Smart Home Products for Living a Connected Life
What makes something a smart home product? Generally, it's defined by its ability to connect to a Wi-Fi network, allowing users to interact (互动) with it from their smartphones. We've rounded up some cool, diverse offerings that you'll love to have in your home.
Nest Cam IQ
walmart.com
$299.00
The Nest Cam IQ is a beautifully designed home security camera that can recognize faces. It can warn you if there's a stranger in your home. The device also supports two-way communication via built-in microphones and a powerful speaker.
Logitech Harmony Elite
amazon.com
$249.99
The Logitech Harmony Elite is one of the best universal remote controls available on the market. It can control just about every piece of electronics you own（it supports over 270，000 devices！）in every room of your house or apartment, including TVs，streaming devices, and sound systems.
Apple HomePod
bhphotovideo.com
$349.00
The Apple HomePod has better audio quality than any other smart speaker available today. Available in white or space gray, the Siri-powered device also allows you to control a number of devices with your voice.
August Smart Lock Pro
amazon.com
$279.99
The August Smart Lock Pro is compatible (兼容的) with most locks. A mobile app allows you to manage access to the lock, check its usage history, and get informed when someone opens the door. You can control it and check on the state of your door with voice commands.
The morning after an evening struggle to care for my three-year-old daughter, I couldn't wait to get her to school. I, as a mother, was tired from the anger and her inability to communicate because of her slowed language development.
As I accompanied her into the car, I felt desperate. Nothing was right with our world. She'd been born around the same time when the nation was witnessing the birth of another Great Recession. My job and my house had been victims. Then this happened. My child's language delay was identified, but doctors struggled to properly help her. I felt like we both needed to be rescued.
I returned that afternoon as disenchanted with the little girl I loved as when I left. Walking slowly toward the school's playground gate, I found her preschool teacher racing to greet me.
"You should have seen her today!" His breathy words were supported by excitement. I didn't interrupt. "See that climber." He pointed to a wooden piece of playground equipment that looked like a rock wall. I nodded. "Well, every day since she started school, she's tried and failed to make it to the top." He took a breath. "And today she did it!"
He expressed his joy just as he'd witnessed her conquering Mount Everest! "She cheered and celebrated! I wish I'd recorded it!" His words comforted me. My daughter had conquered her mountain.
As she ran toward me, I recognized something I hadn't before. I saw her perseverance (毅力), I saw her strength. I saw a hero.
Everyday greatness celebrates ordinary people who do unusual things in big and small ways, showing courage, kindness, love and selflessness. We encourage you to click these brief accounts and invite you to share your own story.
In colleges around the country, most students are also workers.
The reality of college can be pretty different from the images presented in movies and television. Instead of the students who wake up late, party all the time, and study only before exams, many colleges are full of students with pressing schedules of not just classes and activities, but real jobs, too.
This isn't a temporary phenomenon. The share of working students has been on the rise since the 1970s, and one-fifth of students work year round. About one-quarter of those who work while attending school have both a full-course load and a full-time job. The arrangement can help pay for tuition (学费) and living costs, obviously. And there's value in it beyond the direct cause: such jobs can also be critical (关键的) for developing important professional and social skills that make it easier to land a job after graduation. With many employers looking for students with already-developed skill sets, on-the-job training while in college can be the best way to ensure a job later on.
But it's not all upside. Even full-time work may not completely cover the cost of tuition and living expenses. The study notes that if a student worked a full-time job at the federal (联邦政府的) minimum wage, they would earn just over $15,000 each year, certainly not enough to pay for tuition, room, and board at many colleges without some serious financial aid. That means that though they're sacrificing time away from the classroom, many working students will still graduate with at least some debt. And working full time can reduce the chance that students will graduate at all, by cutting into the time available for studying and attending classes.
There is little reward for attending but not finishing college. Students who end up leaving school because of difficulty in managing work and class are likely to find themselves stuck in some of the same jobs they might have gotten if they hadn't gone at all. The difficulty of working too much while in school can create a cycle that pushes students further into debt without receiving any of the financial or career benefits.
Scientists, psychologists and English academics at Liverpool University have found that reading the works of the classical writers like Shakespeare and Wordsworth has a great effect on the mind, catches the reader's attention and triggers moments of self-examination.
Using a special machine, they monitored the brain activity of 30 volunteers as they read works by William Shakespeare, William Wordsworth, T.S. Eliot and others.
In the first part of the research, the brain activity of 30 volunteers was monitored as they read passages from Shakespeare's plays, including King Lear, Othello, Coriolanus and Macbeth, and again as they read the text rewritten in a simpler form or modern language.
While reading the common texts, normal levels of electrical activity were shown in their brains. When they read the works of Shakespeare, however, the levels of activity jumped because of his use of words which were unfamiliar to them. The result of the test showed that the more challenging passages cause a greater degree of electrical activity in the brain than the common ones.
Scientists went on to study the brain activity as it responded to each word and recorded how it lit up as the readers came across unusual words, surprising phrases or difficult sentences in the classical works. As a result, this lightening up process of the mind lasted longer than that when volunteers read common texts, encouraging further reading.
The research also found that reading poetry especially increases activity in the right hemisphere(半球) of the brain, an area connected with "autobiographical memory", driving the readers to think carefully about their own experiences based on what they have read. The academics said this meant the classical works of literature are more useful than self-help books.
Philip Davis, an English professor who has worked on the study in the university's magnetic resonance center, announced this week: "Classical literature acts like a rocket-booster(火箭加速器) to the brain, which provides extra power for the brain. You may never imagine how powerful it is. The research shows such kind of literature can create new thoughts and connections in the young and the old."
How to Become a Top Student
Successful students use different techniques to study, which brings them more success. Here are the four techniques almost all top-performing students use.
They are regular. Almost all successful students study regularly, because they know "what you give is what you get". If you put in regular hours of studying, then you will learn more and get better grades. This will help you to study regularly.
They have clear goals. All top-performing students have definite, specific goals. They motivate you and drive you to study more. But make sure that you do not get carried away. Set realistic goals which can challenge you, but do not seem impossible or too difficult to achieve.
They study without strain (压力). Successful students study a lot. But they study without putting strain on themselves. Most students make the mistake of studying too hard or studying continuously for a long time. Studying should be done in a balanced manner. Take a break for a few minutes, after studying for 30 or 45 minutes. Relax, walk around your room or house, or drink some water and return to studying. Such short breaks will refresh your brain and you will learn more.
Studying is not something you do just because your parents ask you to do it. It's actually very important for you. Studying gives you knowledge and skills that will remain with you for the rest of your life. It gives you the ability to get a job and earn money. And successful students recognize the value of studying well.
A. This creates tension and actually slows down learning and memory.
B. But to score high grades in English, you should make well-planned efforts.
C. Set aside some hours, each day or each week, for studying.
D. Having such goals gives you a purpose to study better.
E. Learn their techniques, and you will also join their rank.
F. They finish their homework on time.
G. They give importance to study.
Growing up in a military family, I moved a lot. I mostly went to 1 with other kids whose parents were also in the military. But when my dad 2from the Marines after twenty years of service, I found myself 3a civilian school with twelve-year-old who shared no similar life experience with me.
I was a stranger in a strange land. Everyone in my class had grown up together, and they had no 4to spare for a newcomer. I wore different clothes, had different thoughts, and spoke with an accent. I 5for the first few weeks of school. I had no friends, no activities, and no 6of a bright future. To deal with it all, I began 7in my diary every day—stories of adventure, of old friends, of feelings that I could not speak. I wrote as if my life depended on it, as if the very next breath I took could not happen 8I wrote down words.
One day, my teacher, Mrs. Bush, came to me and asked why I always sat there writing instead of playing with others. I told her I enjoyed writing and 9writing to playing. She smiled at me and walked away. About three weeks later, Mrs. Bush gave us a writing assignment. I was 10that I could now participate in something I knew I excelled in.
That night I worked and worked on the essay. I wrote with great 11It was my one chance to feel important and 12by the class.
A few days after we handed in our assignments, Mrs. Bush called me up to the 13of the classroom. I stood before thirty pairs of eyes looking at me, and I got 14Was I in trouble? Did I do something wrong?
Then Mrs. Bush told the class how much she 15all the work that went into the essay and everyone had done a great job. But, she said, one student stood 16as an excellent writer, one with imagination, creativity, and word mastery. That student was me!
The class clapped politely and Mrs. Bush handed me my paper, with the following 17on it: "Malinda, you are an excellent writer. You fill your paper with the breathings of your heart. Please keep on writing and share your 18of writing with the world. I am proud of you and glad you are in my class."
Mrs. Bush helped me feel a sense of 19a place of purpose, and a way to survive a transition in life. She helped me gain 20in myself that stayed with me beyond sixth grade.
My experience of teaching students was a wonderful adventure. I had to deal with various challenges again and again.
The (great) part of it was the relationship I developed with two students. One of the students was Michael, I met when I was working for a kindergarten. Before I became a morning bus assistant, I (hear) that Michael was a student who would always shout, stand up on the bus, make fun other students, and distract the bus driver. So I decided that each morning, he got on the bus, I'd have Michael sit beside me. At first he didn't like this idea. But soon he settled down, (know) he had no choice. I began to talk to him about little things outside of school life, such as his weekend (activity) and things that he liked to do. I also listened (close) to him. As I gave Michael the attention that he needed, little by little, he began to behave better and better.
Another student I took a special interest in was a boy (name) Tony, a third grader. To some degree, Tony seemed to be a slow or passive learner. So I decided to see if I could find a way to encourage Tony (stay) at the task. Before long, he was paying more attention to his studies and scored high in all tests.
—I ________ but you didn't hear me.
—It makes _____ to me as long as we can chat while having dinner.
The other day, it was my birthday and I was looking forward to see my friends. We were meeting at a my favorite Italy restaurant. I was exciting and got to the restaurant at exactly 7 o'clock. I looked around for a familiar face but failed. Still, I decided to wait for him patiently. The restaurant was quickly filled with customer, but none of them were my friends. I called Lily, but she didn't answer. I felt lonely and sadly. My friends had forgotten my birthday. I went home, opened the door and walk into the dark house. Suddenly the lights went off and my friends jumped up and shouted "Surprise!" They hadn't forgotten, it was the best birthday ever.
