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Now in a new edition+F2: F17, National Geographic Learning brings the world to your classroom with Life, a six-level integrated-skills series with grammar and vocabulary for young adult and adult English language learners. Through stunning National Geographic content, video, and engaging topics, Life inspires a generation of informed decision-makers. With Life, learners develop their ability to think critically and communicate effectively in the global community.
Forget the 10,000 hour rule— what if it’s possible to learn the basics of any new skill in 20 hours or less? Take a moment to consider how many things you want to learn to do. What’s on your list? What’s holding you back from getting started? Are you worried about the time and effort it takes to acquire new skills—time you don’t have and effort you can’t spare? Research suggests it takes 10,000 hours to develop a new skill. In this nonstop world when will you ever find that much time and energy? To make matters worse, the early hours of practicing something new are always the most frustrating. That’s why it’s difficult to learn how to speak a new language, play an instrument, hit a golf ball, or shoot great photos. It’s so much easier to watch TV or surf the web . . . In The First 20 Hours, Josh Kaufman offers a systematic approach to rapid skill acquisition— how to learn any new skill as quickly as possible. His method shows you how to deconstruct complex skills, maximize productive practice, and remove common learning barriers. By completing just 20 hours of focused, deliberate practice you’ll go from knowing absolutely nothing to performing noticeably well. Kaufman personally field-tested the methods in this book. You’ll have a front row seat as he develops a personal yoga practice, writes his own web-based computer programs, teaches himself to touch type on a nonstandard keyboard, explores the oldest and most complex board game in history, picks up the ukulele, and learns how to windsurf. Here are a few of the simple techniques he teaches: Define your target performance level: Figure out what your desired level of skill looks like, what you’re trying to achieve, and what you’ll be able to do when you’re done. The more specific, the better. Deconstruct the skill: Most of the things we think of as skills are actually bundles of smaller subskills. If you break down the subcomponents, it’s easier to figure out which ones are most important and practice those first. Eliminate barriers to practice: Removing common distractions and unnecessary effort makes it much easier to sit down and focus on deliberate practice. Create fast feedback loops: Getting accurate, real-time information about how well you’re performing during practice makes it much easier to improve. Whether you want to paint a portrait, launch a start-up, fly an airplane, or juggle flaming chainsaws, The First 20 Hours will help you pick up the basics of any skill in record time . . . and have more fun along the way.
LIFE IN THE SPACE AGE Ever wondered what it might be like to work in the space industry? According to aerospace professional and popular science communicator Kellie Gerardi, that future doesn’t rest solely on the shoulders of rocket scientists. Gerardi’s nontraditional path in the space industry shows us that humanity ’s next giant leap will require the contributions of artists, engineers, and everyone in between. Gerardi takes us on a tour of this unique era of history and off ers encouragement and advice for anyone who has ever dreamed of the stars and galaxies far, far away. In this candid guide, commercial astronaut Gerardi off ers an inside look into the commercial spaceflight industry and all those working to tee up a golden age of spaceflight, redefining the “right stu ff” along the way. Whether you’ve had an obsession with astronauts since you were a kid or are just looking to learn about the exciting future that awaits us, Not Necessarily Rocket Science confirms that there’s a place for anyone who is passionate about space exploration.
Abbess Thaisia was the most influential woman spiritual leader in pre-revolutionary Russia. At one time, Letters to a Beginner was given to all women who entered the monastic life, to serve as an orientation and guide to the path they had chosen. In a series of 14 letters, Abbess Thaisia discusses the origins of monasticism, the duty of obedience and mutual love, and the dangers of idle talk and gossip. An inspiring look at the practical spirituality of an exceptional woman.
In Dear Friend, you must change your life, we see some of the most fascinating thinkers in history at their most private and profound, reaching out to a friend, sharing, testing, confirming discoveries about the complexity of life, how to rise above its hardships and enjoy its pleasures. We see writers embrace the roots of philosophical thought afresh, by grappling with real, lived experience, giving us unique insight into their ideas and worldviews that their more polished, public work often does not provide. We see artists sound the foundations of their artistic and moral integrity. Ranging from Seneca and Marcus Aurelius to Flora Tristan and Walter Benjamin, to Elizabeth of Bohemia and Giacomo Leopardi, to Mahatma Gandhi and Maurice Béjart, we see how the philosophical letter as a form of thinking, and thinking freely, spans across the ages and often forms some of the most interesting and lively of philosophical writings. Each letter is given a contextualising preface by an expert that brings out the reason this particular letter is a philosophical letter for life. As such, Dear Friend, you must change your life provides a unique introduction to an array of thinkers throughout history as well as an argument for philosophy as conversation, a conversation which has been ongoing for centuries.
Life is an exciting new six-level adult series that turns learning English into an exploration of the world we live in by drawing on National Geographic content such as images, articles and videos. Student's Book contains: engaging tasks with fascinating NG content; review at end of each unit; grammar reference with practice activities. CEF: A1-C1.
Existentialism For Beginners is an entertaining romp through the history of a philosophical movement that has had a broad and enduring influence on Western culture. From the middle of the Nineteenth Century through the late Twentieth Century, existentialism informed our politics and art, and still exerts its influence today. Tracing the movement’s beginnings with close-up views of seminal figures like Kierkegaard, Dostoyevsky and Nietzsche, Existentialism For Beginners follows its intellectual and literary trail to German philosophers Jaspers and Heidegger, and finally to the movement’s flowering in post-World-War-II France thanks to masterworks by such giants as Jean Paul Sartre, Albert Camus, Simone de Beauvoir, plus many others. Illustrations throughout — at once lighthearted and gritty — help readers explore and understand a style of thinking that, while pervasive in its influence, is often seen as obscure, difficult, cryptic and dark. Existentialism For Beginners draws the movement’s many diverse elements together to provide an accessible introduction for those who seek a better understanding of the topic, and an enjoyable historical review packed with timeless quotes from existentialism’s leading lights.
