My husband and I just spent a week in Paris.【小题1】So the first thing we did was rent a fantastically expensive sixth-floor apartment the size of a cupboard. It was so tiny that we had to leave our suitcases in the hallway.

The place wasn’t entirely authentic, though. Unlike a normal Parisian apartment, the plumbing (水管) worked. 【小题2】Our building even had a tiny lift with a female voice that said, “Ouverture des portes,” in perfect French. That is the only French phrase I mastered, and it’s a shame I don’t have much use for it.

Parisians are different from you and me. They never look lazy or untidy. As someone noted in this paper a couple of weeks ago, they eat great food and never gain weight. 【小题3】 French strawberries do not taste like cardboard. Instead, they explode in your mouth like little flavor bombs.

【小题4】 On our first morning in Paris, I went around the corner to the food market to pick up some groceries. I bought a handful of perfectly ripe small strawberries and a little sweet melon. My husband and I agreed they were the best fruit we had ever eaten. But they cost $18!

In France, quality of life is much more important than efficiency.

You can tell this by cafés life. French cafés are always crowded.【小题5】When do these people work? The French take their 35-hour workweek seriously — so seriously that some labor unions recently struck a deal with a group of companies limiting the number of hours that independent contractors can be on call.

City parks have long been a place for urban residents to get a small amount of green. As cities increasingly feel the impacts of rising seas and temperatures, people are rethinking the roles of urban parks.

All of the dark-gray asphalt (沥青) in cities collect heat. Dallas is one of the country’s fastest-warming cities thanks in part to its extensive impervious (不透水的) surfaces, but with a new $312 million bond package, the city is hoping to change that. Using satellite data, the city is able to see what neighborhoods most need the cooling effect of green spaces.

Cities are increasingly flooding and city planners think parks can help with this issue too. A report published in February by The Nature Conservancy looked at the best ways to deal with flooding in Houston, a city with many neighborhoods built on floodplains and regularly flooded by rising waters. Offering affected homeowners buyouts and transforming homes into green spaces would save more money than installing infrastructure (基础设施) like pipes, they found.

Brendan Shane, a climate program director, says parks can create opportunities for people to exercise and play, in addition to cooling neighborhoods and absorbing floodwater. “The stronger the bonds are from neighbor to neighbor, the better they are able to react to a shock,” he says.

“Not a single solution by itself will avoid the climate crisis. We see parks as an important part of it, but there isn’t a silver bullet,” says Diane Regas, CEO of The Trust for Public Land. “Parks are an example of what we in the environmental community need to do to reach solutions that address climate change at the same time and make people’s lives better.”

Summer in Europe is very nice for us to visit one of our favourite cities for a break. Below we have put together a short list of our favourite summer break locations（地方） that offer a great balance of culture, sunshine and fun.

Berlin, the second most populous city in the European Union, gets the third place on our list. It has three famous airports: Tegel International Airport, Tempelhof International Airport, and Schonefeld International Airport.

The capital of Germany is on this list not only because it is a fantastic place to go on holiday but also since it teaches a very important lesson to humanity（人，人性）. The Berlin Wall, the better part of which still remains well kept for educational and amusement（娱乐） aims, reminds us of the extra costs paid by everyone. Today, the undamaged part of the Wall, known as the East Side Gallery, shows striking murals(壁画); if you are interested in this chapter(时期) of the city’s history, there is also a Berlin Wall Memorial you would want to visit. The Potsdamer Platz, divided into two by the Wall, is a newly developed area that is famous for a large shopping center and movie theatre complexes（混合体）, and adds a bit of modern colour to Berlin’s historical value.

Much like the other places that made the list, Berlin is also a city of art. The city has over one hundred and fifty museums in all, and a few of the ones providing an extraordinary experience include the Art Center Berlin Friedrichstrabe, the Museum of Indian Art, and the Museum of East Asian Art. Appreciating Berlin’s art is much like taking a university course in itself and it can only be truly appreciated in several trips.