One of the greatest gifts one generation can give to other generations is the wisdom it has gained from experience. This idea has inspired Andrew Zuckerman. He interviewed and took photos of fifty over-sixty-five-year-olds all over the world. His project explores various sides of their lives. You can get the interviews on our website.
Click on the introductions to read the complete interviews.
Let us now have a culture of peace.
—Federico Mayor Zaragoza, Spain
Federico Mayor Zaragoza received a doctorate in Pharmacy (药学) from the Complutense University of Madrid in 1958. After many years spent in politics, he became Director-General of UNESCO in 1987. In 1999, he created the Foundation for a Culture of Peace, of which he is now the president. In addition to many scientific publications, he has published four collections of poems.
Writing is a discovery.
—Nadine Gordimer, South Africa
Due to a weak heart, Nadine Gordimer attended school briefly. She read widely and began writing at an early age. She published her first short story at the age of fifteen, and has completed a large number of works, which have been translated into forty languages.
In 1991, Gordimer won the Nobel Prize for Literature.
Jazz (爵士乐) is about the only form of art today.
—Dave Brubeck, USA
Dave Brubeck studied music at the University of the Pacific and graduated in 1942. After World War Two he was encouraged to play jazz. In 1951. he recorded his first album. Brubeck's 1959 album has become a jazz standard. He received a Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award in 1996.
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By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare time though he goes on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova—not as a musician but as her page turner. "I'm not a trained musician, but I've learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance."
Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group's official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn't have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.
"A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don't turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot." Mr Titterton explained. Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of "nodding" to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.
But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. "I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand," Mr Titterton said, "Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back."
Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.
"My husband is the worst page turner," she laughed. "He's interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: 'Turn, turn!' Robert is the best page turner I've had in my entire life."
What would you think is the most plentiful man-made material on earth? Steel, plastic, glass? The answer is concrete.
And while it's an incredibly useful material existing everywhere, the energy intensive process of making concrete releases massive amounts of CO2 into the atmosphere, and its main component, which is a mixture of rocks, sand, water and most importantly, cement (水泥) to glue it altogether, is responsible for 7 percent of global CO2 emissions, leaving a huge carbon footprint. But without cement, concrete doesn't hold up skyscrapers.
What if there was a way that instead of releasing carbon dioxide, concrete could trap it forever? Carbon Cure is kind of the brains of the technology. This innovation puts carbon dioxide into the concrete as it's being mixed. When the concrete hardens, those otherwise harmful emissions are trapped forever, before they even reach our atmosphere. Christie Gamble, part of the team behind Carbon Cure's technology, explained ," We actually transform the CO2 into a mineral, and the real selling point is that the mineral itself improves the compressive (压缩的) strength for the concrete, which means producers like Thomas Concrete can use less cement in their mixtures and still achieve the same strength with fewer emissions.
Compression tests prove that the concrete made with Carbon Cure is just as hardy as the traditional stuff. If we can reduce 5 percent of the carbon footprint of the concrete industry, that's a significant change from where we're right now. Ultimately, if this technology was employed across the globe, we could reduce about 700 megatons of CO2 every year, which is the same as taking 150 million cars off the road every year.
It's going to change the way the concrete industry does things. Though companies pay to use Carbon Cure and buy CO2 from a factory, they save money by using less of their most expensive cement.
It's not unusual to see an unreasonable child lying on the ground drumming his heels. Beside him is a desperate mother yelling at the top of her lungs. Raising a well-behaved kid is really a head-scratching thing.
If you took all the parenting styles around the world and ranked them by their gentleness, the Inuit (因纽特人) approach would certainly rank near the top. All the moms mention one golden role: Don't shout or yell at small children. Inuit's no-yelling policy is their central component to raising cool-headed kids. The culture views scolding, or even speaking to children in all angry voice, as inappropriate, although little kids are pushing parents' buttons.
Playful "storytelling" is another trick to sculpting kids' behavior. But this storytelling differs hugely from those fairy tales full of moral lessons. Parents "retell" what happened when a boy threw a tantrum (发脾气) by way of what Shakespeare would understand all too well: putting on a "drama". After the child has calmed down, the parents will review what happened when the child misbehaved, usually starting with a question: "Can you show us how to throw a tantrum?" Then the child has to think what he should do. If he takes the bait and performs the action, the mom will ask a follow-up question with a playful tone. For example: "Does that seem right?" or "Are you a baby?" She is getting across the idea that "big boys" won't throw a tantrum.
Kids' brains are still developing the circuitry needed for self-control. What you do in response to your children's emotions shapes their brains. So next time, seeing your boy misbehave, try using the Inuit's storytelling approach. And don't forget to keep cool. After all, boys will be boys.
The way we watch television has changed, as many of us no longer follow the old model of television. In the past, a new episode (集) of a show was released once a week. People, therefore, have created a new term：binge-watching (狂欢式刷剧). It is used to describe the behavior of watching many episodes of a whole series in a row.
In fact, a 2018 Morning Consult poll (民意调查) found that 60 percent of American adults who watched shows binge-watched. The percentage even increased among younger audiences.
Of course, every new cultural behavior has its accompanying health consequences. What is binge-watching doing to our health? They sent an 18-question survey to 926 adults who owned a television and at least one other device with a screen. They found that heavy screen time users averaged 17.5 hours of screen-use every day. They also reported that this group's health condition was worse than light users.
Interestingly, researchers also discovered a connection between binge-watching and greater stress. The result is surprising. It might have been believed that people are turning to binge-watching to deal with anxiety and stress. However, that's not the case. It could be the case that people will suffer from greater stress if watching more shows continuously.
A. Every new cultural behavior has its own causes.
B. Nowadays, binge-watching is a common behavior.
C. Now, many companies release a whole series at once.
D. People are more stressed out if they're binge-watching.
E. Researchers at Arizona State University wanted to figure this out.
F. 73 percent of 18-to-29-year-olds binge-watched at least once a week.
G. Researchers identified binge-watchers by asking how long they watched television.
If you're walking through Boston during a downpour, you might see a poem appear before your eyes. For nearly a year, Bostonians 1 the city streets in the rain may have 2 poems written on the sidewalks.
Titled "Raining Poetry", this 3 resulted from cooperation between the nonprofit Mass Poetry and the city of Boston. The first poems were installed to 4 the start of National Poetry Month, with several more 5 to the city's streets last May 13. These poems cannot be seen during dry, 6 weather, but appear like magic 7 raindrops start falling from the sky.
The poems were 8 by Danielle Legros Georges, Boston's poet laureate(桂冠诗人). They are all based on their 9 to Boston, as well as the general themes of water and rain.
"I wanted to draw works from poets influential in the Boston-area literary, educational or cultural fields," Georges said.
The poems are 10 to the sidewalks in a matter of minutes and should wear away in six to eight weeks. While all of the poems 11 installed are written in English, Sara Siegel, program director for the Mass Poetry, hopes to add 12 ones in the many languages that are 13 throughout Boston.
"Our hope is in the next two years everyone in the state will meet a poem in their 14 lives at least once or twice a month," says Siegel. "This is a fun and 15 way to bring poetry to the people."
When I was a university student, I (attract) by the Chinese. So I got a job as a teacher in Wuhan three years ago. Thinking back, I realize it was the students I met in the first year and Chinese university life in general gave me the deepest impression.
During my school days, I would rarely give up my spare time to any activity connected with study. Unless exams were approaching, my weekends were devoted to (have) fun or perhaps a part-time job. My Chinese classmates, on the other hand, (seem) to spend their entire waking hours studying. I understand that competition in Chinese universities is (extreme) fierce. Nonetheless, their energy and motivation put (I) to shame.
My first year in China was also my first year as a teacher. It was both challenging rewarding. One thing I know for certain is that my year in Wuhan helped me (change) for the better. Thanks to the politeness and (warm) of Chinese students, I overcame my fear of speaking in public and became more self-confident. Most importantly, I met dozens nice people and made many excellent friends.
Dear Adam,
Yours,
Li Hua
It was a Monday，and Khan, a pet dog had joined the family the previous Friday. He had already decided that two-year-old Charlotte was his No.1 girl. The dog had seldom left her side since arriving at his new home.
Khan was next to Charlotte when Catherine took her into the garden for some fresh air. "I was just in the house doing boring mother things and Charlotte wanted to go outside and run around," she says. "We were just walking around the garden looking at flowers and all that good stuff. Khan was with her."
Charlotte was soon tired of playing in the garden and then went to play the padlock on the gate. "She was beating the padlock and it was banging on the gate," Catherine recalls. She thought Khan, who was naturally right next to Charlotte, might be disturbed by the loud noise, but he seemed undisturbed by it. That was until, entirely without warning, he became very upset indeed.
"Khan suddenly started making this noise from his chest, this growl(怒吼)," she says. "His whole chest puffed up, his hair stood up, and he lowered his head. He continued to make this growl."
As Catherine watched, Khan seemed to double in size. "He kept trying to push her. I was right next to Charlotte—no more than a metre away and I thought, 'He's going to hurt her'. His chest was bigger than he was long," she says.
Time seemed to slow down as Catherine rushed desperately to save her daughter. But Khan got to Charlotte first. He grabbed her by the back of her clothes and threw her over his shoulder into the garden. "I turned and looked and she was just sitting there in a pile of grass." Still not certain whether Khan's strange behaviour was some sort of attack on her child, Catherine raced to pick up Charlotte, who was completely unharmed, and take her inside to safety. Just as she turned to run into the house, Catherine saw a big brown snake bite Khan right in the chest and slid away quickly.
注意：
1.所续写短文的词数应为150以上；
2.请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Khan screamed in pain and at the same moment, Catherine understood all.
Khan needed immediate medical help, so Catherine called a vet in no time.
