The National Gallery

Description:

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

Layout:

    The modern Sainsbury Wing on the western side of the building houses 13th-to15th-century paintings, and artists include Duccio, Uccello, VanEyck, 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 Veronest.

    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）.

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    Take a look at the following list of numbers: 4, 8, 5, 3, 7, 9, 6. Read them loud. Now look away and spend 20 seconds memorizing them in order before saying them out loud again. If you speak English, you have about a 50% chance of remembering those perfectly. If you are Chinese, though, you're almost certain to get it right every time. Why is that? Because we most easily memorize whatever we can say or read within a two-second period. And unlike English, the Chinese language allows them to fit all those seven numbers into two seconds.

    That example comes from Stanislas Dahaene's book The Number Sense. As Dahaene explains: Chinese number words are remarkably brief. Most of them can be spoken out in less than one-quarter of a second (for instance, 4 is “si” and 7 “qi”). Their English pronunciations are longer. The memory gap between English and Chinese apparently is entirely due to this difference in length.

    It turns out that there is also a big difference in how number-naming systems in Western and Asian languages are constructed. In English, we say fourteen, sixteen, seventeen, eighteen and nineteen, so one might expect that we would also say oneteen, twoteen, threeteen, and fiveteen.  But we don't. We use a different form: eleven, twelve, thirteen and fifteen. For numbers above 20, we put the “decade” first and the unit number second (twenty-one, twenty-two), while for the teens, we do it the other way around (fourteen, seventeen, eighteen). The number system in English is highly irregular. Not so in China, Japan, and Korea. They have a logical counting system. Eleven is ten-one. Twelve is ten-two. Twenty-four is two-tens-four and so on.

    That difference means that Asian children learn to count much faster than American children. Four-year-old Chinese children can count, on average, to 40. American children at that age can count only to 15. By the age of five, in other words, American children are already a year behind their Asian friends in the most fundamental of math skills.

    The regularity of their number system also means that Asian children can perform basic functions, such as addition, far more easily. Ask an English-speaking seven-year-old to add thirty-seven plus twenty-two in her head, and she has to change the words to numbers (37+22). Only then can she do the math: 2 plus 7 is 9 and 30 and 20 is 50, which makes 59. Ask an Asian child to add three-tens-seven and two-tens-two, and then the necessary equation(等式) is right there, in the sentence. No number translation is necessary: it's five-tens-nine.

When it comes to math, in other words, Asians have a built-in advantage. For years, students from China, South Korea, and Japan — outperformed their Western classmates at mathematics, and the typical assumption is that it has something to do with a kind of Asian talent for math. The differences between the number systems in the East and the West suggest something very different — that being good at math may also be rooted in a group's culture.

How to Enjoy Life As a Teen

    The "best years of your life"? Maybe not, but you can learn to make the most of your high school days.

    Learn to appreciate small things. Whether it's having a computer, having friends, having a good supply of food, a bed to sleep on, family that loves you, having a decent education or simply being born in this world, value it. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Be happy, and life will reward you. Remember that these are the last few years you will be able to enjoy yourself without having to worry about the responsibility of an adult, but make sure you prepare yourself for when you do become one. When you actually become an adult, you'll learn to love that responsibility and you probably never want to go back.

    Choose your friends wisely. Unlike what many articles state, you don't have to be popular and have a gazillion friends to be happy. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Try to have friends that like you who you are, not just because you are wearing a certain brand of shoes or something like that. These are people who shop at the same store as you; not someone who will sympathize with you when your dog dies.

    Keep your grades up. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} This also sets you up to get into a college you want to go to, which in turn prepares you for a career you will enjoy, improving your quality of life in the future. You'll get cheap car insurance as well if you have at least a B or A average.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Participating in clubs, activities, and sports increases your chances of meeting new friends. While you only need 4 or 5 close friends, that doesn't mean you shouldn't try to meet new people. Participating gives you something to do instead of sitting bored at home and wallowing in self-pity.

    Work at a job you can enjoy. Working is a great way co gain experience and to meet other people. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} This will look great on your resume. If you can't find work, especially in this hard economic time, volunteer or make your own job.

A. Be sociable.

B. Remember the point of life is for you to enjoy it.

C. Find a hobby that is meaningful or practical.

D. In fact, many of the "friends" you have when you are popular are not true friends.

E. When you do get out of college, interviewing companies will look at your previous work experience.

F. Even though you want to enjoy your teen life as best as possible, don't idle away your time in school.

G. There is nothing more satisfying than seeing your hard work pay off in the form of A's and B's (but mainly A's).

    Living and dealing with kids can be a tough job these days, but living and dealing with parents can be even tougher.

    If I have learned anything in my 18 years, it is communication that is very important, both when you disagree and when you get along. With any relationship, you need to let others know how you are feeling. If you are not able to communicate, you drift apart. When you are mad at your parents, or anyone else, not talking to them doesn't solve anything.

    Communication begins with the concerns of another. It means that you can't just come home from school, go up to your room and ignore everyone. Even if you just say and see how their day was for five minutes, it is better than nothing.

    If you looked up the word “communication” in a dictionary, it would say “the exchange of ideas, the conveyance of information，correspondence (通信)，means of communication: a letter or a message”. To maintain a good relationship, you must keep communication strong. Let people know how you feel, even if ifs just by writing a note.

    When dealing with parents, you always have to make them feel good about how they are doing as a parent. If you are trying to make them see something as you see it, tell them that you'll listen to what they have to say, but ask them politely to listen to you. Yelling or walking away only makes the situation worse.

     This is an example: one night, Sophie went to a street party with her friends. She knew she had to be home by midnight after the fireworks, but she didn't feel she could just ask to go home. That would be rude. After all, they had been nice enough to take her along with them. Needless to say, she was late getting home. Her parents were mad at first, but when Sophie explained why she was late, they weren't as mad and let the incident go.

    Communication is the key factor here. If Sophie's parents had not been willing to listen, Sophie would have been in a lot of trouble. Communication isn't a one-way deal: it goes both ways. Just remember: if you get into a situation like Sophie's, tell the other person how you feel—listening is the key factor to communication.

    Physics is a different world now. Will there ever be another Einstein?

    Scientists say a new Einstein will appear, but it may take a long time. After all, more than 200 years separated Einstein from his nearest rival (对手) , Isaac Newton. Many physicists say the next Einstein hasn't been born yet, or is only a baby now. That's because the searching for a unified(统一的) theory that would explain all the forces of nature has pushed current mathematics to its limits. New math must be created before the problem can be solved.

    But researchers say there are many other factors working against another Einstein appearing anytime soon. For one thing, physics is quite a different field today. In Einstein's day, there were a few thousand physicists worldwide, and fewer theoreticians. Education is different, too. One extremely important aspect of Einstein's training that failed to be considered is the philosophy he read as a teenager. It taught him how to think theoretically about space and time.

    And he was a skilled musician. The interplay between music and math is well known. Einstein would fiercely play his violin as a way to think through a knotty physics problem.

    Today, universities have produced millions of physicists. There aren't many jobs in science for them, so they go to Wall Street and Silicon Valley to apply their analytical skills to more practical and rewarding efforts.

    Besides, those who stay in science don't work alone. It's very difficult to imagine an independent person like Einstein ever tolerating this.

    Crossing your legs is an extremely common habit. While you may find it comfortable to sit with one knee crossed over the other, it might be causing health problems that you are not aware of.

    A study published in Blood Pressure Monitoring stated that sitting with your legs crossed can increase your blood pressure. The reason is that crossing one leg over the other increases resistance, making it even harder for the blood to circulate and increase your blood pressure. Thus, you shouldn't have your legs crossed for more than 15 minutes, and it's important that you get up and walk around at least once every hour.

    Crossing your legs can also lead to neck and back pain. Ideally, it's best for our bodies to sit with our feet planted flat on the floor. When you sit with your legs crossed your hips are in a twisted position, which can cause pressure on your lower and middle back and neck.

    You also might notice that when you sit with your legs crossed for long periods of time your feet and legs get painful. This is because when one leg sits on top of the other, it causes pressure on the veins and nerves in your legs and feet. While the feeling of discomfort may only last a minute or two, repeatedly crossing your legs until they feel numb can cause permanent nerve damage.

    So next time you sit down, try to get yourself in the habit of sitting with both of your feet on the floor. Not only will it help your posture and stability, but it will also save your health in the long run.