I walked to Mrs. Windsor's house and waited outside. She was working with another student, and I was not supposed to bother them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and daydreamed what I'd rather be doing. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn't have a gift for it. Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons for free, so I felt my duty to try.

    The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to sort through my sheet music. Today Mrs. Windsor introduced her niece Pasha to teach me. With a smile, Pasha sat beside me on the piano bench, opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I arranged my fingers on the keys. Then I frowned(皱眉) and concentrated to make the notes on the page match the finger movements. I had to admit I was a rather mechanical (呆板的) pianist.

    After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as if to calm my fingers. There was a long pause. "What are you hearing in the music?" I looked at her rather strangely and admitted I didn't know what she meant. "Like a story. Here, let me try and you listen," Pasha advised.

    She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers dance lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. "See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?"

    Her fingers rose and fell gently on the keys. "Now the princess appears and she's picking flowers from the water's edge." A happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha's dancing fingers. "Oh, but she slips!" The music changed. "And our princess is being carried off by the fast-flowing stream. Quickly, the princess' horse sees her plight (困境) and races to the river's edge where he swims out to let her catch hold of him. Luckily, they make it to the bank." Pasha said.

    I played many pieces of music that afternoon, finding the stories in the music and learning that sometimes it takes a friend to pull you out of the river onto dry land again.

    The baby is just one day old and has not yet left hospital. She is quiet but alert (警觉的). Twenty centimeters from her face researchers have placed a white card with two black spots on it. She stares at it carefully. A researcher removes the card and replaces it by another, this time with the spots differently spaced. As the cards change from one to the other, her gaze(凝视) starts to lose its focus—until a third, with three black spots, is presented. Her gaze returns: she looks at it for twice as long as she did at the previous card. Can she tell that the number two is different from three, just 24 hours after coming into the world?

    Or do newborns simply prefer more to fewer? The same experiment, but with three spots shown before two, shows the same return of interest when the number of spots changes. Perhaps it is just the newness? When slightly older babies were shown cards with pictures of objects (a comb, a key, an orange and so on), changing the number of objects had an effect separate from changing the objects themselves. Could it be the pattern that two things make, as opposed to three? No again. Babies paid more attention to squares moving randomly(随意地)on a screen when their number changed from two to three, or three to two. The effect even crosses between senses. Babies who were repeatedly shown two spots became more excited when they then heard three drumbeats than when they heard just two; likewise(同样地) when the researchers started with drumbeats and moved to spots.

    It was the summer of 1965. DeLuca, then 17, visited Peter Buck, a family friend. Buck asked DeLuca about his plans for the future. “I'm going to college, but I need a way to pay for it,” DeLuca recalls saying. “Buck said, 'You should open a sandwich shop.' ”

    That afternoon, they agreed to be partners. And they set a goal: to open 32 stores in ten years. After doing some research, Buck wrote a check for $1000. DeLuca rented a storefront(店面) in Connecticut, and when they couldn't cover their start-up costs, Buck kicked in another $1000.

    But business didn't go smoothly as they expected. DeLuca says, “After six months, we were doing poorly, but we didn't know how badly, because we didn't have any financial controls.” All he and Buck knew was that their sales were lower than their costs.

    DeLuca was managing the store and going to the University of Bridgeport at the same time. Buck was working at his day job as a nuclear physicist in New York. They'd meet Monday evenings and brainstorm ideas for keeping the business running. “We convinced ourselves to open a second store. We figured we could tell the public, 'We are so successful, we are opening a second store.' ” And they did—in the spring of 1966. Still, it was a lot of learning by trial and error.

    But the partners' learn-as-you-go approach turned out to be their greatest strength. Every Friday, DeLuca would drive around and hand-deliver the checks to pay their suppliers. “It probably took me two and a half hours and it wasn't necessary, but as a result, the suppliers got to know me very well, and the personal relationships established really helped out,” DeLuca says.

    And having a goal was also important. “There are so many problems that can get you down. You just have to keep working toward your goal,” DeLuca adds.

    DeLuca ended up founding Subway Sandwich, the multimillion-dollar restaurant chain.

    Since 1904, Ravinia Festival has been Chicago's “sound of summer”, a place where you can meet up with your friends, have a wonderful time and hear some of the greatest music in the world. We've got stars on the stage and stars in the sky, and it's all within your reach. But there's more to Ravinia than merely the world's greatest music. For as many people who walk through Ravinia's gate each summer, there are just as many ways to enjoy what we call “The Ravinia Experience”. For some, it all starts with a picnic picked up along the way, greeting your friends at your favorite spot on the lawn.

    Ravinia Dining

    Whether you want to add a bottle of wine and some cheese to your picnic on the lawn or sit down to a meal, Ravinia has a wide variety of choices and we welcome you to explore them all.

    Ravinia gifts

    There are two locations for your shopping convenience! Visit our Main Store in the Dining Pavilion. There you will find different CDs, jewelry, games and more. Or fill your more immediate needs at the shop located behind the Martin Theatre.

    How to Buy Tickets Online

    Tickets for the 2018 season begin to go on sale online on Tuesday April 25. Ravinia Festival's online ticketing makes ordering tickets for your favorite performances easier than ever before. It is available 24 hours a day at www.ravinia.org.

    Click on the date of your choice to select an event, select your seats and add it to your ticket order. Once you have selected all the events you wish to attend, simply enter your payment information and submit your order.

    By Phone

    Phone sales for the 2018 season start on Monday May 22.

    Order tickets by phone by calling 847-266-5100.

    Monday- Friday: 10: 00 am-5: 00 pm

    Saturday/Sunday: Closed

    If you think can-do, and you're creative and persistent, it's amazing what you can accomplish. During college, I remember being told that to fulfill my language requirement, I would "have to" take a class that I had no interest in and was meaningless to me. Instead of taking this class, however, I decided to create my own. So I put together a list of books I would read and the assignments I would do and found a teacher to sponsor me. I then went to the dean of the school and presented my case. He bought into my idea and I completed my language requirement by taking my self-built course.

    American aviator Elinor Smith once said, "It has long since come to my attention that people of accomplishment rarely sat back and let things happen to them. They went out and happened to things."

    It's so true. To reach your goals in life, you must seize the initiative. If you're feeling bad about not being asked out on dates, don't just sit around and sulk, do something about it. Find ways to meet people. Be friendly and try smiling a lot. Ask them out. They may not know how great you are.

    Don't wait for that perfect job to fall in your lap, go after it. Send out your resume, network, volunteer to work for free.

    If you're at a store and need assistance, don't wait for the salesperson to find you, you find them.

    Some people mistake can-do for being pushy, aggressive, or obnoxious. Wrong. Can-do is courageous, persistent, and smart. Others think can-do people stretch the rules and make their own laws. Not so. Can-do thinkers are creative, enterprising, and extremely resourceful.

    George Bernard Shaw, the English playwright, knew all about can-do. Listen to how he said it: "People are always blaming their circumstances for what they are. I don't believe in circumstances. The people who get on in this world are the people who get up and look for the circumstances they want, and if they can't find them, make them."

Chinese brocade(云锦) has a history of 1,300 years. It {#blank#}1{#/blank#}(be) once for the Chinese elite. Now, young fashion{#blank#}2{#/blank#}(design) like it. Things like flames, beasts, weapons, and stars decorate the brocade. Flowers are a common pattern, like in a silk piece from the middle of the 18th century.

This art is very complex. Old craftsmen can only make about two{#blank#}3{#/blank#} (inch) of cloth a day. Traditional looms are 18 feet long and have thousands of parts. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (Operate) them needs dozens of steps. Artisans sing songs to remember the process. The made fabric is bright, {#blank#}5{#/blank#} patterns made of silk, gold, and peacock-feather yarn.

The {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (early) Chinese brocade is from the Tang Dynasty. Different regional kinds {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (develop) in places like Nanjing and Chengdu. Silk museums there let tourists buy real brocade scarves and bags. Factories can't copy this complex fabric. It can only be made on traditional looms. It is a proud symbol of cultural heritage and {#blank#}8{#/blank#}(appeal) to older Chinese people. More and more new fashion designers are working with{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (tradition) weavers. Designer Chen Liwen launched a series of scarves and accessories for Gen Z consumers last year with the hu bu tiger pattern. Ancient brocade seems closely tied {#blank#}10{#/blank#}China's future.