Programs of the 52nd Xizi English Salon
Host: Lenny
Date: August 2nd, 2008
Time: 19:30--21:30
Entrance fee: 5 RMB
Venue: 惠州市西枝江桥南麦地路升辉苑A栋3楼1号惠州市
格灵威大自然教育培训中心（格灵威自然美语） （从侧边的楼梯上三楼）
惠州市
格灵威大自然教育培训中心（格灵威自然美语）网站地址：
http://www.natureedu.com
For detailed address, please see the map at the bottom.
衷心感谢惠州市
格灵威大自然教育培训中心（格灵威自然美语）为西子英语沙龙提供免费的场地！对惠州市格灵威大自然教育培训中心（格灵威自然美语）为广大英语爱好者所作的公益举动表示诚挚的感谢和敬意！
提示：本活动仅接受中级和中级以上英语水平者报名参加。 欲参加的会员请提前报名，以便召集人准备资料。
Part 1. Self-introduction
It can be better with your funny jokes or interesting stories to share with us.
Part 2. Fable story reading and tell the moral meaning
Part 3. Topic discussion
Topic 1. Has Dongguan government made a suitable decision?
The city government of Dongguan, in southern China's Guangdong province, announced that it was planning to distribute more than 120 million yuan ($17.6 million) in "red envelope" money to the poorest residents of the city. Each qualified citizen would receive 1,000 yuan ($144) as living subsidy to help cope with high inflation.
It is reported that people receiving the subsidy include eight groups, like those living on the government subsidy for minimum living standard, disabled former service persons, elder people without family, orphans and the disabled.
Such acts are laudable for the Dongguan government is helping the most needed groups with the fiscal income raised from the people through taxes.
Let’s talk about the issue on distributing money to the needy in the face of serious inflation. Lenny has got four questions to discuss, which will be shown to you on Saturday evening.
Topic 2. Real touching love story (Read first, then say what you want to say. After that, six questions relating to the love story will be available for talking about on Saturday evening.)
she has been in love with a man for 18 years, but the love turns out to be a one-sided
Yesterday, in a heavy rain, i accompanied one of my childhood companions to meet her first boyfriend.
she has been loving him for the past 18 years, but the love is entirely a one-sided one now.
They were table-mates for one semester in the senior middle school, the girl was doing better than the boy in study, and she was expected by the teachers to be more likely to enter the college and to have a brighter future than the boy.
the boy was newly dumped by another pretty girl. so, in order to get out of the bad situation of disappointment, he tried desperately to get his table-mate into a love affair.
he wrote many love letters full of sweet words and promises. He convinced the girl of a bright future with a loving and faithful guy. he also coaxed the girl into having sex with him.
the girl was infactuated by him. as this was the first time for her to be in love, she was determined to be with him whatever he would be in the future.
they somehow both failed in the entrance exam into college. Thus, they had to have make-up study in two separate schools. but the girl tried to go to his school to meet with him, but the boy became cool in his attitude toward her. she was sad and became jealous even when he was talking or laughing with other girls.
she decided not to go on with her study, actually, she diverted her attention from study to the relationship with him so much that it was impossible for her to focus on her study any longer.
instead of going on with her study, she became one of the migrant workers to a remote province, and soon got married there.
she got married to a man she didn't love at all. but because she was not a virgin girl then, she felt she was not entitled to a good man any more.
she has been living in a dreamy world ever since then. she found herself impossible to forget him. she tried her best to get any information about him and anyone or anything about him seemed to be of utmost importance to her.
she got to know that he finally entered a normal university and became a middle school teacher in chengdu. her memory is full of the days to be with him. every word he said has been engrained in her heart.
she is so much in love with him that she is overjoyed even at sight of a man looking alike her boyfriend. she often dreams of him, but in her dreams, he is very cold and silent.
she somehow got his phone number, and she could hardly help calling him and telling him about her desperation in love. he told her to love her husband and son because he has had a family of his own.
she called so many times that the man and his family became on guard against her. she is often told that she has had a wrong number.
she met the man yesterday in person. the man was reluctant to meet her but eventually was forced to come out for the meeting as i found some excuse.
she was very excited before the meeting. she got dressed up in her best clothes, put on the best make-up, turned around and around in the mirror and tried to wear the most charming smile, her cheeks were blushed as if she were an eighteen year old girl. she is 39 years old now.
we met him at the gate of his school. she became silent and dared not look at him in face, she turned her eyes away. she is in fact a very talkative person, but at that moment, she became a dumb one.
he appeared to be too busy for a middle school teacher. he was dressed in shabby clothes, pale and thin, with a pair of thick glasses. he told us that he had a meeting then, we had to wait for him in a tea-house. in an hour, he called us to have supper by ourselves because he was having supper with other teachers after the meeting. we then dined in a small restaurant near his school, and called him to come. it was dark outside, he came in ten minute, his face turned red this time, he told us he had drunk a little wine.
we sat at the dinner table and chatted for a while, almost most of our topics were centred on his teaching and his school. He glanced at her while she shyly turned her head aside, entirely out of place. we waved goodbye to him, because he told us he should hurry to the classroom, then.
he didn't pay bills either for our tea or our meal, but apologized that he was too busy to attend us.
she became listless after he took leave. she walks slowly in the rain with her head down.
she murmured that the man was cold to her because she was not dressed up prettily enough.
once back to where we dwelled, she burst into tears and said ruefully that he should not be so cold to her as she has been loving him and dreaming about him all these years.
she almost wailed and told me that he used to be a charming and handsome guy, but now he had changed into a worldly and snobbish middle-school teacher.
she told me that the man was not worth of her love, and that she was so regretful that she had ruined her life for such a man.
it is too late now!!! as she didn't go on with her study, she is only a common worker having to save and scrimp for a meager living in a rich city of a remote province.
she caught a bad cold and had a high fever this morning. she told me that she had been sleepless throughout the whole night.
in fact, she has been seriously sick, mentally, and now physically.
she gets disillusioned.
now, she is in dilemma: she wants to get divorced, but she has to depend on her husband for provision for her son. it is her son that she is most concerned about now.
she is totally lost. on one hand, she knows clearly that the man doesn't love her anymore, on the other, she can't hold herself back from missing him,
she may be angry with him this moment, she will soon forgive him the next. she vows not to contact with him any more one moment, the next moment, she will risk being hurt and losing face by making a phone call to him.
She was next to a college student while her husband was next to an illiterate.
she got married to him when she was in the lowest ebb of tide in her life.
it is very hard for her to live with a man she doesn't love.
her husband is afraid of getting divorced from her. He is devoted to her and the family, but he is not a romantic person in her mind and can't meet her demand for a soul mate.
her husband's love for her is simple and direct: he needs a woman to sleep with.
her husband called her this morning, informing her that if she didn't go back home, he wouldn't send money to her and their son anymore.
by the way, she has taken her son back to her native place for middle school education. as a matter of fact, her husband and his other siblings are all ill-educated, so their son was not so good at his study.
Part Four. Free talk.
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本帖最后由 LENNY 于 2008-7-29 21:09 编辑 ]
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