Top Festivals In Europe
Carnival of Venice
Dates: 12 Feb, 2022—1 Mar, 2022
The Carnival of Venice, which began in 1979 as an effort to revive the culture of this city, is one of the best festivals featuring masks. Each year, almost 3,000,000 people attend this 20-day-long biggest festivals in Europe. There is a water parade, a grand ball with old and modern music, and a popularity contest for best mask design.
Glastonbury Festival
Dates: 22 Jun, 2022—26 Jun, 2022
Of all the famous European music festivals, the Glastonbury Festival has a special place. Held in Somerset, England, since the 1970s, the festival is a major part of the British culture. Major pop act performers are invited to perform and headline. The festival sees as much as 175,000 people in attendance and is the world's largest greenfield festival.
Tomorrowland
Dates: 22—24 Jul, 2022 & 29—31 Jul, 2022
For the music lovers, Tomorrowland is one of the largest electronic music festivals which takes place in Belgium. The festival is hosted at the town of Boom, Belgium. First organized in 2005, this festival has become an annual tradition which is visited by people from far and wide.
Sziget Festival
Dates: 10—15 Aug, 2022
The Sziget Festival is one of the best cultural festivals in Europe. Started in 1993 and hosted in an island of Budapest, this festival gives an amazing holiday, with around 400,000 fans from around 70 countries. The festival features the non-stop party and amazing live concerts.
Noah Wall recently celebrated his ninth birthday. The little boy from Cumbria, England, uses a wheelchair to get around. He's extremely smart and loves learning about the solar system. His life is pretty normal, which is astonishing considering doctors didn't even expect Noah to survive his birth.
His mom, Michelle Wall, was pregnant when tests revealed that her little one had spina bifida (脊椎裂). When they performed more tests, a scan of Noah's head showed a cyst (囊肿) that was destroying his brain.
Michelle and her husband Rob prayed for a wonder. On the day Noah was born, he let out a huge cry the moment he appeared to let his parents know that their little guy wasn't going down without a fight!
Scans showed that just 2 percent of Noah's brain had survived the cyst in his head. Seven weeks after birth, he received an operation to close the opening in his spine and place a shunt (分流管) in his head to lead fluid (积液) away from his brain. Yet Noah is not mentally disabled. In fact, he's impressively clever! At 9, he is physically active and dreams of becoming an astronaut someday.
"They told us he might not be able to speak, hear, eat, or anything," Michelle said. "But I see he can tell the time, read, do maths and love science. He can talk about the solar system. He has unbelievable dreams."
Noah has gone through 11 surgeries so far and there are many more to come, but he has already exceeded everyone's expectations — in every possible way!
"Every single day he does something that impresses me," Michelle said. "I'm so extremely proud of him. I will help him all I can and always be there for him."
Noah! What a wonderful reminder of the importance of keeping hope alive.
In Colombia a group, named WebConserva, is carrying out a project in the San Lucas Mountains with the help of coffee growers.
The San Lucas area is one of the most unexplored places in Colombia, which is home to many thousands of species of animals and plants. Yet gold mining and coca farming have done much damage to its ecosystem. To limit additional development in the San Lucas area, the group helps coffee growers by linking them with processors(加工者) from around the country.
Colombia has more different kinds of living things than any other country except neighboring Brazil. In 2016, the Colombian government signed a peace deal with the Revolutionary Armed Forces of Colombia ending years of civil war. As a result, more land became accessible for use, with deforestation(毁林) coming along. Government information shows that in 2017, almost 220,000 hectares of forest were destroyed compared to around 124,000 hectares in 2015.
To date, the project includes 10 families who farm 400 hectares of coffee plants, which costs about $ 77,000 dollars a year. WebConserva hopes that, in time, 200 families will be included. At that level, 20,000 hectares of untouched forest could be protected. In San Lucas, the families promise not to cut down trees to expand their crops or to hunt wild animals from the forests. In return, they receive $ 250 to $ 300 per 125 kilograms of coffee, an enviable amount there. Arcadio Barajas is among those taking part. His new coffee farm makes a barrier(屏障) between cattle farms and forests where wild animals like the jaguar live and hunt. In this way, he doesn't have to kill wild animals to protect his cattle.
Barajas said that pulling down the forest to plant coca and killing wildlife were against his will. Now he feels that growing coffee lets him be a steward of the land. "I'm taking care of the environment, the forest and the animals," he said.
Music is not just a set of sounds and rhythms. Its influence on the brain is much deeper than any other human experience. Keep on reading to know all those amazing powers of music.
A recent study suggests that preterm (早产的) babies appear to experience less pain and feed more when listening to music. Experts led by Dr. Manoj Kumar of the University of Alberta, Canada, found that music had a beneficial effect on reducing pain for preterm babies experiencing painful medical tests. It also appeared to benefit full-term babies during operations.
Many people experiencing brain damage have speech and movement-related problems. Music can help recover from brain injuries. As a different and effective treatment, doctors often advise such patients to listen to good music to improve the parts of the brain responsible for these two functions. When people with neurological (神经系统的) disorders hear a musical beat, it helps them to regain a balanced walk.
Though music cannot make deafness disappear, it really can stave off the loss of hearing. There was an experiment involving 163 people where 74 were musicians. Participants were asked to pass some listening tests. Musicians heard the sounds better than non-musicians, and this difference gets clearer with age. This means that a 70-year-old musician hears better than a 50-year-old non-musician, even in a noisy environment.
Besides, music mends a broken heart. It is not about a thrown-away love, but about a heart attack. The matter is that music can help people recover from a heart attack or heart operation by reducing blood pressure, slowing down the heartbeat rate, and reducing anxiety. Listening to the quality music produces positive emotions, improves the movement of blood, and expands blood vessels, thus, promoting quick recovery of the whole cardiovascular (心血管的) system.
When someone you care about has suffered a serious health event or is dealing with a life-threatening illness, it can be difficult to know what to say or do. How can you best offer your support? These tips can help:
Offer your support. Your friend or loved one may be unwilling to ask for help, but it's support from people like you that can make all the difference in their recovery. Offer to help with a specific task, even if it's simply to sit with them during or after treatment.
Listen. When you talk to someone with a serious illness, it's natural to feel awkward or not know what to say. Allow them to express what they're going through without judging them.
The more you know about your loved one's diagnosis (诊断) and treatment, the better prepared you'll be to help. But that doesn't mean you should tell the person what they should or shouldn't do, unless they specifically ask for your opinion or want to know what you've researched. Treatment decisions are finally always up to your loved one, so be supportive even if you don't always agree.
Stay connected. You can't just provide support at the time of diagnosis and then let your attention go. Your support can be just as important after treatment as it is before.
A. Encourage your loved one to keep calm.
B. Some illnesses can involve long-term treatment.
C. But often what really counts is to listen to the person.
D. Educate yourself about the illness but don't give advice.
E. All you need to do is to present your determined attitude.
F. Your loved one is likely to experience some painful feelings.
G. Sometimes, the most important thing you can do is to be there.
Once upon a time, there lived an ant and a grasshopper(蟋蟀)in a grass field by a river. The ant would work hard all day long from dawn to dusk 1 the grain. On the other hand, the grasshopper would spend all his time singing and dancing. He would 2 call the ant to join him in singing, dancing and making merry at the present time. However, the ant would 3 him and continue with her work.
Soon summer 4 to autumn and autumn to winter. It became freezing cold outside due to snowfall and the sun was barely seen and the nights were 5 and dark. Out of cold
the grasshopper lost his 6 in singing and making merry. He was cold and hungry and had no 7 to take shelter from the snow outside. He wondered how to save himself from this 8situation.
Suddenly he remembered about the ant and decided to 9 her for some food and shelter. Off he went to her place and knocked at her door for 10. When she opened the door, the grasshopper offered to sing for her 11 for some food and shelter.
To this, the ant replied that she had worked hard in summer to save enough 12 for winter and the grasshopper had laughed at her then. She gently asked him to sing somewhere else and 13 his food and shelter. It is then, the grasshopper realised that he should have 14 enough for the winter instead of wasting his time being 15 during summer in singing and dancing around.
Learning Chinese calligraphy (list) as one of the must-do things when I came to China. Now, I'm in the course of learning this unique art, value is considered very high in China, even across East Asia today. It is not only ancient artistic form of human language, but it also reflects Chinese traditions.
As someone who paints, draws, and loves all (create) things, at first, I assumed I would be rather good at Chinese calligraphy. I was (total) wrong. Using thick brush tips to produce awkward brush strokes (笔画) (be) very difficult for a beginner. I have no idea about the different types of calligraphy and the meanings (hide) behind each one. Also, I have to hold the paintbrush in a very specific way; (like) a pen or pencil, the paintbrush is held upright in the hand. I need to be extra careful when changing the angle or (direct) of the brush, especially if I press too hard on the paper.
After taking the lesson, I now understand the difficulty of calligraphy and that it will take efforts and commitment (master) this art form. Yet, I am grateful to learn such a special Chinese tradition.
The Belfast, Maine of my youth was not the coastal tourist village that it is today. At the time, McDonald's hadn't yet moved into town. Before the supermarket existed, Cottle's, a food market where Mr. Proulx worked as the manager, was the only place where my mother could do her once-a-week shopping. Because we lived a few miles from Belfast, we'd usually combine the grocery trip with a visit to see my grandmother who always had cookies ready for us.
On one particular shopping day at Cottle's, I stood behind my mother as she was unloading the grocery cart (购物车) and checking her items out at the register. The candy that displayed on either side of me were full of Life Savers, Clark Bars, Sugar Babies — you name it!
"Can I get some candies?" I asked. My mother rarely veered (转向) from her list so I wasn't surprised with her response "No." But I really wanted that candy!
I reached for a Sugar Baby package. My mother didn't notice. So I thought she probably wouldn't notice if I put them into my pocket. No one noticed my action — not my mother, not the cashier — no one! I did it! Wow! My very first shoplifting experience! How easy! How rewarding! Got my candy and didn't need one penny to get it!
I sat in the back seat as my mother drove across the bridge to where my grandmother lived. Slowly, so as not to make any unnecessary noise, I opened my prize and carefully slipped a Sugar Baby into my mouth. No one piece of candy ever tasted so good!
Finally we pulled into my grandmother's driveway. As I prepared to open my car door, I confidently slipped a few more Sugar Babies into my mouth.
"Keith, what have you got in your mouth?" I looked up at the rearview mirror (后视镜) and could see my mother's eyes staring back at me. "I asked you a question! What have you got in your mouth?"
注意：
1）续写词数应为150左右；
2）请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
"Uhhh ... just some Sugar Babies," I replied, still not skilled in telling lies.
……
After pulling into Cottle's parking lot, my mother took me into the store.
Li Hua
