Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart

Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart (German: [ˈvɔlfɡaŋ amaˈdeus ˈmoːtsaʁt], English see fn.),baptismal name Johannes Chrysostomus Wolfgangus Theophilus Mozart (27 January 1756 – 5 December 1791), was a prolific and influential composer of the Classical era. He composed over 600 works, many acknowledged as pinnacles of symphonic, concertante, chamber, piano, operatic, and choral music. He is among the most enduringly popular of classical composers.

Mozart showed prodigious ability from his earliest childhood in Salzburg. Already competent on keyboard and violin, he composed from the age of five and performed before European royalty. At 17, he was engaged as a court musician in Salzburg, but grew restless and travelled in search of a better position, always composing abundantly. While visiting Vienna in 1781, he was dismissed from his Salzburg position. He chose to stay in the capital, where he achieved fame but little financial security. During his final years in Vienna, he composed many of his best-known symphonies, concertos, and operas, and portions of the Requiem, which was largely unfinished at the time of Mozart's death. The circumstances of his early death have been much mythologized. He was survived by his wife Constanze and two sons.

Mozart learned voraciously from others, and developed a brilliance and maturity of style that encompassed the light and graceful along with the dark and passionate. His influence on subsequent Western art music is profound. Beethoven wrote his own early compositions in the shadow of Mozart, of whom Joseph Haydn wrote that "posterity will not see such a talent again in 100 years."

Martha Graham

Martha Graham with Bertram Ross

Martha Graham (May 11, 1894 – April 1, 1991) was an American dancer & choreographer of modern dance, whose influence on dance has been compared to the influence Stravinsky had on music, Picasso had on the visual arts, or Frank Lloyd Wright had on architecture.[1]

Graham invented a new language of movement, and used it to reveal the passion, the rage and the ecstasy common to human experience. She danced and choreographed for over seventy years, and during that time she was the first dancer ever to perform at The White House, travel abroad as a cultural ambassador, and receive the highest civilian award of the USA: the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

In her lifetime she received honors ranging from the Key to the City of Paris to Japan's Imperial Order of the Precious Crown. She said, "I have spent all my life with dance and being a dancer. It's permitting life to use you in a very intense way. Sometimes it is not pleasant. Sometimes it is fearful. But nevertheless it is inevitable."

课外活动

今天下午的课外活动是华文学会，这次的活动令我很难忘。
下午2.30 我，俐盈，慧娟，许宝颐 和 嘉乐去astaka集合。嘉乐是华文学会的副秘书所以没有参与这次的活动，她只是负责拍照。下午三点当全部人都集合了，写完青色卡了活动就开始了。
我们全部都要分成八个人一组。我的组员包括俐盈，慧娟，许宝颐，碧蕙，文仪，佳屏，和一位不懂Form几的那姐姐。分组过后他们就每一组派一张纸张。上面写这我们应该去的地点。我们这组要先去astaka右。
在那儿已经有一组等着我们了。每一组都必须派出一个人来指手划脚。而那个人就要看一句成语，然后指出那个成语的字给其他组员猜。我们这组派出了慧娟！有一句成语，她拿了红包然后向我们拜一拜。大家都猜错了但是我随便讲一句“恭喜发财” 竟然对了！^0^
下一站在图书馆下面。在那儿我们要玩的是口不对心！我们要讲出一个号码（一到五）同时指出跟讲的号码不同的号码指示例我讲出五，手就不能指五出来不然会输！我一出场就输了！
接下来的活动就比较闷了因为是考语文知识！他们还问了名句精华。十分钟后我就要去下一站了－pondok（其实不是在pondok而是在bilik PJ的前面）。在那一站我们要讲一句笑话，如果举办人觉得笑话好笑就有两分！其实这一站我也觉得很闷。
最后一站最精彩！我们八个人要派成一个圆圈然后从那个姐姐开始算起一二三四五六七八。我就是第七！然后举办人就叫我们放那个右手在这个左手，总而言之是弄到我们的手很乱。我必须自己解开让它成为一个圆圈。我在那个很乱的圆圈里又进又出最后皇天不负有心人，我们终于把那个很乱的圆圈弄成一个完美的圆圈。我们赢了所以要罚另外一组！我们罚他们跟举办的人（中五的）讲“你们很靓仔”结果他们就在后面加一个“才怪”！
过后就是超闷badminton！

Poem

The Dead Crow

He saw a dead crow
in a drain
near the post office.
He saw an old man
Gasping for air
and a baby barely able breathe
in a crowded morning clinic.
This land is so rich.
Why should we suffer like this?


I want clean air
for my grandchildren.
I want the damned fools
To leave the forest alone.
I wany the trees to grow,
The river run free,
And the earth covered with grass.
Let the politicians plan how we may
Live with dignity,
now and always.

A.Samad Said

Lithops [The Flowering Stone]

Description

Individual Lithops plants consist of one or more pairs of bulbous, almost fused leaves opposite to each other and hardly any stem. The slit between the leaves contains the meristem and produces flowers and new leaves. The leaves of Lithops are mostly buried below the surface of the soil, with a partially or completely translucent top surface or window allowing light to enter the interior of the leaves for photosynthesis.

During winter a new leaf pair, or occasionally more than one, grows inside the existing fused leaf pair. In spring the old leaf pair parts to reveal the new leaves and the old leaves will then dry up. Lithops leaves may shrink and disappear below ground level during drought. Lithops in habitat almost never have more than one leaf pair per head, the environment is just too arid to support this. Yellow or white flowers emerge from the fissure between the leaves after the new leaf pair has fully matured, one per leaf pair. This is usually in autumn, but can be before the summer equinox in L. pseudotruncatella and after the winter equinox in L. optica. The flowers are often sweetly scented.

The most startling adaptation of Lithops is the colouring of the leaves. The leaves are not green as in almost all higher plants, but various shades of cream, grey, and brown, patterned with darker windowed areas, dots, and red lines. The markings on the top surface disguise the plant in its surroundings.

Lithops are obligate outcrossers and require pollination from a separate plant. Like most mesembs, Lithops fruit is a dry capsule that opens when it becomes wet; some seeds may be ejected by falling raindrops, and the capsule re-closes when it dries out. Capsules may also sometimes detach and be distributed intact, or may disintegrate after several years.

Distribution

Lithops occur naturally across wide areas of Namibia and South Africa, as well as small bordering areas in Botswana and possibly Angola, from sea level to high mountains. Nearly a thousand individual populations are documented, each covering just a small area of dry grassland, veld, or bare rocky ground. Different Lithops species are preferentially found in particular environments, usually restricted to a particular type of rock. Lithops have not naturalised outside this region.

Rainfall in Lithops habitats ranges from approximately 700mm/year to near zero. Rainfall patterns range from exclusively summer rain to exclusively winter rain, with a few species relying almost entirely on dew formation for moisture. Temperatures are usually hot in summer and cool to cold in winter, but one species is found right at the coast with very moderate temperatures year round.

恭喜发财

《我相信你》—— 第三章 请求

网上订购的新书终于邮递过来了！
婕云急匆匆奔下楼梯，来到铁门前，向邮差签收了一个包裹。
她嘻皮笑脸地走进屋子，打算上楼享受阅读乐趣的当儿，堂姐突然截住她。
“你明天可不可以代替我参加天地海私立中学的学习营？”
“什么？”
近来与堂姐鲜少交谈的她，对于这个突如其来的问题感到莫明其妙。
“你、可、以、代、我、参、加、学、习、营、吗？”堂姐把问题重复了一遍。
婕云蹙眉，她还没开口回答，坐在饭厅的妈妈就开腔了：“你去吧！反正你在家里也是闲着。”
“是呀，到户外走走，参与多一些活动也是件好事！”爸爸附和。
“哟，哪像我们家婕思，整个假期时间表都排满了各种各样的活动。活动完了又忙着拿奖，真是忙死了。”婶婶兜了个大圈子又在炫耀自己的女儿。
婕云不甘示弱，说：“我也很忙啊！我...... 我要找音乐盒哥哥的下落！”
“你还没放弃这件事吗？我们都相信你了，你就别再白费心机，寻找这个不可能出现的人了。”
眼见婕云的脸色越变越难看，堂姐立刻拉回重点，解释：“全国青少年广告创作比赛的颁奖礼临时改期，刚好跟学习营的日期相同。这个颁奖礼我非去不可，只好放弃参加学习营。空出一个位子实在可惜，我希望你能代替我参加。”
“要不是全国比赛的颁奖礼比较重要，婕思肯定不会放弃这次的学习营的。”婶婶说。
“上次你说婕思打算报读这所学校，不是吗？”妈妈问。
“嗯，她是准备报读那里。”婶婶回答。
“咦，婕云，你不是也想跟着堂姐报读这所学校吗？趁这个机会去看看也好。”爸爸一边咬着瓜子，一边搭话。
大家一唱一和的，要婕云答应堂姐的请求。
什么叫“我也想报读这所学校”？打从一开始，甚至比堂姐更早，我就想去这所学校了！就因为不想再与堂姐同校，我才被迫放弃这个梦想。为什么现在好像变成是因为她，我才要去那里呢？婕云愤愤不平地在心底埋怨。
“我不要。”
婕云斩钉截铁说完，抱着书本打算上楼。
“庄伟祥也会去哦。”堂姐不慌不忙，对着空气说了这么一句话。
这句话果然奏效。
婕云那悬在半空，即将踏上阶梯的右脚，倏地停了下来。
堂姐凑近她，说：“在这五天的学习营里，你不但能天天见到他，甚至还有机会跟他同组，联手合作。可以近距离了解对方多一些，何乐而不为呢？”
婕云的脸颊顿时变得通红。
她暗自吃惊，为什么堂姐会知道伟祥的事......

**待续**