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　　When Frida Kahlo's paintings were on show in London, a poet described her paintings as “ a ribbon(丝带)around a bomb”．Such comments seem to suggest Kahlo had a big influence on the art world of her time．Sadly, she is actually a much bigger name today than she was during her time．

　　Born in 1907 in a village near Mexico City , Kahlo suffered from polio(小儿麻痹症)at the age of seven．Her spine(脊柱)become bent as she grew older．Then, in 1925, her back was broken in several places in a school-bus accident．Throughout the rest of her life, the artist had many operations, but noting was able to cure the terrible pain in her back．However, the accident had an unexpected side effect．While lying in her bed recovering, Kahlo taught herself to paint．

　　In 1929, she got married to Diego Rivera, another famous Mexican artist．Rivera's strong influences on Kahlo's style can be seen in her early works, but her later works from the 1940s, known today as her best works, show less influence from her husband．

　　Unfortunately, her works did not attract much attention in the 1930s and1940s, even in her home country．Her first one-woman show in Mexico was not held until 1953．For more than a decade after her death in 1954, Kahlo's works remained largely unnoticed by the world, but in the 1970s her works began to gain international fame at last．

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　　Why is pink or purple a color for girls and blue or brown for boys?

　　The answer depends largely on cultural values as well as personal experiences．To the Egyptians, green was a color that represented the hope and joy of spring, while for Muslims, it means heaven．Red is a symbol of good luck in many cultures．In China, children are given money in a red envelope to bring good fortune in the New Year．For many nations, blue is a symbol of protection and religious beliefs．Greek people often wear a blue necklace hoping to protect themselves against evils(灾祸)．

　　People's choice of colors is also influenced by their bodies' reactions(反应)toward them．Green is said to be the most restful color．It has the ability to reduce pain and relax people both mentally and physically．People who work in green environment have been found to have fewer stomach aches．

　　Red can cause a person's blood pressure to rise and increase people's appetites(食欲)．Many decorators will include different shades of red in the restaurant．Similarly, many commercial websites will have a red “Buy Now” button because red is a color that easily catches a person's eye．

　　Blue is another calming color．Unlike red, blue can cause people to lose appetite．So if you want to eat less, some suggest that eating from blue plates can help．

　　The next time you are deciding on what to wear or what color to decorate your room, think about the color carefully．

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　　Welcome to one of the largest collections of footwear(鞋类)in the world that will make you green with envy．Here at the Footwear Museum you can see exhibits(展品)from all over the world．You can find out about shoes worn by everyone from the Ancient Egyptians to pop stars．

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　　Frederic Mishkin, who's been a professor at Columbia Business School for almost 30 years, is good at solving problems and expressing ideas．Whether he's standing in front of a lecture hall or engaged in a casual conversation, his hands are always waving and pointing．When he was in graduate school, one of his professors was so annoyed by this constant gesturing that he made the young economist sit on his hands whenever he visited the professor's office．

　　It turns out, however, that Mishkin's professor had it exactly wrong．Gesture doesn't prevent but promotes clear thought and speech．Research demonstrates that the movements we make with our hands when we talk form a kind of second language, adding information that's absent from our words．It's learning's secret code：Gesture reveals what we know．It reveals what we don't know．What's more, the agreement(or lack of agreement)between what our voices say and how our hands move offers a clue to our readiness to learn．

　　Manyof the studies establishing the importance of gesture to learning have been conducted by Susan Goldin-Meadow, a professor of psychology at the University of Chicago．"We change our minds by moving our hands," writes Goldin-Meadow in a review of this work．Particularly significant are what she calls "mismatches" between oral expression and physical gestures．A student might say that a heavier ball falls faster than a light one, for example, but make a gesture indicating that they fall at the same rate, which is correct．Such differences indicate that we're moving from one level of understanding to another．The thoughts expressed by hand motions are often our newest and most advanced ideas about the problem we're working on; we can't yet absorb these concepts into language, but we can capture them in movement．

　　Goldin-Meadow's more recent work strews not only that gesture shows our readiness to learn, but that it actually helps to bring learning about．It does so in two ways．First, it elicits(引出)helpful behavior from others around us．Goldin-Meadow has found that adults respond to children's speech-gesture mismatches by adjusting their way of instruction．Parents and teachers apparently receive the signal that children are ready to learn, and they act on it by offering a greater variety of problem-solving techniques．The act of gesturing itself also seems to quicken learning, bringing new knowledge into consciousness and aiding the understanding of new concepts．A 2007 study by Susan Wagner Cook, an assistant professor of psychology at the University of Iowa, reported that third-graders who were asked to gesture while learning algebra(代数)were nearly three times more likely to remember what they'd learned than classmates who did not gesture．

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The Age of Unreason

Charles Handy

　　In his book The Age of Unreason Professor Handy describes the dramatic changes that are taking place in our lives today and warns that we must adapt to these changes if we want to survive in the future．Handy believes that in the future less than 50％ of the workforce will be employed full-time by an organization．These full-time employees will be the qualified professionals, technicians, and managers who are essential to an organization．Their working lives will be a lot more demanding than today, but in return they will be well-paid and they will retire earlier．The rest of the workforce will Be self-employed or will work part-time, providing organizations with the products and services they require on a contract basis．Handy forecasts a big increase in the number of working mothers in future and believes there will be a large number of unemployed．

　　Handy gives us plenty of figures to worry about．He estimates that by the year 2040, one person in five will retire, and one in ten will be over seventy-five years old．There will be one retiree to every three people of working age, and even more than that in countries such as Germany and Switzerland, where the proportion will be as much as one to two．Retirees will remain healthy and active for longer than they do today and many will live to be a hundred years old, a fact which leads Handy to suggest that the term retirement will no longer be appropriate．He suggests the third age is a more appropriate description, since it will be as important a part of our lives as the first age of learning and the second age of working are for us today．

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　　For six hours we shot through the landscape of the Karoo desert in South Africa．Just rocks and sand and baking sun．Knowing our journey was ending, Daniel and I just wanted to remember all we had seen and done．He used a camera．I used words．I had already finished three notebooks and was into the fourth, a beautiful leather notebook I'd bought in a market in Mozambique．

　　Southern Africa was full of stories．And visions．We were almost drunk on sensations．The roaring of the water at Victoria Falls, the impossible silence of the Okavango Delta in Botswana．And then the other things：dogs in the streets, whole families in Soweto living in one room, a kilometre from clean water．

　　As we drove towards the setting sun, a quietness fell over us．The road was empty－we hadn't seen another car for hours．And as I drove, something caught my eye, something moving next to me．I glanced in the mirror of the car; I glanced sideways to the right, and that was when I saw them．Next to us, by the side of the road, thirty, forty wild horses were racing the car, a cloud of dust rising behind them－brown, muscular horses almost close enough to touch them, to smell their hot breath．I didn't know how long they had been there next to us．

　　I shouted to Dan："Look!", but he was in a deep sleep, his camera lying useless by his feet．

　　They raced the car for a few seconds, then disappeared far behind us, a memory of heroic forms in the red landscape．When Daniel woke up an hour later I told him what had happened．

　　"Wild horses?" he said．"Why didn't you wake me up?"

　　"I tried．But they were gone after a few seconds．"

　　"Are you sure you didn't dream it?"

　　"You were the one who was sleeping!"

　　'Typical, he said．"The best photos are the ones we never take．"

　　We checked into a dusty hotel and slept the sleep of the dead．

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Wilderness

　　“In wilderness(荒野)is the preservation of the world．” This is a famous saying from a writer regarded as one of the fathers of environmentalism．The frequency with which it is borrowed mirrors a heated debate on environmental protection：whether to place wilderness at the heart of what is to be preserved．

　　As John Sauven of Greenpeace UK points out, there is a strong appeal in images of the wild, the untouched; more than anything else, they speak of the nature that many people value most dearly．The urge to leave the subject of such images untouched is strong, and the danger exploitation(开发)brings to such landscapes(景观)is real．Some of these wildernesses also perform functions that humans need－the rainforests, for example, store carbon in vast quantities．To Mr．Sauven, these ”ecosystem services” far outweigh the gains from exploitation．

　　Lee Lane, a visiting fellow at the Hudson Institute, takes the opposing view．He acknowledges that wildernesses do provide useful services, such as water conservation．But that is not, he argues, a reason to avoid all human presence, or indeed commercial and industrial exploitation．There are ever more people on the Earth, and they reasonably and rightfully want to have better lives, rather than merely struggle for survival．While the ways of using resources have improved, there is still a growing need for raw materials, and some wildernesses contain them in abundance．If they can be tapped without reducing the services those wildernesses provide, the argument goes, there is no further reason not to do so．Being untouched is not, in itself, a characteristic worth valuing above all others．

　　I look forwards to seeing these views taken further, and to their being challenged by the other participants．One challenge that suggests itself to me is that both cases need to take on the question of spiritual value a little more directly．And there is a practical question as to whether wildernesses can be exploited without harm．

　　This is a topic that calls for not only free expression of feelings, but also the guidance of reason．What position wilderness should enjoy in the preservation of the world obviously deserves much more serious thinking．

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Decision-making under Stress

　　A new review based on a research shows that acute stress affects the way the brain considers the advantages and disadvantages, causing it to focus on pleasure and ignore the possible negative(负面的)consequences of a decision．

　　The research suggests that stress may change the way people make choices in predictable ways．

　　“Stress affects how people learn,” says Professor Mara Mather．“People learn better about positive than negative outcomes under stress．”

　　For example, two recent studies looked at how people learned to connect images(影像)with either rewards or punishments．In one experiment, some of the participants were first stressed by having to give a speech and do difficult math problems in front of an audience; in the other, some were stressed by having to keep their hands in ice water．In both cases, the stressed participants remembered the rewarded material more accurately and the punished material less accurately than those who hadn't gone through the stress．

　　This phenomenon is likely not surprising to anyone who has tried to resist eating cookies or smoking a cigarette while under stress –at those moments, only the pleasure associated with such activities comes to mind．But the findings further suggest that stress may bring about a double effect．Not only are rewarding experiences remembered better, but negative consequences are also easily recalled．

　　The research also found that stress appears to affect decision-making differently in men and women．While both men and women tend to focus on rewards and less on consequences under stress, their responses to risk turn out to be different．

　　Men who had been stressed by the cold-water task tended to take more risks in the experiment while women responded in the opposite way．In stressful situations in which risk-taking can pay off big, men may tend to do better, when caution weighs more, however, women will win．

　　This tendency to slow down and become more cautious when decisions are risky might also help explain why women are less likely to become addicted than men：they may more often avoid making the risky choices that eventually harden into addiction．

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Peanuts to This

　　Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes．Confused, I glanced toward my stone-faced teacher．Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had slaved over, hoping to hide myself．“What could be causing everyone to act this way?”

　　Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task．This was the first real talk I received in my new school．It seemed simple：go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington．Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before．As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America．I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant．I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice; flip(掷)a coin．Heads－the commander, and tails－the peanuts guy．Ah! Tails, my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver．

　　Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly mass, I was totally lost．Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong．As a classmate began his report, it all became clear, “My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution．” The whole world became quite! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?

　　Obviously, my grade was awful．Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around．I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted：No re-dos; no new grade．I felt that the punishment was not justified, and I believed I deserved a second chance．Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year．Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster's office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation．I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my option to skip the sixth grade．Justice is sweet!

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The Basics of Math－Made Clear

　　Basic Math introduces students to the basic concepts of mathematics, as well as the fundamentals of more tricky areas．These 30 fantastic lectures are designed to provide students with an understanding of arithmetic and to prepare them for Algebra(代数)and beyond．

　　The lessons in Basic Math cover every basic aspect of arithmetic．They also look into exponents(指数), the order of operations, and square roots．In addition to learning how to perform various mathematical operations, students discover why these operations work, how a particular mathematical topic relates to other branches of mathematics, and how these operations can be used practically．

　　Basic Math starts from the relatively easier concepts and gradually moves on to the more troublesome ones, so as to allow for steady and sure understanding of the material by students．The lectures offer students the chance to “make sense” of mathematical knowledge that may have seemed so frightening．They also help students prepare for college mathematics and overcome their anxiety about this amazing－and completely understandable－field of study．

　　By the conclusion of the course, students will have improved their understanding of basic math．They will be able to clear away the mystery(神秘性)of mathematics and face their studies with more confidence than they ever imagined．In addition, they will strengthen their ability to accept new and exciting mathematical challenges．

　　Professor H．Siegel, honored by Kentucky Educational Television as “the best math teacher in America,” is a devoted teacher and has a gift for explaining mathematical concepts in ways that make them seem clear and obvious．From the basic concrete ideas to the more abstract problems, he is master in making math lectures learner-friendlier and less scary．

　　With a PhD in Mathematics Education from Georgia State University, Dr．Siegel teaches mathematics at Central Arizona College．His courses include various make-up classes and a number of lectures for future primary school teachers．

　　If the course fails to provide complete satisfaction to you, you can easily exchange it for any other course that we offer．Or you can get your money back．

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