Spring Festival Gala sees viewership rise nearly 13% to 679m

This year’s Spring Festival Gala, a celebration     1     (annual) produced and broadcast by China Media Group (CMG), unfolded on the eve of the Chinese New Year on Friday evening. This occasion signifies a cherished time when Chinese people around the world gather with their     2     (family) to welcome the Chinese New Year, attracting 679 million viewers,     3     15.13 % increase from the previous year.

The gala was also broadcast in about 200 countries in 68 languages,     4       (receive) warm feedback.

This year, the gala, besides Beijing,     5     (have) four branch venues in Shenyang, Liaoning province, Xi’an, Shaanxi province, Changsha, Hunan province, and Kashgar in Xinjiang Uygur autonomous region.

Audience enjoyed a     6     (diverse) of local cultural elements from those places, such     7     folk musical instruments and folk dances.

    8     (support) by ultra-high-definition production, the gala was telecast on TV screens, public large screens, and mobile devices.

    9     its inaugural (创始的) broadcast in 1983, the annual CCTV Spring Festival Gala has become an integral part of celebrations in the country to usher (引领) in the Chinese New Year. A major entertainment during Lunar New Year’s Eve, the gala marks the joyous moment     10     families gather together to celebrate the upcoming year.

3 . Can robots paint? There’s research out there that shows they can be programmed to. The study “Region-based approaches in robotic painting” looks at how paintings can be copied using robots.

Using e-David, a painting robot developed at the University of Konstanz, researchers look at the use of stroke-based rendering (基于笔触的渲染) in copying art, whose aim is to copy human painting. However, they highlight that the robot sometimes struggles with stroke-based rendering. If the machine used to copy brush strokes runs into an error, it is unable to correct it in the same way that humans can. So the researchers apply “structured regions” in robot-based painting to reduce errors, helping to break up images into elements that can be painted individually to recreate the entire piece.

There’s another painting robot called the Pankraz Piktograph which seems to do a pretty good job at capturing faces. The operation of the Piktograph is very simple: you stand in front of the machine, look into the camera and take a photo. If you like what you see, the robot will then begin to draw it on a piece of paper. It does this using two human-like arms which are made from lightweight metal and driven by two engines. An ordinary ballpoint pen is held in a spring-loaded (装着弹簧的) carrier, which provides just enough pen-to-paper pressure to reliably draw lines without lifting off or destroying the paper.

Inside, the Piktograph is powered by a Raspberry Pi 3, which runs a rather difficult procedure to generate an image. The maker’s paper goes into quite some detail to explain the process, which uses Canny edge detection to create an outline drawing, and then fills in the empty bits to create bright and dark areas.

A certain amount of noise and wiggles (摆动) will be added to the lines to give them a more handmade feel, and the resulting drawing is divided into continuous lines for effective drawing by the machine.

Looking at the technicalities of painting with robots can help to create new tools for artists. This makes it an interesting area to keep an eye on in terms of art and technology.

4 . The rise of body neutrality You define (定义) beauty yourself. You are more than a number in measurement. Love yourself the way you are. Body positive messages like theses seem to be everywhere from social media to TV advertisements.

Body positivity’s aim to boost acceptance and appreciation of a variety of body types and sizes may explain why it has such a broad appeal. While some find the body positivity movement to be helpful, others have begun calling the movement toxic and suggesting it may be time to move on from this way of thinking.

More recently, people have voiced concerns. Some feel that the focus on loving your looks actually strengthens society’s stress on appearance over other values. Much body positivity content in advertisements may bring a stereotype (刻板印象) to viewers because it does little to challenge the hidden assumption that people are valued mainly for their appearance. Therefore, the movement still encourages people to be graceful and engage in beauty practices from head to toe. And if you fail to be body positive, it’s you that are at fault.

Many are now moving away from the body positivity movement and the pressures that come from it entirely, and instead are getting behind the body neutrality (中立) movement. Instead of focusing on physical appearance, body neutrality is a profound idea that we can exist without having to think too much about our bodies.

We are all more than just our bodies. We are complicated beings with a range of emotions and feelings about our bodies. And because body neutrality de-emphasizes (不强调) the focus on appearance, it motivates us to better acknowledge all the things our bodies are able to do. Being grateful for being able to take up your hobbies and appreciating your body for what it’s capable of doing are both examples of body neutrality.

Body neutrality can be beneficial to us. It is associated with the positive body image and mental well-being. The good news is that there are many ways you can develop body neutrality, including writing-based treatment, yoga and spending time in nature.

5 . Some researchers from the London School of Economics, Oxford University and University College London carried out a research on the Exploring What Matters course. The course is taught throughout the country and is run by volunteers, who have no formal training but bring people together to explore “the things that really matter in life”.

The study found that satisfaction levels of those taking part increased by one point, increasing from 6.4 out of 10 to 7.4 after the course. Researchers said that this increase was greater than the boost people would get from being partnered rather than single (+0.59), and being employed rather than unemployed (+0.7).

So far, more than 6,000 people in the UK have taken part in the eight-week course. People involved in the course learn how to cultivate (培养) happiness by taking positive action in their daily lives. They also learn how to have better relationships and create stronger communities.

“I was quite sceptical,” said Jo Newstead, are tired health worker in London. “But I really enjoy it. There are nice people from all different backgrounds and we usually have a full discussion. It has made me focus on what I can do to help improve things for myself and for others.“

Mark Williamson, director of Action for Happiness, was not surprised by the study’s results. “This new research backs up what hundreds of people have already told us: taking part in these groups is life-changing,” he said. “But the thing we’re most excited about is that people coming out of this experience not only feel better about themselves, but also feel more connected to others and want to do more for others,” he added.

7 . It was the winter when I taught in a small country school on the west coast of Vancouver Island. I had three grades of little people in my class, all beaming with the desire to learn all they could. One little boy named David from my grade one class wanted to learn more than all the others. His round swollen face would smile up at me, reminding me over and over of his disease—leukemia. More often than not, he would be missing from our classroom for rounds of treatments.

All of us were so pleased, then, to have that happy little boy with us for Christmas. We decorated our classroom, practised for the concert, and prepared Christmas stories to share.

Two days before school let out for the three-week Christmas holiday, I read a story to the class. It was the story of “The Littlest Angel”. This little angel had an awful time in heaven. He could not adjust to the routine. He was always in trouble, bumping into other angels, tripping over clouds or dropping his halo. Nothing seemed to make his time easier until one celestial day an archangel suggested that the little angel take some items with him. Just a few things to remind him of his good old days, which might be of some help.

As I read the story, a complete silence fell over the class as each child became more involved in the plight of the angel. Everyone was sympathetic for his misfortune, including David.

The following day during our regular show-and-tell time, holding a small wooden box, David began his sharing, “This is my first tooth,” he explained. “This is a ribbon from my sister’s hair, and this is my puppy’s collar. My dad gave me this old key. My mom says this big coin is for good luck.” Even before he told us the purpose of the box, we all seemed to know. Shiny tears went dot-to-dot down the faces of the other children. The rest of the day witnessed all of us carefully preparing items to fill David’s wooden box.

When the holidays came to a close, we all returned to our class—all except David. He had got a good chance and left for a big city to get better treatment, clutching the wooden box that held his hope and memories, and ours.

8 . Walled Cities Of The World

There are numerous historical walled cities across the world, whose walls date back several centuries. These walls were fortification (碉堡), a necessity throughout medieval eras for defense. They have been preserved as historical monuments and popular tourist attractions in the modern time.

York, England

The city of York is a medieval city situated in the north of England. Historically, the city was ruled by the Romans, Angles, and the Vikings before being incorporated as part of the Kingdom of England in 954. Located in the city are walls built in 71 AD which have been restored and extended with time.

Xi’an, China

The city of Xian is one of the oldest cities in China. It prospered economically as the eastern last station of the Silk Road. The existing walls were originally built in 770 BC and reconstructed in the 14th century under the Ming Dynasty. The walls are well preserved and are a major tourist attraction in the city.

Quebec City, Canada

Quebec City was a colonial (殖民地的) town which was fortified by the settling Europeans. The walls began to be built in 1608 under both British and French regimes (政权). A fort was constructed by the British as an additional defensive measure and remains undamaged to date. The city’s fortifications were listed as a UNESCO World Heritage Site in 1985.

Mexico City, Mexico

Historically, the City of Mexico gained importance as the Aztec Capital. The Spanish then drove out the Aztecs and rebuilt it as the Spanish Capital. The walls protecting the city were built in 1521. Mexico City is also home to numerous colonial-era buildings which together with the walls are major tourist attractions in the city.