Half a Day
I walked alongside my father, holding his right hand. All my clothes were new: the black shoes, the green school uniform, and the red cap. They did not make me happy, however, as this was the day I was to be thrown into school for the first time.
"Why school?" I asked my father. "What have I done?"
"I'm not punishing you," he said, laughing. "School's not a punishment. It's a place that makes useful men out of boys. Don't you want to be useful like your brothers?"
I was not convinced. I did not believe there was really any good to be had in tearing me away from my home and throwing me into the huge, high-walled building.
When we arrived at the gate we could see the courtyard, vast and full of boys and girls. "Go in by you," said my father, "and join them. Put a smile on your face and be a good example to others."
I hesitated and squeezed his hand firmly, but he gently pushed me from him. "Be a man", he said. "Today you truly begin life. You will find me waiting for you when it's time to leave."
I took a few steps. Then the faces of the boys and girls came into view. I did not know a single one of them, and none of them knew me. I felt I was a stranger who had lost his way. But then some boys began to glance at me in curiosity, and one of them came over and asked, "Who brought you?"
"My father," I whispered.
"My father's dead," he said simply.
I did not know what to say. The gate was now closed. Some of the children burst into tears. The bell rang. A lady came along and said, "This is your new home. There are mothers and fathers here, too. Everything that is enjoyable and beneficial is here. So dry your tears and face life joyfully."
Well, it seemed that my misgivings had had no basis. From the first moments I made many friends. I had never imagined school would have this rich variety of experiences.
What a Scientist Is Like
If you were asked to imagine a scientist,what image(形象) would come to your mind? The common idea that most kids from kindergarten to college have of a scientist is a man wearing a white lab coat with messy hair, big glasses, and several glass cups of mysterious colorful liquid giving off clouds of smoke.As for adults,the majority view scientists as strange people who spend 100 hours a week slaving away in a lonely laboratory.However,the reality is quite different.
Recently I've had a chance to take part in a scientific experience far from my laboratory and into Costa Rica.It supports a huge amount of wildlife due to its geographical placement between North and South America.It is home to more than 500,000 species(物种),which represent nearly 4% of the total species worldwide!
First we worked alongside conservationists to preserve wildlife at a leatherback turtle(棱皮龟) rescue center.We helped the volunteers preserve turtle populations by removing rubbish from the shoreline to create a safe environment for turtle eggs to come out.After that we stayed at Mount Arenal where we studied seismic activity relating to earthquakes.During our stay at Arenal,we rode over the mountainous areas and took a long walk through the rainforest.After reaching the top,we went down and through waterfalls to the beautiful valley below!On the last day we got a handson introduction to rocket science where we learned about new rocket technology that will be used on the international space station.
From my Costa Rica experience, I know that being a scientist doesn't mean working in a lab all day and night.A scientist is one who loves learning and getting a better understanding of the world from helping preserve wildlife,learning about earthquakes or inventing rockets.I think that schools should really stress that science is so much more than wearing a lab coat and mixing chemicals.Kids need to be aware of the excitement and adventures science can bring!
Starting high school is a powerful experience for any teenager. Whether you are coming from a middle school(grades six through eight) or a junior high school (grades seven through nine), there are many things about high school that are different from your old school environment, and you will experience many changes.
You will face entering a new school, making new friends in an unfamiliar class, and getting to know new teachers. These new teachers will usually have higher academic(学术的) expectations than your middle-and junior-high school teachers. They want to help you get into college; in return, they expect you to work hard and improve your skills.
Although these are all big changes, they are nothing you cannot handle. There are many different resources available to help you deal with any problem. Your teachers, doctors, parents, and friends are there to help your transition(过渡) into this great new time in your life.
If you don't feel comfortable talking to any of these people, there are many help hotlines you can call to talk anonymously(不具名地). High school may be a time of change, but these changes should be for the better.
Your high school years are a great time in your life. You will gain new freedoms and have new experiences and new responsibilities. Many high school students get their driver's licenses when they turn 16 and gain a new type of independence.
However, other changes are less fun. To fully enjoy your high school experience, try to deal with the situations of your life with which you are not happy.
If you are feeling pressure to do something you feel wrong, talk to a friend or parent to find a solution. If you are not succeeding academically, find a teacher or someone to help you improve. If you feel isolated socially, try to join a school club or group to make new friends.
High school may seem rather difficult at first, but with time, you will come to appreciate everything about your experience.
Most people are good at recognizing the universal facial expressions of our emotions 一 anger, joy, sadness, etc., which present a lot of emotional information. In fact, there are less obvious facial expressions called micro-expressions (MEs). Huma n beings often show them and communicate their private thoughts to others unconsciously (无意识的).What's more, people cannot hide them, including the experienced ones. And MEs have universality (普遍性), regardless of one's age, religion or culture.
All the findings lead to the possibilities of MEs' wide use in different fields, where people can use MEs to understand other people's true feelings, thoughts, or beliefs. Police can use MEs to detect unnatural behavior. Teachers can recognize unease in students and give a more careful explanation. Businessmen can use expressions of happiness to determine when they have given a suitable price. When one wants to be able to do what are mentioned above, it is useful to be able to read MEs.
However, MEs are difficult to read, because they are unconscious, and occur sometimes as fast as one-tenth of a second or even one-fifteenth of a second. At present, even highly trained persons are not always able to notice them. Some people do see something that has changed on the face, but they don't know exactly what it is that has changed. Since the human recognition accuracy (精准)is so low, a possible method for spotting MEs would be very precious.
One of the most important things that has happened to me occurred long before I was aware of it. As the story goes, I was three days old and Mom was singing “The Name Game” song to me: “Christine- Bo-Bean-Banana-Fanna-Fo-Feen.” By day four, I was given a new name — Christine-Bo-Bean, or just Bo-Bean to my mother. Now, I am Bo to her and close friends.
Why is this nickname so important to me? I once read a book with a passage about True Names which explains that when a person's true name is spoken, she has a distinct aura (光环) around her. Although I have been Bo to my mother all my life, I recently discovered that my true name is not on my birth certificate; it's the name that is as unique and memorable as I am.
People usually know me as Christine. They still see me as a quiet, bookish child. They don't know who I am now. My most recent hopes, fears, goals, dreams and opinions escape their notice; it is easier to think of me as I was. In their minds, they have a box labeled “Christine” in which I fit neatly, and as Christine, I was content with the perfect packaging.
Those who call me Bo or Bo-Bean really know me. They remember who I was and realize I have changed. Bo is a tight squeeze in the old “Christine” boxes. The Bo I am is ever-changing, ever-growing and ever-learning.
When I was Christine, I was quiet, and easily scared. I feared groups, meeting new people and sharing my opinions. I was more comfortable with a book than my best friend. As Christine, I thought everyone was better than I was.
As Bo, I still love my books, but I want to discuss them. As Bo, my dream is to live where I can experience new things and meet new people. I dream about being alone on a stage lit by a single spotlight; I have that confidence now. I am equal to those I once saw as better than me.
A name shouldn't make such a difference, but sometimes, when a person finds his or her True Name, they develop a new shine visible to friends, family and especially themselves.
I can't always be Bo. Sometimes exposing myself is still scary and I feel too nervous; I want to hide in those old boxes. Mostly, however, I am ready for the world. So, just call me Bo.
Walk down any British shopping street and you will find shops with strange names. Why is the barbers called "Shearlock Combs"? Why is the opticians (眼镜店)called "Eyediology"? And who decided to name the butchers "Meat you there" and the fish and chip shop "The Plaice to Come"? What's going on?
The British love puns (双关语)—as do many other nationalities. Puns are jokes based on words that sound the same. You've probably noticed that many words in English which are spelt in different ways and have different meanings are pronounced in the same way. Think about the name of the restaurant: "plaice" is a kind of fish, so our restaurant is "the place" to eat fish. Butchers sell meat ——so we'll "meet you there" ——and opticians look after our eyes in a scientific way — so eyed-iology (ideology) is a name that fits. Hairdressers shear (cut) your locks (hair) and comb it —— say the three words together quickly and you have the name of a famous detective. In shop titles and adverts, puns are used to get our attention.
Puns are very old. The ancient Egyptians and Romans liked to pun. Shakespeare uses many puns in his plays ——King Richard the Third (the son of York) brings "glorious summer" ——just think about a word that has the same sound as son.
Many people enjoy a good pun (pun / fun for all the family!) —— others hate them. Puns aren't really designed to make you laugh. Here are some puns that might leave you asking for no more puns. Have you heard about the bears who voted in the North Pole? Or the cheetah (猎豹) who couldn't be trusted at cards? Or how about the clever little Australian animal that had lots of koalaifications or the camel with no humps (驼峰) that was called Humphrey (and so was free of humps ... ).
Puns can be funny, but they sometimes make important points. Here's a fashion tip: "skinny genes make skinny jeans": so don't worry if your jeans don't fit — it's your family's fault!
How much sleep do we need? It's a fundamental question about a basic human function we've been practicing for long, but there's still no simple answer. But whether you're a morning or evening person could be guided by your genes. That said, your sleeping pattern will change naturally with age, which is also reflected in the National Sleep Foundation recommendations: it suggests 14-17 hours of shuteye a day for newborn babies and only 7-8 hours for over-65s.
But scientists said it was about more than simple duration. Teens and people in their early 20s do want to go to bed later and get up later too, something researchers suggest might be to do with changing hormones (荷尔蒙). "On average, there's about a two-hour difference in preferred sleep times of somebody in their late teens or early twenties to somebody in their late 50s or early 60s," he said. "So asking a teenager to get up at 7 o'clock in the morning is the equivalent of asking a 55-year-old to get up at five in the morning."
At the end of the day, the best way to measure how much sleep you each need is to listen to your own body. Do you rely on an alarm clock to wake up? Do you take a longtime to feel awake? Are you dependent on coffee drinks to keep you focused during the day? Are you overly impulsive (冲动的) or do you find yourself running a lot of traffic lights, for instance? All these could be signs that you're not getting enough sleep.
And that, we know today, is bad. The environment can affect your sleep preferences but your genes stay. Scientists said that the understanding of the importance of sleep was "one of the great achievements of modern neuroscience (神经科学)," and that society was moving away from the all-nighter culture to respect the need for sleep.
Places of Interest in Wales
Conway: On the north Wales coast, Conway is where you'll find the world's smallest house, as well as a much larger "house", Conway Castle, which was built in the 13th century.
Anglesey: This beautiful island is joined to the rest of north Wales by a road bridge and a railway bridge, and it's just a short drive from Conway. Here you can visit the village of Llanfair Pwllgwyngyll which has the strangest name in Europe. Don't miss the station. The sign runs the complete length of the platform! Also on Anglesey is Beaumaris Castle, which was started in the 13th century and to this day remains unfinished.
Sonwdonia: Just a couple of hours' drive from Beaumaris is the Snowdonia mountain range, which takes its name from the highest mountain in Wales, Mount Snowdon. From there, visit the famous Swallow Falls at nearby BetwsyCoed.
Portmeirion: In 1925 Clough WilliamsEllis bought an attractive piece of Welsh land for less than ￡5,000. He then set out to show the world how a naturally beautiful castle could be built without being damaged and spent the next 50 years building the town of Portmeirion with a style of Italy.
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Wales: Sea, Sand and Sun
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Wales has it all! Call (＋44) 7754 45632 to order brochures.
I always wanted to be extraordinarily good at something. Not just as in, "Great job, Jimbo!" No, I wanted to be best-in-class, awe-inspiring, tiptop: a world-famous genius, like Michael Phelps, or Mark Zuckerberg.
Unfortunately, my version of reality did not quite line up with this delusional vision. I was a good swimmer, but I peaked at the collegiate State Championships level. My academic record was pretty solid, but I never would have made it into one of those ivy-league schools.
Though I rose to above-average status in a couple of areas, the disappointing truth was that I would never amount to anything more than a mid-sized fish in a small pond. God apparently had other plans.
What drove me crazy, though, was the superstar talent thrown in my face at every turn. Some folks just seemed to get an unfair intensive dose (剂量) of it. Why couldn't I be like Bernie Williams, the famed New York Yankees player who also happens to be a world-class jazz guitar virtuoso (艺术大师)?
Some say greatness is simply a function of putting in the practice time. Around ten thousand hours, to be precise, according to author Malcolm Gladwell. I don't question the theory of devoting extraordinary efforts to developing one's expertise, but it seems that raw talent is equally important. You either have it or you don't.
I've heard that as people approach middle age, their life satisfaction increases because they begin to accept the gap between the expectations for themselves and the reality. After a few decades of frustration without the desired results, we eventually come to terms with how our lives turned out, even if it falls far short of our idealized youthful expectations.
Hope bends, it seems.
Massive open online courses (MOOCs) are making waves nowadays, and although it's too soon to determine their final influence on the universities across the country and the world, they are sparking off a lively debate among educators and students.
The first MOOC arrived on the scene back in 2011 when two Stanford teachers offered their artificial intelligence class online for free. Enrollment topped 160,000, and the unexpected success of the experiment encouraged other schools.
Supporters believe making quality educational instruction available to the public will provide higher quality and lower cost for many, and might easily be the best instructional model for the future. MOOCs can be attended by thousands or even hundreds of thousands of students at a time. In fact, Sebastian Thrun, one of the Stanford teachers who started it all, sees a day in which as few as 10 universities meet the world's higher education needs.
Where MOOCs may provide quality instruction for many, detractors often see that very fact as its biggest failing. MOOCs don't offer any individualized training, and some educators feel using it as a for-credit standard in the future will leave some students behind. A common argument is that individualized, face-to-face teaching works best in many cases. The lively exchange of ideas can activate a classroom.
Some find other aspects of MOOCs troubling. In the first MOOCs, plagiarism (剽窃) was a problem and completion rates on the whole were low. This may have been because some students were curious about the format rather than focused on the study.
How will MOOCs progress in the future? No one knows for sure, but the modem classroom may turn out to be a combination of the old and the new, with on-campus activities like labs, debates and online activities working with massive online offerings to provide a special learning experience that's cost-effective and convenient.
This is a common situation for beginner-level language learners—they want to read classic(经典的) books, but what their language skills allow are usually little more than children's books.
Oxford University Press tried to solve this problem back in 1988 by designing a series of graded English reading materials known as the Oxford Bookworms Library. It now has a collection of over 200 books—many of them simplified versions of classics—which fall into seven difficulty levels from "starter level" to level six.
However, there has always been a debate over whether shortened versions of classics have less value. Some worry that by reading them, students don't get to learn the essence of the original(原版的) text.
Rob Waring, a Japanese professor, mentions one of his students, Satoko, as an example in his booklet The "Whay" and "How" of Using Graded Readers. Satoko was a Japanese student majoring in English. But by the time she graduated, she had only managed to finish reading just one English book because it was far beyond her language level. "For Satoko, reading in English was a fight; a fight that she lost," wrote Waring, who suggested that reading easy texts is necessary because it helps language learners build up confidence and fluency in reading. By reading a lot—rather than getting stuck in one book—they can get used to kinds of English expressions and writing styles. Only by doing this can they reach what Waring calls the "reading-with-ideas" level of reading.
So it doesn't matter if the books are original classics or not-for beginner-level language learners, the simple act of reading is a form of learning in itself. "Stories offer a window to other cultures, other worlds, real or imagined, beyond the classroom," Jennifer Bassett, the first editor of the Oxford Bookworms Library, said in an interview with GetEnglishLessons.
German cities are redrawing road markings to create new cycle paths for the duration of the Covid-19 lockdown, as cyclists demand more space to physically distance on their way to work.
Local authorities in the Kreuzberg district of Berlin trialled (试行) temporary widening of two cycle paths on 27 March, arguing it would help cyclists keep the required 1.5-metre distance apart while car traffic was down owing to Germans' coronavirus (冠状病毒) restrictions.
On Friday, the council declared the plan a success because it had improved cycling safety while not blocking traffic.
The council said it had used removable tape and mobile signs to mark out the widened paths, which can be removed when the current restrictions on movement are lifted.
Residents in 133 other German cities have formally submitted applications for similar pop-up bike paths to their local authorities on the back of a campaign by Environmental Action Germany (DUH), an environmental NGO.
The campaign group cites new research linking air pollution to higher coronavirus death rates as an argument for redrawing road signs across the country. "The coronavirus is showing us that clean air is necessary," said DUH's chair, Jurgen Resch. "It is now especially important to temporarily make it more important for people to move safely on their bikes. This will help improve air quality, enable exercise in fresh air while keeping a safe distance and avoid unnecessary accidents."
In Germany, bike repair shops are allowed to work because of the Covid-19 going on. Three federal states, Berlin, Saxony-Anhalt and Mecklenburg-Vorpommern, have allowed bike shops to stay open.
Iman, the last Sumatran rhino(犀牛) in Malaysia, died in 2019 — bringing the endangered species one step closer to extinction. Now, Malaysian scientists are hoping to use tissues and cells from Iman and other dead rhinos to bring the population back.
"Before the three rhinos (the last survivors in Malaysia) died, we got their cells, and the cells are still alive — which is why I'm quite confident," Dr. Lokman said. "If we don't have any cells, or have just tissue that isn't living anymore, we wouldn't be able to do anything. But now we have a living thing that we can use. "
The cells came from the rhinos'hearts, lungs and brains. What is the most important is that the team collected stem cells (干细胞). One possible approach is to develop these stem cells into an egg (卵子) and sperm (精子), to create an embryo (胚胎) that will be placed into a surrogate mother (代孕母亲). She will likely be another rhino, either a Sumatran rhino from another country or another species. The other method is to take the egg of a surrogate animal, remove the nucleus (细胞核), and join it with a Sumatran rhino's body cell. This technique was famously used to clone Dolly the sheep in 1996. Dr. Lokman and his colleagues are trying both ways. The team is still in the early stages; next, they need to find a suitable surrogate female.
Sumatran rhinos are listed as critically endangered by the World Wildlife Fund. There are less than 80 alive in Indonesia and Thailand. The fall in the population was first caused by hunting. Later, the situation was worsened by the loss of habitats and human activity. Unfortunately, there are now only five remaining rhino species worldwide, and all are threatened. Some sub-species have already died out; the western black rhino was declared extinct in 2013. And it is a pity that the last male northern white rhino died in 2019.
Japan's biggest airline is betting that the future of travel isn't traveling at all. For the last month, a married couple has been interacting with a robot—called an Avatar—that's controlled by their daughter hundreds of miles away. Made by ANA Holdings Inc. , it looks like a vacuum cleaner with an iPad attached. But the screen displays the daughter's face as they chat, and its wheels let her move about the house as though she's really there.
"Virtual travel" is nothing new, of course. Storytellers, travel writers and artists have been stimulating the senses of armchair tourists for centuries. It's only in recent decades that frequent, safe travel has become available to the nonwealthy.
Yet even as the world's middle classes climb out of the armchair and into economyclass seats, there are signs of a posttravel society emerging. Concerns about environmental sustainability cause a loss to airlines which release much carbon. And the aging of abundant societies is both restricting physical travel and creating demand for alternative ways to experience the world. For the travel industry, virtual reality offers an attractive response to these trends.
Of course, new technologies encourage farout claims. ANA doesn't plan to start selling Avatars until next year. Profits, too, will probably be difficult to make. By one estimate, the global market for this kind of technology will be worth only about $300 million by 2023. By contrast, ANA's traditional travel business brought in more than $19 billion last year.
But if the business value for virtual vacations is still weak, the market for technologies that bridge physical distances between families and coworkers seems likely to only expand. ANA's robots may not replace its airplanes any time soon, but they'll almost certainly be a part of travel's hightech future.
You don't need to get in a time-traveling machine to see how technology will reshape our lives, such as the way we shop. Several new technologies that are to change your buying habits already exist. Let's see what's in store for your future shopping.
Try it on, virtually. Want to shop online for a new pair of eyeglasses? You don't need to guess which pair looks best on you — use the eBay Fashion iPhone app to try a pair of eyewear you're checking out on a picture of your face. But what if you want to buy something bigger? Thanks to Microsoft Kinect's motion tracking camera, you can cover clothes on your screen body. You can even choose the background of your virtual fitting room to enrich your shopping experience.
Get a perfect, custom fit. Everyone's body is shaped differently. To get a perfect fit, you sometimes have to get your clothes changed. But by using 3D scanning technology, all the clothes you buy will fit your body perfectly. Some companies scan your body using high-tech to get the most accurate measurements, so they can make special clothes just for you.
High-tech shopping carts and checkout counters. High-tech shopping carts could, in time, be a common sight in malls and supermarkets. Microsoft Kinect-enabled carts are currently under test. The cart can follow you along the aisles (通道), controlled merely by your movement and your voice. In China, a supermarket chain introduced tablet-equipped carts that guide shoppers around the stores' aisles.
In the United States, several supermarkets use a device called Scan It that gives buyers the freedom to scan purchases on their own while they shop. While it's great not having to line up at a checkout counter, we wouldn't mind it if the store used Toshiba's new Object Recognition Scanner. The machine identifies a product as soon as it's placed in front of a camera just by its shape and color, even if it has no bar code.
What should you do when your parents are embarrassing you in front of your friends? Or what if you see what looks like a classmate stealing someone else's headphones? In our social Q's column the teenager Harper Ediger and the adult Philip Glances give their best advice to kids looking for help. Now it's your turn: Do you have a question about an uncomfortable social situation at school, at home, on social media or among friends? Email it to us at Kjdsqs@njpost.com and Harper and Philip may answer it in a future issue. Please include your age and hometown. Come on, we know you have one.
To inspire you, here are reader—submitted questions we've published in previous issues:
My mom signs me up for camps and activities without asking what I want to do. I only learn what I'm doing at the last minute. I don't like that it's a surprise, and I feel that I should be able to help plan my time. How can I have more of a say?
At my school, fourth graders need to learn different dances, then dress up for a fancy party where we ask partners to dance with us. This makes me nervous, and I'm not looking forward to it. How should I handle this situation?
My sister is home for college break, and lucky me, she's my roommate. As I'm 12 and she's almost 19, we both want our own space. I know she doesn't mean it personally, but she always complains that she doesn't have a home, which makes me feel as if I'm breaking into my own room. Do I tell her how I feel or let it go?
You've heard that plastic is polluting the oceans—between 4.8 and 12.7 million tonnes enter ocean ecosystems every year. But does one plastic straw or cup really make a difference? Artist Benjamin Von Wong wants you to know that it does. He builds massive sculptures out of plastic garbage, foreing viewers to re-examine their relationship to single-use plastic products.
At the beginning of the year, the artist built a piece called "Strawpocalypse," a pair of 10-foot-tall plastic waves, frozen mid-crash. Made of 168, 000 plastic straws collected from several volunteer beach cleanups, the sculpture made its first appearance at the Estella Place shopping center in Ho Chi Minh City, Vietnam.
Just 9% of global plastic waste is recycled. Plastic straws are by no means the biggest source (来源)of plastic pollution, but they've recently come under fire because most people don't need them to drink with and, because of their small size and weight, they cannot be recycled. Every straw that's part of Von Wong's artwork likely came from a drink that someone used for only a few minutes. Once the drink is gone, the straw will take centuries to disappear.
In a piece from 2018, Von Wong wanted to illustrate (说明) a specific statistic: Every 60 seconds, a truckload's worth of plastic enters the ocean. For this work, titled "Truckload of Plastic" Von Wong and a group of volunteers collected more than 10, 000 pieces of plastic, which were then tied together to look like they'd been dumped(倾倒)from a truck all at once.
Von Wong hopes that his work will also help pressure big companies to reduce their plastic footprint.
Warm weather gets thousands of people to gather outdoors and celebrate for various events. Here are a few fun festivals that you should travel to see this summer.
Naadam (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
Naadam, also known as "the three games of men", is the biggest traditional festival held in Ulaabaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Each July, men compete in Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery. Today, women also take part in the archery and girls in the horse racing.
Elvis Week (Memphis)
If moving your body to Blue Suede Shoes this summer sounds good to you, then head to Memphis for Elvis Week, usually held in August. Movies, special performances and the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest are just a few activities to keep fans busy. The week of scheduled events is held to mark the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, the "King of Rock and Roll".
Glastonbury Festival (Somerset, England)
Hundreds of thousands of people gather on a diary farm in Somerset, England every year for Glastonbury Festival. Famous bands and singers appear at the 5-day music celebration. Admission to the festival was £1 when the festival started in 1970, but in 2019, full-weekend general admission tickets went for £248.
World Body painting Festival (Klagenfurt, Austria)
During the annual World Body painting Festival in Austria, artists from more than 40 countries compete using a variety of techniques, including brushes, sponges and airbrushes. Alex Barendregt created the festival in 1998, when he was tasked with organizing a new summer event.
If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest traditions of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.
Men and women wearing old-fashioned, shabby（破烂的）clothing dance in the streets of towns and villages across the country during the holiday periods. Women wear long skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.
Some groups carry heavy black sticks with which they beat against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air while they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when they're over, the dancers and audience can sing some traditional folk songs over beer. The celebrations will often continue long into the night.
Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis. As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if not protected, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.
If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Frankly, it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to do. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going camping, playing sports or doing anything else?
However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and lively part of England's history and culture. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.
Since birth, I have worn a tracheotomy tube (气切管) around my neck to help me breathe. When I was growing up, it was common for adults to tell me that I should wear colorful scarves (围巾) so that other people wouldn't see it. They would say,"You can't even tell it's there," as if my disability is something to be ashamed of (羞耻). As a kid, I never really thought about my disability the way I do now. It was just how I lived my life.
Now I'm 26 years old, and I'm proud to call myself a disabled woman because I consider my disability to be a part of who I am. I travel around the world to share my story as a disabled reporter and train other reporters on how to cover disability problems. I still remember the first time I gave a university lecture to a group of students. I realized that I could help create safe spaces where disabled people can be themselves and feel free to tell their own stories.
Unfortunately, being disabled is still viewed as something that is meant to be overcome. But for so many of us, this is how we live. This is who we are. I am always moved by the people I've met in the disability community: educators, historians, writers, lawyers and many more because we share the same dream and the same need for a mentally-safe world.
