The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini is one of the best books I have read in years. This is a page turner with complex characters and situations that will make you think hard about friendship, good and evil, betrayal, etc. It is intense and a great book by many measures.
On one level, The Kite Runner is the story of two boys in Afghanistan and Afghan immigrants in America. It is a story set in a culture that has become of increasing interest to Americans since the September 11, 2001 attacks. It also explores the history of the rise of the Taliban in Afghanistan. On this level, it provides a good way for people to learn more about Afghan history and culture in the context of the story.
Looking at The Kite Runner as a story about culture, however, misses what the book is really about. This is a novel about humanity. This is a story about friendship, loyalty, cruelty, longing for acceptance, redemption, and survival. The core story could be set in any culture because it deals with issues that are universal.
The Kite Runner looks at how the main character, Amir, deals with a secret in his past and how that secret shaped who he became. It tells of Amir's childhood friendship with Hassan, his relationship with his father and growing up in a privileged place in society. I was drawn in by Amir's voice. I sympathized with him, cheered for him and felt angry with him at different points. Similarly, I became attracted by Hassan and his father. The characters became real to me and it was difficult for me to put the book down and leave their world.
I highly recommend this book, especially for book clubs. For those of you who are not in a reading group, read it and then loan it to a friend. You are going to want to talk about it when you finish.
Aristotle believed the face was a window onto a person's mind. Today, facial expressions are still commonly thought to be a universally valid way to judge other people's feelings. A smile suggests happiness. A frown indicates sadness. However, an analysis of hundreds of research papers has uncovered a surprising conclusion there is no good scientific evidence to suggest that there are such things as recognisable facial expressions for basic emotions which are universal across cultures.
Lisa Feldman Barrett, a psychologist at Northeastern University in Boston, Massachusetts, and her colleagues found that, on average, adults in urban cultures scowled when they were angry 30% of the time. This meant that some 70% of the time they did not scowl when angry. A scowl, the researchers concluded, seemed valid for all six of the emotional categories: anger, disgust, fear, happiness, sadness and surprise.
All raise questions about the efforts of information-technology companies to develop artificial intelligence algorithms which can recognise facial expressions and work out a person's emotional state. Aleix Martinez, a computer engineer at Ohio State University, said that companies attempting to extract emotions from images of faces have failed to understand the importance of context.
Dr Martinez cited an experiment in which participants were shown a close-up picture of a man's face, which was bright red with his mouth open in a scream. Based on this alone, most participants said the man was extremely angry. Then the view zoomed out to show a football player with his arms outstretched, celebrating a goal. His angry-looking face was, in fact, a show of pure joy.
Given that people cannot guess each other's emotional states most of the time, Dr Martinez sees no reason computers would be able to. "There are companies right now claiming to be able to do that and apply this to places I find really scary and dangerous, for example, in hiring people," he says. "Some companies require you to submit a video CV, and then this is analysed by a machine-learning system. And depending on your facial expressions, they hire you or not, which I find really shocking and not only based on the wrong hypothesis, but a dangerous hypothesis."
Tansel Ali used to curse his terrible memory. He struggled to remember phone numbers. But now he has won the Australian Memory Championships four times and has represented Australia at the World Memory Championships, where he was able to memorise 80 words in 15 minutes and 41 names and faces in five minutes.
So how did Tansel's memory improve so much? The key, he says, is in encoding information into an image. Tansel also creates images when remembering numbers. That involves a lot of "pre-work", he explains. "I've got images already pre-memorised from 0 to 99. So, for example, 17 is a dog and 71 is a cat, so if I get the number 1771, I'm going to picture a dog chasing a cat." And it works.
"If you want to strengthen your own recall skills, Tansel suggests reading something incredibly dry and boring, such as a "terms and conditions" page. While doing so, create a story in your mind. If you can make a story out of what you're trying to remember, you car essentially memorise anything."
Psychologist Sharon Draper says there are other ways to boost your memory, including doing brain challenges such as puzzles, crosswords and Sudoku at least once a day. "Being physically active, avoiding smoking, reducing alcohol intake and aiming for a solid night's sleep can also help protect your memory from going through the sieve", Draper adds. And dietitian Kathryn Hawkins notes that sticking to a well-balanced diet—with plenty of fresh fruit, vegetables and fish high in omega-3 fatty acids—will promote brain health and thus memory.
There's no denying that Tansel now has a great memory. But it's not the only thing to improve since he started training his brain: his confidence and self-esteem have skyrocketed, and his stress levels have fallen dramatically as a result. "The better you become at sharpening your memory", Tansel has learnt, "the easier life becomes."
Financial goals for the New Year usually have a place in most people's list.Here are some ways you can make sure those financial goals are achieved.
You have to actually set these goals in the first place. Try to find out what matters to you. Write down everything—practical and impractical.You will also need to set a specific time limit you desire to reach these goals.
Once you start doing so, it'll shock you how the smallest expenses add up to huge amounts. After successfully keeping track of your spending for a month, categorize them into groups to properly understand which type of expenses eat into your income the most. You can then use the data to cut down unnecessary expenses.
If you want to reach your financial goals, you'll definitely need to create a budget.At the beginning of each week, you can create a budget for how much you should spend every day in that week. It is helpful to constantly believe that the amount you have on your weekly budget is the only amount you own. Creating barriers that make it difficult for you to access the rest of your money till the end of the week can also help.
Spending less than you earn is one of the easiest ways to get you out of debt and save towards your future. One way is to always reach for the most affordable options you can find. When you go shopping, don't just reach for the first product you see.Quality will still matter of course.
Make sure to review your financial goals and progress regularly. This will help you evaluate mistakes and decide whether to adjust your goals or even create new ones. There's really no shame in slacking a few times. You only need to carefully address the areas you slacked in and determine to do better.
A. Track your expenses.
B. Save like your life depends on it.
C. But only a few people actually accomplish them.
D. Try to see if you can get a cheaper brand of that same product.
E. Sort them into short term, long term goals, and level of importance.
F. It is also easier these days with many shopping apps that you can use.
G. Budgets are useful in helping you control the amount of money you spend.
Looking back, I always laugh when I recall one of my most embarrassing but funniest memories. When I was young, my cousin and I traveled uptown in Manhattan to Radio City Music Hall to purchase tickets for a1. After buying the tickets, we realized we had2money for our train ride. We stood in the station, turning to strangers for help with our3.
That day made me4what forces a person to assist a stranger. A story told by my teacher provides the basic framework for being a good5to others. In the story, the teacher was asked by one of the classmates, "Who is my neighbour?"
As a6to this question, the teacher told the story of a man who was robbed,7and left dying during travel. Even when a priest crossed the street8to avoid helping this man, a good Samaritan saw his condition and felt sympathy for him. He9the man onto his donkey and brought him to a restaurant nearby where he10all expenses. When the teacher11telling the story, he asked, "Who was a neighbor to the man?" The student replied, "The one who12him." Then the teacher said, "Go and do13.”
Over 40 years have passed14my cousin and I asked strangers for help with our train fares home after we bought the film tickets,15the lesson we learned that day remains just as strong. I learned to become a（n）16Samaritan.
Those who17us some change that day acted as our neighbors. And as I move forward in life. I look back to that day when I see others in need as a18to be a good neighbor.19Martin Luther King, Jr. once said, "The time is always right to do20is right."
Post-00s is a documentary about growing up,covers almost every aspect of Millennials' experiences on their path toward adolescence. But this five-episode series is different from any other TV programa similar theme. Post-00s(film) over 10 years, during which it followed several kids from their infancy to adolescence. In other words, the show's characters and their stories are all real.
"Coming-of-age" stories, as they're known, havespecial appeal. They satisfy our(curious) of looking at others' life, and we become(attach) to the characters as if we truly knew them.
This realness can also be seen in Boyhood, a 2014 film(win) the Silver Bear award for best director. During a period of 12 years, the film followed the life of Mason Jr—(play) by US actor Ellar Coltrane —from when he was 6 to when he finished high school.
One of Boyhood's attractions comes from its "ordinariness". Mason Jr isn't some child genius, rather a(fair) typical American boy who grows up in the Texas suburbs.
coming-of-age stories may look ordinary on the outside, they often allow us to look underneath the surface and see the power of life itself.
The watch was my grandfather's. He hung it by his bed. The face was marked with elegant Roman numbers and the case was gold. My grandfather got it after his fifty years of faithful service with his firm. I often gazed at it longingly as I sat with my grandfather after school.
The day I told him of my success in the examinations, he was pleased, "You'll be going to the new school next, Will. Remember you'll need plenty of patience. That's the right way." I nodded when handing him the watch. He gazed at it for some moments, and wound it.
The next morning my mother told me he had died in his sleep and left me his watch. For safety, my mother was to put it away in trust until she considered me old enough to look after it. I protested (抗议) so strongly that she finally agreed to hang it in the kitchen where I could always see it.
The summer soon ended and it was time for me to enter the new school. I never made friends easily, and for a time I did little more than get on speaking terms with some boys. One of them was a rich fellow whose way of impressing us was to parade his possessions before us. Everything Crawley had was better than ours—until he brought the watch.
"I have a better watch than that," I announced, attempting to impress them. "Well, show it to us," Crawley sneered (冷笑) in disbelief. Embarrassed, I promised to bring it to them that afternoon.
Considering there was no way to persuade my mother to let me take the watch, I decided to wait for her to step outside and slip the watch into my pocket. So I did. After lunch, as I was too excited to wait for the return bus, I got my bike out of the shed
I rode fast, excitement coursing through me. Then suddenly a puppy ran out into my path. I pulled at my brakes so hard that the bike stopped to a sharp standstill (急停) and I fell over.
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；
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Paragraph 1
I picked myself' up and put a trembling hand into my pocket.
Paragraph 2
"That's not the right way. Patience, Will. Patience," a voice echoed in my ears after the boys left.
