SHEFFIELD

LINCOLN COLLEGE OF ENGLISH

Classes for foreign students at all levels

3 months, 6 months, 9 months and one year course

Open all year

Small class (maximum 12 students)

Library, language laboratory and listening center

Accommodation(膳食供应) with selected families

25 minutes from London

Course fees for English for one year are ￡1, 380 with reduction 减少for shorter periods of study.

    Why Do People Blink Their Eyes?

    People blink(眨眼) their eyes tens of thousands of times every day. Scientists have long believed blinking was an involuntary movement and served mainly to keep the eyeballs wet. But a new study suggests it has a more important purpose.

    An international team of scientists from the University of California at Berkeley studied the blinking of human eyelids. The journal Current Biology published their findings. The team said they found that blinking “repositions our eyeballs so we can stay focused” on what we are seeing. They said that when we blink our eyelids, the eyes roll back into their sockets--the bony area that surrounds and protects the eyes. However, the researchers found the eyes don't always return to the same position. They said this causes the brain to tell the eye muscles to reorganize our eyesight.

    Gerrit Maus is the lead writer of the report. He serves as an assistant professor of psychology at Nanyang Technological University in Singapore. Maus says: “Our eye muscles are quite sluggish(迟缓的) and imprecise, so the brain needs to constantly adapt its motor signals to make sure our eyes are pointing where they're supposed to. Our findings suggested that the brain measures the difference in what we see before and after a blink, and commands the eye muscles to make the needed corrections.” The researchers said that without such corrections our surroundings would appear unclear and even jumpy. They said the movement acts “like a Steadicam(摄影稳定器) of the mind.”

    The researchers said they asked volunteers to sit in a dark room while staring at a small dot on a flat surface. They used special cameras to follow the volunteer's blinks and eye movements. After each blink, the dot was moved one centimeter to the right. The volunteers did not notice this, but the brain did. It followed the movement and directed the eye muscles to refocus on the dot. After the dot was moved in this way 30 times, the volunteers' eyes changed their focus to the place where they predicted it would be.

    Professor Maus says “Even though participants did not consciously register that the dot had moved, their brains did, and adjusted with the corrective eye movement. These findings add to our understanding of how the brain constantly adapts to changes, commanding our eye muscles to correct for errors in our bodies' own hardware.”

    Being sociable looks like a good way to add years to your life. Relationships with family, friends, neighbors, even pets, will all help, but the biggest longevity (长寿) seems to come from marriage. The effect was first noticed in 1858 by William Farr, who wrote that widows and widowers (鳏夫) were at a much higher risk of dying than the married people. Studies since then suggest that marriage could add as much as seven years to a man's life and two to a woman's. The effect can be seen in all causes of death, whether illness, accident or self-harm.

    Even if the chances are all against you, marriage can more than compensate you. Linda Waite of the University of Chicago has found that a married older man with heart disease can expect to live nearly four years longer than an unmarried man with a healthy heart. Similarly, a married man who smokes more than a pack a day is likely to live as long as a divorced man who doesn't smoke. There's a flip side, however, as partners are more likely to become ill or die in the couple of years following their husband or wife's death, and caring for your husband or wife with mental disorder can leave you with some of the same severe problems. Even so, the chances favor marriage. In a 30-year study of more than 10,000 people, Nicholas Christakis of Harvard Medical School describes how all kinds of social networks have similar effects.

    So how does it work? The effects are complicated, affected by socio-economic factors, health-service provision, emotional support and other more physiological mechanisms(生理机制). For example, social contact can promote development of the brain and immune system, leading to better health and less chance of depression later in life. People in supportive relationships may handle stress better. Then there are the psychological benefits of a supportive partner.

    A life partner, children and good friends are all recommended if you aim to live to 100. The overall social network is still being mapped out, but Christakis says: "People are inter-connected, so their health is inter-connected."

    If you are in Dubai you may notice a robot police officer sharing the street with you. Your first thought might be, “Have I walked into a movie set？”

    The answer is no. That robot is Dubai's newest police officer. The robot has a touch screen instead of a gun. The robot will be employed mostly at shopping centers and other places popular with visitors.

    The robot's face has eyes but no mouth or nose. It stands 165 centimeters tall and weighs 100 kilograms. If the robot works well, Dubai says 25 percent of its police force could be robots by 2030. The robot cop(巡警) was officially presented at Dubai's Gulf Information and Security Expo and Conference in May.

    The police hope the robot will make life easier for the people of Dubai. Khalid Al Razooqi is Director General of Smart Services at the Dubai Police. He said the robot can help the public every day, and that “it won't ask for any sick leave”.

    The robot cannot make arrests (逮捕). But it can recognize faces and compare them to photographs on a criminal database. It can also sense emotions. People can use the robot's touch screen to do things like reporting a crime, paying fines and reporting lost or found things. They can also ask how to get somewhere. The robot can greet and shake hands with people. So far, the robot can speak Arabic and English. It soon will learn other languages such as Russian, Chinese, French and Spanish. In addition to having a touch screen, the robot has a camera that can live stream video to a police command center.

    Dubai has plans to add other kinds of robots to its police force. Within two years, the city plans to use a three meter tall robot that can run up to 80 kilometers an hour. The Dubai government says the machine would be the world's largest robot. A human police officer will be able to sit inside and control the robot. It will be able to lift heavy objects.

    The city also plans to use an egg shaped robot to control parking areas and give tickets to people who break traffic laws.

    When I was a very little child, I remember watching TV and seeing other children suffer in other parts of the world. I would talk to myself, "when I grow up, when I can become rich, I'll save kids all over the world."

    At the age of 17, I began my career here in America, and by 18, I started my first charity organization. I went on to team up with other organizations in the following years, and met, helped, and even lost some of the most beautiful souls, from six-year-old Jasmina Anema who passed away in 2010 from leukemia (白血病)—her story inspired thousands to volunteer as donors, to 2012 when my grandmother lost her battle with cancer, which is the very reason and the driving force behind the Clara Lionel Foundation (CLF). We're all human. And we all just want a chance: a chance at life, a chance in education, a chance at a future, really. And at CLF, our mission is to impact as many lives as possible, but it starts with just one.

    People make it seem too hard to do charity work. The truth is, you don't have to be rich to help others. You don't need to be famous. You don't even have to be college-educated. But it starts with your neighbor, the person right next to you, the person sitting next to you in class, the kid down the block in your neighborhood. You just do whatever you can to help in any way that you can. And today, I want to challenge each of you to make a commitment to help one person, one organization, one situation that touches your heart. My grandmother always used to say, "If you've got a dollar, there's plenty to share."

    A Hong Kong Disneyland park admission ticket is your passport to a full day of magical adventures. Learn the ways to buy your tickets now.

    Three types of 1-day ticket are available:

    Free admission for Child aged under 3.

    Book Online Now

    Purchase tickets conveniently through our website, then pick up your tickets starting from 1 hour after you have purchased online.

    Purchase Tickets Directly at Hong Kong Disneyland Ticket Express

    You can purchase tickets at the Hong Kong Disneyland Ticket Express, conveniently located at the MTR Hong Kong Station. Open from 9:00 am — 8:00 pm on Mondays to Fridays and from 9:00 am — 5:00 pm on Saturdays, Sundays and Public Holidays.

    Purchase 2 Park Tickets at one of the following locations and receive a FREE limited-edition Disney gift:

    ★ Avenue of Stars Kiosks

    You can purchase tickets at Avenue of Stars Kiosks in Tsim Sha Tsui. Open daily from 9:00 am — 10:30 pm.

    ★ Asia World-Expo Box Office

    You can purchase tickets at Asia World-Expo Box Office. Open Mondays to Fridays from 10:00 am — 6:00 pm.

    Reserve Tickets for Hotel Guest

    As a hotel Guest of Hong Kong Disneyland Hotel or Disney's Hollywood Hotel, Park tickets are reserved for your purchase at front desk. Open daily from 9:00 am — 8:00 pm.

    Buy at Hong Kong Disneyland Main Entrance

    Guests can purchase tickets on the day of their visit at the Main Entrance Ticket Booths or Guest Relations Windows. Open daily from 30 minutes before Park opening until Park closes.