零點的邀約

1/20

Since we only had BBC class on Tuesday, Madeline and I decided to have a little trip nearby. Madeline had searched online and found the bicycle path on Xing Da road has trees on both sides, which gave riders a good view. On Tuesday, we went on our journey after the BBC class. We rode through the Dong-Feng park, which was a bigger park than I expected. There were some fitness equipment and a wide grass field. We both agreed that if someday we need to hold an outdoor activity, we can use the field. After passing through the park, we kept on cycling. It was a path in the middle of the road that looked like a huge safety island. It only allowed cyclist and pedestrians, so it was quite safe. We only needed to be aware of cars and scooters while we were passing through intersections. We were riding slowly. When we encountered some interesting sculptures, we stopped to take photos. I helped Madeline to take some very nice ones, and she uploaded them to her IG.

1/6 Perfect Strangers

Last Thursday, Madeline, Trista, Laura and I were supposed to go shopping in Yi Zhong street. Unfortunately, it was raining. We decided not to go shopping, so we wouldn't get wet. Instead of shopping, we chose to watch a movie, which was borrowed from the library. The movie we watched was 'Our Brand is Crisis.' The movie wasn't bad, but the ending wasn't a happy ending. We felt upset about the president who won the election, but he didn't keep his promise. On the same night, Freddy and Shenna also watched another movie, and they also thought the movie sucked. The next day, Freddy recommended another movie 'Perfect Strangers', that he had watched before, and guaranteed it was a good one. Alex searched for it's review on Rotten Tomatoes, and found it ranked 83. The story was about how mobile phones influences our lives. There was a line ' The mobile phone is just like our black boxes, it records all our lives and secrets,' which I totally agree with. Another special point about this movie was 80% of the scenes were in the same apartment, and the audience wouldn't get bored. The movie turned out to be good and thought-provoking. Just like the character said: " We shouldn't treat private texts and phone calls as a joke and show them to public."

1/2

In this term break, I visited National Palace Museum for it's special exhibition, Egyptian Mummies. The exhibition was held by The British Museum, so I had had high expectations. The whole exhibition was organised around the main 6 mummies, which died at different ages and held different occupations. They were a noblewoman, a man, a priest, a singer, a young man, and a boy. In the first area, they told you how a mummy had been made. In ancient Egypt, there was a group of people called 'Embalmers' who knew how to make mummies. They also introduced the divinity related to life and death. This exhibition used the latest method to study mummies. Instead of unwrapping the mummies, the historians now use CT scanners to avoid damaging the mummies. It's a machine able to scan the mummies' details and draw it into 3D models showing the different layers. Beside each mummy, there was a TV screen that showed it's animation from the CT scanner, from cover to bones. At the same time, it also showed us the high lights of it, for instance, how many amulets were put inside the mummy, or how healthy the body was. Overall, I learned a lot from this exhibition, but I had to say it was quite far from what I expected. Moreover, three hundred and fifty dollars as entrance fee was quite expensive. 

England  -Rachel Bladon

Macmillan Cultural Readers

Travel

Overview 

This is a book about England organized briefly into a well- organized structure. It starts with the country's history from the past to modern history, traditions, cities, daily life etc. In every chapter, the articles are structured by time, which lets readers follow along easily. The book ends by questioning itself, such as will England still have queens and kings? However, the author thinks that we won't know what the world will become like as the English still watch Shakespeare's plays and go to the Lake District on holiday.

12/11 Murder on the Orient Express

       Last Saturday, parts of our classmates had a whole day course, and after the course, Shenna and I decided to go for a movie. Shenna heard that the film 'Murder on the Orient Express' had great scenery. The story started in Jerusalem which has appeared in BBC headlines recently. Hercule Poirot was a well-known detective in the world, and he was invited to solve the crime of the missing holy relics. After he found out who the criminal was, he wanted to continue his holiday. However, there was a request from London asking him to go back to solve another crime. So, he had to get back to London by the Orient Express, and while he was changing trains, he met his old friend, Bouc, in Istanbul. Luckily, Bouc was the boss of the Orient Express, so he helped Hercule to get a seat on the train. However, the trip on the train didn't go smoothly. They were travelling in a snowstorm, and there was a snowslide that caused the train to run out of its tracks. Even worse, there was a murder that happened on the same night. Bouc had no choice but to ask Hercule to find out who the murderer was, otherwise the police might have assumed one of the passengers was the criminal because he was black. After watching this film, I think it was a good film, and I was amused by the great scenery and the suspenseful plot. But, Shenna didn't think so. Perhaps it's only because there wasn't a romantic plot in the story.