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The Conjuring 2 (2016)

Certificate R 134 min—Horror

Viewer points: 8.2 / 10

Lorraine and Ed Warren travel to north London to help a single mother raising four children alone in a house troubled by evil spirits.

Director: James Wan

Stars: Vera Farmiga, Patrick Wilson, Madison Wolfe, Frances O'Connor

Warcraft (2016)

Certificate PG-13 123 min—Action | Adventure | Fantasy

Viewer points: 7.7 / 10

The peaceful land of Azeroth stands on the edge of war as its civilization (文明) faces a fearsome race of invaders: orc (兽族) warriors escaping their dying home to conquer another. As a tunnel opens to connect the two worlds, one army faces destruction and the other faces extinction. From opposing sides, two heroes are set on a collision course that will decide the fate of their family, their people, and their home.

Director: Duncan Jones

Stars: Travis Fimmel, Paula Patton, Ben Foster, Dominic Cooper

Now You See Me 2 (2016)

Certificate PG-13 129 min—Action | Comedy | Thriller

Viewer points: 7.1 / 10

The Four Horsemen resurface and are forcibly hired by a tech genius to pull off their most impossible magic show yet.

Director: Jon M. Chu

Stars: Jesse Eisenberg, Mark Ruffalo, Woody Harrelson, Dave Franco

Me Before You (2016)

Certificate PG-13 110 min—Drama | Romance

Viewer points: 7.9 /10

A girl in a small town forms an unlikely bond with a recently-disabled man she's taking care of.

Director: Thea Sharrock

Stars: Emilia Clarke, Sam Claflin, Janet McTeer, Charles Dance

根据短文内容，选择最佳答案，并将选定答案的字母标号填在题前括号内。

    The 2012 Nobel Prize for Literature was awarded to Mo Yan for his writing that mixes folk tales, history and the modern events with hallucinatory realism（魔幻现实主义）, the Swedish Academy announced.

    The 57-year-old is the first Chinese resident to win the prize. Only one other Chinese-language writer has won the Nobel Prize for Literature. Gao Zingjian was honored in 2000. However, he is a French citizen.

    Mr Mo said he was “overjoyed and scared” when he learned he had won the award. He will receive his Nobel diploma, a medal and more than one million dollars at a ceremony in Stockholm in December.

    China is celebrating the victory of this native son. Minutes after the award was announced, millions of Chinese expressed pleasure and pride for Mo Yan on social media websites. Senior CPC leader Li Changchun has congratulated Mo Yan on winning the 2012 Nobel Literature Prize. Li says in a letter to the China Writers Association that Mo's winning of the prize reflects the prosperity and progress of the Chinese literature.

    His real name is Guan Moye. Mo Yan means “Don't Speak.” The writer said he chose the name to remember to stop his tongue from getting him in trouble. Mo Yan's novel “Red Sorghum” first became a cable hit on the big screen both at home and abroad in 1987. The film was directed by Zhang Yimou and marked the acting start of Gong Li.

    As a productive author, Mo has published dozens of short stories, with his first work published in 1981. Mo Yan's other major works include, “Big Breasts and Wide Hips,” “Republic of Wine” and “Life and Death Are Wearing Me Out.”

    The arts, especially music, should be part of every school's lessons at every grade level. Students would be much smarter if they had musical experience. They could improve their classroom skills, like paying attention and following directions. People develop all these skills when they learn music. Making music also lets children use their imagination. It provides students with a chance to try out their own ideas.

    Music not only makes children better students, but also gives them something positive to do. In a music program, children can be part of a band instead of joining a gang(团伙). Parents can enjoy listening to their children's music instead of seeing them glued to a computer or TV screen. In a school band, students get to be part of a team. They can get along well with old friends and make new friends through music.

    Music builds self-confidence, too. It gives children a sense of achievement and success. Making music is something for them to be proud of. And it lets kids practice performing in front of an audience. Music gives children an opportunity for self-expression, and that helps develop their self-confidence.

    Once again, music is important because it can make children better students, give them something positive to do, and build their character. That is why music should be offered in every single grade in every school.

    After the operation, Peter suffered severe pain, but insisted that he didn't need any treatment. One evening, he found Susan, his wife, crying in the kitchen of their apartment in a rare outburst of frustration. “If you won't help yourself, no one else can,” she said.

    Peter started a list “How to Help Myself”, and on it he wrote, “Keep communicating with the doctors, even if they are dark thoughts.” On October 20th, a few days before his 33 birthday, Peter wrote in a Facebook post, “It's been hard to get along with having an incurable Grade 4 brain cancer; it's been hard not to get angry and sad about it; and it's been hard to accept that modern medicine isn't able to fix me.” But at the same time, he wrote, “Every day I wake up not-dead is a gift.”

    Peter and Susan had other lists, detailing the things that they hoped to accomplish in life, which included a trip to Wimbledon; climbing Mt. Snowdon in Wales; and a list of musical wishes—from learning the Bach sonatas (奏鸣曲) and partitas (变奏曲) to performing the first violin part in a concert.

    Peter started working on Bach's six sonatas and partitas, the most difficult parts, which George Enescu, a world-famous violinist, once described as the Himalayas (喜马拉雅山) for violinists. Peter practiced every day, even if he could manage only fifteen minutes between medical treatments. As he mastered each piece, he posted his performances on Facebook. He finished on November 12th, then turned to the even more difficult Paganini caprices (随想曲), which he had often listened to in a recording by Itzhak Perlman. “It's something I always wanted to play when I grew up, like wanting to be a great baseball player,” he said.

    Nowadays, most people have a device that features artificial intelligence (AI), with the likes of Siri always there to greet us with a friendly voice.

    But Microsoft's XiaoIce is different. Launched in 2014 for the Chinese market, "she" has a creative advantage over her competitors. While most AI assistants simply read out information they get online, XiaoIce has a "realness" that the others are short of. Indeed, if you asked nicely, she could read you a poem from the weekly column in China Daily.

    The newspaper has been printing XiaoIce's self-penned poetry each week since Aug 19, taken from her own book of poems, The Sunlight that Lost the Glass Window.

    To turn XiaoIce into a master of poetry, Microsoft scientists "fed" her the works of over 500 influential modern poets, reported China Daily.

    This led to her figuring out a writing style of her own and creating over 70,000 original poems. Most of the poems are so comparable to those written by humans that they cannot be easily distinguished, and XiaoIce's book even got good feedback from experts.

    "XiaoIce's work carries a strange taste. The more you chew on it, the more interesting it becomes," Scholar Zhang, a literature professor at the Nanjing University of Science and Technology, told China Daily.

    However, it seems not everyone is a fan. "The poems dissatisfied me with their slippery tone and rhythm. The sentences were aimless, lacking the inner logic for emotional expression," Yunnan-based poet Yu told China Youth Daily. This isn't the first AI to attempt poetry. Last year, Google's Parsey McParseface made some poems of its own, although they were branded "wrongly" by reviewers. While it seems like AI is becoming more "intelligent" and less "artificial" all the time, when it comes to creativity, perhaps this is one job that software should leave to us humans.

    There are two types of people in the world. Although they have equal degree of health and wealth and other comforts of life, one becomes happy and the other becomes unhappy. This arises from the different ways in which they consider things, persons, events and the resulting effects upon their minds.

    People who are to be happy fix their attention on the convenience of things: the pleasant parts of conversation, the well prepared dishes, the goodness of the wine and the fine weather. They enjoy all the cheerful things. Those who are to be unhappy think and speak only of the opposite things. Therefore, they are continually dissatisfied. By their remarks, they sour the pleasure of society, offend (hurt) many people, and make themselves disagreeable everywhere. If this turn of mind was founded in nature, such unhappy persons would be the more to be pitied. The intention of criticizing (批评) and being disliked is perhaps taken up by imitation (模仿). It grows into a habit, unknown to its possessors. The habit may be strong, but it may be cured when those who have it realize its bad effects on their interests and tastes. I hope this little warning may be of service to them, and help them change this habit.

    Although in fact it is chiefly an act of the imagination, it has serious results in life since it brings on deep sorrow and bad luck. Those people offend many others; nobody loves them, and no one treats them with more than the most common politeness and respect. This frequently puts them in bad temper and draws them into arguments. If they aim at getting some advantages in social position or fortune, nobody wishes them success. Nor will anyone start a step or speak a word to favor their hopes. If they bring on themselves public objections, no one will defend or excuse them, and many will join to criticize their wrongdoings. These should change this bad habit and be pleased with what is pleasing, without worrying needlessly about themselves and others. If they do not, it will be good for others to avoid any contact (接触) with them. Otherwise, it can be disagreeable and sometimes very inconvenient, especially when one becomes mixed up in their quarrels.