Henry Raeburn（1756-1823）
The Exhibition
This exhibition of some sixty masterpieces celebrating the life and work of Scotland's best loved painter, Sir Henry Raeburn, comes to London. Selected from collections throughout the world, it is the first major exhibition of his work to be held in over forty years.
Lecture Series
Scottish National Portrait（肖像画）Gallery presents a series of lectures for the general public. They are held in the Lecture Room. Admission to lectures is free.
|
An Introduction to Raeburn Sunday 26 Oct., 15.00 DUNCAN THOMSON |
Raeburn's English Contemporaries Thursday 30 Oct., 13.10 JUDY EGERTON |
|
Characters and Characterisation in Raeburn's Portraits Thursday 6 Nov., 13.10 NICHOLAS PHILLIPSON |
Raeburn and Artist's Training in the 18th Century Thursday 13 Nov., 13.10 MARTIN POSTLE |
Exhibition Times
Monday-Saturday 10.00—17.45 Sunday 12.00—17.45
Last admission to the exhibition: 17.15. There is no re-admission.
Closed: 24—26 December and 1 January.
Admission
£4. Children under 12 years accompanied by an adult are admitted free.
Schools and Colleges
A special low entrance charge of £2 per person is available to all in full-time education, up to and including those at first degree level, in organised groups with teachers.
What is a good excuse to ask for some time off? At your school, sickness may be the only one. But in British schools, family events are also well-accepted ones. The National Association of Head Teachers in the UK has written new guidelines about students asking for leave. They will allow parents to take their children out of school for family weddings or funerals(葬礼) or visiting an ill relative.
This is a change from the 2013 guidelines that stopped parents taking children out of school without permission. Otherwise, they could have got a fine of 60 pounds (about 600 yuan) or faced court. Family events were not proper excuses to get permission.
Many parents complained about this rule.
"Taking family events is very important for children's growth and that is a lesson the schools cannot ever teach our children. " John Hemming, chairman of Parents Want a Say Organization, told The Independent.
The new change supports this idea and gives permission to students taking time off for family events. It's now OK for British students to take time off for family events.
In China, however, many students rarely have time off for family events.
"That's part of the reason for the generation gap(代沟)between parents and children, "Guo Hongxia, a researcher at National Institute of Education Sciences, wrote in China Education Daily.
Nothing could stop Dad. After he was put on disability for a bad back, he bought a small farm in the country, just enough to grow food for the family. He planted vegetables, fruit trees and even kept bees for honey.
And every week he cleaned Old Man McColgin's chicken house in exchange for manure (肥料). The smell real burned the inside of your nose. When we complained about the terrible smell, Dad said the stronger the manure, the healthier the crops, and he was right. For example, just one of his cantaloupes filled the entire house with its sweet smell, and the taste was even sweeter.
As the vegetables started coming in, Dad threw himself into cooking. One day, armed with a basket of vegetables, he announced he was going to make stew(炖菜). Dad pulled out a pressure cooker and filled it up with cabbages, eggplants, potatoes, corns, onions and carrots. For about half an hour, the pressure built and the vegetables cooked. Finally, Dad turned off the stove. The pot began to cool and the pressure relief valve sprayed out a cloud of steam. If we thought Dad's pile of chicken manure was bad, this was 10 times worse. When Dad took off the lid, the smell nearly knocked us out.
Dad carried the pot out and we opened doors and windows to air out the house. Just how bad was it? The neighbours came out of their houses to see if we had a gas leak!
Determined, Dad filled our plates with steaming stew and passed them around. It didn't look that bad, and after the first wave had shut down my ability to smell, it didn't offend the nose so much, either. I took a taste. It would never win a prize in a cooking competition, but it was surprisingly edible, and we drank up every last drop of soup.
Along with silk and paper, gunpowder is another invention by Chinese and the Silk Road helped it spread to the West. The dating of gunpowder is as early as 850 AD. The Chinese used gunpowder to make fireworks and for signal flares. Gunpowder was also thought to have been used in medicine and in alchemy(炼金术). This invention seems to have been discovered in China by accident —by alchemists when doing experiments.
The gunpowder used for military purpose was first recorded in 919 AD. By the 11th century, explosive bombs filled with gunpowder were introduced and used in China. The words "fire cannon" "rocket" and "fireball" appeared time and again in the official Song history as well as two other books written during the same period.
The first detailed description of using the "fire cannon" in warfare was in connection with a battle fought in 1126 when the Song army used it against the invading(入侵) enemy. The so-called " fire cannon" was a tube made of bamboo filled with gunpowder which, when fired, threw a flaming missile(投掷物) towards the enemy. According to a description of a battle scene in 1132. it took two persons to carry a "fire cannon", and the cannons were fired from a moving platform. And this platform had to be moved close to the wall of the besieged(被围攻的) city.
Gunpowder reached Japan, the Islamic countries and then Europe in the 13th century, and the Arabs improved gunpowder for military use. The early account of gunpowder in Europe was recorded by English philosopher Roger Bacon in the 13th century. One century later the Arabs used it to attack the Spanish town Baza and the next year in 1326 Florence ordered the manufacturing of cannon and cannon balls. From Italy the making of gunpowder soon spread to other European countries, and by the 1350s it had become an effective weapon on the battlefield.
In today's world English has become a global language. Speaking or writing in English is a matter of global interest these days, for it is now a requirement for being able to communicate with the outer world.
Enthusiasm(热情)
The first thing you need to have is an enthusiasm to reach your goal. The most important thing you have to have is emotional(情感的)devotion with your desire to learn English quickly.
You pass by a lot of things in English that you meet with in your day-to-day life. Things could include magazines, emails, posts on social media, websites, a piece of literary work(文学作品) or a newspaper. Read them because you never know what is waiting for you there. You might find that a lot of things are already known to you but the content will surely be full of new vocabulary allowing you to improve faster.
Keep a note of the new words
. It's a bit more important that you keep a handy notebook with you and whenever you learn a new word or expression, write down the context along with the word. Use the word in a sentence and note the meaning, too. Sometimes you may find forgetting a certain word or phrase seems impossible. So, to prevent this you need to keep visiting your pages and go through the notes you have made time and time again.
A. Don't just move on after reading
B. Read everything you may come across
C. Don't let yourself down if you face a difficulty
D. However, being a human being you are built to forget
E. You won't achieve success if you aren't enthusiastic enough
F. By following these tips you will improve the language quickly
G. Spend the most of your time in either listening or reading in English
The most1tornadoes have winds of over 400 km per hour. They can take cars, trains and even houses to other places, and also take the fur or2off an animal. Almost all tornadoes3in the US. On average, there're 800 each year, making 80 people dead and 1500 injured. The worst one was in 1925, 4over 700 deaths and 2, 700 injuries.
Hurricanes have winds of 120 km per hour or more which cause huge5, heavy rain and floods. There're six Atlantic hurricanes each year6. The worst and most7one was in 1900 in Galveston, Texas. 8, it caused 6, 000 deaths and destroyed 3, 600 buildings. Charles Coghlan, a nineteenth-century Irish actor, died and was buried in Texas in 1899. The cemetery was destroyed by the hurricane and his coffin9in the sea. Eight years later, the coffin was found in the east of Canada, 3, 000 km away from where Coghlan was10.
One of the most important sections of the Human Development Report is the Human
Development Index. The Index1a country's achievements in three ways: life expectancy, education and income. The2has some surprises. Norway is3the list, while the US is at number
The bottom ten countries are all African countries. China is in the middle of the list. It is one of the examples of successful4. China increased life expectancy by 13 years. In the last ten years in
China, 150 million people moved out of5. However, 'a great many people in6countries are facing problems of food. Over half of who get7are in South Asia or Africa. In developing countries about 115 million children are not8. And9more than 1 billion people don't have safe water to drink, so the report suggests that we need to make greater10in the future.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏词符号（^），并在此符号下面写出该加的词。
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．每处错误及其修改均仅限一词。
2）必须按答题要求做题，否则不给分。
1）垃圾的现状和危害；2）说明处理垃圾的办法：分类放进不同的垃圾桶里；提高环保意识；3）自己的看法。
注意：1）词数120左右，开头结尾已经为你写好(不计入总词数)
2）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
参考词汇：垃圾 rubbish 分类放进不同的垃圾桶里 put into different dustbins
提高环保意识 raise awareness of environmental protection
Dear editor,
……
Yours sincerely,
Li Hua
