Đáp án và giải thích

OK, so what does the holiday consist of? Well, on day one you’ll arrive in time for a short introduction by your tour manager, followed by dinner in the hotel. The dining room looks out at the river, close to where it flows into the harbour, and there’s usually plenty of activity going on.

On day two you’ll take the coach to the small town of Peel, on the way calling in at the Tynwald Exhibition. The Isle of Man isn’t part of the United Kingdom, and it has its own parliament, called Tynwald. It’s claimed that this is the world’s oldest parliament that’s still functioning, and that it dates back to 979. However, the earliest surviving reference to it is from 1422, so perhaps it isn’t quite as old as it claims!

Day three we have a trip to the mountain Snaefell. This begins with a leisurely ride along the promenade in Douglas in a horse-drawn tram. Then you board an electric train which takes you to the fishing village of Laxey. From there it’s an eight-kilometre ride in the Snaefell Mountain Railway to the top. Lunch will be in the café, giving you spectacular views of the island.

Day four is free for you to explore, using the pass which we’ll give you. So you won’t have to pay for travel on local transport, or for entrance to the island’s heritage sites. Or you might just want to take it easy in Douglas and perhaps do a little light shopping.

The last full day, day five, is for some people the highlight of the holiday, with a ride on the steam railway, from Douglas to Port Erin. After some time to explore, a coach will take you to the headland that overlooks the Calf of Man, a small island just off the coast. From there you continue to Castletown, which used to be the capital of the Isle of Man, and its mediaeval castle.

And on day six it’s back to the ferry - or the airport, if you flew to the island - and time to go home.

Now I’d like to tell you ...

Đáp án và giải thích

Cathy: OK, so now shall we think about a topic linked to each novel?

Graham: Yes. I’ve printed out a list of Dickens’s novels in the order they were published, in the hope you’d agree to focus on him!

Cathy: You’re lucky I did agree! Let’s have a look. OK, the first was The Pickwick Papers, published in 1836. It was very successful when it came out, wasn’t it, and was adapted for the theatre straight away.

Graham: There’s an interesting point, though, that there’s a character who keeps falling asleep, and that medical condition was named after the book - Pickwickian Syndrome.

Cathy: Oh, so why don’t we use that as the topic, and include some quotations from the novel?

Graham: Right. Next is Oliver Twist. There’s a lot in the novel about poverty. But maybe something less obvious ...

Cathy: Well Oliver is taught how to steal, isn’t he? We could use that to illustrate the fact that very few children went to school, particularly not poor children, so they learnt in other ways.

Graham: Good idea. What’s next?

Cathy: Maybe Nicholas Nickleby. Actually he taught in a really cruel school, didn’t he?

Graham: That’s right. But there’s also the company of touring actors that Nicholas joins. We could do something on theatres and other amusements of the time. We don’t want only the bad things, do we?

Cathy: OK.

Graham: What about Martin Chuzzlewit? He goes to the USA, doesn’t he?

Cathy: Yes, and Dickens himself had been there a year before, and drew on his experience there in the novel.

Graham: I wonder, though ... The main theme is selfishness, so we could do something on social justice? No, too general, let’s keep to your idea - I think it would work well.

Cathy: He wrote Bleak House next - that’s my favourite of his novels.

Graham: Yes, mine too. His satire of the legal system is pretty powerful.

Cathy: That’s true, but think about Esther, the heroine. As a child she lives with someone she doesn’t know is her aunt, who treats her very badly. Then she’s very happy living with her guardian, and he puts her in charge of the household. And at the end she gets married and her guardian gives her and her husband a house, where of course they’re very happy.

Graham: Yes, I like that.

Cathy: What shall we take next? Little Dorrit? Old Mr Dorrit has been in a debtors’ prison for years ...

Graham: So was Dickens’s father, wasn’t he?

Cathy: That's right.

Graham: What about focusing on the part when Mr Dorrit inherits a fortune, and he starts pretending he’s always been rich?

Cathy: Good idea.

Graham: OK, so next we need to think about what materials we want to illustrate each issue. That’s going to be quite hard.

Đáp án và giải thích

Ancient philosophy is not just about talking or lecturing, or even reading long, dense books. In fact, it is something people have used throughout history – to solve their problems and to achieve their greatest triumphs.

Specifically, I am referring to Stoicism, which, in my opinion, is the most practical of all philosophies and therefore the most appealing. Stoicism was founded in Ancient Greece by Zeno of Citium in the early 3rd century BC, but was practised by the likes of Epictetus, Cato, Seneca and Marcus Aurelius. Amazingly, we still have access to these ideas, despite the fact that the most famous Stoics never wrote anything down for publication. Cato definitely didn’t. Marcus Aurelius never intended his Meditations to be anything but personal. Seneca’s letters were, well, letters and Epictetus’ thoughts come to us by way of a note-taking student.

Stoic principles were based on the idea that its followers could have an unshakable happiness in this life and the key to achieving this was virtue. The road to virtue, In turn, lay in understanding that destructive emotions, like anger and jealousy, are under our conscious control – they don’t have to control us, because we can learn to control them. In the words of Epictetus: “external events I cannot control, but the choices I make with regard to them, I do control”.

The modern day philosopher and writer Nassim Nicholas Taleb defines a Stoic as someone who has a different perspective on experiences which most of us would see as wholly negative; a Stoic “transforms fear into caution, pain into transformation, mistakes into initiation and desire into undertaking”. Using this definition as a model, we can see that throughout the centuries Stoicism has been practised in more recent history by kings, presidents, artists, writers and entrepreneurs.

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The founding fathers of the United States were inspired by the philosophy. George Washington was introduced to Stoicism by his neighbours at age seventeen, and later, put on a play based on the life of Cato to inspire his men. Thomas Jefferson kept a copy of Seneca beside his bed.

Writers and artists have also been inspired by the stoics. Eugene Delacroix, the renowned French Romantic artist (known best for his painting Liberty Leading the People) was an ardent stoic, referring to it as his “consoling religion”.

The economist Adam Smith’s theories on capitalism were significantly influenced by the Stoicism that he studied as a schoolboy, under a teacher who had translated Marcus Aurelius’ works.

Today’s political leaders are no different, with many finding their inspiration from the ancient texts. Former US president Bill Clinton rereads Marcus Aurelius every single year, and many have compared former President Obama’s calm leadership style to that of Cato. Wen Jiabao, the former prime minister of China, claims that Meditations is one of two books he travels with and that he has read it more than one hundred times over the course of his life.

Stoicism had a profound influence on Albert Ellis, who invented Cognitive Behaviour Therapy, which is used to help people manage their problems by changing the way that they think and behave. It’s most commonly used to treat depression. The idea is that we can take control of our lives by challenging the irrational beliefs that create our faulty thinking, symptoms and behaviours by using logic instead.

Stoicism has also become popular in the world of business. Stoic principles can build the resilience and state of mind required to overcome setbacks because Stoics teach turning obstacles into opportunity. A lesson every business entrepreneur needs to learn.

I would argue that studying Stoicism is as relevant today as it was 2,000 years ago, thanks to its brilliant insights into how to lead a good life. At the very root of the thinking, there is a very simple way of living – control what you can and accept what you can’t. This is not as easy as it sounds and will require considerable practice – it can take a lifetime to master. The Stoics also believed the most important foundation for a good and happy life is not money, fame, power or pleasure, but having a disciplined and principled character – something which seems to resonate with many people today.