Marlene Dietrich is finally to be honored by her home city, Berlin.

    For more than half a century, the famous film star won huge fame in Hollywood, but remained a highly controversial（引起争议的） figure in Germany.

    When the city's new film museum is opened on September 26, three of its 15 rooms will show the star's possessions collected over a lifetime.

    In addition to various collections by Marlene, visitors will be able to see all Marlene Dietrich's movies. There will also be key except for a vast range of Germany-made films.

    Dietrich became a world star after her wonderful performance in a movie. After that, she turned her back on Germany, horrified by the sudden movement of Nazi in her hometown.

    A few years after the war, the star was persuaded to pay a short visit to Berlin. But the trip proved a disaster. At a city hall gathering in West Berlin, crowds turned out to see her, but not all friendly.

    She was attacked at times. She found herself being blamed for wearing an American uniform during the war to please U.S. troops in Europe. She was also scolded for "turning her back on the country".

    Dietrich, deeply hurt, decided she would never return to Berlin again. But she softened her judgment.

    When she died in Paris in 1972, it was at her express wish that her body should be sent back to Berlin for burial alongside her mother in a local cemetery.

    Belgium is divided into three communities. Each one has its own language and traditions. But the people of Belgium are untied in their love for Belgian potato fries. The fries are prepared and sold the same way in all area of the country.

    The Reuters news service reports that potatoes reached Belgium in the 16^th century. But it was not until the 19^th century that restaurants and others began selling fried potatoes throughout the country as a separate meal.

    Recently, a Belgian group launched a campaign aimed at getting the United Nations (UN) to recognize the popular treat. The group wants the UN's Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization to place the food on its cultural heritage (遗产) list.

    The UNESCO list recognizes more than 300 objects, beliefs and practices. They include Turkish coffee and the traditional Chinese theater known as Peking opera. The list also includes a dance, the Argentinian tango, and the singing of the Aka pygmies of the Central African Republic. UNESCO says the list is “made up of intangible heritage elements (非物质文化遗产元素) that help show the diversity of heritage and raise awareness about its importance”.

    Belgian potato fries are traditionally sold in a paper wrapper，or cone, in a “fritkot” There are about 5,000 frikots in Belgium. That means they are 10 times more common as a percentage of the population as McDonald's restaurants in the United States. The national organization of fritkot owners says the small, often unfurnished buildings are much like Belgium itself. It says these buildings combine the country's acceptance of disorder with a dislike of structures that all look the same. The group says 95 percent of Belgians visit a fried potato hut at least once a year.

    With this list, go to travel now!

    Northern Vietnam

    Vietnam is known as a cheap place to travel around, but Hanoi, the north area, often gets ignored by travelers. This is truly a shame, because Northern Vietnam is where the most wonderful scenery and culture can be found. Rice fields, high mountains, winding roads and friendly people are also found there.

   Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan

    With 93 percent of the nation covered in mountains and a rich history and culture that goes back to thousands of years, Kyrgyzstan is one of the most wonderful countries in the world. The capital city, Bishkek, is an unbelievable center for exploring Central Asia, with Silk Road remnants(残余部分)like the Burana Tower just a short drive away.

    Lisbon Portugal

    Lisbon offers a good mix of museums, historic buildings, electric music and nightlife, and squares and cafes. You will fall in love with this city when you visit it. It is much less expensive than many other European travelling places, so travelers can afford it

    Seoul, South Korea

    Seoul is an attractive place filled with high-tech, modern and historic buildings, delicious Korean food all at bottom prices. Plus, since Seoul is a major city, it is easy to get to it.

    If conditions get bad enough, almost any kind of weather can become a storm.

Stormy weather can cause people to cancel their plans. It can cause major events to be postponed. And severe stormy weather can be dangerous to people, fortune and anima1.

    If you weather the storm, or ride out the storm, you survive and move on without harm or injury. For example, 1et's talk about Tornado Alley, the name for part of the central United States. During springtime, this area often has a large number of powerful tornadoes. People who live there are taught to shelter in the safest place they can find and wait for the storm to pass. People who live in Tornado Alley are used to weathering many storms!

    You can also weather a storm, but it doesn't involve actual weather. “To weather the storm” can also mean to make it through a difficult experience or trying times. So, if the stock market(股市)crashes, you might have to weather a financial storm.

    Often before a big storm, conditions are calm. The calm before the storm can happen anytime. It is the time before something bad happens. For example, at the beginning of a family reunion, the adults were all talking happily. But the older children knew it was just the calm before the storm. They've seen it happen before. The adults talk happily for about an hour. Then they start arguing about events from the past—things that should really stay buried!

    But after the storm begins and you find yourself in the middle of it, you are in the eye of the storm. In the world of weather, the eye of the storm is the calmest part, in the center of a hurricane, for example. However, in the English language, if you are in the eye of the storm, you are in the most intense part of a conflict. For example, she had no idea that walking into the meeting would put her in the eye of the storm.

    However, a brainstorm does not exist in the world of weather. To brainstorm means to try to solve a problem by talking with other people. And don't worry. If we have trouble thinking of an idea for the next program, we can always brainstorm with you!

Fans of art believe that its main purpose is to make us look at life from many different angles. When it comes to Cubism(立体主义), however, the artists of this era wanted us to look at life from every angle. 

The father of Cubism, Spanish artist Pablo Picasso, is among the art world's most famous names. Like many other great names before him, he felt restrained by the rules of his teachers and decided to do something: break them. 

Early in his painting career, Picasso realized something important about how people view and remember scenes of beauty. When we look at a subject, we don't just see it from one angle, as many paintings appear. Instead, we study the subject from a number of different angles, heights and viewpoints. This is the aim of Cubism: It portrays(描绘) subjects from a wide range of angles; it doesn't force us to see things as the artist viewed them at the time he or she painted them. To bring his visions to life, Picasso and other Cubists took the most basic components of a subject and rearranged them in a way which let us see it in full detail. 

"By breaking objects and figures down into distinct areas, Picasso aimed to show different viewpoints at the same time and within the same space," in the words of the Tate Institution. Or as Lithuanian—born Cubist Jacques Lipchitz once put it: "Cubism is like standing at a certain point on a mountain and looking around. If you go higher, things will look different; if you go lower, again they will look different."

Cubism stood out as it was an art movement which didn't just rely on the artist to share their vision by painting what they saw. As cubist paintings mainly show their subjects in a deconstructed form, this means that viewers must use their imaginations to find the missing pieces for themselves. As Guardian art critic Johnathan Jones noted, this is part of the beauty of enjoying Picasso's works. "If you can relax your gaze(凝视)enough and just enjoy the painting long enough, something really amazing happens. Your mind produces a solid feeling of the things Picasso was looking at. the world is revealed in its majesty(壮观)," he wrote.

A surprising new research from Auckland University of Technology (AUT), New Zealand contradicts the commonly held view that surfers are folks only focused on their own fun. Instead, they often play an important role in saving lives. The research reveals that these thrill seekers selflessly save people they see struggling in the ocean as swimmers or after boating incidents, and so actually reduce deaths from drowning (溺水), playing a key role in making beaches safer. 

According to the World Health Organization, an estimated 236,000 people drown worldwide each year, with drowning the third leading cause of unintentional death. 

However, according to a survey, at the heart of the research, life-saving acts of heroism by surfers who save others in difficulty in the ocean waters around them, are surprisingly common. In fact, based on the sample of 418 surfers, respondents reportedly rescue an average of three people drowning or struggling in the water over the course of their lives, and some even report taking part in 10 to 20 rescues. This makes surfers the under-recognized guardians of the beach rather than the self-centered images shown in movies like Fast Times at Ridgemont High, or Point Break. 

In addition, the survey found that in almost 90 percent of rescues, people aided by the responding surfers required no further treatment after the incident, making their help unlikely to be reported and so recorded, As one of the survey's co-authors Jamie Mead says, "We need to get surfers the recognition they deserve and do more research to accurately quantify (用数量表述) how many rescues they're actually doing."

Since this research was published, there has been a growing interest in the training of surfers in life-saving skills. Sonia Keeper, an experienced surfer and instructor, explains that the insights provided by the survey have motivated surfing organizations to expand their reach and connect with an even broader community of surfers. "If life-saving skills are rolled out (正式推出) to the broader coastal surfer communities around the world, this preparation can help ensure that a good day at the beach doesn't turn into a sad one," she adds.