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Here comes the winter, almost everyone wrap tightly like a buffalo---- Fat! But there is one person in our AP center who is not afraid of cold, Guess who? He comes from Utah, a very cold place. The lowest temperature almost gets -34 °C. By comparing with the climate there, here is the “paradise”. On the other hand, there are many changes of emotion on him and his living habits changes a lot after he came to China.

Interview: Matt Dawson

1. Here comes winter, do you have any change of mood? Will you become lazy, whiny, or something else? This depends on what the situation is. At home, I will say no, because there are many things I can do in the winter, I mean there are many winter sports. Like ice skating. Ice climbing. So it is easy to be active. So I don’t, when I live in China, I don’t become lazy or whiny, it is difficult to be active.

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2. How many clothes you used to wear in winter? Are you afraid of chill? No, that’s doesn’t bother me. This is what I wear. My hometown is extremely cold, -40 degrees. However, where I live is much more common to have the buildings that are well insulated. The buildings are much colder here, even though the temperature is lower, or the temperature is higher here. My home is lower but it feels warmer. So, I wear more clothes here than I was at home.

3. Do you have any plan for this winter? What special things (sports) do you do in winter? I ski. I have skied for almost 30 years. So this winter, I am planning to go to the North Korea. Then I plan on skiing in India and Japan, and maybe China. 4. What food do you eat in winter? Anything different than others? I eat mostly the same, I don’t change my diet. a

5. What five things do you think are the most important to you in winter? Why? I don't think it changes from the winter to the summer, so I think all the years the five important things are, I think it’s important to eat well, I think it’s important to sleep, I think it’s important to be active, to do sports.

Interview

Reporter: Mimi and Tony

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Winter

- A Season of Festivals

*6000 people snow ball fight, which

created a new Guinness World Record

Winter, as a season for snow, ice and

coldness, is, at the same time, “Season of

Festivals”: Christmas, Thanksgiving Day,

New Year and so on. People around the

world celebrate winter in a variety of

ways because of different cultures. In the

following paragraphs, let’s travel around

the world and enjoy the beauty of

different winter traditions.

Almost everyone have had snow

balls war with family or friends at least

once before. I bet you have never

attended a snow ball war which

thousands of people joined. People were

divided into different teams and hit each

other with snow balls. According to

media, about 6000 people joined the

snowball fight which also created a new

Guinness World Record in Seattle, WA at

11th November.

*Ice engraving

Festivals

*Christmas

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Winter Solstice is one of the most

important festivals in China and other East

Asian countries like South Korea and

Japan. Winter Solstice is the time sun

appears at noon at its lowest altitude

above the horizon which means the day of

the shortest daytime and longest night of

the year. According to Wikipedia, in ancient

times, people celebrated Winter Solstice

because they thought it was a turning

point in winter because after Winter

Solstice, daytime gets longer and longer.

Also, Winter Solstice is considered a signal

of the beginning of “deep winter.” People

started to prepare for the coming deep

winter in Winter Solstice, therefore most

cattle were slaughtered so they would not

have to be fed. Most beer and wine made in

the year was finally fermented and ready

for drinking in the winter. So at that time,

Winter Solstice was almost the only time in

a year with their families. One of Chinese

traditions is making and eating Tangyuan

(pictured) which a symbol for reunion is.

Patjook (pictured) was sprayed around

house and used to repel sinister spirit

since people believed it has special power.

According to Wikipedia, Thanksgiving is

another famous winter festival. It is

celebrated on the fourth Thursday of

November in the United States and on the

second Monday of October in Canada. It

was considered as a symbol of religious

and cultural traditions. Especially in 16th

century, it was celebrated in churches. But

now people celebrate Thanksgiving for

blessing of the harvest in a secular, or

nonreligious, manner, so actually we can

considered it as a harvest festival. Food has

a deep root in Thanksgiving. Turkey is one

of the most well-known dishes of

Thanksgiving. Also there are many side

dishes such as winter squash, sweet

potatoes, mashed potatoes, dumplings,

noodles, corn on the cob or hominy and so

on. Besides food, football and parades are

also important traditions for Thanksgiving

because before, people celebrated

Thanksgiving for harvest. People usually

play sports and games to celebrate it.

Therefore football is absolutely necessary

for Thanksgiving.

Festivals

For many people, winter is the season of

white. However, winter is actually a colorful

season. People spend their time with

different kinds of unique winter festivals.

Coldness cannot freeze people’s passion.

Winter comes, let’s celebrate.

(Reporter: Tommy.Z & Justin)

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Christmas

In Bethlehem Bethlehem is the place where Jesus was

born. It is ablaze with flags and decorations

every Christmas. Natives and visitors will

crowd the church’s doorways or stand on

the roof to see the dramatic annual

procession. Horsemen and policemen

mount on horses and lead the parade. They

are followed by a lonely horseman which

rides on a coal-black horse. Then the

churchmen and the government officials

come. The procession enters the door of

the church and put an ancient statue of the

Holy Child in it (pictured). Deep stairs lead

to a dark cave, where visitors can find a

silver star marking the site of the Jesus’s

birth.

Although each country has its own version of Christmas, it is a big holiday

that is celebrated throughout the world in different ways. The meaning of

Christmas is unanimous though the traditions and practices are different all

around world. Christmas is not only a religious holiday for Christians, but also

the time for families and friends to gather together. Here are some Christmas

traditions globally.

Festivals

In Italy You will wish one another a Buon

Natale if you spend Christmas in Italy. The celebration starts 8 days before Christmas and lasts for 3 weeks. Children go from one house to anther cheering up people and are given some money as a treat to buy presents. Unlike any traditions in the world, children wait until January 6th to open their gifts. And those gifts are brought by an ugly witch called Befana.

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In Russia

Although you can still find some

traditional decorations of

Christmas, Russians now celebrate

the festival of winter, which is a

secular, or nonreligious, holiday.

Traditional celebrations include

thirty-nine days until Christmas Eve,

which is held on January 6th. It’s the

day when people can see the first

evening star appear in the sky. And

then, a twelve-course meal is

following, to honor the 12 apostles.

There is a traditional person called

Father Frost, who gives gifts to

children with his granddaughter.

In Africa

The annual Christmas

pageant was the origin

of Christmas in the

Democratic Republic

of the Congo. Groups of

carolers walk though

the village and sing

lovely carols that are

known around the

world.

Usually people may be awakened by a group of carolers beginning to meet on the

house of worship. The most important part of their Christmas worship service is the love

offering, and they give gifts to Jesus. They go to celebrate the birthday of Jesus and lay

down the gift on the platform near the Communion table, and everyone is included.

Christmas is a summer holiday in southern Africa. School are closed, and children start

their summer holiday with beautiful varieties of flowers decorate the houses and streets.

Many South Africans have an open-air lunch for their Christmas dinner. Boxing Day

is special public holiday which is fell on December 26 and is a day of real relaxation.

Festivals

(Reporter: Brenda)

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上上层(Shang Shang Ceng) is a DIY (Do It

Yourself) bakery where consumers can

make cookies, cupcakes, chocolate and

other desserts. After eating noodles, we

wanted to try our hand at cookies.

A young woman gave us two bags of

butter. One is yellow for cream, and

another is brown for cocoa.

Here are the steps we followed:

Step1: Take one piece and make it flat on

the table.

Step2: Choose one mold you would like to

make.

Step3: Put the butter on the ovenware

then to the oven.

After 15 minutes of baking, aroma from

the cookies spreads into the whole room.

DIY Cookies!

Delicacy

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Delicacy

Can you guess what it is? Yes, it is a snail. People

always use escargot (a cooked land snail) to make

a savory dish. According to Wikipedia, it is high in

protein and low in fat content (if cooked without

butter). Escargot is estimated to contain 15%

protein, 2.4% fat and about 80% water. It is often

served in French restaurants. But today, we want

to introduce escargot as an Italian dish.

Baked escargot is such a popular dish in Saizeriya

(an Italian restaurant) that almost every

customer orders it. The restaurant places each

golden snail in a single hole of 6 snail dishes

(pictured) with some edible oil. You may even

smell the flavor of butter and garlic before you

eat it. Its texture is just like abalone because it’s

rubbery. And you should be cautious because it is

served very hot. Many people think escargot itself

is very good while others think the butter on it is

good. Escargot is a specialty in this restaurant.

The most fantastic thing in restaurant is that

Saizeriya has a fast service. Bon apetit!

Thanks the following people for tasting:

Mr. Hulse, Mr. Brown, Mr. Trebatch, Miss Xiaoqing

(Reporters: Sophie, Jessie)

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Fog and smog Recently, when we open the window we can

see nothing except large piece of white curtain in Suzhou. Some students think it is fog and don’t make a big deal about it. However, Mr. White actually is a covert killer who is always called smog instead of fog.

Let’s firstly talk about what we are familiar with----fog. Have you ever heard about the complaint from the car’s radio station toward the damn foggy day? It caused mess, accidents and so on. Nevertheless, the fog itself is actually harmless for human beings. The constitution of fog is just water molecules. When the atmosphere has kept enough vapors and the temperature decrease, vapors drop down and form fog, the white and un-touching matter.

Reversely, smog, which has the similar appearance as fog, is the gas from your car’s tailpipe or a factory’s smokestack mixed with water vapor in the atmosphere. It is one of the particularly nasty forms of “fog”. If we analyze the constituents of smog, it’s not difficult to find

out the toxic gases like SO2, NO2 and SO. Seemingly you feel no difference when you inhale them, but the smog will actually hurt your respiratory tract and bring you lots of serious sickness.

Asthma is easily stimulated in smoggy weather, and other little ailments like a runny nose and fever are common. What we need to pay more attention to is the RTI (respiratory tract infection). Zhong Nanshan, the president of Chinese academy of sciences (CAS) said that “Smog causes cancer easier than smoking”.

We have some ways to distinguish between smog and fog without a machine. Firstly, we can look at the color of “weird vapor”. Commonly if it’s like pure white and visibility is probably 1km to 2km, or farther. We can basically judge it as fog. Smog is colored and denser. Generally when you look at the “weird vapor” in certain special angle, you can see a little yellowish tint. In smog weather the visibility is lower than 1km. Finally, I have several suggestions to help you in smog weather.

1. We can use KN90 or N95 mask (mask can catch 90% or 95% PM2.5 particle).The normal cotton mask is completely USELESS!

2. Clean your nose every day and change clothes. The toxic particles can easily stick on clothes or in your nose.

3. Grow more plants. They can purify our room air.

4. Close your window and travel less. 5. Don’t always go to the place which has

poor ventilation like the supermarket. 6. Stop morning exercise and remember

to eat healthy. ( Reporter: Richard Li, Jessie Zhou )

Pollution

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Recommendation: Leon The Professional

Storyline:

Mathilda is a

twelve-year old girl.

She lives among her

half-family in which

her father is a drug

dealer and her

mother only care

about herself. She

hates her life and

does not study well in

her school. Life is

simple and boring,

until one day a

disputation between

her father and bad

Stansfield leads her

family to disaster.

Stansfield and his

team take revenge

on her family. Fortunately, Mathilda is able to survive as she goes out

shopping. Leon, the killer, finally gives her a shelter. Two cold-hearted

guys congregate together and everything starts to change, it is the

time when the two cold hearts start to warm up. And Leon and

Mathilda learn to love each other and begin to love their life.

Everything goes smoothly. However, accidents happen and Mathilda

gets involved in the fight with Stansfield. Leon, the professional and

experienced killer who has never made mistakes made the biggest

mistake in his whole life...

A heart of kindness and

naiveté below a cold, silence

and unsmiling appearance.

Movie Review

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Opinion:

Personally speaking, “Leon The professional” is one of the most

touching movies I have ever watched，imagine, when you think about

killers, what is your first scene? I am sure that most people will say

coldness and violence. But the “Leon The Professional” gives me a

totally different feeling, in the first 30 minutes, I thought it was a common

killer movie mainly to depict Leon’s smart killing skills and he never

made mistakes, full of drugs, guns, and Leon’s massacre, but later on ,I

felt the whole sentiment had changed entirely, just at the moment

when Leon opened his door and adopted his last neighbor, a girl

whose family numbers making living by selling drugs were all killed and

was in danger being hunted down, it was the time Leon began to

change, his cold and violent appearance was wiped out and inside

was a kind and fatherly heart, he no longer regarded his fellow, the little

and tragic girl as an encumbrance, He trained her patiently, came off

his cool perch and played with her like a father, he even made a silly

mistake that he never did, fight against the government for her. The

tremendous changes and reflection gave me a great shock and it

convulses to the deepest corner of the heart, awake everyone’s

kindness and morality which have been hidden for a long time after

facing to this era of extraordinary versatility and sophistication, I even

got moist eyes after watching. in a word, it is the most touching movie

I have ever seen.

Movie information

Country: France

Language: English | Italian

Release Date: 14 September 1994

Also Known As: El perfecto asesino

Runtime : 1 hr. 50 min (110 min)

Genre: Crime | Drama | Thriller

Other resources:

Download resource :( Blue ray, 12.6GB)

http://tinyurl.com/mag7os9

Movie music

Shape Of My Heart----Backstreet Boys

Venus As A Boy----Bjork

Movie Review

Reporter: Bob Liu

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The Ideal Place to Travel in Winter Hainan is an island where it’s easy to fall

in love because of its peace, sunshine, beaches,

sea and fresh air. Seasons in Hainan seem not

to change. The graceful green coconut trees,

natural hot springs, tropical rain forests, and

the charming sea also may not change in

winter. Diving is one of the most famous

forms of entertainment in Hainan. Many

people explore the sea by diving and they find lots of interests in the sea.

Hainan is in the south of China. It has an airport and many piers, so you can get there easily.

When people chat with each other about Hainan, they will always think of the sun, sea, beaches and

coconut trees. The sun is always very warm in Hainan, even during the winter. The sea is full of lives

and color in Hainan. There are a lot of flowery corals and a large number of beautiful and various

fishes. The fine golden beaches in Hainan are shinny in the sun. Besides the beautiful view, there are

also a lot of famous food and fruits in Hainan. One of my favorite fruits is coconut. Hainan’s coconuts

are tasty and sweet, which can let a person feel comfortable and refreshed. Hainan has vast pristine

tropical rain forests. It has countless strange flowers that grow in the forest. And there are also many

different kinds of tropical rare animals

perching there. Walking in the forest is great

for people who are tired of city life.

So this is the ideal place to travel in

winter. The locals welcome you to visit it.

(Reporter: Ricky)

Travel

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Orange Hug Sally Chao

1

That was my last time to see him.

2

It was chilly outside. It was about

6 o’clock in the evening. I stood

alone at a crossroad, just finishing

watching the lights in this city one

by one direct a wink at my toecaps.

Almost every day in this year,

when the sun decided to fade from

the skyline, I could see him walk

across the long crosswalk and came

and stood by my side. He always

stopped at the crossroad for about

ten minutes then left. It seemed that

he was consciously waiting for daily

sunset. He was not like anyone else

in this city, I said to myself. He

walked slowly with elegance, with a

cup of tea in his hand. His smile

was orange.

“I bought two cups of tea by

accident, do you want one?” said

he. Last Christmas, when we two

waited for eight minutes together in

the snow, he suddenly talked to me.

I felt a gust of cold air and warm

air.

So I caught the cup, being afraid

to look at him.

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I glanced at my watch, five past

six. All the lights brightened the

crosswalk in front of me but he still

didn’t appear. He had already

missed today’s sunset. Actually

there was no sunset today because

it was a day with heavy haze.

The whole street shined by

countless shops with lights on. I fixed

my eyes on one side of the street,

where stood the café he often went

to. That café was now shimmery like

a fish nightlight, swimming at the

bottom of the sea. The place at

which he bought the two cups of tea

by accident the first time was exactly

that café. He once told me this, at the

time of nightfall he stood by my side

and pretended he bought two cups of

tea by accident again for the thirty-

fifth time, thirty-four days after

Christmas Day.

“You’re lying,” I smiled, looking

down at my toecaps, “Every day you

make the same mistake, buy two

cups of tea and give one to a

stranger,” continued I.

“That’s true. I am lying,” said he,

smiling to me, “I am not silly. But I still

want to make the same mistake

every day.” A warmer smile flickered

across his face. Orange, I described

his smile in this way.

“On purpose”.

“True,” replied he.

“Where did you first make that

mistake?” I was curious.

“In that café”. He pointed a small

café near the end of street, but not

far. I was sure I could see it. Then we

just talked for nine minutes more.

Actually, many days after that were

similar—One cup of tea for me,

another for himself, and we began to

talk and talk, for ten minutes in total.

Ten minutes was as fate ordained.

Ten minutes was in God’s control. No

more than ten minutes, also, no less

than ten minutes. We talked about

weather, today’s weather,

yesterday’s weather, and tomorrow’s

weather. We talked about food,

American food, Chinese food, and

Italian food. We talked about almost

everything—the little cuddly cat he

kept messed up his room again or

something sadder, he had no

additional money to lend his best

friends because this month he failed

to sell his books again.

“You were a writer!” I was

surprised.

“Not really.”

Sometimes I wanted to ask him a

lot of questions but finally I chose

reticence. His name, his age, his real

job, his hometown, I knew nothing

about him except three things—he

Story

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liked drinking tea, liked smiling, and

liked making the silliest mistake in

this world for a girl whom he met ten

minutes a day.

He chose reticence as well. He

didn’t ask my name, my age, where I

was from, and the reason why I

came to this city alone.

We had the closest relationship,

seemingly, for ten minutes every day.

We were the complete strangers,

seemingly, for the rest twenty-three

hours and fifty-six minutes.

“Maybe it is just a dream.” One day,

gazing upon his back vanishing into

the orange afterglow, I said to myself.

“It’s time to go home.” Then, I

stood alone for another ten minutes,

and vanished into the darkening

street.

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Six past ten.

I watched people went in and out

of the café. There was no him. I

shook with cold in the wind. A

freezing boat was I who endeavored

to anchor in a harbor where his

embrace filled with particular smell of

tea warmed me and where his hand

reached for my hand and held it with

silence.

A black dog going walk with an old

man barked at me. And I saw a

couple falling apart quietly at the

corner of the street.

I turned my back on the bustling

and well-lit street and prayed for his

brief appearance.

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When something light and fine

touched my nose, l looked up at the

sky. All the while I was thinking

weather it was snow. Then I seemed

to get a glimpse of his figure, always

tall, always slender, which had

haunted me since the first day I met

him.

It was him. Indeed.

He was coming, from the opposite

direction

He stopped by my side and I

noticed today he bought two cups of

tea and one cup of coffee.

I had a hunch that he was about to

tell me something. I saw farewell in

his grey eyes.

He spoke first, “Your cup of tea”,

giving it to me without hesitancy.

“Thanks.” I said.

“Have it before cool down.” He

added.

“Are you cold?” After a long pause,

he asked, looking at me.

I nodded. I casted a

glance at his shoulder and

there were snowflakes. It

was snowing.

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“Tomorrow, I am getting

married,” with a gentle voice, he

broke the silence again.

I looked down at my toecaps

where snowflakes were covering

and where lights coming together

reflected my sorrow.

I knew who would have that

special cup of coffee.

“It’s always like that. Here in winter.

It just suddenly began to snow.” I

said.

“Oh, really?”

“But I like it.”

“Me too.”

“Why do you like drinking tea?”

“It smells good.”

“You know what,” I paused, and

then continued, “I finally knew the

fourth thing about you.”

Then I just kept looking up at the

western darkening sky.

“Merry Christmas.” He suddenly

said.

“Merry Christmas.”

That was my last time to see him,

on Christmas Eve and on that day, it

snowed.

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“I bought two cups of tea by

accident, do you want one?”

It was a miracle for me to

remember a stranger’s word in a

strange city.

So I never forgot him for one

second.

Story

16

Published by:

Suzhou AP Center Publication Club

Advisor:

Mr. Hulse

Editor-in-chief:

Edward Sheng

Editor:

Wendy Xu

Designers:

Edward Sheng

Wendy Xu

Publication Date:

2014.2

Website:

suzhouaptimes.weebly.com

All rights reserved.

Reporters:

Mimi Ma

Tommy Zhou

Sophie Wu

Jessie Zhou

Bob Liu

Justin Qin

Sally Chao

Richard Li

Brenda Jin

Tony Deng

Ricky Han