Half a day Time past fast, we should let bygones be bygones. Our life is short, when we are old, wobble, lay on the bed, if we look back at our life past, what will come to our mind? Enjoyable? Regret? Or something else? What can we capture in our deepest inside of our heart? After read Half A Day, I’ve thought a lot. First, we should cherish everything we have, no matter enemy or lover, we
should try to accept everyone who show up in our life, and try our best to spend nice time with them. Second, we should grasp every possible opportunity, try a little bit more, and gain some thing more. We should make a plan before we do things, so that we can have time to do something more, Third, enjoy our life, don't concern too much about irrelevant things, just let bygones be bygones. Earn frame, bury differences, wear a smile, translate a dream into reality. This, is our life; short but colorful. Enjoy it. Love and Other Disasters is not a typical romantic comedy, primarily as it pokes fun at the various aspects of the genre - predictable plot, grand
romantic finale, happy coincidences etc. It is a light-hearted tongue in cheek movie that has all the spunk of a good romantic comedy with enough self-effacing genre-specific humor to keep it fresh and non-cloyingly sweet. Somebody thought that Brittany Murphy is stiff and unbelievable, and that
other characters are overly dramatic. But as the film draws attention to its very fictitious, theatrical nature, the characters fall into place as humorous fabricated, sensationalized versions of human nature in this light satire. Also worth noting is the film's lovely approach towards homosexuality.
Admittedly Peter's love life is a side-line plot, but what is shown has a ring of sincerity to it and avoids sensationalizing or stereotyping homosexual
characters. While this movie is unlikely to win any Oscars, it is definitely one of the best romantic comedies I've seen.
Every place has a special meaning for the people in it, and in a certain sense every place represents the center of the world----I deeply agree with this. In this passage, the green banana stands for a new place and new custom. The dark rock stands for for another center of the world to the narrator. The narrator got the green bananas and some new ideas from this adventure. To him, he found a new center. But in my opinion, people in that village should try to walk out and get to know other centers.
Every one has its own center. And because every center is different, we need to communicate with others and get to know more. World will be bigger when we walk out from our own centers. Don’t be afraid of the differences we meet many other centers. We can finally find something beautiful. And our view can be greatly explanded.
Although it might have happened anywhere, my encounter with the green banana sta rted on a steep mountain road in the central area of Brazil. My ancient jeep was straining up through beautiful countryside when the radiator began to leak, and I was ten miles from the nearest mechanic. The over-heated engine forced me to st op at the next village, which consisted of a small store and a few houses that we re scattered here and there. People came over to look. They could see three fine streams of hot water spouting from holes in the jacket of the radiator."That's easy to fix,?nbsp;a man said. He sent a boy running for some green bananas. He patted me on the shoulder, assuring me that everything would work out. "Green bananas," he smiled. Everyone agreed. We chattered casually while all the time I was wondering what they could possibly do to my radiator with their green bananas. I did not ask them, though, as that would show my ignorance, so I talked about the beauty of the land that lay before our eyes. Huge rock formations, like Sugar Loaf in Rio, rose up all around us."Do you see that tall one right over there?" asked the man, pointing to a particu larly tall, slender pinnacle of dark rock. "That rock marks the center of the world." I looked to see if he was teasing me, but his face was serious. He, in turn, inspected me carefully, as if to make sure I grasped the significance of his statement. The occasion called for some show of recognition on my part."The center of t he world?" I repeated, trying to show interest if not complete acceptance. He nodded."The absolute center. Everyone around here knows it." At that moment the boy returned with an armful of green bananas. The man cut one in half and pressed the cut end against the radiator jacket. The banana melted into a glue against the hot metal, stopping the leaks instantly. I was so astonished at this that I must have looked rather foolish and everyone laughed. They then refilled my radiator and gave me extra bananas to take along in case my radiator should give me trouble again. An hour later, after using the green banana once more, my radiator and I reached our destination. The local mechanic smiled."Who t aught you about the green banana?" I gave him the name of the village. "Did they show you the rock marking the center of the world?" he asked. I assured him they had. "My grandfather came from there," ;he said. "The exact center. Everyone around here has always known about it."
As a product of American education, I had never paid the slightest attention to the green banana, except to regard it as a fruit whose time had not yet come. Sud denly, on that mountain road, its time had come to meet my need. But as I reflected on it further, I realized that the green banana had been there all along. Its time reached back to the very origins of the banana. The people in that village had known about it for years. It was my own time that had come, all in relation to it. I came to appreciate the special genius of those people, and the special pot ential of the green banana. I had been wondering for some time about what educators like to call "learning moments" and I now knew I had just experienced two of them at once. It took me a little longer to fully grasp the importance of the rock which the villagers believed marked the center of the world. I had at first doubted their claim, as I knew for a fact that the center was located somewhere else in New England. After all, my grandfather had come from there. But gradually I realized the village people had a very reasonable belief and I agreed with them. We all tend to regard as the center that special place where we are known, where we know others , where things mean much to us, and where we ourselves have both identity and mea
ning: family, school, town and local region could all be our center of the world. The lesson which gradually dawned on me was actually very simple. Every place has special meanings for the people in it, and in a certain sense every place repre sents the center of the world. The world has numerous such centers, and no one st udent or traveler can experience all of them. But once a conscious breakthrough to a second center is made, a life-long perspective and collection can begin. The cultures of the world are full of unexpected green bananas with special valu e and meaning. They have been there for ages, ripening slowly, perhaps waiting pa tiently for people to come along to encounter them. In fact, a green banana is waiting for all of us if we would leave our own centers of the world in order to experience other places.
本文是新编《大学英语》（20xx年版）第一册中的一篇课文，作者是美国学者Donald Batch elder，摘选自Donald Batchelder 和Elizabeth G. Warner 于19xx年编写的 An
Experienti al Approach to Cross-cultural Education，在原文的基础上略作了修改。文章讲的是对待世界上各种不同文化应采取何种态度的问题。随着国际交往的不断发展，我们的世界越来越像一个地球村，各种风格迥异的文化彼此遭遇、碰撞，文明之间的冲突大有愈演愈烈之势，如何看待异域文化和文化差异成了值得人们认真思考的重要问题。本文的作者通过一个小故事，向我们展示了他本人对这个问题的深入思考。
文章可分为两大部分。第一部分为1-4段，作者以第一人称的口吻向我们讲述了他在巴西的一段经历。作为一个美国旅行者，当他驾着一辆旧吉普车行进在巴西中部的山路上时，水箱开始漏水，他被迫停在附近的一个小村庄里。热情的村民用他们古老的办法为作者解决了问题。他们找来了一些尚未成熟的青香蕉，掰开以后塞到水箱漏水处，由于水箱金属壳的热度，香蕉马上融化成胶汁，粘住了裂缝。同时，在与村民的闲聊中，作者还惊讶地得知，他们坚信附近的一块岩石就是世界的中心。这一次与当地本土文化不期然的相遇给了作者很大的震动，在第二部分（5-8段）中，作者着重讲述了他的感悟。首先，他惊讶于青香焦所展示给他的当地古老文化中的智慧；再次，他惊讶于村民们对世界中心即那块岩石的信仰，因为他认为世界的中心应该在他祖父的家乡新英格兰。后来作者逐步意识到：每一种文化都有自身的精妙之处, "The Green Banana" 即象征着每一种文化中所蕴藏的鲜为人知的宝藏；对每一种族的人来说，他们生活的地方对他们都具有特殊意义，从而在某种意义上说都可代表世界的中
心 (Every pla ce has special meanings for the people in it, and in a certain sense every place represents the center of the world.)。 世界因此有无数的中心，但是人们不可能经历全部。而我们一旦能够从自己文化的包围中走