相关试卷

According to a study published this week, habitual napping (打盹) appears to be associated with a large brain volume in adults although experts stressed that further research was needed. It reduces the cost caused from the lost time and the fatigue-related errors. The work followed previous studies that suggested a brief doze could improve people's ability to learn.

Arianna Huffington, a co-founder of Huff Post and the founder and chief executive of Thrive Global, said, "Given the latest science on the effectiveness of napping and the clear link between employees feeling well rested and their productivity, it's long past time that businesses embrace short naps at work. "

Some businesses, including Thrive Global, have already introduced facilities for employees to take naps. Google introduced sleep pods as far back as 2014 and companies like Nike and Ben & Jerry's introduced nap rooms. The practice has even been adopted by the NHS, with a growing number of hospitals introducing sleep pods for staff in an effort to help them get more rest. Employees, it seems, are enthusiastic. Sean Greenwood, of Ben & Jerry's, said, "If a quick nap gets employees more involved and creative, we're happy to provide that for our team members. "

Unfortunately, the practice of napping still suffers from our collective concept that sleep equals weakness and laziness. However, the performance-enhancing benefits of naps have been no secret to many leaders throughout history. It also gives the higher-ups the chance to acknowledge the 24/7 culture and come up with top-down solutions that encourage workers to take care of themselves in and out of work. 

While sleep experts stressed that a daytime doze could be beneficial, they said it was crucial to get enough shut-eye at the end of a day. It is the late stage of sleep, sometimes missed by early risers, that strengthens the nerve circuits that make for learning and memory, allowing the brain to make and consolidate new neutral connections. Additionally, prioritizing sufficient sleep during the regular nightly sleep period is essential for overall well-being. 

Student newspapers across the US are facing a dark reality. As they are free to read, they are making less money than ever, meaning that such newspapers are finding it hard to survive. 

Most college papers have reduced their print editions (版本). Last year, the Daily Tar Heel printed a paper four days a week. This year, it prints a paper every three days. And while it used to produce around 22,000 newspapers each time, it only makes around: 10,000 now, said Erica Perel, general manager. 

Increasingly, student journalists have turned their focus to digital versions of their newspapers, and the new ways that social media allows them to tell stories. They've adapted their skills to mirror what's going on in the professional journalism world.

"I think we're adapting very well…in moving away from that print edition. But it's challenging. " said Jonathan Carter, a student at North Carolina State University. So what should student newspapers do? LoMonte said the best solution would be for universities to financially (财经的) support student journalism. University leaders like to talk about producing responsible students, he said, and journalism is a part of that.

In the meantime, campus newspapers are figuring out their financial models as they go along. Bruce dePyssler, adviser to North Carolina Central University's Campus Echo Newspaper, said his students post one story a day online. The best stories are put together for a once-a-semester print edition.

And even if student journalists don't go into media jobs, Perel said, "They've still had a great education. " "The number one thing that we teach is critical thinking (批判思考) and how to be a lifelong learner, " she said, "The ones who are living through this transition (过渡) are the ones that are going to be a lot stronger for it in the end. "

Animals were the real pioneers of space flight. Let us learn about some animals that have been to space. 

●A. Fruit flies

On February 20,1947, the United States sent some fruit flies into space to study the impact that cosmic radiation (宇宙辐射) might potentially have on astronauts in the future. They chose flies because they are genetically similar to humans. 

When they returned to Earth, the scientists found the flies alive, with no evidence of the effects of radiation. 

●B. Mice

Mice have long been used to find out more about how space travel will affect the human body. In fact, NASA has recently published a study of mice housed at the International Space Station. It shows that mice quickly adapt to microgravity (微重力) conditions. 

The very first mouse went into space in 1950, reaching an altitude of 137km. However, unlike the fruit flies, the mouse died when the rocket broke into parts due to a parachute (降落伞) failure. 

●C. Dogs

Laika, a Russian homeless dog, went to space on November 3, 1957. She was picked up on the streets and was thought suitable because she had a gentle temperament (性情) and behaved well. The scientists also believed a homeless dog would be better at dealing with difficult conditions like microgravity than a pet dog. 

Laika is famous for being the first animal to orbit (环绕……运行) the Earth. However, she never returned. 

●D. Spiders

In 1973, two garden spiders called Anita and Arabella were used in an experiment to see if they could still build webs in space. 

Both spiders managed to build webs, even though the webs were slightly finer than on Earth. The study showed a great deal about the effects of microgravity on motor response (运动反应). 

Daniel got a job as a delivery man to work his way through college. His parents couldn't save up all the money he needed to get into law school, so since he was 15, he would take summer jobs and find some other jobs between studies to earn extra cash.

The boy was determined and every day he would wake up at 5 a.m., summer or winter, riding on his old bike to deliver parcels. It wasn't an easy job, especially during winter. Besides that, his old bike was slow, making things harder. But that wasn't a problem for Daniel.

Daniel's schedule was always the same every day and people in the neighborhood already knew him. He called them by their names, and they would often wave and greet him as he passed.

It was a normal day and Daniel was delivering parcels as usual. "Morning, Daniel! Check out my brand-new mountain bike!" called out a man whose home Daniel visited frequently. "Morning, Mr. Warren! That's a really fancy bike!" Daniel screamed back at him as he rode towards his first delivery. He couldn't help imagining what it would feel like to own a bike like the one Mr. Warren had just shown him. "My deliveries would double with that" he thought longingly.

Suddenly, Daniel lost balance and fell on the road. He got up and leaned the bike against the wall to see what had happened. He found a nail stuck in the back tire (轮胎) and he unluckily had a flat tire.

As he turned around and tried to think of what to do, he saw something unusual. A strange man Daniel had never seen before furtively (鬼鬼祟祟地) looked around and placed a package under his jacket. "Hey!" Daniel shouted at the man. "Hey there! What are you doing? That's not yours!" The man heard Daniel and started to run as fast as he could.

注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右：2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

假定你是某国际学校的学生会主席李华。随着手机越来越智能，学生们所受的影响也越 来越大。请你围绕"合理使用手机"这个主题，根据下面的提示，用英语给你校学生写一封倡议书。内容包括：1.智能手机给学生带来的不良影响；2.学生应如何减少智能手机的影响；3.发出倡议。

注意：1.词数不少于80;2. 内容充实，行文连贯；3. 开头和结尾已给出，不计入总词数。

Dear fellow students,

Li Hua

Machines work well at a constant speed —and the faster the better.Whether they are spinning cotton dealing with numbers,regular,repetitive actions are what they excel at.

Increasingly,our world is being designed by machines and for machines.We adapt to machines and hold ourselves to their standards:People (judge)by the speed at which they respond, not the quality of their response."Always on"becomes something to take pride .When I ask people they are doing,they almost always answer "busy".Ticking things off the "to do"list becomesmeans of defining ourselves. (occupy)if not with work then with family or our social networks,most of us feel exhausted.

A few years ago,I became very interested in what it meant (pause).I started to notice where pauses show up in my own work and life.For example,I realized when I was writing,a short walk was a(n) (effective)way to focus than concentrating harder.The small walk acted as a pause, (enable)me to rest,reflect or refresh,appreciate and break a block in my (creative).I realized that pause is not nothing!

A minute eating ice-cream is not the same as a minute doing push-ups.Even time itself isn't a uniform raw material —as the physics of Einstein shows.

The last attempt of Ken Campbell to run could trace back to high school.When his wife,Susan, injured her foot,she needed 1 to rejoin her running group,so Campbell went along to keep her company in the2 ."We were just walking at the beginning,"he says,"I was heavy,and weighed over 90kg."But as the weeks and months passed,the weight fell away,Susan recovered and Campbell's 3 grew.At the age of 63,he ran 50km,and at 70,he 4 a 100km ultra marathon.

So how does someone with no5 experience of running become an ultra distance runner in his 60s and 70s?Susan had run marathons before her 6 ,but for Campbell,the turning point came when Susan's Fleet Feet running group started the trails in the Sierra Nevada foothills near their home.

Campbell went out to visit Susan's group,and "the trails were a terrible 7 .It had been raining,and I was slipping,sliding and 8 .But I thought,well,I like this a lot."What he liked above all was the feeling of "being wrapped by the trail,being 9 by the closeness of the vegetation(植被)and the nearness of the river".

Running the 100km ultra marathon took Campbell 16 hours.When Campbell 10 the finish line at 3 am,Susan handed him a 100km sticker to11 on the back of his truck.He already had a 50km one on there."It is a public12 that you are part of this community,"he says. "Wherever we park,I see a line of vehicles with their various stickers and I feel that we are a tribe (部落). "

Campbell suffered from arthritis(关节炎)before he started running,and was "a(n)13 for knee replacement",but for now,he no longer needs a surgery.It can 14 the running —but the "sense of well-being and accomplishment will carry me on forever",he says,"If I can't run,I will 15 . "

Teenagers are spending more money than ever.Just last year,

31.6 million teens spent 155 billion,according to the North-brook,Illinois-based market research group Teenage Research Unlimited. 

Shocked at how much money kids spend?Maybe you haven't checked the price tags lately on some of the younger generation's must-haves.To some,such luxurious spending on the changeable young might seem unbearable. .Timothy Marshall,an associate professor of developmental psychology at Christopher Newport University in Virginia,analyzed the widespread phenomenon after some research.

One factor is surely the sheer power of marketing through mass media.Teenagers are exposed to an estimated 3,000 advertisements each day.Combine the ads with programming itself,like the fashion-,music-and skin-filled shows on MTV,and you've got a large number of messages telling kids what they should own if they want to fit in.

Many working parents probably compensate by spending money on their kids. But also,spending money is often more convenient in our fast-paced society than going to baseball games or other activities.

For many families,of course,keeping up with their children' costly demands for designer clothing,CDs,and concert tickets is a financial impossibility.Marshall says,even for those families who can afford such luxurious spending,striking a compromise between spoiling the kids and denying them is tricky,but possible.

Instead of just giving children the toys or clothing they desire,give them an allowance and show them how they can save up for whatever they want.And don't be afraid to just say no.Most of the parents are working nine-to-five or even working overtime to make ends meet. Therefore,shoulder the responsibility of instructing the kids to tell right from wrong,and developing healthy habits of spending money is of great importance. 

A.Why do some parents give in?

B.How did they persuade parents to pay?

C.Teaching kids how to budget and save is key.

D.Kids shouldn't always take money for granted.

E.Much of that money,of course,comes from parents.

F.We need to step up and tell kids where the boundaries are.

G.There is probably some guilt involved in not spending enough time at home.

Carried by the wind,dust particles( 微 粒 )from places such as the Sahara Desert can float halfway around the world before settling to the ground.As the plastics abandoned by humans break down into tiny pieces in the environment,they,too,travel through the atmosphere.Now scientists are a step closer to understanding how these microplastics travel in the globe —both locally and on long-distance flights.

Researchers spent more than a year collecting microplastics from 11 national parks and wilderness areas in the western U.S.They examined the particles that settled on dry days and those that fell along with rain or snow.In addition to making clear how microplastics move around,the results,published on Thursday in Science,reveal the seriousness of the problem:more than 1 million kilograms of microplastics —the weight of 120 million to 300 million plastic water bottles —fall on protected lands in the country's western region each year.

The new findings add to scientists' concern over microplastic pollution's potential impacts on the environment and human health."We're not supposed to breathe in this material,"says Steve Allen,a microplastics researcher at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland,who was not involved in the new study.Plastics in the environment "carry all sorts of pesticides (农药),heavy metals and all the other chemicals that we ve made over time,"he adds."They're going to carry them directly into our lungs."

Since their discovery in oceans in the 1970s,microplastics —which can be as large as a grain of rice or smaller than a particle of dust —have been found nearly everywhere researchers have looked:in cities,in Arctic snow,on remote mountaintops.Their presence in areas distant from the place where human live has pointed to them being carried by winds.

In department stores and closets all over the world,they are waiting.Their outward appearance seems rather appealing because they come in a variety of styles,patterns,materials,and colors.But they are eventually the biggest deception(欺骗)that exists in the fashion industry today.What are they?They are high heels —a woman's worst enemy (whether she knows it or not).High heel shoes are the downfall of modern society.Fashion myths have led women to believe that they are more beautiful or stylish for wearing heels,but in reality,heels succeed in creating short as well as long term troubles.Women should fight the high heel industry by refusing to use or purchase them in order to save the world from unnecessary physical and psychological suffering.

For the sake of fairness,it must be noted that there is a positive side to high heels.First,heels are excellent for aerating lawns(草坪通气).Anyone who has ever worn heels on grass knows what I am talking about.A simple trip around the yard in a pair of those babies gets rid of all the need to call for a lawn care specialist,and provides the perfect-sized holes to give any lawn oxygen without all those messy blocks of dirt lying around.Second,heels are quite functional for defending against potential enemies,who can easily be scared away by threatening them with a pair of these sharp, deadly fashion items.

Regardless of such practical uses for heels,the fact remains that wearing high heels is harmful to one's physical health.Talk to any podiatrist(足病医生),and you will hear that the majority of their business comes from high-heel-wearing women.High heels are known to cause problems such as deformed feet and torn toenails.The risk of severe back problems and twisted or broken ankles is three times higher for a high heel wearer than for a flat shoe wearer.Wearing heels also creates the threat of getting a heel caught in a narrow sidewalk gap and being thrown to the ground —possibly breaking a nose,back,or neck.And of course,after wearing heels for a day,any woman knows she can look forward to a night of pain as she tries to comfort her aching feet.

It's perhaps the world's most famous underwater attraction that remained in film and in legend: the Titanic.But now experts say the ocean liner,once a wonder of the high seas,is falling to pieces.

Capt.Alfred McLaren,the scientist who in July led the most recent expedition to the ship's underwater grave,said his team saw clear signs of the accelerating damage of the wreck (残骸).

There was damage likely caused by rust and sea life,and the captain's cabin had collapsed.

"I was absolutely astonished,"McLaren said.

Worse still,the fallen mast (桅杆)that crushed the ship's deck is believed by many to be the result of an unapproved salvage(打捞)operation."It was almost depressing to see how quickly she was getting worse,"McLaren says."I would be really surprised if there's very much standing up from the bottom,two decades from now."

Ed Kamuda,who runs the Titanic Historical Society in Springfield,Mass.,says adventure tourists —who pay $36,000 each to visit the wreck—are also contributing to the destruction of it.

"This is something I expected.I just didn't expect it to happen so quickly,"Kamuda said. "People are going down just as an ego trip to say I was there.'All this takes a fare on the ship."

The Titanic has sat at the bottom of the Atlantic since it sank after hitting an iceberg on its maiden voyage on April 14,1912.More than 1,500 people died that night.The ship came to rest at the bottom of the freezing North Atlantic,more than 2 miles beneath the waves.The wreck was discovered in 1985,and since then it has been repeatedly visited by treasure hunters.

But still some scientists say those divers,and other thrill seekers are not necessarily to blame for the Titanic's current problems.

Capt.Craig McLean of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration went on an expedition to the Titanic in June as part of a government study that is monitoring the condition of the ship.He says it's unclear what part of the damage is from Mother Nature and which is from human nature.

"It's too early and there isn't enough evidence to put our fingers on anything,"McLean said.

Regardless,most agree there's little that can be done for this most famous of wrecks.And soon, the mighty Titanic could well be lost again.

BEST BODY FITNESS

About us

You don't want just a gym membership.You want a membership that means something.And that means you need support,expert help and a community.

Best Body Finess isn't just a gym:it's full-service fitness membership made for you.Here's how it works:

STEP ONE:Your assessment

We begin with an assessment session.This is a chance for you to see what we do at Best Body.Our assessment plans are no-cost and no-risk.We'll also make a training plan specifically for you.

STEP TWO:Your training

When you decide to become a Best Body member,we show you what to do,how to do it and why you are doing it.After a few sessions with an expert private trainer you will feel comfortable working out on your own.

STEP THREE:Your membership

Membership works on a month-to-month basis.There are no sign-up fees and no cancellation fees.Start and stop whenever you want.And the best part?Our fees are the most competitive in the whole downtown area.

STEP FOUR:Your community

At Best Body Fitness,we see everyone as part of a big team.And when you work with a team, you can do great things.Join any of our specialized classes,led by expert trainers.Come to our nutrition classes.Participate in our regular social events.Everything is included in your fee.

Finally,we want to share with you some reasons why our members say that they have chosen us over any other fitness centre in the city.

It's so EASY

Easy to start,stop,cancel or refund（退款) a membership.

Easy to access —we're open 24/7,we never close.

Easy results —our trainers and equipment give you success,fast.

Come and visit us for a personal tour!

阅读下面材料，根据其内容和所给段落开头语续写两段，使之构成一篇完整的短文。

Sam was a junior high school student. He lived in a community in Charlotte and usually had little exposure to country life. So much of what he knew about plants came from text-books. Sam was a kind-hearted person. He longed for a chance to explore nature and he wanted to do his part to beautify the world.

Finally, the opportunity came. On Arbor Day (植树节), his class organized a trip to a local village to plant trees. Sam was excited about it and couldn't wait to tell his mom the good news. So the next day, Sam and his mom went to buy some tools for planting trees, including a shovel (铲), a bucket, gloves and so on.

On the day of the event, Sam and his classmates arrived early at the starting point. It was a beautiful day and everyone looked particularly happy. With the tools in hand, Sam got into the bus with everyone else and headed off to their destination.

As soon as they reached the village, all the students were divided into three teams by their teacher. One team was responsible for planting the trees, one team for shoveling the soil and one team for watering the trees. At the teacher's command, everyone started to do their job.

However, it was the first time that many of the students had taken part in planting trees, so they had no idea about how to start. Of course, Sam was one of them. Fortunately, their teacher was a middle-aged man from the countryside who had some knowledge of planting trees. In order to set an example to the students, the teacher started to plant trees himself. After watching the teacher plant the trees, everyone also became busy. Before long, they planted hundreds of trees. Sam watched very carefully, not wanting to miss any of the details. Finally, Sam learned how to plant trees by himself and felt happy. 

注意：1. 续写词数应为 150 左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。

A few days later, a storm damaged some young trees in the community. 

Then neighbors praised Sam for what he had done.

注意：1. 词数80左右；2. 短文题目已为你写好；3. 请在相应位置作答。

学生周末用餐调查结果

During China's dynastic period, emperors planned the city of Beijing  arranged the residential areas according to social classes. The term "hutong", originally (original) meaning "water well" in Mongolian, appeared first during the Yuan Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, the center was the Forbidden City, surrounded (surround) in concentric (同心的) circles by the Inner City and Outer City. Citizens of higher social classes were permitted (permit) to live closer to the center of the circles. The large siheyuan of these high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen often   (feature) beautifully carved and painted roof beams and pillars (柱子). The hutongs they formed were orderly, lined by (space) homes and walled gardens. Farther from the center lived the commoners and laborers. Their siheyuan were far smaller in scale and  (simple) in design and decoration, and the hutongs were narrower.

Hutongs represent an important cultural element of the city of Beijing. Thanks to Beijing's long history  capital of China, almost every hutong has its stories, and some are even associated with historic  (event). In contrast to the court life and upper-class culture represented by the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven, the hutongs reflect  culture of grassroots Beijingers. 

At Christmas time, I often reflect upon one particular evening in the early 1960s. Back then, we decided to go carolling (唱圣诞颂歌) to spread the Christmas spirit which might 1 someone else's life. So we quickly 2 members, for whom the only 3 requirement was warmth of spirit.

Soon we discovered that carolling brought various 4 . Sometimes we were greeted with open doors and open hearts, while other times, folks remained in the safety and coziness of their homes, watching 5  through their windows.

One stop on our journey particularly 6  our memory. That night, after a couple of songs, one door swung open. A gentleman, gray-haired, tenderly 7 we go upstairs to sing for his bedridden wife. He added 8 , "She loves music and used to be an opera singer."

We stepped briskly upward into the couple's 9 apartment. Books, records, and antique furniture whispered stories to us. I reminded myself not to stare 10 invading their privacy.

Sitting beside his wife, the gentleman gave us a 11 . Then our voices rose and lingered around their small home. Had our voices been given extra 12 and beauty for this occasion? Perhaps they had.

A smile flickered on the woman's 13 , yet beautiful face. She snuggled her head against her husband's shoulder and both of them heartily enjoyed our performance. Witnessing such a heartwarming scene, we felt it was a holy night, for we were in the 14 of love that was gentle and mild.

At that moment, we found, and maybe even 15 , the Christmas spirit.

With gas prices rising and airport security lines snaking longer than ever, why not book your next domestic vacation on a train? Compared to other alternatives, it's comfortable and relaxing. Here is some advice on how to make a trip by rail as pleasant as possible. 

Plan ahead. Most long-distance trains, especially the sleeping car accommodations, sell out very quickly.  But no matter when you travel, it's a good idea to make your reservations at least 90 days in advance. 

Use a travel agent. Consider turning your travel plan over to a travel agent and letting him double-check all the details, make suggestions, and then handle the actual reservations. A good one can sometimes find you discounted tickets.   Then you won't have to walk through several cars on a moving train three times a day for your meals. 

Bring a blanket. When you're riding on trains, you won't be provided with a blanket for free, even if your trip is an overnight one.  In the summer in particular, the air conditioning can make them quite cold. 

Arrive early. Most trains operate just once a day and some run only three times a week, so missing yours can be a disaster.  Note: The times listed on the schedules are departure times, not arrival times. 

Have fun.  Train trips aren't for impatient types.  Read a book, knit, do a crossword puzzle, or simply watch the world unfold outside the window. To calculate your speed as you do, divide 3,600 (the number of seconds in an hour) by the number of seconds it takes you to travel one mile (the distance between two mileposts). If it takes the train 53 seconds to travel one mile, you're going 67.92 mph. 

A. Train trips aren't for impatient types. 

B. You'll have views from both sides of the train. 

C. The temperature on rail cars is often hard to control. 

D. That's particularly true during busy summer months. 

E. You might have to wait longer than 24 hours to catch the next one. 

F. Chances are the cost will be a lot less than the cost of one bedroom. 

G. He may also book you in a sleeping car that's right next to the diner. 

The scientists' job is to figure out how the world works, to "torture (拷问)" Nature to reveal her secrets, as the 17th century philosopher Francis Bacon described it. But who are these people in the lab coats (or sports jackets, or T-shirts and jeans) and how do they work? It turns out that there is a good deal of mystery surrounding the mystery-solvers.

"One of the greatest mysteries is the question of what it is about human beings—brains, education, culture etc.—that makes them capable of doing science at all," said Colin Allen, a cognitive scientist at Indiana University.

Two vital ingredients seem to be necessary to make a scientist: the curiosity to seek out mysteries and the creativity to solve them. "Scientists exhibit a heightened level of curiosity." reads a 2007 report on scientific creativity. "They go further and deeper into basic questions showing a passion for knowledge for its own sake. "Max Planck, one of the fathers of quantum physics, once said, the scientist "must have a vivid and intuitive imagination, for new ideas are not generated by deduction (推论), but by an artistically creative imagination."

But others disagree with this universal scientific mind. They believe that scientists have special abilities that set them apart. Discovering these abilities may be hard, Allen thinks, as many scientists will be reluctant to reveal them and would prefer to preserve the mystery of creativity, fearing that if it became an object of study it would lose its magic. 

But for Allen, this is all part of a bigger question of what lies behind anyone's behavior. "We are only just beginning to understand how the characteristics of organisms, including ourselves, aren't the fixed products of either genes or of environment/culture, but each of us is the product of a continual interactive process in which we help build the environments that in turn shape us," he said.

"As long as our best technology for seeing inside the brain requires subjects to lie nearly motionless while surrounded by a giant magnet, we're only going to make little progress on these questions," Allen said.

Gone are the days when humans covered themselves with blankets to keep warm. It's now the time to put glaciers (冰川) under blankets to keep them cool because at the rate climate is changing, this seems like a good idea to keep them from melting (融化).

A ski resort (滑雪胜地) in the Swiss Alps, Switzerland uses blankets to protect the glacier from the warm climate. Gian Darms, who handles snow conditions at the ski resort told about this unique procedure and said, "We lay the fleece (羊毛) over the glacier like a natural protective shield." The blankets are being used to cover the top of the 10,623-foot Mount Titlis whose glacier has already melted in the last few decades and it is expected to disappear completely in the next 50 years due to global warming.

To diminish the effect of climate change, resort employees have taken it upon themselves to protect the glacier from the heat and for this process, they spend about five to six weeks every summer covering parts of the glacier with protective polyester fleece. This helps to reflect the sun's energy back into the atmosphere and prevent the glacier from melting, while also preserving the already fallen snow on the glacier in the previous winter season. After the season passes, the employees remove the coating and use the collected snow to fill in any gaps in the glacier's surface.

This practice has been going on for a while and the amount of the glaciers covered has increased to almost 100,000 square meters now. "We've been covering more and more glaciers in the last few years. Almost 30,000 square meters more this year alone. We will have to cover more glaciers in reaction to the climate change," said Darms.

The ski resort's actions show the intense effect of climate change on glaciers which have been melting at rapid rates in the past few years. Many different resorts have also started covering their glaciers because if there are no more glaciers, then there is no more business for these ski resorts.

Sitting in the garden for my friend's birthday. I felt a buzz in my pocket. My heart raced when I saw the email sender's name. The email started off: "Dear Mr Green, thank you for your interest" and "the review process took longer than expected." It ended with "We are sorry to inform you …" and my vision blurred. The position—measuring soil quality in the Sahara Desert as part of an undergraduate research programme—had felt like the answer I had spent years looking for.

I had put so much time and emotional energy into applying, and I thought the rejection meant the end of the road for my science career.

So I was shocked when, not long after the email, Professor Mary Devon, who was running the programme, invited me to observe the work being done in her lab. I jumped at the chance, and a few weeks later I was equally shocked—and overjoyed—when she invited me to talk with her about potential projects I could pursue in her lab. What she proposed didn't seem as exciting as the original project I had applied to, but I was going to give it my all.

I found myself working with a robotics professor on techniques for collecting data from the desert remotely. That project, which I could complete from my sofa instead of in the burning heat of the desert, not only survived the lockdown but worked where traditional methods didn't. In the end, I had a new scientific interest to pursue.

When I applied to graduate school, I found three programmes promising to allow me to follow my desired research direction. And I applied with the same anxious excitement as before. When I was rejected from one that had seemed like a perfect fit, it was undoubtedly difficult. But this time I had the perspective to keep it from sending me into panic. It helped that in the end I was accepted into one of the other programmes I was also excited about.

Rather than setting plans in stone, I've learned that sometimes I need to take the opportunities that are offered, even if they don't sound perfect at the time, and make the most of them.