George Gershwin, born in 1998, was one of America's greatest composers. He published his first song when he was eighteen years old. During the next twenty years he wrote more than five hundred songs.

Many of Gershwin's songs were first written for musical plays performed in theatres in New York City. These plays were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever. Over the years they have been sung and played in every possible way — from jazz to country.

    In the 1920s there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924 jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized he had just a few weeks to do it. And in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were thrilled when they heard his music. It made him world-famous and showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.

    In 1928, Gershwin went to Paris. He applied to study composition (作曲)with the well-known musician Nadia Boulanger, but she rejected him. She was afraid that classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris. When it was first performed, critics (评论家)were divided over the music. Some called it happy and full of life, to others it was silly and boring. But it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. It still remains one of his most famous works.

    George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. People mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have still written.

    Every year there is a Spring Festival in China. Usually it is in January or February. It is the most important festival in China. So before it comes, everyone has to prepare things. They buy pork， beef, chicken, fruits and many other things. And they often make a special kind of food—“dumplings”. It means “come together”. On the day before the festival, parents buy new clothes for their children. Children also buy presents for their parents. On the Spring Festival Eve (除夕)，all the family members come back to their hometown. This is a happy moment. Some sing and dance, some play cards and others get the dinner ready. When they enjoy the meal, they give each other the best wishes for the coming year. They all have a good time.

    By the mid-nineteenth century, the term “icebox” had entered the American language, but ice was still only beginning to affect the diet of ordinary citizens in the United States. The ice trade grew with the growth of cities. Ice was used in hotels, pubs, and hospitals, and by some forward-looking city dealers in fresh meat, fresh fish, and butler. After the Civil War (1861-1865), as ice was used to refrigerate freight cars(货车), it also came into household use. Even before 1880, half the ice sold in New York, Philadelphia, and Baltimore, and one-third of that sold in Boston and Chicago, went to families for their own use. This had become possible because a new household convenience, the icebox, a precursor（前身）of the modem refrigerator, had been invented.

    Making an efficient icebox was not as easy as we might now suppose. In the early nineteenth century, the knowledge of the physics of heat, which was essential to a science of refrigeration, was undeveloped. The common belief that the best icebox was one that prevented the ice from melting was of course mistaken, for it was the melting of the ice that performed the cooling. Nevertheless, early efforts to economize ice included wrapping the ice in blankets, which kept the ice from doing its job. Not until near the end of the nineteenth century did inventors achieve the delicate balance of insulation(绝缘) and circulation needed for an efficient icebox.

    But as early as 1803, an intelligent Maryland farmer, Thomas Moore, had been on the right track. He owned a farm about twenty miles outside the city of Washington, for which the village of Georgetown was the market center. When he used an icebox of his own design to transport his butter to market, he found that customers would pass up the rapidly melting butter of his competitors to pay an extra price for his butter, still fresh and hard in neat, one-pound bricks. One advantage of his icebox, Moore explained, was that fanners would no longer have to travel to market at night in order to keep their produce cool.

    Accountants Assistant

    When you join us in our Revenue Administration Unit, you will be providing assistance within all parts of the Revenue Division, dealing with post and other general duties. If you are educated to GCSE grade C level, we would like to talk to you.  This position is equally suitable for a school leaver or for somebody who has office experience.  Feel free to come to our office in person for the chance.

    Father Christmas

    We're looking for a very special person preferably over 40, to fill our Father Christmas suit.

    Working days: Every Saturday from November 24 to December 15 and every day from December 17 to December 24 except Sunday, 10:30-16:00.

    Excellent pay.

    Please contact the Enterprise Shopping Center, Station Parade, Eastbourne.

Producer, London Kiss

    We're looking for producers to join us in the second of London 100 FM. You'll work on the station's music programmes. Music production experience in radio is necessary, along with rich knowledge of modern dance music. Please apply in writing to Producer Vacancies, Kissl00.

    Software Trainer

    If you are aged 24-45 and have experience in teaching and training, you could be the person we are looking for. You should be good at the computer and have some experience in programme writing. You will be allowed to make our decision, and to design courses as well as present them. Pay upwards of￡15,000 for the right person. Please apply by sending your CV(简历) to Mrs R. Oglivie, Palmlace Limited.

    The horse I'm riding is named Candy, which is appropriate, taking account of her love for eating. As we go our way down the mountain of Big Bend National Park, Texas, I'm sweating—half due to the hot weather, half due to an effort to stay on the horse. Candy, however, is relaxed and stops to eat cactuses (仙人掌) as she passes. She is used to the dusty trails through hills and canyons(大峡谷) and ignores my attempts to guide her away from her delicious food. Our ride becomes a battle of will, which Candy wins easily. I comfort myself by admiring the views across Big Bend's wide open spaces.

    Texas only national park, Big Bend, extends across 800,000 acres of the Chihuahuan Desert, in the deep southwest of the state right along the border with Mexico. It is named after the U-turn that the Rio Grande River makes here. It has seen a lot of fights. The Spanish, Anglo-American settles, Mexicans, and Apache and Comanche American Indians all fought to rule this place.

    Our group member, Mike, knows every corner of the park and describes it as “sort of a secret place”. Even some Texans don't know about Big Bend, he says. Other local people describe it as a forgotten national park. Compared with the almost five million travellers that descend on the Grand Canyon every year, only 30000 make it here.

    There are six of us in the riding group, all fairly inexperienced, led by tour guides, Linda and Janelle, who keep both us and the horses in line. We trek along the top of an 800-foot mountain, with wide-winged eagles flying beside us. The air is noiseless.

    The park is fantastic for hikes and has a variety of marked walking paths. The walk is a five-mile round trip. While the final stretch is rather steep, the views over giant canyons and plains are worth the effort.

    Depression and suicidal thoughts have doubled in young Americans, according to a new study from the American Psychological Association.

    Likely triggers? Cell phones and social media.

    "More US adolescents and young adults in the late 2010s, vs the mid-2000s, experienced serious psychological distress, major depression and more attempted suicide (自杀)", says lead researcher Jean Twenge, professor of psychology at San Diego State University. "These trends are weak or non-existent among adults 26 years and over, suggesting a generational shift in mood disorders instead of an overall increase across all ages."

    Twenge believes this trend is partially due to the explosion of digital culture over the past decade, which may have twisted modes of social interaction enough to affect mood disorders.

    The study analyzed data from the National Survey on Drug Use and Health, which tracked drug and alcohol use and mental health issues in more than 200,000 youths aged 12 to 17 from 2005 to 2017 and almost 400,000 adults from 2008 to 2017.

    Major depression in the last 12 months increased by 52 percent in kids from 2005 to 2017 and 63 percent in young adults aged 18 to 25 from 2009 to 2017. There was also a 71 percent jump in young adults experiencing serious psychological distress in the previous 30 days from 2008 to 2017.

    So what's so different now? Twenge says research shows young people just aren't getting as much shuteye as they did in previous generations.

    Whereas older Americans might have established more stability in their lives, sleep-disrupting social stressors are likely at their peak for teens and young adults in this digital era, she says. Older adults are also less likely to let devices interfere (干预) with sleep.

    These results suggest a need for more research to understand how digital communication versus face-to-face social interaction influences mood disorders and to develop specialized interventions for younger age groups.

    Her suggestion? Put your phone down at least an hour before bedtime.