I had the honor of being elected chief of my tribe(部落). With the title came great responsibility. It was my job to make peace with the Maori Tamaki tribe, whose village we visited. Their warriors leapt from a canoe and faced us down with fierce growls, bulging eyes and much swishing of sticks. They laid a palm frond on the ground and, as head honcho, I was compelled to accept this peace offering by picking it up, then touching noses with their chief. “Kia ora”, he said, welcoming us into the woodland home of his people.

    My “tribe” was my New Zealand tour group, who had forced me into being their leader. We'd been warned that the ceremony was a serious occasion and that to laugh or even smile would be considered rude to the Tamaki. After that it was non-stop fun as they showed their ancient customs and I received instruction in performing the haka, the war dance by the All Blacks rugby team.

    Then they pulled our dinner of lamb, beef and vegetables out of the ground. It had been slow-cooked in the heat that simmers just below the surface in the geothermal(地热的) area of North Island, a Maori tradition known as a hangi that goes back an extremely long period of time.

    Obviously, this form of it is put on for tourists but it was hugely enjoyable. The journey back to the hotel was alone worth the effort, our hilarious Maori elder driver being deserving of his own television show. “The wheels on the bus go round and round,” he got us singing, while he circuited(绕……环行) a roundabout three times.

    A couple of days from the end of my trip, there was still something missing, a New Zealand icon I yearned to see to make my grand tour complete. Riding over a hill, there it was – Aotearoa. The Maori name for New Zealand translates as “Land of the long white cloud”. Can I say “Kia ora, Aotearoa?” You bet I can.

    Silence is unnatural to man.He begins life with a cry and ends it in stillness.In between he does all he can to make a noise in the world,and he fears silence more than anything else.Even his conversation is an attempt to prevent a fearful silence.If he is introduced to another person,and a number of pauses occur in the conversation,he regards himself as a failure,a worthless person,and is full of envy of the emptiest-headed chatterbox（喋喋不休的人）. He knows that ninety nine percent of human conversation means no more than the buzzing of a fly,but he is anxious to join in the buzz and to prove that he is a man and not a waxwork figure（蜡塑人像）.

    The aim of conversation is not,for the most part,to communicate ideas;it is to keep up the buzzing sound.There are,it must be admitted,different qualities of buzz;there is even a buzz that is as annoying as the continuous noise made by a mosquito.But at a dinner party one would rather be a mosquito than a quiet person.Most buzzing, fortunately,is pleasant to the ear,and some of it is pleasant even to the mind.He would be a foolish man if he waited until he had a wise thought to take part in the buzzing with his neighbors.

    Those who hate to pick up the weather as a conversational opening seem to me not to know the reason why human beings wish to talk.Very few human beings join in a conversation in the hope of learning anything new.Some of them are content if they are merely allowed to go on making a noise into other people's ears,though they have nothing to tell them except that they have seen two or three new plays or that they had food in a Swiss hotel.At the end of an evening,during which they have said nothing meaningful for a long time.They just prove themselves to be successful conservationists.

    Hello, Listeners. Welcome to Henton Hospital Radio. Before our music program at four, I'm going to repeat some of our hospital rules.

    The hospital can sleep 800 patients. There're 8 beds in each ward (病房). The visiting hours are in the afternoon from 2:30 to 3:30 and in the evening from 7:00 to 8:00. But remember only two people can see you at the same time. Sorry about that, but you can see what would happen if we didn't have these rules.

The other rules are about our hours. We start quite early—you might not be used to that. We wake you at 6 o'clock, and breakfast is at 8 o'clock, lunch is at noon.

    There's tea at 3:30 and supper is at 6 o'clock.

    You can see the non-smoking sign –-- we don't allow smoking in the wards. I'm sure you understand why. However, if you do need to smoke, there are some smoking rooms where it is allowed.

    You will find the radio switch (开关) on the wall near your bed, with your own headphones, if you want to listen. It's our own hospital radio wishing you a quick recovery (康复).

    Young mums shopping in the Copley Mall in downtown Boston-month found themselves being questioned about their use of soap by students from Harvard Business School usually known as HBS. The students were not doing odd jobs to earn beer money. They were preparing to help a firm in Brazil launch an antibacterial cleanser.

    The 900 students arriving in Boston this summer for their two-year course were told that they would be subjects. The new practical addition to HBS's curriculum is known as "FIELD" that stands for Field Immersion Experiences for Leadership Development. Fieldwork — ie, going out and talking to people — is a big change for HBS.

    Not all the staff and students were overjoyed to be experimented on. But the man responsible, Nitin Nohria, head of HBS, says that "If it works, the FIELD method could become an equal partner to the case method."

    What happens in the second year of the new course is still being worked out. But the first year has three elements. First, team-building exercises. Students take turns to lead a group engaged in a project. They learn to cooperate and to give and take feedback. Second, students will be sent to work for a week with one of more than 140 firms in 11 countries. In the third part of the course, students will be given eight weeks, and seed money of ＄3,000 each, to launch a small company. The most successful, as voted by their fellow students, will get more funding. The experiment does not come cheap, adding 5-10% to the course's cost, which HBS will bear while it figures out what works.

A new study says that more than half the world's ocean area is "becoming greener," and the trend is connected to human-caused global warming.

It's not clear what is driving the greening. In some places, it could indicate changes in the amount of plankton or other organic material floating in the water. Plankton are a cornerstone of the ocean food chain, and these kinds of shifts could have ripple effects throughout the entire marine ecosystem.

The study, published on Wednesday in the journal Nature, examines 20 years of satellite data measuring light reflected at the surface of the water all across the globe, subtle changes that aren't necessarily visible to the naked eye. The research finds that 56 percent of the world's oceans are shifting in color — and on the whole, they're growing greener. The trend is especially strong in the lower latitudes, including the subtropics and tropics.

The researchers then used a computer model to find out whether climate change was playing a part. They conducted one set of simulations representing the oceans under a strong climate change scenario, and then compared them with a second set of simulations imagining a world in which climate change didn't exist. The model suggests that rising global temperatures are to blame.

The exact reasons still require some scientific digging. While climate change seems to be the culprit, the study also indicates that rising ocean temperatures in and of themselves aren't driving the greening.

There are plenty of other ways global warming is affecting the world's oceans, by changing the structure and flow of certain currents, for instance. These kinds of changes can affect the growth of phytoplankton and other factors that might be contributing to the greening.

The findings weren't a surprise to the researchers. They're consistent with the way researchers expect the global oceans to change as the world keeps on warming.

"I've been running simulations that have been telling me for years that these changes in ocean color are going to happen," study co-author Stephanie Dutkiewicz, a senior research scientist at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, said in a statement. "To actually see it happening for real is no unexpected, but frightening."

Kunqu Opera, {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (originate) in the late Yuan and early Ming Dynasties, first emerged as {#blank#}2{#/blank#} unique local melody in the eastern Chinese city of Suzhou. Thanks to reforms by a retired official named Wei Liangfu, it took a delicate form in the 1500s, {#blank#}3{#/blank#} it earned its reputation as "The Queen of the Chinese Operas". 

Kunqu Opera is a {#blank#}4{#/blank#} (mix) of various art forms including songs, narration, dance and martial arts, with astonishing makeup, embroidered (刺绣) costumes and stage arrangements adding to its elegance. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} many traditional Chinese operas, the Kunqu style also has five main roles: Sheng, Dan, Jing, Mo, Chou.

Kunqu Opera performances are highly stylized. Traditionally, the stage is {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (simple) decorated so as not to steal the show from the production's most important element: the plot. The storyline {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (drive) by the songs, body movements and gestures of the performers on stage. To convey their emotions while performing, {#blank#}8{#/blank#} performers need to do is control their breath and tone with extreme carefulness, have full command of their{#blank#}9{#/blank#} (face) expressions and master the many ways to use their stares, smiles and frowns to convey their emotions.

The basic performance unit of Kunqu Opera, Qupai, is still in use in some traditional operas and is expected {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (use) in the future.