Study Areas in Iowa State University’s Library

The Periodical Room on Floor 2 is a Quiet Zone, requiring an absolute minimum of noise and distraction. Users are completely banned from conversations (including mobile phones), and no group work is allowed.

•Group study rooms must be reserved online using a valid University account and a University Card on a first-come-first-served basis.

•Thirteen rooms are available for groups wanting to work together in the Library.

•Reservations can be made up to 30 days in advance.

•Groups have 15 minutes after the start of their reservation to arrive. If a group has not claimed their study space by that time, their reservation will be cancelled.

•Research study rooms are assigned to individual users for research and other scholarly activities that require extensive use of library materials.

•Applications can be picked up at the Circulation Desk in the Library or request one via email at libstudy @iastate. edu.

•There is usually a waiting list for these rooms. Applications should be made in advance if possible. Generally, these rooms are shared spaces because of the high level of demand.

•Essential equipment is provided for each study, and additional equipment may not be added without authorization. The Library is not responsible for personal property (laptops, textbooks, notebooks, etc) left in these rooms. All Library rules and regulations apply to these rooms. Food and fruit are forbidden, though drinks in covered, spill-proof containers are permitted.

•At the end of the assigned period, the key issued for each study room must be returned promptly to Circulation staff or the user will be billed.

The way I treat a clove(瓣)of garlic does not just change its size but its chemistry; the decision to slice or crush it will shape the flavour of the meal. Cooking can show us this: our actions matter. Through my work in the kitchen, I thought about what I had learned about time, about people and the world beyond me. Then I asked myself: What would I discover if I treated cooking as thinking?

When I cooked for myself as an 18-year-old, I attempted to improve the flavor of a dish by adding more things to the pot. But frustratingly, these dishes tasted of less. A logic of scale failed here: more was not more.

Then I came across a recipe for tomato sauce, through which I learned how small changes would cause a big difference. The first few times I made it, I was respectful towards the amazing transformation. But once I crushed the garlic instead of carefully slicing it, and the sauce tasted different. Another time I replaced fresh tomatoes with canned, which resulted in a watery mixture.

When I documented all the times I had cooked it, I was suddenly able to answer questions that had escaped me in the library during my studies. I had been studying the broken relationship between language and the lived world for years. Through cooking, I saw how each time a recipe was translated anew in the kitchen. Therefore, life could be returned to language, reinvigorating(使复兴)it.

When I cook, I’m using the knowledge produced through the work of generations of cooks in kitchens all over the world. Unlike the knowledge stored in libraries, this is information that each person who uses it can rewrite in their own image. People who cook become part of a chorus. When I began to pay attention, I could hear their voices in a bubbling pan. Cooking is thinking, and there is knowledge on an epic(史诗般的)scale in a pan of hot red sauce.

Countless stories have portrayed the deep connection between humans and horses, such as classic literary works Black Beauty and The Chronicles of Narnia. However, the extent to which horses comprehend their human companions remains a mystery. Recent research has shown that horses can distinguish between human expressions of happiness and sadness conveyed through facial movements or vocal tones.

The researchers brought 28 horses into a room one by one, each wearing heart rate monitors as their actions were recorded. The horse faced two screens playing two different videos: one showed a happy person and the other a sad person. A voice was played at the same time, sounding happy or sad.

When the picture and voice didn’t match—for example, if the voice was sad but the picture showed a happy person—the horse seemed puzzled and looked for a longer time, compared to the one that did match, as if it knew something didn’t make sense. “You could imagine that they have a particular box in their mind labeled ‘human sadness’ containing the characteristics of both a sad face and a sad voice, and that when we are sad, they expect what we say to match how we look,” said Doctoral Researcher Océane Liehrmann of the University of Turku, in Finland.

The researchers also saw that horses were more attentive to the screen displaying the happy face. They looked at it more often and for a longer time and their heart rates increased when they heard a happy voice and decreased when they heard a sad voice as well.

It is possible that the horses might have associated happy human expressions with positive memories from their past. Another theory is that seeing a happy person could actually make a horse feel happier—a process known as emotional contagion. “We don’t know whether horses themselves understand what it is to be sad. It is possible that they learn it means something for a human,” said Liehrmann.

Every year, as the surface water temperature off the United States mid-Atlantic coast rises steadily from late spring through the summer, a pocket of uncharacteristically cool and crisp water gets trapped at the bottom of the ocean. Packed with nutrients this thick band of cold water, known as the mid-Atlantic cold pool, is a vital home for shellfish species. Extending at its seasonal peak from Nantucket, Massachusetts, to Cape Hatteras, North Carolina, the cold poll creates a diverse ecosystem ranging from algae(海藻)to fish — and some of the most valuable shellfish fisheries in the United States.

Now, however, two pressures have scientists worrying about whether the cold pool will last. The first is no surprise: climate change. Over the past five decades, climates change has destabilized the cold pool, causing it to warm and shrink. Compared with 1968, the cold pool is now 13℃ warmer and has lost more than one-third of its area.

The second concern is 1ess certain. In 2023, the US federal government approved plans to install(安装)98 wind turbines(涡轮机)off the New Jersey coast, covering an area of more than 300 square kilometers. Yet putting so many turbines to the seafloor could have unexpected consequences for the cold pool. That’s why Travis Miles, a researcher at New Jersey’s Rutgers University, and his colleagues are investigating. So far, Miles and his colleagues can’t definitively say what will happen to the cold pool, saying more research is needed to assess how climate change and offshore wind, together, could affect the cold pool. However, their initial analyses suggest the cold pool should be fine — at least in normal conditions.

New Jersey’s offshore wind plans are strongly opposed mainly by fossil fuel-industry funded efforts. Miles worries that an overabundance of caution or fear of potential impacts, including on the cold pool, might slow down the development of renewable energy. “...it’s quite clear that climate change is far more damaging than installing wind farms,” he says. “I don’t think any scientist would argue with that.”

If you are a person who remains busy in work and pays no attention to your health and well-being, you may experience stress, depression, and anxiety. Take a break from the robotic routine and pick healthy habits. According to a psychologist, true wellbeing comes with balance, constant growth and acceptance.     1    

Deal with stress

Although it is difficult to avoid stress nowadays, it is definitely possible to deal with it.     2     For that, try to avoid the situations that cause stress. If your stress is unmanageable, note down the causes of stress as well as what actions you can take to improve your reaction, mood, and even situation.

Be social as much as you can

A man cannot stay healthy without interacting with other people.     3     If you have heard of laughter therapy, it also has the same purpose to reduce the stress when you laugh with other people. Everyone needs acceptance and friendship that is fulfilled only when you socialise with others.

Find and practice new hobbies

Hobby helps us keep busy and engaged. When you have an interest in some activities and enjoy doing them, you take healthy steps to improve your emotional well-being.     4     Finding new hobbies is great for strengthening your brain and boost your mood.

    5    

The biggest reason for experiencing depression and anxiety is when a person remains stuck in past events. Negative self-talking such as “why people did this to me” steals not only the happiness but makes the person miss opportunities that the present moment tries to offer. We should learn to enjoy the present life and try not to think too much about the future.

Tidying your desk, watering your plants, folding clothes — these household chores are hardly the height of pleasure. Yet I often find myself _________ these little tasks.

If I’m stuck in writer’s block with a deadline _________, I’ll have to clear up the papers placed around my office — and it’s sometimes the most _________ I feel all day.

I’m not _________ in this. As we faced the stresses of the pandemic, many people reported finding renewed interest in _________ their homes as a way of coping with uncertainty.

Psychologists suggest there are many potential mechanisms (机制) that can explain the pleasure from these tasks and their benefits-these may well encourage you to _________ these odd jobs more often.

Little chores may be useful because they _________ the mind, leading us to devote fewer resources to the things that _________ us. Even if we struggle with activities that are meant to help us relax, we may find household tasks can help us appreciate the here and now. But this depends on where we place our _________.

In one of the few studies to examine the mental health benefits of washing the dishes, researchers at Florida State University divided 51 __________ into two groups. Half read a text that encouraged them to __________ focus their thoughts on the activity. “While washing the dishes, one should be completely __________ of the fact that one is washing the dishes,” they were told. The rest read factual instructions on how to do washing up without being encouraged to focus their awareness on the activity.

Afterwards, the participants were asked to take a questionnaire about their __________. Those who had fully engaged with the experience reported a significantly better mood. This included __________ nervousness and even a sense of “inspiration”, as if the simple activity had __________ their minds.

Once celebrated as “the sport of kings”, polo (马球), a unique sport with ancient roots,     1     (play) on horseback with a ball. Its exact origins remain uncertain,     2     one early version of this sport emerged in ancient Persia (modern Iran) around the 6th century BC.

Different cultures developed similar games and, over time, polo evolved     3     the sport we know today. It also has a deep historical connection with ancient China, as     4     (show) through the discovery of numerous artifacts, including murals (壁画), stone carvings, mirrors and paintings.

During the 1930s, the modern version of the sport enjoyed a period of     5     (popular) , with polo grounds established in cities with foreign populations like Beijing, Shanghai, Tianjin and Qingdao.

Polo’s noble and warrior-like characteristics have won it many     6     (passion) players, and among them is Jackie Wang. She and her family     7     (spend) the past three years researching and writing Polo in China, a book that documents the lengthy history of the sport in China.

Published by the Cultural Relics Press, the book gives a detailed introduction to polo in China, with photos of artifacts and events, and an engaging storyline     8     brings the sport to life.

As     9     combination of historical reference and artistic representation, the book serves both as an academic work and a general interest publication,     10     (contribute) to the study of polo in China while sharing the sport’s charm through its design and presentation.