4 . The National Gallery

Description:

The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of Trafalgar Square in London. It houses a diverse collection of more than 2,300 examples of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modern ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modern works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance.

Layout:

The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th- to 15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling.

The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci , Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titian and Veronese.

The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van de Dyck, Velázquez, Claude and Vermeer.

The East Wing houses 18th- to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh.

Opening Hours:

The Gallery is open every day from 10 am to 6 pm (Fridays 10 am to 9 pm ) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.

Getting There:

Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk), Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus (8-minute walk).

6 . An advance in electronic publishing could make the e-book you are reading seem as dated as a silent film. Publishers hope to explore the growing success of e-books by releasing versions with added soundtracks（电影配音）and musical accompaniments.

The noises in the first multimedia books — released in Britain on Friday - include rain hitting a window in a Sherlock Holmes tale. When the plot of a book reaches the most exciting part, background scores will create tension.

Supporters argue that sound effects are the next logical development for e-books and will add excitement for younger readers. Critics, however, will argue that the noise will ruin the simple pleasure of having the imagination stimulated by reading.

Caroline Michel, chief executive of the literary agency, said the new generation of computer- literate readers was used to multiple sensory input. She said, “Young people have split computer screens where they may be watching television and replying to an email at the same time. If that's what the market wants then we should respond to the market.”

Book track's sound effects work by estimating the user's reading speed. Each lime you turn a page, the software reassesses where you have reached in the text and times the sounds to switch on accordingly. If the soundtrack becomes out of synch （同步），a click on any word will reset it.

Some authors fear that a soundtrack could destroy the peace and quiet of libraries and ruin the pleasure, of reading. David Nicholls, author of Our Day, the bestseller now released as a film, said, “This sounds like the opposite of reading. I have enough trouble reading an e-book because I'm constantly distracted by emails.

Stuart MacBride, the crime writer whose novel Shatter the Bones was an e-book bestseller, sells 18% of his books as electronic downloads. He said, “If I'm reading, I will do the noise in my head. I don’t need someone to tell me what lea cups clinking sounds like. That would irritate （激怒）me.”

7 . Parents around the world often urge children over and over-wash your hands! It can be difficult, however, to get children to remember to wash. But what if washing hands was connected to a fun creative activity? What if instead of simply reaching for the soap, a machine could drop it right into your hands?

Well, such a machine was recently built by a boy and his sister in the U.S. state of Maryland as part of a creative competition.The not-for-profit Rube Goldberg Organization is holding the competition.

Every year, the Rube Goldberg competition assigns a specific task, considering inventions that use complex systems to carry out a simple everyday task. At first, the task for 2020 was supposed to be “turn on a light.” But when the COVID-19 happened, the task was changed to “drop a bar of soap into someone’s hand.”

Those taking part in the competition are schoolchildren. But with schools closed to slow the spread of the virus, organizers changed the rules. This year, the team can include any family members and people were asked to send in recordings of the machines to compete. One thing has not changed: The machine must complete the task in less than 10 steps.

In Maryland, the Diel family wanted to enter. So, Caitlin and her brother Ben designed and built their own Rube Goldberg machine. Next, they had to demonstrate that it could complete the task-throwing the soap just right to be caught in someone’s hand. After 106 failed attempts, they finally had success. With their video demonstration, they can now enter the competition.

Dr. Anne Glowinski teaches child psychiatry (精神病学) at Washington University School of Medicine in St. Louis. She said that “creativity and play” connects with children. It is better than the message. “We have to wash our hands because of this horrible virus”. Glowinski added.

8 . “The pile of ice is so thick; it extends more than 10, 000 feet above the ocean. And if all that ice were to melt and go into the ocean, global sea levels would rise by about 24 feet everywhere around the world,” said Jason Briner, a geologist who studies the ice sheet in Greenland at the University of Buffalo. The ice sheet of the biggest island in the world is melting, and the ice sheet that sits atop it is massive. The ice sheet is melting, of course. But just how much, compared to the past?

Briner’s team did a computer simulation (模拟) of the southwest part of the Greenland ice sheet — which he says is a good indicator for ice melting across the entire ice sheet. The researchers plugged past climate data into that model to “hindcast,” rather than forecast, the past activity of the ice sheet. They then checked the model’s predictions of the past shape and size of the ice sheet by looking at piles of rocks and dirt on Greenland today, which outline the edges of ancient ice. And the simulation was in good agreement with the actual situation.

Using that reconstruction of the ice sheet over time, the team could compare the ice sheet’s historic losses to those happening today under human-caused global warming. And they determined that Greenland is on track to lose more ice this century than during any century in the past 12,000 years — possibly four times as much.

Finally, it’s up to us how much ice actually melts. If the world goes net carbon zero by 2100, for example, Briner says ice loss could stop entirely at the end of the century, according to one model. “That was what kept me from being completely depressed about our study.” Dozens of countries have already announced goals to go net zero by the middle of this century — so far the U. S. is not one of them.

9 . It’s cold and dark outside, and your bed is so warm and comfortable. Going for a run seems like such a bad idea. But before you put your running shoes away, it might be worth giving that crazy idea a try.

According to The Huffington Post，an outdoor run in winter, instead of running on a treadmill (跑步机), burns more calories (卡路里) because the body is working hard to regulate (调节) its temperature. Besides, research shows that race times are faster in cold weather than in warmer temperatures—and quicker runs burn more calories. Similarly, cold weather also makes the heart work harder to distribute blood through the body, making that vital muscle even stronger.

Outdoor exercise also turns up your energy and rids you of the stress and depression that build up every day. The heat and humidity in summer can drag you down and tire you faster, but cold weather is refreshing. It adjusts you to your surroundings, making you feel energetic.

Of course, the threat of smog in some built­up areas is a further problem to winter exercise. Heart attacks, strokes and lung cancer are all dangers of running in smog. The combination (结合) of air pollution and exercise increases the potential problems. If you do choose to run outside on smoggy days, take a path in a park or residential area to avoid polluted air, and go early in the morning, before rush hour. But staying inside on smoggy days and waiting for the next clear day to run is best.

10 . 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.