For the majority of people, watching movies is their favorite pastime. Even for the deaf, captions (字幕) make it possible for them to enjoy movies. But what about deaf children who can’t read yet, or whose reading isn’t fast enough to keep up with captions?
Mariella Satow, 17, a senior student of Rugby School in the UK, ran into these questions and spent over a year developing SignUp to solve them. SignUp, launched in August, is a free-of-charge Google Chrome Extension that provides American Sign Language (ASL) captioning over videos on Disney Plus. It puts a small box with a sign language interpreter (口译者) in the corner of the screen while the movie plays.
Satow, who has UK and US citizenship, has been stuck in New York, US, since March 2020 because of COVID-19. During the lockdown, Satow decided to learn a new language, specifically ASL. “Normally, I learn languages by watching television shows with captions, but I found nothing similar for ASL. ”
Realizing that some deaf children would come across the problem, Satow took action. Using her $3,000 she made from part-time job dog-walking during the pandemic, Satow employed an India-based company to help her design a coding system that could overlay ASL interpretation on streaming platforms. As of Nov. 12, the extension has provided on-screen ASL interpretation for nine movies such as Moana.
“We watched Moana ... My 6-year-old daughter’s face was priceless. She loved it ... It was the first time she had had full access to a movie. Thank you!” a user commented below on SignUp’s Twitter account. Satow said that some teachers would use the extension in their classrooms and arrange movie nights for their students.
“My hope is we’ll have a lot more movies interpreted,” she told the website Sag Harbor Express. “I’m hoping to expand to a more adult audience and to other countries—to make it as big as possible. ”
1. What does SignUp do?| A．Reduce the speed of captions. | B．Teach deaf children a sign language. |
| C．Offer on-screen ASL interpretation. | D．Provide captions in different languages. |
| A．To earn money for her education. |
| B．To make ASL popular among the deaf. |
| C．To become a sign language interpreter. |
| D．To help deaf children enjoy movies better. |
| A．Favorable. | B．Negative. | C．Uncaring. | D．Doubtful. |
| A．Brave and independent. | B．Kind-hearted and creative. |
| C．Friendly and honest. | D．Smart and humorous. |
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【推荐1】The theatre in Shakespeare’s time was much different than it is today. Authors wrote plays for the masses, especially those who couldn’t read or write.
The theatre changed a lot during Shakespeare’s lifetime. The authorities didn’t like it and didn’t allow acting in the city itself. They thought it had a bad influence on people and kept them from going to church. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, loved acting and helped the theatre become popular.
The theatre in Shakespeare’s time was full of life. People did not sit all the time and it was not quiet during the performance. The audience could walk around, eat and drink during the play.
Theatres were open arenas or playhouses that had room for up to three thousand people. There was almost no scenery because the dialogue was the most important part of the play. Colourful and well-designed costumes were very important and told the people about the status of a character. Women never performed in plays, so young boys played female characters. The performances took place in the afternoon because it was too dark at night.
There was no stage crew as there is today. Actors had to do everything themselves — from making costumes to setting the stage. Plays were organized by acting companies. They performed about 6 different plays each week because they needed money to survive. They had almost no time to rehearse (排练).
The companies in Shakespeare’s time had a rank system. The companies belonged to shareholders and managers. They were responsible for everything and got most of the money when the company was successful. Sometimes they even owned their own buildings. Actors worked for the managers and after some time became a permanent member of the company. Apprentices (学徒) were young boys and were allowed to act in unimportant roles. They also played female characters in plays.
1. Why was the theatre banned by the authorities?| A．The queen didn’t like it. | B．It affected people negatively. |
| C．It kept people going to church. | D．It was much different than before. |
| A．Stages. | B．Stores. | C．Studios. | D．Systems. |
| A．They were too busy to practice. |
| B．They could drink during the play. |
| C．They had stage crew to help them. |
| D．They were rich by running acting companies. |
| A．To remember Shakespeare. |
| B．To show his love of Shakespeare’s plays. |
| C．To introduce theatres in Shakespeare’s time. |
| D．To discuss the company’s rank system. |
【推荐2】This year, it felt as if every good movie was also an argument for why movies matter. They reward your attention, engage your feelings and respect your intelligence.
Petite Maman (Céline Sciamma)
The death of a grandmother, the sorrow of a parent, the acquisition of a new friend — these ordinary experiences, occurring in the life of an 8-year-old girl, provide the basic structure of this spare, perfect film. Whether it’s best described as a modern-dress fairy tale, or a low-tech time travel fantasy is up to you. What’s certain is that the performance of the cast causes maximum emotional impact. (Coming to theaters.)
Summer of Soul (Questlove)
This documentary about a series of open-air concerts in Harlem in 1969, connecting impressive performances with interviews with musicians and audience members, is a shot of pure joy. But the film is more than a time capsule: It’s a history lesson and an argument for why art matters, and what it can do, especially in time of anxiety. (Streaming on Hulu.)
Bring Your Own Brigade (Lucy Walker)
This documentary about California wildfires of September 2021 is also, almost by accident, an exploration of the country’s response to the Covid-19 pandemic. The picture Walker paints is complicated, partly because that’s the way people are: panicked, generous, stupid and brave. The movie is hardly optimistic, but its open-mindedness provides a buffer against despair. (In theaters.)
The Velvet Underground (Todd Haynes)
Like “Summer of Soul”, this documentary revisits the music of the 1960s in a spirit that is more historical than just recalling the past. Rather than gathering present-day musicians to celebrate their ancestors, Haynes concentrates on the Velvet, a band, and on the artistic scene that inspired them. In particular, he focuses on their connections to the experimental cinema that boomed in New York. (Streaming on Apple TV+.)
1. What’s the highlight of Petite Maman?| A．Its low cost. | B．Its modern style. |
| C．Its unusual story. | D．Its impressive acting. |
| A．Being available offline. | B．Sharing the same director. |
| C．Involving music in the 1960s. | D．Interviewing contemporary musicians. |
| A．Petite Maman. | B．Summer of Soul. |
| C．Bring Your Own Brigade. | D．The Velvet Underground. |
【推荐3】Children Films for International Children's Day
International Children's Day is around the corner and we have selected some children's movies for you to enjoy this special day with your kids. Free online access to these films will be available for a limited period of time (from June 1st-June 7th), and feel free to pick them up. The films are all provided by www.1905,com.
A Journey to the Seaside (2019 )
A driver, Shen Tong, played by actor Sha Yi, receives an order sending an 8-year-old boy and his dog from Beijing to Zhoushan in Zhejiang province. Shen reluctantly accepts the order just for the payment. On the way, he and the boy go through many experiences together, which changes their attitudes. At the end of the journey, Shen finds there might be some relations between him and the boy. This is a journey that heals two lonely hearts--one of an adult, the other a child.
Little Tigers (2013)
Winning many awards, the film features some children helping to deliver important messages during the War of Resistance against Japanese Aggression (1931-1945). The main actors, chosen from about 30,000 children in auditions, had little acting experience but successfully portray the characters with natural and vivid performances.
Animal Rescue Squad (2019)
A ship carrying highly poisonous raw material is robbed by pirates. Besides a parrot, all crew members mysteriously died. Despite this, the ship is still heading to port at a full speed, which will cause a huge disaster. A girl who can talk to animals happens to learn about the accident and tries to save the sea, the port and the people with her animal friends.
Click here to watch the films https://www.1905.com/vod/play/1458180.shtml
1. For whom is the passage written?| A．Children. | B．Teachers. | C．Parents. | D．School. |
| A．A Journey to the Seaside. | B．Little Tigers. |
| C．Animal Rescue Squad. | D．None of the films. |
| A．A brochure. | B．A magazine. | C．A textbook. | D．A website. |
【推荐1】The waste management park at Water Beach in Cambridge-shire handles 400,000 tons of recycling every year.
Fran Hawes is standing on the edge of a mountain of dry recycling. She says, “Some think it’s a discouraging thing, but for me personally, it is a huge responsibility.” Fran, who started to do the job at the age of 26, takes her job very seriously. “I am that annoying person at a party who will get everyone’s recycling and make sure everything goes in the right bin,” she admits. “That’s my job. That’s my mission. That’s what I need to do. It allows me to find my leadership style.”
Bin loader Richard Hughes and his colleagues clock on at the waste service garage in Peter-borough at 6:30 and are out emptying bins within half an hour. Richard works four 12-hour days and admits the pay and the condition are not great—but there are three days off which he can spare to his partner and children. His colleague Crystal Teal has been working as a bin loader for two and a half months. “I didn’t feel my last job gave me self-worth and general happiness, so I decided to change and do something completely different,” she says. “I decided to be a binman. It doesn’t bother me that men are mainly doing it,” Crystal adds. “It can be smelly some days, but go home and have a shower, you’ll be all right.”
“When householders put the wrong material in the recycling bins, it makes me feel angry that they are just putting it out there. We’re doing our job to serve them. We are providing service to take their rubbish away and they can’t do their part to put the right things in,” said Richard.
“Any problem has a solution—therefore I’m not afraid of a pile of waste,” Fran says. “To any normal person, this might be intimidating (令人生畏的). It’s a challenge. But this will be gone by Monday morning.”
1. Why does Fran Hawes make others annoyed at a party?| A．She asks everyone to be responsible for their jobs. | B．She still performs her task of waste sorting. |
| C．She hosts the party in a leadership way. | D．She might be smelly at parties. |
| A．She needed a well-paid job. | B．She preferred the three-day-off holiday. |
| C．It’s meaningful for her to do the job. | D．All the colleagues were friendly to her. |
| A．People didn’t take out their rubbish. | B．People threw away rubbish everywhere. |
| C．People didn’t sort their rubbish out rightly. | D．People picked out useful things from the bins. |
| A．Honest and determined. | B．Humorous and confident. |
| C．Sensitive and talented. | D．Responsible and optimistic. |
【推荐2】This year some twenty-three hundred teenagers from all over the world will spend about ten months in American homes. They will attend American schools, meet American teenagers, and form impressions of the real America. At the same time, about thirteen hundred American teenagers will go to other countries to learn new languages and gain a new understanding of the rest of the world.
Here is a two-way student exchange in action. Fred, nineteen, spent last year in Germany with George’s family. In turn, George’s son Mike spent a year in Fred’s home in America.
Fred, a lively young man, knew little German when he arrived, but after two months’ study, the language began to come to him. School was completely different from what he had expected—much harder. Students rose respectfully when the teacher entered the room. They took fourteen subjects instead of the six that are usual in the United States. There were almost no outside activities.
Family life, too, was different. The father’s word was law, and all activities were around the family rather than the individual. Fred found the food too simple at first. Also, he missed having a car.
“Back home, you pick up some friends in a car and go out and have a good time. In Germany, you walk, but you soon learn to like it.”
At the same time, in America, Mike, a friendly German boy, was also forming his idea. “I suppose I should criticize American schools”, he says. “It is far too easy by our level. But I have to say that I like it very much. In Germany, we do nothing but study. Here we take part in many outside activities. I think that maybe your schools are better in training for citizens. There ought to be some middle ground between the two.”
1. The whole exchange programme is mainly to________.| A．help teenagers in other countries know the real America |
| B．send students in America to travel in Germany |
| C．let students learn something about other countries |
| D．have teenagers learn new languages |
| A．American food tasted better than German food |
| B．German schools were harder than American schools |
| C．Americans and Germans were both friendly |
| D．there were more cars on the streets in America |
| A．there is some middle ground between the two teaching buildings |
| B．there are a lot of after-school activities |
| C．students usually take fourteen subjects in all |
| D．students go outside to enjoy themselves in a car |
| A．a better education should include something good from both America and Germany |
| B．German schools trained students to be better citizens |
| C．American schools were not as good as German schools |
| D．the easy life in the American school was more helpful to students |
【推荐3】Chinese billionaire Jack Ma, the co-founder of the online retail giant Alibaba, said he is donating 500,000 testing kits and 1 million masks to the United States to fight the spread of coronavirus (冠状病毒). The China-made protective gear and test kits took off from Shanghai's airport in a chartered (包租的) cargo plane Monday morning, and will be handed over to the US Center for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) when they arrive.
The Jack Ma Foundation and Alibaba Foundation have donated much-needed materials to areas suffering in the epidemic (泛滥) over the past few weeks, including Japan, South Korea, Italy, Egypt, Iran and Spain, according to a tweet (推文) from the Jack Ma Foundation on Friday.
Ma said the outbreak presents “a huge challenge to all humankind in a globalized world,” and that he has drawn from his own country's experience that quick and accurate testing as well as protective equipment for medical personnel are most effective in preventing the spread of the virus.
The past experience shows us that if we take it very seriously and are positive, we surely have the ability to kill out the virus.
Now it is as if we were all living in the same forest on fire. As members of the global community, it would be irresponsible of us to sit on the fence, panic, ignore facts or fail to act. We need to take action now!
1. Jack Ma has sent much-needed materials to the countries except .| A．the USA | B．Iran | C．North Korea | D．Italy |
| A．Long-term testing and protective equipment for medical personnel. |
| B．Proper testing and protective equipment for doctors and nurses. |
| C．Taking medicines immediately and staying at home. |
| D．Correct labeling to the virus and staying at home. |
| A．The forest where we are living is on fire. |
| B．We are all facing the same trouble of coronavirus. |
| C．We are irresponsible to take action to overcome the virus. |
| D．All of us are the members of the globe and it is easy to overcome the virus. |
| A．Jack Ma is one of the founders of the online retail giant Alibaba. |
| B．The protective equipment will be handed over to the CDC. |
| C．Jack Ma has just donated much-needed materials to the countries in Asia, America, and Europe. |
| D．If we take the virus seriously, we are able to solve the problem of coronavirus. |
【推荐1】About 15 years ago, Andrew McLindon, a successful businessman and enthusiastic cyclist, was riding his bike in Austin, Texas, when he thought about a friend’s 12-year-old son. The boy had never known the joy of biking because he suffered from an inborn brain disease that often causes balance disturbances.
When he got home, McLindon, now 60, went online and found a three-wheel bike with a seat belt, perfect for a child with balance issues. Soon the boy was riding around the street with his peers, having fun and getting exercise. But there was more, as McLindon learned from his friend’s reaction. “I’ll never forget the smile on his face,” McLindon says, “when he sees his son interacting with other kids.”
That smile launched the McLindon Family Foundation. Funded by donations, the group works with the Children’s Rehab Clinic to find children who can benefit from owning an adaptive bike — and to help make each bike to the particular needs of the child. A bike may include a headrest, a shoulder support, a seatbelt, and a caregiver’s steering and brake. For kids lucky enough to get one, they’re a life changer.
“We worked with a 14-year-old who has spina bifida,” says McLindon. “She spent most days on the couch watching TV. Soon after she got her bike, she was training for special-needs triathlons (铁人三项比赛). In a magazine interview, she said, ‘I always knew there was an athlete in me.’”
So far, the foundation has given away 450 bikes, and that’s just a start. “I do a lot of things. I run a lot of companies,” Mc Lindon says. “But getting these kids their bikes is the most important thing that I do.”
1. What inspired McLindon to start the foundation?| A．His rich cycling experience. | B．The clinic’s funded donations. |
| C．His friend’s positive reaction. | D．Children’s particular needs for bikes. |
| A．Caring. | B．Patient. | C．Strict. | D．Humorous. |
| A．Life Cycles | B．Try It Out | C．Bike Races | D．Pay It Forward |
【推荐2】There are people for whom the motivation lies in their family’s or companions’ duties. For some people, the purpose lies in a soul’s spiritual awakening. Brent Clayton, a firefighter by profession, is such an individual who found his purpose early in life and kept working to fulfill it.
Born on March 3, 1984, Clayton hugely felt the need to serve others. He followed his mission in life and acquired his diploma in Public Safety. He gradually realized the importance of securing people’s lives, which strengthened his faith in his mission. Clayton further pursued his bachelor’s degree from the University of Melbourne and master’s degree from Federation University. Then, Clayton worked in the military for a period before moving into a role with the prison service as a prison guard, the youngest person to ever be employed by the service at the time.
After spending a decade in the fire service including training and recruitment, he gained enough experience to become Australian most prominent fire service recruitment expert. Clayton devoted many years of his life to the firefighter recruitment process and fire service industry. He wanted people to realize the true value of this profession by establishing its significance. To communicate his perspective, Clayton established Fire Recruitment Australia in 2009. He aimed to train the next generation and prepare them for the future. Clayton used his experience and years-long training to prepare candidates who were as enthusiastic about the well-being of the world as him.
Keeping the point in mind, Clayton wrote the book Fire Service Recruitment-The Process to Success. His idea was to join his learning into an accessible medium so others didn’t have to waste years wondering what to do when applying to become a firefighter. After the success of the book, Clayton introduced candidates to a comprehensive test preparation and learning suite to facilitate success throughout each stage of the selection process. This platform helped him as well as his candidates to work together for the betterment of themselves and society at large.
1. What made Clayton’s belief stronger?| A．The need of serving other people. |
| B．The significance of securing people’s safety. |
| C．The diploma he received from Public Safety. |
| D．The knowledge he learned from college. |
| A．Stubborn. | B．Fearless. | C．Distinguished. | D．Elegant. |
| A．Because he was enthusiastic about the well-being of the world. |
| B．Because he wanted to carry out academic research. |
| C．Because he wanted to realize his dream of being a leader. |
| D．Because he hoped to get young people ready for future career. |
| A．A book for career success | B．A man with great purpose |
| C．An organization for well-being | D．A standard for firefighters |
【推荐3】In 2015, Brian Peterson and his wife, Vanessa, had just moved to Santa Ana, California. Outside the couple’s apartment, a homeless man was often yelling on the street corner.
One day, Peterson was relaxing in his living room, reading the book Love Does, about the power of love in action, when his quiet was disturbed by the homeless man. Inspired by the book’s compassionate message. Peterson made an unexpected decision: He was going to go outside and introduce himself.
In that first conversation, Peterson learned that the man’s name was Matt Faris. He’d moved to Southern California from Kentucky to pursue a career in music, but he soon fell on hard times and ended up living on the street for more than a decade.
“It was the weirdest thing to me,” Peterson recalled later. “I saw beauty on the face of a man who hadn’t shaved in probably a year. But his story, the life inside of him, inspired me.” And even though Peterson hadn’t picked up a paintbrush in about eight years, he found himself asking if he could pain Faris’s portrait. Faris said yes.
Peterson’s connection with Faris led him to form Faces of Santa Ana, a nonprofit organization focused on befriending and painting portraits of members of the community who are unhoused Peterson sells the portrait for a few thousand dollars, putting half of the profits into what he calls a “love account” for his model. He then helps people use the money to get back on their feet.
Many of Peterson’s new friends use the donations to secure immediate necessities — medical care hotel rooms, food. Faris used the funds from his portrait to record an album, fulfilling his musical dreams. When the check was delivered, “they both wept in my arms,” Peterson recalls.
Having painted 41 of these portraits himself, he’s discovered that the buyers tend to connect to the story of the person in the painting, finding similarities and often friendship with someone they might have otherwise overlooked or stereotyped.
“People often tell me, ‘I was the one that would cross the street. But I see homeless people differently now,’” Peterson says. “I didn’t know that would happen.”
1. Why did Peterson offer to paint a portrait for Faris?| A．He was touched by Faris’s life story. | B．He was inspired by a book about love |
| C．He wanted to regain his skills in painting. | D．He aimed to form a non-profit organization |
| A．To inspire readers to help the poor. |
| B．To explain the value of the portrait. |
| C．To show the effects of Faces of Santa Ana. |
| D．To demonstrate the change of the homeless. |
| A．Romantic | B．Caring | C．Courageous | D．Persistent. |
| A．The homeless are better off now | B．Good things happen all the time |
| C．People enjoy painting the homeless | D．Peterson’s efforts make a difference |
