【推荐2】Are you interested in movie musicals? Here are some best movie musicals you need to watch.

Debbie Reynolds (the heroine) is ultra-charming in this time-honored classic musical about the coming of the talking pictures in movie history. She plays a winning showgirl with a golden singing voice designed for Hollywood stars. You can also see how Gene Kelly (the hero) made a hit in the timeless "Singin' in the Rain".

It hit the big screen in 1965 and became an early blockbuster. It's one of those movies that everybody watches again and again. Whether you're singing along to "Do-Re-Mi" or "My Favorite Things", you'll still think of the cute Von Trapp children and the beautiful Austrian setting. Christopher Plummer (the hero) is wonderful as the serious captain melts into gentleness when singing "Edelweiss". And Julie Andrews (the heroine) shows her addictive voice in such songs as "I Have Confidence".

Renee Zellweger and Catherine Zeta-Jones sing and dance as criminals in this musical about fame, envy, and murderous love. Famous songs include "Cell Block Tango", where female criminals sing about how they ended up in jail. It won Best Picture, Best Actress in a supporting role, Best Art Direction-Set Decoration, Best Costume Design, Best Film Editing, and Best Sound in Oscar 2003.

Struggling actress Mia (Emma Stone) and ambitious jazz pianist Sebastian (Ryan Gosling) begin a romance as they both follow their heart in the path of their dreams in Los Angeles. It won Best Performance by an Actress in a leading role, Best achievement in Directing, Best Achievement in Cinematography, Best achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, Best achievement in Music Written for Motion Pictures, and Best Achievement in Production Design in Oscar 2017.

【推荐3】When I heard the piano, I walked to Mrs. Windsor’s house and waited outside as I always did. That meant she was working with another student, and I was not supposed to bother them by ringing the bell. I stood against the wall and daydreamed what I’d rather be doing. “Almost anything”, I sighed dejectedly. I had been tutored enough to read, understand, and even write some musical compositions, but I just didn’t have a gift for it. It didn’t come to me naturally. I thought back to happier times when I was writing stories and acting them out with my friends, cutting up old clothes to make dresses that performers wear in plays, and building scenery out of old things we found. But Mrs. Windsor had offered to give me the lessons for free, so I felt my duty to try.

The door opened and Wendy Barton came out. I walked in, sat down on the piano bench and began to sort through my sheet music.

“Hello,” I heard a voice behind me say softly. I turned around to see a little girl standing behind me, eating an apple. But before I could make any response, Mrs. Windsor walked into the room in her usual urgent manner and announced, “Jennifer, this is my niece, Pasha. Pasha, this is Jennifer. Pasha will be giving you your lesson today. I’m up to my ears in something else!” she then exited to the kitchen.

Pasha set her apple down on the side table and slid beside me on the piano bench.

“What piece do you like best?” she asked.

“What do you mean?” I asked. “They’re all the same to me. I don’t know.

“You mean you don’t have a favorite?”

“No, not really.”

Pasha looked at me, rather puzzled, then opened my sheet music to the beginning page and asked me to play. I arranged my fingers on the keys and studied the notes on the page for a moment. Then I frowned and concentrated to make the notes on the page match the finger movements. I have to admit I was a rather mechanical pianist.

After about a page or two, Pasha gently put her hand on top of mine as if to calm my fingers. There was a long pause. “What are you hearing in the music?” I looked at her rather strangely and admitted I didn’t know what she meant.

“Like a story. What story is being playing out within the music?”

“I guess I’ve never thought about it before. I don’t know.”

“Here, let me try and you listen,” Pasha advised.

She closed her eyes and took a deep breath, letting her fingers dance lightly over the keys. Then, she began to play. “See, it begins here beside some kind of river. Hear the water flowing beside you?”

Her fingers rose and fell gently on the keys. “Now the princess appears and she’s picking flowers from the water’s edge.”A carefree, happy piece of music filled the air in time to Pasha’s dancing fingers. “Oh, but she slips!”The music changed. “And our princess is being carried off by the fast-flowing stream. Quickly, the princess’s horse sees her plight (困境),” Pasha continued, “and races to the river’s edge where he swims out to let her catch hold of him. They make it to the bank and she hugs her faithful horse and swears she will never again wear princess skirts that weigh her down.” Pasha finished with a big smile and then looked at me.

“Aren’t you the girl who tells the stories?” she asked.

“I guess. I do tell a lot of stories.”

“Oh, yes! All the kids talk about them. I’ve heard about you. Well, all you have to do is learn to hear the stories in the music. That’s all there is to it.”

“I’ve never thought it that way.”

“Let’s try another one, shall we?”Pasha smiled and together we played that afternoon, finding the stories in the music and learning that sometimes it takes a friend to pull you out of the river onto dry land again.

【推荐2】Fifty four years ago, young Quentin entered this world. “Action!” he must have yelled then to his mum. When he was two, his whole family moved to Los Angeles, and before Quentin Tarantino turned a teenager, he had already seen more movies than most people . In his twenties he started working at the Manhattan Beach Video Archives, where he made some important friendships and tried his hand at making a first movie. It would take another few years until he would sell the scripts for True Romance and Natural Born Killers, and shortly after go on and conquer the film festival circuit in a storm with Reservoir Dogs. And so it began ...

With Pulp Fcition, QT finally turned Hollywood upside-down for good, and established himself as, what they would then call, an “enfant terrible” of the new film-making community. to this day, Pulp Fiction counts as a completely original masterpiece, that sometimes even to his most loyal fans he has not matched again. After Jackie Brown, he took a pause for a while, not turning out a major motion picture until Kill Bill. Kill Bill turned into an epic, and manifested director Tarantino as the truly great filmmaker, opening the eyes of millions among the younger generations to lost classics, foreign cult cinema and the wild world of exploitation film.

Then in 2007, he made Grindhouse together with his long time friend Robert Rodriguez. The movie was well-received among critics, but was a financial disaster. Tarantino has talked about a war movie for many years, but not until 2008 did any of those rumors come together, when he announced that he had in fact finally finished a script for Inglourious Basterds, a massive war epic. The movie went into production that same year, starring Brad Pitt in the leading role. It was a huge international success and gathered quite a few awards.

In 2011, Tarantino announced the completion of his latest script, a movie about slavery in the old US south of the 1860s, titled Django Unchained. The movie has attracted enormous attention, especially because it stars Jamie Foxx, Leonardo DiCaprio, Samuel L. Jackson and Christoph Waltz, who won an Oscar for his role in Inglourious Basterds, and whose acting talents have been truly recognized. And 2015 marked the release of his 8th film, appropriately titled The Hateful Eight, a post Civil War era Western mystery and thriller.

At the age of 54, Quentin Tarantino has recently gone on record saying he will retire some time soon, but all of the movie fans definitely hope the speak of film-making stays strong in his heart of a long time still. Because in a world densely crowded with average filmmakers QT seems to be one of the few who never play it safe.

A Salute to Quentin Tarantino

【推荐3】Leo has always been my closest and constant companion these past five years. In fact, he is very friendly to me especially when I take care of other furry friends in our shelter.

There have been a lot of forest fires during the summer season. Not far from our shelter, a forest caught fire during this hot summer. Leo rushed towards the forest where flames send out a terrible heat. There’s no longer any hope at the moment to wait for Leo to come back to the shelter. In fact, I was waiting for the firemen to announce me his death in the forest. Suddenly, a fireman burst into my office and informed me that my dog Leo succeeded in saving four cats which were trapped by the flames. Leo seized the kittens, one by one moving them to a safe place.

I immediately accompanied the fireman to the forest to pick up the rescued kittens, but Leo was not there. Then we heard the sound of a dog came from the forest barking furiously. The firemen followed the tracks of the dog until they found him barking loudly by the side of an injured fireman who was lying on the ground.

That day, I was very proud of Leo for his two heroic actions. I paid a visit to the fireman accompanied with my adorable Leo. What a memorable scene when the fireman hugged Leo tightly to his chest! “One thousand thanks, Leo, for saving my life,” the fireman said.

This true story of love shows us that pets are kind, loving, and caring. We should love and protect them. Don’t belittle them. Little animals can make enormous things for humans.

【推荐1】A month before my first marathon, one of my ankles was injured and this meant not running for two weeks, leaving me only two weeks to train. Yet, I made up my mind to go ahead.

I remember back to my 7th year in school. In my first P. E. class, the teacher required us to run laps and then hit a softball. I didn’t do either well. He later informed me that I was “not athletic”.

The idea that I was “not athletic” stuck with me for years. When I started running in my 30s, I realized running was a battle against myself, not about competition or whether or not I was athletic. It was all about the battle against my own body and mind. A test of wills!

The night before my marathon, I dreamt that I couldn’t even find the finish line. I woke up sweating and nervous, but ready to prove something to myself.

Shortly after crossing the start line, my shoe laces (鞋带) became untied. So I stopped to readjust. Not the start I wanted!

At mile 3, I passed a sign: “GO FOR IT, RUNNERS!”

By mile 17, I became out of breath and the once injured ankle hurt badly. Despite the pain, I stayed the course walking a bit and then running again.

By mile 21, I was starving!

As I approached mile 23, I could see my wife waving a sign. She is my biggest fan. She never minded the alarm clock sounding at 4 a.m. or questioned my expenses on running.

I was one of the final runners to finish. But I finished! And I got a medal. In fact, I got the same medal as the one that the guy who came in first place had.

Make a firm decision, move forward, free of shame and worldly labels (世俗标签). I can now call myself a “marathon winner”.