Broken Wings
1-4 Aug: Musical adaptation of the poet Kahil Gibran's 1912 masterpiece. Set in New York in 1923, it transports you to turn-of-the-century Beirut.
7: 30 p. m. (& 2: 30p. m. 4 Aug); Tickets: ￡10-￡96. so.www.trh.co.uk. Theatre Royal Haymarket, Haymarket, SWIY 4HT. T: 020-7930 8800. E7. Station: Piccadilly Circus.
Chicago the Musical
Martin Kemp stars as Billy in this jazz musical based on real murder cases which shocked Chicago in the 1920s.
Mon-Sat 7: 30 p. m.; Wed & Sat 2: 30 p. m. Tickets: ￡25-￡150. www.phoenixtheatrelondon co.uk
Phoenix Theatre, 110 Charing Cross Rd, WC2HOJP. T: 0843-316 1082. E7. Station: Tottenham Court Road
Dreamgirls
Musical about a female singing group from Chicago. Classic songs include I Am Telling You I'm Not Going, I Am Changing, and Listen and One Night Only. Join these friends as they go on a musical rollercoaster ride through a world of fame, fortune and the ruthless realities of show business, testing their friendships to the very limit.
Mon-Sat 7: 30 p. m.; Wed & Sat 2: 30 p. m. Tickets: ￡15-￡75. www.savoytheatre org. savoy.
Strand WC2R OET. T: 0844-871 7687. E8. Station: Covent Garden.
Everybody's Talking about Jamie
This feel-good musical is set on a council estate in Sheffield, northern England, and tells the story of 16-year-old Jamie and how he overcomes bullies and prejudice. This is inspired by a true bully story.
Mon-Sat 7: 30 p. m.; Wed & &t 2: 30 p. m. Tickets: ￡20-￡85. www.everybodystalkingaboutjarmie.co.uk
Apollo Theatre, 31 Shaftesbury Ava WID 7ES T: 0330-333 4809. E7. Station: Piccaddly Circus
For the past two years I have been travelling and living abroad. Home has become more of a feeling than a place. I feel at home when I am with my family in London, but I also feel at home in Italy with friends I love. Home is no longer a picture of a house with a front door and some windows. It is more complicated than that.
This is one of the reasons that celebrating the new year has become very important for me. I do not care about "New Year's resolutions (愿望)"—living abroad has made me constantly reconsider what kind of person I want to be and how I will live my life, so I don't feel the need to plan for change: I live for change.
New Year's Eve has become my time to reconnect with the friends that makes me feel at home. Every year we try to reunite wherever we are and remember the time when we knew each other so well that we felt like a family. It is a moment to reconnect and get to know each other again. Last year, we travelled to a cottage in Ireland where we had no internet and no neighbours. In the middle of the countryside, away from our big and constantly changing lives, we were able to become like a little family again.
This year, we went to Barcelona. It was a very big change. We were surrounded by culture and life and joy. There were bars and parties. It was different, but one thing stayed very much the same-I felt at home again and we felt like a family again.
A lot of people feel that New Year's Eve cannot live up to expectations. Ideas such as the "New Year's kiss" and "resolutions" create a lot of pressure for people to have a night to remember, a night that will change their lives and perhaps make the next year one worth living. I think those people are missing the point. If Christmas is about family, why can't New Year be about friends?
Climate change is perhaps the key issue of our time. Often, however, it is presented to us as being so abstract that it seems impossibly distant. For those of you looking for something a little more concrete, a new report suggests that the effects of climate change may significantly affect coffee.
The report, put out by The Climate Institute, describes the effects of climate change on various coffee-growing nations and the resultant effects on the plants and those who grow them.
Coffee Arabica plants, which produce 70% of all commercial coffee, can be adversely affected by even a half-degree change in typical weather conditions. This sensitivity to temperature puts the plant at increased risk of the effects of climate change.
In Central America the average temperature has risen by a full degree Celsius since 1960. In Ethiopia the average temperature has increased by 1. 3 degrees. This increase is enough to have notable effects on the plants. In Tanzania the productivity per hectare of coffee has fallen by half since the 1960s due to changes in temperature.
Indeed, studies claim that by 2050 the area of the world suitable for growing coffee will be cut by half. Coffee production is likely to then be pushed to higher elevations (海拔) to take advantage of lower temperatures, but this will not be enough to make up for lost lowland areas.
Coffee is the second most traded goods by developing nations, and the inability of producer nations to export it could cause dramatic chain reactions in their economies. Millions of people make a living in the production, processing, transport, and sale of coffee; their livelihoods would stand to take a blow as growing areas decrease and prices rise.
As the temperature keeps rising, your cup of coffee will become much more expensive, and it may also carry an aftertaste bitterer than usual, for all those workers in the coffee belt left without the means to make a living as conditions worsen. Not only that, but the economic effects will cost the West millions in increased foreign aid.
Can you trust your very first childhood memories? Maybe not, a new study suggests.
Past researches show that people's earliest memories typically form around 3 to 3. 5 years of age. But in a recent survey of more than 6,600 people, British scientists have found that 39 percent of participants claimed to have memories from age 2 or younger. These first memories are likely false, the researchers said. This was particularly the case for middle -aged and older adults.
For the study, researchers asked participants to describe their first memory and the age at which it occurred. Participants were told they had to be sure the memory was the one that had happened. For example, it shouldn't be based on a photograph, a family story or any source other than direct experiences. Then the researchers examined the content, language and descriptive details of these earliest memories and worked out the likely reasons why people would claim to have memories from an age when memories cannot form.
As many of these memories dated before the age of 2, this suggests they were not based on actual facts, but facts or knowledge about their babyhood or childhood from photographs or family stories. Often these false memories are fired by a part of an early experience, such as family relationships or feeling sad, the researchers explained.
"We suggest that what a rememberer has in mind when recalling fictional early memories is …a mental representation consisting of remembered pieces of early experiences and some facts or knowledge about their own babyhood or childhood," study author Shania Kantar said in a journal news release, "Additionally, further details may be unconsciously inferred or added. Such memory-like mental representations come over time, to be collectively experienced when they come to mind, so for the individual, they quite simply are memories, which particularly point to babyhood."
"Importantly, the person remembering them doesn't know this is fictional," study co-author Martin Conway said "In fact, when people are told that their memories are false they often don't believe it."
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A. People think differently from me. B. It taught me disagreements are unnecessary. C. It took a lot of listening, patience and effort. D. The comment was focused on my upbringing. E. He then asked what l would be studying here. F. I was excited and terrified but tried to act bravely. G. In a way, I'm thankful that I had to take those extra steps from the first day. |
I am a Korean-American growing up in Korea. My delayed first day at Wheaton College was my first time in the U.S. in more than 10 years.
From my first time eating at Chipotle to the endless variety of Scotch tapes on display at Target, culture shock affected me deeply. I was flooded with the rush of Starbucks caffeine (咖啡因).
On that first day to-do list was a job interview for a worker position. The interviewer asked where l was from. Seoul. English literature. He said, "Oh, you must be enthusiastic about coming all the way here to study English from Korea'!"
That comment annoyed me, in a way I couldn't describe then. It's clearer now: The interviewer was measuring my passion without knowing anything about me, only based on where l was coming from.
That interview was a small example of what came after that first day of college, but I hesitate to tell the story because some people who made ridiculously ignorant (无知的) comments ended up being my good friends. This wasn't easy. Through them, I learned to express my feelings clearly in words. To them, I owe this story.
We get to know some people and others we don't. We make decisions to involve in conversations or not. otherwise, I would have stayed in my bubble, meeting only people who say things that sound right.
I recently visited India to meet women with AIDS. Having AIDS is considered as a mark of disgrace and the punishment is abandonment. Most of these women had been 1 by their family.
What I 2 most is how much they wanted to touch me and be touched as if physical 3 somehow proved their 4.
I spent time with the dying and saw rows of cots (帆布床). Every cot was 5 except for one in the corner, so I went there, hoping to provide some help. The 6 was a woman in her 30s. She had 7 eyes and was skinny.
8, I suddenly felt helpless. I had nothing to 9 her. I couldn't save her, either.
I 10 down and reached out to touch her-and when she 11 my hand, she grabbed it and wouldn't let go. We had been there together for a while when she pointed upward. It took me some time to 12 that she wanted to go up to the roof and sit outside. It was getting 13 and the sun was going down, and no one seemed 14 to take her upstairs.
I carried her up. She sat on a chair, facing the west and watching the 15 I reminded the workers to 16 her later. Then I had to leave. But she never 17 me.
Sometimes it's the people you can't help who 18 you the most. Optimism isn't a passive expectation that things will get better. It is a(n) 19 that we can make things better and we can help people, if we don't lose hope and don't look 20.
Who built the first canal? Perhaps some people long ago, living in dry country, discovered that they could dig ditches (沟壑) (irrigate) their fields with the river water. And naturally in the days boats were the most important means of transport, canals were the easiest means of reaching a place. Furthermore, a ditch (join) two rivers proved efficient for boat travel.
Today, most countries in the world have canals. Even in the 2lst century, goods can be moved more (convenient) by boat than by some other means of transport. Some canals, such as the Suez or the Panama, (save) ships weeks of time by making their voyage a thousand miles (short). Other canals permit boats to reach cities that (situate) inland. Still other canals drain lands where there is too much water. Help farmers irrigate fields without enough water, and provide water power for (factory) as well.
Most of the canals have a long history. Canals existed in Egypt thousands of years ago. And the Grand Canal of China was begun about 2, 500 years ago and took centuries to finish. During the seventeenth century, France built many canals that are still use today.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（^），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（＼）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：①每处错误及修改均仅限一词。
②只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Applying for a foreign university is a huge project. Here is my experience. I did voluntary work in Grade One. I listed all of my achievement and the voluntary work I have done. After complete the online admission process, I took a deep breathe and dreamed about my dream college. However, except offer from the University of California, San Diego (UCSD), I total got eight rejections. One day, I locked myself in my room but thought about what I had done. Finally I understood that I could learn nothing from the experience even though those rejections were made me sad. I accepted the UCSD's offer and adjusted myself quickly. For this attitude, everything I saw of UCSD thrilled me.
注意：①词数100左右；②可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯 
Dear Carl,
Yours,
Li Hua
