China's leading online English learning brand 51Talk held annual strategic conference in Beijing on Tuesday, with a focus on wider market access, more individual learning modes and AI technology applications.

    The brand, (bear) the idea of allowing more children to enjoy quality education, has announced strategic cooperation with partners including family early education brand Qiaohu, Aniworld TV and US publishing house TCM.

Chinese singer and actor Wang Junkai, who boasts high popularity younger Chinese, has been invited to be the brand's latest spokesman.

    Huang Jiajia, founder and CEO of 51Talk, said at the press conference the brand's users cover more than 500 cities nationwide, and the total amount of courses taken by learners has exceeded 3 million in a single month.

    Huang also believed 51Talk (dedicate) to promoting "universal education" since its establishment in 2011.

    "Enjoying qualified foreign teachers in language leaning not be the exclusive privilege of children from wealthy families and of China's first-tier cities. What 51Talk has been doing is making education resources accessible to more people," the CEO added.

    To this end, 51Talk is ready to expand its appeal to more second- and third-tier cities, and is expected (reach) more than 1,000 cities across the nation this year. Also, the English learning brand is poised to conduct "one plus one" strategy by arranging foreign and Chinese teachers for learners.

    "Foreign teachers will continue to show off their professional teaching skills Chinese teachers will act as the bridge to connect foreign teachers and students," Huang said, adding the combination of foreign teachers and Chinese education can not only improve learning and communication efficiency, but also help students to achieve better results.

    , 51Talk will continue to follow the Belt and Road Initiative and introduce more Philippine foreign teachers to the teaching team.

    Huang said Philippine foreign teachers have a high-level English teaching ability, plays an important role in improving Chinese students' interest in learning English.

    For years people have recognized the power that writing something down has been able to anchor (固定) a thought or emotion in the brain. This of anchoring emotions and memories with physical touch is now well supported by studies and frequently used by those who practice Neuro-linguistic Programming (NLP).

    Evidence that the mind and body connection exists in building and memories is abundant. More recently, however, researchers have been turning their attention to the between exercise and the brain. They are finding evidence that supports the belief that exercise can boost brain power.

    How can that happen? U.S. researchers have found that exercise helps that brain develop new brain cells in an area of the brain called the dentate gyrus. This area is known to be involved with age-related memory loss. The studies performed mice and later humans supported the evidence found in those studies: there was increased blood flow to the memory center of the brain after exercise, which may help optimize the way the brain . Basically, anything that helps the body to decrease stress hormones, which will improve attention span as well as mood and increase the body's metabolism, will also help the brain. It helps by making the brain cells healthier and better able to link to other cells. This action is vital for learning and new information.

    The fact that exercise makes positive changes in the nervous system and boosts cognitive abilities has not gone by schools. Many states have now established minimum times and frequency for physical education. This type of action is supported by studies that show how much better physically fit third graders and fifth graders performed on standardized tests than students who were still in their studies all the time. The evidence that obesity with lower levels of academic achievement in school children is starting to catch on everywhere.

    Walking at least three times a week was found to benefit your brain, for it will cease to grow for a lack of exercise. Creative writing benefits brain a lot as this type of activity is not mechanic and cause the brain to produce new which stimulate new dendrites and neurons to grow in the brain. Use one or more of your physical senses, involve your complete attention and break away from your routine in a significant way as dull brain is never ready for the unexpected.

    A college degree is, in most cases, the key to more money and a more comfortable standard of living. But that pathway to higher earnings is more 1to some than others: A lot of leading colleges do not enroll a lot of low-income students, and as a result, they're not2very many students from low-income households into the middle and upper classes. 3, though strategies for enrolling and preserving low-income students are usually mentioned, they can be tough to 4 at scale.

    Dozens of top colleges and universities have more students from the top 1 percent of the income scale than the 5 60 percent. And that's a problem if colleges hope to escape the common 6that they are little more than a finishing school for the elite (精英).

    But there are institutions — a lot of them — that have strong track records of 7 the socioeconomic fortunes of students. If higher education is supposed to be the great equalizer (平衡器), these institutions — from community colleges to public regional four-year colleges — are the ones that are doing the most work.

    Colleges should be 8recruiting and enrolling low-income students — and that means more than targeting ads to 9 students on social media. It means a commitment to going where they are — areas that a lot of schools do not typically recruit — and publicize the process of going to college. Then they should be supporting students with 10 when the students get to campus — whether it's writing centers, generous financial aid packages, or simply sympathetic academic advisors who perhaps came from low-income backgrounds themselves. And it is also preparing students for jobs after college and building relationships with businesses that 11the process of finding post-graduation employment for students, especially for those whose parents don't have their own professional 12.

    Pace ranks first among private colleges in motivating its students from the lowest levels of the income scale and into the middle and upper class. There are a lot of ways in which people of privilege (特权) 13 their college years or having unpaid internships (实习) or having the social capital to get certain jobs. But colleges can fill those 14, particularly for low-income students, helping students get jobs, or sustaining them with programs that help them land paid internships with top companies. We can provide strong networks through faculty and staff as well to help a new generation, a new, socioeconomically 15 generation, achieve the American dream.

    A round face, big eyes, soft fur and a quiet purr. It's not easy to resist the company of an adorable cat. No wonder French-German philosopher Albert Schweitzer once said, "There are two means of refuge from the miseries of life: music and cats."

    Indeed, it's no secret how much people around the world love cats. From China's Sina Weibo to US video-sharing site YouTube, bloggers across the globe love to show off their cats.

    In September, a charitable activity called "Cat Month" was held in Beijing. It was meant to encourage more people to care for our furry friends, especially stray cats.

    Cats become such a big part of pop culture in China that young people have come up with cat-related slang phrases, such as "cat slave" to refer to people who adore their cats, and "a daily dose of cats" to refer to having to watch a certain number of cat videos to get through the day.

    People in Japan are also huge fans of cats. As the birthplace of Hello Kitty and the "beckoning cat", Japan made a "cat train" that was ridden around the country by 30 stray cats in 2017. Passengers could sit and play with the cats on the train, offering the animals plenty of care and warmth.

    Istanbul, a historic city in Turkey, is also friendly to cats. In the recent documentary film Kedi, which hit Chinese cinemas in September, director Ceyda Torun showed us the daily lives of seven street cats with vivid narration. Cats there are not afraid of people. They go in and out of almost everywhere – coffee shops, markets, universities, and even government buildings. If you sit on a park bench, a cat is likely to come and snuggle with you.

    Seeing how cats have become a worldwide addiction, you may wonder why some people prefer cats over dogs. This may be down to how they identify with themselves – modern young people see the independent attitude of cats as something they value more.

    "Unlike dogs, who look at us with their loving eyes, cats appear to show off their independence. They ask for attention in a way that tells us that they desire human companionship, but they don't need it," author Marie-Louise von Franz wrote in her book The Cat: A Tale of Feminine Redemption.

    Movies Not to Miss

    In 2019 there will be returns to classic movie characters and stories.
    FILE PHOTOS

    In 2018, to which we've just said goodbye, we've seen blockbusters such as Black Panther, Crazy Rich Asians and A Star Is Born. And there are more exciting movies in the works for 2019. Below TEENS has picked three for you. Let's take a look.

    Spider-Man: Far From Home, July 5, US

    Tom Holland, the lead actor of 2017's Spider-Man: Homecoming, returns to play Peter Parker, a high school student who gains superpowers after being bitten by a spider.

    When we see him again in theaters, Spider-Man will have a new red-and-black suit. The movie will take the famous wall-crawler on a global adventure outside of the US. According to Marvel Studios President Kevin Feige, Spider-Man will try a return to his "normal" self; he will try to find his old powers on his new journey.

Hobbs and Shaw, July 26, US

    To most people the Fast and Furious series is all about crazy drivers racing in sports cars. But in its spin-off, called Hobbs and Shaw, humor is added to the action-packed thrills.

    The new film will hit US theaters on July 26. Famous robust English actor Jason Statham will star alongside Dwayne Johnson, "The Rock", as Deckard Shaw and Luke Hobbs respectively, as in their previous appearances in Fast and Furious films.

When the pair fought face to face in Fast and Furious 8 (2017), a confrontation was dubbed the "battle model for warriors". The action and chemistry really stimulated their audience.

    But the new action scenes between an MI6 agent Hobbs and the killer Shaw will have to be good to beat their stand-off in the 2017 movie.

    The Lion King, July 19, US

    This is a brand-new version of the classic children's film. The story of wide-eyed young lion Simba still remains in hearts of world audiences even after 25 years. In this re-telling, Simba again begins the difficult journey to become the King of the Pride Lands, a vast African prairie.

    The favorite part of the story for many has always been the friendship between Simba, the meerkat called Timon and the warthog Pumbaa. The last two sacrifice all they have to help Simba to his throne. How will the new movie re-imagine their famous relationship?

    A radio report caught my attention the other day, as it spoke straight to my heart: Cadets (学员) at the US Naval Academy are now required to revisit and potentially revive the ancient skill of steering a ship by the stars.

    By the stars―imagine that: looking up at the sky, not down at a screen, so many years after the heavens' critical role in guiding mariners has fallen by the wayside, first displaced by radio waves, then by modern GPS. Much is gained―but something also lost―in such progress, I think.

    It reminded me of my love of 18th- and 19th-century seafaring (航海的) tales (reading them is one of my coping mechanisms for life in the landlocked Midwest), when sailors had only celestial (天空的) maps for navigation and still miraculously managed to sail the planet's vast oceans and even circumnavigate the globe.

    Recent cyber security concerns have triggered renewed interest in backup navigational strategies such as stargazing, and simple hand-held technologies like the sextant, so often invoked in Richard Henry Dana's Two Years Before the Mast, a tale that chronicles a mid-19th-century merchant ship's endlessly harrowing voyage from Boston to California and back.

    I wouldn't wish the harsh conditions of that trip on modern sailors, but I am all for anything that gets people clued in to their compass bearings (方位) and travel trajectories without high-tech and often mindless guidance.

    "Is that north or south of here?" I've asked motel clerks and gas station attendants about a particular address I'm seeking in my GPS-less travels.

    "Well, it's that way," comes the most frequent reply, accompanied by a pointed finger, and I realize that north, south, east, and west are not familiar coordinates (坐标) to many people otherwise thoroughly attuned to the local lay of their land.

    To be fair, I haven't always been attuned to compass points either. In fact it was not until I was a young adult, lazing on a float in my parents' pool on a late summer's visit home, and watching the sun dip below the roofline, that I first realized that my childhood home faced due west. I was shocked that I'd been oblivious to this simple fact, especially since I'd begun to be schooled in geology and certainly in compass work. But like so many, I'd grown up thinking and navigating in terms of other coordinates, based on familiar streets, rights and lefts, and reference points such as my school, the homes of friends, the nearest playground, and the local shopping plaza.

    I've long since become accustomed to finding my bearings on travels in unfamiliar territory by the sun's position. And now I'd love to sit in on a class at the academy to learn to navigate by the moon and stars. It's a skill I'll likely never need to draw upon. Yet just knowing how it would connect me, in a new and profound way, to the historical arc of human experience on this planet.

    As for modern sailors, it might just bring them safely home one day, if all else fails.

    Children born today may be the last generation to see coral reefs in all their glory. That's a warning from a marine biologist who is coordinating efforts to monitor the decline of the world's most colorful ecosystem.

    Global heating and ocean acidification(酸化) have already taken a heavy toll on the world's coral reefs. Some 16 to 33 percent of all warm-water reefs have been severely bleached(漂白), and the remaining reefs are vulnerable to even a fraction of a degree more warming, said the marine biologist, David Obura. He chairs the Coral Specialist Group in the International Union for the Conservation of Nature.

    "It will be like lots of lights blinking off," he told the Observer. " Between now and 2 degrees Celsius, we will see more reefs dropping off the map."

    Today's reefs have a history going back 25 million to 50 million years. They have survived collisions between the Earth's tectonic plates(地壳板块), such as that of Africa into Europe, and India into Asia. Yet in five decades, Obura said, mankind has undermined the global climate so fundamentally that the globally connected reef system could be lost in the next generation.

    The warning follows a landmark UN climate report. Scientists warned that if warming reached 2℃, which now appears very likely in the next 50 years, there would be a more than 99% chance that tropical coral reefs would be wiped out.

    The UN report also warned of severe knock-on impacts to fisheries and millions of people living in coastal communities, who will lose vital sources of income and be less protected from storms.

    Coral reefs are often described as undersea forests, but they are declining far more quickly than the Amazon rainforests. A temperature rise of just 1 to 2 degrees Celsius can cause the algae(藻类) upon which corals(珊瑚虫) depend to leave. That would drain the coral reefs of colour and make the structure more easily broken. These bleaching events can be temporary if waters cool, but the more frequent they are and the longer they last, the greater the risk of irreparable damage.

    Fed up with constantly having to recharge or replace batteries in your ever-expanding electronic devices? The solution may be just a few steps away. "Energy harvesting" promises to power countless consumer devices, often with nothing more than your body's movement or heat.

    Among the most basic forms of the technology is body power. When certain materials are squeezed or stretched, the movement of their atoms creates an electrical charge. Automatic watches have employed the concept for decades, for example, by winding themselves when their user moves their arm. Now, the concept is being considered for a number of other devices. In a contest seeking visionary ideas for wearable technologies, Intel awarded $5,000 for a concept to change the temperature difference between a person's body and a special piece of clothing they'd wear into electricity for mobile devices. Using sound to power devices is another energy-harvesting variation. Stanford University engineers are testing smart microchips that create electricity from ultrasound to power implantable devices that can analyze a person's nervous system or treat their diseases. A textile research association in Spain is proposing to obtain electricity from radio waves that flow around everyone to power sensors sewn into clothes, which can monitor a person's heartbeat or other vital signs.

    Obtaining stable energy from devices can be complex, however. For one thing, the motion that generates the electricity has to be constant to be useful. Moreover, the amount of power the devices produce depends on the person using them, according to a Columbia University study. It determined that taller people on average provide about 20 percent more power than shorter ones when walking, running or cycling. It's also unclear how eagerly consumers might welcome energy-harvesting products.

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