After-hours events in 2020

    Join us after hours for a special programme of unique events throughout 2020 at Shakespeare's Birthplace. When the crowds have left and our beautiful buildings are quiet, we invite you to try something different.

    The Art of Design with Lee Lapthorne – 9 March

    Join artist Lee Lapthorne for a private evening when he will show two pieces of furniture inspired by our collections and discuss his process of reinventing pieces of furniture to create something new.

    Venue (举办地点): The Shakespeare Centre

    Poetry with Punch – 8 June

    Come and meet Matt Windle, the “Poet with Punch” and Birmingham's Poet Laureate 2016 – 2018 for a unique workshop, full of tips and advice to help you get your poetry moving. Suitable for beginners, this workshop will get you thinking about taking the next steps to create writing!

    Tickets: £10 per adult

    Venue: The Shakespeare Centre

    Over Throne – 9 November

    The frequent changing of rulers is nothing new. Join us for an evening of performance and discussion as we take a look at the bad rulers that were overthrown in Shakespeare's plays. This is hosted by our Senior Lecturer in Shakespeare Studies, Dr. Anjna Chouhan.

    Tickets: £10 per adult

    Venue: The Shakespeare Centre

    Herbs for Health – 12 October

    Growing in the Hall's Croft garden are the secret recipes to natural good health. Find out more about the medicine used by the Tudors that still influences our well-being ( 康 乐 ) today. Using herbs and sharing recipes, you will learn the theories behind natural medicine. Reserve your spot before availability.

    Tickets: £10 per adult Venue: Hall's Croft

    It is reported in the national press that a letter written by Charles Darwin in 1875 has been returned to the Smithsonian Institution Archives (档案馆) by the FBI after being stolen twice.

    “We realized in the mid-1970s that it was missing,” says Effie Kapsalis, head of the Smithsonian Institution Archives. “It was noted as missing and likely taken by an intern (实习生), from what the FBI is telling us. Word got out that it was missing when someone asked to see the letter for research purposes,” and the intern put the letter back. “The intern likely took the letter again once nobody was watching it.”

    Decades passed. Finally, the FBI received a tip that the stolen document was located very close to Washington, D.C. Their art crime team recovered the letter but were unable to press charges because the time of limitations had ended. The FBI worked closely with the Archives to determine that the letter was both authentic and definitely Smithsonian's property.

    The letter is in fairly good condition, in spite of being out of the care of trained museum staff for so long. “It was luckily in good shape,” says Kapsalis, “and we just have to do some minor things in order to be able to unfold it. It has some glue on it that has colored it slightly, but nothing that will prevent us from using it. After it is repaired, we will take digital photos of it and that will be available online. One of our goals is to get items of high research value or interest to the public online.”

    It would now be difficult for an intern, visitor or a thief to steal a document like this. “Archiving practices have changed greatly since the 1970s,” says Kapsalis, “and we keep our high value documents in a safe that I don't even have access to.”

    In order to help cope with the vast number of student questions in the online class, Knowledge-Based Artificial Intelligence, Professor Ashok Goel of Georgia Tech developed an artificially intelligent teaching assistant. This online course is a core requirement of Georgia Tech's online Master of Science in Computer Science program. Professor Goel already had eight teaching assistants, but that wasn't enough to handle the vast number of daily questions from students.

    Many students drop out of online courses because of the lack of teaching support. When students feel isolated or confused and reach out with questions that go unanswered, their motivation to continue begins to fade. Professor Goel decided to do something to remedy this situation and his solution was to create a virtual assistant named Jill Watson, which is based on the IBM Watson platform.

    Goel and his team developed several versions of Jill Watson before releasing her to the online forums. At first, the virtual assistant wasn't too great. But Goel and his team sourced the online discussion forum to find all the 40,000 questions that had ever been asked since the class was launched. Then they began to feed Jill with the questions and answers. After some adjustment and ample time, Jill was able to answer the students' questions correctly 97% of the time. The virtual assistant became so advanced and realistic that the students didn't know she was a computer. The students, who were studying artificial intelligence, were interacting with the virtual assistant and couldn't tell it from a real human being. Goel didn't inform them about Jill's true identity until April 26. The students were actually very positive about the experience.

    The goal of Professor Goel's virtual assistant next year is to take over answering 40% of all the questions posed by students on the online forum. The name Jill Watson will, of course, change to something else next semester. Professor Goel has a much rosier forecast on the future of artificial intelligence than, say, Elon Musk, Stephen Hawking, Bill Gates or Steve Wozniak.

    If you were like most children, you probably got upset when your mother called you by a brother's or sister's name. How could she not know you? Did it mean she loved you less?

    Probably not. According to the first research to deal with this topic head-on, misnaming the most familiar people in our life is a common cognitive (认知的) error that has to do with how our memories classify and store familiar names.

    The study, published online in April in the journal Memory and Cognition, found that the “wrong” name is not random but is always fished out from the same relationship pond: children, friends, brothers and sisters. The study did not examine the possibility of deep psychological significance to the mistake, says psychologist David Rubin, “but it does tell us who's in and who's out of the group.”

    The study also found that within that group, misnamings occurred where the names shared initial or internal sounds, like Jimmy and Joanie or John and Bob. Physical resemblance between people was not a factor. Nor was gender.

    The researchers conducted five separate surveys of more than 1,700 people. Some of the surveys included only college students; others were done with a mixed-age population. Some asked subjects about incidents where someone close to them – family or friend – had called them by another person's name. The other surveys asked about times when subjects had themselves called someone close to them by the wrong name. All the surveys found that people mixed up names within relationship groups such as grandchildren, friends and brothers and sisters but hardly ever crossed these boundaries.

    In general, the study found that undergraduates were almost as likely as old people to make this mistake and men as likely as women. Older people and women made the mistake slightly more often, but that may be because grandparents have more grandchildren to mix up than parents have children. Also, mothers may call on their children more often than fathers, given traditional gender norms. There was no evidence that errors occurred more when the misnamer was frustrated, tired or angry.

How to Active Brain Cells

    Scientists used to think that your brain stopped growing new cells once you reached adulthood. Happily, current research shows that it isn't true! As you get older, you can continue to grow new brain cells.

    Get regular aerobic (有氧的) exercise.

    Research shows that regular aerobic exercise over a long period of time can better stimulate brain cell growth than other forms of exercise. Add aerobic activities, such as swimming, power walking, or jogging, into your regular routine.

    Do stress-relieving activities.

    Activities that reduce stress and give you a sense of wellbeing can encourage the growth of new brain cells. You can do some yoga, read your favorite book, or listen to relaxing  music.

    Antioxidant-rich foods can prevent damage to your current brain cells and promote the growth of new, healthy cells. Omega 3 fatty acids may also help improve your brain health. Add plenty of brain-boosting foods into your diet, such as vegetable oils, nuts, green tea, blueberries and fatty fish.

    Maintain an active social life.

     It's also good for your brain. Socializing helps keep your brain cells active, preventing some of the loss of brain function. If you can't socialize in person, reach out to your friends over the phone or on social media.

    Get plenty of good-quality life.

    If you're an adult, try to get 7 – 9 hours of sleep each night. If you're a teen, aim for 8 – 10.

    Your brain heals itself from the day's stresses while you sleep.You can improve your sleep by going to bed and waking up at the same time every day.

A. Spending time with friends isn't just enjoyable.

B. Eat foods rich in antioxidants and omega 3 fatty acids.

C. Any kind of head injury may put you at risk for brain damage.

D. Try to do things that bring you pleasure and help you relax every day.

E. For example, you might aim for 30 minutes of jogging a day, 5 days a week.

F. Fortunately, there are treatments that can help you restore your brain's health.

G. It also processes information you picked up during the day, helping you to learn and preserve new memories.

    Mattew Shifrin has been building with Legos (乐高积木) since he was 5 with the help of his friends. When he turned 13, he got a 1 birthday present from his friend, Lilya Finkel. It was an 843-piece Middle Eastern Lego palace. And with it were2that Finkel made specially for it. Finkel3a unique name for every one of the more than 800 pieces in the  palace set. Then she spent countless hours4 building instructions in Braille (盲文) that spelled out how to5 them all together.

    His mind was blown. As a6person, Shifrin had never before been able to complete a Lego set7. Shifrin knew immediately that he had to help other blind children find the same8 . Shifrin says, ''For blind people, Lego sets act as small 3D9for real-life buildings instead of two-dimensional photographs. Lego bricks 10 me to see things that are 11 to explore by touch.'' For years after that incredible Lego12 , he together with Finkel created similar instructions for about 45 other Lego sets, all 13 on a website they created, ''Lego for the Blind.''

    Shifrin began14the Lego company several years ago to discuss his work, but it was in 2017, when Finkel died of cancer, that he finally connected with the15person. His years-long efforts16 when the Lego company released its first audio and Braille building instructions. The project is a high-tech version of what Shifrin and Finkel did for their17. It couldn't have been completed without Shifrin's18 – or without his determination.

    He just 19 Finkel had been here to see it. ''I think she'd be very glad that we came this 20,'' Shifrin said.

    Recently, a little dog was playing out in its yard with its owner Henry  a baby koala jumped onto its back. The confused dog moved around, trying (get) rid of the animal, which was holding tightly onto its fur. Every time it thought it was successful, the smart koala found a way to climb back on again.

    The gentle dog  (eventual) managed to get rid of the koala by rolling on its back, at which point the koala ran back into the trees in search of (it) real mom. Henry, who caught the entire scene on camera, says the koala, who lives in his backyard, is newly independent of its mother. He thinks it may have mistaken his friendly dog its parent.

    Though often (refer) to as “bears”, koala are not a member of the Ursidae ( 熊 科 )family to  conventional bears belong. Instead, the animals, which can  (find) in Australia, are similar to kangaroos. Koala babies, which are blind when born, spend   the first six months of their lives inside their mother's bags and the next six  (hold) onto their backs or bellies. The animals depend only on leaves for their(survive), consuming as much as 2.5 pounds a day.

删除：把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。

修改：在错的词下面画一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2．只允许修改10处，多者(从第11处起)不计分。

    Last October, we have had a series of reading activities. In the first two weeks, we read some great books. Among these books, I like The Old Man and the Sea better, from which I've learned never to give up when facing with difficulties. In the afternoon of October 18, we held a poetry contest. I recited a poem written by me and won first prize. At the end of the month, we acted out some famous work. My classmates and I performed The Million Pound Bank Note. To our great delightful, our performance was huge success. We both enjoyed such reading activities , wish to read more great books in the future.

1）你建议的路线；

2）你的理由；

3）你的祝愿。

注意：

1）词数100左右。

2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。