From NingI cannot believe summer break is already over! This summer just flew by. My family made a trip to China and visited our relatives. My kids also had a chance to interact with Chinese students of the same age as them, 13-18 years old. My daughter had a chance to share some American culture with the Chinese students, such as our major holidays, famous places in the US, and popular foods as well as American sports. | | | It is fascinating to see how the commercial companies have transferred US culture to other countries. All the Chinese students know McDonald’s, KFC, Burger King and Starbucks. They are amazed by the different types of breakfast cereals we have. You would be surprised to know which two holidays the junior high and high school students in China want to know about: Halloween and April Fool’s Day! We found that the Chinese students have much more homework and much more pressure to perform academically. All the students we met (about 80 in total) are taking extra classes to catch up from last year’s studies. Many will take just two to three weeks off during the summer, and will then start more supplemental classes to get a head start on next year’s classes, such as math, physics, and chemistry. For junior high and high school students, their typical school day goes from 8 am to 5 pm, and their homework will keep them busy until 11 pm every night. | | I had a chance to look at the math textbooks for the 9th grade students. They are covering very similar topics to what is covered in the US. However, Chinese textbooks are much thinner, about 1” thick compared to the more than one inch thick books we use here. As a result, the textbooks are much lighter. Do our textbooks need to be so thick and heavy? I don’t know. I know that thicker does not mean better. | Problem of the MonthThe average lifespan of a domestic cat is about 15 years, and the average lifespan of a human being is about 75 years. If a cat is 19 years old, what is the equivalent age to a human? To find out how to do this problem, click here. |
Video Tutorials -  | This is one of the math video tutorials you can find on GoldStudent.com. Exponentiation is what you do when you evaluate expressions like 4 to the 8 or 7 to the 3. In this tutorial your child will learn how to compute expression with exponents. |
Problem & Answer for JulyProblem:
A direct flight from Los Angeles to Beijing is 13 hours. The time in Beijing is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles. If the flight leaves LA at 1:30 am, what time does the flight arrive in Beijing? If it takes an hour to drive to the airport in LA, and one needs to arrive at the airport 2 hours ahead of departure time, and then it takes another hour and half to arrive at the hotel after landing in Beijing, how long is door-to-door time for the trip?
Answer:
Lets try to visualize the various time points for this travel in the below diagram:
 Step 1: Figure out the departure time in Beijing time
Since Beijing is 16 hours ahead of Los Angeles, 1:30 am in LA is 1:30 + 16 = 17:30, which is 5:30 pm in Beijing.
Here is another way to figure it out. 12 hours ahead of 1:30 am would be 1:30 pm. 4 hours ahead of 1:30 pm would be 5:30 pm. So 16 hours ahead of 1:30 am is 5:30 pm. Step 2: Figure out arrival time in Beijing
The flight is 13 hours. The departure time is 5:30 pm in Beijing. 13 hours after 5:30 pm is 6:30 am. So the arrival time in Beijing is 6:30 am. Step 3: Trip door to door time | Door to door time | = | time_to_LA airport +
waiting_time_at_LA_airport +
flight_time +
time_to_hotel_in_Beijing
| | = | 1 + 2 + 13 + 1.5 = 17.5 (hours) |
So door-to-door time of the trip would be 17.5 hours!
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