So you want to be a citizen scientist? The National Science Foundation (NSF) has got you covered. NSF supports citizen science across all areas of science, whether your passion is to scan the night sky, or explore your own backyard.

Join a flock of birders

    eBird is an online platform that allows bird-watchers to go online and record their sightings to a database. With more than 100,000 active users, eBird's system is a treasure of information on bird population, distribution and habitat, which users can explore in real time.

Count every drop

    The Community Collaborative Rain, Hail and Snow Network (CoCoRaHS) is the largest provider of daily precipitation observations in the United States. Volunteers set up rain gauges and record data every time a rain, snow or hail storm passes over. Data is organized and shared on the CoCoRaHS website, and used by scientists, farmers and more.

Search for stars with your computer

    Einstein@Home uses your computer's idle time to search for space signals. The project has already had major successes: Volunteers discovered about 50 stars, using data from Puerto Rico's Arecibo Observatory and Australia's Parkes Observatory. Einstein@Home also searches for gravitational-wave signals using data from NSF's Laser Interferometer Gravitational Wave Observatory.

Be part of a supercomputer

    To link all those home computers, Einstien@Home uses software called the Berkeley Open Infrastructure for Network Computing, better known as BOINC. The software choreographs(安排，筹划) the technical aspect of volunteer computing and helps you use radio telescope signals to search for alien life.

Join the plankton party

    Without plankton, life in the ocean would not exist. These tiny organisms form the base of the food chain, and play an important role in the global carbon cycle. Plankton Portal enlists citizen scientists to identify images of plankton, snapped by the In Situ Icthyoplankton Imaging System (ISIIS), an underwater robot engineered at the University of Miami. ISIIS has taken millions of images in oceans around the world and upload them into a database; classifying the images helps researchers understand plankton diversity, habitat and behavior.

    China is a land of bicycles.At least it was back in 1992 when I traveled the country.Back then everyone seemed to be riding a bicycle.Cars were fare.Yet since my arrival in Beijing last year,I've found there are millions of cars. However,bicycles are still popular nowadays.People still use their bicycles to get around.For many,it's the most convenient and cheapest way to travel today.

    It's rush quickly through crossroads,move skillfully through traffic,and ride even on sidewalks（人行道）. Bicycles allow people the freedom to move about,which cars just can't provide.Eager to be part of this aspect of Chinese culture,I decided to buy a bicycle.Immediately I got my new bike I jumped up on the seat and started home.

    My first ride home was orderly（守秩序的）.To be safe, I stayed with a "pack" of bikers while cars on the streets came running swiftly out of nowhere at times.I didn't want to get hit.So I took the ride carefully.Crossing the streets was the biggest problem.It was a lot like crossing a major highway back in the United States.The streets here were wide,so crossing took time,skill and a little bit of luck.

    I finally made it home.The feeling on the bicycle was amazing.The air hitting my face and going through my hair was wonderful.I was sitting on top of the world as I passed by places and people.Biking made me feel alive.

    Music is an international language. The songs that are sung or played by instruments are beautiful to all people everywhere.

    Popular music in America is what every student likes. Students carry small radios with earphones and listen to music before class, after class and at lunch. Students with cars buy large speakers and play the music loudly as they drive on the street.

    Adult drivers listen to music on the car radio as they drive to work. They also listen to the news about sports, the weather, politics, and activities of the American people. But most of the radio broadcast is music.

    Pop or popular music singers make much money. They make a CD or tape which radio stations use in every state. Once the popular singer is heard throughout the country, young people buy his or her tapes. Some of the money from these tapes comes to the singer. Wherever the singer goes, all the young people want to meet him or her. Now the singer has become a national star.

    Besides pop music, there are two other kinds of music that is important to Americans. One is called folk music. It tells stories about the common life of Americans. The other is called western or country music. This was started by cowboys who would sing at night to the cows they were watching. Today, any music about country life and the love between a country boy and his girl is called western or country music.

    Edison Park Community(社区) Church stood for 87 years in northwest Chicago before it was pulled down in 2016. Churches come and go, but what makes the passing of the church impressive is the beautiful way its members chose to go out.

    Edison Park Community had 300 active members in the 1960s. But by the time the most recent minister(牧师), Rev. Katherine Karch took over, 12 years ago, membership had shrunk unexpectedly. By last year, Edison Park Community was home to only 30 members. “We couldn't pay the bills anymore.” Karch says. The church's members had little choice but to sell their brick building. A developer paid $740,000 for the property(财产) and planned to tear down the church to make room for single-family homes.

    Yet the sale of the property created a major change. Edison Park Community is part of the United Church of Christ, in which each church is owned by its members. That means the church belonged to its members. They had the right to deal with the earnings from the sale as they wished.

    Yet almost a century of baptisms(洗礼) and Sunday socials had laid down strong community roots. Karch says there was only one idea considered from the start. “What they have chosen to do is donate(捐赠) that money to charities.” she says.

    Their first check, for $100,000, went to the Greater Chicago Food and provided more than 300,000 meals for the hungry. Other beneficiaries(受益者) include United Church of Christ's disaster-relief efforts, and a no-kill animal shelter. Let these extraordinary stories of generosity inspire you to give back to your community.

    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 (at most 12 students).

    Library, language laboratory and listening center.

    Accommodation (住宿) with selected families.

    25 minutes from London.

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

    The best-known example of external( 外部的)influence causing language change is the "Americanization" of world culture, which has caused English words to appear in city streets all over the world. The effect is most noticeable in pop music. Foreign groups often record in English, and the words are picked up and repeated in the same language everywhere, even by children who otherwise have little or no command of the language. I once met a Brazilian child of about ten who could count 'one, two, three', but only by adding the words 'o'clock, four o'clock rock 'at the end.

Some people are often strongly critical of the influence of English on their language — especially when an English word replaces a traditional word. In 1977, France passed a law banning the use of English words in official situations if an equivalent( 意义相同的)French expression existed — but the law seemed to be honored more in the breaking than in the observing. Some other countries have considered introducing a similar law despite the evidence that such laws have very little effect, and that the arrival of loan words( 外来词) can greatly enrich a language (as indeed in the case of English itself, which has a long history of welcoming foreign words).

    However, not everyone is critical. In particular, commercial firms and advertisers are well aware of the potential selling power that the use of English vocabulary can bring. In Japan, English is even used in television commercials, despite the fact that the majority of viewers would not understand exactly what was being said: the excellence implied by the mere use of English is apparently enough to command the strategy to the advertisers.

    Most of the influence of English is upon the vocabulary of foreign languages, but surveys are slowly bringing to light several cases where word order or word structure has been affected. Sentences of the type “The book sells well”, using an active construction for a passive meaning, have begun to appear in Danish (Bogen soelger godt). Several languages keep the English plural ending when they make use of a loan word, and do not translate it into the native form, e.g. drinks. There are many other such cases.