English Recordings

I had been in America before visiting Paris, and I plan to return to Paris next year.

Painting 1.
***** is a 1942 painting by Edward Hopper that portrays people sitting in a downtown diner late at night. It is Hopper's most famous work and is one of the most recognizable paintings in American art. Hopper chose to paint a scene located at a sharply-angled street-corner, rather than at one of New York's many right-angled intersections.
Outside the diner, dull colors predominate, as might be expected at night. Inside, the counter-top and the men's suits are also dull. The two brightly-colored spots in the entire interior are the white outfit worn by the server and the female customer's red blouse. Indeed, her red blouse and lipstick represent the only use of red in the entire composition, causing her to stand apart from everything else in the painting.
Painting 2.
A movie theater in New York, one of those elaborate mock palaces where Hollywood spirits us for a few hours into another world - in this case apparently the high mountains.
The usherette who is caught up in her own daydreams and the isolated spectators, however, point up the hollowness of this sumptuous and action-filled world. The usherette is a twentieth-century counterpart to the bored waitress in Édouard Manet's A Bar at the Folies-Bergeres. Similar to Manet, Hopper has a genius for making the illusory world of the theater so enticing, so glamorous, and so completely empty. He tantalizes his assumed viewer with an almost mystical apricot light that illuminates the steps that lead out of this unreal world where the usherette stands guard.
Painting 3.
The painting portrays a lone woman staring into a cup of coffee in an Automat at night. The reflection of identical rows of light fixtures stretches out through the night-blackened window.
Hopper's wife, Jo, served as the model for the woman. However, Hopper altered her face to make her younger (Jo was 44 in 1927). He also altered her figure; Jo was a curvy, full-figured woman, while one critic has described the woman in the painting as "'boyish' (that is, flat-chested)".

As is often the case in Hopper's paintings, both the woman's circumstances and her mood are ambiguous. She is well-dressed and is wearing makeup, which could indicate either that she is on her way to or from work at a job where personal appearance is important, or that she is on her way to or from a social occasion.

She has removed only one glove, which may indicate either that she is distracted, that she is in a hurry and can stop only for a moment, or simply that she has just come in from outside, and has not yet warmed up. But the latter possibility seems unlikely, for there is a small empty plate on the table, in front of her cup and saucer, suggesting that she may have eaten a snack and been sitting at this spot for some time.

The time of year late autumn or winter is evident from the fact that the woman is warmly dressed. But the time of day is unclear, since days are short at this time of year. It is possible, for example, that it is just after sunset, and early enough in the evening that the automat could be the spot at which she has arranged to rendezvous with a friend. Or it could be late at night, after the woman has completed a shift at work. Or again, it could be early in the morning, before sunrise, as a shift is about to start.

Whatever the hour, the restaurant appears to be largely empty and there are no signs of activity (or of any life at all) on the street outside. This adds to the sense of loneliness, and has caused the painting to be popularly associated with the concept of urban alienation. One critic has observed that, in a pose typical of Hopper's melancholic subjects, "the woman's eyes are downcast and her thoughts turned inward." Another critic has described her as "gazing at her coffee cup as if it were the last thing in the world she could hold on to." In 1995, Time magazine used Automat as the cover image for a story about stress and depression in the 20th century.

Peasant Farming is firstly defined as the cultivation of crops and rearing of animals on a small scale.
This farming industry occupies approximately two lots of land.

Peasant farmers are found in markets selling produce and are also found in rural areas.
They have small farming equipment mostly manual tools/ labor.
Peasant Farmers face more problems with crop infestations, pests and diseases and massive loss of crop and animal.
They use simple agricultural products to help the plants grow and prevent these problems from occurring.

Most of today's farmers are peasant farmers.
It provides a wider scale for agriculture without the need to pay taxes or suffer bankruptcy and losses by the hands of others.

Tantra says everything has to be absorbed, EVERYTHING! -- remember, without any condition.

Sex has to be absorbed, then it becomes a tremendous force in you.
A Buddha, a Tilopa, a Jesus, they have such a magnetic force around them -- what is that? Sex absorbed.

Sex is human magnetism. Suddenly you fall into their love.
Once you come across their path, you are being pulled to a different world altogether.
You are torn from your old world, and you are being pulled to something new, something that you never even dreamt about.
What is this force? It is the same sex which has become transformed; now it has become a magnetism, a charisma.

Buddha has anger absorbed; that very anger becomes compassion.
And when Jesus takes the whip in his hand, it is because of compassion.
When Jesus talks in fire, this is same compassion.

Remember this, that tantra accepts you in your totality.
Unless tantra becomes the foundation of the whole human mind, man will not be complete -- because no other vision accepts man in his totality.
But the acceptance, remember again, is of overflowing, it is not of impotence.

According to operational data from Information Resistance, the BM-21 “Grad” multiple rocket launcher system.
that was used yesterday to shell a suburb of the city of Dobropillya belongs to the Armed Forces of Russia.
In particular, as evidenced by poorly painted markings on the combat vehicle and relevant seals on documentation in the cockpit of the BM-21 (see photo),
it belongs to the Russian 18th Separate Guards Motorized Brigade (Southern Military District, Russia).
Serial numbers of the combat vehicle body, equipment and ammunition have been recorded.
This fact once again confirms that a military invasion of Russia is underway in eastern Ukraine.
Thus, we are not dealing with internal conflict but are talking about a Russian-Ukrainian war unleashed by the Kremlin.

AKRON, Ohio -- The drive took about 35 minutes. Neither man in the car said a word. Everything LeBron James was feeling on that trip to the airport four years ago -- the pain, the angst, the loss, the fear -- was written on his face.

For weeks he had tried to find a way to stay, to recruit players to join him in Cleveland, so he wouldn't have to leave. Ray Allen said no. So did Chris Bosh, Trevor Ariza and Dwyane Wade. Sure, they wanted to play with him. Who wouldn't? But not in Cleveland. James was the one with a connection to the place, not them. If he wanted to win, he would have to sever those ties and go somewhere where other stars would join him.

The decision to leave his hometown Cleveland Cavaliers for the Miami Heat had been made that morning. LeBron walked around with it uncomfortably all day. He knew it would hurt people, that nothing would ever be the same for him after he did it.

Somehow he got through the final day of his annual basketball camp in Akron without confessing. By the time Damon Jones drove him to the airport, where he would fly to Connecticut and reveal his infamous decision to the world, there was a lump in his throat.

"The ride from his house to the airport is 35 minutes," said Jones, who played with LeBron from 2005 to 2008 and remained a close friend. "Neither of us said a word. It was tough. You saw it on his face, just his emotions.

"Everybody thought that the Miami decision was planned a week, two weeks prior, but it was in the last minute. He exhausted everything to try and get players to come to Cleveland and play with him. I was there for the whole week, staying in his house. He was agonizing, 'I want to win. I want to win here, but can we?'

"I don't think the fans knew that. They think he just went to Miami and that was it."

LeBron went to Miami all right. He won two titles and evolved into the best basketball player on the planet. He answered his critics with championship trophies. He married the mother of his children, and they built a life in South Florida together. But he never truly left northeastern Ohio.

[+] EnlargeLeBron James
LeBron James Family Foundation
Throughout his career, LeBron James has continued to give back to his hometown of Akron, Ohio.
He kept his home in Akron. He started a foundation to help the city's kids and promised to be there until they were grown. When they missed a day of school, they often got a call from "Mr. LeBron."

The place never truly turned its back on him, either. Yes, fans burned his jerseys and cursed his name. They tore down his billboards and painted over his murals. But that was the hurt talking. LeBron isn't the first kid from a Rust Belt town to leave for warmer weather and starrier nights. Most return only for holidays and funerals.

But LeBron kept coming back. If anything, he planted his roots deeper into this place after he left for Miami. They took note when he spent his summers in Akron instead of at the beach. He built an office nearby and came in to work during the offseason. He trained at his old high school, St. Vincent-St. Mary.

Jones was with LeBron again this week when he made the decision to return. After four straight NBA Finals appearances with the Heat, it was as surprising to the rest of the world as his first decision to leave Cleveland.

But this was an easy call. It felt right.

"It was just from one end of the spectrum to the next, from the way it was in 2010," Jones said. "He was relaxed. He was laughing. He was happy."

A．I'm so nervous.
B．Don't worry. I've got your back.
A．That's right. I'll do my best.

It's time for the drawing. Effie Trinket says as she always does, "Ladies first !" and crosses to the glass ball with the girls' names. She reaches in, digs her hand deep into the ball, and pulls out a slip of paper. The crowd draws in a collective breath and then you can hear a pin drop, and I'm feeling nauseous and so desperately hoping that it's not me, that it's not me, that it's not me.
Effie Trinket crosses back to the podium, smoothes the slip of paper, and reads out the name in a clear voice. And it's not me.
It's Primrose Everdeen.
One time, when I was in a blind in a tree, waiting motionless for game to wander by, I dozed off and fell ten feet to the ground, landing on my back. It was as if the impact had knocked every wisp of air from my lungs, and I lay there struggling to inhale, to exhale, to do anything.
That's how I feel now, trying to remember how to breathe, unable to speak, totally stunned as the name bounces around the inside of my skull. (…)
There must have been some mistake. This can't be happening. Prim was one slip of paper in thousands ! Her chance of being chosen so remote that I'd not even bothered to worry about her. (…)
Somewhere far away, I can hear the crowd murmuring unhappily as they always do when a twelve-year-old gets chosen because no one thinks this is fair. And then I see her, the blood drained from her face, hands clenched in fists at her sides, walking with stiff, small steps up toward the stage, passing me, and I see the back of her blouse has become untucked and hangs out over her skirt. It's this detail, the untucked blouse forming a ducktail, that brings me back to myself.
"Prim !" The strangled cry comes out of my throat, and my muscles begin to move again. "Prim !" I don't need to shove through the crowd. The other kids make way immediately allowing me a straight path to the stage. I reach her just as she is about to mount the steps. With one sweep of my arm, I push her behind me.
"I volunteer ! " I gasp. " I volunteer as tribute !"
There's some confusion on the stage. District 12 hasn't had a volunteer in decades (…).
"Lovely ! " says Effie Trinket. "But I believe there's a small matter of introducing the reaping winner and then asking for volunteers, and if one does come forth then we, um…" she trails off, unsure of herself.
"What does it matter ? " says the mayor. He's looking at me with a pained expression on his face. He doesn't know me really, but there's a faint recognition there. (…) I am the girl (…) who five years ago stood huddled with her mother and sister, as he presented her, the oldest child, with a medal of valor. A medal for her father, vaporized in the mines. Does he remember that ? " What does it matter ? " he repeats gruffly. "Let her come forward."
Prim is screaming hysterically behind me. She's wrapped her skinny arms around me like a vice. "No, Katniss ! No ! You can't go !"
"Prim, let go," I say harshly, because this is upsetting me and I don't want to cry. When they televise the replay of the reapings tonight, everyone will make note of my tears, and I'll be marked as an easy target. A weakling. I will give no one that satisfaction. "Let go !"
I can feel someone pulling her from my back. I turn and see Gale has lifted Prim off the ground and she's thrashing in his arms. "Up you go, Catnip, "he says, in a voice he's fighting to keep steady, and then he carries Prim off toward my mother. I steel myself and climb the steps.
"Well, bravo !" gushes Effie Trinket. "That's the spirit of the Games !" She's pleased to finally have a district with a little action going on in it. "What's your name ? "
I swallow hard. "Katniss Everdeen," I say.
" I bet my buttons that was your sister. Don't want her to steal all the glory, do we ? Come on, everybody ! Let's give a big round of applause to our newest tribute ! " trills Effie Trinket.
The Hunger Games, Suzanne Collins (2008)

1. He works on complex cases like homicides, he is the boss. He supervises the other agents and experts. He makes deductions and decisions.
2. He looks for clues, he uses scientific methods, he analyses the crime scene, he takes photos, he lifts fingerprints and he takes DNA samples. In his lab he analyses the objects, the fingerprints and DNA traces (hair, nails, saliva…) found on the crime scene in order to find evidence. He has to be very patient and meticulous.
3. He is specialized in psychology and morphology: he can use the evidence given by the detectives and the crime scene supervisor in order to define the psychology and the physical appearance of the criminal.
4. He is a medical doctor specialized in anatomical pathology. He performs autopsies to determine the causes of death and collect evidence. His findings can also help to determine the victim's identity.
the police inspector
The crime lab analyst
the forensic scientist
the crime scene supervisor
the coroner

Washoe is a monkey. She lives in a lab. The lab is a place where men
and women study monkeys and other animals. They study the animals
to find out how they learn.
One day a man put a puzzle in Washoe’s cage. Washoe had to take
the puzzle apart. Each time she did it right, the man gave her a slice
of banana. That was her reward.
Washoe didn’t eat the banana slices. She just put them there.
The man made the puzzle harder. But Washoe soon learned how to
take it apart.
Then the man ran out of bananas. What now? Would she keep on
doing puzzles without a reward?
Washoe looked at him. She waited. The man gave her the next puzzle.
Washoe took it apart. Then she picked up a slice of banana. She
put it outside the cage for the man!
And so it went. The man would give Washoe a puzzle. And she would
give back a banana slice. She kept on until she had returned all the
bananas.
Washoe learned many new puzzles that day. And the man learned
something too. He learned that some monkeys don’t work puzzles
only to get food. They do puzzles for the fun of it -- just like you and
me!