Gently trimming your hedge (修剪树篱) every 2 weeks will thicken it up and give it a beautiful look, but heavy trimmers, wires and stepladders make hedge trimming a job that some people hate. Gtech's Cordless HT50 Hedge Trimmer makes it a pleasure
Great Convenience
With 60 minutes of runtime, move freely around your garden without being bothered by wires and messy petrol. Running off a 18V motor, the HT50 Hedge Trimmer supplies the power directly when needed. The lightweight but super strong drive system is designed for quiet running. In addition, the precision laser cut blades (刀片) move through branches up to 25 mm thick, leaving a clean cut vital to promote a healthy hedge.
Long Reach
The HT50 Hedge Trimmer has an adjustable head so that you have full control over the cut of your hedge. The head adjusts downwards so you can cut the top of your hedge easily, and upwards so that you can cut thorny (多刺的) hedges without hurting your arms. Keep your hedges neat by cutting flat along the tops of hedges up to 10 feet tall using the 55 cm long blade.
Perfectly Balanced
Weighing only 2.94kg, the HT50 is well balanced, giving you a more enjoyable gardening experience. Get the HT50 Hedge Trimmer (£224.98) for just £149. 98 if you order before May 9th 2024, with a Branch Cutter attached free of charge. Call our 24-hour freephone information and sales lines or visit our website for more information.
One January evening in 2008, Rachel Lapierre bought a $4 lottery ticket (彩票) at the grocery store. As a nearly full-time emergency-room nurse and part-time volunteer aid worker, after an exhausting day cutting sugar maples, she needed something to lift her spirits. For years, Lapierre had done humanitarian work overseas for organizations and she longed to be able to one day quit her nursing job and focus on the volunteer work she found most fulfilling.
She swore to herself that if she ever won the lottery, that's what she would do. Lapierre went home and scratched her ticket, revealing three sunny faces. Not sure what they meant, she took it to a corner store, where the ticket-checking machine went berserk but didn't reveal the prize. The next day, the lottery office informed her that she had won a lump sum of $675,700 or $1,700 a week for life. She chose the latter. "I know myself," she says. "The lump sum would have melted like snow in the sun."
Staying true to her word, Lapierre quit her nursing job and dedicated her life to helping others through her passion project, Le Book Humanitaire, which has since become a registered charity. Le Book, as Lapierre, now 62, affectionately calls it, began as a simple list of good deeds she jotted down in a black-and-white notebook. She had been using it to keep track of what she had done to help those living in the small communities around her.
To her, the deeds were just small acts of kindness that anyone else might have done. But word started spreading, her phone began ringing and a Facebook page she created for the project became an efficient way to field requests from those in need and those who wanted to help.
Le Book Humanitaire now has a team of 80 volunteers. The non-profit provides local emergency support, homeless and medical out-reach, food delivery for seniors and a community fridge. Its kitchen volunteers make about 500 meals a day, with all food donated from local restaurants, hospitals and schools.
The book itself? It has since been replaced by dozens more, representing millions of deeds. In 2022 alone, the organization carried out nearly 450,700 acts of service.
Want to know what is coming soon to a cinema near you? Probably not a 1.5-hour-long movie, as in the old days. On October 20th comes Killers of the Flower Moon. At nearly three and a half hours, its length is nearly double that of the average film last year. Even movie fans struggle to concentrate for that long and some viewers even nod off. Afterwards there is a mad dash for the toilets. When does watching a film become such a slog?
The Economist analyzed over 100, 700 feature films released internationally since the 1930s, the start of Hollywood's golden age, using data from IMDb, a movie database. The average length of productions rose by around 24%, from one hour and 21 minutes in the 1930s to one hour and 47 minutes in 2022. For the ten most-popular titles, the average length grew to around two and a half hours in 2022, nearly 50% higher than in the 1930s.
One driver of this trend is that studios want to squeeze the most out of their costly intellectual property (知识产权), but they are competing with streaming platforms for eyeballs. The hope is that a spectacular, drawn-out "event" movie will draw audiences away from the small screen and into cinemas. This approach has often paid off: Avengers: Endgame Marvel's three-hour superhero masterpieces, was the highest-grossing (票房最高的) film in 2019. Last year long movies series made up most of the highest-grossing films in America.
Another explanation for longer films has to do with directors' growing influence. Who would dare tell the likes of Mr. Nolan to cut out his masterpieces? Moreover, streaming platforms, which do not have to worry as much about the length because viewers can pause whenever they like, may attract big names by promising them sufficient fund and creative freedom. Netflix funded and released three-hour The Irishman in 2019, a film that would have benefited from a decisive editor, Irish or otherwise.
You're lying in bed, looking at the ceiling. Go to sleep, you tell yourself. You shut your eyes tight, force your body to relax, and wait for the pleasant sleep to come. But nothing happens. It's 3 a. m. and you're still staring at the ceiling.
We have all been in this situation. Try as we might, it is nearly impossible to let yourself sleep. Sleep comes to those who let their mind wander and focus on anything other than sleep itself. Count sheep, control your breathing, listen to an audiobook, or whatever—so long as it turns your mind from wanting to sleep. This is a common example of the "law of reversed effort (反向努力定律)."
The Law of Reversed Effort was first created by Aldous Huxley. "The harder we try with the conscious will to do something, the less we shall succeed." Suppose, for instance, that you are learning how to ride a bike. You are told to hold the handlebars, to push off with this foot, to pedal at that speed, to hold your balance here, and so on. When riding, we know all these instructions, but we do not try to do them. They just happen. In Huxley's words, it's "combining relaxation with activity."
There's a spiritual way of viewing the "law of reversed effort" as well. It's something that has a much longer history than Aldous Huxley—it's the Daoist idea of "Wu Wei (无为)." It is to walk the path that opens up and push the door that gives. Call it fate, divine (神圣的) calling, or whatever, but Wu Wei is to stop doing what you think is right, and to let yourself be pulled by some other power. Wu Wei is the grass bending in the wind. It's the stick riding down the river.
There are many moments in life when trying harder makes things worse. When you have a mosquito bite, a broken bone, or a nosebleed, you leave it be. Picking and tapping only worsen the problem. So, too, with a lot of life's major moments.
Recently, a topic featuring "Graduates avoid sending resumes (简历) out of social anxiety disorder" received many comments on Sina Weibo. It seems that social anxiety disorder, also known as social phobia (恐惧症), is affecting many people's lives. Over 80% of university students who took part in a survey tended to avoid social interaction due to an assumed social phobia.
For those who have a social phobia, everyday social situations cause strong fear beyond their control because they fear being watched or judged negatively by others.
Having a social phobia can mean physical symptoms like blushing (脸红), upset stomach, or having trouble catching your breath. The good news is that it is treatable. Avoiding social situations because of shyness might mean missing out on opportunities or being rude.
I used to be so shy that I avoided greeting people I knew by pretending to scroll (滚屏) on my phone or turning in another direction. When I saw him, I started scrolling on my phone as usual to avoid greeting him. But he immediately saw through it and asked, "Why did you pretend not to see me?" After my explanation, he replied, "I can relate to feeling awkward, but once someone realizes that you're avoiding him, it can come across as rude."
Being afraid of negative comments, they simply shut themselves down so that no one will have the chance to judge them. But socializing not only leads to judgment. If you're lucky enough, you may come across someone who gives direct but honest feedback, like what the senior journalist did for me. But if some people only offer you negative judgment, simply stay away from them. Why give up on opportunities for social interaction because of fears of comments and judgment?
A．After all, they are not making you any better.
B．Understand it's perfectly fine to make mistakes
C．Here are some tips for overcoming a fear of social interaction.
D．But is avoiding social interaction equal to having a social phobia?
E．However, my attitude began to change when I met a senior journalist.
F．But if you only feel a bit uncomfortable, it might mean you are just shy.
G．Shy people avoid socializing because they take others' opinions seriously
Hungry and thirsty on our way home, my young sister and I came across a splendid plum tree with bright reddish fruit. It belonged to an elderly disabled lady known for giving 1 in return for an errand (差事).
We knocked on her door asking for some plums in payment for 2 an errand. The lady smiled and gave us two 3 baskets. When we filled the baskets with the ripest plums we picked, she handed us a bag with fresh meat, rice and dried beans. "Take this bag and one basket of plums to the Gomez family on the top of this hill, 4 with their payment and you will 5 yours."
With great expectations to get our plums after the errand, we rushed to the Gomez home. Mrs. Gomez 6 the door with three little children behind her. Her husband was sick in bed and times were 7 . We told her our intention 8 , She didn't seem 9 but appreciated it with the payment, a large envelope stuffed full. Could the Gomez 10 to pay so much for the food? It looked like much money. Our 11 wasn't cleared until we handed the envelope to the plum lady. "Lovely!" The lady said in delight as she pulled the 12 out of the envelope. In her hands were colorful drawings from the Gomez children, the Gomez's payment for her food. My sister and I 13 each other and broke out in smiles.
As we walked home, we enjoyed the 14 from the lady. The juice running down our arms was as sweet and warm as the 15 we had inside.
Zhang Guimei, who has dedicated her 40 years to education at China's southwestern border (be) a "mother" for more than 170 children and a principal motivating young girls from impoverished families in (mountain) areas.
Teaching at a middle school in Huaping county, she saw many girls drop of school due to poverty. It saddened her very much and made her realize that an educated female is able to cut the intergenerational (transmit) of poverty and change the future of three generations. In 2002, Zhang started her preparation to build a free all-girls high school, in hope of changing the destiny of the girls in the mountain lifting them out of poverty.
In 2007, Zhang went to Beijing for the 17th Communist Party of China (CPC) National Congress as a deputy. Her report, title was "I have a dream" made her dream of building a free all-girls high school known to all. Later, both the Lijiang and Huaping governments (sponsor)her with a million yuan, Zhang's school was completed, (become)the first free all-girls high school in China.
The school, born to fight against poverty, is a shelter for a number of girls in that area. During the past 13 years, the school has nurtured over 1,800 students who have made it to universities.
Zhang suffers from 23 diseases, including heart disease and emphysema, but she is still working selflessly. She gets up at 5:00 a. m. and is always the first one among all the stuff (arrive) at school. She also checks how the classes are going three times a day. Zhang has made over 1, 600 family visits (annual)for the past 12 years, covering a total distance of 110,700 kilometers.
注意：1．写作词数应为80左右；2．可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
More communication, fewer conflicts
When my daughters reached the third and fourth grades, I occasionally allowed them to walk to and from school alone if the weather permitted. One warm spring day, a little dog followed them home after school. It had short legs and long lovely ears, with a fawn-colored coat. It was the cutest dog I had ever seen and the girls begged me to keep it.
The dog was barely twelve weeks old. It had no collar or identifying marks of any sort. I didn't know what to do. I thought about running an advertisement in the lost-and-found but I really didn't want to. It would break the kids' hearts if someone should show up. Besides, its owners should have watched it more closely.
By the end of the week the dog was part of our family. It was very intelligent and good with the girls. The following week something told me to check the lost-and-found section in the local paper. One particular advertisement jumped out at me and my heart pounded with fear at what I read. Someone was begging for the return of a lost dog in the neighborhood of our grade school. They sounded desperate. My hand shook. I couldn't bring myself to pick up the phone.
Instead, I pretended I hadn't seen the advertisement. I quickly put paper away in the drawer and continued with my dusting. I never said a word about it to the kids or my husband.
By now we had named the dog. It looked like a Molly, so that was what we called it. It followed the girls everywhere they went. When they went outside, it was one step behind them. When they did housework, it was there to lend a hand.
There was only one problem with this otherwise-perfect picture: my conscience was bothering me. I knew in my heart I had to call that number and see if our Molly was the dog they were desperately seeking. It was the most difficult thing I've ever done.
注意：1．续写词数应为150左右；2．请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
With mixed feeling, I finally picked up the phone.
……
I asked the woman to come in and she quickly bent over and hugged Molly tightly.
