Riverside presents
Sharp Short Theatre
This competition offers students a rare experience of working in a professional theatre.
Now in its fourth year of providing an opportunity for new writers, directors and performers to exercise their creative ability, Sharp Short Theatre has fast become one of the most exciting parts of the Riverside year. All entries（参赛作品）perform in a heat and then the best pieces are invited to perform in the final, where students can be awarded prizes in four types including writing, performing, directing and overall.
Entries must be written and directed by students (18 years old and under) and can be up to at most 10 minutes in time length. Entries must be handed in by a producer, for example a parent, teacher or responsible adult 18 years old or over.
Sharp Short Theatre is a youth arts pioneer focusing on encouraging the works of students in theatre. Its aim is to unearth and develop the young to be Australian theatre professionals.
So what are you waiting for? Get into the spirit and register（注册）now.
Advisory Service:
Students may hand in their plays for review by a professional playwright（剧作家）in the lead-up to this event.
Price: ＄30 per play.
Deadline（截止日期）: 21 March, at 5 pm, 2018.
Registration:
To register, click here to complete our online form （one form per entry）.
Entries Close: 11 April, at 5 pm.
Price:＄15 per entry.
Dates & Times:
Heats: 21-24 May, at 7:30 pm.
Final: 8 June, at 7:30 pm.
Price:
Heats: Adult ＄18, kids under 18 ＄12.
Final: All tickets ＄20.
In a big room on the second floor of the New York City Department of Sanitation's East 99th Street garage, 63-year-old Manhattan native Nelson Molina was listening to a Frank Sinatra CD he found in the trash. "The Way You Look Tonight" was playing through a music player. In fact, the entire space was filled with items strangers threw away. "My family kept everything," said Molina. "Nowadays, people throw it all away." Molina, during his 34 years as a sanitation worker （环卫工人）, gave these items a second life.
Molina grew up in a housing project with his parents and five other kids in the family and had a habit of picking up unused items at a young age. "My family was poor, so we didn't get much for Christmas," he said. "I'd go out to look for a toy for my sisters, maybe a truck for my brothers." He kept his early morning habit secret from his friends, but not out of embarrassment: "I didn't want the competition."
On the job, Molina had his sixth sense for finding items. "I could tell, sometimes just by the sound, whether a bag was filled with bottles or a different kind of glass," he said. He kept special finds on the truck, and then put them in out-of-the-way places in the sanitation garage. After almost 10 years, he began showing his discoveries. "It's not a normal practice." said NYC Department of Sanitation assistant chief Keith Mellis. Recently, a team of New York University students has taken on the task of cataloging （分类） the tens of thousands of objects, in hopes that the collection, which has hardly been open to the public, might one day be shown in an official sanitation museum.
People have understood that kindness is good for the person who receives help. For example, when we give food to a hungry person, he is blessed. However, scientists have recently begun to study the effect kindness has on the person giving it. What they have found is that doing good is good for the doer. Acts of kindness can improve health, help a person reach goals and even add years to a person's life.
The first study to show the connection between doing good and living a long life was a study on aging. Beginning in 1956, scientists studied a group of married mothers for 30 years. They thought the women with the most children would die first. But the number of children a woman had did not matter. Wealth did not matter. Education did not matter. What did matter was whether they volunteered. Women that volunteered had fewer diseases during their life.
Many other studies have found the same positive effects. Helping other people improves long-term health. The gains are the same for men, women, old people and the young. Those who volunteered had fewer serious diseases than those who did not volunteer. This included diseases such as heart attack, cancer and stroke.
Scientists are researching many possible causes. One possible cause is an increase in antibodies （抗体）, which help fight against disease. One study showed the body produces more antibodies after an act of kindness. This increase in antibodies can last nearly an hour after one act of kindness is finished.
Another one is an increase in a chemical that fights the effects of stress from life. Scientists have found a link between being kind to people and an increase in the chemical oxytocin. Oxytocin is a chemical produced in the brain. It reduces many of the harmful chemicals the body produces under stress.
Outside, it's a cold winter's day. Inside a large shopping center, people are hanging around. But then, without warning, a pop song starts to play loudly. A teenager boy walks lazily to the center of the open space, and dances crazily to the music. He's joined by two of his friends, then some of the old people. Within the space of a few seconds, more than sixty people are dancing to the music - all in time and all in step. At first, onlookers are baffled, then they start smiling and clapping. They now know what they're seeing: a flash mob （快闪）.
According to Wikipedia, the term "flash mob" was created by Bill Wasik, an editor at Harper's Magazine, in 2003. Within a year, the phrase had entered the Concise Oxford English Dictionary. Since then, hundreds - possibly thousands - of flash mobs have been carried out around the world, in almost every kind of public space imaginable!
Each flash mob has its own style, but most flash mobs follow a similar formula （方案）. Often, the organizers search for willing participants using social media. Instructions and dance moves are given through email or video download. There are usually several rehearsals （排练） before the big day.
While it's happening, a few lucky passers-by watch it live. Most people who watch it, however, will see it later online. Some of the most popular flash mobs on YouTube have been watched more than 10million times. A famous example is MP3Experiment Eight, a flash mob that took place in New York City in July 2011 with over 3,500 participants. This event differed from normal flash mobs in that much of it was completely silent - and there were no rehearsals.
Flash mobs provide the participants, onlookers and online viewers with a lot of enjoyment and pleasure. For this reason alone, they're a modern, popular art form that should be celebrated.
The coffee story
Kaldi was tired but he couldn't sleep. His goats were awake and very noisy. "Why can't they sleep?" Kaldi thought. They were eating some green plants with little red fruits on them. Kaldi decided to taste the fruits. He ate the soft part of each fruit and the hard things in the centre. He was not tired. He felt more awake and did not want to sleep.
Those hard things were coffee beans, and Kaldi discovered them in Ethiopia more than 1,000 years ago. Perhaps it is true, perhaps not. Nobody knows. But we know that coffee grew first in Ethiopia, and we know that somebody discovered it there more than 1,000 years ago.
Arab farmers began to grow coffee plants. People learnt to make a drink from the beans, and they called it qahwa.
For 400 years, only the Arabs knew about qahwa. Then people in Turkey learnt about it. Soon after that, western Europeans began to drink it, and in 1652 the first coffee shop in London opened.
Some famous coffee-growing countries are Brazil, Colombia, Indonesia and, of course, Ethiopia Coffee is one of the world's favourite drinks thanks to Kaldi and his goats.
A. At least that's the traditional story.
B. After a minute he began to feel different.
C. Many Arab farmers grew coffee to make money.
D. Now farmers grow coffee in many parts of the world.
E. Coffee was such an important drink during that time period.
F. He couldn't understand the problem so he watched the animals carefully.
G. After that, Arab travelers took coffee plants to Egypt and other Arab countries.
Haus was a godsend to the DaLuca family in Florida. When the dog arrived, their daughter Molly and he became best friends in no time. 1Molly was around, Haus was always by her side. In fact, the family said his sweet 2made him a "fan favorite" around the neighborhood.
One day, Molly was in the backyard playing, and 3, Haus was right by her side. Then, suddenly, Molly's grandma saw Haus jumping forward frantically （发狂似地） at a（n） 4 snake.
When the snake 5its way over to the pair, Haus put himself between Molly and the snake. After the first bite, many dogs would have 6. But Haus stood his ground. Bite after bite, he 7 the tiny human he loved so much.
Grandma put Molly and Haus into the car and 8the brave dog to the vet immediately. It9that the snake bit Haus three times, and he had blood pouring from his leg.
At the animal hospital, Haus went downhill 10. His body had so much venom（毒液）inside that he couldn't even raise his head. For a time, it was 11 whether or not Haus would pull through. 12though, he did!
In addition to the antivenom, vets also 13muscle damage to Haus' leg. The treatments and week-long stay were 14. But people from all across the country 15 the furry hero, donating more than ＄52,000 to 16his medical bills.
Molly prayed for her 4-legged best friend, and to her 17, Haus made a full18! Haus really proved his deep 19 for this family when he protected Molly from a(n)20 that most certainly would have been deadly!
Sneezing(打喷嚏) is one way the body protects itself from (sick). Your brain (signal) you to sneeze. Then your eyes close and-achoo!-germs (细菌) (shoot) out of your nose.
One sneeze can put as many as 40,000 droplets of saliva (唾液) and mucus (黏液) into the air. And those droplets travel up to 100 miles per hour, (fast) than cars on the freeway.
Here in the US, we say "bless you" when someone sneezes. The same goes for a number of other (country), including Wales and France. But general it's more common (connect) to health than to give blessings. In China, you say, "May you live 100 years!" In Germany, it's simply, "Health!"
do we wish sneezers well? The custom may date back to ancient belief. It is said that evil (邪恶的) spirits went out of our bodies during a sneeze - and that these spirits then try to get back in.
Your nose can produce up to 32 ounces of mucus every day. That's enough mucus to fill more than two soda cans.
Mucus is (usual) clear. If it's green, yellow, or brown, then you might want to see a doctor.
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：在错词下面划一横线，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．只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。
I went to my friend Jema's house today. I often visited her on the weekend. Sometimes we swim in the pool or play the tennis together. It was raining today, so we couldn't do those thing. "Let's watching a movie," Jema suggested. "You're my guest, Katy, so you can pick the very one which suits you." I finally picked a movie called Dance of Joy. The movie were about a girl called Susan who liked to dance. I told Jema she loved the movie. She laughed and said she had found it complete boring. She had only kept watching it because my enjoying it so much. I felt a little bad about that, and it's nice to have a good friend like Jema.
