English Conversation

Leader: Mandi Ashmore

english@ iwc-lausanne. org

    We meet on Mondays at 14：30 at the IWC clubhouse. We chat for about an hour and discuss everything. Mandi asks “students” to contact her on Monday to confirm the class as sometimes she needs to cancel for various reasons or occasionally she may choose to hold the class at a different venue(举办地点) or at an earlier time for us to be able to have lunch together.

French Conversation, Advanced Beginner

Leader: Marielle Sulmoni

frenchconvo@ iwc-lausanne. org

    I'm French (born in Bordeaux) and Swiss by marriage. I hold an advanced beginners' French conversation class on Tuesday afternoons from 14：30 - 16：00. We meet weekly at the clubhouse in a friendly atmosphere. I hope to help you use your knowledge of French, allowing you to speak with no fear of making mistakes, which in time will become fewer and fewer.

French Language Lab, Beginner

Leader: Maija Remlinger

frenchlab@ iwc-lausanne. org

    The group meets on Thursday afternoons from 15：00－16：30 at the clubhouse. The first half of the class is devoted to reading out loud from the book “Easy French Reader”, working on pronunciation and phrasing. During the second half, we listen to audio recordings from “New French with Ease” and work on oral comprehension.

French Conversation, Advanced

Leader: Juliette Brull

french@ iwc-lausanne, org

    We meet every Tuesday at the IWC clubhouse from 9：30－11：00. Most of our time is devoted to very lively discussions about current events and various topics. We also read a book written by a French author and sometimes we see a French movie.

Five years ago, when I taught art at a school in Seattle, I used Tinkertoys as a test at the beginning of a term to find out something about my students. I put a small set of Tinkertoys in front of each student, and said: "Make something out of the Tinkertoys. You have 45 minutes today-and 45 minutes each day for the rest of the week."

    A few students hesitated to start. They waited to see what the rest of the class would do. Several others checked the instructions and made something according to one of the model plans provided. Another group built something out of their own imaginations.

    Once I had a boy who worked experimentally with Tinkertoys in his free time. His constructions filled a shelf in the art classroom and a good part of his bedroom at home. I was delighted at the presence of such a student. Here was an exceptionally creative mind at work. His presence meant that I had an unexpected teaching assistant in class whose creativity would infect other students.

Encouraging this kind of thinking has a downside. I ran the risk of losing those students who had a different style of thinking. Without fail one would declare, "But I'm just not creative."

"Do you dream at night when you're asleep?"

"Oh, sure."

"So tell me one of your most interesting dreams." The student would tell something wildly imaginative. Flying in the sky or in a time machine or growing three heads. "That's pretty creative. Who does that for you?"

"Nobody. I do it."

"Really — at night, when you're asleep?"

"Sure."

"Try doing it in the daytime, in class, okay?"

    While waiting for my daughter I treated myself with a coffee which I used to be so dependent on that when I stopped it I had headache for days. So while I was enjoying my rate moment, I was attracted by an old men who seemed not well

I could not see his face to be sure, as it was laid between his folded arms on the table. He had a long warm coat, and a big backpack which made me think he could be a homeless. I quit wondering, went to his table, patted him on the arm and asked him, "Are you OK?" He raised his head and said something in a whisper, nodding yes. I realized by the strong smell that he was indeed a homeless man.

I asked him if he was hungry. He responded but I could not understand his answer. However, I didn't give up and asked him if he would like some rice balls at which he raised his head saying clearly this time that he would be thankful for a rice bait Immediately I went to the nearest shop and bought a drink and a warm lunch box, and brought them to him. He said "thank you" but didn't eat right away and made no move, maybe because he was a little shy in the presence of a lady.

    So I left them on his table and changed my waiting place. When I passed again nearby, he was eating. You should have sensed my great pleasure. I was so grateful that I had the ways to help an old man even if only for a moment of his life.

    NASA might be famous for sending rockets up to space quickly. But it will be more famous for making your next holiday come more quickly.

    The space agency is working on a new plane, which could solve the problems of supersonic(超音速的) flight and vastly increase the speed of journeys abroad. If successful, the plane would be able to fly between New York and London in just three hours. And it would reduce the time spent flying other journeys by a half, since it could be used more broadly. Until now, the problem with such planes has been the sonic boom(声爆), made famous by the original Concorde. That happens when a plane reaches supersonic speeds.

    It is a thunderous noise that upsets people on the ground— disturbing animals and even causing physical problems to materials and houses underneath. It was that effect that led Congress to ban such planes from being used over the US land, a decision that in turn was responsible for Concorde's failing to be commercially used.

    In view of the problem, the space agency has developed a new technology and tried it out in wind tunnels, and now believes that it could be put to commercial use. That plane will fly as high as 55,000 feet—far higher than normal planes—and make a sound of only 60 decibels. That's far less than 90 decibels thrown out by normal planes, and is roughly in line with a car on the motorway or a busy restaurant.

    “As long as we can get endorsement from the general public, the plane will probably be something that's acceptable,” said Peter Coen, project manager for NASA's commercial supersonic research team, in a new Bloomberg report. “If we get approved, we will have the full-sized version of the plane tried out and the plane will be put into use.”

    One of my wonderful memories is about a Christmas gift. Unlike other gifts, it came without wrap(包装).

    On September 11^th, 1958. Mum gave birth to Richard. After she brought him home from hospital, she put him in my lap, saying. "I promised you a gift, and here it is." What an honor! I turned four a month earlier and none of my friends had such a baby doll of their own. I played with it day and night. I sang to it. I told it stories. 1 told it over and over how much I loved it!

    One morning, however, I found its bed empty. My doll was gone! I cried for it. Mum wept and told me that the poor little thing had been sent to a hospital. It had a fever. For several days, I heard Mum and Dad whispering such words as "hopeless", "pitiful", and "dying", which sounded ominous.

    Christmas was coming. "Don't expect any presents this year." Dad said, pointing at the socks I hung in the living room. "If your baby brother lives, that'll be Christmas enough." As he spoke, his eyes filled with tears. I'd never seen him cry before.

    The phone rang early on Christmas morning. Dad jumped out of bed to answer it. From my bedroom I heard him say. "What? He's all right?" He hung up and shouted upstairs. "The hospital said we can bring Richard home!" "Thank God." I heard Mum cry.

    From the upstairs window, I watched my parents rush out to the car. I had never seen them happy. And I was also full of joy. What a wonderful day! My baby doll would be home. I downstairs. My sacks still hung there flat. But I knew they were not empty; they were filled with love!

During China's dynastic period, emperors planned the city of Beijing {#blank#}1{#/blank#} arranged the residential areas according to social classes. The term "hutong", {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (original) meaning "water well" in Mongolian, appeared first during the Yuan Dynasty.

In the Ming Dynasty, the center was the Forbidden City, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} (surround) in concentric (同心的) circles by the Inner City and Outer City. Citizens of higher social classes {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (permit) to live closer to the center of the circles. The large siheyuan of these high-ranking officials and wealthy businessmen often {#blank#}5{#/blank#} (feature) beautifully carved and painted roof beams and pillars (柱子). The hutongs they formed were orderly, lined by {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (space) homes and walled gardens. Farther from the center lived the commoners and laborers. Their siheyuan were far smaller in scale and {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (simple) in design and decoration, and the hutongs were narrower.

Hutongs represent an important cultural element of the city of Beijing. Thanks to Beijing's long history {#blank#}8{#/blank#} capital of China, almost every hutong has its stories, and some are even associated with historic {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (event). In contrast to the court life and upper-class culture represented by the Forbidden City, the Summer Palace, and the Temple of Heaven, the hutongs reflect {#blank#}10{#/blank#} culture of grassroots Beijingers.