Boston College is a state­supported college on the east coast of England which has been recruiting overseas students for over 20 years and now has almost 200 international students from more than 20 different countries.You and your parents can be sure you will receive the care and support you need to succeed at our college.

      We have excellent teaching staff, with time and patience to help you learn in a stimulating but relaxed atmosphere. We are accredited by the British Council for the quality of our English language teaching so you can be sure your learning experience will be good.

      Our new modular English course is flexible and enables you to choose the best time to join us.Not only will you cover all aspects of the English language but you will have the choice of option subjects such as IELTS Preparation, British Culture, Literature, Business English or   Study Skills.We will assess your level of English when you arrive so you can be sure you will study with students of the same ability.Classes are small: usually 12～16 students so you will receive the individual attention you need to help you succeed.

      Boston College is based on two main campuses with English courses being taught in our state­of­the­art language building convenient for our Hall of Residence on the Rochford Campus.A­Level and International Foundation classes are taught on both Rochford and De Montfort Campuses.Classrooms are modern and well equipped with a number of specialist facilities for photography and video, computer suites, art and music studios and an all weather sports pitch.Both campuses have large Learning Resource Centres, well equipped with computers for student use, also available for research or assignment work.Our diploma courses include catering, hairdressing, computing and engineering, each with its own specialist facilities. We also have a Music Centre providing teaching rooms, recording studio and concert hall.

Notes：

diploma n ． 文凭

    People who multitask all the time may be the worst at doing two things at once, a new research suggests. The findings, based on performances and self-evaluation by about 275 college students, indicate that many people multitask not out of a desire to increase productivity, but because they are easily distracted and can't focus on one activity. And “those people turn out to be the worst at handling different things,” said David Sanbonmatsu, a psychologist at the University of Utah.

    Sanbonmatsu and his colleagues gave the students a set of tests and asked them to report how often they multitasked, how good they thought they were at it, and how sensation-seeking (寻求刺激) or imperative (冲动) they were. They then evaluated the participants' multitasking ability with a tricky mental task that required the students to do simple mathematical calculations while remembering a set of letters.

    Not surprisingly, the scientists said, most people thought they were better than average at multitasking, and those who thought they were better at it were more likely to report using a cellphone while driving or viewing multiple kinds of media at once. But those who frequently deal with many things at the same time were found to perform the worst at the actual multitasking test. They also were more likely to admit to sensation-seeking and impulsive behavior, which connects with how easily people get bored and distracted.

     “People multitask not because it's going to lead to greater productivity, but because they're distractible, and they get sucked into things that are not as important.” Sanbonmatsu said.

    Adam Gazzaley, a researcher at the University of California, San Francisco, who was not a member of the research group, said one limitation of the study was that it couldn't find out whether people who start out less focused tend toward multitasking or whether people's recognizing and understanding abilities change as a result of multitasking.

    The findings do suggest, however, why the sensation-seeker who multitask the most may enjoy risky distracted driving. “People who are multitasking are generally less sensitive to risky situations.” said Paul Atchley, another researcher not in the group. “This may partly explain why people go in for these situations even though they're dangerous.”

    Culture can affect not just language and customs, but also how people experience the world on surprisingly basic levels.

    Researchers, with the help of brain scans, have a shocking differences in perception (感知) between Westerners and Asians, what they see when they look at a city street, for example, or even how they perceive a simple line in a square, according to findings published in a leading science journal.

    In Western countries, culture makes people think of themselves as highly independent individuals. When looking at scenes, Westerners tend to focus more on central objects than on their surroundings. East Asian cultures, however, emphasize inter-dependence. When Easterners look at a scene, they tend to focus on the surroundings as well as the object.

    Using an experiment involving two tasks, Dr. Hedden asked subjects to look at a line simply to estimate its length, a task that played to American's strengths. In another, they estimated the line's length relative to the size of a square, an easier task for the Asians.

    The level of brain activity, by tracking blood flow, was then measured by Brain Scanners. The experiment found that although there was no difference in performance, and the tasks were very easy, the levels of activity in the subjects' brain were different. For the Americans, areas linked to attention were more, when they worked on the task they tended to find more difficult — estimating the line's size relative to the square. For the Asians, the attention areas lit up more during the harder task also—estimating the line's length without comparing it to the square. The findings are a reflection of more than ten years of previous experimental research into East-West differences.

    In one study, for instance researchers offered people a choice among five pens; four red and one green. Easterners were more likely to choose a red pen while Westerners were more likely to choose the green one.

    Culture is not affecting how you see the world, but how you choose to understand and internalize(使内化) it.

    But such habits can be changed. Some psychological studies suggest that when an Easterner goes to the West or vice versa, habits of thought and perception also begin to change. Such research gives us clues to how our brain works and is hopeful for us to develop programs to improve our memory, memory techniques and enhance and accelerate our learning skills.

    Planning to get away? Think passport first

    If you're planning to get away from it all this year, you should think passport first. Checking you have a valid passport before you book your trip takes minutes but could save you the trouble and cost of not being able to go.

    Renewing (更新) your passport before it runs out

You can renew your passport up to 9 months before it can no longer be legally used. So take the time now and save the tears later.

    Applying for a passport for the first time

    Our eligibility (资格) checks mean that it takes a minimum of one week to issue (颁发) a passport. So make sure you don't leave it to the last minute, and apply in plenty of time.

    Help with your application is just around the corner

    Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents offer a Check and Send service that helps you with your application. It's convenient and you should receive your passport within 2 weeks.

    If you need to apply for or renew a passport, you can either:

    Pick up a Passport Application Form at Selected Post Office branches and Worldchoice travel agents.

    Or call the Application Form Request line on 0901 4700 100 or visit www.passport.gov.uk

    If your need is urgent, call 0870 521 0410 for an appointment at one of our offices. We can't guarantee to see customers without an appointment.

    From 14th January a guaranteed same day (passport renewals only) or one week service will be available from passport public counters.

    Calls will be charged 60p per minute and the cost per call should not normally be more than 90p.

    Calls are charged at national rates.

Best sellers in children's activities ＆ crafts books

    Elephants are able to know the difference between a man and a woman, and can tell an adult (成年人) from a child—all from the sound of a human voice. This is according to a study in which researchers played voice recordings to wild African elephants.

    The animals showed more fear when they heard the voices of adult Masai men. Usually Masai people hunt elephants, and this suggests that animals have grown to listen for and avoid them.

    Prof. Karen McComb and Dr Graeme Shannon from the University of Sussex led the study. They explained that in former research they had used similar experiments to show that elephants could tell—from the sound of a lion—whether the animal was a female (雌性) or a more dangerous male (雄性).

    Prof  McComb wanted to find out if the animals used their very sharp sense of hearing to recognize danger from humans.

    The scientists recorded Masai men, women and children saying, in their own language, "Look, look over there, a group of elephants are coming." They also recorded Kamba men saying this phrase.

    Masai people often come across elephants, which can result in violent (暴力的) hunting. Kamba people, however, mainly feed on agriculture, which does not generally bring them into violent touch with the animals.

    When the team played recordings of these different voices through a hidden speaker, they found that elephant family groups showed more fear in response to the voice of a Masai man, than to a Kamba man's voice. And the adult male Masai voices caused far more violent response than the voices of women or boys.