Inside the Rain Room

    The Rain Room has arrived and local art lovers are taking notice. Is it worth the wait? Yes, I assure you it is. Once inside, visitors find a long, dark room with a high ceiling. A single bright light shines through heavy rain falling around visitors. The mist. The damp air. The noise. It feels like a mighty storm is pouring down. But the storm is inside. And visitors aren't getting wet. Instead, visitors wander in awe, admiring the rain and the artists who created it.

    The Rain Room was created to highlight the connection between humans, nature and technology. With a tracking system that senses movement and stops the rain wherever visitors move, it does just that. Light and sound produce an experience that feels both natural and foreign. The exhibit is moving on to Atlanta next month. I urge you to visit before then. It's time to experience the Rain Room for yourself!

Welcome to the Rain Room

• The Rain Room features falling water. Please be aware you may get slightly wet. However, visitors wearing raincoats will be turned away.

• This exhibit features advanced technology. To ensure its effectiveness, please avoid wearing dark or reflective clothing.

• Visitors are welcome to take photographs of the exhibit.

• Children must be accompanied by an adult.

• For the convenience of all guests, visits are limited to 10 minutes.

How to Be a successful person

Gary Hall Jr

Winner of 5 Olympic Gold Medals

    “In 1997 I was found to have developed diabetes(糖尿病) . Believing my career was over, I felt extremely low. Then one of the specialists said there was no reason why I should stop training and competing. That was it—the encouragement I needed. I could still be a winner if I believe in myself. I am not saying that it isn't difficult sometimes. But I wanted to prove to myself that I wasn't finished yet. Nothing is to stand in my way.”

Karen Pickering

Swimming World Champion

     “I swim 4 hours a day, 6 days a week. I manage that sort of workload by putting it on top of my diary. This is the key to success—you can't follow a career in any field without being well-organized. List what you believe you can achieve. Trust yourself, write down your goals for the day, however small they are, and you'll be a step closer to achieving them.”

Kirsten Best

Poet & Writer

     “When things are getting hard, a voice inside my head tells me that I can't achieve something. Then, there are other distractions, such as family or hobbies. The key is to concentrate. When I feel tense, it helps a lot to repeat words such as ‘calm', ‘peace' or ‘focus', either out loud or silently in my mind. It makes me feel more in control and increases my confidence. This is a habit that can become second nature quite easily and is a powerful psychological tool.”

    There are some very good things about open education. This way of teaching allows the students to grow as people, and to develop their own interests in many subjects. Open education allows students to be responsible for their own education, as they are responsible for what they do in life. Some students do badly in a traditional classroom. The open classroom may allow them to enjoy learning. Some students will be happier in an open education school. They will not have to worry about grades or rules. For students who worry about these things a lot, it is a good idea to be in an open classroom.

    But many students will not do well in an open classroom. For some students, there are too few rules. These students will do little in school. They will not make good use of open education. Because open education is so different from traditional education, these students may have a problem getting used to making so many choices. For many students it is important to have some rules in the classroom. They worry about the rules even when there are no rules. Even a few rules will help this kind of students. The last point about open education is that some traditional teachers do not like it. Many teachers do not believe in open education. Teachers who want to have an open classroom may have many problems at their schools.

    You now know what open education is. Some of its good points and bad points have been explained. You may have your own opinion about open education. The writer thinks that open education is a good idea, but only in theory. In actual fact, it may not work very well in a real class or school. The writer believes that most students, but of course not all students, want some structure in their classes. They want and need to have rules. In some cases, they must be made to study some subjects. Many students are pleased to find subjects they have to study interesting. They would not study those subjects if they did not have to.

    A new study of 8,000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily, it is a bad thing for young people. Puppy love(早恋)may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression. The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys, and younger girls are the worst of all.

    The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is “loss of self”. According to the study，even though boys would say “lose themselves in a romantic relationship”, this “loss of self” is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls. Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions. They won't tell that to their parents.

    Dr Marianm Kaufman，an expert on young people problems, says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing. Trying romance often causes the depression. She advises kids not to jump into romance too early. During growing up, it is important for young people to build b friendships and a b sense of self. She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends, attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family.

    Parents should watch for signs of depression—eating or mood changes—and if they see signs from their daughters or sons, they need to give help. The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age. Love will always make us feel young, but only maturity(成熟)gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects.

    One side effect of globalization and the related phenomenon of greatly increased mobility is that the traditional definition of “foreigner” has passed its sell-by date.

    Is a European who has lived in China longer than in his home country, becoming fluent in the language and culture in the process, still a foreigner in China, or has he become more of a foreigner in his own home town? What about a Beijinger who did her schooling in Canada and then lived and worked in mainstream society there for another 20 years while raising a family, who has no intention of returning to China? Does she think and act like a foreigner? What do we mean by this label(标签)?

    When I grew up in the suburbs of Chicago, the faces you would see during a walk through a local shopping mall back in the 1960s and 1970s included almost none of Asian descent. Today the same malls are full of Asian faces, and a glance at the ranks of top scoring students in local schools reveals lots of Asian surnames.

    To some extent, this is no great surprise in the American context, because America is a land of immigrants, and a cultural melting pot. Apart from the native American Indians, Americans are (or were), in some way, all foreigners anyway. Absorbing a large number of immigrants is an established pattern in American history.

    In most places, the traditional foreigners were people who didn't speak or read the local languages well, were unfamiliar with local customs and lifestyles, often engaged in relatively third-class work, and certainly not the type of people you would want your sons or daughters to marry. But, nowadays, a foreigner down the street may have better SAT scores than you did, or higher degree from a better university. He might also be your son's or daughter's next employer.

    The traditional role models are getting mixed up, and it looks like this is just the beginning of a new chapter. Today, the whole thing has totally changed. It's not about where people are from or what color their skins are. It's about who they are, what values and skills they bring, and how they think.

    Simpson is 53, "not sporty" and has suffered from asthma all her life. Two years ago her son Jay, now 10, took up BMX (自行车越野赛). "I enjoyed watching him and thought I'd like to try it," Simpson recalls. "But I didn't want to embarrass myself. I hadn't ridden for over 40 years."

    Then she noticed a session for women and girls at Burgess Park BMX Track in Peckham, south-east London, where Jay trained. This season Simpson raced at the London BMX series and finished third in her category.

    "It was the most worrying experience of my life. But it was also exhilarating," she says cheerfully. "My son is proud of me. We now share a real love for the sport. It has brought us closer together."

    Since becoming part of the Olympic Games in 2008, the popularity of BMX has risen. A program introduced in London in 2011 by the sports development charity Access Sport has seen tracks built in several London regions, backed up with investment in coaching, and the program is being rolled out to Bristol.

    Wright's children Skye, 11 and Xander, 10 are sponsored riders who have represented Great Britain in every world championship since 2014. Wright says she was motivated to start BMX herself out of an interest aroused by watching so much of it. "It's an eye-opener to share your children's interests," she explains. "You comprehend what they go through in a much more direct way. It adds another dimension to your relationship."

    It is also a high-impact sport and the risks are fairly obvious. "I totally get the fear," says Emma, 51, a BMX exercise coach and cycling instructor. "It's the fear of doing something new, of getting hurt. But I say 'Come and give it a try.' The chance of having an accident is slim, and you can spend time on the flat to improve your confidence."