Time pasts really fast. Our English course comes to an end today. I believe that everyone must feel very delight during these 3 weeks' English training. The different teaching style, the dedicated, warm-hearted and humorous teachers, the heated discussion class atmosphere, all these give me unforgettable impression.
Thank you, Audrey.Thank you for your circumspection not only in the class but also in reading our blogs. I really appreciate that you can remember every student's name in your class.
Thank you, Mark. Thank you for your humor clickes us up wherever and whenever possible. I have met anybody so funny in my whole life.
Thank you, Garry. Thank you for your high quality computer technique skills which greatly help us how to use the internet to improve our language level efficiently. From now on, I will use a new method to learn English, which I am thoroughly interested in.
Thank you all three for giving me a so good opportunity to learn English intently. It is a pity that we just have only 3 weeks. Looking forward to have another chance of our English learning. Best wishes.
Friday, 13 March 2009
Thursday, 12 March 2009
the tour of British Museum
Yesterday we visited the British Museum--the largest and most famous museum of the world. This was the first time I came to London centre, so I was very excited. Our bus stopped beside the Thames and was about 1.5 kilometers away from the British Museum.Then we went to the British Museum on foot. Fortunately we saw a lot of famous scenes during our way.
some famous scenes in the London centre on our way to British Museum
After about an hour's walking, we reached to the front gate of British Museum. It was not as very large as my imagination, and the buildings all are very old.
the front gate of British Museum
the bird's eye view of British Museum
We bought a map guide of the museum in the ground floor. From it we could get a lot of useful information about the museum, which could help us where should we go and which gallery should be visited at first so that we could manage our limited time effectively.
the map guide of the museum
After watching the map, we decided to go to the Asia gallery and Chinese jade gallery at first. After all, these two were deeply related to our culture, our civilization and our custom. In the two galleries, we found that so many Chinese artifacts which are all very famous but we had never seen them in our country. It is a pity that our Chinese treasure were exhibited in other countries where almost every native people can see it, while our Chinese people who can not go abroad can not witness their motherland's cherish heritage. I hope that one day these Chinese artifacts can be returned to their home, really.
some famous Chinese artifacts
After that, we went to the ancient Egypt galleries where we saw a lot of mummies exhibited. I did not think these mummies exhibited here to let the visitors look around was a reasonable idea. These ancient men are disturbed by their descendants every day and their soul can not be consoled absolutely. That seems so inhumane.
the mummies of ancient Egypt
We also visited a lot of other galleries including many areas of the world. We were all astonished that there were millions of artifacts included in this museum. I thought maybe that was one of the reasons why British Museum was the biggest and the most famous museum in the world.
Tuesday, 10 March 2009
My view of the Critical Thinking
Yesterday I attended Mr. Mark's class. He gave us a lecture about the critical thinking. This was a very interesting topic from which we benefited a lot.
Critical thinking is purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments. Critical thinking might involve determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true(Wikipedia). So, in my opinion, critical thinking tell us how to think, how can we think deeply,efficiently and purposefully and what should we do finally.
There are about five steps contained in critical thinking:
1. Analyzing. Analyze the problem you meet and try to found what kind of problem it is.
2. Reasoning. From the problem, whether you can get other information included in.
3.Evaluating. Evaluating how difficult or important the problem is.
4 Problem solving. How to solve the problem.
5 Decision making. Make your final decision.
Every step included is very necessary and important. So we must process every step as deliberately as we can.
After that, Mark gave us a task: It was a story let us determine who will stay and who will leave.
The story was that in a very far future day, a comet knocks into the earth, all of the people on the earth died. At the earth is destroyed absolutely. The dust swallows the earth and its atmosphere. Fortunately, there are 15 people in the spaceship avoid this disaster--they are the only human survived. But unfortunately, the food in the spaceship only can support them for about 2 months--it will take 6 months for the earth to clear the dust around so that their spaceship can land on earth. so they have to sent 9 people to the earth firstly in order to protect the other 6 people must survive and the re-populate our human on the earth. The problem is, who should stay in the spaceship and who should leave? Mark gave us the 15 people's details and let us to us critical thinking solve this problem.
After a few minutes analyzing and discussion, we finally selected the 2, 4,5,8,10,14 to stay on the space. The criterion of our selections as follows:
1. Abilities of re-population;
2. Capacities to drive the spaceship the earth safely;
3. Whether they can help human survive on the polluted environment after they land on earth;
4 The balance between males and females.
After this discussion, we deeply understood what the critical thinking was, how important the critical thinking was, and how we could use critical thinking effectively.
Critical thinking is purposeful and reflective judgment about what to believe or do in response to observations, experience, verbal or written expressions, or arguments. Critical thinking might involve determining the meaning and significance of what is observed or expressed, or, concerning a given inference or argument, determining whether there is adequate justification to accept the conclusion as true(Wikipedia). So, in my opinion, critical thinking tell us how to think, how can we think deeply,efficiently and purposefully and what should we do finally.
There are about five steps contained in critical thinking:
1. Analyzing. Analyze the problem you meet and try to found what kind of problem it is.
2. Reasoning. From the problem, whether you can get other information included in.
3.Evaluating. Evaluating how difficult or important the problem is.
4 Problem solving. How to solve the problem.
5 Decision making. Make your final decision.
Every step included is very necessary and important. So we must process every step as deliberately as we can.
After that, Mark gave us a task: It was a story let us determine who will stay and who will leave.
The story was that in a very far future day, a comet knocks into the earth, all of the people on the earth died. At the earth is destroyed absolutely. The dust swallows the earth and its atmosphere. Fortunately, there are 15 people in the spaceship avoid this disaster--they are the only human survived. But unfortunately, the food in the spaceship only can support them for about 2 months--it will take 6 months for the earth to clear the dust around so that their spaceship can land on earth. so they have to sent 9 people to the earth firstly in order to protect the other 6 people must survive and the re-populate our human on the earth. The problem is, who should stay in the spaceship and who should leave? Mark gave us the 15 people's details and let us to us critical thinking solve this problem.
After a few minutes analyzing and discussion, we finally selected the 2, 4,5,8,10,14 to stay on the space. The criterion of our selections as follows:
1. Abilities of re-population;
2. Capacities to drive the spaceship the earth safely;
3. Whether they can help human survive on the polluted environment after they land on earth;
4 The balance between males and females.
After this discussion, we deeply understood what the critical thinking was, how important the critical thinking was, and how we could use critical thinking effectively.
Wednesday, 4 March 2009
Today we visited the Imperial War Museum Duxford
Duxford is Europe's premier aviation museum - as well as having one of the finest collections of tanks, military vehicles and naval exhibits in the country.This famous heritage site began as an airfield in the First World War and also played a vital role in the Second World War, firstly as an RAF fighter station and later as an American fighter base.
It cost us about an hour from campus to the Imperial War Museum Duxford by bus. Luckily it was a sunny day today--this can seldom be seen during these days I came here. On the bus we could see the fantastic British rural scenery: the sky was so blue that I only saw in the films and pictures; The air was so clear that I could not help trying to breathe more; The pasture was so green that I wanted to get off the bus and go for a walk on it. The blue sky, the white cloud, the green pasture, the animals,the small house, the flourishing plants formed a harmonious picture which I had never seen it in China. Almost all of us were fascinated by it.
We reached the Imperial War Museum Duxford at about 10.:30am. After Garry bought the tickets, we all hurried into the entrance. The first building we visited is the Airspace. It is Duxford's landmark project celebrates British and Commonwealth aviation from the earliest days with a stunning array of aircraft and exciting interactive displays. Exhibits here include Concorde, Lancaster,Vulcan and Sunderland and so on. In this place we found a lot of models aimed to introduce to principle of how airplane working. And very detailed introductions about the history of airplane and engine industry were also supplied. From the videos, the models and the pictures, we could easily acquire a lot of information related to aircraft and engines.
After going out of Airspace, we visited the Hangar 2. Many of the aircraft in this hanger are airworthy and army be seen flying at Duxford during the summer months.
Then we went to the Hangar 3, Hangar 4 and Hangar 5. From Hangar 3 and Hangar 4, we saw a lot of very famous airplanes and submarines even we found a MTB(motor torpedo boat). Hangar 5 is the conservation and restoration hangar. We saw several museum staff and volunteers working busy on some projects.
After Hanger 5 , we came into the American Air Museum. This place exhibits a lot of very famous military airplane used by American air force, such as SR-17 Blackbird and B-24 Liberator etc.
The last building we visited was the Land Warfare Hall. From this building we found a lot of tanks, military vehicles and artillery. We also saw the exhibits of the Royal Air Force's uniforms
medals in the Second World War.
5 hours passed very quickly. It was a interesting and fantastic visit. The only disappointed thing was that the food in the restaurant was too difficult to eat. We must remember to take some food by ourselves next time.
It cost us about an hour from campus to the Imperial War Museum Duxford by bus. Luckily it was a sunny day today--this can seldom be seen during these days I came here. On the bus we could see the fantastic British rural scenery: the sky was so blue that I only saw in the films and pictures; The air was so clear that I could not help trying to breathe more; The pasture was so green that I wanted to get off the bus and go for a walk on it. The blue sky, the white cloud, the green pasture, the animals,the small house, the flourishing plants formed a harmonious picture which I had never seen it in China. Almost all of us were fascinated by it.
We reached the Imperial War Museum Duxford at about 10.:30am. After Garry bought the tickets, we all hurried into the entrance. The first building we visited is the Airspace. It is Duxford's landmark project celebrates British and Commonwealth aviation from the earliest days with a stunning array of aircraft and exciting interactive displays. Exhibits here include Concorde, Lancaster,Vulcan and Sunderland and so on. In this place we found a lot of models aimed to introduce to principle of how airplane working. And very detailed introductions about the history of airplane and engine industry were also supplied. From the videos, the models and the pictures, we could easily acquire a lot of information related to aircraft and engines.
After going out of Airspace, we visited the Hangar 2. Many of the aircraft in this hanger are airworthy and army be seen flying at Duxford during the summer months.Then we went to the Hangar 3, Hangar 4 and Hangar 5. From Hangar 3 and Hangar 4, we saw a lot of very famous airplanes and submarines even we found a MTB(motor torpedo boat). Hangar 5 is the conservation and restoration hangar. We saw several museum staff and volunteers working busy on some projects.
After Hanger 5 , we came into the American Air Museum. This place exhibits a lot of very famous military airplane used by American air force, such as SR-17 Blackbird and B-24 Liberator etc.
The last building we visited was the Land Warfare Hall. From this building we found a lot of tanks, military vehicles and artillery. We also saw the exhibits of the Royal Air Force's uniformsmedals in the Second World War.
5 hours passed very quickly. It was a interesting and fantastic visit. The only disappointed thing was that the food in the restaurant was too difficult to eat. We must remember to take some food by ourselves next time.
Tuesday, 3 March 2009
How can we solve the food problem?
Since we came here, we almost worried about our dinner every day. The food here is quite different from china--it seems that British people eat very simple such as bread, hamburger, cheese, salad etc. during their normal days. Vegetables in the market are all very expensive. For example, a very small bag of Chinese cabbage may cost we about 1.5 pounds--in China this must less than 1 yuan ( about 10 pence). Last week we went to a Chinese market, a bottle of mirin cost we 16 pounds! But we had to buy it, because we could not find it in the British market. Indeed, there are so little flavouring which we use to fry Chinese food in the British market. Even in the Chinese market, we could not find all we need and most of the things we found are very expensive but in poor quality.
Vegetables and flavourings are not the most serious problems for us. After all, we had already considered this problem and we took a lot of Chinese flavourings which can be used for several months for our cooking here. Although the vegetables here are all very expensive and we can not take them from our country, but we can find it in the market. The price is still in the extent of our budgets.
But the main food is our serious problem at present. In China, rice and noodle are our main food. rice can be easily found in the market and it is not very expensive. But we can not find the Chinese noodle at all. Though there are some noodle named Chinese noodle in the market. It absolutely differ from authentic Chinese noodle. We heard that eat Italian noodle instead. But I can imagine that its taste must be different. Maybe it will be our only choice in the future--if we still can not find a suitable market to buy our Chinese noodle. In fact, we can buy some flour to make noodle by ourselves. But to our disappoint, we also can not find flour in the market. This weekend, we will continue to look for the flour. If someone know where the flour for sale. Please let me know. I will be appreciate for that.
Our class schedule is another problem of our dinner. In China, we have 2.5 hours break time during our works at noon. So we have enough time to go back home to cook something for lunch. Unlike in China, now we just have 40 minutes for lunch! Therefore, we have to take some food for our lunch or have lunch at the university canteen. Almost all of us can not get adapt of the canteen food--hamburger, fishes and chips and so on. So we must get up earlier every day to prepare our lunch, then take it to university and use the microwave in the CSA to heat it if we want to eat. It take us so much time each day.
I wonder that if university can supply us a free Chinese lunch. That might be perfect!
Vegetables and flavourings are not the most serious problems for us. After all, we had already considered this problem and we took a lot of Chinese flavourings which can be used for several months for our cooking here. Although the vegetables here are all very expensive and we can not take them from our country, but we can find it in the market. The price is still in the extent of our budgets.
But the main food is our serious problem at present. In China, rice and noodle are our main food. rice can be easily found in the market and it is not very expensive. But we can not find the Chinese noodle at all. Though there are some noodle named Chinese noodle in the market. It absolutely differ from authentic Chinese noodle. We heard that eat Italian noodle instead. But I can imagine that its taste must be different. Maybe it will be our only choice in the future--if we still can not find a suitable market to buy our Chinese noodle. In fact, we can buy some flour to make noodle by ourselves. But to our disappoint, we also can not find flour in the market. This weekend, we will continue to look for the flour. If someone know where the flour for sale. Please let me know. I will be appreciate for that.
Our class schedule is another problem of our dinner. In China, we have 2.5 hours break time during our works at noon. So we have enough time to go back home to cook something for lunch. Unlike in China, now we just have 40 minutes for lunch! Therefore, we have to take some food for our lunch or have lunch at the university canteen. Almost all of us can not get adapt of the canteen food--hamburger, fishes and chips and so on. So we must get up earlier every day to prepare our lunch, then take it to university and use the microwave in the CSA to heat it if we want to eat. It take us so much time each day.
I wonder that if university can supply us a free Chinese lunch. That might be perfect!
Monday, 2 March 2009
We went to the Swan tonight
When I first came to this place, I had already seen the Swan bar. It is in the opposite of the Bargens--the only shopping market in Cranfield village. About several years ago I had already hear that wine bar culture was very famous in the UK. Now, I have the chance to experience it.
Luckily, yesterday when I came to Mr Dai's house I heart that they had been to there and someone chatted with the natives a lot. Tonight we were just have spare time, so Ning Yu, Liu Lei, Fu Yanyan and I drove to there at about 8pm. When we came in, I found that It was a very small place but the circumstance was very quiet, did not like the bar in china. It was suitable for people to intercommunicate and relax. And the wine price was not as very expensive as our imagination. But to our disappoint, there were very few people in it, so we did not have the chance to chat with them. What a pity is!
We ordered 3 cups of beer for our 3 gentlemen and a cup of grape wine for Miss Fu and some snacks. The taste of beer seemed to be almost the same as Chinese, but the price was almost 5 times as it was in china. Another embarrassment we felt was all the name of wine and beer we never saw before. So we had to point the picture to the waiter and even did not know what the taste might be. And when we want to leave, we even did not know how to express our meaning of paying for the bill in English. We just told the waitress: we want to pay for the bill. But we still had another trouble: we did not how many tip should we give the waitress. after a few minutes' discussion, we finally decided that give her 17 pounds including the tip--the order is 16.4 pounds.
But we did not tell her it included the tip, and she also did not give we change. Maybe this was their custom.
Overall, we more or less felt disappointed to this experience of the Swan, but after all, we had already achieved one of our aspirations.
Luckily, yesterday when I came to Mr Dai's house I heart that they had been to there and someone chatted with the natives a lot. Tonight we were just have spare time, so Ning Yu, Liu Lei, Fu Yanyan and I drove to there at about 8pm. When we came in, I found that It was a very small place but the circumstance was very quiet, did not like the bar in china. It was suitable for people to intercommunicate and relax. And the wine price was not as very expensive as our imagination. But to our disappoint, there were very few people in it, so we did not have the chance to chat with them. What a pity is!
We ordered 3 cups of beer for our 3 gentlemen and a cup of grape wine for Miss Fu and some snacks. The taste of beer seemed to be almost the same as Chinese, but the price was almost 5 times as it was in china. Another embarrassment we felt was all the name of wine and beer we never saw before. So we had to point the picture to the waiter and even did not know what the taste might be. And when we want to leave, we even did not know how to express our meaning of paying for the bill in English. We just told the waitress: we want to pay for the bill. But we still had another trouble: we did not how many tip should we give the waitress. after a few minutes' discussion, we finally decided that give her 17 pounds including the tip--the order is 16.4 pounds.
But we did not tell her it included the tip, and she also did not give we change. Maybe this was their custom.
Overall, we more or less felt disappointed to this experience of the Swan, but after all, we had already achieved one of our aspirations.
Sunday, 1 March 2009
Prepairing for my new lifestyle in the UK
I have been to Cranfield University for about 10 days.Although 10 days is not a very short term, I still can not get adapted to my new lifestyle.The language, the food, the culture, the climate,the lecture--almost everything here are different from our country.Especially the language, although I have learnt English for about 15 years, I still can not communicate with these natives very fluently.even though I can not understand what our professors said in the lecture completely.Sometimes I feel very discouraged. Why my memory is so bad? Only 8 months did not touch with English, I have almost forgot whatever I learnt during the IELTS training class.What a awful condition I am facing now!
Luckily our four guys share a house, and most of other students we came together are living in the same village which is not very large and about 5 minutes distance to campus by car. So we can visit each other in the spare time, and we also usually meet them on the road.I think if somebody have troubles, everyone in the village can come to help him or her as soon as possible. After all, in this area, our best friends worth to trust must be our Chinese, our colleagues,our classmates--At least at present in this case.
Luckily I still have the confidence that I can gradually remember what I have learnt during the training class;I still have the confidence that if I spare no effort in enhancing my English level,I will improve quickly;I still have the confidence to chat with the natives even though I maybe can not understand what they are saying and can not express my meaning exactly.Therefore, I will get adapted with this circumstance gradually and undoubtedly.
Luckily we bought a car and had already handled the insurance. so we now do not have to get up very early to waiting the bus to go to the campus every morning and pay 2 pounds for the traffic fee every day. This will save much money for our limited budgets. so we can spend more on our food and other things--I feel that almost everything here is very expensive--something is about 10 times the price as in china.
Luckily I we rent a very suitable house--3 bed rooms, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen, a sitting room and a beautiful garden. And facilities are all very new and complete. Something worth to mention is, our landlord and landlady are very kind and easy-going. Their pronunciations are very pure and clear. Therefore, a lot of troubles I used to worry about are all avoided.
Luckily I feel that most of Britishers are very easy to get along with. They are very polite, very accommodating and magnanimous.so, maybe I will fall love with this place in the near future.This is my expectation.
Luckily,I have so many optimistic feelings so that I will be full of confidence with which I can easily,comfortably to face my new lifestyle--not only to get adapted with it,but also to enjoy it.
Luckily our four guys share a house, and most of other students we came together are living in the same village which is not very large and about 5 minutes distance to campus by car. So we can visit each other in the spare time, and we also usually meet them on the road.I think if somebody have troubles, everyone in the village can come to help him or her as soon as possible. After all, in this area, our best friends worth to trust must be our Chinese, our colleagues,our classmates--At least at present in this case.
Luckily I still have the confidence that I can gradually remember what I have learnt during the training class;I still have the confidence that if I spare no effort in enhancing my English level,I will improve quickly;I still have the confidence to chat with the natives even though I maybe can not understand what they are saying and can not express my meaning exactly.Therefore, I will get adapted with this circumstance gradually and undoubtedly.
Luckily we bought a car and had already handled the insurance. so we now do not have to get up very early to waiting the bus to go to the campus every morning and pay 2 pounds for the traffic fee every day. This will save much money for our limited budgets. so we can spend more on our food and other things--I feel that almost everything here is very expensive--something is about 10 times the price as in china.
Luckily I we rent a very suitable house--3 bed rooms, 2 toilets, 1 kitchen, a sitting room and a beautiful garden. And facilities are all very new and complete. Something worth to mention is, our landlord and landlady are very kind and easy-going. Their pronunciations are very pure and clear. Therefore, a lot of troubles I used to worry about are all avoided.
Luckily I feel that most of Britishers are very easy to get along with. They are very polite, very accommodating and magnanimous.so, maybe I will fall love with this place in the near future.This is my expectation.
Luckily,I have so many optimistic feelings so that I will be full of confidence with which I can easily,comfortably to face my new lifestyle--not only to get adapted with it,but also to enjoy it.
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