Museums in Baltimore
The Walters Art Museum
The Walters Art Museum contains 36,000 objects from around the world. Walking through the museum's historic buildings, visitors encounter a stunning panorama of thousands of years of art, from romantic 17th-century images of French gardens to fascinating Ethiopian icons, ancient Roman sarcophagi (石棺), and peaceful images of the Buddha.
Tickets: $9.5. Free for children aged 7 and under.
Baltimore Museum of Industry
The Baltimore Museum of Industry celebrates the innovators, entrepreneurs and workers who promoted this port city into the industrial age. From garment making to airplane manufacturing, visitors to the museum will discover how their pioneering spirit built the region's manufacturing might. Located in an 1860s oyster cannery on a five-acre waterfront campus, the BMI offers dynamic exhibitions and hands-on activities for guests of all ages.
Tickets: $15. Half price for children.
Baltimore Museum of Art
The Baltimore Museum of Art is home to an internationally renowned collection of 19th-century, modern, and contemporary art. It has 90,000 works of art—including the largest holding of works by Henri Matisse in the world. The BMA is now throughout the multi-year project so that visitors can enjoy its outstanding selection of European and American painting and sculpture from the 17th through 20th centuries.
Tickets: $10. Ten percent off if booked on the official website.
American Visionary Art Museum
The American Visionary Art Museum is the nation's museum for self-taught, creative skills. Three historic buildings house wonders created by farmers, housewives, mechanics, the disabled, as well as the occasional neurosurgeon. From carved roots to embroidered rags, tattoos to toothpicks, 'the visionary' transforms dreams, loss, hopes, and ideals into powerful works of art.
Tickets: $9.5. Free for children aged 6 and under and museum members.
At 74 James Patterson has sold more than 425 million copies of his 200 novels globally, making him one of the highest paid authors in the world. "I do not work for a living. I play for a living. I love doing it," Patterson tells CNBC. But Patterson's road to success didn't happen overnight. He started writing as a side hustle and he faced a lot of rejection before getting his first book published.
Patterson grew up in the woods in Newburgh, New York with an insurance salesman father and a schoolteacher mother. Despite having dreams of being a writer, the idea "always seemed presumptuous", Patterson says. But after reading books by James Joyce, "it really turned me on to reading, and then I started writing," he says.
After college, Patterson got his first job as a junior copy writer at the advertising agency J. Walter Thompson. While climbing the corporate ladder, Patterson wrote his first book, The Thomas Berryman Number in the mid-70s. The book "got turned down by 31 publishers", Patterson says. But after it was finally published in 1976, "then it won an Edgar Award for best first novel." The Edgar Award, which is named after Edgar Alan Poe, honors the best writers in mystery fiction and non-fiction.
Despite publishing his first book at age 26, Patterson didn't have a bestseller until he was 40. "It wasn't like all of a sudden," he says. In fact, Patterson kept his day job for decades and got promoted to CEO of J. Walter Thompson in 1988. During that time, Patterson says he would read well over 100 books a year to help spark his creativity. "I have a huge imagination and I'm constantly asking, what about this? What about that?" he says.
Despite his success, Patterson says he doesn't like to give advice, especially about writing. But he credits his own success to his work ethic and passion. "I also don't take myself too seriously," he says. "Yeah, I sell a lot of books, so what?"
Polar bear mothers invest a huge amount into their cubs (幼兽), isolating themselves in dens (兽穴) dug with great effort into piles of snow to provide care through the unforgiving conditions of Arctic winter. It's little wonder that the bears are hesitant to leave when disturbed, even when oil drilling equipment is in operation nearby.
"We found that bears wouldn't abandon their dens even with vehicles driving right overhead," says Wesley Larson, who worked his way from office assistant to a graduate student position with Utah's Brigham Young University, monitoring polar bears on Alaska's North Slope.
Scientists have recorded an increase in human-wildlife conflict in the area, as offshore pack ice has decreased, forcing the bear population to create their dens closer to petrol industry activity. With increased industry interest in oil and gas leasing (租赁) in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge, strong evidence to help support and carry out protective measures for the species has never been more important.
Wildlife managers in Alaska depend on a rule that industrial activity and research cannot take place within 1. 6 km of a den with newborn babies in it. Working with 15 years of monitoring records, and 30 years of notes concerning interactions between the industry and the bears, Larson and colleagues were able to confirm that the regulation was sufficient, but that more needed to be done to actively locate dens. He explains that with entrances quickly covered by snow and dens closed-up until spring, they are effectively undetectable to the naked eye.
"While technology such as forward-looking infrared cameras can be used to try to pick up a heat signature inside the den, it only works when conditions are perfect, and they rarely are in Arctic winter," says Larson. He is now consulting on a project using radar technology to identify dens and ensure protection for the animals symbolic of the Arctic.
It may not be rocket science, but researchers have found aerospace engineers and neurosurgeons (神经外科医生) are not necessarily brighter than the general population.
Researchers examined data from an international group of 329 aerospace engineers and 72 brain surgeons who completed 12 tasks online using the Great British Intelligence Test.
The tasks examined various aspects of cognition (认知), including planning and reasoning, working memory, attention, and emotion processing abilities. The researchers then compared the results against those previously gathered from more than 18,000 members of the British public.
The findings, which were recently published, reveal that only neurosurgeons showed a significant difference, with quicker problem-solving speed but slower memory recall compared with the general population. "The difference in problem-solving speed exhibited by neurosurgeons might arise from the fast-paced nature of neurosurgery, which attracts those with a pre-existing talent for rapid processing, or it could be, though less likely, a product of training for rapid decision-making in time-critical situations," the researchers noted.
The researchers said the study was, in part, carried out to lay to rest the question of whether one of the professions had the intellectual upper hand-a tension made famous by a comedy show in which a confident neurosurgeon is slapped down by an aerospace expert who says, "Brain surgery... it's not exactly rocket science, is it?"
However, the team found few differences between the cognitive abilities of aerospace engineers and neuroscientists, although the results suggest the former had higher scores for attention and mental control—such as turning objects in one's head—while neurosurgeons showed higher scores in semantic (语义的) problem solving—such as definitions of rare words.
"Essentially what we think it shows is that everyone has a range of skills, some people are better at some things and other people are better at other things, and it is very difficult to be better in everything across the board," said Aswin Chari, an author of the study.
Joseph Conrad, a famous English novelist, said that his goal as a writer was "to make you hear, to make you feel, and above all, to make you see. That, and no more, is everything." Often it leaves a single sharp impression to be turned over and over in the mind. After finishing the story, the reader should have something to think about: the humor of life, its ironies, or the unpredictability of human behavior.
The first and most obvious level is conveyed through the plot. Plot refers to the sequence of events, to the actions of the characters and the situations in which they are involved. To explain the plot, then, is to tell what happened in the story and to whom. In some short stories, plot is the dominating element. In other short stories, plot plays a very minor role.
In Hemingway's story, The Old Man and the Sea, however, we must approach the content on another level. To understand and appreciate the story, the reader must be able to identify its general topic or theme. The next step is to identify the device by which the author comments on this theme.
Readers cannot appreciate a short story fully unless they react not only to what has been said but also to how it has been said. Style grows out of the writer's own personality and can be seen in the choice of words and phrases, the arrangement of sentences, the rhythm and tone. Structure refers to the architecture of the story, the way in which the details are selected and arranged to produce the desired effect.
A. They must look for style and structure.
B. In complex stories, careful readers may not always agree with the author.
C. The impact on the reader comes from the sudden and unexpected response.
D. A good short story tries to give the reader a sense of the actual experience.
E. Finally, the reader should be able to explain the insights which the author has given into the theme.
F. The impact of the story comes from the insight it gives us into the needs and desires of youth and old age.
G. In order to read a short story with full understanding, the reader must approach the content on two levels.
During the coronavirus lockdown, a fifth-grade teacher contacted me asking for help. She was 1 with students not attending online class but her students all loved the story in my book. So she asked if I had any 2.
My immediate 3 was for me to do a 4 book club where I would read to the students. The idea was 5 by Mrs. Sandberg, my first teacher in America.
When I moved to America from Iran in 1972, I spoke seven words of English. Despite the language 6, I immediately loved school. My favorite part of the day was 7 lunch, when Mrs. Sandberg read to us. Her kind voice transported me to 8 places where animals could talk and where kids had grand adventures.
With this joyful memory, I started the club. At the first session, five kids 9. I read to them and tried to 10 a conversation. Whenever I asked a question, I was met with complete 11. The following week, a few more kids came; they 12 started responding, but with one-word answers. The next session, they gave 13 answers and more students participated in the conversations.
This club has quickly become the 14 of my week. I have gotten to know the students and grown fond of every single one of them. Reading out loud forces me to forget everything else for an hour. I recently wondered if our post-lunch reading hour had given Mrs. Sandberg a chance to forget her 15, too.
The future of driverless cars is fast becoming reality. All the major car companies have plans to produce them-BMW, for example, have announced that they are launching a self-driving model in 2021.
But drivers of the first self-driving cars won't be able to relax and watch a video. (fortune), these cars can still get (confuse) about what they're "seeing", and a human driver will need to take control sometimes. This is clearly necessary-the test driver of an early Tesla car on Autopilot (die) in a crash while watching a Harry Potter DVD.
Accidents such as these may cause people to reject the idea of the driverless cars altogether. , it's predicted that driverless cars will reduce accidents 90%, and so millions of deaths could be avoided in future.
Most experts agree that we are not going to have true driverless cars on our roads after 2030. Even then, it won't be possible to drive anywhere you want. Driverless cars need digital maps with extreme (accurate), and it's not easy to produce these for all areas, particularly in the countryside.
problem is that self-driving cars can be too careful. They won't take enough risks and might wait too long for clear (open) in the traffic, which could cause even bigger traffic jams!
It all started at lunch. Someone asked Maria, a girl in my class, if she wanted a piece of pie. But because she's allergic (过敏) to wheat, she can't eat pie. Everyone was sympathetic. Then I said I was allergic to bananas. At first, everyone stared at me like I was from another planet. So, for the next ten minutes, I had to listen to all sorts of silly jokes about what bad luck I have because I can't eat bananas.
Later, when my friend Joe and I were walking home, he began to laugh about the incident at lunch. I complained that if I was going to be allergic to something, at least it should be something I hated.
"Like what?" he asked. "Well, like..." I began, making a face, "maybe broccoli (西兰花)." Joe laughed. Then he started clowning around, pretending that he was me eating broccoli. "Oh, oh," he groaned, scratching (挠痒) himself. "I itch (发痒) everywhere!"
When I got home, I smelled something delicious. "What smells so good, Mom?" I called out. My mother replied, "It's dinner. I found a new recipe I think you'll like." After setting the table, I called my younger brother and sister. We all sat down, and Mom spooned out the vegetable. When I saw what it was, shock set in, and I was speechless.
Mom said, "Luis, eat! It's broccoli with beans." I couldn't move. She said again, "Luis, eat. You know the rule."
Mom had the rule that we had to eat everything on our plate, or we couldn't have dessert, usually my favorite ice cream. I picked up my fork, took a tiny bit, and put it to my mouth. I put the fork down again. I thought of Joe's crazy act and started scratching myself—slowly at first and then faster and faster. My brother and sister looked at me suspiciously.
"Luis, what's going on?" Mom asked. I said, "Mom, I think I'm allergic to broccoli." "Really?" she asked. I nodded, and she studied me for a moment. Then she said, "I just read an article in a health magazine. It tells parents what to do when their kids show sudden allergies to broccoli. Let me get the cure."
注意：
1）续写词数应为150左右；
2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
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When my mother returned, she had a bowl of chocolate ice cream. …… "Feeling better, Luis?" my mother asked. |
