Homestay provides English language students with the opportunity to speak English outside the classroom and the experience of being part of a British home.

What to Expect

    The host will provide accommodation and meals. Rooms will be cleaned and bedcovers changed at least Once a week. You will be given the house key and the host is there to offer help and advice as well as to take an interest in your physical and mental health.

Accommodation Zones

    Homestays are located in London mainly in Zones 2.3 and 4of the transport system. Most hosts do not live in the town center as much of central London is commercial and not residential. Zones 3 and 4 often offer larger accommodation in a less crowed area. It is very convenient to travel in London by Underground.

Meal Plans Available

·Continental Breakfast

·Breakfast and Dinner

·Breakfast, Packed Dinner

    It's important to note that few English families still provide a traditional cooked breakfast. Your accommodation includes Continental Breakfast which normally consists of fruit juice, cereal, bread and tea or coffee. Cheese, fruit and cold meat are not normally part of a Continental Breakfast in England. Dinners usually consist of meat or fish with vegetables followed by desert, fruit and coffee.

Friends

    If you wish to invite a friend over to visit,you must first ask your host's permission. You have no right to entertain friends in a family home as some families feel it is an invasion of their privacy.

Self-Catering Accommodation in Private Homes

    Accommodation on a room-only basis includes shared kitchen and bathroom facilities and often a main living room. This kind of accommodation offers an independent lifestyle and is more suitable for the long -stay student . However, it does not provide the same family atmosphere as an ordinary homestay and may not benefit those who need to practice English at home quite as much.

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    Researchers say current exercise guidelines are unrealistic and argue that doctors should sometimes advise small increases in activity instead. They warn the 150-minute weekly target is beyond the reach of some people - particularly older individuals. And striving to reach these goals could mean the benefits of lighter exercise are overlooked. But public health officials say current recommendations have proven benefits in lowering the risk of heart disease.

    There is increasing evidence that inactivity is linked to heart disease, Type 2 diabetes (糖尿病) and some types of cancer. UK guidelines for adults recommend at least two-and-a-half hours of moderate activity a week, in short periods of 10 minutes or more.

    But in two separate articles in the BMJ, experts argue the message needs to change, with greater emphasis on making inactive people move more. Prof Philipe de Souto Barreto at the University Hospital of Toulouse, advises people who sit too much to make small increases in their activity levels - rather than pushing to achieve current goals. He points to previous studies which show even short periods of walking or just 20 minutes of vigorous activity a few times a month can reduce the risk of death, compared to people who do no exercise.

In the second article, Prof Phillip Sparking of the Georgia Institute of Technology, says doctors should tailor their advice — particularly for older patients. He suggests using GP visits for people over 60 to discuss “realistic options” to increase activity — such as getting people to stand up and move during TV commercial breaks.

    Prof Kevin Fenton at Public Health England, says: “Everyone needs to be active every day — short periods of 10 or more minutes of physical activity have proven health benefits, but getting 150 minutes or more of moderate activity every week is the amount we need to positively impact on a wide range of health conditions.” This includes reducing the risk of heart disease and type 2 diabetes.”

    E-mail systems at thousands of companies and government offices around the world were attacked by a virus(病毒)called “Melissa” that disguises(伪装)itself as an “important message from a friend. In spite of a weekend of warnings，more than 50 000 computers at about 100 places around the world have been attacked by the virus，computer security experts said on Monday.

    The virus began to show up last Friday and spread rapidly on Monday by making computers fire off dozens of infected(被传染的)e-mails. Although the virus causes no serious damage to a computer，its effect was far reaching.

    To make matters worse，a similar virus called “Papa” was discovered on Monday. Papa is programmed to send out even more infected e-mails than Melissa.

    The Melissa virus comes in the form of an e-mail，usually containing the subject line“Important Message”. It appears to be from a friend. The body of the e-mail message says，“Here is that document you asked for...,don't show it to anyone else.” Attached(附)to the message is a document file.

    Once the user opens that file，the virus digs into the user's address book and sends infected documents to the first 50 addresses. E-mails from the Papa virus include an attached spreadsheet(电子数据文件)file. When the user opens that file，the virus sends 60 infected e-mails.

    The reason why this is spreading so fast is that you are getting it from people you know. You should never open documents or attachments from people you don't know. People who get an unexpected e-mail with the “important message” subject line should delete it immediately and not open the message.

    About three decades ago, China was known as the “Bicycle Kingdom”. But later on, bikes were replaced by their fuel-powered competitors.

    But recent months have seen a recovery of the humble bike across China, with an increasing number of people choosing cycling instead of driving to schools, to workplaces or to do sightseeing. The introduction of bike-sharing schemes, pioneered by start-ups like Ofo and Mobike, has brought the trend to a new level.

    People can unlock the shared bikes by simply using their smart phone. The bikes are equipped with GPS and can be left anywhere in public for the next user. They're popular among many Chinese people as they provide an effective solution to the “last mile” problem, which refers to the final leg of a person's journey.

    “In places where the subway doesn't extend, where it's difficult to change from one kind of transport to another, it's so easy to get where you want to go with Mobike,” Hu Hong. 29, told AFP. She pedals（骑车）to her Shanghai real-estate job.

    However, the schemes have also led to problems such as illegal parking, vandalism（故意毁坏）and theft. Last month, two nurses in Beijing were placed under administrative punishment for five days for putting locks on two shared bikes. And in December, a man who stole a shared bike was sentenced to a 3-month detention（拘留）, and fined 1,000 yuan by the Shanghai Minhang People's Court.

    “Bike-sharing is a greener method of transportation and provides a user-friendly experience.” said Liu Xiaoming, vice-minister of transport.

    “But it's a combination of online and offline business. Operators are usually strong in online services, but lack offline business experience, which causes problems.”

    Conflict resolution is a peaceful way of trying to solve a conflict with resolution. Both sides in the conflict explain what they feel happened to cause the conflict. The person who listens to both sides is called the mediator（调解人）.

    After both sides state what they think happened to cause the conflict, they discuss ways to solve the conflict. They try to come up with a "resolution" that both sides agree to.

    Communication throughout the entire conflict resolution process is always exchanged in a calm manner without anger. Everyone attempts to use good listening and attending skills while people are talking.

    If voices get too loud or it appears that someone is angry, the mediator's role is to address this and have the people treat each other with respect.

    After various suggestions are shared in how to mediate the conflict, discussion centers on the best   solution. Conflict resolution is used in many environments to help solve disagreements in a peaceful way. This is an example of how conflict resolution works in a school playground setting:

    Someone says that a student pushed them on the soccer field.

    The person accused as the "pusher" claims it was an accident.

    The mediator takes the two people who are upset somewhere in a quieter spot and talk.

    Each person describes what happened, and the mediator makes the matter clear to everyone by repeating what he heard.

    The mediator asks for ideas to solve the problem and the two individuals（个体）offer solutions.

    The individuals discuss the solutions and come to some agreement on the solution.

    Conflict resolution can work in many settings and it can work with several individuals at once. In any event, it is worth trying to get at the heart of the matter by involving the individuals who have a concern. It encourages them to analyze what really happened, to share their feelings about the conflict, and to work together peacefully to solve the problem. Conflict resolution gives those involved a structure（框架）to use with a mediator to help reach an agreement. That is to say, it allows people to see a workable framework.

    How does a sunset work? We love to look at one, but Jolanda Blackwell wanted her eighth-graders to really think about it and question.

    So Blackwell had her students watch a video of a sunset as part of a physics lesson on motion. "I asked them: ' So what's moving And why' " Blackwell says. Some thought the sun was moving; others knew that a sunset is the result of the Earth spinning around on its axis. "Usually, my biggest challenge is trying to keep them patient," she says. "They just have so many burning questions."

    "Every day, we meet new information," says Charan Ranganath, a psychologist. Ranganath was curious to know why we keep some information and forget other things. So he got 19 volunteers and asked them to review more than 100 questions. When the participants' curiosity was aroused, the parts of' their brains that regulate pleasure and reward lit up. Curious minds also showed increased activity in the brain, which is involved in greater memories.

    "Curious brains are better at learning not only about the subject at hand but also dull information. This is a phenomenon teachers can use in the classroom," says Evie Malaia, a professor. "Say a kid wants to be an astronaut," she says. NL Well, how do you link that goal with learning multiplication tables(乘法表)" "A teacher may choose to ask her class an interesting word problem that involves space exploration," Malaia says. Students may remember the answer to the word problem, but they'll also remember how they found the answer through multiplication.

    What Ranganath wants to know most is why some people seem naturally more curious than others. Lots of factors, including stress, aging and certain drugs  affect dopamine(多巴胺) processing in the brain. "If we could figure these things out, we could help those who may just seem bored," Ranganath says.

    Blackwell says she doesn't have to deal with that problem too often. She says her students love exploring the mysterious unknowns in science: What happens when a car crashes. How do rainbows work "I tell my kids there's no dumb questions," Blackwell says. "That's science: asking questions and seeking answers."