British writer

The casting thing is settled.

Lu Shi distributed the script and then said: "Everyone, tomorrow you will take the train to Cambridge and then settle in Harvard University."

Li Dai and Zhou Zhou couldn't help but look at each other.

Their two little hearts swelled up like balloons that were constantly being inflated.

excited,

pleasure,

eager,

…

All kinds of positive emotions.

Li Jie asked: "Mr. Lu, are we going to Harvard tomorrow?"

Lu Shi nodded,

"Yes. I have contacted two excellent theater troupes. They have to adapt to the venue first and make various props and scenery. I believe you also have this need. It doesn't matter, I am not pressed for time, you can just do your best. "

Li Jie was immediately under great pressure.

He already knew that Lu Shi was not living in the United States, but was visiting the United States as a visiting scholar.

In other words, Lu Shi will have to return to the UK after a while.

So choreographing "The Upside Down" was a time-limited mission.

Li Jie pondered for a moment,

"We... we may not be able to do it."

As soon as he finished speaking, his daughter immediately glared at her.

Li Dai's eyes were like daggers, staring at her father, as if she wanted to take out the soul full of crime from his eyes and cleanse them.

Li Jie was speechless and lowered his voice.

"Girl, what are you doing?"

The words were spoken in dialect, and even Lu Shi could not hear them clearly.

Li Dai said: "We can do it!"

This sentence is in English,

Yes, we can!

Elliot couldn't help but laugh and joked: "The lady's spoken language is very authentic."

The words were spoken a bit too fast, and Li Dai couldn't understand them and couldn't help but blush.

Seeing this, Li Jie could only sigh,

He is mature and prudent, and his thoughts are more complex than his daughter's.

There is no doubt that Lu Shi is a person of high status. If the Jie Li Circus ruins Lu Shi's big event, it will be very bad.

The so-called "meeting an old friend in a foreign land\

,"In a foreign country, Li Jie didn't want to cause trouble to such an outstanding fellow countryman.

Li Dai thought simply,

She wants to act!

That's the reason.

Lu Shi said: "It seems there is no problem. Then, let's leave first and see you at Harvard University tomorrow."

After saying that, he, Eliot, and Wodehouse left first.

He wanted to send a telegram to London first to report on the global university rankings. Because the Ivy League showed up in advance, the rankings were now basically certain.

Looking at Lu Shi's back, Zhou Zhou muttered: "He's really handsome."

Li Dai gave her a blank look,

"Have it?"

Zhou Zhou's eyes widened in surprise,

"Don't you think so?"

Li Dai tilted her head and thought about it, then said, "Is there any?"

Still these two words.

Because she was all focused on the drama, she didn't even observe Lu Shi carefully.

She only remembered that he was a well-dressed and elegant young man. As for his appearance, she vaguely remembered his outline, which seemed to be indeed handsome.

Zhou Zhou sighed,

"Xiaodai, you are such a little idiot."

Li Dai rolled her eyes even more and complained: "Can't you just focus on the script?"

At this time, Li Jie interrupted,

"To be honest, it would be great if you could marry that Mr. Lu and be his concubine. However, he looks like he is short of middle-income people. Maybe he can become the first wife. Alas... forget it, forget it. This is America."

Li Dai felt that her friend and father were a little crazy.

She spread the script,

"This is still important."

Li Jie was actually joking,

He knew very well that what a cultured person like Lu Shi despised most was actors like them.

The aunt and wife are all in trouble, and the main wife is naturally a fool.

Li Jie said: "Yes, you should really read the script carefully."

Li Dai nodded,

"Then I'll go back to my room...um...there's no performance today?"

Li Jie shook his head,

"No. No matter how many tickets you sell, you won't make as much as performing at Harvard University. $100...sigh...let's just study that with all our strength."

Li Dai didn't say much about this.

She knew how difficult it was to support a circus, so she didn't blame her father for falling into the eyes of money.

"I will try my best," she said.

After saying that, he walked straight out of the backstage, returned to the room, and then began to study the script.

However,

The ideal is very full,

The truth is stark.

When she turned to the first page of the script, the girl was a little confused.

There are so many unknown words!

Coming, tonight, Saturday, gonna...

Li Dai:? ? ?

Seriously underestimated the difficulty of this script.

She hesitated for a moment, but finally gritted her teeth, ran out to find her father, and asked, "Dad, can you read this sentence?"

Li Jie took one look and said, "You are ignorant and incompetent."

Li Dai was dissatisfied.

"You can?"

Li Jie nodded,

"Of course I can! We say this almost every time we perform."

As he spoke, he cleared his throat,

"

'Thank you all for coming to see us tonight. It's Saturday night! We think you're gonna have a great time tonight.'

"

These words indeed sound familiar,

Li Dai was stunned.

"Ah, I know, that's what we'll say when we open on Saturday!"

Li Jie smiled,

"Yes, the meaning of this sentence is very simple, 'Thank you all for your visit. Tonight is Saturday night. I hope everyone has a great time tonight!' Do you understand?"

Li Dai looked at her father with admiration in her eyes.

Li Jie couldn't help but laugh, thinking that it was rare for him to be so useful.

He said: "If you don't understand anything, keep asking me."

Li Dai pointed to the second sentence,

"Where's the back?"

Li Jie narrowed his eyes and muttered something.

Then,

"I need to pee."

Li Dai:? ? ?

Urine escape! ?

Li Jie waved and left quickly.

Looking at her father's back, Li Dai had no choice but to find a dictionary, and then read the script carefully.

Just like that, I don’t know how long it has been,

There was a knock on the door outside,

"Xiaodai, it's time for us to go."

Li Dai raised her head, feeling a little groggy, and asked, "Have you had dinner?"

"dinner!?"

Zhou Zhou opened the door with a bang and rushed in.

Seeing the dark circles under Li Dai's eyes, she couldn't help but be speechless and complained: "Don't tell me that you didn't sleep all night and missed two meals."

Li Dai looked at the sky outside,

"So, we're off to Harvard now."

Zhou Zhou nodded,

"Yes! But before that, you have to eat something to fill your stomach. Then get on the train, and then sleep well... No, it is impossible to expect you to sleep. You will definitely be unable to help yourself on the train. Look at the scenery outside."

Zhou Zhou forced Li Dai to stand up.

At this time, Li Dai had already seen the second scene, with writings and drawings on it,

Various lines, circles, and unknown words are all marked.

Zhou Zhou said: "What are you doing? Some lines are not yours, why do you still need to understand them?"

Li Dai yawned,

"What do you know!? Among those actors who perform Kun Opera and Peking Opera, who doesn't know the scripts by heart? The same must be true for Western dramas, otherwise you will never become an actor in your life."

Zhou Zhou said: "The American ghost is not called 'Jiao'er', but 'Xing'."

Li Dai corrected: "Actually, it's a 'star'."

The two of them were chatting while throwing various clothes into the suitcase.

Li Dai ate a small meal and followed the circus to the train station and boarded the train.

As a result, she did not look at the scenery at all along the way, but concentrated on studying the script. It was not until she was taken to Harvard University by carriage that she suddenly came back to her senses.

Unlike big cities like Boston, Cambridge has a very good environment.

The aroma of green grass is permeating, strong and fresh, like a clear spring, refreshing the heart and mind, making people relaxed, comfortable and peaceful.

Li Dai's fatigue from the whole night seemed to be taken away.

The clerk took them to the auditorium.

At this time, Lu Shi, Elliot, and Wodehouse were already waiting.

Lu Shi stepped forward,

"Everyone, this is the stage you want to perform on."

The stage on Harvard University is not comparable to the circus stage in terms of scale, but the facilities are better, and the thick wooden floor is expensive to build at first glance.

Elliot introduced: "You will spend the next period of time here."

He looked around,

"Okay, if you have any questions, you can ask them."

As soon as she finished speaking, Li Dai immediately raised her hand,

"have!"

Lu Shi was quite impressed by this little girl and said, "You are quite lively. If you have any questions, just tell me."

Li Dai immediately held up the script,

"I don't know a lot of words here."

Immediately afterwards, many people echoed the girl's words and raised their hands.

Lu Shi's head was so big,

He did not expect that when he taught acting in London, he was method or experiential, but when he came to the United States, he had to teach pronunciation.

This is the transformation from a performance teacher to a Chinese teacher.

He waved to the other party,

"Give me the script."

Li Dai stepped forward, opened the script, and handed it over.

Lu Shi took one look and immediately got a headache.

"so much!?"

Li Dai couldn't help but blush, lowered her head,

"hold head high."

The sound is weak.

Lu Shi ran out of tricks, so he took a pen and paper and wrote words and phonetic symbols beside him.

Elliot came over curiously,

"Professor Lu, I didn't expect you to know such a trendy thing."

"Trendy?"

Lu Shi was stunned for a while, and then realized that the other person was talking about phonetic symbols.

The International Phonetic Alphabet was established by the Western linguistics community in response to the disorder of the language phonetic notation scheme at that time, which was detrimental to research and teaching. The "Phonetic Teachers Association" was established in London, England by language teachers from some schools.

They jointly discussed and formulated a set of international phonetic alphabet plans.

This plan was completed in 1888 and published in the association's journal "Phonetic Teacher".

This is the first international phonetic alphabet in history.

After that, the association gradually developed, and phonetics teachers from various countries joined the association. In 1897, the association was renamed the International Phonetic Association.

Lu Shi couldn't help but laugh,

“In China, there is a saying that ‘sharpening your sword will never stop chopping firewood’.”

It is not difficult to understand this literally.

Elliot nodded,

"You mean, after learning the phonetic symbols, and then learning the Chinese language, you can get twice the result with half the effort."

In this regard, Lu Shi held a positive attitude,

"Of course, if you master phonics, there will be no problem for daily use of English. But if you want to read and spell without any obstacles, phonetic symbols are very important."

Lu Shi thought for a while and gave an example: "If you haven't learned phonetic symbols, you will make a lot of stupid mistakes in the initial stage of vocabulary accumulation."

He wrote down three incorrect spellings on a piece of paper,

angry,

hungry,

angele,

…

"puff!"

Elliot couldn't help but chuckle when he saw the three mistakes.

Then he said, "Is this possible?"

Lu Shi said: "Mr. President, you are an American and were born in an English-speaking environment. The possibility of making mistakes is low. But what if you are a foreigner? Now that we are going to rank global universities, we have to consider the feelings of international students, right?"

Elliot was lost in thought and made no comment.

Lu Shi continued: "After learning phonetic symbols, it is impossible to make such mistakes. Because you will naturally take the initiative to 'spell' first instead of directly 'spelling'. The former focuses on pronunciation and can avoid many mistakes."

Eliot is still thinking,

a long time,

"Go on."

He nodded to the pen and paper in Lu Shi's hand, signaling Lu Shi to continue teaching Li Dai vocabulary.

Lu Shi didn't think much and started writing quickly.

After a while, Elliot suddenly patted him on the shoulder,

"Some Problems."

Lu Shi said "Huh?"

"how?"

Eliot pointed to a tone symbol and asked, "Professor Lu, what is this?"

Lu Shi's pen froze.

There are only 8 tonal symbols specified in the International Phonetic Alphabet, which is not enough for studying and describing tonal languages.

Later, the Chinese linguist Zhao Yuanren proposed the Latin alphabet for tones, making it applicable to all tonal languages, and was later adopted by most international scholars.

Those additions by Zhao Yuanren were published in "Voice Teacher" in 1930.

It’s only 1901.

"Gu..."

Lu Shi swallowed and explained stumblingly.

Elliot nodded,

"So, what about this?"

He also pointed out a symbol that is not in the current International Phonetic Alphabet.

Lu Shi scratched his head and said, "Half-open central unrounded vowels."

Elliot was puzzled;

"It is also a non-rounded vowel that has no corresponding rounded vowel. Why is "" located on the left side of the line, while "" and "" are located on the line? "

Lu Shi: "Hiss..."

Completely embarrassed.

He didn't expect that the other party would ask such in-depth questions.

I am just a translator. I know how to use phonetic symbols, but I know nothing about the history of phonetic symbols.

Lu Shi asked: "Mr. Principal, aren't you a chemistry student? How come you know so much?"

Eliot spread his hands and said: "I still know mathematics~ Besides, I am a 'famous American educator', shouldn't I know something about linguistics? Also, wasn't the ",,," pattern eliminated in 1889? ? Why are you using it again? "

What else could Lu Shi say?

He could only say: "It's convenient to use this way. Phonetic symbols are educational tools. Of course they are made as convenient as possible."

Elliot looked at the landing,

After a while, he said: "Professor Lu, no wonder you can switch freely between British pronunciation and American pronunciation. It turns out that you have your own set of phonetic symbols. Now it seems that you alone are more powerful than the entire Phonetics Teachers Association." sharp."

Lu Shi:

"Ah this..."

I dare not say more.

Eliot picked up the piece of paper, studied it carefully for a moment, and suddenly said: "Professor Lu, you should know about the dispute between Newton and Leibniz, right?"

Priority disputes are very common in the history of science, and the Newton-Leibniz dispute is one of the most well-known cases of priority disputes in the history of science.

The two published papers on mathematical analysis, involving calculus, almost simultaneously.

However, because Leibniz also gave a set of symbolic expressions when he proposed calculus, he had the upper hand. As a result, everyone in the world used Leibniz's set of mathematical symbols when using integrals.

Lu Shi was stunned,

"Mr. Principal, what do you mean?"

Elliot folded the piece of paper and stuffed it into his front pocket, and then said, "I think your set of phonetic symbols, Professor Lu, is very good."

Lu Shi:? ? ?

"what do you mean?"

Elliot chuckled,

"Don't worry, we at Harvard University will endorse Professor Lu, and the Voice Teachers Association will not do anything to you."

As he spoke, he took a deep breath,

"I didn't expect that Professor Lu is really an all-rounder. Who would have thought that he could be a novelist, poet, playwright, historian, popular science writer, educator, and also a linguist? Haha... ...hehehe..."

Elliot walked slowly toward the door.

Seeing his back, Li Dai was confused.

What's going on here?

What are those strange witchcraft symbols that Professor Lu just wrote about?

Why did the old American man feel like he had found a treasure after taking those witchcraft symbols, and he laughed strangely?

Weird thoughts appeared in the girl's mind.

I heard that there are witchcraft and shamans in the western United States. Could it be that Professor Lu cast a spell on those Americans to make them respect him so much?

Li Dai's eyes changed when she looked at Lu Shi.