Why I've taken a break from holidays

    It is now close to four years since I last took a holiday. This is because I have come to the conclusion, over the course of my adult life, that I am not very good at it. You might think this sounds like saying you're not very good at drinking tea or listening to music. What could possibly be difficult about the natural act of putting your working life on hold for a couple of weeks and going somewhere warm to do nothing?

    I was a model holidaymaker as a kid. However, the problems started during my twenties. A trip to the south of France was ended after just two days, mainly because I had an urge to check my e-mails. Similarly, my honeymoon was cut short by 48 hours—not because my wife and I weren't enjoying ourselves, but because we were missing our cats.

    So what is my problem? On the surface, I'm probably a bit of a homebody. And I just find the pressure of being on holiday too severe: it always feels like having a gun held to my head and being forced to have fun. Somehow, packing a list of possessions and meeting a scheduled flight has none of the excitement of suddenly deciding to take a day off and driving somewhere for the fun of it.

    Thankfully, I'm not alone. This summer, most of my friends have decided not to have a break. And a recent survey (调查) proved the downside of holidays, with the results showing that nearly two thirds of people found that the calming effects of a holiday wore off within 24 hours, as stress levels returned to normal. And this year The Idler magazine published its Book of Awful Holidays. Here you will find a list of the five most ecologically-damaging vacations it's possible to take, along with 50 painful holiday experiences voted for on The Idler website.

    What interests me is what the concept of a “holiday” says about our lives. For me, the point of living is to have a life you enjoy for 52 weeks a year. The more I like my life and the better I structure it, the less I want to go away. Maybe I'm an unusual person for not liking holidays, but I just feel the time when I'm not working is too valuable to waste on them.

阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。

    In the tenth grade，I began working for free at a vet's that was run by a friend. I wanted to get experience for what I thought would be my future job. However，on one particular Saturday morning I learnt something perhaps more important.

    The hospital was in the middle of one of the poorer sections of the city and some people could only pay for the most basic treatments. On this Saturday，a man and his young son，who was probably about 7 years old，walked in with a small cat in a cardboard box. There was something wrong with the cat's left eye. But the man could not afford to pay for the cost of the medicine. He kept quiet for a while，and then he asked where the nearest animal shelter was. Hearing this，his son cried and started to argue with him. All of a sudden，an older woman who was sitting in the waiting room stood up，walked up to the counter，and told the man that she would pay for the cost. The man thanked her and the son got to keep a healthy cat.

    I always thought it was the right thing to help out a needy person，but I only saw people do acts of kindness on TV or in movies. What the woman did made me believe that these things do happen in real life，and quite often.

Now，when I can't decide whether to help someone who is in need，I remember this woman，and then I have the courage to step up to the plate. Sometimes other people follow.

    From the earliest times, man has been interested in art. People have often worked together to collect and save the world's art treasures.

    Fine art treasures from many countries are kept in an art museum called the Louvre in Paris, France. The works of art have been collected by the people of France over many centuries.

    The Louvre has not always been a museum. The first building was a fort(炮台).In 1190, it was the king's castle with high walls and a round tower. It had a moat to prevent his enemies from walking in.

    Over the years, the number of buildings around the castle grew. By 1350, the castle was no longer needed as a fort. The Louvre became a palace home for French kings and queens.

    During times of peace, new treasures were brought in. During days of war, many treasures were stolen, and the buildings were damaged.

    When Francis I became king of France in 1515, he brought in artists from many countries. One of the artists was Leonardo Da Vinci from Italy. Da Vinci's "Mona Lisa" is the best known painting in the museum today.

    In 1793, the Louvre became a public museum, just as it is now. It is a place where art treasures have been saved for everyone to enjoy.

    US Space Agency Returns to Mars with InSight Lander

    The American space agency's lander InSight is to arrive on Mars at the end of November, 2018. Unlike NASA's Curiosity rover, InSight will not move across the planet's surface. Instead it will become the first spacecraft (航天器) used only for exploring underground. It will study the geography of Mars, searching for signs of Martian (火星的) quakes.

    InSight is a project of U.S. and Europe. It is 6 meters long and 1.5 meters wide. It weighs 360kilograms. InSight's 1 .8 -meter robotic arm will put two experiments in place. Both are designed toexplore underground of Mars to learn about the inside.

    Bruce Banerdt is the lead scientist for InSight. He viewed the spacecraft as a robot that can take care of itself. "It's got its own brain. It's got an arm. It can listen and feel things. It pulls its own power out of the sun," he noted.

    Thomas Zurbuchen, one of the heads in NASA, said the results of the InSight project could "change the way we think about the inside of our earth." But, first, InSight will have to land on Mars undamaged. Since Mars exploration started in the 1960s, only about 40 percent of the explorations have succeeded.

    Tom Hoffman is InSight's project manager. He said earlier successes do not lessen the concerns for each new exploration. "That we ve done it before doesn't mean we're not nervous and excited about doing it again," he said.

    InSight will enter the Martian atmosphere (大气层) traveling at 19,800 kilometers an hour. It will slow for landing on a wide flat area on Mars. If all goes well, InSight could carry out its experiments in about 10 weeks. The InSight project is expected to continue for one Martian year, about two years on Earth.

    If a family member blames you for something you have done, it is important to be careful about how you defend yourself. It is not a good idea to use ways that cause hurt, even if they would help you make a valid point. If you can think of an instance where the other person has done exactly what they accuse you of, for example, it would not be good manners to throw it in their face. You should only bring it up if you don't have a choice. Then, you should make sure that you do it respectfully.

    Even if a family member intentionally goes against reasonable wishes you may have, you should understand that people see even the most fundamental things in very different ways. Remember that people are different. If you consider any noise after midnight to be intolerable, for example, others may see it is completely acceptable. It can take them a great deal of time to change their behavior for a demand that they do not understand.

    Think about the family conflicts that you are worried about now. Check to see if your parents had similar problems. People who grow up with parents who fight unfairly often repeat the same behavior. Consider changing the unfair habits that you grew up with.

    Understand that memories tend to change. In long-standing family disputes, all parties involved tend to have completely different recollections of the original problem.

    Families are a curious concept—while family members often feel nothing but annoyed for one another, they will also often be there for them if they should ever be in serious trouble. When you feel resentment for someone, think about how far you would go for them if they happened to be in trouble. It could help soften you. Think about how you care for the other person.

Take one step closer to the lights on Broadway－build essential theater skills and start carving out your own creative professional path

Immersing themselves in the amazing, unparalleled New York theater scene, students will explore and analyze the craft, including creating an original piece and meeting professionals in the field. Throughout the term, students will use both classroom work and site visits around the downtown to examine and complete the creative process of taking an initial idea to production, gaining technical expertise (专业知识) and fluency in theater.

Students will also explore different areas of professional skill development, including playwriting structure and techniques, acting methods that help bring a play to life, scene structure. The course is open to all students－from those who are curious about the field but have no prior experience to those who already have one (or more!) plays, waiting to be developed.

Course Highlights

● Complete a hands-on experience in playwriting, acting and production, learning about the real processes the industry uses to create theater productions.

● Brainstorm, develop a concept, write and workshop a draft of a short play or scene, and bring it to stage with input and feedback from instructors and peers.

● Get a close-up view of the often-opaque (不透明的) business of theater, focusing on impacts to the profession brought about by social movements and current events.

Tuition*

● Residential Program (Students live in dorm-like facilities in the center of the city): $6,845

● Day Program (Students commute to class every day and do not receive accommodation and board): $5,560

(We encourage graduating seniors to apply before June 21, 2024 for a $425 discount on tuition.)

Term Date: July 21－Aug 2, 2024

Application Deadline: Friday, July 12, 2024

Contact Admission: info@nytedu.com

*We believe financial circumstances should not prevent someone from joining our program. Explore financial aid and scholarships.Learn More