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Monthly Talks at London Canal Museum

Our monthly talks start at 19:30 on the first Thursday of each month except August. Admission is at normal charges and you don’t need to book. They end around 21:00.

November 7th

The Canal Pioneers, by Chris Lewis. James Brindley is recognized as one of the leading early canal engineers. He was also a major player in training others in the art of canal planning and building. Chris Lewis will explain how Brindley made such a positive contribution to the education of that group of early “civil engineers”.

December 5th

Ice for the Metropolis, by Malcolm Tucker. Well before the arrival of freezers, there was a demand for ice for food preservation and catering, Malcolm will explain the history of importing natural ice and the technology of building ice wells, and how London’s ice trade grew.

February 6th

An Update on the Cotsword Canals, by Liz Payne. The Stroudwater Canal is moving towards reopening. The Thames and Severn Canal will take a little longer. We will have a report on the present state of play.

March 6th

Eyots and Aits -Thames Islands, by Miranda Vickers. The Thames has many islands. Miranda has undertaken a review of all of them. She will tell us about those of greatest interest.

Online bookings:www.canalmuseum.org.uk/book

More info: www.canalmuseum.org.uk/whatson

London Canal Museum

12-13 New Wharf Road, London NI 9RT

www.canalmuseum.org.ukwww.canalmuseum.mobi

Tel:020 77130836

1.When is the talk on James Brindley?

A. February 6th. B. March 6th.

C. November 7th. D. December 5th.

2. What is the topic of the talk in February?

A. The Canal Pioneers.

B. Ice for the Metropolis

C. Eyots and Aits- Thames Islands

D. An Update on the Cotsword Canals

3. Who will give the talk on the islands in the Thames.

A. Miranda Vickers B. Malcolm Tucker

C. Chris Lewis D. Liz Payne

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The freezing Northeast hasn’t been a terribly fun place to spend time this winter, so when the chance came for a weekend to Sarasota, Florida, my bags were packed before you could say “sunshine”. I left for the land of warmth and vitamin C(维生素C), thinking of beaches and orange trees. When we touched down to blue skies and warm air, I sent up a small prayer of gratefulness. Swimming pools, wine tasting, and pink sunsets(at normal evening hours, not 4 in the afternoon) filled the weekend, but the best part - particularly to my taste, dulled by months of cold- weather root vegetables- was a 7 a.m. adventure to the Sarasota farmers’ market that proved to be more than worth the early wake-up call.

The market, which was founded in 1979, sets up its tents every Saturday from 7:00 am to 1 p.m., rain or shine, along North Lemon and State streets. Baskets of perfect red strawberries; the red-painted sides of the Java Dawg coffee truck; and most of all, the tomatoes: amazing, large, soft and round red tomatoes.

Disappointed by many a broken, vine-ripened(蔓上成熟的) promise, I’ve refused to buy winter tomatoes for years. No matter how attractive they look in the store, once I get them home they’re unfailingly dry, hard, and tasteless. But I homed in, with uncertainty, on one particular table at the Brown’s Grove Farm’s stand, full of fresh and soft tomatoes the size of my fist. These were the real deal- and at that moment, I realized that the best part of Sarasota in winter was going to be eating things that back home in New York I wouldn’t be experiencing again for months.

Delighted as I was by the tomatoes in sight, my happiness deepened when I learned that Brown’s Grove Farm is one of the suppliers for Jack Dusty, a newly opened restaurant at the Sarasota Ritz Carlton, where - luckily for me - I was planning to have dinner that very night. Without even seeing the menu, I knew I’d be ordering every tomato on it.

1. What did the author think of her winter life in New York?

A. Exciting. B. Boring.

C. Relaxing. D. Annoying.

2. What made the author’s getting up late early worthwhile?

A. Having a swim. B. Breathing in fresh air.

C. Walking in the morning sun. D. Visiting a local farmer’s market.

3. What can we learn about tomatoes sold in New York in winter?

A. They are soft. B. They look nice.

C. They taste great. D. They are juicy.

4. What was the author going to that evening?

A. Go to a farm. B. Check into a hotel.

C. Eat in a restaurant. D. Buy fresh vegetables.

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Reading can be a social activity. Think of the people who belong to book groups. They choose books to read and then meet to discuss them. Now, the website BookCrossing.com turns the page on the traditional idea of a book group.

Members go on the site and register the books they own and would like to share. BookCrossing provides an identification number to stick inside the book. Then the person leaves it in a public place, hoping that the book will have an adventure, traveling far and wide with each new reader who finds it.

Bruce Pederson, the managing director of BookCrossing, says, “The two things that change your life are the people you meet and books you read. BookCrossing combines both.”

Members leave books on park benches and buses, in train stations and coffee shops. Whoever finds their book will go to the site and record where they found it.

People who find a book can also leave a journal entry describing what they thought of it. E-mails are then sent to the BookCrossers to keep them updated about where their books have been found. Bruce Pederson says the idea is for people not to be selfish by keeping a book to gather dust on a shelf at home.

BookCrossing is part of a trend among people who want to get back to the “real” and not the virtual(虚拟). The site now has more than one million members in more than one hundred thirty-five countries.

1. Why does the author mention book groups in the first paragraph?

A. To explain what they are.

B. To introduce BookCrossing.

C. To stress the importance of reading.

D. To encourage readers to share their ideas.

2. What does the underlined word “it” in Paragraph 2 refer to?

A. The book. B. An adventure.

C. A public place. D. The identification number.

3. What will a BookCrosser do with a book after reading it?

A. Meet other readers to discuss it.

B. Keep it safe in his bookcase.

C. Pass it on to another reader.

D. Mail it back to its owner

4. What is the best title for the text?

A. Online Reading: A Virtual Tour

B. Electronic Books: A new Trend

C. A Book Group Brings Tradition Back

D. A Website Links People through Books

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Music

Opera at Music Hall：1243 Elm Street. The season runs June through August, with additional performances in March and September. The Opera honors Enjoy the Arts membership discounts. Phone：241–2742. http://www.cityopera.com.

Chamber Orchestra: The Orchestra plays at Memorial Hall at 1406 Elm Street, which offers several concerts from March through June. Call 723–1182 for more information.

Symphony Orchestra: At Music Hall and Riverbend. For ticket sales, call 381–3300. Regular season runs September through May at Music Hall and in summer at Riverbend. http://www.symphony.org/home.asp.

College Conservatory of Music (CCM): Performances are on the main campus(校园) of the university, usually at Patricia Cobbett Theater. CCM organizes a variety of events, including performances by the well-known Lasalle Quartet, CCM’s Philharmonic Orchestra, and various groups of musicians presenting Baroque through modern music. Students with I．D. cards can attend the events for free. A free schedule of events for each term is available by calling the box office at 556–4183. http://www.ccm.uc.edu/events/calendar.

Riverbend Music Theater: 6295 Kellogg Ave. Large outdoor theater with the closest seats under cover (price difference). Big name shows all summer long! Phone:232–6220.

1. Which number should you call if you want to see an opera?

A. 241–2742． B. 723–1182．

C. 381–3300. D. 232–6220.

2. When can you go to a concert by Chamber Orchestra?

A．February． B. May．

C. August． D. November．

3. Where can student go for free performances with their I.D. cards?

A. Music Hall．

B. Memorial Hall．

C. Patricia Cobbett Theater．

D. Riverbend Music Theater.

4. How is Riverbend Music Theater different from the other places?

A. It has seats in the open air．

B. It gives shows all year round.

C. It offers membership discounts．

D. It presents famous musical works.

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What’s On?

Electric Underground

7.30pm–1.00am Free at the Cyclops Theatre

Do you know who’s playing in your area? We’re bringing you an exciting evening of live rock and pop music from the best local bands. Are you interested in becoming a musician and getting a recording contract(合同)? If so, come early to the talk at 7.30pm by Jules Skye, a successful record producer. He’s going to talk about how you can find the right person to produce your music.

Gee Whizz

8.30pm–10.30pm Comedy at Kaleidoscope

Come and see Gee Whizz perform. He’s the funniest stand-up comedian on the comedy scene. This joyful show will please everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Gee Whizz really knows how to make you laugh! Our bar is open from 7.00pm for drinks and snacks(快餐).

Simon’s Workshop

5.00pm–7.30pm Wednesdays at Victoria Stage

This is a good chance for anyone who wants to learn how to do comedy. The workshop looks at every kind of comedy, and practices many different ways of making people laugh. Simon is a comedian and actor who has 10 years’ experience of teaching comedy. His workshops are exciting and fun. An evening with Simon will give you the confidence to be funny.

Charlotte Stone

8.00pm–11.00pm Pizza World

Fine food with beautiful jazz music; this is a great evening out. Charlotte Stone will perform songs from her new best-selling CD, with James Pickering on the piano. The menu is Italian, with excellent meat and fresh fish, pizzas and pasta. Book early to get a table. Our bar is open all day, and serves cocktails, coffee, beer, and white wine.

1. Who can help you if you want to have your music produced?

A. Jules Skye. B. Gee Whizz.

C. Charlotte Stone. D. James Pickering.

2. At which place can people of different ages enjoy a good laugh?

A. The Cyclops Theatre. B. Kaleidoscope.

C. Victoria Stage. D. Pizza World.

3. What do we know about Simon’s Workshop?

A. It requires membership status.

B. It lasts three hours each time.

C. It is run by a comedy club.

D. It is held every Wednesday.

4. When will Charlotte Stone perform her songs?

A. 5.00pm–7.30pm. B. 7.30pm–1.00am.

C. 8.00pm–11.00pm. D. 8.30pm–10.30pm.

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A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life.

Frank Hurley’s pictures would be outstanding—undoubtedly first-rate photo-journalism—if they had been made last week. In fact, they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck(海滩), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival. Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.

The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegian-built three-master that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica’s Weddell Sea. From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled(雪橇) across the continent. The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done. Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.

As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and well-researched story The Endurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort. Scott’s last journey, completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world’s imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds. Shackleton, a onetime British merchant-navy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography. Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic, was hired to make the images, most of which have never before been published.

1. What do we know about the photos taken by Hurley?

A. They were made last week.

B. They showed undersea sceneries.

C. They were found by a cameraman.

D. They recorded a disastrous adventure.

2. Who reached the South Pole first according to the text?

A. Frank Hurley. B. Ernest Shackleton.

C. Robert Falcon Scott. D. Caroline Alexander.

3. What does Alexander think was the purpose of the 1914 voyage?

A. Artistic creation. B. Scientific research.

C. Money making. D. Treasure hunting.

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Conflict is on the menu tonight at the café La Chope. This evening, as on every Thursday night, psychologist Maud Lehanne is leading two of France’s favorite pastimes, coffee drinking and the “talking cure”. Here they are learning to get in touch with their true feelings. It isn’t always easy. They customers - some thirty Parisians who pay just under $2 (plus drinks) per session - care quick to intellectualize (高谈阔论)，slow to open up and connect. “You are forbidden to say ‘one feels,’ or ‘people think’,” Lehane told them. “Say ‘I think,’ ‘Think me’.”

A café society where no intellectualizing is allowed? It couldn’t seem more un-French. But Lehanne’s psychology café is about more than knowing oneself: It’s trying to help the city’s troubled neighborhood cafes. Over the years, Parisian cafes have fallen victim to changes in the French lifestyle - longer working hours, a fast food boom and a younger generation’s desire to spend more time at home. Dozens of new theme cafes appear to change the situation. Cafes focused around psychology, history, and engineering are catching on, filling tables well into the evening.

The city’s psychology cafes, which offer great comfort, are among the most popular places. Middle-aged homemakers, retirees, and the unemployed come to such cafes to talk about love, anger, and dreams with a psychologist. And they come to Lehanne’s group just to learn to say what they feel. “There’s a strong need in Paris for communication,” says Maurice Frisch, a cafe La Chope regular who works as a religious instructor in a nearby church. “People have few real friends. And they need to open up.” Lehanne says she’d like to see psychology cafes all over France. “If people had normal lives, these cafes wouldn’t exist”, she says, “If life weren’t a battle, people wouldn’t need a special place just to speak.” But them, it wouldn’t be France.

1.What are people encouraged to do at the cafe La Chope?

A. Learn a new subject

B. Keep in touch with friends.

C. Show off their knowledge.

D. Express their true feelings.

2. How are cafes affected by French lifestyle changes?

A. They are less frequently visited.

B. They stay open for longer hours.

C. They have bigger night crowds.

D. They start to serve fast food.

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Choose Your One-Day-Tours!

Tour A - Bath &Stonehenge: including entrance fees to the ancient Roman bathrooms and Stonehenge -￡37 until 26 March and ￡39 thereafter.

Visit the city with over 2,000 years of history and Bath Abbey, the Royal Crescent and the Costume Museum, Stonehenge is one of the world's most famous prehistoric monuments dating back over 5,000 years.

Tour B - Oxford & Startford including entrance fees to the University St Mary's Church Tower and Anne Hathaway's -￡32 until 12 March and ￡36 thereafter

Oxford: Includes a guided tour of England's oldest university city and colleges. Look over the "city of dreaming spires(尖顶）"from St Mary’s Church Tower. Stratford: Includes a guided tour exploring much of the Shakespeare wonder.

Tour C - Windsor Castle &Hampton Court including entrance fees to Hampton Court Palace -￡34 until 11 March and ￡37 thereafter.

Includes a guided tour of Windsor and Hampton Court, Henry VILL's favorite palace. Free time to visit Windsor Castle(entrance fees not included).With 500 years of history, Hampton Court was once the home of four Kings and one Queen. Now this former royal palace is open to the public as a major tourist attraction. Visit the palace and its various historic gardens, which include the famous maze(迷宫)where it is easy to get lost!

Tour D -Cambridge including entrance fees to the Tower of Saint Mary the Great -￡33 until 18 March and ￡37 thereafter.

Includes a guided tour of Cambridge, the famous university town, and the gardens of the 18th century.

1. Which tour will you choose if you want to see England’s oldest university city?

A. Tour A B. Tour B

C. Tour C D. Tour D

2. Which of the following tours charges the lowest fee on 17 March?

A. Windsor Castle & Hampton Court

B. Oxford & Stratford

C. Bath & Stonehenge

D. Cambridge

3. Why is Hampton Court a major tourist attraction?

A. It used to be the home of royal families

B. It used to be a well-known maze

C. It is the oldest palace in Britain

D. It is a world-famous castle

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Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: “Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today—and 45minutes each day for the rest of the week.”

A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see what the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.

Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect(感染) other students.

Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, “But I’m just not creative.”

“Do you dream at night when you’re asleep?”

“Oh, sure.”

“So tell me one of your most interesting dreams.” The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. “That’s pretty creative. Who does that for you?”

“Nobody. I do it.”

“Really—at night, when you’re asleep?”

“Sure.”

“Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?”

1. The teacher used Tinkertoys in class in order to ________.

A. know more about the students

B. make the lessons more exciting

C. raise the students’ interest in art

D. teach the students about toy design

2. What do we know about the boy mentioned in Paragraph 3?

A. He liked to help his teacher.

B. He preferred to study alone.

C. He was active in class.

D. He was imaginative.

3. Why did the teacher ask the students to talk about their dreams?

A. To help them to see their creativity.

B. To find out about their sleeping habits.

C. To help them to improve their memory.

D. To find out about their ways of thinking.

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Up，Up，and Away！

An adventurer who became the first person to fly across the English Channel on a cluster of balloons has launched a house into the sky just like in the hit movie Up-in reparation for a more ambitious journey and a new record．

Fearless Trappe，from North Carolina，stepped into the cartoon themed home before flying above the Leon International Balloon Festival in Mexico more than a week ago．

The 38-year-old Trappe was using the event as a warm-up for his planned trans-Atlantic flight scheduled for next summer．He aims to complete the 2，500-mile journey in a seven-foot lifeboat carried by 365 huge helium balloons．

The brave man is learning to sail a lifeboat，in case he needs to ditch into the ocean during the danger-filled adventure．

He still fly at between 18，000 feet and 25，000 feet，beating his previous world altitude record of 21，600 feet，and must fly uninterrupted a distance ten times longer than his previous world record of 230 miles in order to succeed．

The adventurer Trappe，who holds records for crossing the Alps，flying the most cluster balloons，and the longest distance，has spent his entire career，building up to this ambitious plan．

“I didn’t wake up one day and think：‘I’ going to fly across the Atlantic，’”he said．“Every attempt before this was prepared for this fight，I’ve been training for a long time”．

1.The adventurer flew across the English Channel to__________．

A．test the balloons B．launch a house

C．shoot a hit movie D．prepare for breaking a record

2.To finish the journey，he will fly a distance of__________．

A．2500 miles B．18，000 feet

C．25，000 feet D．230 miles

3.About the ambitious journey，which is NOT mentioned in the passage?

A．When he will fly B．How high he sill fly

C．How far he will fly D．How long it will take him

4.How many world records does Jonathan hold?

A．Two B．Three

C．Four D．Five

5.What does he last paragraph imply?

A．Trappe can’t sleep worrying about the adventure

B．Trappe was born to set world records

C．Trappe always keeps his ambition in mind

D．Trappe never thought of crossing the Atlantic before