Musicals in Washington's Historic National Theatre in 2020
The Last Ship
Friday, March 27—Sunday, April 5
$49—$154
THE LAST SHIP, inspired by Sting's 1991 album "The Soul Cages" and his own childhood experiences, tells the story of a community in Tyne and Wear. Sting will star and perform the role at every performance. It features an original score with music and lyrics by Sting as well as a few of his best-loved songs: "Island of Souls" "All This Time" and "When We Dance". Learn more at TheLastShipMusical.com.
Recommended for ages 13 and up.
Run time: Approximately 2 hours, 30 minutes.
The King's Speech
Tuesday, Feb. 11 — Sunday, Feb. 16
$54 — $104
THE KING'S SPEECH is based on the true story of King George VI's struggle with a speech problem and the friendship he formed with his doctor, Lionel Logue. With the Nazi threat coming and civil unrest at home, royal secrets explode around the King as he appeared onto the world stage.
Recommended for ages 13 and up.
Run time: Approximately 2 hours, 50 minutes.
Blue Man Group
Friday, May 8 —Sunday, May 17
$64—$124
At BLUE MAN GROUP, you'll rock, laugh, and party! As three blue men explore our world, together we'll discover music, comedy and surprises at every turn. It is perfect for audiences of all ages and cultural backgrounds, and returns to D.C. with new music, fresh stories, custom instruments like never before.
Recommended for ages 4 and up.
Run time: Approximately 1 hour, 30 minutes
Summer: The Donna Summer Musical
Wednesday, July 22 —Sunday, Aug. 2
$54—$114
Donna Summer was a girl from Boston with a voice from heaven. With a score featuring more than 20 of Summer's classic hits including "Love to Love You Baby" "Bad Girls" and "Hot Stuff", this electric experience is a moving tribute to the voice of a generation.
Recommended for ages 13 and up.
Run time: Approximately 1 hour, 40 minutes
Li Bai is regarded as the greatest romantic poet of the Tang Dynasty and a representative of the High Tang culture, combination of realistic Northern culture represented by Confucian (儒家的) philosophy and romantic Southern culture represented by Taoist philosophy. But he could neither realize his Confucian ideal to serve the country nor find spiritual freedom in Taoism (道教), so he could only chant poetry and drink wine to drown his sorrow as described by Du Fu in Eight Immortal Drinkers. Here we see the tragedy (悲剧) of a genuine staying lonely on earth like an angel fallen from Heaven. His poetry is marked by male greatness in the Waterfall in Mount Lu Viewed from Afar, in which we see the mountain cloud from down below and the Silver River, Chinese name for the Milky Way, fall from on high, and heaven and earth seem to merge into one, that is the Chinese way of communion with nature. In his poetry, we can find his love of nature, of freedom, of the people, of his friends, in short, of truth, good and beauty.
Li Bai is best known for the extraordinary imagination and striking Taoist imagery in his poetry, as well as for his great love for liquor. Like Du Fu, he spent much of his life travelling, although in his case it was because his wealth allowed him to, rather than because his poverty forced him. He is said to have drowned in the Yangtze River, having fallen from his boat while drunkenly trying to embrace (拥抱) the reflection of the moon.
Blue light before bedtime can make it harder to sleep, and the screens on phones, computers, and televisions send out plenty of blue light. This is all true. But if you're focused on blue light as a major problem affecting your sleep or your eye health, it's time to look at it from another aspect.
As Philip Yuhas, a professor of vision, writes at The Conversation, blue light isn't a uniquely technological evil. It's part of sunlight, and your eyes are exposed to plenty of it all the time. You're fine. There are studies in mice that have found blue light can damage their eyes, but mice are nocturnal creatures (夜行动物) whose eyes are different from ours. The pigments (色素) and the lenses (晶状体) of our eyes actually block blue light fairly well—so in a sense, we already have built-in blue blocking protection.
Adding more protection isn't likely to help, though. You can buy glasses and screen filters (滤光片) that block blue light, but Yuhas points out they are probably a waste of money: these products do not block out much blue light. The leading blue-blocking anti-reflective coating, for example, blocks only about 15% of the blue light that screens send out. You could get the same reduction just by holding your phone another inch from your face.
The American Academy of Ophthalmology doesn't recommend blue-blocking products, either. Instead, if you're concerned about your eye health or your ability to get to sleep on time, you already know what to do:
Put the screens away at bedtime. Read a book or find something else to do. While you're using screens take a 20-second break every 20 minutes to look at something 20 feet away ( the" 20-20-20" rule ). If you get dry eyes when you look at screens for a long time, use eyedrops labeled artificial tears.
About one million adults in the USA need someone to help them eat. Researchers at the University of Washington are working on a robotic system that can help make it easier. After identifying different food on a plate, the robot can decide how to use a fork to pick up and deliver the desired bite to a person's mouth.
"Being dependent on a caregiver to feed every bite every day takes away a person's sense of independence," said the researcher." Our goal with this project is to give people a bit more control over their lives. The idea was to develop a feeding system that would be attached to wheelchairs and feed people whatever they wanted to eat."
" When we started the project, we realized there are so many ways that people can eat a piece of food depending on its size, shape or consistency (坚实度)," said the researcher," So we set up an experiment to see how humans eat common foods."
The researchers arranged plates with about a dozen different kinds of food, ranging in consistency from hard carrots to soft bananas. Then the team gave volunteers a fork and asked them to pick up different pieces of food and feed them to a model. The fork contained a sensor to measure how much force people used when they picked up food.
To design a feeding strategy that changes based on the food item, the researchers combined two different algorithms (算法). First they used an object-detection algorithm called Retina Net, which scans the plate, identifies the types of food on it and places a frame around each item. Then they developed SPNet, an algorithm that examines the type of food in a specific frame and tells the robot the best way to pick up the food.
The team is currently working with the Taskar Center for Accessible Technology to get advice from caregivers and patients on how to improve the system to meet people's need.
Life can be so busy these days. It's time that you all should admit that you need help in organizing your life. Here are some tips that will help you.
Write everything down and don't rely on your memory. If you want to remember things, put them in writing, or in a digital notebook. Keeping your to-do lists and other information written somewhere allows you to look back at them anytime, even when you've hit your head and forgotten your own name.
Try this experiment: before buying one thing, throw out something old or something you don't use any more. Or, if you're a really terrible pack rat, just throw out one old thing a day until you can't find any more items to throw.
Recycle and donate. Is your closet full of unopened bags and clothes that still have their tags on them? Is your bookshelf full of unread books? Chances are that if you haven't read, worn, or used them, then you're probably not going to use them at all.
Create daily, weekly and monthly timetables for cleaning. Organize your cleaning timetables.
Distribute tasks evenly. For example, dish washing could be done daily while vacuuming could be done weekly and cleaning windows done monthly.
Whichever of these tasks you decide to do, remember that you can't completely organize your life in one go.
Just decide to organize now, and then take baby steps. Soon enough, you will be making a habit of it.
A. Practise putting things away immediately.
B. Throw one thing before buying something.
C. It's a long and never-ending process, so be patient.
D. Give them to a charity or sell them on the Internet.
E. It's extremely exhausting to clean everything all at once.
F. To keep up with tasks, you need to work with your family.
G. We all agree most of us have a tough time remembering things.
It happened on a rainy Saturday morning last month. My wife Catherine and I were driving along what some people called moose (麋鹿) alley. It was so 1 that there were few cars on the road. 2, something happened. A moose jumped out across our path. I had been driving for years and was good at driving. In order to 3 knocking into the moose, I made a quick turn to the other lane. If I had not done that, the moose might have been killed, and my wife and I might have got 4, too. A few seconds later, when I 5 and looked back in my rear view mirror, the moose was getting up and then ran into the bush. Shaken but 6, we both looked at each other with a surprised expression.
From then on, I often thought about the relationship between humans and 7. We know that animal species have appeared and disappeared 8 since life began on the Earth. This is a (n) 9 phenomenon. However, animal species have been 10 at a much faster rate for about a century now 11 human factors such as pollution.
Certain philosophers and scientists keep repeating that if we don't save animals, how we will be able to save ourselves. A better 12 of animals gives us a better understanding of our own species. The13 to protect animals and nature in general14 the value of a society. And all animals play roles in nature and have a right to 15. Therefore, I think we should try our best to save endangered animals, because humans cannot live on the Earth alone.
Woodblock printing first appeared in the early Tang period. During the Song Dynasty, the technique of block printing was very advanced. Books were (beautiful) printed. Even today the books (print) at the time are valuable and treasured by libraries and book collectors.
However, block printing (be) not very convenient. Every two pages of a book had to be carved on a woodblock, and a big book would require many blocks. Besides, there had to be large places for storing the books. (overcome) these shortcomings, Bi Sheng invented the movable type during the years between 1041 and 1048. One word was carved on one piece of clay, was hardened with fire. Then clay characters were set on iron plate according to the text of a book. Then ink was applied to them and (sheet) of paper were spread over them, and the printing was done. Bi Sheng's invention made printing faster and easier before. Later, the movable type of metal and wood was made and widely used.
The technique of printing was gradually known to other Asian countries and Europe. The great influence printing had the advance of civilization is too clear to need any (explain).
Mark and his brother Jamie rang their neighbor Mrs Grady's doorbell." You know her better than I do, Mark. You do the talking."
" Hi, Mrs Grady," said Mark when she opened the door." Would you like us to shovel (铲除) the side walk and driveway?"
Shoveling the snow was Jamie's idea, a way to make enough money for a new video game that came out the next day.
Mrs Grady touched her hand to her heart." That would be wonderful, boys. The work is too much for me."
"It will cost 10 dollars," Jamie said.
"If that's OK," Mark said.
" Oh dear," Mrs Grady sounded a little disappointed." I haven't been able to get to the bank. I can offer homemade cookies, but I guess that's not what you had in mind."
Mark was going to say that Mrs Grady could pay them another time, but Jamie cut him off." We'll come back later."
It still snowed heavily. As they walked through the snow out of Mrs Grady's driveway, Mark glanced over his shoulder. Mrs Grady stood at her window, watching them.
Mark suddenly thought of how she helped him last summer. She didn't look like a strong person who'd come to rescue last summer when Mr Dunn's collie (牧羊犬) Goldie got away from her backyard. Goldie had just wanted to play, but Mark didn't feel comfortable around big dogs. And Goldie had boxed him in between the wooden fence and the cedar hedge (雪松树篱). Mark tried to call for his dad, but his tongue seemed locked behind his teeth.
注意：续写的词数应为150左右。
Then Mrs Grady's front door had flown open.
……
And now Mrs Grady needed Mark as much as he'd needed her last summer.
