My House

My mother moved a lot when she was growing up on account of Grandpa being in the army. She hated having to adjust to new schools and make new friends. That’s why I thought she was joking when she put forward the idea of moving. But she was completely serious. “For just the two of us,” my mother said, “an apartment in the city will suit our needs much better.” Personally, I think she’s lost her mind. I guess I can understand why she would want to move, but what about me and what this house means to me?

I suppose if you looked at my house, you might think it was just another country house. But to me it is anything but standard. I moved into this house with my parents ten years ago. I can still remember that first day like it was yesterday. The first thing I noticed was the big front yard. To me it seemed like an ocean of grass — I couldn’t wait to dive in. The backyard was full of gnarled (扭曲的，粗糙的) and scary trees that talk on windy nights. But I grew to like them and the shadows they cast in my room. My father and I even built a small treehouse, where I often go to remember all the wonderful times we had before my father’s death.

This house is special — maybe only to me — but special nevertheless. It’s the little seemingly insignificant things that make this house so special to me: the ice-cold tile floors that make me tremble on midnight; the smell of my father’s pipe that still exists: the towering bookcases of my mother; the view outside my bedroom window.

This house holds too many memories, memories which would be lost if we gave it up.

Humans are emotional beings, showing feelings in our behavior and facial expressions. But whether these mean the same thing in different cultures has been hotly debated. Now a new study has found that in different social contexts, such as weddings, funerals and sports, people indeed show universal facial expressions.

For the new study, Alan Cowen’s team used a machine learning model, Deep Neural Network (DNN), to systematically analyze facial expressions in thousands of different contexts. These contexts come from more than six million videos uploaded to You Tube between July 2009 and May 2018 by people in 144 countries.

Facial expressions were rated by English speakers in India by selecting applicable emotions from a list of 31 labels, resulting in a total of 16 distinct facial expressions. Meanwhile, contexts were classified in a separate experiment. The results showed that people from different cultures share about 70% of the facial expressions used in response to different social and emotional situations.

“This supports Darwin’s theory that expressing emotions in our faces is universal among humans,” the study co-lead author Dacher Keltner said. “The physical display of our emotions may define who we are as a species, enhancing our communication and cooperation skills and ensuring our survival.”

However, Lisa Barrett, from the Northeastern University College of Science notes that the English speakers in India were given the emotional word ratings rather than labeling the expressions themselves. They used emotion labels such as “anger”, “fear” and “sadness” instead of descriptive terms, thereby inferring the emotions behind the expressions.

She further comments that the raters (评定者) saw the faces in contexts which can’t necessarily be separated from the emotions themselves, and that the key point is that the raters are from just one country. “The ultimate value of Cowen and his colleagues’ study might lie not in the answers it provides,” she concludes, “but in the opportunity for further discovery that it opens up.”

There a few key tips will help you effectively present your work and your ideas in the professional world.

【小题1】

Probably the most important aspect of a presentation is what you do in advance. Preparation is vital in organizing your thoughts and ideas into a whole that makes sense to your audience. Plus, knowing the material backwards and forwards means that you can be quicker and more accurate in answering questions and will allow you to ad-lib (随口说出) or go off script（ 脚本；手迹）in a personal and confident manner.

Practice with a friend

Along with the preparation for the presentation itself, it’s important to practice what you’re going to say ahead of time, preferably with another person who could give you feedback. Practicing in front of somebody else, instead of just a mirror, will allow you to get an objective perspective on your performance, while also giving you a bit of an audience to work with. 【小题2】.

Breathe and relax

During the actual presentation, it is important to remember to breathe and relax. This can be hard to remember when you’re in the midst of what you’re doing in front of an audience, but breathing will automatically slow you down and relax you duringIt. 【小题3】. I would advise a couple of deep breaths before starting a new slide point, just to keep your timing right.

Control your body language

【小题4】. When giving a presentation, just as important as what you’re saying is how you say it. Project confidence by looking out at people in the eyes and directing your presentation to the audience instead of behind them. It can also be a helpful tip to have open and inviting body language which can create a connection with the people you’re presenting to. 【小题5】.