6 . Non-Credit Courses

The Pre-College Program offers non-credit courses. Students will experience college-level courses given by some of our college’s leading experts and will receive written feedback (反馈) on their work at the end of the course. Pre-College students will also receive a grade of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory and a certificate of completion at the conclusion of the program.

All non-credit courses meet from 9:00 a. m.-11:30 a. m. daily and may have additional requirements in the afternoons or evenings.

COURSE: Case Studies in Neuroscience

·June 11— July 2

·Leah Roesch

Using student-centered, active-learning methods and real-world examples, this course is designed to provide a fuller understanding of how the human brain works.

COURSE: Psychology of Creativity

·June 15—June 28

·Marshall Duke

Why are certain people so creative? Is it genetic (遗传的), or a result of childhood experience? Are they different from everyone else? This popular psychology course highlights the different theories of creativity.

COURSE: Creative Storytelling

·June 21 — July 3

·Edith Freni

This college-level course in creative storytelling functions as an introduction to a variety of storytelling techniques that appear in different forms of creative writing, such as short fiction and playwriting.

COURSE: Sports Economics

·July 19 — August 1

·Christina DePasquale

In this course we will analyze many interesting aspects of the sports industry: sports leagues, ticket pricing, salary negotiations, discrimination, and NCAA policies to name a few.

7 . Our lives changed tracks the day our daughter was born. My wife and I felt _______in the UK-we'd even bought a house 6 months earlier—but the _______of our daughter forced a moment of _______.We wondered whether we should _______to our native Brazil.I remembered looking down at our newborn baby and thinking about how _______her life would be there.In our native country, we'd be closer to our family and _______.But in the UK, I had the funding and lab resources I needed for my _______and highly specialized research program.Would such a move_______career?

Then, a few weeks later, I received a call from my brother, who told me that our father had passed away.The great_______I had about my daughter's birth suddenly gave way to a deep sadness.I felt that I was ________precious time with my loved ones.After that,we had no ________that it was the right time to move back to Brazil.We applied for the professorships in our hometown and both received________

It wasn't ________to start my research in Brazil, however.I didn't receive any start-up funding for my lab.I was able to perform a few experiments myself ________the expensive reagents(试剂）I had brought with me from my lab in the UK, as well as equipment I__________with other Brazil professors.Eventually, I________Brazilian funding, which allowed me to ________a team of bright undergraduate and graduate students and buy reagents and lab equipment on my own.

Looking back, I'm ________that my wife and I made the ________to move back to our home country.I was able to ________Brazilian jujitsu (柔术）training, which I hadn't been able to do during my years abroad.

8 . Each year, half a million people die from brain aneurysms（动脉瘤）—when a blood vessel（血管）bursts in the brain. An aneurysm is a bulge（膨胀）in a blood vessel that can burst. If that happens in the brain, it can be deadly. For survivors, physical disabilities are often severe. They may include memory problems, loss of balance, trouble speaking and even blindness. But new technologies are increasing survival rates and reducing disabilities.

Beaumont Bacon is a survivor who makes light of her experience because she is a comedian（喜剧演员）. She uses humor to make others laugh. Now she’s working on a new show. Michael Alexander is her doctor. He operated on Beaumont Bacon after her attack. “She had bleeding in the frontal area of her brain, so right above the eyes. The part that was in the brain was about maybe the size of an egg. So, that’s a fairly large bleed.”

Ms. Bacon had a better chance at survival than most people because of Dr. Alexander. He directs the Neurovascular Center in Los Angeles. The center offers new technologies that include placing a catheter（导管）into an aneurysm, then threading wires to promote blood clots（血栓）. This technique reduces the chances of another burst blood vessel. “You don’t have to open up the skull（头盖骨）or open up the brain to do surgery. It’s all done from inside the blood vessels. So it reduces the amount of blood loss, and the recovery is much faster.”

For Beaumont Bacon’s recovery, the hospital worked to prevent problems commonly found in patients with a burst aneurysm. The problems include brain swelling that can shut down blood vessels. She spent a month in a coma（昏迷）—unable to communicate with doctors, friends and loved ones. But with a year of treatment, she recovered. Now, she is making people laugh.

9 . Another person’s enthusiasm was what set me moving toward the success I have achieved. That person was my stepmother.

I was nine years old when she entered our home in rural （乡下的）Virginia. My father _______ me to her with these words: "I would like you to meet the fellow who is _______ for being the worst boy in this county and will probably start throwing rocks at you no _______ than tomorrow morning. "

My stepmother walked over to me, _______ my head slightly upward, and looked me right in the eye. Then she looked at my father and replied, "You are _______ .This is not the worst boy at all, _______ the smartest one who hasn't yet found an outlet（释放的途径）for his enthusiasm."

That statement began a（n） _______ between us. No one had ever called me smart, My family and neighbors had built me up in my _______ as a bad boy. My stepmother changed all that.

She changed many things. She _______ my father to go to a dental school, from which he graduated with honors. She moved our family into the county seat, where my father's career could be more ________and my brother and I could be better ________ .

When I turned fourteen, she bought me a secondhand ________ and told me that she believed that I could become a writer. I knew her enthusiasm, I ________ it, and I saw how it had already improved our lives. I accepted her ________ and began to write for local newspapers. I was doing the same kind of ________that great day I went to interview Andrew Carnegie and received the task which became my life's work later. I wasn't the ________ beneficiary（受益者）.My father became the ________ man in town. My brother and stepbrothers became a physician, a dentist, a lawyer, and a college president.

What power ________ has! When that power is released to support the certainty of one's purpose and is ________ strengthened by faith, it becomes an irresistible（不可抗拒的）force which poverty and temporary   defeat can never ________ .

You can communicate that power to anyone who needs it. This is probably the greatest work you can do with your enthusiasm.

10 . The crocodile (鳄鱼) is an amazing animal. Why are they amazing? Crocodiles are experts at survival. Scientists say they first appeared 200 million years ago and have lived longer than the dinosaurs by some 65 million years. One reason why they are such good survivors is that they can go for a very long time without eating. And they are expert hunters! They use their strong jaws to bite their prey (猎物) and then they swallow food whole. Another amazing fact about crocodiles is: When they lose a tooth, they grow one right back. A crocodile can go through 8,000 teeth in one lifetime!

While these facts are interesting, they really do not help to explain today’s expression: crocodile tears. Simply put, crocodile tears are fake sadness. You pretend to cry and feel bad or something when in fact you could not care less. A great word to describe crocodile tears is insincere.

The expression “crocodile tears” comes from an old story that crocodiles would cry tears as a fake show of guilt or sorrow to trick their prey. The prey would come closer and then become dinner. We know now that the story is not true. Scientists explain that crocodiles do produce tears. That is because while eating, they swallow too much air; which gets in touch with lachrymal glands (glands that produce tears) and forces tears to flow. But they’re not actually crying. Crying is purely emotional and is reserved for us humans.

When you use it, take some advice. You do not have to have actual tears flowing down your face to have “crocodile tears”. Sometimes, crocodile tears are worse than insincere. Those are the times when you are showing sadness but actually in your heart, you are quite happy about the situation.