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Time, a faithful company of our life, is a universal topic. People are always curious about what it is, how it travels and who it meets.
Stephen Hawking, one of the world’s smartest physicists, once said. “I’m fascinated by time.”
Many of us are, and the popularity of time travel novels, movies and TV series has proved that. After Palace and Startling by Each Step achieved astonishing ratings last year, Palace 2 aired on January 20, attracting time travel fans back to TV.
Woody Allen’s movie Midnight in Paris achieved great success. It was nominated for Best Picture, Directing, Original Screenplay and Art Direction for the 2012 Academy Awards.
Dream of heroism
Time travel TV series and movies connect both today and the past, thus offering room for imagination. Imagination creates a chance for the young to fulfill a dream that is hard to achieve in reality.
Chinese writer Xi Juan is a pioneer of time-travel stories in China. In 1993 she published a love story about a young woman time traveling to ancient times. The leading role’s modern personality and perception of love help her win the heart of a cool, handsome martial art master. Such a plot satisfies female fans’ love fantasy.
Starting from the late 1990s, novels about men traveling back to the past prevailed (盛行), with a Step into the Past as the most popular example. In these stories, the male leading roles accomplish great things with their modern skills and wisdom.
It is usually “a dream of heroism come true”, along with enviable romances.
Eye candy
“I’m hooked by the shows because they are characterized by dramatic and poetic love and have eye-pleasing actors,” Xia Xiaoyan, who works for a foreign-owned enterprise in Shanghai, explained her love for time travel TV series.
Her comment echoes a 2011 survey by Creat Marketing Research Co Ltd in China. When asked about what is so appealing about time travel TV series, 21 percent of respondents answered, “These attractive characters.”
A bigger reason behind the popularity of time travel stories, however, is the relaxation they offer, according to the survey.
Cai Yinong agrees. “Many people are facing tremendous pressure in their fast-paced lives, so this genre is more relaxing than other shows as it provides people with a terrific outlet to escape reality,” Cai told China Daily.
Cultural homesickness
“Which dynasty would you like to live in if you could travel to the past?” asked a survey launched by Shanghai University and Shanghai Social Sciences Association last December.
About 60 percent of the 2,543 respondents chose Tang Dynasty, while Qing Dynasty, and the Spring and Autumn and Warring States periods were the other top two destinations.
The survey results reflects people’s definition of the good days: prosperous economy and culture, steady society, fair and uncorrupted politics, and opening up to the outside world.
As for the movie Midnight in Paris, it features modernity versus cultural homesickness. The New York Times commented, “The past seems so much more vivid, more substantial, than the present. The good old days are so attractive because we were not around, however much we wish we were.”
| Time travel wins fans | |
| Phenomenon | Stephen Hawking shows great interest in【小题1】___________. People prefer 【小题2】__________ time travel movies and TV series. Woody Allen was 【小题3】_________ in his time travel movie. |
| Reasons for its 【小题4】______ | Supporting details |
| Dream of heroism | Chances are offered for the young to fulfill 【小题5】__________ hard to achieve in reality. Xi Juan’s 1993 love story 【小题6】________ a young woman traveling to ancient times, which satisfies females fans. From the late 1990s, novels about 【小题7】________ traveling back to the past became increasingly popular. The male leading role in A Step Into the Past travels back to the past to fulfill great things by using his 【小题8】_______ skills and wisdom. |
| Eye candy | Attractive actors and travel stories make viewers under pressure 【小题9】_________. |
| Cultural homesickness | Most respondents chose to live in a certain dynasty for: Prosperous economy and【小题10】_________; Steady society; Fair and uncorrupted politics Opening up to the outside world. |
Maybe you are an average student. You probably think you will never be a top student. This is not necessary so, however. Anyone can become a better student if he or she wants to. Here’s how:
1. Plan your time carefully. When you plan your week, you should make a list of things that you have to do. After making this list, you should make a schedule of your time. First your time for eating, sleeping, dressing, etc. then decide a good, regular time for studying. Don’t forget to set aside enough time for entertainment. A weekly schedule may not solve all your problems, but it will force you to realize what is happening to your time.
2. Find a good place to study. Look around the house for a good study area. Keep this space, which may be a desk or simply a corner of your room, free of everything but study materials. No games, radios, or television! When you sit down to study, concentrate on the subject.
3. Make good use of your time in class. Take advantage of class time to listen to everything the teachers say. Really listening in class means less work later. Taking notes will help you remember what the teacher says.
4. Study regularly. When you get home from school, go over your notes. Review the important points that your teacher mentioned in class. If you know what your teacher is going to discuss the next day, read that material will become more meaningful, and you will remember it longer.
5. Develop a good attitude about tests. The purpose of a test is to show what you have learned about a subject. They help you remember your new knowledge. The world won’t end if you don’t pass a test, so don’t be overly worried.
There are other methods that might help you with your studying. You will probably discover many others after you have tried these.
How to become a better student
| General method | How to | Advantage |
| Plan your time carefully | Make a list | Force you to realize【小题1】 ____ is happening to your time |
| Make a 【小题2】_____ | ||
| Find a good place to study | Free of everything but study【小题3】 ______ | You can 【小题4】______on the subject |
| Make good use of your time in class | Listen to everything the teachers say | Really listening in class means 【小题5】______ work later |
| Taking 【小题6】______ | ||
| Study regularly | Go over your notes | |
| 【小题7】______ new material | Help you【小题8】_____it better , remember it longer | |
| Develop a good attitude about tests | Don’t be【小题9】______ worried | Remember your new 【小题10】_____ |
D. R. Gaul Middle School is in Union, Maine, a blueberry-farming town where the summer fair finds kids competing in pig scrambles and pie-eating contests.
Gaul, with about 170 seventh- and eighth-graders, has its own history of lower level academic achievement. One likely reason: Education beyond the basic requirements hasn't always been a top priority for families who've worked the same land for generations. Here, few adults have college degrees, and outsiders (teachers included) are often kept at a respectful distance.
Since 2002, Gaul's students have been divided into four classes, each of them taught almost every subject by two teachers. The goal: To find common threads across disciplines to help students create a big picture that gives fresh meaning and context to their classwork -- and sparks motivation for learning.
Working within state guidelines, each team makes its individual schedules and lesson plans, incorporating non-textbook literature, hands-on lab work and field trips. If students are covering the Civil War in social studies, they're reading The Red Badge of Courage or some other period literature in English class. In science, they study the viruses and bacteria that caused many deaths in the war.
Team teaching isn't unusual. About 77 percent of middle schools now employ some form of it, says John Lounsbury, consulting editor for the National Middle School Association. But most schools use four- or five-person teams, which Gaul tried before considering two-person teams more effective. Gaul supports the team concept by "looping" classes (跟班) so that the same two teachers stick with the same teens through seventh and eighth grades. Combining teams and looping creates an extremely strong bond between teacher and student. It also, says teacher Beth Ahlholm, "allows us to build an excellent relationship with parents."
Ahlholm and teammate Madelon Kelly are fully aware how many glazed looks they see in the classroom, but they know 72 percent of their eighth-graders met Maine's reading standard last year -- double the statewide average. Only 31 percent met the math standard, still better than the state average (21 percent). Their students also beat the state average in writing and science. And in2006, Gaul was one of 47 schools in the state to see testing gains of at least 20 percent in four of the previous five years, coinciding roughly with team teaching's arrival.
| A Classroom With Context | |
| Problems of the school | Being a farming town,it(71) little in education before. |
| Further education is considered (72)______________. | |
| The community is relatively(73) rather than open to the outsiders. | |
| Ways of solving the problems | The division of classes is made and students are well(74) . |
| Individual schedules and lesson plans are(75) by each team. | |
| A strong(76) between teacher and student is established through combining teams and looping. | |
| Signs of (77) | 72 percent of the eighth-graders(78) Maine's reading standard |
| (79)percent higher than the state average in maths | |
| the school beating the state average in writing and science | |
| four of the previous five years(80) at least 20 percent test gains | |