Dear young musicians,

    Thank you for agreeing to take part in our Music Day. The whole idea of the day is for music students around the area to meet other players and receive expert teaching from our guests, six professional players. In the evening,you will perform the pieces you have worked on during the day at a concert which your friends and family can attend

    After you have registered（注册) at the reception,go to the main hall. First,there will be a short performance by our professional musicians who are joining us for the day. After this you will go into your classes to practice on your own instruments for the evening concert. There will also be a chance to experiment with a different institiment from the one you normally play,and see if you enjoy playing something more unusual — we have several instruments to choose from!

    The first part of the day will finish at 5 pm,when parents can collect students. For those remaining in the hall until the evening concert at 7 pm,there will be DVDs for you to watch,although you should also bring something to do while you are waiting. A change ot clothes is required for the evening — black trousers or a skirt and white top — so unless you are going home at 5 pm,you will need to have this with you at the start of the day.

    If for whatever reason you cannot attend the evening concert, you must tell us as soon as possible, as we need to know numbers in order to prepare the stage. We look forward to seeing you at the Young People's Music Day.

    When the dog named Judy spotted the first sheep in her life, she did what comes naturally. The four-year-old dog set off racing after the sheep across several fields and, being a city animal, lost both her sheep and her sense of direction. Then she ran along the edge of cliff( 悬崖) and fell 100 feet, bouncing off a rock into the sea.

    Her owner Mike Holden panicked and celled the coastguard of Cornwall, who turned up in seconds. Six volunteers slid down the cliff with the help of a rope but gave up all hope of finding her alive after a 90-minute search.

    Three days later, a hurricane hit the coast near Cornwall. Mr. Holden returned home from his holiday upset and convinced his pet was dead. He comforted himself with the thought she had died in the most beautiful part of the country.

    For the next two weeks, the Holdens were heartbroken. Then, one day, the phone rang and Steve Tregear, the coastguard of Cornwall, asked Holder if he would like his dog bark.

    A birdwatcher, armed with a telescope, found the pet sitting desperately on a rock. While he sounded the alarm, a student from Leeds climbed down the cliff to collect Judy.

    The dog had initially been knocked unconscious(失去知觉的)but had survived by drinking water from a fresh scream at the base of the cliff. She may have fed on the body of a sheep which had also fallen over the edge. “The dog was very thin and hungry,” Steve Tregear said, “It was a very dog. She survived because of a plentiful supply of fresh water,” he added.

    It was, as Mr. Holden admitted, “a minor miracle(奇迹)”.

    Things a Bright Girl Can Do by Sally Nicholls, UK.

    A hundred years ago, women had very few opportunities. Their role was to marry and raise children. Sally Nicholls, new novel is set in that time. Her main characters are three young London women. Evelyn is from a wealthy family, May is from a religious background, and Nell is a woman from a much poorer community. Though they are from, different backgrounds, they all become involved in the women's suffrage(选举权)movement during World War 1(1914-1918).

    Far From the Tree by Robin Benway, US

    The New York Times reviewer called the book a “brilliant exercise in empathy (感同身受) It's an unusual novel. It begins with a troubling event for the main character, Grace, a 16-year-old who loves chemistry and cross-country running. But when she finds that she has become pregnant, she chooses to give up her baby for adoption and has to deal with the pain that this causes her.

    The situation is __________for her because Grace was once an orphan(孤儿)herself. She feels that she cannot turn to her adoptive parents for comfort and advice. Instead, she turns to her blood siblings (兄弟姐妹). But Grace soon finds that they are as troubled as she is, and that they are also keeping things to themselves that hurt too much to speak about.

    Readers can expect to be moved by the characters and their situations, but also gain insight (理解)into modem family life in America.

    Turtles All the Way Down by John Green, US

    This novel has two principal teenage characters. Aza Holmes has a mental illness, which is a condition where a person does the same thing over and over, without being able to stop. Aza narrates (叙述)the novel, so we learn all about her from the inside out.

    The second main character is Daisy, Aza's friend. The two start an adventure to find a billionaire who has gone missing.

    “This is my first attempt to write directly about the kind of mental illness that has affected my life since childhood, so while the story is fictional (虚构的)，it is also quite personal, ” said Green in a statement.

    Have you ever heard a rumor spread around by students at your school? Rumors, like fake news, can often misinform individuals and lead them to believe false information.

    In an attempt to settle this problem, the country of Singapore has passed a bill that bans companies and individuals from publishing false information online.

    This law, known as The Protection From Online Falsehoods and Manipulation Bill, has caused a public outcry (强烈的抗议), as the government has been given the power to remove content that it considers inaccurate or against the public's interest.

    Since Singapore's citizens are part of different racial and religious groups, the government fears that rumors or fake news can increase tensions within an already small country.

    With the new law coming into effect, Singapore's government now has the authority to monitor news sites, social media platforms, and other databases of information to determine whether the content is falsified. The government can order for the removal of fake news, and publishers of this information can receive prison time and fines up to one million Singapore dollars!

    Critics fear that the bill threatens their freedom of speech and freedom of expression. Since national issues and world news are generally discussed on online platforms, many are concerned that this new bill will prevent individuals from talking freely and having healthy conversations.

    Several companies, including Google, Facebook, and Twitter, have offices situated in Singapore, meaning that the new law will affect their company operations. Social media companies in Singapore could face a decline in activity, as users may fear posting their opinions and being punished by the government.

    Others are concerned that the law does not clearly state what a "false statement" is. Such an ambiguity might allow the government to misuse their power, even though the intention is to curtail the mow of false information and rumors throughout Singapore.

    This law does give rise to several concerns related to freedom and privacy and it will be interesting to see what Singapore's government will do to deal with this problem.

    Loud cheers and applause broke out at NASA's Jet Propulsion Lab on Monday, November 25, 2018, as the unmanned lander, called Insight, touched down on Mars, after nearly seven years from design to launch to landing.

    The great arrival of the spacecraft­designed to listen for quakes and shakes as a way to discover the Red Planet's inner secrets, how it formed billions of years ago and, how other planets like Earth took shape­marked the eighth successful landing on Mars in Nasa's history.

    Minutes after InSight landed on the surface of Mars, the first image was sent back, showing a wide flat area as seen through a dirty camera.

    The touchdown came after a nearly seven-month, 300 million-mile travel from Earth to Mars, during which the InSight spacecraft had to slow down from a speed of more than 12,000 mph. The spacecraft's heat shelter helped the lander survive temperatures as high as 2,700℉.

    Each step along the way was watched nervously at JPL, with updates delayed by the eight-minute light travel time between Earth and Mars. Mission controllers hugged each other with joy when the signals were received. "We are proud of everything that has gone on today," they told us reporters.

    The first picture of the surface of Mars was sent back to Earth by one of the MarCO nanosatellites (马可纳米卫星) that accompanied InSight during its travel to Mars. The dust from the landing made the view unclear. Pictures from it were expected to be clearer once the dust settled and the lens cover (镜头盖) was removed.

    Hours later, InSight's batteries were charging as expected. The InSight team also passed on another picture, taken by a different camera that's fixed on the lander's robotic arm. The view is clearer, showing the robotic arm and the seismometer, which is used to discover the actual movement of the ground.

    On a rainy winter day, several decades ago, a British artist named Christopher got on a train in Oxford to go to London. When he began his journey, he never knew that it was the beginning of almost 40 years of accidents and near death experiences.

    During the journey, the train fell into an icy river, killing 12 passengers. Christopher managed to swim back to the river bank. He only had a broken leg.

    Two years later, Christopher was on a plane from London to Manchester when a door suddenly opened and he fell out. A few minutes later, the plane crashed; 27 people were killed. Christopher was so lucky that he landed in a haystack (干草堆).

    A few years later, he was hit by a bus, but again had no serious injuries. Then a year after that, he was driving on a mountain road when he saw a truck coming straight at him. He drove the car off the road, jumped out, landed in a tree — and watched his car fall 100 meters down the mountain.

    "There are two ways you can look at it," Christopher said. "I'm either the worlds unluckiest man, or the world's luckiest." When a reporter asked Christopher what he thought, he chose the "luckiest" one.

    Two years ago, aged 71, Christopher bought his first lottery ticket (彩票) in 50 years and won more than 2 million. After this, a TV company in America said they wanted him to make an advertisement. At first he accepted, but then he changed his mind. Christopher said he would not fly to Los Angeles for the filming, because he did not want to push his luck. Who knows? If he had accepted the invitation, maybe he would have had another accident. But Mr. Christopher is a lucky man. If he had had another accident, he probably would have survived that too!