December has already arrived, and here is a list of films recommended by Nicholas Barber, from BBC News.
Don't Look Up
People are often slow to react to a disaster, whether it's a climate emergency or a global pandemic—and it was this tendency that prompted Adam McKay (The Big Short, Vice) to make his new film, Don't Look Up. Jennifer Lawrence and Leonardo DiCaprio play two astronomers who have calculated that a "planet killer" comet is going to crash into the Earth, killing everyone. But the US president (Meryl Streep) is just one of the many people who refuse to face the facts. It's the idea of a disaster movie in which people don't necessarily believe that the disaster is coming. I call it a dark comedy, McKay told The New York Times.
West Side Story
The original 1961 film of West Side Story, directed by Robert Wise and Jerome Robbins, is honoured as one of the finest Hollywood musicals ever made. A New York-set movie version of Romeo and Juliet, it was the biggest box-office hit of the year, and went on to win 10 Oscars, including best picture. Why, then, should anyone watch a new take on the same material? Well, one answer is that this West Side Story is directed by Steven Spielberg. Another answer is that Stephen Sondheim has given it his approval. It's really terrific, he said. And for those of you who know the show, there are going to be some real surprises in it..."
Flee
In this heart-breaking Danish documentary, Jonas Poher Rasmussen interviews his friend Amin about his miserable experiences as an Afghan refugee. Amin remembers his years as a child in Kabul(the capital of Afghan), his family's flight from the Taliban, his deeply painful life in Moscow... It's hard to imagine a more important film, but Flee doesn't just do the vital job of humanizing (使人性化) refugees, it also breaks new ground as a documentary.
Other recommended films include: The Matrix Resurrections, Being The Ricardos, Red Rocket, The Lost Daughter, The Tragedy of Macbeth, Nightmare Alley, Spider-Man: No Way Home. Just choose one or several to enjoy with your friends!
On Thursday, a Chinese astronaut returned a science class from a space station under construction in the country. The lecture mainly explained how weightlessness affects buoyancy(浮力) and the movement of objects and optics(光学). Primary students from five cities, including Beijing and Hong Kong, interacted with the astronaut. The event was also open to the public through the live stream.
Wang Yaping, the only woman on the station, served as the main instructor, with the support of Ye Guangfu, and the commander-in-chief, Zhai Zhigang, who operated the camera. Wang taught similar lessons while riding one of China's early experimental stations in 2013.
The three arrived at the station in October with a six-month stay, preparing the main Tianhe module(舱) for the arrival of two additional modules named Mengtian and Wentian, primarily before completion by the end of next year. Wang became the first Chinese female to do EVA last month. She and Zhai spent six hours outside the module installing the equipment and testing it with the robot service arm at the station.
Their mission, Shenzhou 13, has been China's longest and third country after Russia and the United States since it first introduced humans into space in 2003. The three are the second crew members of the permanent station, which weighs about 66 tons when completed, much smaller than the International Space Station, which launched the first module in 1998, and weighs about 450 tons. The crew is evaluating the living conditions of Tianhe while installing equipment in preparation for the expansion of the station.
The European commission has unveiled a "digital green certificate" that could allow EU citizens who have been vaccinated, tested negative or recovered from Covid-19 to travel more freely this summer.
The plan would also allow southern states such as Spain, Greece and Portugal, whose economies are most reliant on tourism, to make bilateral arrangements with non-EU members – including Britain – providing the deals are approved by the commission." We aim to help member states reinstate the freedom of movement in a safe, responsible and trusted manner, the European commission president, Ursula von der Leyen, said as the scheme was unveiled on Wednesday, which was actively promoted by southern European holiday destinations whose economies have been devastated by the pandemic.
The digital document, containing a QR code and carried on a mobile phone, has deliberately not been called a "vaccine passport" because some member states felt that would discriminate against those who had not yet been offered a shot.
The certificate is "not a passport... but a document that will describe the medical situation of the individuals who hold it", the commission spokesman, Eric Mamer, said. The certificate, should mean travellers will not need to quarantine (检疫, 隔离) would be available to all citizens who can provide evidence that they have either been vaccinated against Covid-19, have recently tested negative, or have acquired antibodies after recovering from the virus.
The EU aims to vaccinate three-quarters of its adult population by the end of summer and officials remain hopeful that if national delivery speeds up, many restrictions could be lifted in time for the holidays.
Over the past 50 years, scientists have been attempting to understand one of the most pressing issues in biology--understanding how proteins fold. Recently, DeepMind, a leader in Al, demonstrated their project AlphaFold which won first place in a contest that encourages teams to accurately predict protein structures.
Proteins are one of the main building blocks of life-they help us maintain our health and fuel our bodies with energy. Each protein is made up of one-dimensional- strings of amino acids(氨基酸), and the folding process occurs when the chains fold into a three-dimensional shape to create an active protein. Protein folding is important as the structure of the protein determines its function. However, issues may arise during the folding process as proteins can become unfolded or misfolded, resulting in diseases and life-threatening conditions, such as Parkinsons disease, Alzheimer's disease, and more.
Being able to predict a proteins shape is incredibly important. It will allow scientists to develop the right medicines and drug molecules(分子) that can join to the protein and possibly fix, or alleviate the consequences. Fixing damaged proteins is the key to 'solving a wide variety of diseases.
DeepMind takes inspiration from the human brain and its pattern-matching abilities, known as neural networks. To train the algorithm(算法), scientists feed it several amino acid chains and the final protein structure. The machine gradually learns by observing the patterns, until it is ready to start making predictions.
Andrei Lupas, an evolutionary biologist in Germany, had been trying to understand a protein' structure for a decade. Alpha Fold solved the problem in just thirty minutes!
There are some who question AlphaFold's abilities, claiming that the algorithm may not work as well in real-life settings where amino acid strings are more complex. But despite this DeepMind's achievement is definitely a milestone in biology. Not only is DeepMind in the process of applying this to the current COVID-19 pandemic and what proteins are affected but future pandemics and viruses could also be fought with ease!
One of my fondest memories as a child is going by the river and sitting idly(懒散地) on the bank. There I would enjoy the peace and quiet, watch the water rush downstream, and listen to the chirps (吱喳叫) of birds and the rustling (沙沙声) of leaves in the trees. .
When I think about the bamboo tree's ability to bounce back or return to it's original position, the word resilience (还原能力) comes to mind., this word means the ability to readily recover from shock, depression or any other situation that stretches the limits of a person's emotions.
Have you ever felt like you are about to snap(失去控制)? Have you ever felt like you are at your breaking point? During the experience you probably felt a mix of emotions that threatened your health. You felt emotionally drained(耗尽), mentally exhausted and you most likely endured unpleasant physical symptoms.
Life is a mixture of good times and bad times, happy moments and unhappy moments. The next time you are experiencing one of those bad times or unhappy moments that take you close to your breaking point, bend but don't break. Try your best not to let the situation get the best of you. A measure of hope will take you through the unpleasant ordeal (煎熬). .The unpleasant ordeal may be easier to deal with if the end result is worth having. If the going gets tough and you are at your breaking point, show resilience.
A. Thankfully, you have survived the experience to live to talk about it
B. If you come across troubles,
C.I would also watch the bamboo trees bend under pressure from the wind and watch them return gracefully to their upright or original position after the wind had died down
D. With hope for a better tomorrow or a better situation, things may not be as bad as they seem to be
E. When used in reference to a person
F. Have you ever got tough to reach your breaking point?
G. Like the bamboo tree, bend, but don't break.
If you hear about Matt Cox's response to his daughter, who was suspended (暂停) from her school bus for bullying , you are likely to have an opinion about his actions.
Matt Cox1his ten-year-old daughter Kirsten, who had2bullied her classmates on the bus, to3five miles to school in 2℃ weather. He drove behind her, filmed her walk, and4the video to social media.
Matt who considered his5a "life lesson" said, "She has been kicked out of the school bus for the second time this school year, because she6another student from getting off the bus."
"Last Friday, when my daughter brought home her7for her bus suspension, she said, 'Daddy, you are going to have to take me to school next week'. As you see, this morning she is8a lesson, said Matt.
In order to teach his daughter to be9for her behavior and be aware of her10for bullying her classmates, Matt11her transportation to school,12, he made her walk. Many parents13his actions, celebrating his "tough love", while experts disapproved of his14response, insisting that by publicly15his daughter, he did more harm than good.
However, Matt didn't16their judgments. I hope the video can lead parents to hold their children responsible for their own17. I am just a father trying to teach my daughter that life has standards for our actions and we have to pay for the18of breaking them. It's important to be kind and19to others, because words and actions have strong effects on others, and some can be very20and destructive.
Is It the Pig from Angry Birds?
An ancient clay pig statue has become hot topic, for it looked exactly like Green Pig, a main character in Angry Birds, a popular mobile game. The artwork (discover) under the ruins of an ancient settlement (date)back nearly 5, 000 years in south-western China.
Archaeologists(考古学家）found the tiny pig statue (accident)while digging in the remains of a small ancient community outside Guanghan in Sichuan province.
The village was situated about eight kilometres outside Sanxingdui, a Bronze Age kingdom. likely came into being around 5, 000 years ago, and the pig statue is thought to be 3, 200 years old. The pig statue has been described "cute, vivid and delicate" by the researchers, who say it represents the advanced standards of the region's prehistoric residents.
Chinese Internet users expressed their amazement. On Weibo, one person expressed his (admire) excitedly: "It is the pig from Angry Birds!" Another commenter joked: "The pig in Angry Birds. You have infringed (侵犯) the copyright."
The research team claimed (find) tracks of continuous human activity on this site from 5, 000 years ago to the (dynasty) of Ming and Qing. Officials plan to dig 7, 000 square metres of the site, which is officially named Guanghan Joint Ruins. By the end of June, they (dig) 4, 500 square metres.
增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧），并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。
修改：在错的词下划一横线，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。
Robert Frost is different from most of the elderly. He doesn't enjoy his old age in peace doing everything. So he has undertaken the duty of helping keep in the order and safety of the community. Accidents used to occur here frequent. Several kids struck by private cars, bother most of the residents. Robert couldn't resist joining in his community volunteer service. They called on the government to make regulations and forbade drunk drivers from driving in and out. Since then, no accident happened again, thank to the efforts of volunteers like Robert. Because they have no time to have break and feel tired, they have gained the respect of all the community residents.
