1 . As digital devices （设备）have taken over society, “keyboard activity is now often recommended as a substitute for early handwriting," a new study notes. The idea is that typing may be easier for young children.

“Some schools in Norway have become completely digital," notes Audrey Vander Meer, the new study's leader, who measures brain activity to better understand learning and behaviors. She works at the Norwegian University of Science and Technology in Trondheim. The human brain has developed to interact with the world in as many ways as possible, she notes. She believes that young children should learn to write by hand successfully, and, at the same time learn to manage a keyboard.

Using a pen involves more of the brain than using a keyboard, her new findings show. This is because writing and printing involve complex movements that activate more areas of the brain. The increased brain activity, "gives the brain more 'hooks' to hang your memories on," she explains.

Think about it. The same movement is required to type each letter on a keyboard. By comparison, when we write, our brain needs to think about and recover memories of the shape of each letter. We also need to use our eyes to watch what shapes we're writing. And we need to control our hands to press a pen or pencil to shape the different letters. All of this uses and connects more areas of the brain.

Along the way, these processes appear to “open the brain up for learning", says Vander Meer. So learning through only one format — digital — could be harmful, she worries.

Vander Meer also points out that taking notes by hand stimulates （激发）"visual notetaking". Rather than typing blindly, the visual note-taker has to think about what is important to write down. Then, key words can be "interlinked by boxes, and arrows, and supplemented by small drawings".

2 . If Confucius(孔子)were still alive today and could celebrate his September 28 birthday with a big cake, there would be a lot of candles. He'd need a fan or a strong wind to help him put them out.

While many people in China will remember Confucius on his special day, few people in the United States will give him a passing thought. It's nothing personal. Most Americans don't even remember the birthdays of their own national heroes.

But this doesn't mean that Americans don't care about Confucius. In many ways he has become a bridge that foreigners must cross if they want to reach a deeper understanding of China.

In the past two decades, the Chinese studies programs have gained huge popularity in Western universities. More recently, the Chinese government has set up Confucius Institutes in more than 80 countries. These schools teach both Chinese language and culture. The main courses of Chinese culture usually include Chinese art, history and

philosophy(哲学). Some social scientists suggest that Westerners should take advantage of the ancient Chinese wisdom to make up for the drawbacks(缺陷)of Western philosophy. Students in the United States, at the same time, are racing to learn Chinese. So they will be ready for life in a world where China is an equal power with the United States. Businessmen who hope to make money in China are reading books about Confucius to understand their Chinese customers.

So the old thinker's ideas are still alive and well.

Today China attracts the West more than ever, and it will need more teachers to introduce Confucius and Chinese culture to the West.

As for the old thinker, he will not soon be forgotten by people in the West, even if his birthday is.

3 . Tourist Guide to the National Gallery

Opening hours: Daily 10: 00 am- -6: 00 pm; Friday 10: 00 am- 9: 00 pm

Closed: 2426 December

Reasons to visit:

With over 2, 300 paintings in the collection, there are hundreds of reasons to visit the Gallery. Here are some to get you started...

Get into great art. From Leonardo da Vinci to Vincent van Gogh: See priceless works of art for free.

Get creative. Brush up your skills, and create your own great works of art...

Learn about art. Discover more about paintings...

Regulations:

Talk in a low voice when you use your cellphone in the gallery

Please do not touch the paintings or other exhibits. Do not take pets in or cross the barriers.

Consume food and drink in designated areas only i.e. not in rooms that contain paintings.

Follow our no smoking policy in any part of the building.

Follow our no photograph policy in exhibitions where a sign is displayed.

Access:

The National Gallery aims to make access to the paintings enjoyable and welcoming to the widest possible public. There are a range of facilities to help you see the collection, visit exhibitions and come to events.

The Gallery offers British Sign Language-interpreted talks on paintings for visitors who are deaf, and special art sessions(展期) for visitors who can't see.

Address: The National Gallery, Trafalgar Square London WC2N 5DN

Click here to find more information.

4 . Smart Home Products for Living a Connected Life

What makes something a smart home product? Generally, it’s defined by its ability to connect to a Wi-Fi network, allowing users to interact（互动）with it from their smartphones.We’ve rounded up some cool, diverse offerings that you’ll love to have in your home.

Nest Cam IQ

walmart.com

$299.00

The Nest Cam IQ is a beautifully designed home security camera that can recognize faces. It can warn you if there’s a stranger in your home. The device also supports two-way communication via built-in microphones and a powerful speaker.

Logitech Harmony Elite

amazon.com

$249.99

The Logitech Harmony Elite is one of the best universal remote controls available on the market. It can control just about every piece of electronics you own（it supports over 270，000 devices！）in every room of your house or apartment, including TVs，streaming devices, and sound systems.

Apple HomePod

bhphotovideo.com

$349.00

The Apple HomePod has better audio quality than any other smart speaker available today. Available in white or space gray, the Siri-powered device also allows you to control a number of devices with your voice.

August Smart Lock Pro

amazon.com

$279.99

The August Smart Lock Pro is compatible（兼容的）with most locks. A mobile app allows you to manage access to the lock, check its usage history, and get informed when someone opens the door. You can control it and check on the state of your door with voice commands.

5 . The Great Wall of China, which winds for 21, 000 km across the north of the country, is one of humanity's most famous creations. It was named a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1987. When tourists come to Beijing, they head by bus load to the Great Wall's most famous sites.

Few of them come here, the Jiankou section of the Wall which ribbons over the top of green mountains for 20 km. From the valley below, it looks like icing piped onto each peak. It is completely different from its better-known neighbors, like Badaling or Mutianyu. There is no souvenir shops or Starbucks, no cable cars or benches. To access this section of the Wall, you must hike 45 minutes up a mountain. And there was until recently no restoration （修复）. Built in the 1500s and early 1600s, this section was left untouched for centuries. Over time, the towers have melted into piles of rocks. Some parts of the Wall fell down completely, making the once-wide section so narrow that only one person could walk at a time.

In order to prevent tragedy and preserve the Jiankou Wall for future generations, restoration began in 2015 and will be completed in 2021. For the 2021 phrase of the project, technology includes drones（无人机）, 3D mapping and a computer algorithm that can tell engineers whether they have to remove that tree or fix this crack. With the restoration finished, the Wall may be less shabby and dangerous than it once was. But it remains a striking reminder of the centuries that shaped not only the defense project, but China itself.

7 . The Palace Museum is limiting the daily number of visitors to 80,000 and recommending both individual visitors and tourist groups to book tickets in, advance online (booking address: https://gugong ktmtech.cn). foreign visitors are required to provide passport numbers during the online booking

ADMISSION

April 1st-October 31st            60 yuan

November 1st-March 31st.        140 yuan

●Free admission(入场费) for children under.2 meters in height.

●Free admission for disabled visitors.

●20 yuan for elementary, middle school, and undergraduate students with student I.D. (not including graduate and adult or continuing education students).     

●50% discount for people over 60 years with valid certificate or proof of age (passport, etc.)'

●Women's Day (March 8): Half-price admission for female visitors.

●Children's Day (June 1): Free admission for children 14 years old and younger. 50% discount on admission for one accompanying parent. legal guardian, or adult,

For detailed information and instruction, please click here.

8 . Welcome to SummerCamps.com; find and book the very best summer camps. Your children are precious so we offer the highest quality of camps that will meet each child’s needs and interests.

Catalina Sea Camp

Sea Camp offers three one-week sessions to boys and girls aged 8-13 and two three-week sessions to teens aged 12-17. Our hand-picked instructors create an atmosphere of fun and excitement while leading campers to a host of ocean adventures, marine(海洋的) biology, and social summer camp activities.

Address: Toyon Way, San Bruno, California 94066

Phone: 800-645-1423

Camp Cayuga

Camp Cayuga is a private summer camp for children aged 6 to 16. The camp is on a 350-acre land in the Pocono Mountains of Northeast Pennsylvania, just outside the village of Honesdale. It’s a 3-hour drive from New York City to Philadelphia.

Address: 321 Niles Pond Road-Suite ISC, Honesdale, Pennsylvania 18431

Phone: 908-470-1224

Camp Rockmont

Camp Rockmont is a Christian summer camp for boys, aged 6-16, in the Blue Ridge Mountains of North Carolina. Rockmont’s duty of developing boys into healthy young men is accomplished through age-appropriate skills, activities, and challenges that help campers to know themselves better.

Address: 375 Lake Eden Road, Black Mountain, North Carolina 28711

Phone: 828-686-3885

Primitive Pursuits Overnight Camps

Primitive Pursuits Overnight Camps offer week-long Summer Adventure Overnight Camps in New York’s Finger Lakes to your children aged 11-15. Campers experience a week of nature-based skills training, inspiring challenges, and fun activities under the guidance of skilled instructors.

Address: 611 County Rd 13, Van Etten, New York 14889

Phone: 607-272-2292

9 . A 3-year-old boy called Casey who was lost in the woods for two days is now safe at home with his family. But he told his rescuers that he was not alone in the rainy, freezing cold woods. He said he was with a friend — a bear.

The child went missing on January 22 while playing with friends at his grandfather’s house in the southern state of North Carolina. When the other children returned to the house and Casey did not, the family searched the area for almost an hour before calling the police.

Police formed a search and rescue team to look for the young boy in the nearby woods. But two days went by and still no Casey.

Then on January 24, someone called the police saying they heard a child crying in the woods. Police followed up on the information and found Casey at about 9:30 that night. They pulled him out of some briar (多刺野灌木). He was in good health.

Casey told the rescuers that he had hung out with a black bear for two days, a bear he called his “friend”.

Officer Hughes spoke with reporters from several agencies. He said Casey did not say how he was able to survive the woods for three days in the cold, rainy weather. However, he said, “Casey did say he had a friend in the woods that was a bear. And at no point do I think he was taken away illegally.”

Doctors at Carolina East Medical Center treated Casey for minor injuries. He was then released to his family on January 25.

His mother Brittany Hathaway talked with reporters from a local news agency and thanked everyone who joined in the search and rescue efforts.

“We just want to tell everybody that we’re very grateful that you took the time out to come search for Casey and prayed for him, and he’s good,” said his mother. “He is good, he is up and talking. He’s already asked to watch Netflix.”

10 . It is among nature’s greatest spectacles. Each year, thousands of sea turtle mothers clamber ashore, dig into the sand to lay their eggs, and then return to the sea. After being incubated（孵）for around two months, the eggs hatch and the tiny turtles strive to reach the water.

Approximately 90 percent of the sea turtle nesting in the United States happens on Florida's beaches , according to the Sea Turtle Conservancy, a Gainesville-based research and conservation organization. During the nesting season, which runs from March through October, the sands are normally crowded with humans. However, this year the coronavirus pandemic severely reduced travel and required some states to close their beaches for weeks. While this sounded disappointing to the visitors, it may have been a boon to the sea turtles.

For turtle mothers, there can be " false crawls" , in which a female encounters a distraction between the water and a potential nesting site. The crowded beaches would interrupt the sea turtles' plan, sending them back to the ocean without laying eggs.

“ In terms of a successful rate of nesting, we actually did find a significant difference during the beach closures and then after," says Justin Perrault, director of the organization, “We have observed approximately 17,000 nests along Juno, Jupiter-Carlin, and Tequesta beaches this year. During the closures, loggerheads, one of the commonly seen turtles on Florida's beach, successfully nested 61 percent. When the beaches reopened, that number dropped to 46 percent. ”

Jimena Gutierrrez, a Sea Turtle Conservancy biologist also expresses her opinion, “ Normally the turtles are conserved because we have a lot of people coming to see them. With fewer tourism dollars supporting local workers, we are worried about the conservationists as well as the turtles. But maybe in the long run, we will see good numbers because there is less boat traffic in the ocean.