Growing up in the UK you can’t avoid eating this very traditional meal made from sausages, mashed potato and onion gravy. In the popular imagination it was so important that Desperate Dan, a comic book character from my childhood, always finished each story with a large plate of Bangers & Mash.

By: Roy Hanney

Often eaten with peas or even baked beans this meal has to be a staple for food for the English. Even if your mother never cooked it certainly you would find this food on any cafe or pub menu. Where ever you eat it though, you need mustard preferably hot English mustard though the milder German or French will do at a push.

The term “bangers” apparently comes from before World War II and may even go as far back as 1919. It seems that back then there was a food shortage due to the war and sausages were made with water. Consequently, if you cooked them they were likely to explode like a firework. Thankfully modern sausages don’t do this.

In 1961 film stars Peter Sellers and Sophie Loren recorded a song praising this so British food singing “No wonder you’re so bony Joe, and skinny as a rake. Well then, give us a bash at the bangers and mash me mother used to make”. So how can you make this dish? Well its very simple and all you have to do is follow the instructions below. It’s also very cheap and takes around 20 minutes!

What you need:

• Sausages
• Potatoes
• Peas
• Onions
• Milk
• Butter
• Black Pepper
• Instant Gravy

What you need to do:

1. Peel and boil the potatoes, when they are soft mash them to a smooth paste adding milk, butter and black pepper.
2. Make up the instant gravy by adding boiling water to a few spoonfuls of gravy mix.
3. Fry the onions in a pan and add the sausages. Cook till brown and the onions are golden. Then pour over the gravy and let it simmer.
4. Boil a pan of water and add the peas. When they are cooked drain them and they are ready to serve.

Serve on a plate nice and hot and indulge in what can only be described as ‘comfort food’ and imagine you are back in Blighty (a nickname for England) eating in a local cafe, at home eating your mothers cooking or even better – at school eating in the canteen. The better the sausages the better the taste of the meal so try and get some good ones.

MMORPG is quite popular these days, It has its own charm that attracts more and more people to join MMORPG.     Liu Ziwei     121106124   Class 3

As the internet develops fast, more and more company pay more attention to online games, so more and more MMORPG(Massive Multiplayer Online Role-play Games) come into players’ sight. MMORPG is quite popular these days. In my opinion, almost every young people have the experience of playing MMORPG.

MMORPG, as the word says, it’s a game that lots of people can play it together online. Players earn money in the game to buy things they like and to kill monsters to improve the character’s skills and level they create in the game. MMORPG is more than a game, it’s more like an unreal life in the world of internet, people play and live in the world which the game has provided. And the company of the game will try their best to improve the quality of the pictures and game play in order to give the best experience to players and have more players so that they can earn more money.

MMORPG like WOW(World of Warcraft) and Blade and Soul are quite popular all over the world. And there are more than ten million people play it online in the same time. So I think that no young man will not want to have a try. You may ask “ how to play MMORPG?”, I can tell you that it’s quite easy. All you need is a not bad computer and a fast internet. First, you need to create your own character. Second, you need to read the windows tutorial and follow it to know the request of this game. And then you can begin enjoying this game. You’ll feel like living in an unreal world full of craft and magic. You need to improve your skills to beat enemies and work with your allies.

Why MMORPG so popular? The answer is quite easy to give, because young people want to have a different life. MMORPG provides players with a different life in different world. They can live, they can kill monsters, they can make friends with others, they can beat boss together with others. And they don’t need to worry about social position in the game because everyone in the game need to start from zero. The game give a chance to everyone to become a hero, to become a leader, to become a winner. That also satisfies a lot of people’s vanity. We live in a peace world, but MMORPG is always full of battle, so lots of people make their dream come true in the game like to command the battle between enemy side. Players even can marry in the game, play the game with your love online is quite good, isn’t it? That’s why MMORPG is so popular.

Play MMORPG don’t need a lot of money, you can enjoy the game freely so long as you like the game. You can live a different life in the world of internet and have lots of friends in the game and fight for your dream together in order to come to the top of the world of MMORPG or just for fun.

MMORPG is quite good for people to relax, why not download one and have a try. I believe you won’t regret to do so.

“Besides gardening and painting, I don’t know a thing”.——Monet

Lately there’s an art exhibition called “Master of Impression—Claude Monet” held in Shanghai, which contents most of Monet’s famous artworks like “Water Lilies”, “Wine of Bordeaux” and “House of Parliament” . Additionally some of  his collections and personal belongings are also on display.

By: Zhang Yao  110909221  Class 2

This art exhibition started at 8 March in K11 Art Space and it will last until 15 June. All the exhibits are provided by Marmottan Monet Museum, 52 paintings are divided into five themes, named as “Monet’s Friends”, “Monet’s Caricatures ”,  “Monet’s Voyage”, “Monet’s Garden”, “Monet’s Ultimate” based on a timeline of Monet’s life, displayed in two showrooms. The first showroom mainly includes his earlier works and landscape paintings, can be considered as a preparation for his Garden works. The second one mostly contains his later works created in Giverny when Monet reached the peak of his career, with flowers and water as the subjects. At the first weekend it has attracted more than 6,000 art lovers. The set decorator Margo thinks that Monet’s art has the power to make people slow down and feel it, approach it.

In the first part you can see some paintings from other impressionism masters. Like Eugene Boudin, Monet’s first teacher on oil painting, his “La Plage De Trouville” is on show. Also one of Renoir’s most famous paintings “Blonde Node” and some other portraits. These paintings used to be Monet’s private collections and also, serve as witness to his friendship. The second part is kind of interesting. People once knew Monet well for his caricatures, and the most famous one is “Wine of Bordeaux” showed on this exhibition. Additionally, Monet’s palette, pipe and glasses, all these personal belongings make this display area more meaningful. The third part, however, is consist of 14 landscape paintings created during his tour. This period plays an essential role in Monet’s painting career, he painted the same scene over and over in various lights and different times. In that, most of his paintings in this period are known to the world.

One part that really impressive in this exhibition is the series of water-lily and the Japanese bridge paintings created in Monet’s old age, his most depressed period. Monet spent the rest of his life at Giverny and his garden seems to bring a great inspiration. Especially the series of “The Japanese Bridge” on show. You can see him played with light and shade, changed canvas with the changes of light. So the cross of light and shade created flexible tone on these paintings. With the falling of eyesight, the use of color in Monet’s paintings are also getting deeper and bluer, leading to a unique style on his works.

The most interesting thing is,  people always can not recognize the motive of his bridge paintings immediately,  but after they look at the name and observe it again,people start to marvel at how amazing they are. Even you are familiar with artworks in some other way,  you may still experience a number of surprises and feel touched at the moment you facing them. So while the sun is shining,  while the spring breeze blowing,  it is time to find the beauty in Monet’s garden,  feel the art in your soul.