My Favourite Books
Jo Usmar is a writer for Cosmopolitan and co-author of the This Book Will series(系列) of lifestyle books. Here she picks her top reads.
Matilda
Roald Dahl
I once wrote a paper on the influence of fairy tales on Roald Dahl's writing and it gave me a new appreciation for his strange and delightful words. Matilda's battles with her cruel parents and the bossy headmistress, Miss Trunchbull, are equally funny and frightening, but they're also aspirational.
After Dark
Haruki Murakami
It's about two sisters—Eri, a model who either won't or can't stop sleeping, and Mari, a young student. In trying to connect to her sister, Mari starts changing her life and discovers a world of diverse "night people" who are hiding secrets.
Gone Girl
Gillian Fynn
There was a bit of me that didn't want to love this when everyone else on the planet did, but the horror story is brilliant. There's tension and anxiety from the beginning as Nick and Amy battle for your trust. It's a real whodunit and the frustration when you realise what's going on is horribly enjoyable.
The Stand
Stephen King
This is an excellent fantasy novel from one of the best storytellers around. After a serious flu outbreak wipes out 99.4% of the world's population, a battle unfolds between good and evil among those left. Randall Flagg is one of the scariest characters ever.
About 20 years ago, while on the way to a student's house, Zhang Guimei, then a rural teacher in Huaping county, Lijiang, Yunnan province, noticed a girl sitting on the hillside. The girl, 13, told Zhang she was about to get married though she wanted to go to school. It was arranged by her parents.
Zhang went to her house and tried to persuade her parents to let the girl return to school and promised to pay for her tuition herself. However, they didn't agree. Zhang felt sorry for not being able to help. "We always say that each child should stand on the same starting line, but these girls didn't even have a chance to get on the track," Zhang said.
It persuaded Zhang to build a free high school for girls with the objective of helping break the cycle that saw women drop out of education, marry early and spend their whole life in the remote mountain. Zhang had spent years trying to raise funds, and in 2008, Huaping High School for Girls, a free public high school, was founded, where Zhang is the principal. Over the decades, Zhang has walked thousands of kilometers, visiting students' families in the deep mountain, talking to villagers, and persuading girls to go back to school. It has been worth it. More than 1,800 graduates have been admitted to college. It is regarded as a "miracle" in the remote area, as most students didn't perform well in academic study before the school was established.
Though lacking full health, Zhang insists on a daily routine—get up around 5 a. m. to call students to get up with a loudspeaker, accompany students to classes and sleep after senior students' study ends at midnight. Zhang's husband died in the 1990s. She doesn't have children or a house, so she lives at the student dormitory. Besides girls in her school, Zhang also donates all her income to help rural education and poor people.
In early December, she was given the honor of the country's "role model for teachers" and "outstanding woman". Her commitment to her education career inspires thousands of people.
Do you still remember the scene in the famous movie Titanic, directed by Cameron, where Jack was frozen to death in the icy cold water so that Rose could survive on the floating door alone? It broke many people's hearts. Two decades later, people are still asking the question, "wasn't there enough room on the door for both of them?" Cameron once responded by saying it wasn't a question of room, but buoyancy（浮力）— if both of them had tried to stay on the door, he argued, the whole thing would sink.
But several guys from "Mythbusters", an Australian-American science entertainment television program, decided to put the theory to the test themselves. They discovered that if Rose had took off her life jacket to the bottom of the door, there would have been enough buoyancy to keep both of them afloat.
"It was an artistic choice, the thing was just big enough to hold her, and not big enough to hold him," Cameron said. "I think it's all kind of silly, really, that we're having this discussion 20 years later. But it does show that the film was effective in making Jack so attractive to the audience that it hurts them to see him die. The film is about death and separation; he had to die. "
Since Jack was doomed to die, Cameron said, it could have happened in a variety of different ways. It's not about the door not being big enough: that's just a practical method for his death. "Whether it was that, or whether a chimney（烟囱）fell on him, he was going down," Cameron said. "It's called art: things happen for artistic reasons, not for physics reasons. "
Space tourism is the term used to describe space travel for recreational or leisure purposes. What was once only a dream, as described in A Space Odyssey by Arthur C. Clarke, is now becoming a reality.
Futurologists attempt to make predictions of what life will be like in the future. After the first man landed on the moon, they thought that hotels would be built on the moon by the year 2000. They also considered the possibility that, in the 21st century, families might go for a holiday on the moon. Neither of these predictions have come true yet-but the rapid development of technology may mean these predictions are possible in the years to come.
Space Adventures is currently the only company to have succeeded in sending paying passengers into space. It worked with the Federal Space Agency of Russia and Rocket and Space Corporation Energia to provide flights for the world's first private space explorers. Each paid over $20 million for their 10-day trip to the International Space Station.
Following successful explorations into space, other companies are now considering the possibility of enabling tourists to visit space. To make it affordable, suborbital space travel is being considered by some companies, like Virgin Galactic. Passengers would be transported to a height of between 100 and 160 km above earth, experience 3 — 6 minutes of weightlessness and a view of the stars before back to earth. This is expected to cost around $200, 000 per person.
Whilst it could be an enriching experience, there are some disadvantages. Many critics say that a huge growth in the spaceflight industry could drastically speed up the process of global warming. The ozone layer would be damaged further and the polar regions would suffer. In addition, space travel is only really affordable for the super-rich, though Virgin Galactic claims to be ‘opening space to the rest of us'.
"Why is life worth living?" If you ask this question, you will get different answers. But we have put together a few reasons from different people as to why life is worth living.
Learning. This is the reason we heard from school and college-going kids. Right from studies to games, the eagerness to do better and learn more makes their lives worth living.
When we speak to a few office workers and professionals, this is the reason they give. The ability to create things seemed to make life worthwhile for many.
New Opportunities. This is another reason that is put forth by people in different professions. Both professionally and personally, these people look forward to moving ahead and getting appreciation. They like to catch the new opportunities life throws at them which can make their lives worth living.
Exploring. Touring around the world, learning about the world history and visiting the most famous places do make life worth for many people.
Love. Well, this reason is an evergreen one. Life is worth living for the loved ones around, be it a wife/husband, children or friends. Being able to love someone and being loved back can certainly make life worth living.
A. Creating.
B. There is no clear or right answer in this case.
C. Such relationships make life worth everything.
D. Get together and share special moments.
E. Getting wiser makes life worth living for many people.
F. Some people just like to say that they want to explore more and discover new horizons.
G. People all look forward to knowing, learning and finding out more about everything.
When Matthew Shifrin turned 13, he got a life-changing birthday present from his friend, Lilya Finkel.
It was an 843-piece Middle Easten 1 palace. And with it were instructions that Finkel made 2 for it. Finkel invented a unique name for every piece in the palace set. Then she spent countless hours typing building 3 in Braille (盲文) that spelled out how to 4 them all together.
His mind was 5 . As a blind person, he had never before been able to complete a Lego set on his own, Shifrin knew immediately that he had to help other blind children find the same 6 .
Shifrin says, "For blind people, Lego sets act as small 3D 7 for real-life buildings instead of two-dimensional photographs. Lego bricks allow me to see things that are8 to explore by touch. "
For years after that incredible Lego experience, he created similar instructions for about 45 other Lego sets, together with Finkel, all published on a website they created, "Lego for the 9 ".
Shifrin began10 to Lego several years ago to discuss his work, 11 it was in 2017, when Finkel died of cancer, that he finally connected with the right person.
His years-long devotion 12 when the Lego company released its first audio and Braille building instructions. The project is a high-tech version of what Shifrin and Finkel did for their 13 .
It couldn't have been completed without Shifrin's 14 or without his determination.
He just wished Finkel had been here to see it. "I think she'd be very glad that we came this 15 ," Shifrin said.
The first Chinese film to expose the inner workings of overseas online fraud (诈骗), No More Bets, has become major hit, taking the lead in terms of screen share and box office.
(base) on tens of thousands of actual fraud cases in China, No More Bets was produced by famed director Ning Hao and his studio and directed by Shen Ao. The movie(follow) characters like programmer Pan Sheng and model Anna who are tricked overseas by high-paid job offers, only (find) themselves falling into the trap of an overseas fraud factory.
Shen shared the (origin) intention behind making the film at the premiere ceremony (首映式) in Shanghai on August 2, stating that smartphones have made our lives more convenient, they have "also (accidental) opened the door to online fraud. " He hopes the film will raise the awareness of online safety moviegoers.
The film's release matched with a recent official announcement,government plans were revealed to crack down on (严厉打击) overseas telecom fraud according to the law, in a move to safeguard the (interest) of the public.
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