● West Town
The Chicago Public Library (CPL) encourages lifelong learning by welcoming all people and offering equal access to information, entertainment and knowledge through materials, programs and events. Each year, Chicago Public Library recommends the Best of the Best, CPL's selections of the very best books published that year.
● Hours
Monday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Tuesday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Wednesday: 10:00 am – 6:00 pm
Thursday: 12:00 pm – 8:00 pm
Friday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Saturday: 9:00 am – 5:00 pm
Sunday: Closed
● Holidays & Closures
All Staff Institute Day: Thursday, April 30, 2020 Closed All Day
Memorial Day: Monday, May 25, 2020 Closed All Day
Independence Day: Saturday, July 4, 2020 Closed All Day
Labor Day: Monday, September 7, 2020 Closed All Day
Thanksgiving: Thursday, November 26, 2020 Closed All Day
Christmas: Friday, December 25, 2020 Closed All Day
● Address & Contact
1625 W. Chicago Avenue Chicago IL 60622
Phone: (312) 743-0450
Email: westtownchipublib. org
● Get a Library Card
Getting a library card is easy – and it's free! Please visit any CPL location to fill out an application.
Current, valid ID with name, photo and Chicago address is required.
● Facilities
After-hours book return Bike rack
Computers Meeting room Wi-Fi Parking lot Scanner
● Upcoming Events at West Town
Design Challenge DayDescription: Are you up for a challenge? Drop in and tackle some design challenges using supplies provided by the library. Prizes will be awarded for the most creative submissions.
Suitable for: Kids and Teens
Time: Tuesday, March 24, 2020, 5:00 pm – 6:00 pm
Film Screening: The Zookeeper's Wife (2017)
Description: Join the West Town branch for a screening of The Zookeeper's Wife. A married couple who work as zoo caretakers help save Jewish people from the Nazi's Holocaust.
Suitable for: Adults and Teens
Time: Tuesday, March 31, 2020, 5:30 pm – 7:30 pm
In this country we're blessed with All 4, which gives us unlimited access to the shows from all Channel 4 TV channels. I love its free-to-air video-on-demand service. It is really a joy: I'm currently puzzling my way through a very dark Croatian spy series called Guardian of the Castle. I really love watching it.
The only downside of All 4 is that the film or the show stops every 15 or so minutes and some ads appear. And here's the thing: you cannot fast-forward them! It's incredibly annoying.
As a kid, I used to like watching ads on TV; I think I even started recording them. I remember asking my confused parents if they used a particular oven cleaner, which was called something like the oven pad. It was because in the ad there was a nice cartoon face on the oven cleaner. I fell out of love with ads after an art lesson in middle school. My art teacher, Mr. Courts, said something about them just being a way of getting us to buy things we didn't really want or need. He had a point. I never felt the same way about them again.
Now, it is very painful for me to watch them in the middle of an exciting Croatian spy series. During the three ad breaks, I forced myself to sit through the other night. There was a Lloyds Bank ad featuring a black horse racing alongside delighted people to the sound of a Carpenters track. It made me want Io tie my TV to the tail of a galloping (飞驰的) horse, so I could never watch anything of the sort ever again. However, on the other hand, I know that All 4 offers free service just because it makes profits from ads. As a big fan of All 4, I have to get rid of my dissatisfaction and tolerate its downside since it really offers me films and shows I like.
The blue whale is the largest animal that has ever lived. It can reach 30 meters long and weigh as much as 181,000 kilograms. The animal's heart alone weighs more than a fully grown cow. For the first time ever, scientists have recorded its heart rate.
Stanford University ocean biologist Jeremy Goldbogen led the study of the blue whaled heart rate. To get this reading, the researchers attached an electrocardiogram device(心电图设备) to the body of a blue whale. They recorded nine hours of information on a 22-meter-long male from the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. The data did not come easily.
"First, we have to find a blue whale, which can be very arduous," Goldbogen said, because these animals live across massive areas of the open ocean. But, with years of research experience and some luck, he explained, the team was able to position a small boat along the whalers left side.
Then, the researchers connected a special recording device to a very long pole. As the whale surfaced to breathe, they quickly put the device as near to the animal's heart as possible. The small device had four suction cups(吸盘) on it, permitting it to remain on the whale for several hours.
They found out that when the blue whale dived for food, its heart rate dropped to between 4 to 8 beats per minute—with the lowest being two beats per minute. At the bottom of the hunting dive, the whale's heart rate rose to about 2. 5 times the minimum and then decreased again. Once the whale got its fill and began to surface, the heart rate increased. The highest heart rate — 25 to 37 beats per minute — occurred after the whale came out of the water for air. The findings are different from what scientists have already known — larger animals have slower heart rates. Therefore, they believe that such research helps scientists understand how huge animals operate.
People who grow up left-handed have a different, more flexible brain structure than those born to take life by the right hand, say researchers at the University of California, Los Angeles.
The reason is that right-handers have genes that force their brains into a slightly more one-sided structure, according to the research. Left-handers appear to be missing those genes.
"There really is a difference in brains that results in a more symmetric (对称的) brain in left-handers, where the two sides are more equal," said Daniel Geschwind, who led the research team.
In the effort to understand how the brain shapes the mind, researchers have been trying to document the way genes and environment affect intelligence and mental abilities. They found that right- and left-handedness is determined by genetics. If a person has the gene for right-handedness, that person will be right-handed. People who do not have that gene, however, can be either left- or right-handed. There is no specific gene for left-handedness.
Right-handers typically have a larger left brain, where their language abilities are concentrated. Conversely, left-handers have more balanced brains. The language abilities of left-handers more often are concentrated on the right side.
The UCLA researchers conducted brain scans on 72 pairs of male identical (同卵双生的) twins between 75 and 85 years old. They noticed that if identical twins carry the gene for hand preference, both must be right-handed. If they lack the gene, one twin can develop right-handed while the other can develop left- handed.
The researchers found that the brains of identical right-handed twins were very similar in size and structure. But when a left-hander was part of the twin set, the brains were different. The conclusion, researchers said, is that the absence of the gene for hand preference allows the brain to develop differently as the individual grows up.
Both COVID-19 itself and the resulting economic crisis are global problems. They can be solved effectively only by global cooperation. To defeat the virus, we first need to share information globally. A coronavirus(冠状病毒) in China and one in the US cannot exchange tips on how to infect humans. Yet, China can teach the US valuable lessons about the virus. What an Italian doctor discovers might save lives in Tehran. When the UK government hesitates between several policies, it can get advice from the Koreans who have faced a similar problem.
Global cooperation is needed on the economic front, too. Ifs vitally required in normal times, let alone in the moment of a crisis. If each government does its own thing, completely ignoring the others, the result will be chaos and a deepening crisis. We need a global plan of action, and we need it fast.
An overall ban on it for months will cause huge hardships and block the war against the coronavirus. Countries need to cooperate to allow at least a small number of essential people to continue crossing borders: scientists, doctors, journalists and politicians. This can be done by reaching an agreement on the advance examination of those people by their home country.
Unfortunately, at present countries hardly do these things. Will we travel down the route of disunity, or will we adopt the path of global solidarity (团结)? If it's the latter, it'll be a victory not only against the coronavirus, but against all future crises that might attack humankind.
A. Humans need to make a choice.
B. The nature of supply chains is global.
C. That's the big advantage of humans over viruses.
D. Reaching a global agreement on travel is also necessary.
E. Another requirement is to support worldwide professionals.
F. But for this to happen, we need a spirit of global cooperation and trust.
G. We also need a global effort to produce and hand out medical equipment.
A South-African female engineer has become an inspiration for other women. In August, South Africa 1 Women's Month and a 26-year-old from Pietermaritzburg became the unlikely poster girl for this year's celebration, after 2 of her single-handedly building her house went 3 on social media. The woman 4 the cement(水泥), made all the measurements and did the building all by herself, which not only won her a lot of praise, but 5other women to follow their dreams.
Zama is a trained civil engineer. She inherited(继承) the 6 from her father, who is 7 a builder, and made the 8 to become an engineer in 2014, registering for the Umgungundlovu TVET College in her home city.
Zama said that she had never 9 construction before, but that the 10 exams she had passed at college gave her the 11 that she could build her house by herself.
"This is what I am good at," she said. "Building my home is great fun and exciting at the same time. Practice is more fun than 12. "
Zama 13 one day running her own construction company and plans to inspire more women in the engineering industry. "Always try your best in everything that you do, and never underestimate the 14 of pouring your heart in what you do. Always seek to 15 yourself," she advised other women.
Our wedding was unconventional and it was exactly what Matt and I wanted. We both had failed marriages in the past, so we planned to do something different this time(express) our desire that this one (last): a sunrise ceremony on the Wisconsin shore of Lake Michigan. We even wrote our vows (誓言) and (person) information and put them in a bottle. To share our love with the world, we threw the bottle into lake. "It will be (high) interesting to find out where it ends up," I told Matt.
Since we held this special ceremony, Matt and I had managed to stay together happily. But years later, I began to have a little anxious) and doubt about our marriage.
One day, Matt went to the mailbox and took out the mail. There was a letter (write) to us. He carried the mail inside, sat down at the kitchen table the letter and opened it. It turned out that our bottle (find) by a couple, were also married on the Wisconsin shore on August 18 twenty-eight years ago. When we read it in disbelief, my negative thoughts about our marriage somehow disappeared.
Four-year-old Andrew has autism(自闭症) and sometimes things can get overwhelming for him. Andrew and his mother always take the Washington D. C. Metro to and from school, but during a recent rush-hour commute (通勤), Andrew became overwhelmed and started kicking, screaming and running around on the train platform.
His mother, Taylor Pomilla, tried her best to get her son to calm down, including hugging and giving him candies, but it didn't work. "It does really hurt sometimes to see people staring at him. And he's only a child. He's not trying to do it," Andrew's mom wrote in the post later.
Fortunately, one kind stranger stepped in to help. It was Metro Transit Police Officer Dominic Case, who went up to both of them to see what he could do. "What's wrong? Do you need help?"
Pomilla explained the situation to him anxiously. Case walked towards the boy with smiles, and reached out his hand, saying, "Hi! May I shake your hand?" Andrew stared at Case for a few seconds and then held Case's hand. Andrew gradually calmed down. Pomilla watched it in surprise.
Then Pomilla posted this act of kindness on Facebook. "This officer completely went out of his way to help Andrew. He honestly made me believe that there are good people in the world," Pomilla wrote, sharing a photo of her son holding Case's hand. "To that officer, I truly can't say thank you enough for his immeasurable amount of kindness and for making Andrew's day(probably his whole year). Throughout the whole process I didn't get his name. I think his uniform said Officer D. Case," her post continued.
She tagged (加标识符于) several news media and the Washington Metro Police Facebook page, asking readers to find him and give him praise! "He should have it for his kind gesture, especially for letting Andrew keep the police badge(警徽). Thank you!"
注意：续写词数应为150左右。
About a week later, Pomilla and Andrew got to meet her son's Savior.
……
Taylor Pomilla was moved and expressed her thanks to Case again.
