Emerging in the late Sixties and reaching a peak in the Seventies, Land Art was one of a range of new forms, including Body Art, Performance Art, Action Art and Installation Art, which pushed art beyond the traditional confines of the studio and gallery. Rather than portraying landscape, land artists used the physical substance of the land itself as their medium.

The British land art, typified by Richard Long’s piece, was not only more domestically scaled, but a lot quirkier than its American counterpart. Indeed, while you might assume that an exhibition of Land Art would consist only of records of works rather than the works themselves, Long’s photograph of his work is the work. Since his “action” is in the past, the photograph is its sole embodiment.

That might seem rather an obscure point, but it sets the tone for an exhibition that contains a lot of black-and-white photographs and relatively few natural objects.

Long is Britain’s best-known Land Artist and his Stone Circle, a perfect ring of purplish rocks from Portishead beach laid out on the gallery floor, represents the elegant, rarefied side of the form. The Boyle Family, on the other hand, stand for its dirty, urban aspect. Comprising artists Mark Boyle and Joan Hills and their children, they recreated random sections of the British landscape on gallery walls. Their Olaf Street Study, a square of brick-strewn waste ground, is one of the few works here to embrace the commonplaceness that characterizes most of our experience of the landscape most of the time.

Parks feature, particularly in the earlier works, such as John Hilliard’s very funny Across the Park, in which a long-haired stroller is variously smiled at by a pretty girl and unwittingly assaulted in a sequence of images that turn out to be different parts of the same photograph.

Generally however British land artists preferred to get away from towns, gravitating towards landscapes that are traditionally considered beautiful such as the Lake District or the Wiltshire Downs. While it probably wasn’t apparent at the time, much of this work is permeated by a spirit of romantic escapism that the likes of Wordsworth would have readily understood. Derek Jarman’s yellow-tinted film Towards Avebury, a collection of long, mostly still shots of the Wiltshire landscape evokes a tradition of English landscape painting stretching from Sanuct Palmer to Pant Nash.

In the case of Hanish Fulton, you can’t help feeling that the Scottish artist has simply found a way of making his love of walking pay. A typical work, such as Seven Days, consists of a single beautiful black-and-white photograph taken on an epic walk, with the mileage and number of days taken listed beneath. British Land Art as shown in this well selected, but relatively modestly scaled exhibition wasn’t about imposing on the landscape, more a kind of landscape-orientated light conceptual art created passing through. It had its origins in the great outdoors, but the results were as gallery-bound as the paintings of Turner and Constable.

[A] originates from a long walk that the artist took.

[B] illustrates a kind of landscape-orientated light conceptual art.

[C] reminds people of the English landscape painting tradition.

[D] represents the elegance of the British land art.

[E] depicts the ordinary side of the British land art.

[F] embodies a romantic escape into the Scottish outdoors.

[G] contains images from different parts of the same photograph.

[A] Shopkeepers are your friends

[B] Remember to treat yourself

[C] Stick to what you need

[D] Planning is everything

[E] Waste not, want not

[F] Live like a peasant

[G] Balance your diet

The hugely popular blog the Skint Foodie chronicles how Tony balances his love of good food with living on benefits. After bills, Tony has £60 a week to spend, £40 of which goes on food, but 10 years ago he was earning £130,000 a year working in corporate communications and eating at London’s best restaurants at least twice a week. Then his marriage failed, his career burned out and his drinking became serious. “The community mental health team saved my life. And I felt like that again, to a certain degree, when people responded to the blog so well. It gave me the validation and confidence that I’d lost. But it’s still a day-by-day thing.” Now he’s living in a council flat and fielding offers from literary agents. He’s feeling positive, but he’ll carry on blogging—not about eating as cheaply as you can— “there are so many people in a much worse state, with barely any money to spend on food”—but eating well on a budget. Here’s his advice for economical foodies.

【R1】________

Impulsive spending isn’t an option, so plan your week’s menu in advance, making shopping lists for your ingredients in their exact quantities. I have an Excel template for a week of breakfast, lunch and dinner. Stop laughing: it’s not just cost effective but helps you balance your diet. It’s also a good idea to shop daily instead of weekly, because, being-human, you’ll sometimes change your mind about what you fancy.

【R2】________

This is where supermarkets and their anonymity come in handy. With them, there’s not the same embarrassment as when buying one carrot in a little greengrocer. And if you plan properly, you’ll know that you only need, say, 350g of shin of beef and six rashers of bacon, not whatever weight is pre-packed in the supermarket chiller.

【R3】________

You may proudly claim to only have frozen peas in the freezer—that’s not good enough. Mine is filled with leftovers, bread, stock, meat and fish. Planning ahead should eliminate wastage, but if you have surplus vegetables you’ll do a vegetable soup, and all fruits threatening to “go off” will be cooked or juiced.

【R4】________

Everyone says this, but it really is a top tip for frugal eaters. Shop at butchers, delis and fish-sellers regularly, even for small things, and be super friendly. Soon you’ll feel comfortable asking if they’ve any knuckles of ham for soups and stews, or beef bones, chicken carcasses and fish heads for stock which, more often than not, they’ll let you have for free.

【R5】________

You won’t be eating out a lot, but save your pennies and once every few months treat yourself to a set lunch at a good restaurant—£1.75 a week for three months gives you £21— more than enough for a three-course lunch at Michelin-starred Arbutus. It’s £16.95 there—or £12.99 for a large pizza from Domino’s: I know which I’d rather eat.

A busy brain can mean a hungry body. We often seek food after focused mental activity, like preparing for an exam or poring over spreadsheets. Researchers speculate that heavy bouts of thinking drain energy from the brain, whose capacity to store fuel is very limited. So the brain, sensing that it may soon require more calories to keep going, apparently stimulates bodily hunger, and even though there has been little in the way of physical movement or caloric expenditure, we eat. This process may partly account for the weight gain so commonly seen in college students.

Scientists at the University of Alabama at Birmingham and another institution recently experimented with exercise to counter such post-study food binges. Gary Hunter, an exercise physiologist at U.A.B., oversaw the study, which was published this month in the journal Medicine & Science in Sports & Exercise. Hunter notes that strenuous activity both increases the amount of blood sugar and lactate—a byproduct of intense muscle contractions—circulating in the blood and augments blood flow to the head. Because the brain uses sugar and lactate as fuel, researchers wondered if the increased flow of fuel-rich blood during exercise could feed an exhausted brain and reduce the urge to overeat.

Thirty-eight healthy college students were invited to U.A.B.’s exercise lab to determine their fitness and metabolic rates—and to report what their favorite pizza was. Afterward, they sat quietly for 35 minutes before being given as much of their favorite pizza as they wanted, which established a baseline measure of self-indulgence. At a later date, the volunteers returned and spent 20 minutes tackling selections from college and graduate-school entrance exams. Hunter says this work has been used in other studies “to induce mental fatigue and hunger.” Next, half the students sat quietly for 15 minutes, before being given pizza. The rest of the volunteers spent those 15 minutes doing intervals on a treadmill: two minutes of hard running followed by about one minute of walking, repeated five times. This is the sort of brief but intensive routine, Hunter says, that should prompt the release of sugar and lactate into the bloodstream. These students were then allowed to gorge on pizza, too. But by and large, they did not overeat. In fact, the researchers calculated that the exercisers consumed about 25 fewer calories than they did during their baseline session. The non-exercisers, however, consumed about 100 calories more. When the researchers factored in the calories expended on running, they determined that those students actually consumed 200 fewer total calories after their brain workouts than the resting students.

The study has limitations, of course. “We only looked at lunch,” Hunter says; the researchers do not know if the runners consumed extra calories at dinner. They also cannot tell whether other types of exercise would have the same effect as running, although Hunter says they suspect that if an activity causes someone to break into a sweat, it should also increase blood sugar and lactate, feeding the brain and weakening hunger’s call.

[A] an activity causes someone to break into a sweat.

[B] muscles frequently contract.

[C] too much thinking can take the energy totally away from the brain.

[D] the exercisers consumed fewer calories than the non-exercisers.

[E] tremendous activity increases both the blood sugar and lactate.

[F] the exercisers consumed more calories than the non-exercisers.

[G] the researchers are not sure whether other kinds of exercise could have the same effect as running.

A Picasso painting valued at about $140 million is the centerpiece of a new type of auction at Christie’s, combining Modern and contemporary artworks spanning 100 years, that will kick-start its postwar and contemporary sales in New York in May.

Scheduled for May 11, “Looking Forward to the Past” is an evening sale of about 25 lots organized by Loic Gouzer, of Christie’s postwar and contemporary art department. Mr. Gouzer was also the specialist responsible for Christie’s much-hyped “If I Live I’ll See You Tuesday” auction of 35 works by fashionable contemporary names, which raised $134.6 million last May.

“Traditionally, people would start by collecting Impressionist and Modern art, and then gradually turn to contemporary,” Mr. Gouzer said. “Recently, we’re seeing the contrary. Collectors start with contemporary, and then they start to look for other works that have quality, relevance and freshness.”

Picasso, who died at 91 in 1973, has nevertheless traditionally been included in auctions of Impressionist and Modern art. But Christie’s said that the broadening client base at the week of contemporary art sales in New York was crucial in persuading an unidentified seller to come forward with Picasso’s 1955 canvas “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ’O’),” around which the auction house fashioned its “Looking Forward to the Past” sale. Inspired by Eugne Delacroix’s 1834 Orientalist masterpiece, “Women of Algiers,” this was one of a number of works Picasso produced in the 1950s and 1960s in response to earlier artists he admired. This particular painting was last seen on the market in November 1997, when it was bought by the London dealer Libby Howie, on the behalf of a client, for $31.9 million at Christie’s auction from the collection of the Americans Victor and Sally Ganz.

Christie’s new valuation of about $140 million on this superior Picasso ranks as one of the highest estimates ever put on an artwork at auction. Francis Bacon’s “Three Studies of Lucian Freud,” which sold for a record $142.4 million at Christie’s in November 2013, carried a presale estimate of more than $85 million. Christie’s has guaranteed the seller of “Les Femmes d’Alger (Version ’O’)” an undisclosed minimum price. It would not specify whether this guarantee had been funded by the auction house or by a third party.

Last week, Mr. Gouzer posted an image of a 1938 Picasso painting of Dora Maar on Instagram. That work will be in his sale with an estimate of more than $50 million. But there are still gaps, Mr. Gouzer said. “I’m still looking for a 1960s Carl Andre.”

[A] is an auction organized by Loic Gouzer.

[B] is an evening sale of 35 contemporary works.

[C] is Picasso’s 1955 painting valued at about $140 million.

[D] is Picasso’s 1938 painting estimated more than $50 million.

[E] is Eugene Delacroix’s 1834 Orientalist masterpiece.

[F] was produced by Francis Bacon in the 1950s and 1960s.

[G] set a record of $142.4 million at Christie’s.

Most people can identify their top priority at work. Generally, it will be the part of the job that is most productive for their employer: for a merger and acquisitions banker, it could be landing a big deal for a client; for a lorry driver, the punctual delivery of an important consignment; for a hospital doctor or nurse, giving vital treatment to a patient.

But every job is ringed with secondary tasks—the routine but critical stuff covered by codes and guidelines. If such chores are neglected, the consequences may undermine overall success. New research suggests tired workers in demanding jobs start giving up doing those small, but vital, tasks remarkably quickly.

Peter Thiel, the entrepreneur, wrote in The Financial Times last week that computers “excel at efficient data processing but struggle to make basic judgments”. In other words, humans are not redundant. But the flesh-and-blood workers who remain now have greater responsibility for more important tasks. If companies pile more work on to them, these weary employees could inadvertently plunge them into disaster.

It is a truism that a tired worker is less productive than a fresh one. But researchers at Wharton business schools have shown that compliance with routine tasks can fall away within one heavy shift.

Their study’s focus was hand hygiene, healthcare’s mundane but powerful weapon against cross-infection. Such is the importance of sanitisation—when done thoroughly, it can reduce infection by the MRS A “superbug” by 95 per cent—that hospitals have started to monitor compliance, using electronic tags in sanitisers and workers’ badges. Each time a member of staff skips the sanitiser, the omission is logged.

The extraordinarily rich anonymised information from such a system is a treasure trove for big data researchers such as Wharton’s Katherine Milkman. Analysing 13.8 million “unique hand hygiene opportunities” for more than 4,000 staff at 35 hospitals, she and her co-authors found that over a 12-hour shift compliance by an average staff member fell by 8.5 percentage points. Lax handwashing, they suggest, could be costing $25 billion annually in treatment of unnecessary infection in the US—and leading to 70,000 needless deaths.

As Prof Milkman explained to me last week, the fact that intense work makes it harder to do less important tasks could have profound implications in other walks of life. The study points out that “these deviations pose a threat to the wellbeing of organisations, employees and clients, because such violations can reduce the quality of products produced and services provided as well as creating an unsafe work environment”.

Suddenly, it is a little clearer why the exhausted M&A banker skips parts of the ethical code her bank insists on, or why the tired lorry driver jumps the lights to make it to the depot on time. The work could offer clues about how to make sure the steeplejack always checks his harness, even on the final ascent of the skyscraper, and the weary journalist reads through her story for possible errors on deadline.

[A] humans are not needed any more in computer age.

[B] the abundant anonymised information from the system.

[C] weary workers are likely to stop doing small but important things.

[D] intense work makes it harder to do some important work.

[E] how to make people reduce mistakes in routine work.

[F] the efficiency of workers will fall away in a heavy shift.

[G] tired workers could inadvertently plunge their company into disaster.

Technology is often painted as the key to the future. But some people are taking a step back and unplugging to preserve tech-free aspects of society.

To hear Tiffany Shlain talk about her “tech shabbat,” it sounds less like a fast and more like a banquet. “It’s so much more about what I get back,” says the filmmaker about her sunset-to-sunset breaks from screens on Fridays and Saturdays. “I feel like my whole day is extra long and wonderful.”

Prodding people to unplug for 24-hours each week may look like an odd stance for Ms. Shlain, who founded the Webbys, one of the most prestigious awards for internet content.

But she’s not alone. Tech-free retreats have become common among Silicon Valley’s elite. Even the famously tech-savvy Pope Francis said on Ash Wednesday that “Lent is a time to disconnect from cellphones and connect to the Gospel.”

Sunset on March 6 marks the start of the National Day of Unplugging, a 24-hour break from screens started in 2009 by the Jewish nonprofit Reboot. Past years have seen over 60,000 people participating. Ms. Shlain, whose book, “²⁴⁄₆: The Power of Unplugging One Day a Week,” was published last September, embraces this effort. Like many critics of tech overuse, she argues that always-available information feeds interfere with our fundamental need for mental downtime. “I just don’t think we were designed to be on²⁴⁄₇, ” she says.

As technology becomes ever more entrenched in our lives, even some of its most ardent proponents are suggesting we step away from time to time. If we don’t, they caution, we may be unwittingly making a huge sacrifice.

“This really does touch everyone’s lives,” says Kim Cavallo, an ambassador for the National Day of Unplugging and the founder of lilspace, whose smartphone app rewards users for taking breaks from their phones with local perks and charitable donations. “It’s not any one particular religious group. We all feel the sense of disruption of human connection.”

A “detox” or a transformation? Many critics agree that unplugging for just one day will not, by itself, change your relationship with technology.

“I’m not a big advocate of extremes,” says Anastasia Dedyukhina, founder of the digital well-being training consultancy Consciously Digital. “It’s much more interesting to find a balanced way.”

Dr. Dedyukhina sees digital fasting as a first step in reclaiming our lives from tech overuse, but warns that, like many simple fixes, it can miss the bigger picture.

“It’s actually very dangerous to see this as a solution,” she says, “because the problem is not that we are spending too much time on the screens. It’s that so many of our functions are now outsourced to technology, and there’s no culture around this—what’s appropriate, what’s not appropriate.”

Computer scientist and self-help author Cal Newport agrees that unplugging can be a good first step, but warns that doing so needs to be seen not as a break—or worse, a “detox” —but as the first step in a transformation. “The reason to step away is not just to lose the habit of technology, but to give yourself back the space,” he says.

[A] feels that the daytime is not short but good and lonely.

[B] notes that he/she is a mild supporter and tends to find a balanced method.

[C] holds the opinion that the tech extensively influences people’s daily life.

[D] thinks that information feeds disturb the basic demand for mental rest.

[E] agrees that it’s beneficial for people to stay away from mobile phones occasionally.

[F] believes that detox is a great method to solve the problem of tech.

[G] points out that unplugging signifies a good start to a transformation.