Four Inspiring Movies

Forrest Gump is a simple man with a low IQ but good intentions. This movie follows the fictional story in which the simple man makes his way through some of the more turbulent（动荡的）times from the 1960s through 1980s. This film took home six Oscars, inspired a “Weird Al” song, and proves that a big heart is the most important thing.

No movie list would be complete without a nod to the past. Let's go with this Christmas classic, about a man with serious financial troubles who intends to commit suicide（自杀）by jumping off a bridge. His guardian angel Clarence Odbody stops him and tells him what life would have been like for those close to him had he never been born. Realizing how much he means to others, he rushes back home and all sorts of happy, inspirational, Christmassy things happen.

John Keating（Robin Williams）is a high school English literature teacher at a famous all-male boarding school who gets into trouble with the school administration after encouraging his students to challenge authority and think for themselves. It is certainly inspirational, if not also frustratingly sad.

This movie tells the story of John Nash（Russell Crowe）, a professor at Princeton, a US university, who revolutionized the field of game theory and fell into madness as a result of paranoid schizophrenia（精神分裂症）. With the love and support of his family as well as the help of medical professionals, he managed to overcome his mental illness and continued to make contributions to the field of mathematics.

A few years ago, my husband Charlie and I had marital problems. Growing family responsibilities and financial worries took a toll on us and we began arguing frequently, often late into the night.

However, neither of us could take the step that would end our eleven-year marriage and bring heartbreak to our three young children. Deep down we knew we still loved each other, so we determined to work it out. Through countless discussions, we began to close the gulf. The more honest we were, the closer we became.

When I felt we were reaching solid ground, I asked my husband to give me an “eternity (永恒) ring”. It was not so much the ring I wanted; it was the reassurance (保证) I thought it would bring.

We went shopping on a beautiful summer day. We walked hand in hand along a row of jeweler’s shops. Finally I found a ring I liked. While waiting for it to be adjusted, the jeweler took my left hand and glanced at my engagement ring. “May I clean it for you?” he asked. “It really doesn’t sparkle like it used to.” Charlie said as I slipped the ring off my finger. A few minutes later the jeweler was back. The ring shone like new!

On the drive home, I didn’t take my eyes off it. I forgot all about the eternity ring. I just couldn’t believe how this old ring suddenly sparkled the way it had the day Charlie gave it to me. I had taken it for granted these past years, but with a little polish it could still make my heart beat fast.

And that’s the way it is with a marriage. You have to work at keeping it polished and new, or else the grime (污垢) of the passing years will hide the joy. I put my hand on the seat between us and spread my fingers. Charlie covered my hand with his. I felt I was lucky to be able to see the sparkle in something gold when I thought I needed something new.

Explorers started making navigation (导航) charts showing how wide the ocean was more than 500 years ago. But it’s much harder to calculate how deep it is.

In 1872 the HMS Challenger, a British Navy ship, set sail to learn about the ocean, including its depth. It carried 181 miles (291 kilometers) of rope to measure the depth of the ocean. During their four-year voyage, the Challenger crew collected samples of rocks, mud and animals from many different areas of the ocean. They also found one of the deepest zones, in the western Pacific, the Mariana Trench which stretches for 1,580 miles (2,540 kilometers).

Today scientists know that on average the ocean is 2.3 miles (3.7 kilometers) deep, but many parts are much shallower or deeper. To measure depth they use sonar, which stands for Sound Navigation And Ranging. A ship sends out pulses of sound energy and measures depth based on how quickly the sound travels back.

Ocean scientists like me study the sea floor because it helps us better measure the ocean. Our planet’s outer, layer is made of tectonic plates. The Hawaiian-Emperor Seamount chain, a line of peaks on the ocean floor, was created when a tectonic plate moved over a spot where hot rock welled up from deep inside the Earth. When two tectonic plates move away from each other underwater, new material rises up into Earths layer. This process, which creates new ocean floor, is called seafloor spreading. Sometimes super-hot liquids from inside the Earth shoot up through cracks in the ocean floor called hydrothermal vents.

Amazing fish, shellfish, tube worms and other life forms live in these zones. Between the creation and destruction of ocean plates, sediments (沉淀物) collect on the sea floor and provide an archive of Earth’s history, the evolution of climate and life that is available nowhere else.

In the United States，the baby boomer generation(婴儿潮一代) include those who were born in the time after World War II. Those babies have retired or are now reaching the retirement age. As these adults age, many of their adult children worry about how to take care of their aging parents. In the United States it is not common for several generations to live under one roof. Once children grow up and get married, they move out, leaving their aging parents to care for themselves. When these aging parents can no longer take care of themselves because of age or illness, it is not uncommon for adult children in the US to place their elderly parents in a nursing home.

A nursing home is a place that offers care for the elderly and ill. As the name suggests，nursing homes have professionals including nurses, doctors and social workers to help aging adults deal with the challenges of daily life. And their mental health could be guaranteed for elderly people to get relaxed, accompanied by those of the same age. Most nursing homes also have social activities for the elderly to participate in and keep active. These activities range from games to dance classes, and movie nights. Nursing homes are supposed to provide three nutritious meals for their residents.

Nursing homes are controversial, however. There have been cases across the country of staff in nursing homes treating the elderly residents badly and even robbing them. There are different states and federal agencies that are supposed to oversee(监管) nursing homes. Some people feel that it should be the responsibility of family members, especially adult children, to care for their aging or sick parents. However, many adult children have their own children and families to take care of, and do not have the means to care for their elderly parents; others worry about medical skills needed if their elderly parents are seriously ill. And these problems of caring for parents are bothering more and more adults in the US at present.