Call for entries: young women writers competition
Guardian Weekend magazine is launching a writing competition for UK women aged 16-21 on the theme of conversations.
How to enter
All you have to do is submit a 700-word personal essay that shows off your talents——on the theme of conversations. Did you have an unforgettable conversation with your grandmother about her youth that changed how you viewed her? Do you find having certain conversations really hard, and if so, why? Is there a conversation you regret, or one you regret you never had? We're keen to hear about your personal experiences.
All entries must be sent to weekend@the guardian. com by midnight on 9 March.
The Prizes
There will be one winner and two runners-up. The three winners will each receive £250. The winners will be notified (通知) by email or telephone on or before 30 March 2021 and given details of how to claim their prizes. As part of the editing process, the three winners will participate in a video call with a Guardian Weekend editor to discuss and edit their essay for publication. The one overall winner will also receive a 1-1 work shop with a Guardian editor.
Rules
Follow all rules carefully to prevent disqualification.
■Only one entry is permitted per person. Entries on behalf of another person will not be accepted and joint submissions are not allowed.
■The Competition opens at 09:00 on 22 February 2021 and closes at 23:59 on 9 March 2021. Entries received outside this time period will not be considered.
■Your entry must not be copied, and must not contain any third-party materials or content that you do not have permission to use.
■You must include your name, age and contact details, including your email address and phone number.
A 63-year-old Chinese carpenter's traditional skills have become an unexpected Internet hit as he creates woodwork with a single piece of wood, without glue, screws or nails. Wang De wen, known as "Grandpa Amu" on YouTube, has been praised as the modern day Lu Ban, a well-known Chinese structural engineer during the Zhou Dynasty, thanks to his rich carpentry(木工手艺) knowledge.
Grandpa Amu's most popular video, which shows him making a delicate wooden arch bridge, has gone viral on YouTube, gaining more than 40 million views. "If you do something, you have to love it, and you have to be interested in it; however, being interested doesn't mean there's only happiness and no pain. " Grandpa Amu shared when talking about his excellent carpentry skills.
His most popular works include a folding stool, a model of the China pavilion from the 2010 Shanghai Expo, and an apple-shaped interlocking puzzle, known as a Lu Ban lock. Grandpa Amu follows an ancient Chinese mortise and tenon(榫卯) technique, which means no nails or glue are involved in the entire process of building the arch bridge.
The master carpenter has also made several wooden toys for his grandson using the same technique. His young grandson's favorites include a walking Peppa Pig and a bubble blowing machine. Attracting over 1. 17 million fans on YouTube, Grandpa Amu's videos so far have gained more than 200 million views.
His wonderful woodworking skills, using the same mortise and tenon joints found in the Forbidden City, were developed from the age of thirteen as a way of supporting his family in East China's Shandong Province. "The grandson is so happy, as there have been so many fine and unique toys made by grandpa from an early age," commented one netizen; while another said "It's amazing. I hope these traditional crafts can be passed on!"
Time famine(饥荒), a term refers to the universal feeling of having too much to do but not enough time to deal with those demands. Spending money on time-saving purchases may protect you from effects time famine can have on your happiness, suggests a new study of which Ashley Whillans served as a lead author. Whillans has experienced that recently, who was trying to move to a new city for a new job, and felt there weren't enough hours in the days leading up to her move.
"Then I have groceries delivered to my house. I have someone that I don't know move away my boxes, which brings up a whole bunch of feelings. I honestly think, if it wasn't for doing this research and the move, I might have had some concern about those purchases," Whillans says. "It requires forward planning and mental abilities to think forward. But that indeed reduces negative effects of feeling stressed for time. "
The new study included self-reported data on 6,271 adults of various income levels from various countries. The researchers found that, regardless of their levels, spending money on buying time was associated with greater life satisfaction and less anxiety. On the surface, the study may seem like it's offering a solution only for the affluent, but it also points out how time famine and buying time influence us all. "I think our research actually flies in the face of the prejudgment on time-saving purchases," says Elizabeth Dunn, a co-author of the study. "Sometimes when people imagine time-saving services maybe what they're picturing is a housekeeper, maids, and a gardener, but what we're talking about is that just spending $ 40 makes a difference."
"Actually, the thing that surprised me most from our findings is how few people actually spend their money in a way that we would classify as being time-saving, even when they have the ability and when doing so may benefit overall wellbeing and life satisfaction," Dunn says. She adds they planned to conduct follow-up studies on the phenomenon. "I believe we can figure it out."
As Internet users become more dependent on the Internet to store information, are people remember less? If you know your computer will save information, why store it in your own personal memory, your brain? Experts are wondering if the Internet is changing what we remember and how.
In a recent study, Professor Betsy Sparrow conducted some experiments. She and her research team wanted to know the Internet is changing memory. In the first experiment, they gave people 40 unimportant facts to type into a computer. The first group of people understood that the computer would save the information. The second group understood that the computer would not save it. Later, the second group remembered the information better. People in the first group knew they could find the information again, so they did not try to remember it.
In another experiment, the researchers gave people facts to remember, and told them where to find the information on the Internet. The information was in a specific computer folder (文件夹). Surprisingly, people later remember the folder location (位置) better than the facts. When people use the Internet, they do not remember the information. Rather, they remember how to find it. This is called "transactive memory (交互记忆)".
According to Sparrow, we are not becoming people with poor memories as a result of the Internet. Instead, computer users are developing stronger transactive memories; that is, people are learning how to organize huge quantities of information so that they are able to access it at a later date. This doesn't mean we are becoming either more or less intelligent, but there is no doubt that the way we use memory is changing.
How to Quiet the Complainer
You may want to know why people complain. In fact, even the kindest, most considerate people complain. And complaining doesn't always have a negative impact. . However, the problems start when complaining becomes a frequent action. So, how to quiet a complaining considering your health and his?
Change the subject.
Some complainers will switch the topic if you change the conversation in a direction that interests them. If your neighbor is complaining about the phone company, tell her about an unexpected call you received from an old friend. .
Summarize the complaint.
If your complainer keeps repeating himself, ask something like, "Can I tell you that I've heard and gotten it?" Using "I" statements ("I've heard…") rather than "you" statements ("You keep repeating yourself") shows that you're interested rather than trying to shut the person down.
.
When a frequent complainer tells you about her latest problem, ask nicely what she's done to improve it. This isn't the usual direction a grievance-laden conversation takes, and it may help to abruptly end a rant.
Be honest.
, tell the complainer that you must cut the conversation short. You can simply be honest, saying you need to move on so the conversation doesn't bring you down—especially if it's someone who's complained to you many times before.
Have a heart-to-heart.
If someone very close to you, like your partner or best friend stresses you out with loads of pessimism. . Otherwise, if you hide your feelings and continue listening to repeated complaints, you may start avoiding the person.
A. Focus on the effect.
B. Challenge the person to act.
C. When you have things to do
D. Avoid saying the word complaining.
E. It's important to talk about the problem.
F. Sometimes a complaint changes an unfavorable situation into a more desirable one.
G. If your coworker is saying bad words about your boss, ask whether he met the new employee.
Sandra was a businesswoman in Orlando. Approaching her 50th birthday, she decided to1 her love of cats and her work experience to start the Orlando Cat Cafe.
As a lifelong cat fan, Sandra's main goal in opening the cafe was to help 2 cats up for adoption with proper pet parents. What she didn't 3at the time was that her café would help human visitors as much as the cats!
"The most4thing in the cafe is that they always have new cats and cats need socialization, so both sides 5!" says Laurie, who is one6guest. She, like many other cat lovers, who 7have pets at home because of allergies (过敏反应) in the family, often comes to the cafe to experience the benefits of 8with cute animals whenever she likes.
Plus, Sandra's cat-adoption 9aren't the only charitable initiative (创举) happening at the cafe! The coffee and food10for visitors are made by Axum Coffee, a company that was also started to11others. Axum is a city in Ethiopia where fresh water is 12and even poverty is widely visible. In fact, the coffee and food are sold at a low price at the cafe, some of whose13go to the people of Axum, Ethiopia, to help improve their14 of life.
"My cafe and Axum Coffee have a(n)15 mission to reach out to others. We hit it off and became partners, "says Sandra.
Maybe the next time you visit Orlando，you'll16Sandra's cafe, and hit it off with one of the cats up for17 ! Adoption specialists are always on-site to help match the personalities of potential 18 with those of the cats in the play area. And it 19 ! More than 80 cats have been adopted since Sandra20 her business in 2016.
Yungang Grottoes(石窟 )in Datong, Shanxi province, are a world cultural relics site that(date) back to more than 1,500 years ago. There are about 59,000 figures of the Buddha,are a priceless treasure of human culture.
, because of the effects of climate change and (nature) disasters, the grottoes are damaged year by year. Thanks to (advance) digital technology, researchers are copying Grottoes to preserve the precious cultural relics. Using 3D laser scanning technology, the researchers(digital) record the shapes, colors and other fine details of the grottoes. It can enable more people (access) the cultural relics despite the distance. June, 2020 the researchers successfully copied cave No. 12 for an (exhibit) in Hangzhou. It(hope) that the new technologies will advance the "rebirth" of the cultural relics.
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（＼）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．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；2．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
Last Wednesday, the teachers and students in Senior Three as well as our parents attended the grown-up ceremony holding in the school hall, which theme was "Growth and Responsibility". First, a student representing all of us made the speech. He showed our sincerely thanks to our parents and teachers and talked about our dreams. Then, some teachers and parents offered us their congratulations and expressed their expectations for their future. Afterwards, wonderful performances put on by students from different class. Though the ceremony is over, but it has made me realize clearly that I have grow up. I should be responsible to myself now.
1）活动时间及地点；2）活动过程；3）你的感受。
注意：词数100左右。
