Bell Teacher Campus 2016: Cultural Talks

    Our talks start at 16:00 on the first week in August, and each one lasts about one hour. Each talk will be offered only once during your 4-day stay. Please sign up on the main Bell Noticeboard (Second floor, Mary Allan Building).

August 1st

    BRITISH MUSIC, by Pete Sharma in Room 106. British music is famous worldwide. In this talk, I'll discuss what's popular and what's not right now and the top music festivals in the UK. We will listen to some of the artists and share some thoughts about singing and dancing.

August 2nd

    LOVE ME, LOVE MY CAT, by Lis Harrison in Room 207. We will be looking at this national interest through idioms(习语), songs, and everyday British life, and along the way covering some vocabulary for “talking cat”. At the end, we'll be discussing that old topic: do we Brits treat out pets better than we treat our kids?

August 3rd

    A GAME AS ENGLISH AS CROQUET(槌球游戏)，by Anna Young in Room 218. First, we will look at the origins of croquet, a much loved garden game in England. We will look at simple croquet rules, and then practice time! We'll go out and play!

August 4th

    WHY ENGLISH PEOPLE LAUGH, by Jim Scrivener in Room 117. Let me try to show you a little bit of what British people find funny. You will discover some of the most popular radio& TV comedy game shows. You probably won't find it funny at all! But you will learn a bit more about us Brits!

    An interesting study posted on Facebook recently shows how men and women develop new interests as they mature(成熟).

    While women tend to take exercise seriously from the age of 34, men will wait until their 45th birthdays before working hard to get in shape.The average woman spends more time talking about sports, politics, career and money as she gets older.

    Women's interest in books reaches its peak(顶峰) at the age of 22, while that of men does so when they are in their 50s.

    Men start to change their focus from the workplace to other things after age 30, while women do not do so until eight years later. Both, however, care most about fashion at age 16.

    The research used anonymous(匿名的) data donated by thousands of Facebook users, recording the statuses, 'likes' and 'interests' they had posted on their profiles.

    It found the average woman talks about television most at 44, while men peak much younger, at age 31.

    Men are also most likely to see a film in a cinema at age 31, while women go out to see films most when they are only 19.

    Men are most interested in travel at 29, women at 27, while women talk most about food and drink at 35, and men at 38.

    And if you are middle aged, a safe topic for any audience is the weather, which is a key interest for many as they approach 60.

    Stephen Wolfram, the British scientist who carried out the research, says, “It's almost shocking how much this tells us about the changes of people's typical interests.

    “People talk less about video games as they get older, and more about politics.”

    It is interesting to see that the force of only 6 or 7 people pushing in the same direction can cause up to 1,000 pounds of force-enough to break brick walls. During a deadly stampede(逃奔), people can even die standing up. People die when pressure is put to their bodies in a front to back direction, causing them not to be able to breathe.

    If you are in a crowd, the first and most important thing is to make yourself familiar with your surroundings and find different exits. No matter where you are, make sure you always know how to get out.

    Make yourself aware of the type of the ground you are standing on, and know that in a crowd of moving people wet ground can cause you to fall.

    When in danger, a few seconds can make a difference, giving you the possibility of making use of your escaping route. Always stay closer to the escape route. If you find yourself in the middle of a moving crowd, do not fight against the pressure, do not stand still or sit down, because you can easily get trampled（踩踏）. Instead, move in the same direction of the crowd; make use of any space that may open up to move sideways to the crowd movement where the flow is weaker.

    Keep your hands up by your chest, like a boxer-it gives you movement and protects your chest. If you fall, get up quickly. If you can't get up because you are injured, get someone to pull you up. If you have kids, lift them up.

    If you fall and cannot get up, keep moving in the same direction of the crowd, or if that is not possible, then cover your head with your arms; do not lie on your stomach or back.

    It is 2018; e-books are loved by many people. Do you read them?

    An e-book is an electronic book, which can be made from common books and loaded onto an e-reader. The e-reader is a mini-device, just like a cell-phone. It has a touch pad screen and can hold a few hundred e-books. People can read e-books on it just like they do a book. So it is possible for people to read anywhere with an e-reader. This is perfect news for people who love to read books but can't carry many.

    Another great thing is that people can read books on it quickly and there's no need for two hands to hold the book and turn pages. Most e-readers also have a nightlight, so you can read at night and don't wake your partner with a big light on.

    Not all book authors agree to make their books into e-books. The creator of Harry Potter says that her books will never be e-books. However, lots of authors absolutely love the idea and feel it's the next step to keep books alive.

    Nowadays e-books are sold in many websites, from where you can buy and load them onto your e-reader. Those websites look just like ordinary online bookstores and have a list of best sellers and a new book section. There is also a clear price on each e-book to make sure people can buy them like buying common books.

    It is believed that some of animals think a great deal. Many of them are like children in their sports. Some birds are very lively in their sports; and the same is true with some insects. The ants, hardworking as they are, have their times for play. They run races; they wrestle; and sometimes they have mock fights together. Very busy must be their thoughts while engaged in these sports.

    Animals think much while building their houses. The bird searches for what it can use in building its nest, and in doing this it thinks. The beavers think as they build their dams and their houses. They think in getting their materials, and also in arranging them, and in plastering them together with mud. Some spiders build houses which could scarcely have been made except by some thinking creature.

    As animals think, they learn. Some learn more than others. The parrot learns to talk, though in some other respects it is quite stupid. The mocking bird learns to imitate a great many different sounds. The shepherd dog does not know as much about most things as some other dogs, and yet he understands very well how to take care of sheep.

    Though animals think and learn, they do not make any real improvement in their ways of doing things, as men do. Each kind of bird has its own way of building a nest, and it is always the same way. They have no new fashions, and learn none from each other.

    It is plain that, while animals learn about things by their senses as we do, they do not think nearly as much about what they learn, and this is the reason why they do not improve more rapidly. Even the wisest of them, as the elephant and the dog, do not think very much about what they see and hear. Nor is this all. There are some things that we understand, but about which animals know nothing. They have no knowledge of anything that happens outside of their own observation. Their minds are so much unlike ours that they do not know the difference between right and wrong.

I didn't go to Santiago,Chile to look for friendship.In fact,Chile was not even on my wish list.

A mid-life crisis woman,I got a chance to study abroad.I only wanted to learn about global business,taste South American  cuisine,and  check"study  abroad"off my  wish  list.

On the fifth day,I joined a group for a neighborhood work project aided by the anti-poverty(扶贫)organization. Our tasks were to build a water tower and paint the community center.Upon arrival,I couldn't believe my eyes.It was like a scene out of a horrible film.That moment redefined poverty for me because I had never seen such terrible living conditions.As advised,I showed no signs of the emotional battle going on inside me.

Just as I was about to start work on painting,a request came through for a few volunteers to help Nadia,a local resident who volunteered to cook for us.I raised my hand to help because I wanted to spend time with the people of the neighborhood despite my shortage of Spanish speaking skills.  Nadia had a sincere smile but not overly friendly.Even without speaking each other's language,we started to learn about one another.We chatted about our children,our upbringing,shared pictures of our family,struggled to instruct each other to communicate in the other's language,and laughed many times.

After we fed everybody and the dishes were washed,my day was over.But I found myself hesitant to leave.It was as if I had known her my entire life.I had not predicted the unselfishness of heart I would encounter,and it was moving.

As we were waiting for the car to pick us up,Nadia showed me her plants that are well-maintained.I could see that despite the hard conditions she was passionate about life.She made me long to be a stronger person.She showed me that poverty was external,but happiness was internal.I was seeking to give 100 percent for a well-intentioned cause,but I left receiving 200 percent from her.