【推荐2】“Farm to table” is the name of a movement that encourages people to eat locally grown food. The farm­to­table idea has become more popular in recent years. But there is also a movement that brings “table to farm”. Its purpose is to connect people to the land and to honor local farmers by creating a sort of restaurant without walls.

Its founder, Jim Denevan, got the idea for this kind of “culinary adventure (美食探险)”, as he called it, ten years ago. He recently prepared tables for more than a hundred people at Briars Farm in Virginia. He and his eight­member team arrived the night before. Chefs (厨师) from a local restaurant prepared the dinner.

Jim Denevan’s brother is a farmer and he himself is a chef. He thought that the idea of a meal served right on the farm made sense, though not everyone agreed.

“But I wanted to make the idea work, so I decided to cross the country,” said Denevan. “I went all the way across the United States and set the table on farms, ranches (大牧场) and beaches, and all the places where food came from.”

“This kind of event connects us with a lot of enthusiastic people, people that we can form relationships with,” said Matt Szechenyi, who operates Briars Farm.

The tour of the farm ends at the dinner table. The meats in the meal come from Matt Szechenyi’s farm. The vegetables come from nearby farms. Guests and local farmers sit together.

Annoica Ingram came with a friend. “The food is wonderful. I appreciate their hard work. I see everything they have to do to take care of the animals and make sure they are well­cared­for. Without them, I think, we’ll have big problems,” she said.

【推荐3】Thirty years ago, Switzerland-based artist Klaus Littman came across a profound drawing titled The Unending Attraction of Nature. The drawing, by Austrian artist and architect Max Peintner, displays a scene in which nature is so detached from the environment that it becomes just a patch(块), preserved for entertainment.

“When I first saw the pencil drawing, I was fascinated. I knew that one day this work would be the starting point for a major art project in public space,” says Littmann.

Now, decades later, Littmann has fulfilled the vision with the installation(艺术装置) of FOR FOREST: The Unending Attraction of Nature. Making the lines between art, architecture and nature unclear, the installation sets a native central European forest in the midst of 30, 000 person Worthersee football Stadium in Klagenfurt. With nearly 300 trees planted, some weighing up to six tons each, it's Austria's largest public art installation to date.

In the face of climate crisis and deforestation, FOR FOREST comes with a more pressing urgency. As explained in a statement about the installation, “In support of today s most pressing issues on climate change and deforestation, FOR FOREST aims to challenge our view of nature and question its future. It seeks to become a memorial, reminding us that nature, which we so often take for granted, may someday only be found in special space, as is already the case with animals in zoos.”

The actual creation of the manmade forest was overseen by landscape architect Enzo Enea and his company, Enea Landscape Architecture, which includes a range of species in it. It was opened on September 8 and one can imagine it already attracting surprised and happy creatures to the field.

However, the installation will close on October 27. In a short video about the work, Littman says his objective is never to make something that will last forever; rather, he says, “My objective is for this picture to remain in people's head for a lifetime.”

【推荐1】George Gershwin, born in 1898, was one of America’s greatest composers. He published his first song when he was eighteen years old. During the next twenty years he wrote more than five hundred songs.

Many of Gershwin’s songs were first written for musical plays performed in theatres in New York City. These plays were a popular form of entertainment in the 1920s and 1930s. Many of his songs have remained popular as ever. Over the years they have been sung and played in every possible way — from jazz to country.

In the 1920s there was a debate in the United States about jazz music. Could jazz, some people asked, be considered serious music? In 1924 jazz musician and orchestra leader Paul Whiteman decided to organize a special concert to show that jazz was serious music. Gershwin agreed to compose something for the concert before he realized he had just a few weeks to do it. And in that short time, he composed a piece for piano and orchestra which he called Rhapsody in Blue. Gershwin himself played the piano at the concert. The audience were thrilled when they heard his music. It made him world-famous and showed that jazz music could be both serious and popular.

In 1928, Gershwin went to Paris. He applied to study composition (作曲)with the well-known musician Nadia Boulanger, but she rejected him. She was afraid that classical study would ruin his jazz-influenced style. While there, Gershwin wrote An American in Paris. When it was first performed, critics (评论家)were divided over the music. Some called it happy and full of life, to others it was silly and boring. But it quickly became popular in Europe and the United States. It still remains one of his most famous works.

George Gershwin died in 1937, just days after doctors learned he had brain cancer. He was only thirty-nine years old. Newspapers all over the world reported his death on their front pages. People mourned the loss of the man and all the music he might have still written.

【推荐3】Ludwig van Beethoven was a German composer. In his twenties, he had been very famous for his skills on the piano, but then he began to lose his hearing. Beethoven thought about giving up, but in the end he continued to write music. Inspired by his struggles with deafness, the composer produced some amazing pieces! He proceeded with the composition until his death in 1827.

One day in February 1824, at his little house in Vienna, Austria, Ludwig van Beethoven sat back in his chair and smiled. The famous German composer’s ninth symphony was finally completed. Before the performance, the backstage atmosphere at a very famous theatre in Vienna was tense. Beethoven was afraid that the performance would be a disaster. After all, what use is a conductor who could not hear his orchestra — even if he is a musical genius?

The audience did not hesitate to applaud loudly as the famous composer walked out onto the stage. The theatre’s musical director, Michael Umlauf, joined him and together the two men took charge of the orchestra. For more than an hour, Beethoven jumped about in front of the orchestra, waving his arms wildly in the air, and madly turning the pages of his score.

As the final, joyous note signal led the end of the symphony, the audience jumped to their feet, clapping, cheering and waving their hats. But Beethoven continued conducting, his head buried in the score. It was not until Caroline Unger, one of the singers, took his arm and turned him to face the audience that the great man realised his symphony was a success.