The Museum: The Charles Dickens Museum in London is the world's most important collection of material relating to the great Victorian novelist and social commentator(时事评论员). The only surviving London home of Dickens (from 1837 until 1839) was opened as a museum in 1925 and is still welcoming visitors from all over the world . On four floors, visitors can see paintings, rare editions, manuscripts(手稿),original furniture and many items relating to the life of one of the most popular and beloved personalities of the Victorian age.

Opening Hours

The Museum is open from Mondays to Saturdays 10:00—17:00; Sundays 11:00—17:00.

Last admission is 30 minutes before closing time.

Special opening times can be arranged for groups , who may wish to book a private view.

    Admission Charges: Adults: £5.00; Students: £4.00; Seniors: £4.00; Children: £3.00; Families: £14.00 ( 2 adults & up to five children)

    Group Rates: For a group of 10 or more, a special group rate of £4.00 each applies. Children will still be admitted for £3.00 each.

    Access: We are constantly working to improve access to the Muse um and its collection. Our current projects involve the fitting of a wheelchair ramp（波道）for better access, a customer care kit and an audio tour for visitors with impaired(受损的)vision. Our Handling Sessions are also suitable for the visually（视觉上地）impaired. The Museum has developed an online virtual（虚拟的）tour through the Museum. Click here to visit all the rooms in the Museum online.

    Hire the Museum: The Museum can be hired for private functions, performances soirees(社交晚会)and many other social occasions.

    Find Us: The Museum may be reached by using the following buses:7,17, 19, 38, 45, 46, 55, 243. And by these underground services: Piccadilly Line; Central Line. For a map, please click here. T he British Museum and the Foundling Museum are within walking distance.

    “Have a nice day!” may be a pleasant gesture or a meaningless expression. When my friend Maxie says “Have a nice day!” with a smile, I know she sincerely cares about what happens to me. I feel loved and secure since another person cares about me and wishes me well.

    “Have a nice day. Next!” This version(版本) of the expression is spoken by a salesgirl at the supermarket who is rushing me and my groceries out the door. The words come out in the same tone with a fixed procedure. They are spoken at me, not to me. Obviously, the concern for my day and everyone else's is the management's attempt to increase business.

    The expression is one of those behaviors that help people get along with each other. Sometimes it indicates the end of a meeting. As soon as you hear it, you know the meeting is at an end. Sometimes the expression saves us when we don't know what to say. “Oh, you just had a tooth out? I'm terribly sorry, but have a nice day.”

    The expression can be pleasant. If a stranger says “Have a nice day” to you, you may find it heart-warming because someone you don't know has tried to be nice to you.

    Although the use of the expression is an insincere, meaningless social custom at times, there is nothing wrong with the sentence except that others who speak it without thinking may not really care about my day. But in a strange and comfortable way, it's nice to know they care enough to pretend they care when they really don't care all that much. While the expression may not often be sincere, it is always spoken. The point is that people say it all the time when they like.

    On a cold winter day, many years ago, a French art teacher named Pierre Chevalier got on a train in Lyon to go to Paris. When he started his journey, he didn't know that it was the beginning of almost 40 years of accidents and near death experiences.

    During the journey, the train fell into an icy river, killing 12 passengers. Chevalier managed to swim back to the river bank. He only had a broken leg.

    Two years later, Chevalier was on a plane from Paris to Moscow when a door suddenly opened and he fell out. A few minutes later, the plane crashed(坠毁); 27 people were killed. Chevalier was so lucky that he landed in a haystack(干草堆).

    A few years later, he was hit by a bus, but again had no serious injuries. Then a year after that, he was driving on a mountain road when he saw a truck coming straight at him. He drove the car off the road, jumped out, landed in a tree—and watched his car fall 100 metres down the mountain.

    “There are two ways you can look at it,” Chevalier said. “I'm either the world's unluckiest man, or the world's luckiest.” When a reporter asked Chevalier what he thought, he chose the “luckiest” one.

    Two years ago, aged 71, Chevalier bought his first lottery ticket(彩票) in 50 years and won more than 2 million.

    After this, a TV company in America said they wanted him to make an advertisement. At first he accepted, but then he changed his mind. Chevalier said he wouldn't fly to Los Angeles for the filming, because he didn't want to push his luck. Who knows? If he had accepted the invitation, maybe he would have had another accident. But Mr Chevalier is a lucky man. If he'd had another accident, he probably would have survived that too!

    David Lindenmayer of the Australian National University College of Science in Canberra says that older trees play important roles in maintaining landscapes and ecosystems.

    David studies conservation, landscape, ecology and biodiversity at the Australian National University College of Science in Canberra. “Lots of people recognize that as humans get older they tend to have less and less children while trees do it the other way around. What really happens is that the older some of these really big old trees get, the more seeds they produce and the more germinant（萌芽的）they're likely to be. So it's actually the polar opposite of what we see with humans and most other animals, so really quite extraordinary. “On January 26th he spoke to Scientific American Editor in Chief Mariette DiChristina when they were both at the World Economic Forum in Davos.

    In actually it's quite a worrying situation, because in plenty of forests and woodland and other ecosystems around the world, populations of large old trees are declining very quickly. And this matters because a lot of biodiversity, a lot of carbon, a lot of key ecosystem processes are associated with those really big, old trees.

    We can make sure we grow more forests, that we protect the big trees we have now, and that we don't do things that really put a lot of pressure on those trees. We should not be cutting down really big old trees anymore.

    When athletes at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics collect their medals, they'll not only be wearing something that celebrates their sporting performance, but something that symbolizes lastingness. For both the 2020 Olympics and Paralympics, organizers aim to make all of the gold, silver, and bronze medals out of used electronics. This strong message about how to make use of e-waste has gotten a lot of Japan involved.

    Starting in April 2017, the Japanese Olympic Committee began collecting old laptops, digital cameras, smartphones, and other abandoned electronics. The initiative(倡议)has achieved great  success. Already, the quantity needed for bronze medals has been met, and they're in the homestretch for silver and gold medals, meaning the collection process can pack up at the end of March.

    When looking just at the number of cell phones collected, the amount of waste is shocking. In a period of about 18 months, a little over 5 million smartphones were collected thanks to cooperation with NTT DOCOMO.

Japan's largest mobile phone operator allowed the public to turn in phones at their shops, which counted a lot in the project's success.

    After being taken apart and sorted, the small electronics underwent a smelting process to extract(提炼)all the gold, silver, and bronze elements. Thanks to this initiative, the worldwide struggle with e-waste will have a global platform. According to a study published by the United Nations University—44.7 million metric tons of e-waste were made in 2016. Only 20% of that was actually recycled. Unfortunately, this figure is set to rise significantly in the coming years, moving to 52.2 million metric tons by 2021. So while the Tokyo Olympics initiative might be just a drop in the bucket, it's a good start in showing what the public can do if they're made more aware of the issue.

The next time you attend a social function or go to a place where people meet and interact, take note of the number of people who have adopted the same gestures and posture—the way you sit or stand--of the person with whom they are talking. This "carbon copying" is a means by which one person tells the other that he is in agreement with his ideas and attitudes. By this method, one is non-verbally (非语言的) saying to the other, "As you can see, I think the same as you, so I will copy your posture and gesture."

    This unconscious (无意识地) mimicry is quite interesting to observe. Take, for example, the two men standing at the hotel bar. They have mirrored each other's gestures and it is reasonable to assume that they are discussing a topic upon which they have the same thoughts and feelings. If one man uncrosses his arms and legs or stands on the other foot, the other will follow. If one puts his hand in his pocket the other will copy and this mimicry will continue for as long as the two men are in agreement.

    This copying also occurs among good friends or people of the same social position and it is common to see married couples walk, stand, sit and move in very similar ways. People who are strangers, however, try hard to avoid holding mutual(相互的) positions. The significance of carbon copying can be one of the most important non-verbal lessons we can learn, for this is one way that others tell us that they agree with us or like us. It is also a way for us to tell others that we like them, by simply copying their gestures.

    If an employer wishes to develop immediate friendliness and create a relaxing atmosphere with an employee, he needs to copy the employee's posture to achieve the end. Similarly, an up-and-coming employee may be seen copying his boss's gestures in an attempt to show agreement. Using the knowledge, it is possible to influence a face-to-face encounter by copying the positive gestures and postures of the other person. This has the effect of putting the other person in a receptive and relaxed frame of mind and he can "see" that you understand his point of view.