1 . If you are crazy about paintings, you shouldn’t miss the following four famous masterpieces which have stood the test of time.

The Arnolfini Portrait

Jan van Eyck’s Arnolfini Portrait, an oil painting on wood produced in 1434, in which a man and a woman hold hands with a window behind him and a bed behind her, is undoubtedly one of the masterpieces in the National Gallery, London. This painting is as visually interesting as it is famed. It is also an informative document in fifteenth-century society, through Van Eyck’s heavy use of symbolism—while husbands went out to engage in business, wives concerned themselves with domestic duties.

The Starry Night

Vincent van Gogh painted The Starry Night, oil on canvas, a moderately abstract landscape painting of an expressive night sky over a small hillside village, during his 12-month stay at the mental hospital near Saint-Rémy-de-Provence, France between 1889 and 1890. When the Museum of Modern Art in New York City purchased the painting from a private collector in 1941, it was not well known, but it has since become one of Van Gogh’s most famous works.

The Harvesters

The Harvesters is an oil painting on wood completed by Pieter Bruegel the Elder in 1565. It depicts the harvest time which most commonly occurs within the months of August and September. Nicolaes Jonghelinck, a merchant banker and art collector from Antwerp, commissioned this painting. The painting has been at the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York City since 1919.

Guernica

Guernica, a large black-and-white oil painting, was painted by the Cubist Spanish painter, Pablo Picasso in 1937. The title “Guernica” refers to the city that was bombed by Nazi planes during the Spanish Civil War. The painting depicts the horrors of war and as a result, has come to be an anti-war symbol and a reminder of the tragedies of war. Today, the painting is housed at the Museo Nacional Centro de Arte Reina Sofaí in Madrid.

2 . Smartwatches and fitness trackers (健身追踪器) have gained popularity recently. These tools can record your daily steps, heart rates, etc.     1    . If yes, it might be a sign that you’re addicted to your fitness tracker.

    2    . If you keep setting unrealistic daily goals that involve working out for too long, and if you begin to ignore friends and responsibilities to make time for your workout, then you’re most probably addicted to your fitness tracker.

It’s a struggle to overcome the addiction to fitness trackers.     3    . For example, the number in your smart watch showing how far you’ve come can give you a sense of achievement.

Of course, failing to meet your daily goal can be discouraging. You might focus on your shortcoming rather than your progress. Another problem is that you might find yourself paying too much attention to the step number rather than how your body feels.     4    .

Therefore, if you’re spending too much time looking at your smartwatch, limit your daily step count to a comfortable level.     5    . For example, concentrating on your hobbies or socializing with friends can be a great way to keep your mind on other things.

3 . Four Practical Ways to Improve Yourself

Are you someone who likes to grow? Do you constantly seek to improve yourself and become better? Here are some ways to self-improve.

Read a book every day.     1     The more books you read, the more wisdom you expose yourself to.What are some books you can start reading to enrich yourself? Some books are very useful, such as Think and Grow Rich, Who Moved My Cheese, 7 Habits.

Pick up a new hobby. Beyond just your usual favorite hobbies, is there something new you can pick up?     2     Your new hobby can also be a recreational hobby.

    3     Everyone has amazing qualities in them. It’s up to how we want to tap into them.With all the friends surrounding you, you can find many things you can learn from them.

Show kindness to people around you.    4     In fact, most of us don’t show enough kindness to people around us. Being kind helps us to cultivate other qualities such as compassion, patience, and love. Now start showing more kindness to the people around you, and see how they react.    5     Chances are you will feel even better than yourself.

4 . Our school is going to add different kinds of labor courses. The courses which will start from next Wednesday can help you get some practical skills.

Enjoying a Good Meal

Do you want to be a good cook? If you are interested in cooking, here is a chance. You needn’t bring any materials to the classroom. The only condition is that you should be free from 4:00 pm to 5:00 pm every Thursday.

Planting Your Hope

This course is special because teachers show you skills out of classrooms. Students will plant flowers, vegetables and some trees with teachers’ help. If weather allows, you can take the course every day between 4:30 pm and 6:00 pm from September 20 to October 31.

Experiencing Farm Life

Have you ever dreamed of feeding animals or picking fresh fruit on the farm?This course can make your dream come true. You will take the course from 2:00 pm to 6:00 pm every Friday this term.

Click here to visit our school’s website to know more about the labor courses.

5 . Although I love watching Olympic diving, I’ve never understood why athletes hurry off to the showers and then proceed to relax in a hot tub (热水浴池) after each dive. They’re already wet. They’re only in the pool for a handful of seconds, so it’s not like they need to get cleaned up. And doesn’t taking a shower serve the same purpose as sitting in a hot tub?

Actually, that’s what Olympic divers usually do between dives as they know very well about the importance of warm-ups and cool-downs. So, what’s the actual reason?

As it turns out, showers and hot tubs are used pretty interchangeably by the swimming pool. However, there is a need for both. First, let’s start with why divers need to take a shower between dives. It has to do with body temperature and keeping their muscles relaxed. As you can imagine, practicing dives in the pool, then having to keep your body warm in a shower, and then jumping off a 10-meter platform and into cold water couldn’t be comfortable for anyone. Going back and forth between these warm and cool temperatures can cause a diver’s muscles to tense or cramp up (痉挛), which can lead to injuries to the muscles. Showers allow an Olympic diver to recover and prevent that.

In that way, showers and hot tubs serve the same purpose. A hot tub is generally used if you have a bit more time between dives and have already stretched. The shower walls on the pool deck can typically provide enough space for more divers at the same time, and they’re especially helpful for athletes who need to stretch or who only have a few minutes between dives. Just like Olympic swimmers depend on thick clothes to keep their muscles warm, Olympic divers rely on these methods to stay loose. If you ask me, it’s not a bad way to pass the time!

6 . It is common to see most live streamers (主播) sitting in front of a desk in a well-decorated room. But Zeng Qinghuan, a 30-year-old from Xinhua County in Loudi, Hunan, has turned her whole village into alive streaming set. Her goal is to use e-commerce to help her people live a better life.

Known as “Xiangmei Xinbao” on Douyin, Zeng now has more than 3 million followers. One of her videos about traditional ways of planting and harvesting rice has attracted more than 300,000 followers.

At the beginning, she didn’t make any money. Zeng’s parents didn’t give her any support until she could stand on her own feet and help people sell their products. She has now sold local agricultural products worth tens of millions of yuan, like fermented tofu, preserved pork and dried sweet potatoes.

“I’m a daughter of the great mountains. I can also be a contributor to rural development in this new times,” she said.

Zeng hopes her experience can encourage more young people to return to their rural hometowns and start their own businesses. In 2021, after she became a deputy (代表) of the Loudi Municipal People’s Congress, she put forward a proposal to ensure that “each village has one product and one live streaming host of its own”, She plans to help cultivate 100 social media influencers from her county within three years, and two villages have taken part in the project. “I believe that the rural areas will become a big stage, and being a farmer will be seen as a respectable job too,” said Zeng.

7 . Elements of Latin have made their way into many western countries. Data varies, but as much as 70% of words in English have a Latin or Greek root. By learning more about these roots and how they combine (结合) to create words, you will have an advantage in understanding new words, even if you’ve never seen them before.

The great thing is that you’re not learning the whole language with its grammar. You just need to memorize some parts of the vocabulary that you often see in English. So how do word roots work?

Every word has a root. This part contains the key to a word’s meaning. Take the word “happy”, for example. This word only contains the root, which means full of joy. Some words, however, have extra parts. We call these affixes (词缀), including prefixes, the part attached before the root, and suffixes, the part attached behind the root. Based on the additional meaning of the prefixes and suffixes, the meaning of the final word will be shaped to mean something new.

Take the word “autobiography” for example. The root is “bio”, meaning life. You may have noticed that many words with “bio” have something to do with life or living beings—biology, biography, and so on. When the suffixes “graph”, meaning to write, is added to it, it means a story about someone’s or something’s life. “Auto” means by oneself. Altogether, an “autobiography” is a story about a person’s life, written by the person himself or herself.

In a word, a better grasp of word roots can make you understand the English language better, and will help you with your vocabulary recognition and memory skills.