Flicks to check out

Le Havre (2011)

Time: Oct.21, 23-25

Venue: China National Film Museum

Price: 40 yuan

    Le Havre is a comedy-drama. It centers on a shoeshiner who takes pity on an immigrant child in the French port city Le Havre. He tries to save him by inviting him to his home. The film premiered(初次公演) in competition at the 2011 Cannes Film Festival, where it received the FIPRESCI Prize.

Mia et le Migou (2008)

Time: Oct. 29

Venue: China Film Archive

Price: to be announced

    Also known as Mia and the Migoo, this animated film describes the adventure of a young girl named Mia. Motivated by a premonition(预兆), Mia sets out on a journey across mountains and jungles to search for her father. The film won the European Film Award for Best Animated Feature. Director Jacques-Remy Girerd will also show up at China Film Archive.

Le Voyage dans la Lune (1902)

Time: Oct. 22, 24-25

Venue: China National Film Museum

Price: 20 yuan

    Also known as A Trip to the Moon, this silent movie was inspired by the French novels From the Earth to the Moon and Around the Moon, by Jules Verne. It follows a group of astronomers who travel to the moon and explore it. They meet lunar inhabitants and capture one before returning to Earth.

    Find schedule and ticket information about the French movie panorama at http://www. gewara.com/

    The China Film Archive will also present a short lecture before each French movie on how to understand it.

    It was a cold winter day. A woman drove up to the Rainbow Bridge tollbooth(收费站). “I'm paying for myself, and for the six cars behind me,” she said with a smile, handing over seven tickets. One after another, the next six drivers arriving at the tollbooth were informed, “Some lady up ahead already paid your fare.”

    It turned out that the woman, Natalie Smith, had read something on a friend's refrigerator: “Practice random(随意的) kindness and senseless acts of beauty.” The phrase impressed her so much that she copied it down.

    Judy Foreman spotted the same phrase on a warehouse(仓库) wall far away from home. When it stayed on her mind for days, she gave up and drove all the way back to copy it down. “I thought it was beautiful,” she said, explaining why she'd taken to writing it at the bottom of all her letters, “like a message from above.” Her husband, Frank, liked the phrase so much that he put it up on the classroom wall for his students, one of whom was the daughter of Alice Johnson, a local news reporter. Alice put it in the newspaper, admitting that though she liked it, she didn't know where it came from or what it really meant.

    Two days later, Alice got a call from Anne Herbert, a woman living in Marin. It was in a restaurant that Anne wrote the phrase down on a piece of paper, after turning it around in her mind for days.

    “Here's the idea,” Anne says. “Anything you think there should be more of, do it randomly.” Her fantasies(想象) include painting the classrooms of shabby schools, leaving hot meals on kitchen tables in the poor part of town, and giving money secretly to a proud old lady. Anne says, “Kindness can build on itself as much as violence can.”

    The acts of random kindness spread. If you were one of those drivers who found your fare paid, who knows what you might have been inspired to do for someone else later. Like all great events, kindness begins slowly, with every single act. Let it be yours!

    For thousands of years, people thought of glass as something beautiful to look at. Only in large glass windows. Glass bottles and jars that hold food and drink allow us to see the contents. Glass is used to make eyeglasses, microscopes, telescopes, and many other extremely useful and necessary things.

    Until the Second World War, most of the glass used for optical (光学的) instruments was imported from Europe. However, during the war Americans could not get European glass, and they were forced to make their own. Therefore, new kinds of glass were developed that had been previously unknown. These new effects were achieved by mixing other chemical elements with the sand. Some of the new glass is very strong and can resist many kinds of shocks. Legend (传说) has it that a kind of very hard glass was invented by a Roman who showed his discovery to the Emperor. When the Emperor saw the glass he feared that it would become more valuable than gold and sliver, making his treasure worthless. Therefore, he had the glass-maker killed, and the secret was not discovered again for hundreds of years.

    In the present century, safety glass was invented for use in modem cars and planes. Safety glass is made by placing a layer of plastic between two layers of plate glass. When the outside layer of glass is broken, the pieces do not scatter (散开) and injure people. Some glass of the type is strong enough to resist bullets (子弹).

    Although nowadays plastics have replaced glass under conditions where glass might be easily broken, there are new uses being developed, for the greatest advantage of glass is that its component (组成的) parts are inexpensive and can be found all over the world.

Dear Daisy,

    Phew! I'm so glad the day is over. I'm really tired, but my first day at school went well.

    First of all, we met outside the school building. I was very nervous because my primary school only had 300 pupils but in the middle school there are about 1300. What a difference! The older pupils are really big. I felt so small waiting there in front of the school.

    The head teacher came out and told us to go into the school hall. Then he called our names out to tell us which class we were in. My class teacher is called Mrs. Black. She took us to our classroom. It's on the 5th floor. We aren't allowed to use the lift! I couldn't believe it.

    We spent all morning with Mrs. Black looking at our timetables. Everyone in the school had a different timetable. I'm worried that I'll forget my timetable and go to the wrong room.

    Lunchtime was OK. I had salad, fish and fruit, which was quite good, and then I went to play football with some of the other boys. They were all friendly and I don't think it will take me long to make friends.

    After lunch we started lessons. I had maths and then history, where we started to learn about ancient Greece. That looked interesting. 1 have to do some homework tonight to find out how the ancient Greek people lived, so I'm going to do an Internet search and look it up in the library.

    So far so good. I am quite looking forward to tomorrow, even though I've got science. I hate science!

Yours,

Jason

    News China

    Circulation (发行量): 1 Year, 12 Issues

    Cover Price: $47.88 Price For You: $19.99

    Product Description: News China is the English edition of China Newsweek. The magazine covers the latest Chinese domestic news in politics, business, society, environment, culture, sports and travels, etc. It is the first comprehensive news magazine for readers interested in China.

    Better Life

    Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues

    Cover Price: $44.55 Price For You: $15.00

    Product Description: Designed for those who have a strong interest in personal lifestyle, Better Life is America's complete home and family service magazine. It offers help with food, recipes, decorating, building, gardening, family health, money management, and education.

    Apple Seeds

    Circulation: 1 Year, 9 Issues

    Cover Price: $44.55 Price For You: $33.95

    Product Description: Apple Seeds is an award winning magazine filled with stories for kids aged from 7 to 9. The cover is very soft, providing durability (耐用性) that allows each issue to be enjoyed for many years to come. Besides, there is a big surprise for you—it's being sold at a more favorable discount than usual.

    Humor Times

    Circulation: 1 Year, 12 Issues

    Cover Price: $36.00 Price For You: $11.95

    Product Description: Humor Times is for those who love to laugh! Full of cartoons and humor columns, it shows up in your mailbox once a month and keeps you smiling all year round! In today's world, you need a reason to laugh. So let's find it in Humor Times.

Growing up on a tobacco farm, Emma Avery was used to hard times. When she was seven, her family's farmhouse burned to the ground. Her father made a temporary shelter, where eight people had to sleep in two beds. As soon as Emma and her four brothers and two sisters were big enough, they were out in the fields.

Emma would find her comfort in school, even as a C student, thanks to one teacher. When she moved on to middle school, Emma was alarmingly far behind her classmates. She kept her head down, trying not to be noticed, struggling to catch up, and feeling like an outsider.

Then one day, when Emma was 16, a teacher named Mr. Potts changed everything. Looking his students in the eye, Mr. Potts said, "Being a C student does not mean you do not have a valuable contribution to make. Some of you have to work in the fields in the evening and do not have time to study. But if you do your best, you have a gift to give."

The teacher's words made Emma believe she could do well, and she worked harder. In the end she won a scholarship to St. Paul's College, graduated with a degree in elementary education in 1967, and got a job in the public-school system. Then, at George Washington University, she received a master's in education in 1970, and afterwards in the same year she married Ron Smothers.

Over the next six years, Emma taught in public schools in Miami. In 1976, after saving $10,000, she opened her first restaurant in Los Angeles. Eventually Emma stopped teaching, and her business expanded to six restaurants.

In gratitude for what she has been able to achieve, Emma donates a lot. She has no idea how much money she's given away. She says, "Those I want to help are the C students who just need help, direction and confidence."