Every day around the world, thousands of people with little or no scholarly training in art history walk into museums. They may or may not read noticeboards that share relevant information of the artworks or artists. Imagine, before being permitted to direct their eyeballs to the art on the walls, museum visitors were required to read a 15-or-20-page introduction to each piece or each artist. How many people would go to museums if that were the case?
Yet this seems to be the expectation when it comes to reading classic literature. Classic novels typically come with 15-or-20-page introductions, which often include spoilers, assuming that readers do not come to classic books to discover, be absorbed in, and be surprised by the story world. Also, apparently, we mustn't read classic alone, without experts guiding our experiences.
However, classic literature is in a unique position to show us that we're not alone in our pains and joys. By taking us out of our time, classic books free us to see beyond the set of beliefs we stick to and to connect human experiences that remain alive across time and place. What could be more grounding (有充分理由的), more comforting, than seeing ourselves in the battles, longings (渴望), and pleasures that have played out across hundreds, thousands of years of human history? Our personal engagement is the first step of a longer journey of discovery that deepens our knowledge and understanding of ourselves and our world. We may, for example, feel for Hester Prynne from Nathaniel Hawthorne's The Scarlet Letter though we despair of the world she lived in.
While we're letting go of things, let's stop worrying about understanding everything. We can't. It will be fun if we embrace curiosity, the pleasure of working out a mystery, and our common relationships as humans. We can feel, for example, the power of self-sacrifice in Charles Dickens' A Tale of Two Cities even when we lack full understanding of the cultural references and languages.
Tom could hardly wait for morning. Snow was falling quickly. By morning he expected that there would be enough snow to make a great snowman. Tom had never made a snowman before. He had just moved to Indiana from Alabama, where it hardly ever snowed.
The next morning, Tom's mother shook him gently. "No school today," she said. "There is too much snow for the school bus to go through."
Tom let out a loud cry. He jumped out of the bed and pulled on his snow clothes.
Tom's friends, Herb and Addie, were already outside. "Hey, Tom!" called Addie. "We are going to Warwick Hill in a little while. Do you want to come?"
"No, not now," Tom answered. "I'm going to make a snowman."
Herb shook his head. "It's not snowman snow. It's too dry and soft." Herb pushed his gloves into the snow and picked some up. He blew on the snow and it flew away like dust.
Tom looked down at the ground. Snow was snow, he'd always thought. How was he supposed to know there were different kinds? "What kind of snow is this?" He asked.
"It's sledding (滑雪橇) snow!" laughed Addie. "That's why we are going to Warwick Hill. All the kids will be there, and you should come, too." Addie held a sled out to Tom and said, "You can use this. We have got two more."
Tom took the sled and smiled. After all, he had never been sledding before.
If you're a cycling lover, you will have to pay a lot of attention to your bicycle and maintain it well, for bicycle parts are exposed to wear and tear (磨损) over time and you have to examine the bicycle to see if there are any signs of wearing such as scratches, dents (凹陷) etc. Sometimes, a part may not work because it has exceeded its life expectancy. Sometimes, you will need to find replacement parts for it to keep up the performance of the bicycle.
Different parts of a bicycle will wear at different rates so it is very important that you have a basic understanding about the role played by each part. One of the most important parts of the bicycle is the frame, You will need to choose a frame that lasts for a very long time. Of course, you will see some paint scratches after some time. When you're selecting a frame, you have to think about the material. Aluminium (铝) frames will not rust easily, but they have a higher chance to dent. Steel frames will be hard to dent, but you will need to make sure they get a good paint job so that they won't rust.
Wheels also experience a lot of wear and tear and you should go for a professional seller when you want to buy wheels. There are different types of wheels that you can buy, like Zipp wheels that provide more aerodynamic efficiency (空气动力学效能). Investing in new tyres instead of going for used is a good idea because you will be able to get more use out of it. The same goes for chain as there's a higher chance of a used chain breaking. You may also experience shifting problems. However, some parts of bicycles such as pedals can be used for a long time and you can find different styles.
Other parts that you can buy used are seats, handlebars and the stem. When you are buying handlebars, you have to see if there are any dents or if they have been bent out of shape. There shouldn't be any cracks in the seat post or the handlebars. There are many shops where you can buy parts, so you will have to check the references to see how customers respond to them before you buy anything.
Andrew Jackson has been sitting pretty on the $20 bill for 87 years. Is it time to bring some new blood to the banknote?
The non-profit organization called Women on 20s is campaigning to put a woman's face on American money. Barbara Ortiz Howard, the company's founder, would like to see a woman on the $20 bill by 2020. That year marks the 100-year anniversary of the 19th Amendment to the United States Constitution, which gave women the right to vote.
Howard got the idea when she realized that her daughter had no everyday reminders of famous women in history. She asked her friend Susan Ades Stone, a journalist, to join her cause. "Part of the aim is to educate as many people as possible about as many women as possible," Ades says. "We want to see how many people we can reach."
American money values the successes of former presidents and founding fathers. Currently, there are only two women on money: Susan B. Anthony is the face of the rare dollar coin, and Sacagawea can be seen on the gold dollar coin. There are no women on paper bills.
With help from writers and historians, Howard and Stone came up with a voting list featuring 15 important women. Ades says there is a standard for choosing candidates. They look at the women's contributions to our world, and at what challenges they faced.
More than 72, 000 people have voted so far in the poll. Ades says the competition has narrowed to a "very close race", but won't say who's in the lead. After two rounds of voting, Women on 20s will send their campaign to the White House for consideration. The final decision is up to the Treasury Secretary, Jack Lew. Lew is unlikely to make a change without the president's approval. But last year, when a little girl asked the president why there aren't any women on US currency, he said that adding a woman is a "pretty good idea".
Lots of people find it hard to get up in the morning and put the blame on the alarm clock. In fact, the key to easy morning wake-up lies in resting your body clock Here's how to make one.
In order to make a change, you need to decide why it's important. Do you want to get up in time to have breakfast with your family, get in some exercise, or just be better prepared for your day? Once you are clear about your reasons, tell your family or roommates about the change you want to make.
Rethink mornings.
Now that you know why you want to wake up, consider re-arranging your morning activities. If you want time to have breakfast with your family, save some time the night before by setting out clothes, shoes, and bags. That's a quarter-hour more you could be sleeping if you bought a coffee maker with a timer.
Keep your sleep/wake schedule on weekends.
If you're tired out by Friday night, sleeping in on Saturday could sound wonderful. But compensating on the weekends actually feeds into your sleepiness the following week, a recent study found.
Keep a record and evaluate it weekly.
Keep track of your efforts and write down how you feel. After you've tried a new method for a week, take a look at your record. If not, take another look at other methods you could try.
A. Get a sleep specialist.
B. Find the right motivation.
C. A better plan for sleep can help.
D. And consider setting a second alarm.
E. If the steps you take are working, keep it up.
F. Stick to your set bedtime and wake-up time, no matter the day.
G. Reconsider the 15 minutes you spend in line at the café to get coffee.
I'm sure many of you are familiar with the New Year's resolution (决心) —"get fit" After a Christmas of staying 1, watching television and eating far too much chocolate, I decided enough was enough. January was going to be 2. January was going to be the start of the new, healthy me—less chocolate, more exercise, an all-round healthier lifestyle. But 3 was I going to do this? As I browsed the Internet looking for 4, I realized just how little I knew about ways to get fit. In terms of exercise, I had always 5 you either played a team sport like 6 or went to the gym. And with the arrival of January snow, playing football outside didn't seem like the best choice, and as I have a deep-rooted 7of falling off running machines, the gym wasn't going to work out either. Plus, I've never quite understood the idea of 8 to run inside when you could run outside with no monthly fee!
9, I knew that I needed to research my choices further. The first thing I found was the world of YouTube exercise videos. There are videos for just about everything. The good thing about YouTube videos is that they are free, they are 10 at any time (you can do them whenever you want) and you don't have to leave your nice warm house to do them. But 11 you do them with a friend, it's 12 to encourage yourself to keep going, and without an instructor there with you, it's sometimes hard to know if you're doing the move 13.
I then researched local fitness classes and found my small town to be absolutely swimming with opportunity! I quickly signed up to the overall sports club, had a look at the weekly timetable and 14 to try them all out. So far I have tried out most of them. My 15 ones are by far the dance-based ones that take place to music, because it makes exercise so much more fun!
The 17th-century philosopher Francis Bacon mentioned that nothing had changed the world more deeply than three great (invent): gunpowder, printing and the compass. But what Bacon didn't know was that all the three had already been invented and successfully employed Chinese people.
And it was not until over 300 years later one young man in Cambridge gave these people the credit they (true) deserved. The man is Joseph Needham, or Dr. Li Yuese, which is a household name among
well-educated in China. In 1943, he (send) by the British government to help save China's universities from the occupying Japanese forces. Then Needham began his lifelong research, which ended up creating one of the (great) works—Science and Civilization in China. It is known as a most important book (tell) the West what Chinese have contributed to the world.
Needham is considered the first bridge builder between China and the rest of the world in a book (title) Bomb, Book & Compass—Joseph Needham and the Great Secrets of China. It was written by Simon, who tried his best
(bring) the human side of the great man to the world, and let the world know better what Needham was as a human being.
1）你喜欢的讲座话题(从音乐、美术、舞蹈中任选其一)；
2）选择该话题的原因及关于该话题你感兴趣的内容；
3）希望从中有何收获。
注意：
1）词数不少于100；
2）可适当加入细节, 使内容充实、行文连贯；
3）开头和结尾已给出, 不计入总词数。
Dear Chris,
I'm Li Jin, a student at Chenguang High School. ……
Thank you for your time.
Yours,
Li Jin
In schools and at home, most of us have been scolded(责备) or even got punished for daydreaming. The majority of people say that by daydreaming we waste our time and energy on something unproductive. But many medical studies have shown something different. They've stressed the fact that daydreaming works wonders on our imagination, creativity and situation-handling techniques. In fact, many problems can be easily solved if we daydream.
The top most benefit of daydreaming is that your mood gets the right improvement. By separating yourself from the world around you, you tend to enjoy the loneliness in your mind and get peace from daydreaming as you think about something that calms your senses. When you start imagining things, you will forget all the stress and tension(紧张). Instead, you will get happiness from it and this happiness will turn into a source of energy that helps you work in a good mood.
Many psychologists (心理学家) have said that people who daydream tend to have a sharper memory. It's true. When you're daydreaming, you'll tend to get carried away to imagine various situations, either real or unreal. You tend to act differently in different situations, trying to satisfy your mind by doing what you want in your dreams. When your mind gets satisfied, you're in a better position to concentrate more on your work. Since daydreaming activates (激活) the nerves of your brain, you tend to have higher attentiveness and your ability to remember things will develop.
When you daydream, you automatically imagine yourself as your heart says and therefore, you get to know yourself better. You also start realizing the mistakes you've made in life and trying your best to avoid repeating them. Such imagination techniques help you to connect yourself with your soul.
