Yours sincerely,

Li Hua

4 . Monet: The Immersive Experience

Monet: The Immersive (沉浸式) Experience in Liège invites you to step into the world of the French painter Claude Monet, one of the greatest artistic geniuses of the nineteenth century!

Explore some of the most breathtaking paintings by Claude Monet with the help of a digital 360-degree presentation. The unique exhibition concept is staged with state-of-the-art multimedia technology, which shows very large images of Monet’s paintings on the walls and floors of the building. It has music, the smell of flowers, and voice-over in several languages to make the paintings come alive in a way never seen before.

To fully get into the world of the French painter, visitors are guided through three experience rooms. Each room is a highlight on its own and provides visitors not only with an insight, but also with new experiences and new viewpoints on Monet’s life, his work and his masterpieces.

·Date: from March 2024

·Opening hours:

Wednesday, Thursday: 10: 00 am-7: 00 pm

Friday: 10: 00 am-8: 00 pm

Saturday: 9: 00 am-8: 00 pm

Sunday: 9: 00 am-7: 00 pm

Monday and Tuesday: Closed

·Duration: the visit will take around 60 to 75 minutes

·Location: Eglise Saint-Pholien, Rue Saint-Pholien, 4020 Liège

·Please consult the FAQs of this experience here

6 . An artificial intelligence can decode (解码) words and sentences from brain activity with surprising accuracy. Using only a few seconds of brain activity data, the AI guesses what a person has heard. It lists the correct answer in its top 10 possibilities , researchers found in a primary study.

Developed at the parent company of Facebook, Meta, the AI could eventually be used to help thousands of people around the world who are unable to communicate through speech, typing or gestures.

Most existing technologies to help such patients communicate require risky brain surgeries to put in electrodes (电极). This new approach “could provide a possible path to help patients with communication problems, avoiding the use of surgeries,” says neuroscientist Jean-Rémi King, a Meta AI researcher.

King and his colleagues trained a computational tool, also known as a language model, to detect words and sentences on 56, 000 hours of speech recordings from 53 languages. The team applied an AI with this language model to databases from four institutions that included brain activity from 169 volunteers. In these databases, participants listened to various stories and sentences, while the people’s brains were scanned by magnetoencephalography (MEG) (脑磁图).

Then with the help of a computational method that helps account for physical differences among actual brains, the team tried to decode what participants had heard using just three seconds of brain activity data from each person. The team instructed the AI to match up the speech sounds from the story recordings with patterns of brain activity that the AI computed as corresponding to what people were hearing. It then made predictions about what the person might have been hearing during that short time, given more than 1, 000 possibilities. Using MEG, the correct answer was in the AI’s top 10 guesses, the researchers found.

“The new study is decoding of speech recognition, not production,” King agrees, “Though speech production is the final goal, for now, we’re quite a long way away.”

8 . John Kerr and his 86-year-old grandma, Sandy Kerr, are nearing the finish line on a goal they once thought was impossible: Visiting all national parks together.

They kicked off their _________ in September 2023, when John was looking for a way to spend a two-day weekend. He said the idea _________ from a conversation he had with “Grandma Sandy” about his past adventures on the Appalachian Trail. “I felt sorry that she was always _________ vicariously (间接感受到地) through my stories,” John said. “And so just knowing that she had never seen _________ and mountains and the oceans and these _________ wild places on Earth, it just felt like a _________ that I had to her to make sure that she had some memories to take away in her life story as well.” John began _________ their adventures on the social media in 2019, and they quickly _________ a large number of followers.

“You don’t assume your grandma going with you on a camping trip is going to be anything but _________,” John said. “That was my __________. That was my misunderstanding of what age means.” More __________, her spirit was good enough for her to go traveling. “It’s been a __________ adventure; it really has,” Grandma Sandy said. “It’s really been a beautiful time. And I wouldn’t trade it for anything,”

As for __________ from John and Grandma Sandy, they encourage everyone to __________ opportunities for exploration. “We realize that not everybody is going to be able to travel to every national park,” John said. “But there is some adventure to be found in every __________ of the country and we hope that people will go out and seek that adventure.”

Learning to play an instrument is something that can give you a lot of pleasure. It is also     1     achievement and a skill     2     stays with your life. Music has a part to play in everyone’s life, and has been described as “a primary language.”

Learning to play an instrument isn’t easy at the beginning and     3     (take) effort and determination. While it is OK to aim for the top, music is     4     (certain) not something to take up because you think you ought to do it.

A lot of adults regret not having learnt to play an instrument when they     5     (be) younger. But it is never too late to learn! And the     6     (advantage) of learning an instrument are far     7     (great) than just the pleasure of producing an enjoyable sound. When you’ve progressed far enough, there are lots of amateur (业余的) groups that you can join     8     you want to be part of a larger group. Once you’ve reached a good enough standard     9     (join) a band or orchestra, you add the team skills like those you get from playing sport. There’s also a great social side to playing     10     others, as well as the chance to travel through touring.

10 . “I can’t live without my mobile phone!” is what I often hear people say as they talk about how mobiles have become an essential part of their lives.

The all so common sight of heads bent, eyes staring at mobile screens and fingers busy tapping away repeats itself across major cities around the world. Whenever there is a moment to spare while on the train, taxi or waiting in a queue, people busy themselves with their mobile phones.

Some people believe our unhealthy obsession with mobile phones is destroying how we appreciate the little things in life or miss the moments that matter. The truth is that technology overall should be seen as a tool to improve our lives.

Mobile phones have certainly had a great influence on our lives, but I truly believe it’s for the better.

It’s changed the way we communicate, whether for work or play. We are now less constrained (限制) by time and geographical location. With my mobile phone, I can dial into conference calls while stuck in a traffic jam, or reply to urgent e-mails while on the go. I can send a text message or share photos and videos with friends who aren’t living in the same country. My phone calendar keeps my life organized, and even Facebook. Twitter, and instant messaging are now accessible from mobile phones!

The mobile revolution isn’t just changing the lives of urbanite like myself. I know of a young Bangladeshi woman named Shompa Akhter who is crazy about fashion and design. She dreamt about starting her own business and she did just that, opening a shop in Kushtia featuring her own creations. Dealing with suppliers in different towns was a problem for Shompa-purchase orders had to either be hand delivered or mailed out to suppliers. Shompa also found it tough publicizing (宣传) her business to potential customers outside her town. But once she learnt to operate the mobile phone, she was addicted. The 25-year-old businesswoman now stays in touch easily with her suppliers. Mobile e-mail is a blessing in her life. Who would have thought that mobility could bring about such enormous change? It shouldn’t really be a surprise though.