What Will You Discover Today

Whether you are a new or regular visitor, this is your guide to all of the free family-friendly activities coming up at museums and collections of the Oxford University in the next few months. From planting to painting; the deep blue sea to the sky above us; storybook characters, historical figures and monsters—there is something for everyone! Learn together, have fun together, and become a family of museum explorers together....

Tales of Trees and Other Plants

Every day from l Mar.-31 Oct.

Hear Philip Pullman read from the His Dark Materials and members of the Botanic Garden staff talk about their favorite plants.

Age 17+ During opening hours. Subject to availability (受可用性限制)

Brilliant Medicine Trail (路線)

Every day from l Mar.-9 Oct.

Take our medicine trail around the Botanic Garden to find out how plants have helped to keep us healthy for thousands of years and continue to be essential to making medicines today.

Age 17+ During opening hours.

Saturday Backpacks

Every Saturday

If you want to visit the much-loved Pitt Rivers Museum, housing the finest collection of anthropological artifacts (人類學手工藝品) from all over the world, on a Saturday, keep a look out for our family backpacks full of activities!

Suitable for all! 10 a.m.-4 p.m. Subject to availability

Advance bookings are required.

Big Botanic Backpacks

Every day from 1 Mar.-31 Oct.

Borrow a backpack from our information desk and use the activities inside to help you explore our collection of plants and trees from all around the world! Suitable for all!

In 2011, Nancy Ballard went for a routine checkup that turned into something extraordinary. In fact, she was carrying a painting of a plant she'd done when she arrived at her doctor's San Francisco office. "It would be great if we had artwork like that for our chemotherapy (化療) rooms," the nurse said. Ballard asked to see one.

She was shocked by what she found. The walls were dull and bare, and the paint had fallen off. It was a room where sad patients are receiving their routine—patients limited themselves to chemo drips (點滴) for perhaps several hours, often with nothing to look at except those sad walls. Ballard didn't have cancer herself, but she had pity on the patients. "I couldn't imagine how anyone could even think about getting healthy in a room like that," she says. As it happens, Ballard's doctor, Stephen Hufford, was ill with cancer himself, so finding time to decorate the rooms was low on his to-do list. So Ballard made it her mission to brighten the place up.

She started by emailing 20 local designers. "I wrote, 'You don't know me. But my heart hurts after seeing these rooms.'" she said. She then asked whether they would donate their time and money to transform just one of Dr. Hufford's rooms each.

As it happens, six of them wrote back almost immediately. Six rooms got new paint, light fixtures, artwork, and furniture. Dr. Hufford was delighted. "All the patients feel the relief of the pain because of it," he said. He even noted that his own voice was different in the rooms and that he was better able to connect with his patients.

Ballard was so encouraged by the patients' reaction that she created a non-profit organization, Rooms That Rock Chemo, to raise money and decorate more spaces. Since then, she has worked on 20 projects, including one in Pennsylvania. "We were in Philadelphia for an opening ceremony, and a woman was there on her third battle with cancer," says Ballard. "When she saw what we'd done, she said, 'I'm gonna beat it this time. I thought I wasn't going to, but now I'm gonna beat it.'"

Older adults with a better sense of smell may live longer than those who have a poor sense of smell, a new study suggests. The study was a project of researchers in the United States that was continuing for over 13 years. They asked nearly 2300 men and women to recognize 12 common smells. All the subjects were from 71 to 82 years of age. The researchers gave the adults marks, from 0 to 12, based on how many smells they recognize correctly.

During the years of follow-up research, over 1200 of the adults died. When the study was started, none of the adults were weak. They could walk about half a kilometre, climb 10 steps and independently complete daily activities. In the latest findings, the researchers noted those with a weak nose were 30% more likely to die than people with a good sense of smell. The findings were reported last month in the scientific publication Annals of Internal Medicine.

Honglei Chen, a doctor with Michigan State University in East Lansing, Michigan, was the lead author of the report on the study. He said the connection between a poor sense of smell and an increased risk of dying was limited to adults who first reported good or excellent health. This suggests that a poor sense of smell is an early and sensitive sign of worsening health before it is recognizable in medical tests. With a poor sense of smell, people are more likely to die of brain and heart diseases, but not of cancer or breathing problems.

The results also suggest that a poor sense of smell may be an early warning of poor health in older age that goes beyond dementia (癡呆) or other neurodegenerative (神經變性的) diseases. These often signal the beginning of the weakening of the mind or body.

The world's first hydrogen-powered (氫動力的) trains have begun running in Germany. They began carrying passengers on Monday in Germany's northern Lower Saxony state. The new trains will run 100-kilometre trips and can travel up to 140 kilometers per hour.

A French railroad company called Alstom built the two trains. Teams in Germany and France worked together on the project, which was supported by the German government. The new train model, called the Coradia iLint, signals the beginning of efforts in Germany and other nations to move away from pollution-producing diesel (柴油) trains.

The Coradia iLint is designed to run on non-electrified train lines with low levels of noise. It uses a process that combines hydrogen with oxygen to produce electrical power. If the system produces more energy than the train needs at that time, it can store the extra energy in batteries. The only emissions (排放物) are water and steam.

Hydrogen-powered trains cost more than diesel trains to build. But Alstom officials say the operating costs are much lower. The company plans to provide another 14 Coradia iLint trains to Lower Saxony by 2021.

The head of railroad operations in the area, Carmen Schwabl, praised replacing diesel trains with hydrogen-powered trains. She said the move was an important first step in using clean-burning technologies to reach climate protection goals.

Alstom says several other European countries have also expressed interest in developing hydrogen train systems. France have already said it wants its first hydrogen train to be on the rails by 2022.

Do you think about overseas trip but worry that you might make a less-than-worthy choice because you can't afford to visit all the places on your wish list before you make your final decision? However, little money doesn't mean you have to stay at home.

Hug the simple joy with travel.  Or even climb to the top of a hill and watch the sun set over the ocean. The simple joy of being in a new place is just a matter of going some place new. No tour package required.

 People need fresh air, exercise, creative excitement, a new relationship and so on. All of these things are simple to get and most of them are free. For fresh air, go outside. For exercise, go out for a jog. For creative excitement, go somewhere new, such as a neighbourhood near your accommodation or just a local market. For a new relationship, make friends with the locals. And you can get a better understanding of the native civilization.

Go slowly. If you live in New York and want to take a 2-week vacation to Africa, it will be very tough to travel with low cost. Time is not money.  Instead of buying a plane ticket, take a train or bus, or just hop your bike and ride away from the town. The slower you travel, the less money you will spend.

Try to get your accommodation for free or next-to-nothing. Find kind souls around the world who agree to offer an extra bedroom, sofa, or a corner of the floor to travelers in exchange for the same kindness when they visit your town. This plan involves trading homes for an agreed-on amount of time.

A. Time can be free.

B. Keep your needs to the lowest degree.

C. Walk on the streets of a city and chat with a local.

D. Things like air and water are much cheaper once you get outside.

E. With a bit of creativity and some tricks, you can travel the world cheaply.

F. If you can do what needs to be done around the house, just stay inside for free.

G. It works best if your home is in a place someone wants to visit during your vacations.

15 years spent in the field of education has provided me with treasured moments. One of the most priceless happened when I was teaching second grade, 10 years ago.

In May of the fourth quarter, I decided to 1 something special for the children: A Mother's Day tea. We put our 2 together to come up with ideas of how to 3 our mothers. We decided to hold our tea the Friday before Mother's Day. Each child took home an invitation and I was 4 to see that every mother was planning to attend. I even invited my own mother.

Finally the 5 day arrived. At 1:45 that afternoon, each child lined up at our classroom waiting for the 6 of his or her mom. As it got closer to starting time, I looked around and my eyes quickly found Jimmy. His mother hadn't 7 and he was looking anxious.

I took my 8 by the hand and walked over to Jimmy. "Jimmy," I said. "I have a bit of problem here and I was wondering if you could 9. I'm going to be really busy. I was wondering if you could keep my mother company while I'm busy."

My mom and Jimmy sat at a table with two other mother-and-child 10. Jimmy served my mom her treats, presented her with the gifts I had made, and pulled out and pushed in her chair, just as we had practised the day before. 11 I looked over, my mom and Jimmy were in 12 conversation.

Now, 10 years later, I work with students of all ages, educating them about the environment. Last year, I was at a high school to 13 a senior class on a field trip, and there was Jimmy. When Jimmy made sure we were the last two, he said, "Remember our Mother's Day 14 we had in second grade? Thanks for all you did for me, and thank your mother, too. No one knew my mom didn't make it!" I 15 my work with a hug from a teenage boy who had probably stopped hugging teachers years ago.

Going to Disney World is on the top of many children's dream lists. So when Jermaine Bell quit his opportunity  (go) to the magical destination for his seventh birthday in order to put the money toward helping those  had to escape from their homes, we  (impress) with his generosity.

Many Americans were suffering from Hurricane Dorian, so the young boy asked his parents to use the money  (save) from his intended trip to buy food for those  need. He set up a stand (攤) on Highway 125,  (offer) chips and hot dogs to the people who were trying to reach safety. , he also hoped that their houses  (be) OK when they got back.

It is  (inspire) to see such generosity and concern for others in such a young child. And we only hope his birthday proves to be as special as he is. Indeed, most good deeds do not need a lot of time and preparations. One small act can make a big difference. If all of us can pay it forward, we can make great  (contribution) to the improvement of the world.

內容包括：1）拍攝短片的目的；

2）短片的內容；

3）舉辦時間和郵寄地址。

注意：1）詞數(shù)80左右；

2）可以適當增加細節(jié)，以使行文連貫；

3）開頭已為你寫好。

Dear Peter,

The Board Meeting (董事會) had come to an end. Bob started to stand up and pushed against the table, spilling (使溢出) his coffee over his papers. "How embarrassing. I am getting so awkward in my old age." Everyone had a good laugh, and soon we were all telling stories of our most embarrassing moments. It came around to Frank who sat quietly listening to the others. Someone said, "Come on, Frank. Tell us your most embarrassing moment."

Frank began, "I grew up in San Pedro. My dad was a fisherman, and he loved the sea. He had his own boat, but it was hard making a living on the sea. He worked hard and would stay out until he caught enough to feed his family. Not just enough for our family, but also for his mom and dad and the other kids that were still at home."

Frank's voice dropped a bit. "When the weather was bad, he would drive me to school. He would pull right up in front, and it seemed like everybody would be standing around and watching. Then he would lean over and give me a big kiss on the cheek and tell me to be a good boy. It was so embarrassing for me. Here I was twelve years old, and my dad would lean over and kiss me good-bye!"

He paused and then went on, "I remember the day I thought I was too old for a good-bye kiss. When we reached the school and came to a stop, he had his usual big smile. He started to lean toward me, but I put my hand up and said, 'No, Dad.' It was the first time I had ever talked to him that way, and he had this surprised look on his face.

I said, 'Dad, I'm too old for a good-bye kiss. I'm too old for any kind of kiss.' My dad looked at me for the longest time, and his eyes started to tear up. I had never seen him cry. He turned and looked out of the windshield (擋風玻璃). 'You are right.' he said. 'You are a big boy......a man. I won't kiss you anymore."

注意：1）所續(xù)寫短文的詞數(shù)應為150左右；

2）續(xù)寫部分分為兩段，每段的開頭語已為你寫好。

Paragraph 1:

Frank got a sad look on his face and tears welled up in his eyes when he spoke of what happened later that day.

Paragraph 2:

Tears were running down his cheeks as Frank told us the biggest regret in his life.