Below, find four of the very best fall movies -- which are not necessarily movies set in the fall, but which represent fall in some way -- to get you through to December.
When Harry Met Sally. . . (1989)
When I think of fall, I automatically picture Meg Ryan and Billy Crystal walking through a leaf-strewn Central Park and talk about Sally's ultimate sexual fantasy. The film cycles through various seasons, but it feels brightest and most alive in fall, making it the perfect thing to get you through a frustrating November afternoon.
Autumn in New York (2000)
I mean. . . how could I not include this one? Title aside, this Winona Ryder features many of the things I most as sociate with fall, including Central Park, small museums, and a woman dressed up as Emily Dickinson. We love to see it and cry at it.
The Royal Tenenhaums (2001)
There's simply no film character who represents the concept of autumn quite like Margot Tenenbaum. Her seasonally appropriate clipped hair, charming eyes, and wardrobe of primarily browns all but scream out the reason for the season; and while signature fur coat might seem more winter near, her fondness for pairing it with Lacoste polo dresses is fall all the way. In what other season can you wear a coat with a dress, logically speaking?
Mona Lisa Smile(2003)
I'm actually an enthusiastic advocate of watching this Julia Roberts/Julia Stiles/Kirsten Dunst trifecta(三强联袂) in any season, but watching it in fall will make you desire a well-knitted sweater and a thermos of tea to take along with you while you cheer for the boys at the Harvard-Yale game.
It might have been a really bad stressful day, feeling trapped inside by the cold and snow which surrounded us. My husband was the first to shift his consciousness. He dressed accordingly and announced that he was going outside to build a giant snowman.
At first he stood alone, piling massive amounts of snow. Soon after a neighbor joined in my husband's pursuit to embrace the opportunity the winter presented. Maintaining less than desirable attitude, we unwillingly put on our snow equipment and headed outside. It wasn't long before we were smiling and enjoying the snow that Mother Nature had provided. Others came to our yard one by one to give a hand in the making of our giant snowman.
In the end we all stood back, amazed at what we had created. He was eleven feet high, twenty-five feet around at the base and decorated with many household items supplied by various families. There he stood, our glorious, enormous snowman.
People drove by and smiled. Some even stopped to enjoy his existence. The spirit that went into creating him seemed to catch on and we all enjoyed it while the cold temperatures permitted.
With the passing of time, the spring made its way back into our yard and the snowman changed form considerably. In a final effort to save what we created for just a little bit longer, somebody stopped by and changed the snowman's remains to look like a rabbit.
As I prepared for the start of another week, I decided to check my email before going to bed. I found a curious message that contained the subject line: enjoy the snowman. I decided to read the message even though I did not recognize who sent it. The words it contained melted my heart.
The email said: …your neighbor look son in disbelief! I am sure you people are enjoying the sounds and smells, along with sights of spring. The energy displayed in Mr. Snowman or Ms, is filled with joyous energy. You and your family keep it up, as this is what the world needs now. Love sweet love. More power to you and your loved ones, keep sharing with the world around.
Perhaps it was more than snowman we built that day. I'd like to agree that it was. The message seems clear. Our circumstances will turn out to be what we make of them. The possibilities are endless and the choice is ours.
The University of Exeter is launching a new program in September 2024 called the Master of Arts(MA) in Magic and Occult Science. This program is all about exploring ideas in a different way, according to its leader, Professor Emily Selove.
Selove explained on BBC Radio 4's Today program that this degree in magic takes a fresh approach to studying history, science, philosophy, religion, and literature. It looks at these subjects from a unique viewpoint that hasn't received much attention from scholars before.
The university mentioned that this course will give students a chance to dig into the history and effects of witchcraft (巫术) and magic worldwide, including their influence on society and science. Expert s in various fields will teach the course and help students understand how magic has played a role in both Western and Eastern cultures.
The University of Exeter already received more than a hundred inquiries for MA degree. The "innovative" MA has been created following a "recent surge in interest in magic", the course leader said. The interest in studying magic is on the rise, both within and outside of academic circles. This is because people are searching for fresh viewpoints on how we connect with other human cultures and the natural world, Selove explained.
Selove said that our ancestors had some interesting ideas that we may have ignored. These ideas have the potential to be valuable philosophical thoughts and could provide us with a new way of understanding society. "The MA in Magic and Occult Science would challenge the belief that the Western world is only characterized by rationalism(理性主义) and science while the rest of the world is associated with magic and superstition(迷信), "she added.
Furthermore, the university mentioned that this course can prepare students for various career paths, including teaching, consulting and tourism as well as work in heritage settings and museums, art organizations, and the publishing industry among other options.
In a response to the threat posed by rising sea levels, South Korea showed the world's first model of sustainable floating city in Busan.
"Sea level rise poses a threat for some small islands and some low-lying coasts, " says a recent report. The global sea level has risen by eight to nine inches since 1880. What's more frightening is that one-third of the rise in sea level happened in the last 25 years.
The floating city aims to provide technology for coastal cities facing severe land shortages that are combined by climatic threats. The city will serve as the "world's first model sustainable floating city" aiming to be "a structure that rises with the sea" supplying its own food, energy and water.
The floating city has six combined systems: zero waste and circular systems, closed-loop water systems, food, net-zero energy, innovative movement, and coastal habitat regeneration. These interconnected systems will generate 100 percent of the required energy through floating and rooftop photovoltaic panels(光伏板).
Each neighborhood will treat and refill its own water, process and recycle resources, and provide innovative urban agriculture. The floating city is the world's first model of a sustainable floating community. The interconnected neighborhoods spread across 6.3 hectares that can hold a community of12, 000 people. Starting from a community of 3 platforms with 12, 000 residents and visitors, it has the potential to expand to more than 20 platforms. The floating platforms have dozens of productive stations with photovoltaic panels and greenhouses that can expand and contract(收缩) over time based on the city's needs.
"I take seriously our commitment ‘ The First to the Future'. Our common future is at risk in the face of sea level rise and its impact on coastal cities, " said Busan Mayor Park Heong-joon, who has set a schedule, including turning Busan into a green smart city and compete for World Expo 2030.
This is as frightening as it is exciting to reach such an achievement, but living in a city that is like the communities where people try to survive in the movie Water World is kind of unhappy.
In English it's common to say, "I know this town like the back of my hand!" While we may know our towns really well, how well do we actually know our hands?
Matthew Longo and his team from University College London studied the left hands of 100 people. With their hands placed palms down under a board, Longo's team gave the instruction to point to their knuckles(指关节) and fingertips with a marker pen. How did they do? Not that well.
In the experiment, according to Longo, "people think their hands are wider than they actually are. " They were most accurate when finding their thumbs, but became less accurate with each finger, up to their pinkies(小指).
"It is connected to our sense of position, " explained Longo. Humans know where different parts of our bodies are, even if we can't see them. It tells us whether a joint (关节) is straight or not. So the experiment the team conducted was to find those maps.
On the basis of the study, in our brain's map, brains "see" areas based on our sense of touch. The stronger the sense of touch in a specific body part is, the bigger that body part seems. An example is our lips. As they have more nerves than our noses, our brain's map shows our lips are bigger. If you've ever had something stuck in your teeth, it probably feels huge! That's because our tongues also have lots of nerves.
A. More nerves, larger a body part seems.
B. Let's see how our humans know our body parts.
C. It's essential to the sizes and shapes of our body.
D. Maybe not quite as well as we think, said a scientific study.
E. The same can happen with body parts having a lot of nerves.
F. They also thought their fingers were shorter than their true lengths.
G. Our brains know the body sizes and shapes from the maps they make for themselves.
For many people, the perfect career would be one in which they do what they love to make a living, but 1 , not many have either the luck or the luxury to do so, given 2 concerns and other considerations. Freelance(自由职业的) digital cartoonist Lian Zongbo is fully 3 of the risks, but decided to pursue his dream, anyway.
After graduating in 2010, he started as a junior animator in Guangzhou. Struggling for 6 years with childish work, he was looking to do something he was really 4 . A huge basketball fan growing up, and good at a 5 of drawing methods, Lian had the idea of 6 his interests and career. In early2016, he began drawing illustrations based on the NBA and shared them on social media. 7 , he didn't get any feedback.
8 he felt discouraged, Lian refused to admit failure. In January 2017, he received a(n)9 on his Instagram account that invited him to 10 his works at art shows in the US. Lian happily accepted the offer, seeing it as a(n) 11 to morale(士气). His basketball themed artworks quickly won him a growing number of enthusiasts, including former NBA superstar Dwyane Wade.
His childhood hobby has now turned into a(n) 12 career that has given Lian a more comfortable life. When asked if he has any advice for others who also want to change jobs to 13 their passions, Lian said, "I wouldn't tell people to abandon their 14 jobs if they are not ready. Rather, I'd tell them to make full use of their spare time to explore their passions. Stick to it and one day your effort will 15 . "
Polar bears in the Arctic Circle rely on sea ice to help them hunt for seals. But due to warming temperature, that sea ice is melting sooner in the spring and freezing later in the fall, forcing the bears (go) hungry for longer .
Nowadays, researchers have discovered a unique group of polar bears who've found a new way to survive in the (absent) of sea ice: By hunting from the ice that falls off glaciers. The findings(publish) in Science offer hope for a species that may be trending towards extinction by the end of the decade. The researchers urged caution against applying their findings other populations of polar bears, who are still (unavoidable) threatened by the planet's warming.
The bears (live) in southeast Greenland go through a long period without sea ice around250 days. But they've been able to continue hunting during that period by using falls off from glaciers into the water.
Although the southeast Greenland bears(adapt) to their surroundings over the past decades, rising temperatures may eventually cause their glacial ice to get smaller or even disappear. As Steve Armstrup, scientist with Polar Bears International , says, "While the southeast Greenland bears are able to hunt with glacial ice today, that will be almost impossible in the future we control the rise of global greenhouse gases. "
Eight o'clock on a May morning, and Mary, my 17-year-old daughter, was in our study upstairs. It had served as her classroom ever since schools moved to remote learning due to the COVID-19.
From the kitchen, I listened to the sound of her tapping on the laptop or her communicating in their Google Meet session s with her friends and teachers. I resisted the desire to check on her. Way too often, I would find Mary texting friends and commenting on their Snapchat and Instagram posts about the fun they were having together. I felt it safer not to care. After all, we'd barely left the house for 10 weeks straight.
"Mom, everyone is hanging out today!" Mary's voice came from upstairs. "Why can't I?"I went up the stairs. Mary was lying on the floor, her laptop, school iPad and cell phone in front of her. "It's unfair, " she said. "I have no one I can be with. I can't wait until I'm 18. and can do what I want. "
We'd had this conversation before. Still, I couldn't help but feel sorry for her. I was sick of isolating(隔离) too. Even though Mary and I were at home together more than we had been in years, we might as well have been living in separate worlds.
"Wanna watch Netflix later?" I asked. "Bake some cookies?" "No, thanks. " Mary shook her head, as if the idea of doing something together was quite beyond her. I was used to Mary's rejection, but it still hurt. Teenage independence is healthy, but I worried that if I didn't find a way to bond with my girl soon, I might never be close with her again. She'd be 18 in the fall and had already convinced herself she didn't need me anymore. Maybe she was right. No matter what I did, I couldn't seem to reach her. That evening, I logged onto Facebook and saw a friend's family playing with their new kitten together. My mind went back to the difficult period when I was in high school and our family moved to the new city. It was a gray tabby(虎斑猫) with which Mom surprised me that brightened my days and got me through that difficult, lonely time.
注意：1. 续写词数应为 150左右；2. 请按如下格式在相应位置作答。
It suddenly occurred to me that having a cat in our house might help.
We immediately decided to take the cat from the shelter home.
