大家好，最近天气回暖，南法也开始变得越发热闹，希望万物复苏的季节大家的心情也可以得到适当地放松。今天和大家分享狄更斯在《双城记》里的一段话，他说：“那是最美好的时代，也是最糟糕的时代；那是智慧的年头，也是愚昧的年头；那是信仰的时期，也是怀疑的时期；那是光明的季节，也是黑暗的季节；那是希望的春天，那也是失望的冬天。“

可能这个世界就是由黑暗和光明组成的，我们应该，向往光明，但也不畏惧黑暗。

用顾城的一首诗来结尾吧：“黑夜给了我黑色的眼睛，我却用它来寻找光明。”


Chilling Chinese 

那是最好的时代，也是最坏的时代

This festival takes place every August in  Spain. People come from all over the world to participate in this huge social occasion, which includes music, dancing and fireworks'. The main event is a tomato fight in which enormous quantities of overripe tomatoes arc thrown in the streets for exactly one hour. The festival was banned in the 1950s, bur in 1957 the young folk of the town protested by organizing a parade in which they buried a large tomato as if it were a dead body. The festival started again the following year.

English Mini Lessons

Tomato fight

En esta historia, las promesas son importantes, ¿Crees qué se deben cumplir todas las promesas que se hacen?


¡Cuéntame!

El león y el ratón

Le professeur montre un livre à Tom, mais une mouche est posée dessus. Toute la classe apprend à dire « C’est une mouche ».
Puis la mouche se pose sur la table, sur le mur, puis au plafond. Le professeur utilise la mouche pour enseigner les prépositions : « sur la table », « sur le mur », « au plafond ».
Julie dit : « La voilà ! », et la classe répète avec enthousiasme.

Activités :

Choisissez la bonne réponse :

Julie ____ la main quand elle trouve la mouche. (lève / voit / montre)

Le professeur ____ le livre à l’élève. (prend / regarde / montre)

Le professeur est ____ de voir une mouche. (enthousiaste / furieux / étonné)

La mouche ____ sur la table. (se pose / s’envole / a froid)

Où est-elle ? → ____ (C’est une mouche / Non / La voilà)

La mouche est ____ plafond. (sur le / au / sous le)

Remplacez le mot en gras par le pronom approprié.
Ex. Julie lève la main → Julie la lève.

French Stories with Marc and Julie A1-B1

Épisode 7 : Où est la mouche ?

Vocabulary
buckle up: put on seatbelt
giblets: organs inside turkey
gobble gobble: what turkeys say in written English
throttle: the lever that controls the engine

Learn English with Stories

Thanksgiving messages on the highway

This audio is about the different companies who have created AI bots.

Practice Listening, Reading & Comprehension

AI Chatbot Wars 

One of the questions that many of us have about exercise is "should it hurt?"

Some people agree with the old saying: "No pain, no gain," which means if it's not hurting, you're not improving.

But is that really true?

When it comes to weight training, some experts tell people that they should train "until failure" for best results.

This means they keep lifting or training until their body cannot physically do any more.

However, others say that this approach is not suitable for everyone.

"If somebody wants to increase muscle mass as much as they possibly can, then training to failure is something to consider," said Michael Zourdos, from Florida Atlantic University, who has done research into this subject.

He and his colleagues found that lifting weights "until failure" may build bigger muscles, but isn't needed to increase strength.

He said people who work out hard, but don't push themselves to exhaustion, will still likely improve their fitness.

For the average person just looking to increase their fitness levels, Zourdos said it's easier to get results.

He said that these people would benefit from a hard session that comes within five to 10 repetitions of failure, rather than training to complete exhaustion.

He also said "failure training" often makes people so sore that they miss their next session.

Overdoing it can sometimes be harmful — and people who are planning on doing strenuous exercise should see a doctor first.

James Fisher, a sport science expert in the UK, says that resting muscle groups is an important part of training.

But he agrees that if people want to build muscle, they need to push themselves.

"If you lift a weight you can easily lift 10 times or more, you never really work hard enough," he said.

Still, Fisher said that the best workout is "one that people will actually do," regardless of how hard they push themselves.

Does 'Training to Failure' Improve Strength, Fitness?

Textile waste is an urgent global problem, with only 12% recycled worldwide, according to the Ellen MacArthur Foundation, a fashion sustainability nonprofit.

Nowhere is the problem greater than in China, the world's largest textile producer and consumer, where more than 26 million tons of clothes are thrown away each year, according to government statistics. Most of it ends up in landfills.

The country's clothing industry is dominated by "fast fashion" — cheap clothes made from unrecyclable synthetics. And Chinese e-commerce brands Shein and Temu make the country one of the world's largest producers of cheap fashion, selling in more than 150 countries.

Currently, only about 20% of China's textiles are recycled, according to the Chinese government. And many Chinese consumers are unwilling to buy used items anyway.

Still, among younger Chinese, there is a growing awareness of sustainability and some "remade" clothing businesses have emerged.

Designer Zhang Na's fashion label, Reclothing Bank, sells clothes, bags and other accessories made from materials such as plastic bottles, fishing nets and flour sacks.

The items' labels have QR codes that show their composition, how they were made and the source of the materials.

Reclothing Bank began in 2010 to give "new life to old things," Zhang said of her store in Shanghai. A large used clothes deposit box sits outside the entrance.

Zhang said she has seen sustainability consciousness grow since she opened her store, with core customers in their 20s and 30s.

But recycled garments sold at stores like Reclothing Bank cost much more than fast-fashion brands due to their production methods.

And that's the real problem, said Sheng Lu, professor of fashion and apparel studies at the University of Delaware.

"Studies repeatedly show consumers are not willing to pay higher for clothing made from recycled materials" he said.




26 Million Tons of Clothes Discarded in China Each Year

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1UVYHupHye-xb-94QbyBXbTs-jJC8oqND/view?usp=drivesdk