B1U1 Food matters
Reading
Whenever I feel lonely, I have a secret recipe that never fails: rice, milk and sugar, cooked low and slow. No matter how bad my mood is, that perfect combination is always enough to lift my spirits. Sometimes the smell alone can do the trick, not to mention the lovely creamy flavour, which works like a time machine immediately transporting me back to my sunny childhood. With pleasure, I remember the lazy Sunday afternoons I used to spend in the warmth of my grandma's flat, listening to her wonderful stories and greedily eating bowl after bowl of her delicious rice pudding. I take my time over every spoonful, gently rolling the silky dessert around my mouth and enjoying the perfect marriage of rice and milk. Before I know it, I'm happy again.
My experience with rice pudding illustrates the unique power of "comfort food". In its broadest sense, comfort food refers to any food that makes us feel better. In this article, we will talk about a particular type of comfort food whose power mainly lies in the associations it calls to mind. It often makes up for bad feelings by helping us recall happy memories of the people, things or places we love.
Our comfort foods are highly individual. They vary from person to person, depending on our own unique experiences that have shaped our lives. If we grow up eating certain foods in our family, then those foods tend to be linked with positive emotions. For example, we often connect chicken soup with a happy childhood and its flavour becomes tied up with the feeling of being taken care of. When we eat it again, we unlock memories of a time when we were loved and looked after, and this cheers us up.
The feeling of happiness and sense of belonging can become particularly important for people who move away from their home country. According to some food experts, there are some aspects of culture that people will lose right away, but with food, there are more opportunities to connect to memory, family and place. It is hardest to give up the food that you grow up with. Of course, each person's comfort food largely depends on where they come from一for a Chinese it might be a plate of dumplings with a saucer of vinegar, and for a native of the UK it might be the classic fish and chips, served hot, salty and sour. One mouthful of comfort food takes us back to our cultural roots, giving us the "taste of home" that we cry out for and relieving feelings of homesickness.
That's certainly true for me. Comfort food tastes good and by building an emotional bond with our happy memories, always makes us feel good. It isn't just a bowl of noodles or chicken soup. It's food
for the soul.
Extended reading
7 March, Sichuan hot pot
The mouth-watering hot pots of Sichuan are as famous overseas as they are in China, and the hot flavour is enough to heat up a cold midwinter evening or to let loose rivers of sweat on a summer afternoon. I gave it my first try last night, together with a few local friends. As the soup bubbled slowly over a gas burner in the middle of the table, its surface was covered with a beautiful layer of chillies, Sichuan peppers, spring onions and red oil. Slowly at first, and then faster and faster, we tipped plates of fresh meat, fish and vegetables into the pot. The hot flavour quickened our laughter and conversation, making the meal the perfect way to relax with friends.
Sichuan hot pots are perfect for the damp, foggy climate in which they were invented. They are believed to have started off in the late Qing Dynasty as a way for boatmen on the Yangtze River to keep warm during the cold and wet winters. In the beginning, the delicious dish was made simply by boiling vegetables, chillies and Sichuan peppers in water. Over time, it has expanded to include multiple options of soups, vegetables, meats and sauces, appealing to people of different tastes. Wh
at I love best about Sichuan hot pots is that they offer a great opportunity to socialize with friends since a meal can last for hours. I instantly became a big fan of Sichuan hot pots and I’ll soon be back for more!
12 August, Nanjing salted duck
Salted duck is Nanjing's most famous food export. Served plain in thin, white slices, the meat is juicy and salty. Each Nanjing salted duck takes several days to prepare, and the process includes salting, drying, boiling and cooling. As I finished my first helping on a recent afternoon in Nanjing, my host, Chef Zhang, told me a little more about the dish.
The countryside around Nanjing has been famous for its ducks for centuries; its countless waterways make the area perfect for raising waterbirds. A local history book from the late Qing Dynasty praised salted duck in particular, saying it was without equal. Traditionally, duck is considered to have cooling properties, so it is appropriate for the hot summer months. Nowadays, people eat salted duck all year round and it is estimated that tens of thousands of ducks are consumed every day in Nanjing! It definitely hit the spot when I tried it, and it has become one of my personal favourites.
8 December, Cantonese dim sum高中英语课文
In Guangzhou, morning tea is such an essential part of the daily routine that "Have you had your tea?”has become the local version of "Good morning." Though teahouses have been common in China since the Tang Dynasty, the Cantonese innovation of the mid-19th century was to serve tea together with a variety of light dishes, or dim sum. The concept took off, and today Guangzhou's restaurants stimulate customers' appetite with over a thousand offerings, each more delicate and delicious than the last.
The Cantonese do not hurry over their breakfasts, as I found when I visited a restaurant in Guangzhou's old city centre this morning. The emphasis is rather on conversation about business, family or pleasure, and locals can spend hours together chatting, drinking tea and working their way through the menu. From beef balls to rice noodle rolls, there are various dishes that have been baked, boiled, steamed or fried. A single visit is not enough to appreciate everything, and I have a long list of dim sum I still need to try.
牛津新教材选择性必修一
U2The universal language
Reading
From:Alice Duncan
To:Lucy Becker
Subject: Butterfly Lovers
Hi Lucy,
So glad to get your email. I hope everything is fine with you. Last night, I watched a performance of Butterfly Lovers, a beautiful violin concerto composed by He Zhanhao and Chen Gang. It's a piece that really deserves to be heard.
The music took me through the twists and turns of a classic story about a young couple torn apart by their families. When the two lovers, Liang Shanbo and Zhu Yingtai, first meet, the music is light and pleasant, as if whispering to the audience. It is followed by a fast and cheerful section which represents their three happy years of school. Then the music gets dramatic with heavier notes and that is when the lovers are separated because Zhu's father forces her to marry another man. Angry and sad, Liang falls sick and dies. Zhu weeps bitterly over the loss of her love. Overcome with sorrow, she jumps into his grave. Finally, during the most exciting part, the music takes a softer turn
and ends on a bittersweet note, telling us how the couple transform into butterflies and fly away to be together forever. It is an amazing journey!
Butterfly Lovers combines Chinese and Western musical elements: it is played on Western instruments such as the violin, but more significantly, much of the music has its roots in Chinese Yue Opera. This unique combination has made me realize that music is indeed a universal language.You should definitely listen to Butterfly Lovers一I bet you'll like it!
All the best,
Alice
To:Stephen Lin
From :Harry Yu
Subject: Country music
Dear Stephen,
Life here in Nashville is as interesting as I thought it would be. My host family are big fans of country music, so I can always rely on them to introduce me to some great songs. I love learning about country music and I keep asking them questions about it all the time!
It turns out that country music became popular right here in the south of America in the 1940s and then spread across the nation. It grew out of such music types as the blues and folk music, so the musicians use many similar instruments, such as the guitar. The tunes are easy to sing, and the lyrics often leave you deep in thought. Most of the songs are about hardship and heartbreak, but also about hope—with plenty of humour thrown in for good measure. You can feel an emotional connection between you and the musicians.
Country music shows the peaceful green fields and simple life of the countryside. Obviously I don't know what it's truly like to grow up in rural America, but the masters of country music, like John Denver, can make you feel like you're there. The simple tunes and beautiful natural images are often very suggestive of countryside surroundings:
Almost heaven, West Virginia
Blue Ridge Mountains, Shenandoah River
Life is old there, older than the trees
Younger than the mountains, growing like a breeze
(From “Take Me Home, Country Roads”by John Denver)
Why don't you try to listen to some great country music? I guarantee you'll enjoy it!
Best wishes,
Harry
Extended reading
On 7 May 1824, a crowd of music lovers streamed into a theatre in Vienna to hear the first-ever performance of the great Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony No. 9. The crowd immediately recognized that they were listening to something truly special, and they broke into enthusiastic cheers at the end of the symphony. Beethoven, who was almost completely deaf at this point in his life, was unaware of the audience's response until one of the singers turned him around to face the crowd. Before him, he saw a sea of people all standing, clapping, and waving their hats and handkerchiefs to express their appreciation of his masterwork.
Symphony No. 9 was Beethoven's last major piece of music in a vast body of works written throughout his remarkable life. As a gifted child, Beethoven was pushed by his father to study music day and night. Not long after, he began to be appreciated for his piano performances. By the time he was a teenager, he had already enjoyed a reputation as a wonderful young musician. Many important figures in the music world, including the brilliant musician Mozart, started making predictions about Beethoven's extraordinary future. However, life took a sharp turn. In his late twenties, Beethoven suffered one of the worst possible twists for a musician: he started to lose his hearing.
The loss of his hearing deeply depressed Beethoven. He was so upset that, at first, he wanted to keep it a secret. In a letter to his brothers, he wrote, "... how could I possibly admit a weakness in the one sense which should be more perfect in me than in others, a sense which I once possessed in the greatest perfection ...”Even in his darkest moments, however, Beethoven never abandoned hope. Despite his hearing loss, he was determined to find a way to continue living a life full of music. He used a variety of hearing aids to try to increase the amount of sound he could take in. When composing music at the piano, he would put one end of a pencil in his mouth and place the other end against the instrument so that he could feel the notes. Although Beethoven was able to continue com
posing music, it became increasingly difficult for him to perform in public. When Beethoven presented Symphony No. 9 in Vienna in 1824, it was his first time on stage in over ten years.
Since that day, Beethoven's Symphony No. 9 has become one of the most famous and treasured pieces in the history of classical music. The first movement starts quietly, but all of a sudden the whole orchestra breaks into an energetic theme. You can soon feel the determination一a quality Beethoven understood well because of his hearing difficulties一coursing through the music. The next two movements are full of desperate lows and uplifting highs which perhaps reflect both his suffering and his strong will to fight it. The music moves through technically difficult sections with ease, showing his genius as a composer. Finally, in the fourth movement, he connects all of the different variations into a joyful chorus.
As Beethoven's last great work, his Symphony No. 9 was also a grand finale to his life一he died less than three years after the concert in Vienna, aged 56. For his amazing achievements and for his determination even in his darkest days, Beethoven is regarded as one of the most remarkable musicians who ever lived.
牛津新教材选择性必修一
U3 The art of painting
Reading
3 June
Paris, France
As a huge art fan, I knew exactly what I was looking forward to most about my trip to Paris: visiting the Musee d'Orsay. Housed in an old railway building, this world-famous art museum features some of the best-known paintings from the Impressionist movement of the 19th century.
As I wandered through the Impressionist gallery, I appreciated masterpieces like The Ballet Class and The Card Players. Even though I had admired them hundreds of times on my computer screen, nothing could have prepared me for the wonder I felt when I finally laid eyes on the real thing. While it was hard to pick a favourite painting out of so many amazing works, the artists who made the deepest impression on me were two of the greatest Impressionist painters, Claude Monet and Pierre-Auguste Renoir.
I could see from Monet's works that he was greatly inspired by nature. In the last three decades of hi
s life he painted mostly scenes from his garden. One of these scenes is shown in the famous piece Blue Water Lilies, which I studied for quite a while in the gallery. I couldn't believe it when I heard he did around 250 paintings of the same water lily pond, all in different colours and styles. It is amazing that every time Monet studied this simple scene, he brought the pond's beauty to the canvas in a unique way.
Renoir, I noticed, preferred to paint scenes of everyday life. For me, the most interesting of his paintings is his 1876 masterpiece Dance at Le Moulin de la Galette, which shows life in a busy neighbourhood of Paris on a Sunday afternoon. When I saw it up close, I was struck by the small areas of light across the painting, and the way the soft edges of the figures seemed to mix together. There's so much going on, but so little clear detail. This effect makes the lively movement of the dance almost jump out at the viewer.
Although the paintings had very different settings, it was their similarities that stayed with me long after I left the Musee d'Orsay—similarities which can be seen throughout the Impressionists' paintings. Monet and Renoir, along with other like-minded artists, sought liberation from the rules of the old style. Everyday subject matter was the main focus of their works, as opposed to the history paintings that had traditionally dominated European art. They employed free brushwork and used col
ours to show the effect of light on things, creating paintings that were far less realistic than the works that came before. To me, these techniques are the essence of the Impressionist view of art. Impressionist artists did not try to paint every detail in a scene一just a brief "impression" they had at that moment, burning with vivid colours and light, before it disappeared.
The Impressionists’vision inspired a whole new generation of Post-Impressionist painters such as Vincent van Gogh and Paul Gauguin, whose works are also displayed at the Musee d'Orsay. It is also worthy of note that Post-Impressionist painters were not the only ones to be influenced by Impressionism一the movement has had a lasting influence on modern art, encouraging artists to look at the world from an entirely new point of view. It certainly left a lasting impression on me too!