A study by the Institute for Employment Studies found that older learners reported higher life enjoyment and greater confidence. The following apps will help you to learn something new.
1. Quizlet
Whether you're brushing up on a language, gardening knowledge and cooking techniques, or getting to grips with your favourite literature classics, the online learning platform, Quizlet, gives you access to over 300 million different study sets on almost any subject you can imagine—for free.
Whether you are learning a skill yourself or helping your child or grandchild revise their school work, Quizlet is a great study platform for mastering any subject.
2. Babbel
As well as being a great skill to show off on holiday, learning a new language can have profound effects on the way you approach problem-solving and might even give you a leg-up in your career.
With classes designed to be 10-15 minutes long, Babbel encourages learning in short, yet achievable, bursts. So this summer, whether you're on the beach soaking up some sun, or simply relaxing at home, why not give language learning a try?
3. Blinkist
Blinkist is the perfect app to assist you this summer, providing the key highlights from non-fiction books in both audio and text form.
Whether you want to start a new business, improve your management skills, or achieve a better work/life balance, micro-learning app Blinkist takes key ideas from non-fiction texts and transform them into easy-to-consume 15-minute digests.
4. Remente
Stress is something that most of us face on a daily basis—be it at work or at home—and continual worry and stress can be harmful to our health.
Today, there are tools that can help you, like the mental health app Remente. Whether the aim is to improve mental wellbeing, stress or personal or professional relationships, Remente guides a user through every step in order to make their goals a reality.
Getting to Antarctica is not easy. The few who are lucky enough to visit this most mysterious continent do so by ships. To reach Antarctica, ships must pass through a notoriously violent area of ocean called the Drake Passage, considered to be the roughest stretch of sea on the planet.
Walls of water thirty, sometimes forty feet high continually crashed about our ship for two solid days. We would hold on to a rope inside the ship while being violently tipped to one extreme side, then to the other, and then back again. My daughter Claire and I were as mentally prepared as we could be.
About two and a half days after entering the Drake Passage, the waters calmed. Soon, we noticed small black spots on nearby pieces of floating ice. Emperor penguins! Then, we began the two-mile hike over the ice to the penguin colony. Within several hundred yards, little clusters of emperors, perhaps ten or so at a time, greeted us, sliding on their bellies and making their wonderful noises, sort of a nasally squeal.
One day two adult emperors with their three chicks in tow approached Claire, who was resting on the ice. They left the chicks with her, as if she were the babysitter. Twenty minutes later they returned to collect the chicks. And I will never forget the penguin that, when I jokingly asked which way back to the helicopters, pointed a wing in the correct direction. Every night aboard our safe and warm ship, we thought about what it takes to survive in Antarctica, an incredibly harsh place.
But each day on the ice, we also thought about the Drake passage, that monstrous body of water we had to endure to get where we were. Over the course of our visit, we came to respect the power of that sea. We still talk about the penguins, as I'm sure we always will. But we talk about the Drake too. Both experiences were unforgettable, and one would not have been possible without the other.
Black history museums and historic sites are thriving or growing forcefully across the South. They're riding a wave of interest in African-American history that's made a stunning success of the 2-year-old National Museum of African American History and Culture in the nation's capital.
Attendance at some large museums is decreasing. Twelve of the 20 biggest U.S. museums saw flat or lower attendance from 2016 to 2017. In comparison, various activities involving black history stand out.
In Church Creek, Maryland, for example, a 1-year-old, 17-acre state-national park memorializes the place where Harriet Tubman was born and enslaved. Tubman escaped slavery and later helped many others escape, too. The park was expected to draw 75,000 visitors its first year. However, it attracted 100,000.
History professionals cite several factors for the phenomenon. The Black Lives Matter movement, conflicts over Confederate monuments, protests by NFL players and last year's violence in Charlottesville, Virginia, also have made a difference. These activities have caused more Americans to consider how race affects them.
When the national museum opened, "We thought that might have the impact of gaining the public spotlight. Just the opposite," said Moore, president of Charleston, South Carolina's International African American Museum. It has jump-started more presentations of black history. "There are art museums everywhere, and there are history museums everywhere. I see it as really healthy that there will be African-American museums everywhere."
States also are spending money to promote civil rights tourism. 14 Southern state tourism agencies in January launched a website detailing stops on what they are calling the U.S. Civil Rights Trail. The South Carolina African American Heritage Commission last year created a "Green Book" mobile app. It includes 300 historic African-American sites in South Carolina."Cultural tourism, or heritage tourism, is one of the fastest growing markets in the country," said Jannie Harriot. She is the vice chairperson of the South Carolina commission."(But) nothing that we do is limited to black people. Sometimes I think white people are more interested in our history than we are."
There are many interconnected links between Earth and space exploration. The Earth and Space Foundation(基金会), was founded for the purposes of developing such links by field research and direct practical action.
Projects that have been supported by the Foundation include environmental projects using technologies of space exploration: satellite communications, GPS, remote sensing, advanced materials and power sources. For example, the people of Guatemala are faced with the loss of the forests on which their livelihood depends. Rather than opposing economic progress and trying to save the forests on their own strengths, one new approach is to improve the value of the forests. The Foundation has previously given a fund to a group of explorers that used remote sensing to plan eco-tourism routes in the forests of Guatemala, thus bringing income to the local populations through tourism. This novel approach is now making the protection of the forests a reasonable economic decision.
The Foundation funds many archaeological(考古学的) field projects, which reflect the contributions of the early civilization to astronomy(天文学) and space sciences. The Foundation helped fund a large archaeology project by the Society for Syrian Archaeology at the University of California, Los Angeles. It worked with the Syrian government and used GPS and satellite imagery to locate banks of earth, or 'tels', containing treasures and relics of ancient civilizations. These collections are being used to build a better picture of the nature of the civilizations that gave birth to astronomy.
Field research also applies the Earth's environmental and biological resources to the human exploration and settlement of space. This may include the use of remote environments on Earth, as well as physiological and psychological studies in harsh environments. In one research project, the Foundation gave financial support to an international caving expedition to study the psychology of explorers in caves in Mexico for a period of time. The results of the tests were used by the NASA Johnson Space Center to improve US astronaut selection standard. Besides, a Mars-like programme has been launched in one area in the the Arctic, whose environment is similar to the Mars', to test communications and exploration technologies in preparation for the human exploration of Mars.
Active listening is a way of communicating that can increase understanding between a speaker and a listener. Its goal is to have an open sharing of ideas and feelings. It shows respect and consideration for the person speaking.
Active listening is very useful for family members. Family members often develop bad listening habits. They react to each other based on what they expect the other person to say rather than on what is actually said.
Miscommunication or lack of understanding between co-workers can lead to hurt feelings, which in turn can make it difficult for people to work together. Active listening can solve such issues and create greater understanding and team spirit among co-workers.
For example, someone is unexpectedly rude to their co-worker, or seems inconsiderate of their needs. The co-worker might feel hurt, or they might become angry and begin to dislike that person. Active listening can help resolve such problems. Meanwhile the co-worker is given a chance to explain and maybe even apologize.
It could be that the rude co-worker was going through a difficult time at home or on the job and was unaware of how bad his or her behavior was. By listening respectfully, another person might learn more about that co-worker's situation. In this way, situations that could turn into major conflicts instead lead to greater understanding.
Sometimes people do not communicate with those they are close to because they fear the other person's reaction. Rather than saying, for example, "It really hurts my feelings when you behave like that way" ,the partner might say nothing at all in order to avoid a fight. If the partners actively listen to each other, though, they can fully explain how they feel, and this can help avoid any hurt feelings.
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A. Active listening can also be useful in the workplace. B. Active listening provides a way to break this pattern. C. However, the hurt feelings remain and can build up over time. D. So the family can be expected to be harmonious. E. You can be sure that co-worker's problems must all be solved. F. It allows a person to say how they feel about their co-worker's behavior. G. And he also gains that co-worker's appreciation for their willingness to listen. |
The definition of community has evolved (升华) for me from childhood to the young adult I am now. My mom was born in America but both her parents were from the Bahamas. It was their1to take care of the elderly and the sick. And my mom has2me to be caring to those around us because we're all a part of the "community", an3of family.
When I was 9 years old, my family moved to Cape Coral, Florida. Both mom and dad worked full-time, so they registered me to4in an after-school program at the Youth Center. Youth counselors (辅导员) would help me with my homework and play games with me and this was where my5took root. Community service started with me6at the Youth Center.
Then7struck at home. My grandmother had to have heart surgery and needed hospital treatment. This experience brought me to8at Cape Coral Hospital. I asked if I could learn from the9 how to give my grandma her medicine and it started here.
I loved being at Cape Coral Hospital. I would bring paperwork to other doctors, bring food to the patients, and make sure the patients were10. I would help direct visitors to see patients. I would always tell what would11the patients up because I had built a relationship with them and their loved ones. I grew to feel the hospital was a part of my12.
After volunteering at the Youth Center and at the Hospital, I've learned that people become sort of an extended family when you13them. Now I am more14of those close to me, neighbors and even15who share my resources.
The Clay Figure Zhang is a famous folk art in Tianjin. The Clay Figure Zhang
(develop) during the Daoguang Period of the Qing Dynasty (be) the most famous and has a history of 180 years.
The Clay Figure Zhang was created by Zhang Mingshan, folk artist of Tianjin. He had been living his life by (make) clay figures with his father since childhood because of the (poor) of his family. Clever and imaginative, Zhang often observed people from all walks of life in the market and various roles in the theatre, then secretly kneaded（捏制）clay figures in his sleeves. His unique art earned (he) worldwide reputation and household love from the common people who kindly nicknamed him Clay Figure Zhang. The images of Clay Figure Zhang vary from palace maids in costume, historic figures, religious figures, and modern figures local customs. The painted sculptures are not only similar in shape, but also lifelike with their vivid forms. (usual) it is displayed indoors, due to the small size. That is it is also called shelf sculptures.
1）开课目的。
2）内容及安排。
3）选课建议。
注意：
1）写作词数应为80左右；
2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Dear Mike，
How's everything going?
Yours,
Li Hua
I was sitting next to Missy in my ninth-grade world history class when Mrs. Bartlett announced a new project. In groups, we were to create a newspaper around the culture we were studying.
On a piece of paper, we wrote the names of three friends we wanted in our group. After collecting all the requests, Mrs. B. informed us that she would take into consideration the names we chose and would let us know the results the next day. I had no doubt I would get the group of my choice. Missy was one of my friends. I knew we had chosen each other.
The next day, I anxiously expected the class. After the bell rang, Missy and I stopped talking as Mrs. B called for our attention. She started to call out names. When she reached group three, Missy's name was called. "So I'm in group three," I thought. The second, third and fourth members of the group were called. My name was not included. There had to be some mistake!
Then I heard it. The last group: "Mauro, Juliette, Rachel, Karina." I could feel the tears well in my eyes. How could I face being in that group—the boy who barely spoke English, the one girl who was always covered by skirts that went down to her ankles, and the other girl who wore weird (怪异的) clothes. Oh, how badly I wanted to be with my friends.
I fought back tears as I walked up to Mrs. B. She looked at me and knew what I was there for. I was determined to convince her I should be in the "good" group. "Why?" I started.
She gently placed a hand on my shoulder. "I know what you want, Karina," she said, "but your group needs you. I need you to help them get a passing grade on this task. Only you can help them."
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。
I was amazed after hearing what she said.
Finally the result of assignment came out.
