Non-Credit Courses
The Pre-College Program offers non-credit courses. Students will experience college-level courses given by some of our college's leading experts and will receive written feedback (反馈) on their work at the end of the course. Pre-College students will also receive a grade of Satisfactory/Unsatisfactory and a certificate of completion at the conclusion of the program.
All non-credit courses meet from 9:00 a. m.-11:30 a. m. daily and may have additional requirements in the afternoons or evenings.
COURSE: Case Studies in Neuroscience
·June 11— July 2
·Leah Roesch
Using student-centered, active-learning methods and real-world examples, this course is designed to provide a fuller understanding of how the human brain works.
COURSE: Psychology of Creativity
·June 15—June 28
·Marshall Duke
Why are certain people so creative? Is it genetic (遗传的), or a result of childhood experience? Are they different from everyone else? This popular psychology course highlights the different theories of creativity.
COURSE: Creative Storytelling
·June 21 — July 3
·Edith Freni
This college-level course in creative storytelling functions as an introduction to a variety of storytelling techniques that appear in different forms of creative writing, such as short fiction and playwriting.
COURSE: Sports Economics
·July 19 — August 1
·Christina DePasquale
In this course we will analyze many interesting aspects of the sports industry: sports leagues, ticket pricing, salary negotiations, discrimination, and NCAA policies to name a few.
In my everyday life, I am on an ongoing journey to figure out different ways to reduce my carbon footprint on the planet. A carbon footprint is the measure of influence our activities have on the environment, in particular climate change. It is calculated by the amount of greenhouse gas we produce in our daily lives. Fortunately, nowadays it is much easier to make eco-friendly lifestyle choices than, let's say, 20 years ago. But one question has been on my mind a lot lately: is it better to buy new eco-friendly products or used traditionally produced goods?
After doing some research, I have decided that some things are better new and others are better used. Let me try to explain.
A carbon footprint is made up of two parts, the primary footprint and the secondary footprint. The primary footprint is a measure of our direct emissions(排放)of carbon dioxide(CO2)from the burning of fuels, including household energy consumption and transportation. The secondary footprint is a measure of the indirect CO2 emissions from the whole lifecycle of products we use-those related to their production and breakdown.
Based on this understanding, we have a good deal of control and responsibility over our carbon footprint. Things like dishes, clothes and furniture fall into the "secondary footprint" group, so less is more and we can focus on finding used goods to avoid the added production. However, for the car and the other appliances(设备)that we need we can go with new, energy-saving models. I heard somewhere that electronics and appliances give off 90% of their carbon footprint after they leave the factory. So it seems most reasonable to go for the energy-saving models. The main concern here is the amount of energy that goes into the making of new products and whether or not that extra carbon is worth the footprint the product will make once it gets to you.
I was always one of the kids who got picked on. If you'd asked me, I would have told you I was against bullying(欺凌).
But then one day I was chatting with my friends Maya and Lizzie, when Kristina came up, who was one of the bullies, so I prepared myself for more insults. But nothing happened. Perplexed, I looked at her, only to hear that she was sorry for the way she had treated me, and that she wanted to be my friend.
Despite Maya and Lizzie's disapproval, I accepted Kristina's apology. Later that day, I sat with the popular girls for the first time, feeling important, as if people were noticing me in a way they never had before. Afterwards, I started spending more time going around with my popular friends, laughing at other people, calling their names, and sometimes even pushing and shoving them.
Then one day, Lizzie came up to me, accusing me of saying something mean to Maya. I explained it was just a stupid joke, but we got into a fight, and she scolded me for acting like a jerk. Mad, I screamed at and punched her. She fell, tears welling in her eyes, yelled, "You've become one of them--a bully!" and ran out of the school, crying. I just stood there breathing hard and staring at my fist. Apparently, I had become one of those I'd always hated.
I cried hard, keeping picturing scenes of what I had done, regretfully. I decided to apologize to Lizzie. But she turned her back on me. No one would talk to me. Then Kristina walked up to tease me, "Where are your friends now, loser?" I felt like the loneliest person in the world.
Then with the help of the counselor, I talked things through with Lizzie and Maya. I told them how sorry I was. I explained I'd wanted to be popular so badly that I had forgotten how much they meant to me but that I was done with being popular now. Fortunately, they decided to give me another chance.
Chinese scientists recently have produced two monkeys with the same gene, Zhong Zhong and Hua Hua, using the same technique that gave us Dolly the sheep. These monkeys are not actually the first primates(灵长类)to be cloned. Another one named Tetra was produced in the late 1990s by embryo(胚胎)splitting, the division of an early-stage embryo into two or four separate cells to make clones. By contrast, they were each made by replacing an egg cell nucleus(原子核)with DNA from a differentiated body cell. This Dolly method, known as somatic cell nuclear transfer(SCNT), can create more clones and allows researchers greater control over the edits they make to the DNA.
Success came from adopting several new techniques. These included a new type of microscopy to better view the cells during handling or using several materials that encourage cell reprogramming, which hadn't been tried before on primates. Still, the research process proved difficult, and many attempts by the team failed. Just two healthy baby monkeys born from more than 60 tested mothers. This leads to many researchers' pouring water on the idea that the team's results bring scientists closer to cloning humans. They thought this work is not a stepping stone to establishing methods for obtaining live born human clones. Instead, this clearly remains a very foolish thing to attempt, it would be far too inefficient, far too unsafe, and it is also pointless.
But the scientists involved emphasize that this is not their goal. There is now no barrier for cloning primate species, thus cloning humans is closer to reality. However, their research purpose is entirely for producing non-human primate models for human diseases; they absolutely have no intention, and society will not permit this work to be extended to humans. Despite limitations, they treat this breakthrough a novel model system for scientists studying human biology and disease.
A conversation with a good listener is like a good meal—we walk away feeling satisfied and happy. Here are 4 ways to make your conversation partner feel like you're fully tuned in to their personal radio station.
Making your conversation partner feel safe starts with two things: an open mind and keeping judgment to yourself. Just as immersing(沉浸) yourself in a novel requires suspension of disbelief, immersing yourself in listening requires suspension of opinions or advice. While judgments may appear into your head, set them to the side.
Ask questions to follow your natural curiosity.
When you're interested, ask questions. Ask for examples. Ask for details. Following your natural curiosity by asking questions not only shows you are listening and interested, but almost always produces an interesting story.
Listen with your whole body.
In many a kindergarten classroom, teachers emphasize something called "whole body listening". It goes like this: use your eyes to watch nonverbal(非语言), your brain to think about what is being said, your heart to feel emotions and keep the rest of your body quiet to show respect. But many of us lose it over time, especially as life gets busy. The result? We often try to multitask while listening.
Validate (使生效) with simple phrases.
Keep in your back pocket some validating words and phrases to show you've heard someone.
"Of course." "That makes sense." "Naturally." "Clearly." "For sure." In conversation, combining those little phrases: "Of course you feel that way." or "That makes total sense." doesn't necessarily convey agreement, but it does convey something even bigger: acceptance.
A. Create safety.
B. Devote yourself to listening.
C. It's appealing to talk about your own experience.
D. We half-listen while getting things done or staring at a screen.
E. Think like a journalist and ask what, when, where, why or how.
F. But being a good listener goes way beyond just not interrupting or nodding your head.
G. All of these statements confirm a person's experience or feelings as worthy and accepted.
Asmall airplane went down on Jan.4,2014 off the Southern California coast. The pilotsaid it never occurred to him that he wouldn't survive the 1.
"Iwas pretty 2, you look at the situation and you realizethis is what you have to 3. I knew what I needed to do," saidDavid Prizio. Prizio said he and his lone 4 were flying at 6500 feet when the engine 5 died.
"Idid some quick math and realized I wasn't going to make it to the 6,"said Prizio. So he decided to 7 andget the airplane down near some boats six miles northeast. "I wanted to 8infront of them, 9 theywould spot us."
Therush of water broke the glass. He broke a finger but was otherwise 10.His friend escaped injury. "We were lucky that the 11wassmooth and the plane didn't flip over," Prizio said.
Lifeguardsand helicopter were quickly 12 tothe scene, but a small boat reached the pair13.Drew Naffziger was on his way to Catalina Island with his brother and wife whenhe 14 theplane. "I told my brother, Hey, this plane is pretty15 and I don't hear an engine either. I think it'sgoing to crash."
Theplane went into the water 100 yards from his boat. The wheels 16first,and then its nose dipped in, sending its17straight up in the air. Thetwo men spent only minutes in the water. Naffziger18 them a life preserver and pulled them onto theboat. Naffziger's wife, a nurse, grabbed blankets to keep the two men19.
Priziosaid he would probably get another plane. "I was pretty nervous, but not sonervous that I won't 20again," he said.
Stormy waves cut short the voyage of the Chinese merchant ship as it left a southern port loaded porcelain (瓷器) to sell its wares along the ancient trade route known as the Marine Silk Road. 800 years later, Chinese scientists awakened the ship (lie) upright on the seabed miles off the coast of Guangdong, which was (true) amazing and impossible to value.
It is Chinese experts' (believe) that the ship dates back to the second period of the Song Dynasty. At 25 meters long and 10 meters wide, it has been the largest cargo ship from that golden period of Chinese merchant history (discover) so far.
The ship was well preserved. The scientists used a huge steel basket (lift) it out in one piece, better to preserve its (origin) looks. They then stored in a purpose-built museum.
Discovered by accident in 1987, the ship (name) Nanhai No. 1. Being buried in two meters of mud did much to protect the ship, it made excavation (挖掘) very difficult.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（^），并在其下面写出改加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出改加的词。
注意：1．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last summer, I go to my friend's village and watched Qinqiang, a kind of opera once popular in Shanxi and neighboring provinces around them. The atmosphere there were very lively and pleasant. Fortunately, Qinqiang has lost its popularity nowadays and many of the opera houses have been abandon. There seem to be various of reasons and the main one is what we have many other amusements to choose from. However, Qinqiang is one of most important cultural relic in China. What can we do to keep this traditional culture from die out?
