1 . Short field trips to local businesses can help English learners begin to try out their language skills. This lesson plan helps provide structure for your learners for a field trip.

●To develop speaking skills with native speakers other than the teacher.

●Short field trips to local businesses, government offices and other sites of interest.

●All levels except for absolute beginners.

●Begin the lesson with a short warm-up. Take shopping for example, Ideally, share with the students your first shopping in English locally, Invite the students to tell about their own stories.

●Gather information around the theme. For example, if students look into purchasing a home theater system, one group could explore the options for TVs, one group for surround sound and another group for blue-ray players, etc.

●Have students break up into groups of three to four and each group divides their own tasks into at least four separate parts. For example, in the example of buying a home theater system, the group responsible for researching TV options might have three tasks: Which size is best for which living situation? Which cables are required? What is the best payment option?

●Circulate in the room, helping students with their questions.

●Ask each group to role play situations depending on the context, like salesperson, tourist agency representative, employment officer, etc,

Here are some ideas to use as homework to help review what students have leaned on their short field trips:

●Create short role-plays based on their experiences.

●Draw up vocabulary trees employing new vocabulary studied during their short field trip.

●Short writing assignments summarizing their experience.

●Group reports back to class.

2 . Born in Beijing in 1981, Qi Haonan graduated from the capital’s North China University of Technology in 2004, majoring in mechanical automation. Qi said that when he heard there was a job opening at the Palace Museum, he decided to apply, adding that visiting the museum’s gallery of clocks built up his decision. “These timepieces opened my mind to clocks. They are mechanical wonders combining technology and art,” he said.

In 2005, he joined the cultural relics restoration department at the Palace Museum, becoming a student of Wang, the museum’s third generation watchmaker. “In the beginning, everything in the palace was fresh to me. It made me excited to even think about repairing old-fashioned clocks,” Qi said. But reality soon dampened his passion. There is ad rule for apprentices: For the first year, you can look, but don’t touch.

From 8 am to 5 pm every day for that first year, Qi checked and took apart watches and clocks collected from friends to practice finding problems. It took him a year of this repetitive routine before he could finally get his hands on the small French clock in the museum. “It is ad job that requires extreme patience, because clock restoration is a very long and careful process,” he said, adding that it is clear evidence of the old saying “haste makes waste” and, in this case, haste can do a great deal of damage.

Although the old clock repairing techniques at the Palace Museum were listed as a national intangible cultural heritage in 2014, it was a little-known skill and in short supply of career practitioners before 2016, when three-part TV documentary, Masters in the Forbidden City, made the profession known to the nation. Qi didn’t expect that the documentary would make that profession cause a stir. As a result, in 2017, Qi got two apprentices and Wang got three.

3 . Come to Adrian to Escape Heatwave

The July heatwave is coming. Here are some places to help you beat the heat and get some needed relief in Adrian.

To provide comfort from the elements, Adrian will not charge admission to the Bohn Pool on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. Young children under 9 years old must be accompanied by an adult at all times while at the pool. To contact the pool director, dial 517-264-4886.

The newly installed splash pad at Parish Park is open daily to the community at no cost from 9:00 am to 8:00 pm. People can cool off while enjoying the splash. Those with questions about the splash pad should call the pad director at 517-264-4807.

The Christian Family Centre is a good spot where people can go to get out of the heat. It is open to the public in the event of extreme weather and offers public showers, restrooms and locker rooms as well as Wi-Fi for those affected by heat and weather emergencies. To contact the centre, dial 517-263-6232.

The Lenawee Intermediate School District offers a cooling centre for those of the community who are seeking the means to stay cool during weather emergencies. Members of the community are encouraged to call ahead and check the availability of services. Calls should be placed between 8:00 am and 5:00 pm, Monday through Friday at 517-265-1709.

5 . The Masai(马赛人) are continually trying to keep their own ways in an increasingly modern world. They live along the border of Kenya and Tanzania in East Africa, moving their homes from time to time to follow their cattle, the source of their livelihood. They rely on their cattle in many parts of their life. They like drinking the cows’ milk.

They don’t kill their cattle for food. But if a cow is killed, the parts of its body are used to make containers, shoes, clothin,   ropes, bed coverings and so on. Not all of the men have cows. The more cattle a man owns, the richer he is considered to be. A man who owns 50 or fewer cattle is considered poor. Rich men have a thousand or more. The cattle, though owned by the man, are considered to belong to the man’s entire family. The family names the cattle and can recognize each animal’s special voice.

The Masai men have become known as warriors(勇士), protecting their cattle against other wild animals. They wear their red long hair. Most women often take care of their children, cook food, clean clothes and make clothing at home. They also make necklaces dresses and headdresses. A few women can also become authorities once they are powerful enough. They speak a language called Maa.

The houses of Masai made from sticks and grass, which are held together with a mixture of mud, are not very firm or safe. These plain houses with some basic supplies are built in a circle and make up a Masai village. They are not meant to last long since the migration(迁徙) of the cow population means that the Masai move as well. In the meantime, in order to prevent animals from entering, they also form a wall of branches. The whole setup is to protect the cattle, which sleep at night in the middle of the village. They seem to live a natural and self-sufficient life but lack modern civilisation.

6 . A waterworks maintenance team discovered a possible one-of-a-kind Roman road in a field in Worcestershire that may date back 2,000 years.

If asked to name a place where you might make a once-in-a-lifetime archaeological (考古的) discovery, your mind may go to the pyramids of Egypt or the peaks of the Andes...not a field in Worcestershire. But a field in Worcestershire is exactly where workmen recently discovered what is thought to be a Roman road up to 2,000 years old！

The road was discovered during routine (常规的) waterworks maintenance by Severn Trent. Archaeological experts from Wychavon District Council were called to the scene and immediately recognised the find’s significance.

Wychavon District Council’s archaeology officer Aidan Smyth said, “When I first saw it, it took my breath away. If proven to be from the first century AD, it would be beyond rare.”

Experts say it is constructed in a traditional Roman technique, with similar roads only being found in Rome and Pompeii. Ruts (车辙) in the stones show that it was used by carts for a long time. A team from Historic England is expected to investigate further to determine the exact origin of the structure.

This is actually not the first significant historical discovery in Worcestershire. A number of possible forts have been suggested in Worcestershire since the 1950s, and Worcestershire is thought to possibly have been the site for the Roman town of Vertis.

It is too early to say without 100 per cent certainty that the road is Roman, but even if it is a road in the Middle Ages, it will still be a nationally significant discovery. If it is indeed a first-century Roman road, then it is the only one of its kind in Britain.

7 . Asteroids (小行星) are believed to have formed early in our solar system’s history — about 4.5 billion years ago — when a cloud of gas and dust called the solar nebula (太阳星云) collapsed and formed our sun and the planets. By visiting these near Earth objects to study the material that came from the solar nebula, we can look for answers to some of humankind’s most arresting questions, such as:   How did the solar system form and where did the Earth’s water and other organic materials such as carbon come from? In addition to unlocking clues about our solar system, asteroids may provide clues about our Earth. By understanding more about asteroids, we may learn more about past Earth impacts and possibly find ways to reduce the threat of future impacts.

If we don’t want to go the way of the dinosaurs someday, we need to protect ourselves against the threat of being hit by a big asteroid. According to NASA, typically about once every 10,000 years, a rock y or iron asteroid the size of a football field could crash into our planet and possibly cause tidal waves big enough to flood coastal areas.

But what we really have to fear is asteroids about 328 feet across or bigger. Such an impact would cause a firestorm and fill the atmosphere with sun-blocking dust, which would wipe out forests and farm fields and starve the human and animal life that it didn’t immediately kill.

That’s why it’s vital to develop a way to neutralize such a threat to Earth. NASA’s Double Asteroid Redirection Test, launched in late November 2021, was the first mission to demonstrate a technology called asteroid redirection by manmade impactor. A robotic spacecraft will be crashed into an asteroid named Didymos, in an effort to show that it’s possible to slightly change the path of an asteroid. That would enable NASA to redirect potential threats to miss Earth.

8 . Whether your kid can count on a sizable inheritance (遗产) or your family is living pay period to pay period, a college degree is a must. Along with the invisible life skills you get from those formative years on campus, college comes with a bankable payout: A Georgetown University study found that, on average, college graduates make a million dollars more over a lifetime than people who stop at high school.

Recently, a Bronx nonprofit asked me to speak to a group of high schoolers whose families were struggling financially. The participants were (rightly) worried about taking on too much college debt. Here’s what I told them: Even when you subtract (扣除) tuition, lost earnings during the college years, and other factors, an average college grad will still take in $300,000 more than those without a college degree.

And while rising tuition fees are a serious worry, free college programs of one kind or another have sprung up in more than 20 states. My own home state, New York, boasts one of the most comprehensive efforts. The Excelsior Scholarship program guarantees that students at public institutions attend tuition-free if their family earns under $110,000 a year.

Even in Silicon Valley, where there are many successful people who don’t own a college degree, I asked a group of parents there if it’s true that kids are giving up a college degree because they’re sure they’ll be rich people. The answer was a resounding, unapologetic no.

The truth is that in this STEM (science, technology, engineering and math)-centric age, any form of home-schooling or social education can’t replace the formal school education. Especially in an age when many low-end careers are being replaced by artificial intelligence (AI), a college degree can give your kid an edge.

9 . Lynda Doughty, a marine biologist, developed a passion for marine wildlife during her childhood. Growing up along the coast of Maine, she witnessed the impact of human activity on marine mammals and she made it her life’s work to protect them. “I feel this intense responsibility to help these animals,” Lynda said. “And, really, this is what I was put on this Earth to do.”

Harbor seals are among the most common mammals found along the East Coast, and they face various threats to their well-being, including fishing net s and illegal feeding, chemical pollutants, as well as boat and propeller (螺旋桨) injuries.

Earlier in her career, she worked for a marine mammal emergency response organization that eventually closed due to lack of funding. To fill the gap left by the group, Lynda started her own non-profit organization — Marine Mammals of Maine in 2011. It has since provided response and medical care for more than 3,000 marine mammals.

Lynda’s team operates a 24-hour hotline that responds to calls regarding marine mammals in danger. Their permit allows them to respond to mammals stranded (搁浅) within 2,500 miles of the coastline, and her team only offers help if the mammal is in critical condition. Critically ill mammals are transported to Lynda’s center and nursed back to health. Seals typically require three or more months of professional care treatment before they are released back into the ocean.

In addition to mammal rescues, Marine Mammals of Maine conducts important research to learn about marine mammal habitats and human impacts. Marine mammals can give us clues about the ocean’s health, which ultimately affects human well-being as well. The organization also helps promote marine conservation among youth and the local community. In addition, they instruct the public on what to do, and what not to do, when encountering wild species like harbor seals.