【推荐1】A powerful earthquake hit Morocco on Friday night, killing over 2,500 people and causing huge damage over a large area. The quake was one of the most powerful ever recorded in Morocco. It’s also the country’s deadliest earthquake in over 60 years. So far, the earthquake is reported to have killed over 2,680 people. It has injured over 2,500 others. The earthquake was especially dangerous because it happened at night, when people were asleep in their homes.

Marrakesh is a big city that’s popular with tourists. Many of its modern buildings seem to have survived the earthquake, but the old part of the city, Medina, was hit hard. It has buildings that are over 1,000 years old. Many of those buildings were demolished.

Outside of Marrakesh, the earthquake caused even more damage. In the Atlas Mountains, the earthquake’s center, there are many small villages, some of which were nearly destroyed.

Many of the people in the area live in simple houses made of mud bricks, which is a traditional way of building in Morocco. But it’s not strong enough to protect against earthquakes. Although the Moroccan government has laws that require buildings to be built more safely, these rules are often ignored.

Rescue workers have been working hard to save those affected by the quake. In larger cities, rescue efforts seem to be going well. But it has taken a lot longer for help to reach remote areas in the mountains. Many of these villages are difficult to get to. The earthquake caused landslides, blocking roads, and making these places even more difficult to reach. In some areas, phone and electrical service were also knocked out, leaving these places completely cut off. That means that the local people in some remote areas have had to deal with the situation on their own. In some areas, people have been digging through the broken stones or bricks with their hands, trying to find survivors. Many people are sleeping outside, unsure if their houses are safe.

Many outside countries have offered to help Morocco. Some countries have offered teams of experts; others have offered supplies.

【推荐2】China’s top animator Tian Xiaopeng and his animation studio announced that they will be producing the much-anticipated live action film, The Three-Body Problem, based on the award-winning sci-fi novel by Chinese writer Liu Cixin.

Tian created China’s 3-D animation milestone Monkey King: Hero Is Back in 2015. It grossed (获利) 956 million yuan in China, becoming the highest-grossing Chinese animation in the country’s film history at that time. It had held the record until 2019 when it got broken by Coloroom Pictures Ne Zha that grossed more than five billion yuan.

Book fans of The Three-Body Problem had mixed reactions after hearing about Tian’s involvement. Some expressed doubt about a studio that specializes in animation making a live-action movie. Others also argued that the universe described in the novel is too big and complicated for any filmmakers to portray on big screens. But some seemed optimistic about the new adaption, noting the impressive track record of Tian’s previous works.

The book series talks about how human beings respond to alien invasion. It was published in China between 2006 and 2010, and sold more than one million copies. The first book in the series was awarded the Chinese Science Fiction Galaxy Award in 2006. In 2014, an English translation of the first book by Chinese-American author Ken Liu, titled The Three-Body Problem, was published. A year later, Liu Cixin became the first Asian author to win the Hugo Award, the highest honor in science fiction and fantasy writing.

The book series has developed various art and entertainment forms, including stage dramas and radio shows. During Spring Festival in 2019, Guo Fan’s The Wandering Earth, a film also based on a novel by Liu Cixin, had made over 4.6 billion yuan at the box office domestically. It ignited huge public interest in the film project of The Three-Body Problem.

【推荐3】Ernest Hemingway, the Nobel Prize-winning American writer, first visited Pamplona during the traditional festival 100 years ago. The festival started more than seven hundred years ago. For nine days, people come to the northern Spanish city for bull running, bullfighting and partying.

The festival affected Hemingway so deeply that he returned eight times. Here is a description of what happens at the start of the bull running: A rocket would be lit. And the bulls would charge out of the gate. At that moment, a crowd of runners wearing white clothes and red scarves would start to run. They would look back, move and dance to avoid being injured by the charging bull’s horns. Onlookers would cheer them on from balconies above.

In 1926, Hemingway wrote his first book, The Sun Also Rises. He wrote about his experiences in Pamplona and established himself as the voice of what became known as the Lost Generation. “I can’t stand it to think my life is going so fast and I’m not really living it,” says one character in the book. “Nobody ever lives their life all the way up except bull-fighters,” is the answer.

Bill Hillman is a 41-year-old professor from Chicago. He first read the book at college. When he turned to the last page, he learnt two things: He wanted to become a writer, and he would run in front of Pamplona’s bulls someday. His first running of the bulls was in 2005 and he has been running ever since. He has been wounded twice, but that has not lessened his interest.

Last year, 1.7 million people came to the festival. Pamplona native Miguel has written about the festival’s links to Hemingway. He believes the writer’s influence on its popularity has been as large as people say. Besides, he thinks that Pamplona is still using Hemingway to gain attention. “We made him into an icon,” he said.