College visits are important. Before you commit years of your life and money to a school, be sure you're choosing a place that is a good match for your personality and interests. You can't get the “feel” of a school from any guidebook, so be sure to visit the campus. Below are a few tips for getting the most out of your college visit.
Explore on Your Own
Of course you should take the official campus tour, but be sure to allow time to hang around on your own. The trained tour guides will show you a school's selling points. But the oldest and prettiest buildings don't give you the entire picture of a college. Try to walk the extra mile and get the complete picture of the campus.
Read the Bulletin Boards
When you visit the student center, academic buildings and residence halls, take a few minutes to read the bulletin boards. They provide an easy way to see what's happening on campus. The ads for lectures, clubs and plays can tell you what's going on outside the classrooms.
Eat in the Dining Hall
You can get a good feel for student life by eating in the dining hall. Try to sit with students if you can. Do the students seem happy or stressed? Also, is the food good? Are there adequate healthy options? Many admission offices will give prospective students coupons (优惠券) for free meals in the dining halls.
Visit a Class in Your Major
If you know what you want to study, a class visit makes a lot of sense. You'll get to observe other students in your field and see how involved they are in classroom discussion. Try to stay after class for a few minutes and chat with the students to get their impressions of their professors and major. Be sure to call in advance to schedule a classroom visit—most colleges don't allow visitors to drop in at class unannounced.
Talk to Lots of Students
Your campus tour guide has been trained to market the school. Try to talk to students who aren't getting paid to impress you. These important conversations can often provide you with information about college life that isn't part of the admission script. Few university officials will tell you if their students spend all weekend drinking or studying, but a group of random students might.
For more tips, please go to collegeapps.about.com.
Over the past couple of days, on our local Freecycle page there have been a lot of wanted posts, all from the same person, basically asking for everything you'd need to set up a house from scratch.
One of the things they asked for was a queen-sized bed. At that time we just happened to have an extra one, so I messaged them. They immediately came in the afternoon. The people who came, two ladies and a man, are actually friends of another woman named Jenny who owned a young boy. This woman has escaped from a dangerous, violent relationship and these friends of hers are helping her and her son start over again, with everything from furniture to toothbrushes on their list of needs.
While they were here, I also gave them one of our spare bookcases and some coffee cups. I even asked them to keep in touch in case they needed anything else－I have a way of connecting people with things. I offered the woman a cupboard we had as well; her friends just needed to see if there was a place and /or a need for it in their friend's new home.
I was so excited to meet those loving people, who were obviously willing to help their friend. It was clear how protective they felt of this woman and her boy, how much they love her and wanted her to have a happy and safe life, and to spend even a few minutes with people like that is an experience I'll remember for a long, long time.
A quick thank-you to all who have sent more donations over the last couple of days, as well as lovely messages of thanks and blessings. Sometimes it's hard to keep up with it all, but it's a problem I'm happy to have.
Breathing dirty air comes at a high price. Air pollution lowers the average life spans (寿命) by a year worldwide and in more polluted parts of Asia and Africa, dirty air shortens lives up to twice that much. Scientists shared their new findings in Environmental Science & Technology Letters. The study used data gathered in 2016 as part of a project known as the Global Burden of Disease and was the first major country-by-country look at the connection between the length of life and what's known as fine PM.
Air pollution has been linked to many health problems. Most earlier studies had looked at how tiny air pollutants affected rates of illness or death. Joshua Apte is an environmental scientist at the University of Texas at Austin. By looking at life expectancy (预期寿命), his team had hoped to make the threat easier to understand. PM2.5 is what scientists call tiny particles (颗粒) of pollution in the air. Higher levels of PM2.5 can cause health problems and cut months, if not years, from the average length of life. This analysis shows how pollution affects life expectancy in different parts of the world.
The World Health Organization (WHO) recommends limiting PM2.5 to 10 micrograms per cubic meter of air. Apte's group calculated how holding pollution to this low level would help people. In countries with very dirty air, meeting this standard would lengthen people's lives. However, in countries whose air already meets this standard, the study shows no gain in life expectancy. In other words, meeting the WHO standard won't reduce health costs resulting from dirty air because even below 10 micrograms per cubic meter, pollution still causes serious risks. Meanwhile, the scientists compared how other threats including smoking and cancer shorten the length of life across the globe.
While every dog owner knows their dogs can read their moods perfectly, scientists have always been a little doubtful. Now thanks to some researchers at the University of Veterinary Medicine in Vienna, Austria, we finally have some convincing evidence.
For their study, biologist Corsin Müller and his team exposed eleven selected dogs to digital images of women that were either angry or happy. Half the dogs were rewarded for touching the screen when shown a happy face, while the other half got their treat for selecting those that appeared angry.
Interestingly, the dogs were not provided with the entire face. Some dogs were shown only upper halves while the others observed lower halves. That's because the scientists believe humans show their emotions on their entire face.
After some training like how to recognize small differences like the wrinkles between the eyes or the changes in their shape that accompany the happy or angry expressions, the dogs were mostly able to identify the correct expression not only on a familiar face but on a strange face. The researchers concluded the dogs were smart enough to read human emotions.
They also found those being trained to read angry expressions took a longer time to learn. They guess it may be because dogs find angry faces disgusting, causing them to withdraw quickly. However, once the smart dogs realized they were getting rewarded, the trepidation seemed to disappear. In fact, the dogs had such a good time playing the computer “game” that scientists had a hard time keeping them away from the touch screens after the study was completed.
The researchers also noticed only dogs with a male owner had a harder time understanding the expressions correctly. Since the touchscreen models were all females, this confirmed what has been observed in previous dog studies—dogs are more efficient at reading facial expressions of people that are the same gender as their owner.
Most people will agree that it is good to read, but not all reading is equal. Here are some tips for productive reading.
Take notes.
Even if you never refer to your notes again, the process of taking notes helps you sort out something important and will help you remember it. You can choose between computers or paper for your notes.. On the other hand, many people feel they recall information better when they write it by hand.
.
If you are like me, once you commit to reading a book, it is very hard to give up until you've finished it. Given the number of books that are available and our limited life, it just doesn't make sense to read a book that you aren't getting anything from.
Variety is good.
While you don't want to give up on a book that you are benefiting from, it is important to give yourself variety. You can pick up a book at random or intentionally looking for something different from what you normally read. .
Review what you've read.
If you want to remember what you read, take the time to review.. When you finish a book, spend 15 minutes examining your notes in 2 to 4 days. Then 2 to 4 weeks after that and then 2 to 4 months after that. This will strengthen the knowledge in your mind.
Discuss what you read with others.
. If you can talk with people in person, that is ideal, but don't overlook the power of the Internet in connecting people with similar interests but different geography.
A. Don't be afraid to give up
B. Make full use of reading time
C. It's hard to get more out of your normal reading
D. This can be very valuable in giving you a different opinion
E. And you'd better go over things at ever-increasing time intervals
F. Using computers will make it easy to find your notes later by search
G. The best way to get more from your reading is to discuss it with others
Since I was a child, I always knew my dream was to be a famous singer even though I didn't know how to get there. Though I have read The Magic and Hero multiple times 1 I was 12 years old, it was 2 a couple of years ago that I really started taking it seriously.
Since then, everything has 3 in front of my eyes. With complete faith I moved to London to study 4 and it was one of the most amazing years of my life. I began to make friends for life and I became the happy 5 person. And my dream was more 6 than ever. And I didn't want to be just a 7, but the one that inspires people and 8 a message of love and happiness.
A year later I figured out it was time for a change and to 9 my professional music career. So I 10 a music business degree in a music university. Although some people said it didn't 11, I knew it was the right way. In one of the university seminars, a creative director talked about their acts and how they 12 young artists and introduce them to successful record labels(唱片公司).
From that moment I knew I wanted to be 13 with them. It felt like it was a good 14 even though few artists per year could succeed. Sometimes I had 15 and setbacks. Then in a series of events I met a girl in a management company. But I was 16 since the company only has 20 employees. What are the chances? Anyway I 17 to her a demo of one of my songs.
I didn't hear from her for two weeks but I still imagined the 18 of me signing the contract. Then out of the blue, I got a call 19 they were really interested in me. I'm so happy because I know I'm one step 20 to my dream. Fast forward one month, I finally got to sign with them!
