1 . Accents are an important part of our identity. An accent gives clues about who we are, and the community we belong to or wish to belong to.     1    

What is the difference between accents and pronunciation?

Accents are about localized ways of speaking a language. A French person may speak English flawlessly (完美无瑕地), just with a French accent.     2     However, pronunciation is something that — as a learner— you can get right or wrong. If your pronunciation is correct, you can communicate effectively with others whatever your accent is.

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If you think back historically people were much more localized with generation after generation of families living in the same small villages and few people traveled out of that area during their lifetimes. So over many generations differences in accent emerged and became very distinct to particular areas. Mountainous villages that are not easily accessible often develop very strong and distinctive accents.

How important is it to get an accent right?

If you’re moving to a certain part of a country, you might want to integrate better with your new community.     4     That’s because it shows a sense of belonging to the community you are trying to fit in with.

How to improve your accent?

    5     And then learners should consider which sounds exist in the language you’re learning and then spend some time in front of the mirror practicing moving your tongue and mouth to get those new and different sounds. And learners should be aware of stress and tone, which can sometimes even change the meaning of words.

2 . When Lennon had just moved to Los Angeles, she met Carla. The two young women ________ they had something in common: Both were ________ with life after loss. Lennon’s mother died of lung cancer three years ago and Carla had just ________ her father.

Lennon also met a few others of her age who were grieving (悲伤). She invited them all over for ________. It was a night of ________, expressing themselves to each other and healing. Each guest left with the belief that they weren’t alone to feel ________.

After many meals, Lennon and Carla ________ The Dinner Party. It’s a nonprofit organization offering ________ and care to those who have ________ deep loss by hosting dinner parties. Since then, it has helped bring together over 13,000 people to have meals and ________ their grief.

Lennon learned that there’s almost no ________ of death and grief among young adults like her just because few have experienced such loss, making those who have feel ________. She found that people are more likely to put down their ________ and connect over a shared meal. That’s where their ________ starts.

Every month, people can check out a list of open ________ on The Dinner Party website. The description of each table includes a(n) ________ for the host, as well as themes they’re ho-ping to ________. So far, the organization has grown by almost 3,000 members. “One trend we’ve seen in this is that people need platforms to ________ they weren’t okay,” Lennon says. ________, the COVID-19 put a temporary end to dinner parties. “But it was not a(n) ________ to grief. So I hope the parties will continue.”

4 . Some people, regardless of what they lack—money, looks, or social connections—always show with energy and confidence. Even the most doubting individuals find themselves attracted with these lovely personalities. These people are the ones you turn to for help, advice, and companionship. You just can’t get enough of them, and they leave you asking yourself, “What do they have that I don’t? What makes them so attractive?”

The difference? Their sense of self-worth comes from within. Attractive people aren’t constantly searching for value, because they’re confident enough to find it in themselves. There are certain habits they pursue every day to keep this healthy view. Since being attractive isn’t the result of dumb luck, it’s time to study the habits of attractive people so that you can use them to your benefit.

Get ready to say “hello” to a new, more attractive you. Attractive people treat everyone with respect. Whether interacting with their biggest shoppers or a server taking their drink order, attractive people are unfailingly polite and respectful. They treat every one with respect because they believe they’re no belief than anyone else.

They follow the golden rule. One person loves public recognition, while another hates being the center of attention. The golden rule is to treat others as they want to be treated. Attractive people are great at reading other people, and they adjust their behaviors and styles to make others fell comfortable.

Bringing it all together, attractive people have simply perfected certain appealing qualities and habits that anyone can adopt as their own. They think about other people more than they think about themselves, and they make other people feel liked, respected, understood and seen. Just remember: the more you focus on others, the more attractive you’ll be.

6 . In March 2020, as the snowstorm held steady, David Hockney released a painting of bright yellow daffodils (黄水仙) titled “Do Remember They Can’t Cancel the Spring”. In the midst of such depression, it offered a burst of optimism, reminding us that nature, with rebirth and renewal, could still offer hope.

Hockney has long appreciated the natural world. “We can only refresh ourselves by looking at nature,” he has said. A mere 20 minutes in a natural environment has been proven to lower stress levels. Even looking at paintings of nature can produce the same effect, so it is no surprise that visitors have been crowding into Hockney-Van Gogh: The Joy of Nature at The Museum of Fine Arts. “The freeze brought everything to a pause and people’s faces just light up when they walk into the museum,” says Ann Dumas, planner of the Houston show.

The exhibition explores the two artists’ response to nature as well as Van Gogh’s obvious influence on Hockney. The response to nature for both artists was influenced by a switch of scene. When Van Gogh moved to France, he made the colour breakthroughs that led to the vividly coloured landscapes. Similarly, Hockney’s return to Yorkshire gave him a renewed appreciation for the local landscapes that he has depicted (刻画) in his own unique colors.

Hockney has said: “I’ve always found the world quite beautiful. And there’s an important thing I share with Vincent Van Gogh: we both really, really enjoy looking at the world.” Perhaps unsurprisingly their themes frequently overlaps (交叠), “We have a beautiful painting by Van Gogh of some tree trunks: he seems to be lying on the ground and in front of him is a great carpet of wildflowers,” says Dumas. Hockney explored the same theme in his The Arrival of Spring in Woldgate, East Yorkshire, 2011, in which “all the wildflowers are really lively”. says Dumas. The painting, with its thick greens and branches tipped with leaves, is one of the highlights of the show. “People are spellbound.” says Dumas, “They see it very much as about hope.”

8 . China has announced that couples will be permitted to have up to three children in a major policy shift from the existing two-child limit, after recent data showed a dramatic decline in births in the world's most populated country.

"To actively respond to the ageing of the population…a couple can have three children," state media Xinhua reported on Monday, citing a committee meeting hosted by President Xi Jinping

Early this May, China reported the slowest population growth since the early 1960s, despite scrapping its one-child policy in 2015 to encourage more births and avoid a potential population crisis.

A once-a-decade survey showed that the overall population of China grew to 1,41178 billion in the 10 years to 2020, up by 5. 38%. The increase reflects an average annual rise of 0.53%, down from 0.57% reported from 2000 to 2010.

The announcement drew a chilly response on Chinese social media, where many people said they could not afford to have even one or two children. "I am willing to have three children if you give me 5 million yuan (£554,350)," one user posted on Weibo. As a matter of fact, experiment of the three-child policy in Heilongjiang province in the last few years also resulted less effectively than expected.

It is not only China that is facing such a population challenge. Across east Asia, authorities have, for years, been struggling to persuade couples to have more babies. South Korea and Japan both have used allowance to encourage.

The policy change will come with "supportive measures, which will be beneficial to improving our country's population structure, fulfilling the country's strategy of actively coping with an ageing population and maintaining the advantage of human resources", Xinhua said. It did not specify the support measures.