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Assistant Professor
Pierce College, WA
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Long Beach City College, CA
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I want to thank you and your team for creating such a fine website and for providing it for K-12 teachers and students for free. I especially appreciate the flexibility the site has. I also love the test building area. I can use "correct" answers to further explain answers and "incorrect" answers to further teach students. I am very thankful for your work.
"Why did the fox steal my shoes?" sounds like the start of a brain teaser(脑筋急转弯) or an annoyingly hot song. But for people in Berlin, it was a real question that a local fox was behind a series of shoes thefts.
About two weeks ago, Meyer, a resident of Berlin, noticed that one of his new running shoes had disappeared from his porch, and he decided to examine the theft, a German news site reported.
Meyer quickly learned that he was not the thief's only victim, and a tip helped him catch the fox. Days later, Meyer spotted the fox again; he followed it and discovered the fox's secret place of more than 100shoes.
Meyer got a photo of the thieving fox and its ill-gotten shoes, which he shared on Twitter. The shoes contained sneakers, and slippers in range of colors, shapes and sizes, though the most numerous shoes by far were Crocs.
This isn't the first time that an urban fox has demonstrated a seeming shoe fetish(恋物). In August 2019, a fox in Melbourne, Australia, repeatedly visited a woman's porch and stole three boots over the course of a week. In a small town in western Germany, a female fox stole about 110 to 120 shoes in just one night, presumably "for her babies to play with", according to Reuters.
It's unknown whether all of these foxes were acting independently or whether their actions were linked, perhaps as part of an international shoe-stealing group with a bad purpose that humans can only imagine.
Scientists say they've developed a system using machine learning to predict when and where lightning will strike. The research was led by engineers from the Swiss Federal Institute of Technology in Switzerland.
European researchers have estimated between 6,000 and 24,000 people are killed by lightning worldwide each year. The strikes can also cause power outages(停电), destroyed property, damage electrical equipment and start forest fires. For these reasons, climate scientists have long sought to develop methods to predict and control lightning. But no system has been created to effectively predict lightning.
The system tested in the experiments used a combination of data from weather stations and machine learning methods. The researchers developed a prediction model that was trained to recognized weather conditions that were likely to cause lightning.
The model was created with data collected over 12-year period from 12 Swiss weather stations in cities and mountain areas. The data related to four main surface conditions: air pressure, air temperature, relative humidity(湿度) and wind speed.
The atmospheric data was placed into a machine learning algorithm(算法), which compared it to records of lightning strikes. Researchers say the algorithm was then able to learn the conditions under which lightning happens.
Amirhossein Mostajabi is a PhD student at the institute who led the development of the method. He said, "current systems for gathering such data are slow and complex and require costly collection equipment like radar or satellites. "
"Our method uses data that can be obtained from any weather station," Mostajabi said. "This will improve data collection in very remote areas not covered by radar and satellites or in places where communication systems have been cut," he added.
An Indiana school system is testing a new program that turns food that would normally go to waste into meals for children who need them.
As part of a pilot program, 20 students at Woodland Elementary School 小学）in Elkhart went home on Friday with an insulated(隔热的)backpack filled with eight frozen meals to help them get through the weekend. The program is just getting started, but it seems to be going well. Cafeteria staff stood up and clapped when the plan was announced. "It's heartbreaking, you know, seeing our kids hungry and not being able to do anything about it," said Bickel, the director of student services for Elkhart Community School.
The school partnered with Cultivate, a "food rescue" group in nearby South Bend, to prepare the meals, which include a protein(蛋白质) and a vegetable. The group comes to five Elkhart school production kitchens on Mondays, Wednesdays and Fridays to collect food that was prepared but not served. That food had been going into the garbage. Cultivate gets food from local restaurants, hospitals and other businesses as well. The University of Notre Dame athletic department and the South Bend Cubs league baseball team also donate unused food.
Cultivate is also running pilot programs with two South Bend schools. "It's been a long-term mission for myself," Cultivate co-founder Randy Z said. "I was the kid who went home with no food and didn't eat on the weekends when I was younger. "
Randy Z is getting calls from area schools and restaurants that want to get involved and from people in other parts of the United States who want to start their own programs. "Children come back to school energized and ready to go and it improves them all across the board. It's just a great thing," he said.
How to improve our memory
As we grow older, our brain's memory functions gradually lose its most important uses. . Thankfully, we can easily do something in advance and help keep it as sharp as ever. Here are some of the best tips that can help us improve our memory, according to science:
Exercise regularly
That's right, we mean physical exercise. Based on research, leading a sedentary(久坐的) lifestyle can lead to memory loss. . It's healthy for both your mind and your body.
Yes, you heard us. Get on that controller and spend a couple of hours playing your favorite video game. It's good for your mind, according to a recent study that show how these pastimes can help improve the functioning of various memory-associated regions in the brain. But don't go overboard, too much of a good thing can be bad for you.
Eat your vegetables
. Various research papers state that fruits and vegetables can help lower stress in your brain as well as help keep healthy learning functions.
Reduce stress levels
According to the research, intense and persistent(持久的) stress, especially at high levels, can easily damage our memory and disrupt our learning skills. So slow down. .
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A. Play video games. B. Challenge your brain. C. Just find a comfortable place and lie down, enjoying some soft music. D. So put on those trainers, go outside and start working up a good sweat. E. And before we get old, constant stress and an unhealthy lifestyle can easily do the same. F. You can do this by thinking quietly, or taking a walk. G. It's a well-known fact that eating vegetables can help keep you and your body healthy, and that includes your brain. |
I devoted myself to music because of my grandmother. My mum and I lived with my grandparents from the time I was two until I was eight. And even then, I was at their house before and after school every day while my mother was1.
Grandma loved music. It was she that first2me to Elvis Presley as a very young child, and once I heard his music, I was truly in3with it. Most five-year-olds ask for toys for birthdays, but I wanted Elvis' albums. I would play them non-stop and4to the music in my grandma's family room though my movements didn't look5.
Grandma played the piano and6me to sing "America the Beautiful"and "Somewhere over the Rainbow". I finally started playing music on the piano, and soon grandma was paying for me to take piano lessons from a lady living in the7. I would come home from8and walk there for my lesson. I9took about nine months of lessons, but it was enough to give me a foundation and allow me to continue to teach myself.
Last month when I came home to visit grandma in the hospital, I brought along my guitar with me.
She was in great pain, but the music seemed to10her soul. She had me sing some songs and when I started to sing "Somewhere over the Rainbow", her weakened voice11in with mine for a few lines. That experience was one of the most12of my lifetime and one I will certainly value forever. I told her of my music career and she was very13and said, "That's wonderful!" I14to play for her throughout the week I was home.
My grandma passed away two days ago. In my opinion, part of her will live on through every15I write or sing for her in my life.
From 8 a. m to 10 a. m each morning, dozens of low-income families and cleaners in the Tangqiao neighborhood would line up in front of a food bank (collect) free vegetables and fruits.
The food bank, (create) by Shanghai Oasis Ecological Conservation and Communication Center in 2014, is the first of its kind in the country. The food bank collects donated products— (usual) food items close to their "best before" dates from supermarkets, producers or restaurants. After collecting enough food, the bank donates it the needy. According to the Oasis, the (establish) of such food banks is aimed not only at saving food that otherwise would be wasted, at helping low-income people and protecting the environment.
Oasis has seen its food bank network extended (扩大……的范围) to at least 11 provincial-level (region), including Beijing, Sichuan Province, the Xinjiang Uygur Region and Liaoning Province. Oasis said that 580 tons of food worth more than 31 million (save) by the end of 2019. The food, was produced by 202 food companies, was distributed (分发) to 760,000 individuals.
It was not until recently when the country started a nationwide campaign (活动) to avoid (necessary) food wasteage that such banks have become better known.
"If Mum finds out that I'm going to the beach, I'll be in big trouble. " I said to myself softly in a low voice.
I went downstairs slowly and tried to walk quietly out of the house. As I was heading towards the back door, Mum asked, "Where are you going?" I answered without hesitation, "I am going to the garden to play. " After I got out of the house, I breathed a sigh of relief(松了口气) and ran toward the bus stop at top speed.
Half an hour later, I was at the beach playing volleyball happily with my friends, Jim and Bob.
Nearby two young men were racing in the canoes(独木舟). Suddenly, Bob hit the ball too hard and the ball fell into the sea. Just as Bob was going to pick up the ball. A wave came in and carried the ball further and further away from the shore. I wanted to show off my swimming skills so I volunteered to help get the ball.
I dived into the water and started swimming towards the ball. After swimming for about ten minutes, I became tired but when I saw the ball was only a few feet away from me, I put in an extra burst of speed. "Oh, no!" Another big wave swept the ball further away from me. Just at that moment, I found my feet got tangled(缠绕) by a string of weed（水草）and I couldn't swim properly.
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I struggled to keep myself above the water but it was no use.
