Looking at China's history over the past 60 years，it is apparent that，despite much suffering，the country has achieved huge political，economic and social success，especially during the past three decades.

    The press center for the celebration of the 60th founding anniversary of new China was officially opened on the morning of September 22. Zha Shouchen，deputy director of the press center introduced that，during the National Day，there would be 3,200 domestic reporters，and more than 1,300 foreign journalists to come to Beijing to make the covering work.

    The press center provided many services for domestic and foreign reporters，such as issuing the press cards to reporters，accepting the interview application，organizing press conferences and activities of group interviews，providing the means of communication and information services for reporters.And the following was the scene.

    A grand parade in Beijing on Oct.1，led by the People's Liberation Army and the People's Armed Police Force，showed some of China's latest achievements in defense modernization.About 8,000 military officers，along with tanks and other vehicles，formed a straight line stretching 3 kms.

    The military parade was followed by a civilian parade featuring six massive performing groups and 36 formations of about 100,000 people.In addition,60 floats(彩车)represented everything from the country's geographic areas to the previous year's Beijing Olympics.

    Everyday life in China is a parade on a grand scale，with citizens now being able to enjoy things their ancestors did not dare to contemplate 100 years ago，things their grandparents took for luxury 60 years ago，and things their parents did not even know how to attempt 30 years ago.

What's On?

Electric Underground

7:30pm－1:00am   Free at the Cyclops Theatre

    Do you know who's playing in your area? We're bringing you an exciting evening of live rock and pop music from the best local bands. Are you interested in becoming a musician and getting a recording contract (合同)? If so, come early to the talk at 7:30pm by Jules Skye, a successful record producer. He's going to talk about how you can find the right person to produce your music.

Gee Whizz

8:30pm-10:30pm   Comedy at Kaleidoscope

    Come and see Gee Whizz perform. He's the funniest stand-up comedian on the comedy scene. This joyful show will please everyone, from the youngest to the oldest. Gee Whizz really knows how to make you laugh! Our bar is open from 7:00pm for drinks and snacks (快餐).

Simon's Workshop

5:00pm-7:30pm    Wednesdays at Victoria Stage

    This is a good chance for anyone who wants to learn how to do comedy. The workshop looks at every kind of comedy, and practices many different ways of making people laugh. Simon is a comedian and actor who has 10 years' experience of teaching comedy. His workshops are exciting and fun. An evening with Simon will give you the confidence to be funny.

Charlotte Stone

8:00pm-11:00pm Pizza World

    Fine food with beautiful jazz music; this is a great evening out. Charlotte Stone will perform songs from her new best-selling CD, with James Pickering on the piano. The menu is Italian, with excellent meat and fresh fish, pizzas and pasta (面食). Book early to get a table. Our bar is open all day, and serves cocktails, coffee, beer, and white wine.

    It was almost the worst birthday of Abraham Lincoln's life.

    On February 11, 1861 (the day before he turned fifty-two), Lincoln left for Washington to become the nation's sixteenth President. As he left home in Springfield, Illinois, Lincoln handed his son Robert a black oilskin(油布) bag, and told him to keep it carefully. He did not tell Robert what was inside.

    Unknown to his seventeen-year-old son, Lincoln had placed his newly written inaugural speech in the bag. It was to be the most important speech he ever made. And it was his only copy.

When the train arrived in Indianapolis—the first stop on the long journey—Lincoln rode off in a special carriage without his family. Robert walked from the station to the local hotel.

    When Robert arrived at the hotel, he learned that his family's rooms were not ready. So he asked that the bag should be held at the front desk. Then he went off to be with friends.

    On his return, Robert found his father waiting anxiously. Where was the bag? Robert explained that he had checked it at the desk.

An angry Lincoln sped to the hall and leaped over the front desk. He began searching through a huge pile of luggage.

    As puzzled guests looked on, Lincoln dragged from the pile a familiar-looking black bag and opened it, only to find someone else's dirty clothes. It was the wrong bag. Back he went to the pile.

    At last he found the valuable bag and the speech inside. Lincoln handed it to his son and said strictly, “Now you keep it!”

    It was the one and only time, Robert said, that his father had ever lost his temper at him. But with his speech fond and his birthday yet to be celebrated, Abraham Lincoln grew cheerful. As Robert proudly recalled, “Father did not scold(责骂).”

Plastic-Eating Worms

    Humans produce more than 300 million tons of plastic every year. Almost half of that winds up in landfills(垃圾填埋场), and up to 12 million tons pollute the oceans. So far there is no effective way to get rid of it, but a new study suggests an answer may lie in the stomachs of some hungry worms.

    Researchers in Spain and England recently found that the worms of the greater wax moth can break down polyethylene, which accounts for 40% of plastics. The team left 100 wax worms on a commercial polyethylene shopping bag for 12 hours, and the worms consumed and broke down about 92 milligrams, or almost 3% of it. To confirm that the worms' chewing alone was not responsible for the polyethylene breakdown, the researchers made some worms into paste(糊状物) and applied it to plastic films. 14 hours later the films had lost 13% of their mass — apparently broken down by enzymes (酶) from the worms' stomachs. Their findings were published in Current Biology in 2017.

    Federica Bertocchini, co-author of the study, says the worms' ability to break down their everyday food — beeswax — also allows them to break down plastic. “Wax is a complex mixture, but the basic bond in polyethylene, the carbon-carbon bond, is there as well,” she explains, “The wax worm evolved a method or system to break this bond. ”

    Jennifer DeBruyn, a microbiologist at the University of Tennessee, who was not involved in the study, says it is not surprising that such worms can break down polyethylene. But compared with previous studies, she finds the speed of breaking down in this one exciting. The next step, DeBruyn says, will be to identify the cause of the breakdown. Is it an enzyme produced by the worm itself or by its gut microbes(肠道微生物)?

    Bertocchini agrees and hopes her team's findings might one day help employ the enzyme to break down plastics in landfills. But she expects using the chemical in some kind of industrial process — not simply “millions of worms thrown on top of the plastic.”

    Have you ever learned about F. Scott Fitzgerald? F. Scott Fitzgerald, born on September 24, 1896, an American novelist, was once a student of St. Paul Academy, the Newman School and attended Princeton. University for a short while. In 1917 he joined the army and was posted in Alabama, where he met his future wife Zelda Sayre. Then he had to make some money to impress her.

    His life with her was full of great happiness, as he wrote in his diary:" My own happiness in the past often approached such joy that I could share it even with the person dearest to me but had to walk it away in quiet streets and take down parts of it in my diary."

    This side of paradise, his first novel, was published in 1920. Encouraged by its success, Fitzgerald began to devote more time to his writing. Then he continued with the novel the Beautiful and Damned (1922), a collection of short stories Thales of the Jazz Age (1922), and a play The Vegetable (1923). But his greatest success was The Great Gatsby, published in 1925, which quick brought him praise from the literary world. Yet it failed to give him the needed financial security. Then, in 1926, he published another collection of short stories All the Sad Young Men.

    However, Fitzgerald's problems with his wife Zelda affected his writing. During the 1920s he tried to reorder his life, but failed. By 1930, his wife had her first breakdown and went to a Swiss clinic. During this period he completed novels Tender Is the Night in 1934 and The Love of the Last Tycoon in 1940 while his wife was in hospital in the United States, he got totally addicted to alcohol. Sheila Graham, his dear friend, helped him fight his alcoholism.