Family-Friendly Events in January
ZooLights: Glow Wild Jan. 1-19
The Phoenix Zoo's yearly holiday light show is on until Jan. 19, allowing families one or more opportunities to enjoy the city's zoo, with millions of lights giving an added dimension to the festivities.
Glow Wild, 455 N. Galvin Pkwy. , Phoenix, phoenixzoo. org, $11. 95 members, $13. 95 general admission.
Downtown Mesa Festival of the Arts Jan. 4-18
The Downtown Mesa Festival of the Arts features the work of established and emerging artists, including those who create woodwork, metal crafts, food items, art, photography and gifts.
On Macdonald, off of Main Street in Downtown Mesa, dtmesafest. com, free admission.
Family Fun Winterfest Jan. 4
OdySea Aquarium in the Desert is hosting the third annual Family Fun Winterfest in its Desert Courtyard, featuring real snow for the kids to play in. This free event features everything from bounce houses to rides, games, snowflake crafts and face painting to go with various stands set up by local sellers, with food and other offerings for sale at the event. 9500 E. Via de Ventura, Scottsdale, odyseainthedesert. com, free.
Youth Fine Arts Course Jan. 18-Mar. 7
Mesa Arts Center is hosting an eight-week youth arts course on Saturdays to teach artistic skills and knowledge through fun and challenging art classes in a wide variety of art materials, including painting, drawing, mixed media and sculpture, ensuring mentally stimulating sessions for all.
Mesa Art Center, 1 E. Main St, Mesa, mesaartscenter. com, $93.
As a child, I was proud of my southern origin. My own voice reflected my family's past and present-part northern Mississippi, part Tennessee, all southern. There was no sound I loved more than my grandmother's accent: thick, sweet, warm.
While growing up, I began to realize outside of our region, southerners were often dismissed as uncultured and ignorant. I was ready to leave behind my tiny town in West Tennessee, starting a new life and jumping at big chances in some far-off cities. In that embarrassing space between "teen" and "adult", my accent was a symbol of everything I thought I hated about my life in the rural South. I feared it would disqualify me from being a noted magazine writer. I would have to talk less "country". So I killed a piece of myself. I'm ashamed of it, but I'm more ashamed that I tried to kill that part of someone else-change Emily's accent.
I met Emily in college. She was determined to work for the student newspaper, which was where I spent most of my waking hours, and we became friends. She, unlike me, accepted her roots. Early in our friendship, her mother asked where I was from, assuming it was somewhere up north. Then I felt my efforts paid off and even wanted to ignore the mistake.
Emily is two years younger and she cared about my opinion. I advised her to be more like me and hide her signature Manchester accent. I stressed that throughout our college years, often by making fun of her vowel (元音) sounds. I told myself I was helping her achieve her dream of working as a reporter. Now, I see that it was actually about justifying my hiding part of myself.
Grandma Carolyn used to tell me, "Girl, don't forget where you come from." Now I truly understand that. Many things have faded from memory, but this sticks in my mind with uncomfortable clarity. Now that I am grown and have left the South, it's important to me.
Human responses to moral dilemmas (两难选择) can be influenced by statements written by the artificial intelligence chatbot ChatGPT, according to a study published in Scientific Reports. The findings indicate that users may underestimate the extent to which their own moral judgments can be influenced by the chatbot.
Sebastian Krigel and colleagues asked ChatGPT multiple times whether it is right to sacrifice (牺牲) the life of one person in order to save the lives of five others. They found that ChatGPT wrote random statements arguing both for and against sacrificing one life, indicating that it is not biased towards a certain moral stance (立场).
The authors then presented 767 U. S. participants, who were on average 39 years old, with a dilemma whether to sacrifice one person's life to save five others. Before answering, participants read a statement provided by ChatGPT arguing either for or against sacrificing one life to save five. Statements were from either a moral advisor or ChatGPT. After answering, participants were asked whether the statement they read influenced their answers.
Eighty percent of participants reported that their answers were not influenced by the statements they read. However, the authors found that the answers participants believed they would have provided without reading the statements were still more likely to agree with the moral stance of the statement they did read than with the opposite stance. This indicates that participants may have underestimated the influence of ChatGPT's statements on their own moral judgments.
The authors suggest that the potential for chatbots to influence human moral judgments highlights the need for education to help humans better understand artificial intelligence. They propose that future research should design chatbots that either decline to answer questions requiring a moral judgment or answer these questions by providing multiple arguments and warnings.
Is there a single word that motivates us more than "weekend"? It's like the promise of a sweet holiday following what seems like long-time exhaustion. It's the spring in our step that gets bouncier with each passing day — until by Friday, we're practically bumping our heads against the ceiling.
The trouble is that the weekend is a rip-off. You think you're getting 48 hours of unconditional downtime, but reality takes a discount. In fact, it takes most of Sunday. That's when anxiety comes creeping in and another countdown begins: 12 hours until Monday. Sure, the weekend is free time. But the mounting stress of an incoming Monday can ease any joy you might get from a Sunday evening.
That feeling is so common among the Monday-to-Friday crowd that there's even more than one name for it: the Sunday Scaries, or Sunday Fear Syndrome. Going from a countdown to the weekend to a countdown to Monday can be difficult. Even monster. com — a website that specializes in binding humans to the Monday-to-Friday cycle — admits it's a problem. In a survey, Monster found that 76% of Americans have "really had" Sunday night blues.
For most people, Sunday is no holiday at all. It may all come down to the same problem: We can't stop thinking about tomorrow. Even worse, we may develop some downright unhealthy coping strategies for that transition from weekends to Monday. Some might resists — staying up late, milking every minute of a fleeting Sunday in the form of mind-numbing distractions.
But why should Monday cast such a long and fearful shadow on our lives? Maybe it's because the counter is reset and the weekend, or happiness, seems at furthest point. If, like most of us, you have a tolerable job, but don't much like the whole idea of working, there are plenty of ways to make Mondays a little less stressful. Most importantly, don't leave any unsettled Friday business hanging over the weekend. So, clear the decks and tie up loose ends.
There are hundreds of genres (流派) of music, so while some might like one kind, others might like something completely different. Why do people like different kinds of music?
At the same time, music can also help us feel like part of a group or a culture, especially one that shares an interest in a certain kind of music.
Music can also be nostalgic, that is, it creates a kind of longing for the past. Musicians leave behind a footprint with their music. Even long after the musicians are gone, people still find something in the musicians' recordings that they can enjoy.
We may also find that the music we like is strongly tied to our memory. Maybe there was a song that someone sang to us when we were little that brings up good memories.
When we listen to music that we like, a chemical called dopamine is sometimes released in the brain, which can make us feel good. There are some algorithms (算法) today that can help pick up on the kind of music we like. When we are streaming music, some programs will let us like or dislike songs.
People's taste in music can remain the same in their whole life or it can change many times. But the truth is, we don't know all the exact answers to why people like different kinds of music — or sports, or food, or colors. We are all different people who like different things.
A. It's music to our ears.
B. Music can be a part of our identity.
C. It becomes a mirror that we are holding up.
D. They leave a permanent mark in people's lives.
E. Therefore, we might want to listen to a song on repeat.
F. Other times, we might find music can bring up sad memories.
G. There are lots of different factors that can influence our preferences.
Walking alone on a remote beach in southwest Florida, I was surprised to hear splashes coming from the water. As I walked in the 1 of the sounds, I saw a manatee(海牛) show its head out of the water, 2 a great snuffling(带鼻音的) breath. It seemed that it was in 3 and trying to get out of it.
I'd never seen a 4 like this before. I wanted to 5 , but there was no one else on the beach. So I went into the shallow water and went toward the animal. I came 6 enough to make out the manatee. Then, a second manatee, much smaller, appeared beside it. 7 , the manatees were also moving toward me. Soon I was 8 by several manatees. I could clearly see the larger manatee 9 the little one up with her flipper(鳍状肢) and pushed it to the 10 beside me.
As the two slipped underwater, two other manatees moved up from behind, one on either side, 11 gently against my body as they swam past. They circled and12 the action, this time 13 by the mother and her baby. I held my hand out touching their back as they passed me. Since they obviously enjoyed touching me, I began 14 each of them as they swam by.
I stood there enjoying the scene, 15 to move, until finally the rising tide forced me back to the shore. Later I knew exactly what took place that morning. The manatees 16 me in their celebration of a birth and I was welcome to meet the 17 member of their family.
During that unexpected scene, I felt more involved in the rhythms of 18 on our earth than ever. Each year, I head for that 19 for a quiet little birthday picnic on the shore. After all, you never know who might 20 up for your party.
Porcelain, also named china, is made by heating raw materials, often a mix between china stone and kaolin clay, in a kiln (窑) at a temperature as high as 1, 200 degree Celsius, which is key making porcelain. (go)through the fire of reinvention at a high temperature gives porcelain with greater (strong), more translucence (半透明) and a feast of colors.
Blue porcelain produced in Longquan, Zhejiang province, a technique which (pass) down at least 1, 600 years ago, is a typical example of craftsmen's pursuit of the perfect green light. And takes 72 steps to produce Longquan celadon's jade-like green. Plum green and light green are two colors of the best quality.
Porcelain has also been a carrier for cultural exchanges. Along with China's silk and tea, porcelain was one of the first goods (receive) worldwide trade. As it (gradual) travelled around the globe through the ancient Maritime Silk Road, porcelain enjoyed great popularity among royal families and upper classes in Europe, were attracted by these beautiful containers they named after China, a product that could be produced only in the far East.
Porcelain began as a (practice) container and evolved into pieces of art. Even when shattered into pieces and buried deep in mud, cultural values (attach) to porcelain would never disappear.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改：在错的词下画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：1. 每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;2. 只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。
Should the listening test in an English test be kept and canceled? Some students think that the listening test should not canceled. They insist listening is one of the four basic skill in language learning. Therefore, we cannot ignore it. Besides, listening is an important channel for us to getting information. It should be strengthened today as an international cooperation is becoming more frequently. But the others disagree. They think the listening test is fair to the students in the areas that radio signals cannot be picked up effectively. And for certain reasons, there was a big difference in teachers and equipment among the countryside and the city.
