Being stuck at home doesn't mean that learning stops. In fact, it's just the opposite. Here are some activities and resources to foster kids' imagination and build their curiosity at home.
Let's Get Down to the Science
The science lab at school may be closed, but you can still put on goggles and a white lab coat and learn at home. This Test Tube Experiment Kit will make you feel like a genius in no time. Kids will get the chance to learn about basic chemistry, physics, and more by creating pop-resistant bubbles, bouncy balls, and other objects.
To Infinity (无穷) and Beyond
Earth is a part of the Milky Way galaxy, but did you know there are around 100 million galaxies in the universe? There are so many fun and fascinating things to learn about space that the possibilities truly go to infinity and beyond. A great way start your child's educational space adventure is with this Real Life Sticker and Activity Book.
Take a Walk on the Wild Side
Biology class is in session! Here's your chance to get up close and personal with a great white shark without putting on a wetsuit. This 4D Great White Shark Anatomy Kit allows you to get an inside look at what makes these predators of the deep so powerful. And then take an even deeper dive into a shark's world with I Am Shark.
Take advantage of this time at home and find new ways to keep exploring the world around you.
Compassion and love are concepts that are often thought to be felt by humans only. As the most intelligent creatures to ever walk the earth, we tend to assume that we are the only ones who can feel emotions. We forget that the speechless beings who live here with us - animals - also have the same capability.
During a cold night in Ontario, Canada, a passer-by spotted something on the side of the road that made her stop -a shaking dog curled up in the snow.
When she approached the pup, she discovered that she wasn't alone-she was cuddling five orphaned black kittens to keep them warm.
The dog surely could have found a safer place to stay for the night, but she chose instead to help not just herself but other stray animals as well.
The Good Samaritan called Pet and Wildlife Rescue and an animal control officer picked them up. When they got to the shelter, it was apparent that a close bond had already been formed between the dog and the orphaned kittens. The staff decided to name the kind dog Serenity in honor of her selfless act.
"It's truly heartwarming!" a shelter spokesperson told The Dodo. "It had been a very cold night so these kittens would have had a very hard time surviving."
Aside from requiring treatment for worm and flea infections, the orphaned kittens are now safe. Just like a proud and doting mother, Serenity insisted on checking on her babies regularly to oversee their progress.
The good news is that the kittens are now living with a foster family who will care for them until they are old enough to be adopted. Serenity, on the other hand, is still looking for a family.
According to the shelter, she loves zooming around in the yard and is big on playing. She is also quite jumpy, so she would do best in a home without small children.
For those who can stomach it, working out before breakfast may be more beneficial for health than eating first, according to a study of meal timing and physical activity.
Athletes and scientists have long known that meal timing affects performance. However, far less has been known about how meal timing and exercise might affect general health.
To find out, British scientists conducted a study. They first found 10 overweight and inactive but otherwise healthy young men, whose lifestyles are, for better and worse, representative of those of most of us. They tested the men's fitness and resting metabolic (新陈代谢的) rates and took samples (样品) of their blood and fat tissue.
Then, on two separate morning visits to the scientists' lab, each man walked for an hour at an average speed that, in theory should allow his body to rely mainly on fat for fuel. Before one of these workouts, the men skipped breakfast, meaning that they exercised on a completely empty stomach after a long overnight fast (禁食). On the other occasion, they ate a rich morning meal about two hours before they started walking.
Just before and an hour after each workout, the scientists took additional samples of the men's blood and fat tissue.
Then they compared the samples. There were considerable differences. Most obviously, the men displayed lower blood sugar levels at the start of their workouts when they had skipped breakfast than when they had eaten. As a result, they burned more fat during walks on an empty stomach than when they had eaten first. On the other hand, they burned slightly more calories (卡路里), on average, during the workout after breakfast than after fasting.
But it was the effects deep within the fat cells that may have been the most significant, the researchers found. Multiple genes behaved differently, depending on whether someone had eaten or not before walking. Many of these genes produce proteins (蛋白质) that can improve blood sugar regulation and insulin (胰岛素) levels throughout the body and so are associated with improved metabolic health. These genes were much more active when the men had fasted before exercise than when they had breakfasted.
The implication of these results is that to gain the greatest health benefits from exercise, it may be wise to skip eating first.
Hollywood's theory that machines with evil(邪恶) minds will drive armies of killer robots is just silly. The real problem relates to the possibility that artificial intelligence(AI) may become extremely good at achieving something other than what we really want. In 1960 a well-known mathematician Norbert Wiener, who founded the field of cybernetics（控制论）, put it this way: “If we use, to achieve our purposes, a mechanical agency with whose operation we cannot effectively interfere(干预), we had better be quite sure that the purpose put into the machine is the purpose which we really desire.”
A machine with a specific purpose has another quality, one that we usually associate with living things: a wish to preserve its own existence. For the machine, this quality is not in-born, nor is it something introduced by humans; it is a logical consequence of the simple fact that the machine cannot achieve its original purpose if it is dead. So if we send out a robot with the single instruction of fetching coffee, it will have a strong desire to secure success by disabling its own off switch or even killing anyone who might interfere with its task. If we are not careful, then, we could face a kind of global chess match against very determined, super intelligent machines whose objectives conflict with our own, with the real world as the chessboard.
The possibility of entering into and losing such a match should concentrate the minds of computer scientists. Some researchers argue that we can seal the machines inside a kind of firewall, using them to answer difficult questions but never allowing them to affect the real world. Unfortunately, that plan seems unlikely to work: we have yet to invent a firewall that is secure against ordinary humans, let alone super intelligent machines.
Solving the safety problem well enough to move forward in AI seems to be possible but not easy. There are probably decades in which to plan for the arrival of super intelligent machines. But the problem should not be dismissed out of hand, as it has been by some AI researchers. Some argue that humans and machines can coexist as long as they work in teams—yet that is not possible unless machines share the goals of humans. Others say we can just “switch them off” as if super intelligent machines are too stupid to think of that possibility. Still others think that super intelligent AI will never happen. On September 11, 1933, famous physicist Ernest Rutherford stated, with confidence, “Anyone who expects a source of power in the transformation of these atoms is talking moonshine.” However, on September 12, 1933, physicist Leo Szilard invented the neutron-induced(中子诱导) nuclear chain reaction.
Babies' Look Changing
Researchers show that the early social behavior called look changing is linked to babies' ability to learn new language sounds. . It is when a baby makes eye contact and then looks at the same object that the other person is looking at.
Rechel Brooks, one of the researchers, made a report, showing that babies' look changing serves as a building block(基础)for more complicated language and social skills. .
In this experiment, nine 5-month-old babies from English-speaking families attended foreign language tutoring sessions. Over four weeks, the tutors talked and played with toys while speaking Spanish.
At the beginning and end of the four-week period, researchers counted how often the babies changed their look. . There they tested how much Spanish language sounds.
. The more look changing the babies participate in during their tutoring sessions, the greater their brain response were to the Spanish language sounds.
"Our findings show young babies' social engagement contributes to their own language learning – they're not just passive listeners of language," Brooks said. "They're paying attention and showing parents they're ready to learn when they're looking back and forth." .
The researchers hope their findings help people develop strategies for teaching young children.
A. That's when the most learning happens
B. These skills are what preschool children can gain
C. The results were really amazing
D. We can't imagine how look changing helps them learn so much
E. However, others may regard look changing as something useless
F. Look changing is one of the earliest social skills that babies show
G. After the experiment ended, the researchers brought the babies back to the lab
Christmas was near a season that we took seriously in our house. But a week or so before the 25th, my father would give each of his children﹩20. This was the 1970s, and﹩20 was quite a bit of money.
But I saw it 1. My father trusted me to have the2to spend money wisely. Even better, he gave me the 3to get it. On a very basic level ，my father was giving me a shopping spree(狂欢)every year. But he was also giving me charge over my own fun, trusting my ability to manage money and making me feel like a/an4. He didn't buy me Sherlock Holmes, but he gave me the means to walk into the bookstore and choose it for myself, so it felt like a gift from him.
My mother had a/an 5 for giving me what I needed, usually right at the moment I needed it most. This was when I was 25, I 6 at being an adult on my very first try. I had quitted my 7job but had no new one. But when my mother paid me a visit, I 8a good show, telling her I had started my own company.
My mother knew that I was trying hard and failing at that time. It wasn't until 9she left that I noticed at the foot of my bed an envelope thick with 10 . She knew how 11I needed it. She knew that had she just shown up with groceries，or offer to pay my rent, she would have made me feel much 12. The cold，hard cash meant she was helping me. And, funnily enough, the 13with which she gave the gift felt like she was giving me space to 14my life and preserve my dignity. My mother and father both did the same thing. One was giving me the means to take my own decisions，and the other was giving me a second 15when those decisions had cost me dearly.
Up to 82 percent of children with healthy mothers are not easy to be obese(肥胖的), according to research. A mother, has a healthy weight, exercises regularly, eats a healthy diet, doesn't smoke and only (drink) wine in moderation, is significantly less likely (have)a fat child, scientists say.
And research suggests it could be more to do with nurture(养育) nature, as a mother's lifestyle appears (direct) linked to the health of her child. When both mother and child follow a healthy lifestyle, the risk of obesity (reduce)even more, the study of more than 24,000 children found.
The study examined the medical history and lifestyles of more than 24,000 children aged nine fourteen, born to almost 17,000 women in the US. Researchers looked at the link between overall mother health and likelihood of a child (be) obese.
The mother's health was judged on her height-to-weight ratio(比例), her diet, amount of physical (active), smoking status and how much alcohol she drank. A healthy weight and diet, regular exercise, no smoking and moderate drinking all reduce the chance of a woman having obese child.
1）多跟同学交流沟通：2）积极参加学校活动：3）向老师寻求帮助。
注意：1）词数80左右;
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
I went up to the roof for a break after studying for an hour and watched the 50 or so people swimming in the natural rock pool below our house. It was a sunny day--a blue, cloudless sky over a calm sea. But then, as I looked in the distance, I discovered three or four big waves heading towards the shore. I'd seen these mini-tsunamis(海啸) many times before. They were heading at speed in the direction of the pool. Most people knew how to look out for them, but from the screams that started coming from the beach, I could tell someone was in trouble.
Without thinking, I ran down into the street, holding my body board(俯伏冲浪板) on the way and shouted at a stranger to go inside my house and call the coastguard. My neighbor Moises had heard the screaming as well and was also outside with his body board, so together we rushed to the steps that led down to the sea.
Once we got closer, we discovered the waves had pulled a boy and a girl from the pool and into the open sea. I knew that the nearest boat would take at least 30 minutes to reach us. Waiting for help wasn't a choice. I wasn't used to this sort of emergency--I'd never been trained as a lifeguard-but I didn't think twice about trying to save them. I supposed in a way I wanted to impress everyone: at 19, a deal like that can seem like a good opportunity to show off.
Moises and I dived into the water and it took us 10 minutes to get to them. When we finally reached them, they were almost lifeless with only their heads coming in and out of the water. We could tell they were still alive from their small breaths but it was clear they wouldn't have been able to stay there much longer. I held the boy and pulled him over my board. Moises moved the girl onto his board. We discussed pushing them back to the shore, but we were too far out.
注意：
1）所续写的短文词数应为150左右；
2）续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好；
Paragraph 1:
We had to wait.
Paragraph 2:
That night, word came from the hospital that the two people were in good condition.
