1 . “What if I told you that I murdered Basil?”

“You couldn’t murder anyone, Dorian. He probably fell into the Seine from a bus. By the way, where’s that wonderful portrait he did of you? Oh! I remember now. You told me years ago that you sent it to Selby Manor and that it got lost or stolen on the way. What a pity! I wanted to buy it. I wish I had now.” Lord Henry said.

“I never really liked it,” said Dorian.

“How have you kept your youth, Dorian? You must have some secret. I’m only ten years older than you are, and I’m wrinkled and old. Please, tell me your secret. To get back my youth, I’d do anything in the world, except take exercise, get up early, or be respectable.”

When Dorian arrived home that night, he sent his servant to bed, and sat down on the sofa in the library. Then he began to think about his life.

“I’ve been an evil influence on my friends, and I’ve ruined the lives of many good young people,” he thought, “Ah! Why did I pray for the portrait to grow old, and for me to stay young? I worshiped beauty and eternal youth, but they ruined me. It’s better not to think of the past. Nothing can change that. I must think of the future. James Vane is dead. Alan Campbell is dead, too. He shot himself one night in his laboratory.”

“I’m safe now,” he continued. “Basil painted the portrait that ruined my life. I can’t forgive him for that. Everything is the portrait’s fault.”

He began to wonder about the portrait. “If I’m good, maybe the portrait will become beautiful again,” he thought. “I’ll go and look.”

He took the lamp from the table and went upstairs. As he unlocked the door, he smiled. “Yes, I’ll be good,” he thought, “I won’t be frightened of this portrait any more.”

He went upstairs to the room and locked the door. Then he pulled the purple cloth off the portrait. He gave a cry of pain. The portrait was more horrible. His face looked more evil. There was new blood on the hand and on the feet.

Dorian trembled with fear. Dorian looked round the room and saw the knife that stabbed Basil Hallward. It was bright and shining.

“This knife killed the artist, and now it will kill the artist’s work,” he thought.

He grabbed the knife, and then he stabbed the portrait with it.

2 . At first glance (扫视) , the most unusual thing about the book is that it was finished without the co-authors ever meeting. Unusual though that maybe, the story of the power of the human spirit to defeat everything, as told in Black Ice, makes the story of its writing unimportant.

The book comes out in December 2022 in Selly Oak Hospital. A soldier returns to consciousness (意识). All he can think about is that his shoes are killing him. He calls over a nurse and asks her to take them off. The nurse has no idea what to do because, not only does the soldier have no shoes to take off, but also he has no lower legs either.

Corie Mapp was born in the countryside of eastern Barbados in 1978. In 2005 he bought a one-way ticket to London to run after his dream: to serve in The Life Guards, the senior group of the British Army.

Mapp passed easily through basic training. In 2008, he was chosen as a vehicle driver, and, in January 2010, while on duty under enemy fire, his vehicle ran over an bomb. Two weeks later, as already related, he returned to consciousness in Selly Oak Hospital without his legs.

Despite his life-changing injuries, Mapp drew on the love of his family and his skill at sports to recover. Within two weeks of regaining consciousness, he was walking on prosthetic legs (假肢), within a month he was driving a car, and he went on over the coming months to compete successfully in athletics and sitting volleyball for the British Army in the 2013 Warrior Games.

As the book describes, his fireplace at home was soon full of trophies (奖杯). In this book, Black Ice tells Mapp’s unusual life story with humour — but also with some very firmly held beliefs about life. This is a human-interest story like no other.

3 . With some 50 million copies in print, Johanna Spyri’s Heidi is probably the biggest Swiss bestseller of all time. So it's not a surprise there have been many film adaptations. The latest one, directed by Alain Gsponer, is a live-action, German-language feature that’s simply titled Heidi as well.

Heidi’s impressive box-office numbers prove that the world was ready for yet another version of this old-fashioned tale. The feature made over $15.5 million in Germany and Switzerland alone. Even more impressive are the numbers in Italy and France (not generally areas where German-language children’s films stand any chance).

Gsponer’s film follows the basic structure of the 1881 novel. 5-year-old Heidi is shipped off by her aunt, Dete, to her don’t-waste-any-words grandfather, who lives alone in a small wooden house high up in the Swiss Alps. He is not pleased to see his routine in the peaceful mountain air messed up by a curious little girl who needs looking after. The film doesn’t lay stress on the point, but even for those who haven’t read the book, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the lovely little girl will soon manage to melt Granddad’s icy heart.

At age 8, Heidi is taken away to Frankfurt, where her aunt has found her a rich family as a companion (伙伴) to a wheelchair-bound child, Klara. As in the novel, the film plays Heidi’s initial fish-out-of-the-water situation for comedy, since, as a country girl, she has no idea about things as basic as clean clothes or table manners. Actually, in the midsection, the girls’ strict governess (女家庭教师) gets some of the biggest laughs.

This is also a plot necessity. Heidi will need to start to feel homesick. She misses not only Grandpa but also her cute goat herder friend, Peter. She does get to see them again.

Throughout the movie, Gsponer keeps contrasting (对比) different elements, including the seasons, the city and the country and even characters, such as the dark-haired and earthy Heidi and the fair-skinned and fair-haired city girl Klara. These natural contrasts help give a sense of agreement to a plot.

6 . The short film Piper, released by Pixar in 2016, won the 89th Academy Award for Best Animated Short film. Piper was written and directed by Alan Barillaro, previously working in the animation department. It’s a wonder that he had the fortune to win Oscar for his first film.

The short film follows a baby bird named Piper, as she learns and overcomes her fears of finding food at the seafront. Piper is encouraged to peck（啄）at the sand beach but gets wet through with water from a wave. Discouraged by the terrible wave, she hopes to get food from her mother but fails. After gathering up the courage again, she meets a hermit crab（寄居蟹）who shows her not to be scared of the ocean but to embrace it. Finally, she discovers the secret of the ocean and feeds herself even her family. It’s a story about facing challenges and not being discouraged by failure. Like Piper, we can always find solutions and come out stronger than ever before.

Somehow Pixar manages to fit all of these into a five-minute-long short film, without using any spoken language and entirely by animation. Movements and personified facial expressions are what drive this story in this film. Much like the nature documentary, the continuous pulling of the shallow focus adds the sense of realism. The clean and clear animation allows for even the slightest micro-expressions to be picked up by the audience. And the music is consistent with Piper’s emotions, making the audience feel the same way.

This film and lots of others by Pixar make us laugh and cry all the time. By fitting a simple story with simple characters, we are led through challenges to a satisfying conclusion for our characters. It’s one of the best short films in a long time.

7 . Bear Grylls’s Adventure Tales

Mr. Grylls has established himself as television's foremost survivalist. In episodes of Man vs. Wild, he has been dropped into some punishing environments (the sands of the Sahara, the frigid Siberian wilderness with little more than a knife, a water bottle, and the instructions to make it out alive. Below are excerpts from an interview with him.

Q: When did you first grow interested in the outdoors?

A: My late dad had been a climber. He started taking me out into the wild at a young age, doing everything from climbing sea cliffs hundreds of feet up to making boats and building treehouses. He taught me to take risks but to always listen to my inner voice and to work out clever solutions even when the situation has left you dramatically low on tools.

Q: Last time when you were in southern Africa, your parachute failed to open, resulting in an injury that nearly left you paralyzed. What effect did that have on you?

A: Those long months in military rehabilitation(康复) were a dark time for me. I couldn't move and was in constant pain, strapped up in braces. It was while I was lying there that I determined tore-find my childhood dream to climb Mount Qomolangma. I counted myself blessed to be able to leave that hospital fully recovered, determined to live life boldly and without regrets.

Q: Why do you find adventure travel so attractive?

A: Adventure brings out the best and worst in people. We don't always allow ourselves to get pushed to the edge, either physically or mentally. Adventure is different: The wild is unpredictable. However much we prepare, things sometimes go wrong, and it is then that the real adventure begins. My experience tells me that people are much stronger than they often give themselves credit for. It is why I say the wild can empower you.

Q: What was your most dangerous trip?

A: Probably a small expedition I led across the Arctic Ocean in an open inflatable boat. We hit very unusual subzero storms off the ice packs of Greenland and gale force winds. In a tiny open boat, you are truly at the mercy of the elements, and your survival is then taken out of your hands and put into those of Mother Nature. All five of us had to face the prospect of death during those nights.