The National Gallery

Description:

    The National Gallery is the British national art museum built on the north side of Trafalgar Square in London. It houses a different collection of more than 2,300 examples of European art ranging from 13th-century religious paintings to more modem ones by Renoir and Van Gogh. The older collections of the gallery are reached through the main entrance while the more modem works in the East Wing are most easily reached from Trafalgar Square by a ground floor entrance

    Layout:

    The modem Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th- to 15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, Van Eyck, Lippi, Mantegna, Botticelli and Memling.

    The main West Wing houses 16th-century paintings, and artists include Leonardo da Vinci, Cranach, Michelangelo, Raphael, Bruegel, Bronzino, Titan and Veronese.

    The North Wing houses 17th-century paintings, and artists include Caravaggio, Rubens, Poussin, Van Dyck, Velazquez, Claude and Vermeer.

    The East Wing houses 18th- to early 20th-century paintings, and artists include Canaletto, Goya, Turner, Constable, Renoir and Van Gogh.

Opening Hours:

    The Gallery is open every day from 10am to 6pm (Fridays 10am to 9pm) and is free, but charges apply to some special exhibitions.

Getting There:

    Nearest underground stations: Charing Cross (2-minute walk), Leicester Square (3-minute walk), Embankment (7-minute walk), and Piccadilly Circus (8-minute walk).

    Are you dreaming of taking a trip on your own? Here is some advice on how to make your once-in-a-lifetime journey and how to stay safe when you get there.

    Before you begin to look at places, activities and plane tickets, you must set a budget. When you search through the websites about travelling, it can be so easy to add another week here or there, or choose an extra activity. Setting a budget can avoid（避免） creating a huge bill, which starts very small.

    With so many countries on this planet, it is difficult to decide where to go. By narrowing down your search to voluntary (自愿的) work or a relaxing holiday, you can save a lot of time looking through websites.

    After deciding where to go, you need to research the country. Find out when each season is. It would be disappointing if you were taking part in an outdoor-based activity and it rained most days. Look into medical information, as you may need certain medicine for certain countries. Above all, make sure you can afford to go to this country and take part in the activities you have dreamt about. Don't raise your hopes too high before you know for certain it is within your budget.

    By carrying a credit (信用) card with you at all times,  it is possible to stop yourself getting lost. Mobile phones are very important as well. However, do not depend completely on them, since electronic machines can break without warning. Therefore, always carry a list of emergency (紧急情况) phone numbers, names and addresses. Finally, learn a little of the language. Do not expect that the people there speak your own language. After all, you are in their country.

    Guide to Stockholm University Library

    Our library offers different types of studying places and provides a good studying environment.

    Zones

    The library is divided into different zones. The upper floor is a quiet zone with over a thousand places for silent reading, and places where you can sit and work with your own computer. The reading places consist mostly of tables and chairs. The ground floor is the zone where you can talk. Here you can find sofas and armchairs for group work.

    Computers

    You can use your own computer to connect to the wifi specially prepared for notebook computers; you can also use library computers, which contain the most commonly used applications, such as Microsoft Office. They are situated in the area known as the Experimental Field on the ground floor.

    Group-study Places

    If you want to discuss freely without disturbing others, you can book a study room or sit at a table on the ground floor. Some study rooms are for 2-3 people and others can hold up to 6-8 people. All rooms are marked on the library maps.

    There are 40 group-study rooms that must be booked via the website. To book, you need an active University account and a valid University card. You can use a room three hours per day, nine hours at most per week.

    Storage of study material

    The library has lockers for students to store course literature. When you have obtained at least 40 credits(学分), you may rent a locker and pay 400 SEK for a year's rental period.

    Rules to be followed

    Mobile phone conversations are not permitted anywhere in the library. Keep your phone on silent as if you were in a lecture and exit the library if you need to receive calls.

    Please note that food and fruit are forbidden in the library, but you are allowed to have drinks and sweets with you.

    Chinese are very generous when it comes to educating their children. Not caring about the money, parents often send their children to the best schools or even abroad to England, the United States or Australia. They also want their children to take extra-course activities where they will either learn a musical instrument or ballet, or other classes that will give them a head start in life. The Chinese believe that the more expensive an education is, the better it is. So parents will spend an unreasonable amount of money on education. Even poor couples will buy a computer for their son or daughter.

    However, what most parents fail to see is that the best early education they can give their children is usually very cheap. Parents can see that their children's skills vary, skilled in some areas while poor in others. What most parents fail to realize though, is that today's children lack self-respect and self-confidence. The problem is that parents are only educating their children on how to take multiple-choice tests and how to study well, but parents are not teaching them the most important skills they need to be confident, happy and clever.

    Parents can achieve this by teaching practical skills like cooking, sewing and doing other housework.

    Teaching a child to cook will improve many of the skills that he will need later in life. Cooking demands patience and time. It is an enjoyable but difficult experience. A good cook always tries to improve his cooking, so he will learn to work hard and gradually finish his job successfully. His result, a well-cooked dinner, will give him much satisfaction and a lot of self-confidence.

    Some old machines, such as a broken radio or TV set that you give your child to play with will make him curious and arouse his interest. He will spend hours looking at them, trying to fix them; your child might become an engineer when he grows up. These activities are not only teaching a child to read a book, but rather to think, to use his mind. And that is more important.

    After years of trying, our neighbors convinced my parents that ice fishing would be a fun winter getaway from our dairy farm. Before that, their idea of entertainment involved driving around the countryside to see how the neighbors' crops were doing.

My parents eventually built a fish house and set it up on Wood Lake. We excitedly headed for the lake on many January and February weekends. By the time we arrived at our favorite fishing spot across the lake each day, somebody had usually made a clear path across the ice. The fish houses were together at the best fishing spots, forming some kind of a neighborhood.

    Our house was large enough so all four of us could fish at the same time. Each corner had a square cut out of the floor. We sat in comfort. You'd think ice fishing would be cold, but we had a small woodstove (木炉) inside, and we put snow around the bottom of the house to keep the wind from blowing underneath.

    Besides the thrill of watching your bobber (钓鱼浮标) dip below the water, lunch was always the highlight of the day. Mom would fry pork or hamburgers in a pan. The smell of cooking meat was the envy of every other fish house in the neighborhood.

    Our days passed with a mix of quiet time and family chatter. We talked about the farm or school. And of course, we shared fishing advice. Part of the fun of ice fishing was learning to understand and trust the sounds of the frozen lake. Healthy ice "talks" as it freezes and shifts. You could often hear the sound of a crack traveling through the ice.

    People who have never tried ice fishing may not think it sounds very exciting, but it was for us. Fishing trips were an adventure. We didn't always catch fish, but we always brought home great memories of a day with family and friends.

    Winning literary competitions doesn't always lead to fame. But having a few such wins to boast about does you no harm when approaching editors or agents, so if you have dreams of a writing career, these could be the place to begin. Below is a list of the most interesting competitions. Bear in mind that contests with smaller prizes attract fewer entries and are therefore easier to win.

    Wundor Editions Poetry Competition

    Wundor Editions are looking for creative writers to enter their latest poetry contest. If you happen to be 16 or over, send in a poem on any subject running to as many words as you think you can get away with before the judge's eyes glaze over (兴趣丧失).

    Closing: Nov.30. Prize: £ 500. Entry Fee: £ 10.

    Manning's Pit Poetry Competition

    It doesn't sound very attractive but it seems Manning's Pit is something of a beauty spot with more than its share of wildlife. But it's now under threat. This contest aims of raise funds to help save it. Your task is to write a poem of up to 40 lines about Manning's Pit or a similar treasured and threatened piece of countryside near a town or village.

    Closing: Nov.30. Prizes: £ 100, £ 30, £ 20. Entry Fe: £ 3.

    Commonwealth (英联邦) Short Story Competition

    This contest from Commonwealth Writers is for unpublished short fiction of between 2,000 and 5,000 words aimed at adults. But you have to be a citizen of a Commonwealth country. You can write your story in English, Bengali, Chinese, Portuguese, Samoan, Tamil, Kiswahili or Malay.

    Closing: No.1. Prize: £ 5,000. Entry Fee: £ 25.

    Southword Fiction Chapbook Competition

    To enter this international contest from the Munster Literature Centre in Cork, Ireland you should submit 10,000 to 15,000 words of fiction in the form of a collection of short stories. Stories can have been published previously in web or print journals, but not in a stand-alone publication by the author.

    Closing: Oct.31. Prizes: Best International Entry and Best Irish Entry. Entry Fee: £ 5 for one, £ 10 for six.