Online courses offer people abundant opportunities to learn. Try some of the Harvard online courses about humanities.
The Path to Happiness
From Confucianism to Daoism, the philosophies developed over two thousand years ago are among the most powerful in human history. This course brings voices from the past into modern contexts to explore the path to a good life today.
Duration: June 16, 2021--February 1, 2022
Fees: Free of charge
Pace: Self-paced
Difficulty: Introductory
Introduction to the Ancient Greek World
This course is about ancient Greece with its unique places, ways of life and historical changes. We survey the most important social institutions and cultural traditions. We also study everyday features such as food and dress.
Duration: June, 21-November 9, 2021
Fees: $3400+
Pace: Instructor-led
Difficulty: Introductory
Biotechnology and the Human Good
Biotechnology offers exciting and promising prospects for healing the sick and relieving the suffering. In this course we consider possible functions beyond medical treatments like making people look younger, perform better and become perfect.
Duration: June 21-August 6, 2021.
Fees: $ 3400+
Pace: Instructor-led
Difficulty: Intermediate
Superheroes and Power
What makes superheroes popular? How can they help us think about super powers? In this course, we explore those questions in Marvel and DC favorites（especially the X-Men）as well as independent comics novels.
Duration: June 22-August 6, 2021
Fees: $ 3400+
Pace: Instructor-led
Difficulty: Intermediate
A letter written to a 12-year-old girl in Lithuania was delivered in December, almost 51 years after it was sent by a pen pal in Poland. "I thought that someone was pranking me," said Genovefa Klonovska after being handed the letter, which included a handmade colored rose and two paper dolls.
The letter, together with 17 others, fell out of a ventilation hole(通风口) this summer, dirty and wrinkled, as a wall was taken down in a former post office on the suburb of Vilnius. Jurgis Vilutis, owner of the building immediately called the post office. "I'm so happy they got interested," said he.
Street names and their numbering have changed in Vilnius, and post office workers spent months looking for the right houses and talking to current renters and neighbors, tracking down where the recipients moved to. Only five were found. In several cases children of late recipients were handed a lost letter.
"We felt a moral duty to do this," said Deimante Zebrauskaite, head of the customer experience department at Lithuania Post.
One lady compared the experience to receiving a message from a bottle thrown into sea. People were emotional. "Some felt they saw a part of daily life of their deceased parents," Zebrauskaite said.
In the letter to Klonovska, sent from Koczary in Poland and stamped in 1970, a girl named Ewa complains buses no longer reach her village, so she has to walk in minus 23 degree Celsius cold, and asks for pictures of actors.
Now in her 60s, Klonovska has no memory of Ewa. She probably wrote Ewa after finding her address advertising for pen pals in a newspaper, and the relationship ceased after the letter got undelivered.
"So good that the letter didn't matter much. The loss was not life-changing," said Klonovska. "What if they delivered a lost letter from a suitor(求婚者) to his love, and their wedding never happened?"
Uggs(雪地靴) are certainly ugly, or at least inelegant. The shapeless boots, pulled on in a hurry, can make anyone look like a slob(懒惰又邋遢的人), which has made them the target of disrespect. It hasn't been hard to find someone strongly condemning them. "Ugg boots are not sexy, " The Independent declared in 2003, "unless you're Mrs. Bigfoot on alone mission across Antarctica to find Mr. Bigfoot." When wearing the boots, a writer of The Gloss complained, "There's nothing to indicate that you don't have square, horrible shoeboxes in place of human feet." In 2015, one coffee shop on Brick Lane in east London even banned uggwearers.
And yet, over the years, plenty of strange and unattractive shoes have met with the approval of the fashion establishment. The problem with uggs wasn't that they were ugly; it's that they were common.
But a funny thing happened on the way to fashion's tomb: the universal ugg has not gone anywhere. Uggs have quietly stayed here since their best time. Once you start paying attention, you'll be shocked to discover how many people are still wearing them. They are worn by mothers in town and in the country, by teenagers on Saturday shopping trips and by people in fashion.
Perhaps the secret of uggs' unstoppable success is that, if there is a dividing line between public appeal and private style, it might be a pair of cosy boots. They are certainly comfortable, soft and warm, as if your feet were in the hugging of someone who really loves you. At $150 a pair, they are neither cheap nor entirely out of range. They are casual and indulgent(纵容的).
Somehow uggs, the boots that so many people hate, have managed to challenge the cruel logic of the fashion cycle and carry on whether you approve of them or not.
"Two centuries ago, Lewis and Clark left St. Louis to explore the new lands acquired in the Louisiana Purchase," George W. Bush said, announcing his desire for a program to send men and women to Mars. They made that journey in the spirit of discovery. America has ventured forth into space for the same reasons.
Yet there are vital differences between Lewis and Clark's expedition and a Mars mission. First, they were headed to a place where hundreds of thousands of people were already living. Second, they were certain to discover places and things of immediate value to the new nation. Third, their venture cost next to nothing by today's standards. A Mars mission may be the single most expensive non-wartime undertaking in U. S. history.
Appealing as the thought of travel to Mars is, it does not mean the journey makes sense, even considering the human calling to explore. And Mars as a destination for people makes absolutely no sense with current technology.
Present systems for getting from Earth's surface to low-Earth orbit are so fantastically expensive that merely launching the 1,000 tons or so of spacecraft and equipment a Mars mission would require could be accomplished only by cutting health-care benefits, education spending, or other important programs — or by raising taxes. Absent (缺乏) some remarkable discovery, astronauts, geologists, and biologists once on Mars could do little more than analyze rocks and feel awestruck(敬畏的) staring into the sky of another world. Yet rocks can be analyzed by automated probes without risk to human life, and at a tiny portion of the cost of sending people.
It is interesting to note that when President Bush unveiled (公开) his proposal, he listed these recent major achievements of space exploration: pictures of evidence of water on Mars, discovery of more than 100 planets outside our solar system, and study of the soil of Mars. All these accomplishments came from automated probes or automated space telescopes. Bush's proposal, which calls for reprogramming some of NASA's present budget into the Mars effort, might actually lead to a reduction in such unmanned science — the one aspect of space exploration that's working really well.
Rather than spend hundreds of billions of dollars to hurl(投) tons toward Mars using current technology, why not take a decade or two or however much time is required researching new launch systems and advanced propulsion(推进力)? If new launch systems could put weight into orbit affordably, and advanced propulsion could speed up that long, slow transit (运输) to Mars, the dream of stepping onto the red planet might become reality. Mars will still be there when the technology is ready.
Public Speaking
Public speaking can be defined as the act of making a speech in front of a group of listeners.
The types of public speaking are deliberately structured with three general purposes: to inform, to persuade and to entertain. An informative speech has a purpose to inform, or give knowledge to its audience. For persuasive speech, the speaker would try to change the mindset, perception, or behavior of the audience for their own good. Thus, the speaker needs to look for common ground with the audience and try to relate to what they might agree on. The last type is a ceremonial speech. It tends to be less formal and more personal than the other types of speeches. No matter how well you know the person you are giving speech about, try not to say bad things about them, even if it is meant to be a joke.
Sparing some time to practice will help build confidence and help determine how long the presentation will last. Aside from it, knowing who the audience will be is quite necessary. Try to get as much information as possible regarding this particular area related to the audience. Knowing the "battlefield" in advance will give the speakers a huge advantage.
Language is the main aspect a speaker needs to pay attention to while giving a speech. A speaker needs to choose their words carefully and make it clear to the audience what they mean. Often, when given a speech, the audience look up to the speaker to give them something new and useful. Language and delivery alone will not be sufficient if the speaker does not have the body language. The movement and gesture of a speaker also affect the audience. While closing the speech or presentation, speakers can restate their main points, just to remind the audience of the important things that have been said.
A. It needs to be used clearly.
B. These speeches mark special occasions.
C. The important thing to watch about is not to put in too much information.
D. The key of perfecting anything is through practice, including public speaking.
E. They can also end it with a special message and encourage the audience to ask questions.
F. Knowing how public speaking is done is a key part in understanding the importance of it.
G. Thus, the speaker needs to know how to deliver their speech to fulfill the audience's expectation.
There once was an ordinary street in the suburbs where no one cared much for the gardens. The lawns were overgrown, the weeds were 1 and the hedges(树篱) desperately needed to be cut back. It looked very 2. But When the neighbors saw their 3, they just looked at each other and laughed.
It seemed too hard to 4 all the gardens and no one could be bothered to make them better because everyone's garden was 5 terrible. No one felt it was urgent to 6 anything. Then a gardener named Bill moved in. Bill was a 7, hardworking and patient man who started working in the garden as soon as he8in the street. He took his lawn mower(割草机) out to cut back the grass and pulled out all of the weeds. Finally, he took up his gardening and started 9 his hedges, making them look like flowers, plants, stones, balls, etc.
Attracted by the10, the neighbors walked by and admired the newly manicured(修剪整齐的) garden. Over some time, something interesting happened. One by one, the neighbors started to put in more 11 in their own gardens and the sounds of lawn mowers could be heard again. After a few months, the street was 12 from a dirty, unappealing collection of houses into a beautiful avenue that wouldn't be out of place in a stylish magazine.
One person's action showed everyone what could be achieved with a little 13work. It's easy for us to 14the environment around us because no one else cares about it. Remember what you positively do not only 15 yourself, but also results in a change to the whole world.
In the past eight years, China has achieved its goal of poverty reduction planned and nearly 100 million people (lift) out of poverty, according to Xi Jinping, general secretary of the Communist Party of China Central Committee.
Since the 18th National Congress of the CPC, the Party has taken lots of innovative and creative measures to reduce poverty and has launched a war poverty of the largest ever scale in the history of mankind. So far, China has adjusted the standard for absolute poverty several times to keep in line with the country's social and (economy) development.
The CPC has put the people first and made efforts to help those are in poverty-stricken area lead happy life. With eight years of continuous efforts, all rural people, based on these current (criterion) in China, have been lifted out of poverty. All (remain) counties have been removed from the country's poverty list, and absolute poverty and overall regional poverty have been eliminated, Xi said, adding that this is a remarkable victory that has (huge) impressed the world. The great victory has boosted the people's feeling of gain, happiness and safety.
字幕编写者，你想申请加入。
内容包括：1）提出申请； 2）你的优势； 3）期待加入。
注意：
写作词数应为80左右；
请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
参考词汇：英文字幕English subtitles 纪录片documentary
Dear Sir or Madam,
……
Yours,
Li hua
I am a proud mother of three children, my last little one being delivered in the middle of this pandemic. She was born in August and her name is Aida.
Shortly after having Aida, my mother-in-law Ann showed me something she learned from her friend's mother in an art class she attended weekly. She had showed me how to knit a scarf. She showed me stitches (针) and gave me her half done project.
I spent a lot of time breastfeeding my sweet little girl, so I had some extra time to do something with my hands throughout the day. I enjoyed making the scarf so I purchased tons of yarn (线) since it was winter. I wanted to make scarves for my three children as Christmas gifts.
There was a new family that moved in down the street. The only daughter of the family was Jane, a shy girl, aged 14, the same age of my oldest son David. It seemed that she came from a financially disadvantaged family, for she always wore old clothes. Worse still, in such cold days, she had no more clothes to wear and trembled with cold.
Due to the pandemic, society was thrown into crisis mode. Schools were closed, food supplies and deliveries were suspended and children were stuck at home. In such discouraging times, however, they became good companions, talking and playing at home or around the houses.
It was dreadfully cold this winter. Every time David came back from outside, with red face, he always cried, "Mum, it is freezing outside!" Then, he came over to see whether I finished the scarf. I could tell how impatient he was to wear my scarf sooner! I had to speed the project to satisfy his expectation. But David comforted me saying he could wait a few days. What a kind and considerate boy he was! Then my great art project finally was accomplished on the morning ahead of Christmas.
注意：
续写词数应为150左右；
请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Paragraph 1:
I wrapped the scarf around David's neck.
Paragraph 2:
Later that day David came back saying Jane also deserved a scarf.
