Are you interested in Chinese traditional arts? Do you want to learn how to make them by hand? If so, come and join our clubs this weekend in our school.
Sky Lantern Club
Introduction: Sky Lanterns are made of bamboo and covered with paper. They were first used to ask for help when people were in trouble. Today, they are used to show happiness and good wishes.
Time: Saturday 8: 30am— 10: 30am
Place: Building 3 Room 501
Paper Cutting Club
Introduction: Paper Cutting turns a simple thing like a piece of paper into a beautiful piece of art. Pictures about flowers, animals and so on are put on windows, doors and walls as symbols of good wishes and good luck.
Time: Saturday 9: 00an_11: 00am
Place: Building 3 Room 502
Chinese Knot Club
Introduction: Chinese Knots are usually made of red and yellow ropes. They are used to express good wishes, including happiness, love, peace and so on.
Time: Sunday 2: 30p.m —4: 30p.m
Place: Building 3 Room 603
Sandra Cisneros was born in Chicago in 1954 to a Mexican American family. As the only girl in a family of seven children, she often felt like she had "seven fathers," because her six brothers, as well as her father, tried to control her. Feeling shy and unimportant, she retreated (躲避) into books. Despite her love of reading, she did not do well in elementary school because she was too shy to participate.
In high school, with the encouragement of one particular teacher, Cisneros improved her grades and worked for the school literary magazine. Her father encouraged her to go to college because he thought it would be a good way for her to find a husband. Cisneros did attend college, but instead of searching for a husband, she found a teacher who helped her join the famous graduate writing program at the University of Iowa. At the university's Writers' Workshop, however, she felt lonely－a Mexican American from a poor neighborhood among students from wealthy families. The feeling of being so different helped Cisneros find her "creative voice".
"It was not until this moment when I considered myself truly different that my writing acquired a voice. I knew I was a Mexican woman, but I didn't think it had anything to do with why I felt so much imbalance in my life, but it had everything to do with it! That's when I decided I would write about something my classmates couldn't write about."
Cisneros published her first work, The House on Mango Street, when she was twenty-nine. The book talks about a young Mexican American girl growing up in a Spanish-speaking area in Chicago, much like the neighborhoods in which Cisneros lived as a child. The book won an award in 1985 and has been used in classes from high school to graduate school level. Since then, Cisneros has published several books of poetry, a children's book, and a short-story collection.
A snow leopard stared down from a steep rock high in the peaks of Mongolia. She was on the lookout for a snack. Noticing a wild goat below, the snow leopard rocketed down the mountainside. The wild goat struggled to escape. But with one 30-foot leap, the cat caught up. Seconds later, she was secured her meal and looked for a place to enjoy it.
These endangered cats are nearly impossible to see. Their spotted coats act as invisible cloaks(披风)by mixing into the rocky mountains of the 12 Central Asian countries where the cats live. The mountains the snow leopards call home are rough and extremely cold in the winter. But these cats have some amazing body parts that make living in the area no big deal. In addition to hiding them, a snow leopard's soft, thick fur keeps it warm in the bitter cold.
Few humans have seen snow leopards in real life, but hunting scenes like the one above have been recorded on video. Snow leopard experts need to gather more information about the secretive cats' lives to help protect them. To do that, researches use high-tech tools to spy on the shy animals. They gently trap the wild cats to put on satellite radio collars to know where the cats wander.
Even though snow leopards live in some of the most rugged mountains on Earth, people pose the biggest threat to their survival. Poachers(盗猎者)can sell a snow leopard's hide and bones for thousands of dollars. Sheepherders(牧羊人)often kill any snow leopard that attacks their sheep. Hunters target goats, wild sheep, and other animals for food-removing important snow leopard food. The more scientists can learn about snow leopards, the better they can protect these rarely seen cats from humans who harm them.
It isn't just the beauty of vast natural wonders like the Grand Canyon that can take your breath away. You can find awe in everyday things. A new research, published in the journal Emotion, found that older adults who took "awe walks" felt more positive emotions in their daily lives.
In the study, 52 older adults aged 60 to 90 were divided randomly into two groups. They were told to take at least one 15-minute walk each week for eight weeks. Volunteers in the "awe group" were instructed in how to inspire awe as they walked. "We asked them to try to see the world with fresh eyes—to take in new details of a leaf or flower, for example," Sturm says. For example, one participant from the awe group wrote about "the beautiful fall colors and how the leaves were no longer crunchy(嘎吱响) underfoot because of the rain"—the wonder that small children feel as they embrace their expanding world. However, people in the other group were less focused on the world around them. One participant wrote, "I thought about our vacation in Hawaii next Thursday."
In addition, participants were asked to take selfies(自拍) in the beginning, middle, and end of each walk. Researchers found that participants who took awe walks showed a "small self", in that they filled less of their photographs with their own image and more with the background scenery. "When we feel awe, our attention shifts from focusing on ourselves to focusing on the world around us," Sturm says. " Awe affects our social relationships because it helps us to feel more connected with the world, universe, and other people." Their smiles also grew broader by the end of the study. "We analyzed the intensity of their smiles in the selfies, and participants who took awe walks displayed greater smiles over time than those who took control walks. The former reported greater positive emotions in general, including more joy and gratitude."
Participants in the control group took more frequent walks than those people in the awe group, the researchers discovered. But walking more didn't result in positive changes in emotional health or in the way their selfies were taken. This suggests that the results were mainly due to experiencing awe, and not just in spending time exercising.
It comes as no surprise that exercise is good for your health. Positive changes happen to your body before, during, and after a workout.
Build up your body
There are quite a few scientific reasons to do strength training. It makes muscles (肌肉) bigger and bones stronger, thus lowering the risk for certain diseases. Running is an easy but effective way to help build your muscles. But a recent study found that a short run can benefit the legs in the short term. And for now, experts say running has more benefits than risks.
Improve your brainpower
Exercise can help your brain, not just your body. Physical activity helps brain cells (细胞) grow. That's because physical exercise quickly increases a person's heart rate and carries more blood to the brain, improving the brainpower.
Establish a mind-body connection
Too much stress can lead to inflammation (炎症). But simple mind-body exercises like yoga can not only reduce inflammation but also lower the risk of depression. New research shows they can even change your genes to fight off poor health. Research proves that even just 15 minutes a day of practicing mindfulness seems to do the trick.
National guidelines recommend more than two hours of physical activity each week. But science says people who pack that amount into one or two days get about the same benefits. Either way, get moving is the key!
A. It is the body's painful response to injury and overuse.
B. Mindful exercises can improve your long-term well-being.
C. Then what is the proper amount of exercise you should take?
D. And moving more appears to lower the chances of memory loss.
E. Recent research shows more detail about the benefits of exercise.
F. Exercise can also help people deal better with anger and feel happier.
G. Some believe the activity can damage the knees or cause other injuries.
Spreading Kindness, Rock by Rock
"Mom! I found one! I found a rock!"
I 1 those words again and again last summer as I sat on the porch of my home, which faces a park in the small town where I live.
The Kindness Rocks Project, which was started a few years ago by a mom in Massachusetts, has 2 around the world. 3, families, and adults of all ages are taking part-painting rocks, hiding rocks, and finding painted rocks all over the place. Some 4 photos of the rocks on social media, and others simply move the rocks for someone else to find. Some take the rocks home and then 5 them with new ones that they create and hide.
Nine-year-old twins Harry and Hannah DeVrieze have 6 hundreds of rocks with their parents. Most evenings, the family and their small dog walk around with a wagon full of 7 that they hide as they walk.
"It's a fun 8 activity," Hannah says.
"We will do it in the winter too," Harry 9. Ben Burinsky, aged nine, and his brother, Luke, aged seven, were visiting relatives when they 10 their first painted rock in a park. They were so 11 that they went home and painted their own rocks, then 12 them for others to find.
"My boys loved finding the rock in the park, 13 since it was a superhero," their mother, Judy Burinsky, says. "I love how something so small can bring a smile to my children's faces. 14 , they learn the 15 of giving back to others."
Everywhere survivors looked, there was nothing ruins. Nearly everything in the city (destroy). About 75percent of the city's factories and buildings, 90 percent of its homes, and all of its hospitals were (go). Bricks covered the ground like red autumn leaves, but no wind could blow (they) away. Most bridges (fall)or were not safe to cross. The railway (track) were now useless pieces of metal. Tens of thousands of cows, hundreds of thousands of pigs, and millions of chickens (be) dead. Sand now filled the wells instead of water. People were in shock—and then, later that afternoon, another big quake (shake) Tangshan again. Even more buildings (fall) down. Water, food, and electricity were hard to get. People began to wonder how long the disaster last.
You love your smartphone. It keeps your email readily accessible, and it helps you to stay connected to friends near and far. It's harmless, right?
Wrong. Smartphone addiction is a real concern, especially as people become increasingly dependent on gadgets to conduct daily activities. If you fear your devotion to your smartphone is bordering on addiction, here are eight signs. If you had some of them, it might be time to seek help:
· You text people who are in the same room with you.
· Your phone goes everywhere with you-even the bathroom.
· You sleep with your phone.
· You don't know how to turn your phone off.
· Your self-esteem is tied to how many notifications you get.
· You panic if your phone is out of sight.
· You'd rather be late than arrive without your phone.
· You can't stop peeking at the screen, even during a movie or your favourite TV show.
What smartphone addiction looks like
Some of those signs may seem very silly, but they are real indicators that your dependence on your smartphone is reaching critical levels.
An addiction has no real danger unless they are disruptive to your life. But that doesn't mean a strong attachment to your smartphone is completely harmless. Difficulty in concentrating, poor sleep, and increased anxiety-not to mention damage to interpersonal relationships and communication skills-have all been linked to smartphone overuse.
How to take your life back
It's easy to shrug off smartphone addiction as a silly overreaction, but if you identify with two or more of the signs listed above, you may want to consider cutting back.
Here are some easy ways to use your smartphone properly:
Set limits
Start by setting some guidelines to help you manage your usage.
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Watch your feelings
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Find other comforts to replace smartphones
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为 150 左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
3）续写部分分为三段，每段的开头语已为你写好；
4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。
