In 27th June 2022, 3 people participated in the trial stage of the English writing camp. There are our writings.
Participant-Jay
Topic
A review: A small museum. You see this announcement on an international tourism website:
Everyone knows about the big museums and art galleries. But there are lots of interesting smaller ones too. Please send us a review of a smaller museum or gallery you would recommend. Describe the place and its contents and explain the impact it had on you when you first visited it. You should also explain how to make a visit to that museum or gallery as enjoyable as possible.
Essay:
Here is a review of the Shanghai Symphony Museum. It is a small museum showcasing the history of symphonic music in China. It is located in downtown Shanghai, Baoqing Road. But its gate is so simple that passersby don’t even know it is a museum.
The museum exhibits documents and artifacts, including manuscripts, instruments, and recordings. They represent the development of Chinese symphonic music and introduce Chinese conductors and composers and their works. Also, the museum educates the public about symphonic music in an easy-to-understand way. I was most impressed by a 3-D projection device showing the playing of musical instruments. I got to know many instruments and experienced the charm of the symphony.
In addition, the garden villa used by the museum is worth mentioning. It is a classical villa with two floors and a beautiful garden. The view is great and people can take great photos there. The house originally belonged to a wealthy family named Zhou, and there is an introduction to this family.
If my friends want to visit, I would recommend that they book tickets a week in advance and go to the Symphony Hall next door to listen to a concert after the visit.
The full progress of this article can be seen here.
Participant-Sirius
Topic:
Surveys show that people are living longer in many countries, but increased life expectancy has many implications for aging individuals and for society as a whole.
What are the possible effects of longer living on individuals and society?
Essay:
Increasingly advanced medical treatment has led to a gradual extension of human life expectancy. In general, it’s a good sign, despite some issues which still take time to be addressed.
For individuals, a longer life span means more time to achieve their personal dreams. The “thirty-something” argument is no longer tenable, as more and more people are still active in their jobs and continue to create higher achievements and values even after reaching the legal retirement age. Joe Biden, the current president of the U.S., was elected president at the age of 78. On the other side of the coin, people need to devote more time to making money and exercising when they are young in order to accumulate wealth and health so that they can enjoy a better quality of life in old age, rather than being plagued by illness.
For the society, however, the extension of the average life expectancy of members of the society means that there will be some problems and challenges in the future. When the proportion of aging population that cannot improve social productivity is on the rise, they will consume relatively more social resources, which will make the young and middle-aged population face the issue of resource shortage to some extent.
On the whole, longer life span is a blessing for the human beings, but at the same time, we need to think about how to properly deal with some of its side effects.
Participant-绘苏
Topic
Introduce a philosopher and his thoughts
Essay：
Epicurus was an ancient Greek philosopher who is much different from others. Other philosophers before him are always trying to work out “what could make people better”. But he was trying to work out the largest puzzle that “What makes people happy?” After many years of studies, Epicurus came to a set of revolutionary conclusions. He proposed that you really needed only three things to be happy in this life:
- Spend more time with your friends.
Friendship is more wonderful than romantic relationships, because there are so many unhappy couples who are dealing with misunderstanding, cheating and bitterness. The opposite is that people tend to act more decent and more sincere to their friends. You can get happiness from friendship as much as from romantic relationships, and the negative part is much less.
2. The more sense of achievement you get, the happier you will be.
Epicurus thinks that when you feel you are helping others and improving the world in your own, you will get the sense of achievement and satisfaction, then you will feel happy.
3. Be calm.
People want their mind to be calm and free, and not full of the normal boredom and chaos. If you have more peaceful moments, there will be more energy you can use to create something.
Based on these three elements, Epicurus did an experiment by himself. He bought a big house and started living with all his friends. In this house they can do anything they want as long as they think it’s meaningful. Writing, Reading and meditating are quite familiar to them because they devoted themselves to finding calm in their own minds.
This experiment was so successful, and the members of the commune were so happy. Due to the result, this idea spread wildly. At the height of the movement, there were 400,000 people living in commune all over the world.