Flamingo 火烈鸟

I have been watching the Crimson Wing by Disney Nature. It's so fascinating. Some words showing at the beginning of the documentary, gives me a nice small drill of translating from English into Chinese.

火烈鸟的拉丁文名字是 Phoenicopterus，其涵义是：“深红色的翅膀”。
传说中有一种长着深红色翅膀的凤凰， 有着幻化和重生的能力，火烈鸟就是由其灵气所催生。在生命的尽头，凤凰会焚身于火，然后在灰烬中重生。

About the Arctic Flight

Today,  I read an interesting but also very sad story about adventurers and their expedition more than 100 years ago.
Solomon Andree was an experienced hot-ballooon flyer. He had been flying hot-balloon for 10 years before he decided to start a new adventure with his friends Strindberg and Fraenkel. They wanted to fly their hot-balloon across the North Pole.
Their journey began at Dane Island on July 11, 1897. Sadly their trip turned into a nightmare soon after their beginning. They could not control the balloon as they wished. The strong wind and frozen weather made their flight very hard. Ice started accumulating on the balloon. On July 14th, they gave up flying and had to land on the ice.
They were not well-prepared for the cold weather on the ice. After pulling, pushing, dragging their heavy equipment on the ice on the ice and floating in the boat for couple of months, they reached the White Island on Oct 5, 1897. They pitched their tent and prepared to spend the winter there, but all three men were very sick and weak. Soon, they died one after another.
Thirty three years later, their bodies were found. Before their death, Solomon and his friends had written lots of notes about their adventure and also made some films. All the films and notes were well protected, so people got to know what had happened to them.
Their tragedy makes me sad, but their spirit inspires me.

More detailed story about their adventure can be found on Wikipedia:
S. A. Andrée's Arctic Balloon Expedition of 1897

Rules of Capitalization

Every sentence must begin with a capital letter.

That is a stunning sweater.

When did you buy it?

Capitalize names of people.

Capitalize every word and initial in a person's name
Larry Jay Scott        J.D. Salinger

Capitalize titles and abbreviations when they appear before names

Our football coach is Coach Mathew. 
A new doctor will come to the hospital. He is Dr. Kevin.

Capitalize names of days, holidays, and months. But do not capitalize the name of the seasons.

Monday    Christmas   September   spring

Capitalize the names of cities, states, countries, and continents.

Missoula   Montana  China  Africa

Capitalize the names of streets, buildings, institutions, and bridges.

Brooks Street   Community Church       University of Montana      London Bridge

Capitalize words for family relations when they are used with or in place of the names of particular people. But if a family title follows a possessive pronoun such as my, our, his, it is not capitalized.

My grandpa will come to visit me soon.
Aunt Marlene's house is very close to our house.
My father loves travel, but Mom prefers to stay home all the time.

Capitalize geographical names. Capitalize words such as north, east, and west only when they refer to a section of the country.

We camped in the Blue Mountain in the Northeast.
The Platte River winds across the southern part of the state.
I am going to northwestern Montana.
We are going to the South.

Capitalize the name of languages and peoples and the proper adjectives associated with them. 

Proper adjectives are words made from proper nouns.
Often the proper noun is changed slightly and and ending is added to make it into a proper adjective.

Most Americans speak the English language.
French bread.
Oriental arts
(Americans comes from the proper noun America; English comes from the proper noun England. )

The first word of every quotation should be capitalized.

"Where is the nearest gas station?" asked Pauline.
Orval replied, "Turn left at the next intersection."

The first word, the last word, and any other important words in a title must be capitalized.

Words like the, in for, from, a , an, of, on, or by are not capitalized unless they appear first or last in the title.
The Mystery of the Blue Train (book)
Sports Illustrated (magazine)
"Smoke and Steel" (poem)

Many abbreviation should be capitalized. 

Send the entry form to P.O. Box 73902.
Devon works the 11:00 P.M to 7:00 A.M. shift.

金锁记

        伴着饭茶的香味，我读完了张爱玲的《金锁记》。记得小时候我喜欢一边吃饭，一边看书。父亲总是不太赞同，怕吃饭的时候看书会伤了脾胃。不知冥冥之中，他是否会不赞成地摇头。
        In the fragrance of rice and tea, I finished reading the book The Golden Cangue, written by Eileen Chang (zhāng ài líng). When I was young, I always enjoyed reading and eating the same time. My father never liked that. He thought it was very bad to my stomach and digestion. Maybe in another world, he is still worried about me right now.

         曹七巧是整个故事的主人公。乱点的鸳鸯谱让她嫁入豪门，但先生是一个病秧子。出生平常人家的七巧与夫家的人格格不入，让要强的她感到处处受冷落。人情的冷暖，人世的变迁，最终将她的性格打造得乖张冷漠，那阴冷得生毒的心又毁掉了她的一对儿女。
         Cáo Qīqiǎo is the main role of the book. The mismatched arranged marriage takes her into a big rich family. But her husband is always deeply sick. Growing up in an ordinary family, Cáo Qīqiǎo is never really accepted by her husband's family. Her heart becomes cold, hard and twisted after all the up and down in her life. The poison of hatred ruins her life and then the life of her son and daughter.

那个社会，那样的家庭 -- 阴冷
That society, that family ---  cold and dark

生活在里面的人们 --   乖张
The people who live in it --  surly

尚存一丝美好向往的心灵  -- 愤怒
The mind who still pursuits happiness --  filled with anger

故事的结尾  --  死一样的沉寂
End of the story -- dead silence



        在网上查查相关的信息，才发现这个故事已经有很多不同的艺术再现形式。
 After I searched the Internet, I found that the story has been on stage in different art forms.

京剧形式： Beijing Opera

电视连续剧：（总共22集，2004年上映） TV series ( 22 episodes, premiered in 2004)

网上在线阅读《金锁记》
Read the book online

中文维基百科上关于《金锁记》的介绍。
About this book on Wikipedia in Chinese

About the author, Eileen Chang (zhāng ài líng )  on Wikipedia

A folk song 牧童之歌

This song is the very first song I learned when I was in the elementary school. It's a Kazak folk song. It has been engraved in my heart. Since I have been living in Montana, U.S. The beautiful stunning scenery I see everyday just reminds me of this song.

歌名：牧童之歌
Cowboy's Song

红太阳从 天山  慢慢地爬上
Slowly rising up the red sun above the Tianshan Mountain

风吹绿草，草儿把头扬
Green grasses are waving their head when the wind is blowing

骑上骏马扬起鞭
Ride on my horse, flick the whip

赶着牛羊下河滩
Herd my cattle and sheep down to the river shore

唱上一首歌呀
Sing, sing a song

心花开放
My heart is full of joy...

Want to learn how to sing this song? Check How to sing a cowboy folk song in Chinese.

About the 天山山脉 (Tianshan Mountain ranges)

Tianshan Mountain is a large system of mountain ranges located in Central Asia. You may find more interesting information about this mountain ranges here:
The link in Chinese language.
The link in English language.

The Artist 艺术家

 
Outside a movie premiere, enthusiastic fan Peppy Miller literally bumps into the swashbuckling hero of the silent film, George Valentin. The star reacts graciously and Peppy plants a kiss on his cheek as they are surrounded by photographers. The headlines demand: "Who's That Girl?" and Peppy is inspired to audition for a dancing bit-part at the studio. However as Peppy slowly rises through the industry, the introduction of talking-pictures turns Valentin's world upside-down.

 影片的首映式上，热情的影迷Peppy Miller冒冒失失地撞上了默片当红影星George Valentin。 因为被摄影记者所包围，George表现得亲切和蔼而宽宏大度，Peppy也只好顺水推舟礼节性地亲吻了他的脸颊。被登上了头版头条“那女孩是谁？”的Peppy受到了鼓舞，前去片场应聘到了一个小小的舞蹈演员角色。但是随着有声电影开始登上舞台，Peppy逐渐成为了当红的影星，而Valentin的世界则受到前所未有的震荡。

That's the movie I watched tonight. And I like it very much. 
Click here, you will get more information about this movie. Hope you will like it too.
 

Fun activities to promote listening skills (part one) 提升孩子倾听能力的活动（一）

The link of the original English version of this article is :
http://www.babycenter.com/0_fun-activities-to-promote-listening-skills_64504.bc


Do you feel as if you spend more time talking at your child than to her? Many children have notoriously selective listening skills — they hear what they want and seem to tune out the rest. But listening is a skill that we can help our children improve. Like a muscle, it needs constant exercise to grow stronger.
你是否有这种感觉，大多数时间你对孩子的教导都像是在“对牛弹琴”？ 不少小孩都具备“选择性”倾听能力：他们只愿意聆听他们想听到的东西。不过，就像人体肌肉在持续的锻炼中可以逐渐地变得强壮，我们也可以想办法通过训练改善孩子的倾听能力。


Here are some games and activities to boost your child's listening skills. Because children learn in different ways, the games are arranged by learning style. But any child can benefit from the suggestions in all three categories.
下面推荐了一些游戏活动用于提升你孩子的倾听能力。孩子们的学习方式是各不相同的，因此我们根据小孩所倾向的不同的学习类型呈现这些游戏活动。不过孩子们应该都能从所有的三大类活动中有所收益的。

For auditory learners

 听觉学习者

Talk to your child all the time. Tell her about an interesting story you read in the newspaper. Describe a conversation you had at work with a friend. When you go shopping for clothes, tell her about the shopping trips that you used to take with your mom. Get in the habit of narrating everyday chores. If you're in the kitchen together while you're making dinner, for example, you can say, "I need to measure out two cups of water and then add one cup of rice..." It may not seem as if your child is paying attention — but she is. Don't be surprised if you hear her repeating something you said when she talks to someone else. And remember: Children are natural mimics, so watch your language!
随时多和孩子交谈。比如，告诉她你从报纸上看到有趣的故事，或是你和朋友之间的对话。当你们去买衣服，告诉她你曾经和你的妈妈一同购衣的经历。养成为她解说一切生活琐事的习惯。例如当你们一同在厨房做饭时，你可以一边做一边解说：“现在我需要量两杯水，再加入一杯米……”或许表面上看你的孩子并没有注意你，但是实际上她在倾听你。完全有可能在某一天你会听到她向别人重复你说过的话。请记住：注意你所使用的语言，孩子是天生的模仿者！

Make reading an interactive activity. When reading a book to your child, stop before turning the page and say, "What do you think will happen next?" Ask her to explain her answer to see how well she's listened to what you've read so far. If she seems unsure about what happened, start again.
让阅读成为互动性的活动。当你为孩子读一本书时，在翻开新一页前停顿一下征求她的意见：“你觉得下面会发生什么事？”然后要她解释她的回答，从而了解孩子是否理解了你所读过的内容。如果她似乎不能理解已经读过的内容，可以再重新开始。

Ask your child to predict how a story will end. Read a book aloud to your child and stop just before the last page. Ask her to guess how the story will turn out, based on what she's already heard. Then finish the story and discuss the ending with your child. Was her prediction accurate, or was there a surprise ending? If the latter, were there any clues to the ending planted earlier in the story?
让你的孩子预测故事的结局。当即将读到最后一页时，故意停下来，让孩子根据她已经听过的情节猜测一下故事的结果。然后再和孩子讨论故事的结局。她的预测准确吗？故事的结果让她感觉意外吗？如果是后者，故事中可有明显的线索？

Revisit an old favorite. Bring out one of your child's most dog-eared, battered books and read it aloud yet again, only this time pause at key points to let her supply the words that come next. Or read the story and purposely change key details to see how well your child is paying attention. If she hears something that's not quite right, she'll be sure to correct you.
重读孩子的最爱。 找出那本孩子最爱翻阅而已经折角磨损的书，再次大声地朗读。不同的是，这次只在一些关键的情节处停顿让孩子补充即将出现的词汇；或者在朗读的过程中故意修改关键的细节以考验孩子的注意力。如果她听出有不对劲的地方，肯定会做出纠正。

Listen to stories together. We never outgrow our delight at hearing stories told aloud. Libraries, bookstores, and community centers usually have read-aloud story times for young children. Go to fairs and community events at which professional storytellers will be performing. And borrow or buy books on tape for the car or the house.
一同听故事。听别人大声地讲故事可以让任何年龄阶段的人感到开心。在图书馆、书店、社区中心常常有为年幼的儿童讲故事的活动。节日庆祝活动和社区活动里也有专业的说书人讲故事，你可以带着她一同参加。还可以借阅、购买有声的图书音像产品，在家里或是车里播放给孩子听。

Make up silly rhymes. The more absurd, the better. ("The fat cat ate the hat. Then the rat ate the fat cat who ate the hat...") This activity will teach your child to listen for words that sound the same and to identify rhyming patterns.
 自创好玩押韵的童谣。 越离谱越好，好玩是第一原则。（如，你拍一，我拍一，一个小孩坐飞机……）这将帮助你的孩子熟悉同音字和分辨不同的韵体。

to be continue..
未完待续……