1 . This Is the Way Learning Center

The staff, parents and children enrolled (招收) at This Is the Way Learning Center are one big family. We take the health and safety of our family very seriously. This Is the Way Learning Center is committed to maintaining a safe environment for your children. We are following all safety rules. Should you have any questions regarding the processes in place please call our center. We will be happy to answer your questions.

This Is the Way Learning Center cares for and educates children aged 6 weeks and up. We are enrolling for all programs (Preschool and Nursery School) in addition to basic childcare. There will be no enrollment fees and registration fees. We are devoted to the future of your child and creating a lifetime love of learning at every age and stage. What can be more precious or important than the early developmental and learning years of our children?

This Is the Way Learning Center is located across the street from Henry Barnard School at 18 Shaker Road. It is conveniently located just minutes from 91 North and South, in the town of Enfield.

• 6:30 am through 5:30 pm

• Monday through Friday

• Closed only on major holidays.

• Children through kindergarten

• School age

• All-day, all-year daycare

• Homelike setting

• Age-appropriate play areas

• Child-friendly curriculum

• Computer education

• Trained and experienced teachers

You may email us at requests@thisisthewaylc.com or call us at 860-253-0010 to ask your questions and request a free brochure.

2 . Rene Campbell has devoted most of her life to shaping her figure into one completely against what society thinks a woman should look like.

“I was always very insecure about my body image, as everyone seemed to know for sure that women needed to look a certain way,” she says when reflecting on her motivation to transform herself.     1     For quite some time, she struggled with eating disorders because she was trying to keep her weight really low and appear skinny, like the women on magazine covers.     2     It was then that she became attracted by the way these seemingly confident women held themselves.

However, building her dream body—gaining over 85 pounds, going from a size 8 to 14—has had its challenges, too. “    3     When I tell them that I am a female bodybuilder, the first reaction is, ‘Muscles for women are just not attractive,’” Campbell says. Though she loves the way she now looks, she is sometimes treated with cruelty.

    4    Even though there is a huge market encouraging women to build muscles and tighten their figures, the ideal still stands for smaller waists, and thin legs, the so-called perfect figure. For women to build up strong muscles, it takes a strong heart.

“I gradually learn to ignore others’ voices and become committed to the training. It is a very big shift for me, and it has won me plenty of awards.     5     My bodybuilding journey makes me realize that I need to do things for myself.” Campbell says.

3 . Mid-Autumn Festival is one of the most important festivals in Chinese calendar. The festival typically involves family getting together to share mooncakes while watching the moon. Typical Chinese mooncakes are round in shape, and measure around 10 cm in diameter and 4-5 cm in thickness. Most mooncakes consist of a thin tender skin enveloping a sweet, dense filling.

    1    . It is a custom for housewives to prepare mooncakes at home when the festival is approaching. Now let's learn to make traditional Chinese mooncakes.

Above all, full preparations should be made, including materials such as dough (生面团), flour, water, sugar and vegetable oil, and fillings—lotus seed paste (莲子蓉) and eggs.

Mix together all the materials to get a dough.     2    

Next, separate the egg yolks from the whites and salt the steamed yolks. While the oven is preheating to 180 degrees Celsius, roll the lotus paste and the dough into small balls.     3    .

Then, shape up with each consisting of a dough wrapper, one ball of lotus paste, and one half of a salted egg yolk. Make a hole in a ball of lotus and put the yolk inside. Similarly, cover the lotus ball (with the yolk inside) with a wrapper.     4    . Then shape it with the mold (模具).

    5    . Take them out after 5 minutes and brush them with the egg wash. Put the mooncakes back until they become golden brown.

Remember to wait to eat the mooncakes for two days when they will be soft and also look shiny.

4 . Some scientists have traced the increase in earthquakes, especially in areas not known for the presence of fault lines or past seismic (地震的) activity, to human actions. The idea of humans causing earthquakes may seem strange at first. After all, you can run around your backyard and jump up and down as you want, and the ground isn’t going to start shaking. However, scientists have identified a variety of large scale human activities that can result in earthquakes.

Scientists have confirmed over 700 places where human activities have caused earthquakes over the last century. While many human-related earthquakes are mild and don’t cause much damage, some of them can be serious and dangerous. In fact, scientists believe human activity has caused earthquakes with magnitudes as high as 7.9 on the Richter scale.

Scientists believe most human-related earthquakes are the result of mining. As companies drill deeper and deeper below Earth’s surface to get natural resources, holes left behind can cause instability that leads to collapses that cause earthquakes. Another human activity leading to earthquakes is fracking (水力压裂) for oil and gas, including the high pressure waste water processing that usually goes with fracking. In this process, water, sand and chemicals are pressed underground under high pressure to break rocks to release natural resources.

Building large dams can also cause earthquakes. For example, about 80, 000 people died in China in 2008 as a result of a 7.9-magnitude earthquake caused by 320 million tons of water that had been collected in the Zipingpu Reservoir after a large dam was built over a known fault line.

These aren’t the only human activities that can result in earthquakes, though. Scientists point out that earthquakes can also be caused by other human activities, such as construction of skyscrapers and nuclear explosions.

5 . There are many apps out there that claim to help us organize our lives, but finding the really useful ones is not easy. Here are some great apps that get you on the way to start organizing your life.

Whether you’re trying to lose weight or simply want to keep an eye on day-to-day food, My Fitness Pal is a must-have tool. In addition to giving you the calorie count of any meal you plug in, the free app will also give you its protein, fat and carbohydrates. It also allows you to input water intake, track your daily exercise and weight, and get a clear graph to visualize progress.

People today are juggling(同时应付)more than ever before. Enter Microsoft To Do to make sure nothing slips through the cracks. Thanks to this free task management app, it’s extremely simple to create to-do lists and reminders. For example, flag an email, and it’ll then be automatically added to your to-do list. Or, highlight part of an email and the same thing will happen. No referring back and forth between multiple platforms to stay organized!

Everything seems to require a password now, and the passwords required get more complicated, thus difficult to remember. LastPass is an app that stores all your passwords in one place. Actually this storage space is itself password-protected, which means you only need to remember one master password to access LastPass. LastPass works everywhere, even across browsers and operating systems.

The basic plan is free, but there are paid options that allow multiple users and more storage.

6 . Surprise is the error signal our brains produce when something unexpected happens. It is a dopamine (多巴胺) trigger, producing the neurotransmitter (神经递质) that drives attention and motivation.     1     It makes us stop, notice, and learn.

In his book The Power of Surprise, Rousell presents his finding from decades of his research:     2     They form our self-concept.

    3     Samantha felt her shyness was a weakness, until her swim coach surprised her by naming her captain. He said, “She may be quiet, but when this girl says something, you’re going to want to listen.” The surprise left her feeling quietly powerful. The change in her beliefs and behaviors was instant and lasting.

Not all surprising moments are created equal. Rousell illustrates some research-backed steps to use surprise well.

Spot a self-criticism you’d like to help someone revise. For example, perhaps your student sees himself as a slow learner, or your employee believes he lacks creativity.     4     Maybe the student who thinks he learns slowly is also very thorough. The employee who thinks he lacks creativity is highly logical. Make your message quick and to the point. The more you delay on the topic or dress it up as flowery praise, the less surprising it will be.     5    

7 . Valerie Bolduc is exploring a path under a four-lane highway to fit wildlife cameras, when she gets stuck in the mud. “I am really stuck,” says the road ecology student, trying to pull her feet out of a streambed that travels through the concrete culvert (涵洞) of Quebec Route 117. “I do not want to be a deer going through that.”

Bolduc’s dilemma makes evident the risks for wild animals using the same path.

A warming climate is pushing many animals to migrate toward higher latitudes (纬度) to remain within their desirable environments, but that comes with risks as they cross dangerous areas, such as highways. In eastern Canada, Bolduc and other researchers and conservationists are trying to preserve safe corridors (走廊) for wildlife.

The motion-activated cameras they have brought will record which species are using the tunnels. An outward-facing camera will identify what animals approach but do not enter, perhaps prevented by traffic noise, the tunnel’s size or other factors.

Bolduc explains that this highway running through southern Quebec separates a series of Canadian national and regional parks on either side, along with their animal populations. “It’s super important,” she notes, “because the animals want to move north and they encounter these and then can they move through? Will they get hit by a car? We’ll need to figure that out. And we need to help them, at least I want to help them.”

After finishing fitting their cameras on the northbound side of the highway, Bolduc and her team decide they need an alternate path to the other side to avoid another misfortune in the mud. “We’re generally trying to be safe,” Bolduc says, “but for the animals, this is their life!”

8 . Chinese people may not be that familiar with sports tourism but it is one of the fastest growing sectors of tourism, because an increasing number of people are showing interest in sports activities during tours even if sports is not the main objective of their travel.     1    .

Sports tourism refers to tourism involving participation in or watching sports events and staying in an environment different from the usual tourist hotels or resorts.     2    . At that time, people traveled to Olympia to watch or take part in Olympic competitions. Modern sports tourism, on the other hand, started in the 1990s.

    3    . There is also a lack of research to study its true potential. However, given that Chinese authorities attach great importance to people's health, sports tourism, in many ways, can meet people's demand for both leisure and physical activity while leading to consumption upgrading and development of the tourism industry. The success of the Beijing Winter Olympics in promoting winter sports has led to the dramatic increase in the demand for sports tourism and the gradual but steady integration of sports and tourism.

Sports tourism is the fastest growing segment of the tourism industry today, with an annual growth rate of about 15 percent globally.     4    .

Also, the integration of sports and tourism products will to eventually lead to the integration of the sports and tourism markets to meet people's diversified consumption demand. Rural tourism, consist of fishing, hiking, horse riding and other outdoor activities.     5    . This form of tourism, too, has been attracting many tourists.

In short, the rapid growth of sports tourism will help meet people's leisure needs and boost the high-quality development in China.

10 . 4 of the World’s Most Amazing Train Journeys

Start: Beijing                  End: Lhasa

Distance: 2,330 miles       Duration（时长）: 40 hours

Connecting Beijing with Lhasa, the Z21 train transports its passengers from a modern city to a mysterious land. What’s unusual is that the train climbs nearly 16,400 it on its journey to the roof of the world: the Tibetan plateau, where it passes yaks, flying prayer flags and snow—covered mountains.

Start: Hanoi                    End: Ho Chi Minh City

Distance: 1,072 miles       Duration: two days

Some railways run through historic cities, others run beside beautiful coastline and a few are famous for the colorful characters on board. The Reunification Express meets all these conditions. It travels over a thousand miles from Hanoi in the north to Ho Chi Minh City in the south. There’s no better way of exploring all the glories in between.

Start: Chicago                  End: San Francisco

Distance: 2,438 miles        Duration: 52 hrs 40 mins

As for appreciating the breathtaking scenery of the North American continent, nothing compares with Amtrak’s California Zephyr train. This journey travels nearly 2,500 miles across prairies, deserts, the Rocky Mountains and the Sierra Nevada on its way.

Start: London                       End: Fort William

Distance: 509 miles               Duration: 13 hrs 30 mins

Starting from crowded central London to the dry and cold air and beautiful views of the Scottish Highlands through one overnight train journey is a perfect example of experiencing the romance（浪漫）of rail travel. It’s just a pity that the whole experience—from delicious foods and drinks to being taken into la-la land—feels like it’s over very quickly.