big fans!

    Scope: Why do you write stories about animals?

    Eliot: I've always been excited by animal stories. When I was young, I liked reading about animals because they seemed like they needed help, and they were also voiceless.

    Scope: Where did you get the idea for Animal Distress Calls?

    Eliot: Many years ago, I had a friend who worked as a doctor at the Bronx Zoo. One evening he invited me to see the zoo after hours. Wandering that still, dark zoo was haunting. I was imagining adventures with big wild animals, but only the wolves were awake. Then he took me into the clinic, where I met a sick bird. That nighttime visit clearly had a big impact on this story.

    Scope: Why did you leave Josie's fate ambiguous in the story Animal Distress Calls?

    Eliot: So many of us have known a creature, human or nonhuman, who's been suffering. Sometimes everything gets better, and sometimes it doesn't. That doesn't change the important, compassionate act of caring. I didn't want the story to become about the outcome of Josie's illness. I wanted it to be about the sympathy Josie and Julia share for each other.

    Scope: Have you had a personal experience with an animal that changed you?

    Eliot: I had a moment during research for my ape novels when I was staying at a bonobo sanctuary in Congo. I'd have breakfast with Oshwe, a young bonobo who was too little to eat with the rest of the group. Sitting with him for a few hours each morning, I helped make sure that he finished his meal and got the nutrition he needed—but it also felt like a gift he was giving me. Oh, I remember thinking, you're spending this precious morning time with me!

    Will it matter if you don't take your breakfast? Recently a test was given in the United States. Those tested included people of different ages, from 12 to 83. During the experi­ment, these people were given all kinds of breakfasts, and sometimes they got no breakfast at all. Special tests were set up to see how well their bodies worked when they had eaten a certain kind of breakfast. The results show that if a person eats a proper breakfast, he or she will work with better effect than if he or she has no breakfast. This fact appears to be especially true if a person works with his brains. If a student eats fruit, eggs, bread and milk before going to school, he will learn more quickly and listen with more attention to class.

    Opposite to what many people believe, if you don't eat breakfast, you will not lose weight. This is because people become so hungry at noon that they eat too much for lunch, and end up gaining weight instead of losing. You will probably lose more weight if you reduce your other meals.

    Most people know that Marie Curie(居里夫人) was the first woman to win the Nobel Prize, and the first person to win it twice. However, few people know that she was also the mother of a Nobel Prize winner.

    Born in September, 1887, Irene Curie was the first of the Curies' two daughters. Along with nine other children whose parents were also famous scholars, Irene studied in their own school, and her mother was one of the teachers. She finished her high school education at the College of Sévigné in Paris. Irene entered the University of Paris in 1914 to prepare for a degree in mathematics and physics. When World War I began, Irene went to help her mother, who was using X-ray facilities（设备） to help save the lives of wounded soldiers. Irene continued the work by developing X-ray facilities in military hospitals in France and Belgium. Her services were recognized in the form of a Military's Medal by the French government.

    In 1918, Irene became her mother's assistant at the Curie Institute. In December 1924, Frederic Joliot joined the Institute, and Irene taught him the techniques required for his work. They soon fell in love and were married in 1926. Their daughter Helene was born in 1927 and their son Pierre five years later.

    Like her mother, Irene combined family and career. Like her mother, Irene was awarded a Nobel Prize, along with her husband, in 1935. Unfortunately, also like her mother, she developed leukemia because of her work with radioactivity（辐射能）. Irene Joliot-Curie died from leukemia on March 17, 1956.

    Are you interested in country music? I like it very much! It will take me away for a while after I am tired. The guitars and songs will take me to mountains and fields. Country music usually talks of everyday life and feelings. It's the spirit of America, easy to understand, slow and simple. Country music developed in the Southern United States. It was the folk music of American countryside. Many of songs tell about the lives of farmers. They talk about love, crops or death.

    The life of the countryside can be hard, so the words in country music are often sad. At first, people played the music only at family parties. But it became more popular later. In the 1920s, people played country songs on the radio, and they made them into records. When people in the countryside moved to towns and cities to look for work, they took their music with them. Country music continued to change and became popular across America. John Denver was one of America's most famous country singers in the 1970s. His song "Take Me home, Country Roads" is well-known and people still play it today.

    A couple in their 60s has travelled 12,000 miles across 16 countries from Britain to China - riding their bikes all the way. Grandparents Peter and Chris stepped on the long journey after deciding to "do something a bit different". They traversed (横穿) cities, deserts, mountains and everything in between across Europe, the Middle East and the East Asia.

    Peter, 66, said the moment they finally had a look at the famous Great Wall after a year and a half of cycling 30 miles a day was "really exciting". At the end of their journey, the special pair didn't fly home but instead choose to book a cabin (舱) inside a 400m-long ship.

    "You never know what the day is going to bring. All you know is that you are going to get on your bike and cycle. Every day is an adventure and every day is new. Overall, the experience is unbelievable," Peter said.

    At first Peter and Chris set out to cycle from Britain in January 2017 but were forced home. They had cycled all the way to Hungary when Peter slipped and broke his leg. After seven months of recovery, the couple set out again in Britain. They finally arrived in China in November 2018.

    Both Peter and Chris agreed that the best part of the entire trip was coming across the kindness of strangers along the way, many of whom invited the couple for food and drink. Chris, 64, said, "It was a wonderful experience, particularly wonderful because of the amazing people we met along the way."