The Lake District Attractions Guide

Dalemain Mansion & Historic Gardens

History, Culture & Landscape(景观). Discover and enjoy 4 centuries of history, 5 acres of celebrated and award-winning gardens with parkland walk. Owned by the Hasell family since 1679, home to the International Marmalade Festival. Gifts and antiques, plant sales, museums & Mediaeval Hall Tearoom.

Tearoom，Gardens & Gift Shop:10:30-17:00(16:00 in Oct).

House:11:15-16:00(15:00 in Oct)

Those viewing the quality of Abbot Hall’s temporary exhibitions may be forgiven for thinking they are in a city gallery. The impressive permanent collection includes Turners and Romneys and the temporary exhibition programme has Canaletto and the artists from St Ives.

Discover, explore and enjoy award-winning Tullie House, where historic collections, contemporary art and family fun are brought together in one impressive museum and art gallery. There are four fantastic galleries to visit from fine art to interactive fun, so there’s something for everyone!

Low Season 1 Nov – 31 Mar: Mon to Sat 10:00 – 16:30, Sun 12:00 – 16:30.

Discover William Wordsworth’s inspirational home. Take a tour of his Lakeland cottage, walk through his hillside garden and explore the riches of the collection in the Museum. Visit the shop and relax in the café. Exhibitions, events and family activities throughout the year.

Open: Daily, 09:30 – 17:30 (last admission 17:00).

Town: Grasmere

Some parents will buy any high-tech toy if they think it will help their child, but researchers said puzzles help children with math-related skills.

Psychologist Susan Levine, an expert on mathematics development in young children at the University of Chicago, found children who play with puzzles between ages 2 and 4 later develop better spatial skills. Puzzle play was found to be a significant predictor of cognition(认知) after controlling for differences in parents’ income, education and the amount of parent talk, Levine said.

The researchers analyzed video recordings of 53 child-parent pairs during everyday activities at home and found children who play with puzzles between 26 and 46 months of age have better spatial skills when assessed at 54 months of age.

“The children who played with puzzles performed better than those who did not, on tasks that assessed their ability to rotate(旋转)and translate shapes,” Levine said in a statement.

The parents were asked to interact with their children as they normally would, and about half of children in the study played with puzzles at one time. Higher-income parents tended to have children play with puzzles more frequently, and both boys and girls who played with puzzles had better spatial skills. However, boys tended to play with more complex puzzles than girls, and the parents of boys provided more spatial language and were more active during puzzle play than parents of girls.

The findings were published in the journal Developmental Science.

When you were trying to figure out what to buy for the environmentalist on your holiday list, fur probably didn’t cross your mind. But some ecologists and fashion (时装)enthusiasts are trying to bring back the market for fur made from nutria(海狸鼠).

Unusual fashion shows in New Orleans and Brooklyn have showcased nutria fur made into clothes in different styles. “It sounds crazy to talk about guilt-free fur-unless you understand that the nutria are destroying vast wetlands every year”, says Cree McCree, project director of Righteous Fur.

Scientists in Louisiana were so concerned that they decided to pay hunters $5 a tail. Some of the fur ends up in the fashion shows like the one in Brooklyn last month.

Nutria were brought there from Argentina by fur farmers and let go into the wild. “The ecosystem down there can’t handle this non-native species(物种).It’s destroying the environment. It’s them or us.” says Michael Massimi, an expert in this field.

The fur trade kept nutria in check for decades，but when the market for nutria collapsed in the late 1980s，the cat-sized animals multiplied like crazy.

Biologist Edmond Mouton runs the nutria control program for Louisiana. He says it’s not easy to convince people that nutria fur is green, but he has no doubt about it. Hunters bring in more than 300,000 nutria tails a year, so part of Mouton’s job these days is trying to promote fur.

Then there’s Righteous Fur and its unusual fashion. Model Paige Morgan says，”To give people a guilt-free option that they can wear without someone throwing paint on them-I think that’s going to be a massive thing, at least here in New York.” Designer Jennifer Anderson admits it took her a while to come around to the opinion that using nutria fur for her creations is morally acceptable. She is trying to come up with a label to attach to nutria fashions to show it is eco-friendly.

I have a special place in my heart for libraries. I have for as long as I can remember. I was always an enthusiastic reader, sometimes reading up to three books a day as a child. Stories were like air to me and while other kids played ball or went to parties, I lived out adventures through the books I checked out from the library.

My first job was working at the Ukiah Library when I was 16 years old .It was a dream job and I did everything from shelving books to reading to the children for story time.

As I grew older and became a mother, the library took on a new place and an added meaning in my life. I had several children and books were our main source(来源) of entertainment. It was a big deal for us to load up and go to the local library, where my kids could pick out books to read or books they wanted me to read to them.

I always read ,using different voices ,as though I were acting out the stories with my voice and they loved it !It was a special time to bond with my children and it filled them with the wonderment of books .

Now, I see my children taking their children to the library and I love that the excitement of going to the library lives on form generation to generation.

As a novelist, I’ve found a new relationship with libraries. I encourage readers to go to their local library when they can’t afford to purchase a book. I see libraries as a safe haven(避风港) for readers and writers, a bridge that helps put together a reader with a book. Libraries, in their own way, help fight book piracy(盗版行为) and 1 think all writers should support libraries in a significant way when they can. Encourage readers to use the library. Share library announcements on your social media. Frequent them and talk about them when you can.

Emoji(表情符号) and Workplace Communication

In Asia, messaging platforms are growing rapidly, with users in the hundreds of millions, both at work and play.
36．. It’s been reported that 76 percent of employees in some western countries are using emojis at work.

Written communications can often read as cold and dull. Using emojis can add humor and feeling, keeping intention clear.
37．, encouraging better and more frequent communication.

In any given office, employees can range from age 22 to 70 and beyond, and finding common ground in communication style can be a challenge.
38．. While the younger generations prefer to communicate visually, for those used to working with traditional tools like email, it may feel like a learning curve(曲线). The good news is that it’s simple to learn and can be worth the effort.

There is also the matter of tone(语气). Who hasn’t received an email so annoying that it ruined an entire day?
39．. Emoji can help communication feel friendlier, and even a serious note can be softened with an encouraging smile.

40．, and emoji can contribute directly to that positive outcome. And when your employees begin adding smiling emojis to their business communication, you’ll know you have succeeded in improving your work culture.

It was just after sunrise on a June morning. “Nicolo,” whose real name cannot be _______ to the public because of Italy’s privacy laws, _______ working the whole night at a factory in Turin. As he often did, he stopped by the “after work auction(拍卖)” _______ by the Italian police where things _______ on the trains were sold to the highest bidder. There, among many other things, Nicolo spotted two paintings he thought would look _______above his dining room table. Nicolo and another bidder _______ until Nicolo finally won the paintings for $32.

When Nicolo retired and went to live in Sicily, he _______ the paintings with him. He hung them above the same table he had _______ from Turin. His son, age 15, who had _______ an art appreciation class, thought that there was something ________ about the one with a young girl sitting on a garden chair. It was signed(签名) “Bonnato” or so he thought, but when he ________ it, he only found “Bonnard,” a French ________ he had never heard of. He bought a book and was ________ to find a picture of the artist Pierre Bonnard sitting on the same chair in the same ________ as his father’s painting.

“That’s the garden in our picture,”Nicolo’s son told his father. They ________ learned that the painting they ________was called “The Girl with Two Chairs.” They ________ the other painting and learned that it was ________ Paul Gauguin’s “Still Life of Fruit on a Table with a Small Dog.” The ________ called the Italian Culture Ministry; the official confirmed that the paintings were ________ and worth as much as $50 million.

Decorating with Plants, Fruits and Flowers for Chinese New Year

Chinese New Year is a
61． (celebrate) marking the end of the winter season and the beginning of spring. This is why decorating with plants, fruits and flowers
62． (carry) special significance. They represent the earth   
63．   (come) back to life and best wishes for new beginnings.

These are some of the most popular in many parts of the country:

Oranges: Orange trees are more
64． decoration; they are a symbol of good fortune and wealth. They make great gifts and you see them many times
65． (decorate) with red envelopes and messages of good fortune.

Bamboo: Chinese love their “Lucky Bamboo” plants and you will see them often in their homes and office.
66． (certain) during the holiday period, this plant is a must. Bamboo plants are associated
67． health, abundance and a happy home. They are easy
68． (care) for and make great presents.

Branches of Plum Blossoms (梅花): The
69． (beauty) long branches covered with pink-colored buds (蓓蕾) make fantastic decorations. The plum trees are
70．   first to flower even as the snow is melting(融化). They represent the promise of spring and a renewal of life.

Thank you for your letter, what really made me happy. I’m glad to know that you’ve come China to learn kung fu in a school in my hometown. I’m surely you’ll have a good time. Actually, I start to learn kung fu when I was seven years old, for I have long been out of practice. Luckily, I will go home in two weeks for summer vacations. Then I can spare some time to learn it again, such that we can practice together on every day. Best of luck with yours learning kung fu in China. See you sooner.