1 . Getting and staying focused can be a challenge even in the best of times. But with everything going on in the world, concentrating can often feel down-right impossible. Below are some tips to help you find your flow.

Distract (使分心) your brain. Schedule into every workday some breaks from all that focusing and allow your mind to travel into what’s called the “default (默认的) mode network” for a bit of freestyle activities.     1    . It’s the place where our minds find innovation and creativity and often make better decisions than the focused mind.

    2    . This involves first turning your attention inward. Try traveling with your mind to someplace enjoyable — maybe it’s a walk through an imaginary forest or sunbathing on a warm sandy beach. Doing this several times a day can offer your mind a fresh approach to the job at hand.

Block interruptions before diving into deep work.     3    . To help, turn off text messaging, notifications and social media alerts. Be vital when you want a deep dive into focus. Your important work benefits when you shut off or put away your phone and other screens.

Know your body clock. Whether you are sharp in the morning or a night owl, don’t spend your day — in particular your peak brain hours — doing busywork.     4    .

Try new hobbies. Engaging in hobbies not only is fun but can help us come up with new solutions to problems we’re facing at work or home.     5    .

Diesel engines (柴油机) work on the same basic principles     1     gasoline engines, but they do the work differently. Let’s take a closer look.

The story of the diesel engine actually begins with the invention of the gasoline engine. Nikolaus August Otto     2     (invent) the gasoline engine in 1861. His invention used the four-stroke combustion (四冲程燃烧) principle, also known as the “Otto Cycle”,     3     is the basis for most car engines today. In its early stage, the gasoline engine wasn’t very efficient, and other major methods of transportation, such as the steam engine, performed     4     (poor) as well. Only about 10 percent of the fuel     5    (use) to power these types of engines actually moved a vehicle. The rest of the fuel simply produced useless heat.

Rudolf Diesel created an engine with high efficiency, and he devoted much of his time to     6     (develop) a “combustion power engine”. By 1892 Diesel had obtained a patent for     7     we now call the diesel engine.

For decades, diesel engines had a reputation for being dirty and loud. While Europe adopted the technology pretty widely, most     8    (drive) in the United States said, “No, thank you.” By the 21st century, though diesel engines became far cleaner, much     9     (quiet) and even more efficient, they experienced a setback in popular opinion because of a scandal (丑闻) in 2014. Thanks to     10     (they) proven efficiency, though, diesel engines are regaining some ground.

7 . When Belquer first joined a team to make a better live music experience for deaf and hard-of-hearing people, he was struck by how they had developed workarounds to enjoy concerts. “What they were doing at the time was holding balloons to feel the vibrations (震动) through their fingers,” Belquer said. He thought the team could make something to help hard-of- hearing people enjoy live music even more with the technology now available.

Belquer, who is also a musician and theater artist, is now the “Chief Vibrational Officer” of Music: Not Impossible, which uses new technology to address social issues like poverty and disability access. His team started by tying vibrating different cell phone motors to bodies, but that didn’t quite work. The vibrations were all the same. Eventually, they worked with engineers to develop a light haptic (触觉的) suit with a total of 24 vibrating plates. There are 20 of them tied to a vest that fits tightly around the body like a hiking backpack, plus one that ties to each wrist and ankle. When you wear the suit, it’s surprising how it feels.

The vibrations are mixed by a haptic DJ who controls the location, frequency and intensity of feeling across the suits, just as a music DJ mixes sounds in an artful way. “What we’re doing is selecting and mixing what we want and send it to different parts of the body,” said the DJ. The haptic suits were just one component of the event. There were American Sign Language interpreters; the music was captioned on a screen on the stage.

The suits are the star attraction. Lily Lipman, who has auditory processing disorder, lit up when asked about her experience. “It’s cool, because I’m never quite sure if I’m hearing what other people are hearing, so it’s amazing to get the music in my body.”

8 . This is a true story that took place a few days ago. This woman looked _______, but she was very pretty in my eyes. I met the most beautiful woman in a shop. She wasn’t that _______ as she was 5 feet at the most. Her _______ was bent, too. She was thin and her face was _______ with black age spots from a lifetime of working in the sun. Her hair was thin and white. She was at least 80 years old and might have been over 90. She moved _______ and with great care. However, when she _______ you in the eye and spoke to you, you could see her _______ beauty shining through.

Her face was wrinkled from a very _______ life of hard work and difficulty. But it was the lines around her eyes that caught my _______. These wrinkles were deep and forever “canyons” that had been ________ by a million smiles and a lifetime of laughter.

Her ________ were deep set and hidden behind thick, heavy glasses. But you could still see a lovely light ________ out of them. When she talked to you, they were bright with a wonderful shine that told you she was ________ with faith, love, hope, kindness and joy. I only ________ her for a minute or two, yet I left feeling better, and happier.

I only hope that one day my own face will ________ the signs that hers did, showing a happy life, and a loved life.

9 . Researchers have proposed a novel method for counting and tracking vehicles on public roads, a development that could improve current traffic systems and help travelers get to their destinations faster.

Using the cameras already installed on campus buses at the Ohio State University, researchers proved that they could automatically and accurately measure counts of vehicles on urban roadways, detect objects in the road and distinguish parked vehicles from those that are moving.

In previous studies, Ohio State researchers found that using these mobile cameras provides much better spatial and temporal (时间的) coverage than relying on often temporarily placed sensors that don’t provide a view of many streets and roads in a city.

“If we collect and process more high-resolution (高清) spatial information about what’s happening on the roads, then planners could better understand changes in demand, effectively improving efficiency in the broader transportation system,” said Keith Redmill, lead author of the study.

“If we can measure traffic in a way that is as good or better than what is conventionally done with fixed sensors, then we will have created something incredibly useful extremely cheaply,” he said. “Our goal is to start building a system that could do this without much manual intervention because if you want to collect this information over lots of potential vehicles and lots of time, it’s worth fully automating that process.”

While still a long way from total implementation (实施), the study suggests the system’s results bear promise for the future of intelligent traffic surveillance. Transportation planners, engineers and operators make vital decisions about the future of our roadways, so when designing transportation systems to work over the next 30 to 50 years, it’s necessary that we give them data that allows them to improve the efficiency of the system and the level of service provided to travelers.

10 . While Alice has her adventures in the Wonderland, you can have your own as well this summer. British contemporary artist Philip Colbert has created a Lobster (龙虾) Wonderland in Changsha, Hunan Province.

Date: July 15

Location: Changsha International Finance Square (Changsha IFS)

About Philip Colbert

His globally welcomed lobster series has won the hearts of a large number of followers. The artist, with a master’s in philosophy, takes lobster as his second personality.

Through large installations, public art theme exhibition and new media art, the artist has introduced works from galleries and created a surreal art scenery in city’s public space with a combination of pop art and local culture.

Features

In Changsha IFS, Colbert’s exhibition, which is the London-based artist’s first large-scale outdoor public art installations, has three major sectors, showcasing his large installations, sculptures and new media arts as well as the special works created for the event.

The opening ceremony, an art carnival, saw the debut (首次登台) of a 12-meter-long Lobster Taikonaut specially made by Colbert. His Lobster Flower and Lobster Shark also found their way in the parade. At the southwest square, people can find Lobster Fountain towering 12 meters and enjoy two major theme sectors, Lobster Island and Lobster Skate Park.

Lobster Rainbow, a lobster breaking through a roof with a rainbow behind it, is the artist’s brand-new work for Changsha IFS. In his works, such as Daydreamer, Colbert also expresses his wish of narrowing the distance between art pieces and people.