Hello 大家好！这一期我们来讲一下喜欢的电影题材~ Hello everyone and welcome to episode 30 of Weekend English Club. I hope you all had a nice week, and today I want to tell you a little bit about what kind of movies I like. There are so many different movies in the world that unfortunately we cannot watch them all, so it helps if at least you know what you like to watch and what you do not like to watch. I started watching movies when I was a child and back then I mostly watched animated movies such as Toy Story, Lion King, Shrek and just a lot of Disney movies in general. I really like old animated movies because everything had to be drawn by hand, but modern ones are also good. Japanese animated movies are very famous and I also like to watch them. Long ago all movies were in black and white without colors and that can also be an interesting experience. It makes you focus on different details compared to movies in color, and even now some directors make movies in black and white if they want to create a special type of movie. I really like Casablanca, a movie in black and white which is already more than 80 years old and also very famous. There are a lot of genres in the movie world like comedy, action, crime, horror, fantasy, romance and more. I never liked horror movies myself but I do like thriller movies, which are movies with exciting stories that can really make you feel tense and nervous about what will happen. Superhero movies are of course also very big, with famous examples like the Batman movies, Spiderman, Iron Man and so on. It is really easy to watch all these different movies nowadays with streaming services like Netflix, but when I was a child the internet was still new and you could not watch movies online. We always had to buy the DVD if we wanted to watch something and hope it was good, and some movies were really hard to find where I lived. Nowadays it is really easy to find movies to watch but I also feel a bit overwhelmed sometimes with all the choices we have. I still have a long list of movies I want to watch and I hope I have time for that soon. I like that every country has their own style of making movies, and watching movies from all around the world can be a good way to learn about different places. If you watched some good ones recently, maybe you can also tell me about them. * Unfortunately：不幸地，遗憾地 * Animated：动画片的 * Disney：迪士尼 * In general：通常，一般来说 * By hand：用手 * Directors：导演（复数） * Genres：流派，体裁（复数） * Comedy：喜剧，喜剧片 * Crime：犯罪，犯罪片 * Thriller movies：悬疑电影（复数） * Tense：令人紧张的；绷紧的 * Nervous：神经紧张的，担忧的 * Streaming services：流媒体服务 * Overwhelmed：（情感）难以禁受；使应接不暇 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家周末好！这周荷兰的温度骤降，感觉一下子进入了深冬，你所在的城市的温度是怎样的呢？ 这一期我们来讲一下佛罗伦萨 - 一座著名的意大利城市，希望你能学到一些新知识！ Hello everyone and welcome to episode 29 of Weekend English Club. Today I want to talk about Florence, a beautiful city in northern Italy. I visited Florence more than a year ago and was really impressed with this beautiful old city, and I want to introduce it to you as well. Florence is known as Firenze in Italian and has a long and famous history. It became a very important European city around 500 years ago, when Italy was not yet one country. Florence back then was an independent city with its own government, ruled for a long time by a very powerful family, called the Medici family. They became very rich and powerful because they were some of the first bankers in Italy, and owning their own bank made them very rich. Because of this, they managed to become the most powerful family in the city and use their money to build beautiful buildings and order great works of art from some of the most famous artists of their time. The rich people of Florence became very interested in history, art and science and because of this, Florence became one of the most important cities in Europe for some time. Probably the most famous symbol of Florence is the cathedral in the middle of the city, a large building which was completed in the year 1436. It took more than a hundred years to build it, and the largest challenge was the dome they wanted to build on top of the cathedral. A dome is a large, round type of roof and it is very hard to build, especially before modern times. The problem was solved by an architect called Filippo Brunelleschi, who managed to finish the roof of the cathedral which many people did not think was possible. The front of the cathedral is decorated with an amazing amount of art and statues and seeing it yourself is a very unique experience. The first time I saw it I really had no words because it was such a beautiful thing to see. Florence has many buildings like this, such as the Uffizi palace which is now a very large museum filled with famous art. If you like Italian history and beautiful European buildings, Florence is really one of the best cities to visit. When you walk around the old city it feels like you go back in time and you can imagine what it must have been like 500 years ago. You can walk around the city for days and be amazed by the beauty of it, and because it is in Italy the food is of course also very good. I would love to visit Florence again some day and I hope you can do so too. But if you go, I think it is better to visit in the winter when it is not so busy since it is one of the most visited cities in Italy. When people ask me what the most beautiful city that I have visited is, I still say Florence and if you look up some photos of it online I am sure you will see why. * Florence：佛洛伦萨 * Introduce：介绍 * Not yet：还没有；尚未 * Banker：银行家 * For some time：一段时间 * Challenge：挑战 * Dome：穹顶，圆屋顶 * Modern：现代的 * Statues：雕像（复数） * Go back in time：回到从前；时光倒流 * Do so：这样做 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好，经过两周的修养，我们回归了。因为主播在生病期间喝了很多茶，茶也对他恢复健康起到了很多的作用，所以我们这一期决定来讲一下茶叶。 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 28 of Weekend English Club. Last week I was sick and had a cold, so I was not able to work on an episode but I got better and want to talk about tea today. I like drinking tea when I am sick, but also when I am healthy. But what is tea actually, and where did it come from? Tea is a drink made by pouring boiling water over the leaves of a plant called Camellia Sinensis, but you do not have to remember that name. Most people just call it the tea plant. This plant originally came from an area around Yunnan in China. Aside from water, tea is the most popular drink in the whole world. Chinese people started using tea as a medicine thousands of years ago, and later it also became popular as an everyday drink. Before the Tang dynasty tea was mainly drunk in southern China, but later it also became popular in the rest of the country and also spread to Korea, Japan and Vietnam. These countries still drink a lot of tea as well, but it also became popular in the rest of the world. Westerners learned about tea around 500 years ago when they started trading with China. Dutch traders bought tea in China and Japan and brought it back to Europe, where it then became a popular drink in places like the Netherlands, Germany and France. Eventually tea also spread to the United Kingdom, where it became super popular as well. English people started adding milk and sugar to their tea, which they still do today. In Europe tea used to be very expensive and only for rich people, but around 200 years ago it became much cheaper and everyone could drink tea. There are many types of tea, such as white tea, yellow tea, green tea, oolong tea, black tea which is known as red tea in china, and pu'er tea. They are all very different and some of them are stronger than the others, but they can all have very interesting flavors. Of course now you also have many other drinks like ice tea and bubble tea, but in the past people only had normal tea. China still produces half of all the tea in the world and tea is still a very important part of many cultures around the world. It is good for your health, so do not forget to drink some tea regularly. * Pouring：倾泻；倒 * Boiling：沸腾的 * Originally：最初，原来 * Aside from：除了...之外 * Spread：传播；流传 * Vietnam：越南 * Eventually：最终；终于 * Bubble tea：珍珠奶茶 * Produce：生产，制造 * Half of：一半；...的一半 * Regularly：定期地，有规律地 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

大家周末好呀！这周我们来聊点可爱轻松的话题 -- 米菲兔。相信很多人都听说或者见过米菲兔这个形象，但是大家知道米菲兔是来自荷兰的吗？ Hello everyone and welcome to episode 27 of Weekend English Club. Today I will talk about a very famous cartoon rabbit called Miffy. You might know Miffy, who looks like a small white rabbit but stands and dresses just like us. It was a Dutch artist called Dick Bruna who came up with her, and she actually has a Dutch name as well. Miffy is her English name, but in Dutch she is called Nijntje. Nijntje is short for konijntje, which means little rabbit in Dutch, but during this episode I will use her English name. The first book about Miffy was made in 1953 and more than 100 million Miffy books have been sold. There are even TV shows about Miffy and you can find Miffy toys and souvenirs in many places around the world. She is famous in the Netherlands, but also super popular in places like Japan. She is so popular there that many people think Miffy is from Japan, but she really is Dutch. Dick Bruna came up with Miffy when he was on vacation with his family in 1953 in the Netherlands. Their vacation house had a garden where a white rabbit lives and Dick Bruna came up with bedtime stories about the rabbit for his son. This is how he got the idea for Miffy, and soon he started to write books about her. Miffy also has an official birthday, which is on the 21st of June. Her stories are always happy, and her family also appears in them. The designs are simple but cute, and very popular with children. Miffy usually wears a blue, orange or green shirt and she also likes to carry a balloon sometimes. She also has friends like a couple of bears and pigs who she often goes to see and talk to. When I was a child I also watched the Miffy TV show and really liked it back then. If you want to watch it you can probably find it easily on the internet in all kinds of languages. If you like Miffy you can even visit a whole museum about her in the Netherlands, the Miffy museum. It has existed since 2016, and it is a whole world just about Miffy. You can visit Miffy there in her own house and learn more about different subjects related to her. A lot of Chinese and Japanese tourists go there, and maybe you can also go someday. The Miffy books have been translated into 50 different languages and she even has her own social media channels, so she is a very international little rabbit. * Cartoon：卡通 * Artist：艺术家；画家 * Come up with：想出 * Actually：实际上 * Be short for：是...的缩写/简称 * Souvenirs：纪念品，纪念物（复数） * Bedtime stories：睡前故事(复数） * Balloon：气球 * A couple of：两个或几个（事物） * All kinds of：各种各样的 * Social media：社交媒体 * Channels：频道；通道 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家周末好！秋末将即，天气慢慢也变冷了，2024 年也迎来了最后的两个月。在这个十一月初的周末就让我们就来讲一下四季来迎接冬天吧。 Hello everyone and welcome to episode 26 of Weekend English Club. The weather is getting colder, the days are getting shorter and the skies are more gray, so that means autumn has arrived. The seasons are changing again and today I will talk a little bit about the different seasons of the year. Everyone has their own favorite season, and mine is spring. Spring is the season when everything begins again, as plants start growing again and animals become more active after the cold winter months. Although the Western new year starts on the first of January, in Iran the new year starts with the beginning of spring, which also makes sense to me. For farmers this is also the start of their year, because they can start growing food again. For farmers the seasons are very important because they really affect their whole life and everything they do to grow our food. I like spring because it is very comfortable where I live, and not too hot to have fun outside. Summer is next and depending on where you live, it can be very hot. If you live in a tropical place it can feel like summer almost the whole year and it is hard to do anything without air conditioning. In the north of Europe summer is usually not too bad, but in the south it often gets so hot you really cannot do anything outside and you just spend the day sleeping until it cools down a bit. This is why in the north people usually end their day quite early, but in the south it is warm enough to do a lot of things late at night. Autumn is a season which can be very cozy and beautiful because of the changing colors of the trees and the falling leaves, so you can sit inside with a book and a blanket and watch the outside world change. Autumn is also known as the harvest season, because it is the time when farmers need to harvest everything they have grown before winter arrives. Then as the months pass, winter begins. Winter can be very intense in cold regions of the world, but also very beautiful when it starts snowing outside. It is the time of Christmas, thick sweaters and cozy nights at home. A lot of animals will spend the winter sleeping as they wait for spring, and then it all starts over again. I like to go ice skating in the winter and drink hot chocolate, but I do always look forward to the beginning of spring. * Iran：伊朗 * Make sense：合理的；容易理解的 * Comfortable：舒服的 * Depend on：依赖于；取决于 * Tropical：热带的，热带地区的 * Air conditioning：空调系统 * Cool down：冷却；平静下来 * Blanket：毯子，毛毯 * Harvest：收获 * Intense：强烈的；激烈的 * Sweaters：毛衣（复数） * Ice skating：冰上滑冰 * Look forward to：期待；期望 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 各位周末好！这周我们去动物收养所领养了一只猫，所以我们想来讲一期关于猫的播客。如果你也恰好养猫或者喜欢猫的话，欢迎在评论区留言！ Hello everyone and welcome to episode 25 of Weekend English Club. Today I finally did something which I wanted to do for a very long time: I adopted a cat. I used to have a cat many years ago and I always wanted to get one again but I did not have the chance until now. I wanted to adopt one who still needed an owner, so I went to an animal shelter to find one. The cat I adopted is a very cute 6 year old girl and she was taken to the animal shelter because her previous owner could not take care of her anymore. Now she is in my home, but she still needs time to get used to her new house. Cats are very different from dogs in many ways. Dogs are very social and always need attention and training, but cats don't mind being alone most of the time. Wild cats are very good hunters, and they will always hunt alone. You can see your housecat do this too when they go after birds or mice, and they are really good at it. Cats can jump very high, run very fast, have sharp claws and can see very well in the dark. For us they are very cute, but I can imagine they must seem very scary if you are a little mouse. My new cat is still very shy and is hiding in my closet, and when they do this it is important to give them time to come out when they feel ready. Moving to a new home is very stressful for a cat and they need to get used to you. Smells are very important for them and in a new house everything smells strange and new, so they need to get used to that. They like rubbing their face against objects in the house to make them smell more like them and make it feel more like their own house, so it's good when they start doing that. If your cat spends a lot of time hiding you don't need to feel worried, just be patient. It can take a few days before they really want to start going out and walking around the house, so it can be nice for them to leave some food and water near their hiding place. Otherwise they might feel too scared to go looking for it somewhere far away. If your cat finally comes out of their hiding place, don't scare them by running to them or trying to pick them up because then they might run back to go hide again. Just give them time to get used to you. I really like cats and I think having one in your house is very good for your health. They make me feel more relaxed and I love having a cat sit with me when I watch a movie. I think that is why they are such popular pets, and I hope my new cat will soon enjoy living with me. * Adopt：收养；采取 * Animal shelter：动物收容所 * Anymore：（不）再，再也（不） * Social：社交的，交际的 * Attention：注意；注意力 * Training：训练，培训 * Hunters：狩猎者（复数） * Go after：追求，追逐，追捕 * Claws：爪子（复数） * Closet：壁橱，橱柜 * Stressful：紧张的，压力大的 * Rub：摩擦；揉擦 * Patient：用耐心的 * Otherwise：否则，不然 * Scare：吓唬，使惊恐 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家周末好！相信大家跟着我们的播客学了不少的英语表达，这一期我们来讲一下学英语口语不得不提的大大大祖宗 -- Friends！这部美国电视剧可以说是很多人学英语过程中的 must watch 了，如果你还没看过的话，赶紧找来看看吧！ Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Weekend English Club. Listening to podcasts like this one can be a good way to improve your English skills, and watching TV shows can also help a lot. One of the most famous English-language TV shows which I really like is called Friends, and you might already know it. Friends is an American TV show that was on TV from 1994 until 2004, and it follows the lives of a group of friends living in New York in the 90's. The show is mostly about their daily lives, their romantic adventures and the funny things that happen to them. In English this kind of show is known as a Sitcom, which is short for situation comedy. If you want to improve your English, Friends is a very good show for that because the characters use a lot of expressions that are used in daily conversation by native speakers. The topics they talk about are almost always related to everyday life and understanding the jokes they make can help you a lot when you talk to other English speakers. Since there are 236 episodes of the show there is a lot of material for you to practice with and it is a great show to watch multiple times. There are six main characters in the show and they all have different personalities and careers, and they often meet up at a coffee place called Central Perk to chat, which has become quite famous. You can visit copies of it in cities around the world and it has become a very recognizable example of American television. The show has had a big influence in American culture and almost everyone in the US knows Friends, so it's easy to start a conversation with someone if you mention you have watched it. One of the main actors called Matt LeBlanc only had 11 dollars in his bank account when he started working on the show, but they all became very successful. Another main actor, Matthew Perry, was once told by his teacher in school that being funny would never get him anywhere in life, but on Friends he became famous for being one of the funniest guys on the show. So if someone tells you to stop being funny, maybe you should not always listen to them. The last episode of Friends was watched by 52 million people the day it was on TV, and it is still very popular with people today. If you have not watched it yet, maybe give it a try sometime. * On TV：在电视上 * Romantic：浪漫的 * Be short for：是...的缩写/简称 * Improve：改善，变得更好 * Expressions：表达；生词短语（复数） * Conversation：谈话，交谈 * Native speakers：母语者（复数） * Multiple：多个的，多种的 * Personalities：人格；个性（复数） * Meet up：相约见面 * Recognizable：可辨认的 * Give it a try：尝试一下 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好！今天和弟弟聊起初中英语的课题，然后就得到启发来讲一期关于 school life 的内容。 Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Weekend English Club. Today I will talk about high school, and what it was like for me. In my country, we start going to high school around the age of 12, and there are different levels of education in high school. We do not have a middle school, so after elementary school you just go to high school immediately. Most people will finish high school when they are 17 or 18 years old, and then you can choose to either continue to university immediately or get a job first. When I started high school it was quite exciting in the beginning because it was so different from elementary school. In elementary school we always sat in the same classroom with the same teacher, but in high school we always had to go to different classrooms. Every day we had a schedule, and the schedule would tell us where, for example, we would have English class that day. I thought that was pretty fun, because we would always be moving around and sitting in different areas of the school and I think it taught us to be more independent. We had a lot of responsibility at a young age though, because not long after we start high school here we need to start thinking about the subjects we want to study for the next few years. For example we could choose to study subjects like math and science, but drop history or art. It is not an easy choice, but it is important to start thinking about your future when you start high school. I think high school is really a good time to start exploring new interests. In high school I really enjoyed history classes, so I knew I wanted to have a job later where I could use this interest. I also learned I really did not like economics, so when I was young I already knew I did not want to have a financial job later in life. It is also a good chance to learn new languages, because your school will usually offer you English classes and maybe another language. I was very bad at French in high school so I did not like studying it, but I wish I put more effort into it when I had the chance. A lot of subjects might be hard and you might not enjoy them, but sometimes when you understand them better they can become more fun. I also made a lot of friends in high school, and that is really the most fun part of the time you spend there. I made some friends there who I still talk to today, many years after we finished high school and we share a lot of good memories. You meet so many new people in school and you can make friends for life if you are lucky. Of course studying for a good future is important too, but if you are in high school, don't forget to have some fun as well. * Elementary school：小学 * Immediately：立即 * Schedule：计划表，进度表 * Pretty：相当，颇 * Move around：四处运动；走来走去 * Independent：独立的，自立的 * Science：科学 * Explore：探索，探险 * Economics：经济学 * Financial：金融的 * French：法语 * Put more effort into：更加努力，投入更多的精力去完成某事 * Memories：记忆（复数） * Lucky：幸运的 * As well：也 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好！国庆假期临近结束了，大家过得怎么样呢？这一期我们来聊一下我们主播 Daniel 最喜爱的作家 -- 夏目漱石。希望可以对你们用英语表达自己最喜爱的作家有所启发！ Hello everyone and welcome to episode 22 of Weekend English Club. Here in the Netherlands the autumn weather has really arrived and it's starting to get colder, which makes it a good time for staying inside and reading a book. With that in mind, today I want to tell you about my favorite writer: Natsume Soseki. Natsume Soseki was born in 1867 in what is now Tokyo, the capital of Japan. While he was still in school he fell in love with Chinese literature and started to feel like one day he might become a writer. Eventually he studied English literature and became a teacher, while also publishing poetry on the side. The government even gave him the chance to be one of the first Japanese people to travel to England to study there, and although he did not enjoy living there he did develop his understanding of English literature even more. He took all this knowledge back to Japan and in 1903 his career as a writer really began. I really like one of his first books, called I Am a Cat in English. It is a pretty long book and the whole story is told by a cat living in the house of a teacher, and he always thinks about the behavior of humans he sees. What I like about it is that Natsume Soseki kind of uses the cat to criticize silly habits and behaviors of humans through the eyes of someone who is not a human. It is a funny book and really made me think about human behavior sometimes. This is actually something I really like about all his books, that he uses his stories to really make you think about human behavior and the way we experience our lives. His style of writing is often very beautiful, and even though I am sure his books are even better in Japanese, I still love the English translations I read. He has a way of describing emotions such as love and sadness in a way which really makes me feel a connection with his stories. I think some of the things he writes about are easier to understand when you are a bit older and have experienced similar things yourself, but this is also what makes them such good stories. My favorite novel is called Kokoro, which means heart, and was also written by Natsume Soseki. It is a story that talks about life, relationships and sadness, and the first time I read it it made me very emotional. I think because of this, Natsume Soseki is really my favorite writer. To this day Natsume Soseki is still one of the most famous and important writers in Japan and almost everyone there will know at least one of his books. I wonder if some of you have read his stories, and if not, I hope you might become curious to read something he wrote. * Tokyo：东京 * Fall in love with：爱上 * Eventually：最终 * Understanding：了解，认识；理解 * Career：事业，职业 * Behavior：行为 * Criticize：批评，指责 * Translations：翻译（复数） * Emotions：情感，情绪（复数） * Sadness：悲伤 * Connection：关系，联系；连接 * Emotional：情绪激动的；情感的 * At least：至少 * Curious：好奇的 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好，我们这周因为周末太忙的缘故迟了一天上新，虽迟但到啦！这一期我们来聊一下三国演义，希望大家学到新知识！ Hello everyone and welcome to episode 21 of Weekend English Club. I am very sorry for uploading this episode on a Monday, but I will be sure to upload the next episode on time this week. Today I want to talk about another famous Chinese novel which I really like, called Romance of the Three Kingdoms, or in Chinese 三国演义 (Sānguó yǎnyì). I have not read the whole story yet but I really like it, because it is about a fascinating period of Chinese history when there were many conflicts and interesting characters. The novel was written in the 14th century by Luo Guanzhong and tells the story of the end of the Han dynasty and the conflicts that followed, known as the Three Kingdoms period in English. This all happened in the second and third centuries, so it was a long time ago. Of course the story uses a lot of drama and imagination to make it more exciting, but it is based on real people and events. Romance of the Three Kingdoms is considered one of the four great classical novels of Chinese literature and is quite long. The English version has more than 600 pages and 120 chapters. It is one of the most famous and important novels of East Asia, and had a lot of influence on the literature of the region. There are too many characters in the novel for me to tell you about all of them, but there are some very famous ones. For example, Zhang Jue (張角) who leads a rebellion against the Han dynasty. Liu Bei (劉備), a warlord who was said to be a great ruler and politician. There was also Guan Yu (關羽), a great general who fought for Liu Bei and was so famous that after his death he even became a god in different Chinese religions. There is also Cao Cao (曹操) who was one of the most successful generals of his time but also a cruel man, and Lu Bu (呂布), who was a great warrior but also a man with an unpredictable personality who regularly betrayed the people he worked for. At the beginning of the story, the warlord Dong Zhuo (董卓) has taken over the royal palace and the capital city Luoyang, pretending to protect the emperor. He actually uses him so he can be the real ruler of China, but he uses his power to oppress the people. This is why 18 warlords decide to rebel against Dong Zhuo, who runs away to Chang'an and burns down Luoyang. He thinks he is safe there but Lu Bu betrays him and murders him, which starts a long period of war where all the powerful characters of the story want to become the new emperor. I would like to talk more about this story, but I also don't want this episode to become too long. I wonder how many people who listen to this episode have already read the story or watched movies about it, and I hope you enjoyed listening to this episode. I will now move onto the vocabulary for this week. * Conflicts：冲突（复数） * Drama：戏剧；戏剧性事件 * Imagination：想象力，想像 * Classical：经典的 * Version：版本 * Chapters：章节（复数） * Rebellion：叛乱，反抗 * Warlord：军阀；战神 * Ruler：统治者，管理者 * Cruel：残酷的，残忍的 * Warrior：武士，勇士 * Unpredictable：无法预测的，不定的 * Betray：背叛，出卖 * Oppress：压迫，欺压 * Burn down：用火烧毁 * Murder：谋杀，凶杀 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello everyone and welcome to episode 20 of Weekend English club. Last week's episode was about Journey to the West and today I want to talk a bit more about one of the famous characters from that story, Sun Wukong the Monkey King. Sun Wukong is a fascinating character from the novel Journey to the West who, according to the story, was born from a magic stone on Flower Fruit Mountain. The stone received the power to create life and one day produces an egg. From this egg, Sun Wukong is born. He meets a group of wild monkeys and they show him a waterfall. They tell him that whoever can go through the waterfall to find the source of the water and come back will be their king. He does this and the monkeys make him their king, which is why Sun Wukong is called the Monkey King. After one of his monkey friends dies, he decides to go look for a way to become immortal and starts a great journey. Somewhere during this journey he also gets his famous weapon, a staff which he can shrink down to a very small size and keep in his ear, or expand to become very large. The staff was originally a pillar from the palace of the Dragon King of the East Sea, but Sun Wukong was able to take it for himself and use it as a weapon, even though it is said to weigh almost 8000 kilograms. For the Monkey King, this is no problem. The Dragon kings were afraid of him and gave him a suit of golden armor as a gift, which is why you will always see him wearing this. During his travels he even meets the famous Laozi, and after eating Laozi's pills of immortality Sun Wukong reaches his goal of becoming immortal. Sun Wukong gained many powers during his life. For example, he has a body as hard as steel and can see very far into the distance. He can also pluck hairs from his body and blow on them to turn them into anything he wants, and in fights he sometimes turns his hairs into copies of himself to help him. He himself can also turn into anything he wants, but his one weakness is that he cannot fight well underwater. Despite this, he is definitely the most powerful character of Journey to the West, and I think he is a really fascinating monkey. * Fascinating：极有吸引力的 * according to：据...所说；根据 * Wild：野生的 * Whoever：任何人，无论谁 * Immortal：不死的，永存的 * Weapon：武器 * Shrink down ：缩小；变小 * Expand：扩大 * Palace：王宫，宫殿 * Armor：盔甲 * Immortality：不朽；不灭 * Steel：钢，钢铁 * Pluck：拔（毛发），扯 * Weakness：弱点 * Despite ：尽管，即使 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家周末好！相信很多人都听说了最近大热的游戏 <黑神话·悟空>，我们也想借此机会用英文来聊聊大家耳熟能详的《西游记》，而在下一期将专门用来讲孙悟空。 Hello everyone and welcome to another episode of Weekend English Club. Today I want to talk about a very famous Chinese story which I’m sure you all know. In English it is called Journey to the West, and in Chinese 西游记. This novel was published more than 500 years ago during the Ming dynasty and is still one of the most famous pieces of literature of East Asia. The novel is actually based on a real story, that of the journey of a Chinese Buddhist monk to India in the 7th century. His name was Xuanzang, a monk from the Jingtu temple in Xi'an and he went to India to look for Buddhist writings to bring back to China. He travelled through India for 13 years before returning to China with much new knowledge and recorded the story of his journey in his own book. Journey to the West takes his story and adds a lot of fantasy elements to it. The Buddha gives the monk the task to go to India and to help him he receives three companions for protection: Sun Wukong the Monkey King, Zhu Bajie and Sha Wujing. They ride a White Dragon Horse to travel to India and have to work together to succeed on their journey. The novel is strongly influenced by Chinese mythology, Buddhism, Confucianism and Daoism, and this tells you a lot about which ideas were popular back when the book was written. I think it is a great adventure story with interesting characters and it is still very popular. I once watched a Hong Kong movie from 1995 called A Chinese Odyssey which is also based on the story of Journey to the West, and just last month a new video game was published about the Monkey King Sun Wukong. Next week I will talk about him a bit more. * Novel：小说 * Publish：出版，发行 * Pieces：片，块，段；作品（复数） * Literature：文学，文学作品 * Buddhist monk：佛教僧侣 * India：印度 * Bring back：带回 * Record：记录 * Fantasy：幻想，想象 * Elements：要素，元素（复数） * Companions：同伴（复数） * Succeed：成功，达成 * Mythology： 神话 * Adventure：冒险，奇遇 * Characters：人物角色（复数） 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好！上周我们讲了西班牙的巴塞罗那，那这周我们将来具体讲讲巴塞罗那最著名的景点之一 -- 圣家堂。 Last week I talked about Barcelona, the largest city of Catalonia in Spain. Today I want to tell you a bit more about the Sagrada Familia, the most famous church of Barcelona which is still being built. It is a very beautiful building, so if you want you can look up a picture of the Sagrada Familia online to know what I mean. Construction of the church started in 1882 and the current design was an idea of the architect Gaudi. He had his own unique style and combined two architectural styles, known as Gothic and Art Nouveau. He dedicated his whole life to the project, but he died in 1926 when less than a quarter of the project was finished. The construction depended on donations so it progressed slowly, and in the 1930's Spain was in a civil war, which was also a significant interruption for the construction. In the 1950's construction continued and thanks to computers it is now easier to make faster progress. The church should be finished in 2026, exactly 100 years after Gaudi's death. Although the church is not yet finished you can already visit, and the entrance fee is used to pay for the construction of the church. I think it is really worth it to go there and visit the church, because I have seen many churches in my life but the Sagrada Familia is really one of the most impressive ones I have ever seen. The decorations of the walls outside are very detailed and beautiful, and when you go inside the shapes of the pillars, ceiling and windows of the church are really impressive. Because of the shape of the pillars inside it almost feels like you are looking at a forest made of stone when you look up, and the windows are made of colored stained glass, so the sun shining through the windows creates beautiful light in different colors. It feels very magical, and I hope I can see it again sometime. It is a very popular place to visit though, so if you go there you should buy your entry tickets one or two weeks before you plan to go there so they are not sold out. When I am on vacation I like visiting these kinds of buildings because they are very relaxing and the feeling when you are inside is very special. I always think it is very impressive that people can come up with these kinds of ideas and build something like this. * Online: 在网上；网上的 * Combine: 结合，组合 * Dedicate：致力于，献身于 * Less than：少于...；不到... * Quarter：四分之一；一刻钟；季度 * Donations：捐赠（复数） * Progress：进步，进展 * Civil war：内战 * Interruption：暂停；打断；中断期 * Thanks to：由于；因为 * Although：虽然，尽管 * Pillars：柱子 * Ceiling：天花板 * Magical：魔法的；神奇的 * Sold out：售罄 * Come up with：想出，提出（指产生想法、计划、解决方案等） 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好！我们放假回来继续做播客了，这一期我们来讲一下巴塞罗那，也是我们假期里去旅行的一个城市。 Hello and welcome to another episode of Weekend English Club. I just finished a long vacation and I am now back to make more episodes for the podcast. Today I want to talk about a city I visited during my vacation called Barcelona. I thought it was a very beautiful and impressive place. Barcelona is a city on the northeastern coast of Spain. It is the capital and largest city of a region called Catalonia, with a population of around 1.6 million people. Barcelona is a very famous city for tourists, because it has a very rich cultural history. The Spanish architect Antoni Gaudi had a large influence on the city, which is why it is such a beautiful city with many unique and famous buildings. The city has two universities and in 1992 the Olympics were held in Barcelona as well. It is one of the most visited places in the world, so during the summer it is very busy. More than 50 million people per year pass through the airport of Barcelona. The old medieval part of Barcelona is called the Gothic Quarter, and here you can see some beautiful medieval buildings like the Barcelona cathedral which was built 800 years ago. In this area is also a big market where you can find all kinds of fruit, seafood, spices and famous Spanish meat. Spain is famous for high quality pork meat, so if you are there it is definitely worth visiting the market for meat. As I mentioned before, the architect Antoni Gaudi designed many famous buildings in Barcelona. The most famous of these by far is a cathedral called the Sagrada Familia, which has been under construction since 1882 and is still not finished. They expect to finish building it in 2026, but you can already visit it. I think it is one of the most beautiful buildings in the world, and it has become a symbol of Barcelona. The style is different from any other buildings I know, but I can talk more about that another time. * Vacation：假期 * Barcelona：巴塞罗那 * Northeastern coast: 东北海岸 * Spanish：西班牙的 * Architect：建筑师；设计师 * Influence：影响，作用 * The Olympics：奥运会 * Pass through：经过；通行 * Medieval：中世纪的 * Cathedral：大教堂 * Spain：西班牙 * Definitely：肯定地。当然 * Construction：建筑，建造 * Already：已经 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan

Hello 大家好，新的一期 Weekend English Club 更新了。这一期我们来聊聊位于欧洲的 The Alps 阿尔卑斯山脉。相信大家对于阿尔卑斯山的名字都不陌生，那对于背后的历史文化大家又了解多少呢？ 八月份接下来的几周我们都不会更新，因为我们要去放一个小小的暑假！下一次更新会在九月份。Hope you enjoy the summer :) Hello and welcome to the 16th episode of Weekend English Club. Today I will talk about the Alps, a mountain range in the north of Italy. The Alps are some of the most famous mountains in Europe, and I think they have a very interesting history and culture. They are most famous for their relationship to Italy, but they actually touch a few other countries as well, including France, Monaco, Switzerland, Liechtenstein, Germany, Austria and Slovenia. The tallest peak of the Alps is the Mont Blanc, a beautiful mountain on the French-Italian border. The Alps are the natural border of northern Italy, and they have always defended Italy from outside enemies. The ancient Roman Empire also relied on the mountains to protect them, and one of the most famous people to cross the mountains into Italy was general Hannibal. He was a great general who managed to cross the Alps with a large army and elephants which he used for war, more than 2000 years ago. He almost defeated the Roman Empire and because of this became one of the most famous generals in European history. The Alps are very large, so crossing them on foot is very difficult. In the year 1800 the French general Napoleon also managed to cross the Alps into Italy with 40.000 men, just like Hannibal once did, and Napoleon managed to then conquer most of Italy. The Alps became a famous subject for stories and art, and many mountain climbers were drawn to their natural beauty. There are a few places where you can cross the Alps on foot, and these were used for trade for a long time. This has always been difficult however, and in our modern times a few tunnels were built under the mountains to make traveling between countries much easier. The Alps have their own cultural traditions, and practices such as farming, cheese making and woodworking are still popular in the villages there. Nowadays tourism is also a big thing in the Alps, mostly for winter sports such as skiing. More than 120 million tourists per year visit the Alps, making it one of the most popular winter sports destinations in the world. * The Alps：阿尔卑斯山脉 * Relationship：关系 * Touch：接触，触及 * Defend：：防御 * Rely on：依靠；依赖 * Cross：穿越，横渡 * General：将军，上将 * Defeat：击败，战胜 * Be drawn to：被...所吸引 * A few：一些；几个 * Tunnels：隧道；地下道 * Destination：目的地 主播：Daniel 校对：nan_nan