Cultural Notes：

Inside View

1.  The Times is a daily national newspaper in the UK. It is a serious newspaper and its readers are mostly well-educated.

2.   Tutorials are either timetabled or specially arranged. Sometimes tutorials in small groups give students the opportunity to discuss and follow up a lecture with a lecturer. If the group is larger this may be called a “seminar”. At other times a tutorial is designed for one student to plan or discuss an individual assignment or a project with a tutor. For a dissertation or thesis, for example, there will be a series of such tutorials. 

Cultural Notes：

Outside View

1. Mind maps or graphic“webs”have been used for centuries: There are examples of similargraphic techniques by ancient Greeks and medieval philosophers. Modern mind-mapping is said to have beendeveloped by Alan Collins in the late 1950s and was promoted by Tony Buzan inthe 1960s and later in popular books about memory and study skills. Thenon-linear approach of mind-mapping helps those who like a more visual orholistic approach to thinking, learning, creating ideas, solving problems andrevising and memorizing complex material.

Cultural Notes:

Listening in

1.   Maria Montessori (1870– 1952) qualified as the first female medical doctor in Italy but became famous as a teacher and philosopher of education. Montessori took great trouble to analyze how children learn. Her ideas were well ahead of her time.

 2.   A nursery school is for children between about 3 and 5 years old in the UK — at 5 children start primary school — so this is not exactly the same as a kindergarten in China.