March, April and May are months full of festivals and events all over the world. Here are four wonderful festivals around the world that happen in spring. If you want to know more about them, please click here or visit //www.buddhanet.net/
SongKran—Thailand
Dates: 13th-15th, April
In Thailand, people celebrate a festival called SongKran, when people head out to the streets with water guns to spray everyone who walks past.
Naghol—Vanuatu
Dates: Every Saturday from April to May
Every year, villagers come together to celebrate the harvest of yams, an important part in the people's diet in Vanuatu. The festival is most famous for its "land diving ceremony". During the ceremony men and boys dive to the ground from high wooden towers with only two thin vines(藤) attached to their ankles.
Cherry Blossom Viewing—Japan
Dates: The cherry blossom season is different from year to year depending on the weather forecast.
The festival is well-known. Japanese celebrate the days when the flowers finally blossom. Only a few days later, the petals(花瓣) fall to the ground, like pink snowflakes. That means the traditional festival only lasts for several days. In Japan, almost everyone has picnics in the parks to view the flowers.
Sinhalese New Year—Sri Lanka
Dates: 13th or 14th, April
Just like in many other countries in South or South East Asia, this is the time when the Sinhalese celebrate the traditional New Year, an ancient celebration which marks the end of the harvest season and is one of two times of the year when the sun is straight above Sri Lanka. There are a lot of delicious foods during the celebration.
It can be a real struggle trying to learn a new language. I had always enjoyed learning languages in school, but only recently did I start learning German. I found that I could understand and learn individual words easiIy, but when it came to literature, I really struggled. That was when my tutor at university suggested reading some children's books printed in the target language.
At first, I felt a bit silly going on a hunt for a book designed for someone half my age, lout then I realised that everyone has to start somewhere. As children, we are given these basic texts to familiarise our brains with certain vocabulary and writing structures, and from there, we can learn and develop. I started with books which are taught to us as children in the UK.1 managed to find Oliver Twist by Charles Dickens and James and the Giant Peach by Roald Dahl.
The beauty of reading books that were introduced to you as a child is that you are already familiar with the plot. As a result, you can work out some of the definitions of words with your prior knowledge of the story. At first, I used to read with the book in one hand and a dictionary in the other, but this method did not work well for me. The method I would recommend is to read a chapter of your chosen children's book and at the end of that chapter, highlight the words you do not know and then look up the definitions. If you can wait a bit before you use a dictionary, you may be surprised what you can get merely from the context of the sentence in the story. Additionally, a lot of children's books have pictures which may give you a clue as to what or to whom the passage is referring.
"True friendship is like sound health. The value of it is seldom known until it is lost," Charles Caleb Colton said. Just like in any other relationship, arguments and fights are also part of friendship. You will hardly find friends who have never fought with one another. Whatever the reason is, if a person feels that he is responsible for causing the differences, it is important that he should apologize to his friend.
Though you can use the email, text messages or chat for expressing your apology, the good old way of saying sorry to your friend through a letter will surely have a great effect on him. This will make your friend realize that your efforts of saying sorry are genuine and that you really care about him.
Points to Remember:
Timing: Write the letter at the proper time. It is not advisable to put it off for too long.
Words: While you are writing the letter, what matters most is that you truly feel sorry.
Sequence: Always begin by apologizing and saying sorry for your mistake. Then explain to him your side of the story. In the third and last paragraph, talk about what his friendship means to you and make a promise of not repeating the mistake.
Delivery: You should either post the letter or deliver it personally or through someone else. You can also keep it at a location where your friend will be able to find it easily.
Some people may try to point out the friend's mistake while writing the letter. Avoid this completely, as it can make matters worse. The letter has to be brief and should only talk about the subject that has led to your apology. Keep patient and do not expect immediate results. In some cases, it may take time for the person to forgive and forget.
Are you a social media addict? Are you always checking your smart phone to see how many “likes” you've received for your latest post? Maybe you feel comforted by the sound that someone has sent you a message?
Don't worry, you're not alone. We check our phones an average of 150 times a day, and around 30% of the total time spent online is devoted to social media. Some experts now fear this habit could be damaging our mental health.
This is something particularly bothering young adults, according to a study from the University of Pittsburgh. It found the more they used social media, the more likely they were to be depressed(抑郁的，沮丧的). In tests, those people who checked social media frequently were 2.7 times more likely to be depressed compared to those who spent most of their time generally surfing the Internet, who had just 1.7 times the risk.
Some of us certainly feel sad when we're ignored on social media sites, or when we see someone else having a better time than us. But depression is a more serious condition and clinical psychologist, Abigael San, recently told the BBC that, “It's a real issue, and it's been getting significantly worse over the last 5-6 years. You can get so hooked that it takes you away from your real relationships.” However, Abigael does admit that social media is more likely to worsen pre-existing issues than directly cause them.
Other research by the University of Glasgow found that teenagers are affected by the 24-hour demands of their social media accounts. It found that those with higher levels of emotional investment in social media, and who use it at night,were more likely to feel depressed and anxious.
Despite these warning signs, why do some of us continue to keep clicking? Well, I suppose we all want to be liked and we don't want to miss out on a conversation that's taking place online. But we need to know when to switch off our virtual online world and connect with the real world instead.
Building the thinking habit is important because it helps you live with a purpose. How can we build the thinking habit? Here are some tips.
※ Be curious.
Curiosity is powerful. It also helps you recognize the ideas when they come. Curiosity is an important attitude to have in building the thinking habit.
※ Read widely.
If you want to come up with good ideas you need to feed your mind with good ideas.This will give you fresh, new ideas. Don't just read from the fields you are familiar with. Read from other fields as well.
※ Read actively.
Not only should you read widely, but also you should read actively. Find some ideas and think about how you can use them. My favorite way to do this is by highlighting the book I read. I will then put the actionable ideas in my idea journal.
※ Keep an idea journal.
When you find a good idea, don't just keep it in your mind. Instead, write it down to catch the idea. Keeping an idea journal makes you more alert to new ideas. You will quickly recognize them because you already have the habit of catching ideas.
※
Of course, it doesn't do you much good if you just write down ideas. Take time to read these ideas every now and then. In my case, I mark the ideas that I consider important and review them regularly. This often opens the way to new ideas.
A、Go over your ideas.
B、Design your own ideas.
C、One way to do that is to read.
D、It makes you like finding new ideas.
E、Otherwise, the idea might be gone forever.
F、This helps me get the most out of the book.
G、In this way, others ran also benefit from your ideas.
You've probably seen blind people walking with their gentle four-legged guides—or “seeing-eye” dogs. 1 what you probably didn't know is that about 80 years ago, a doctor and his patient discovered this entirely 2!
Many people were killed or injured during World War I. Near the end of that war, Dr. Gerhard Stalling and his 3 walked with a patient—a German soldier who had been 4 —around hospital grounds in Germany.
While they were walking, the doctor was called away. The dog and the soldier stayed outside. A few moments later, when the doctor returned, the dog and the soldier were 5! Searching the paths worriedly, Dr. Stalling made an astonishing 6. His pet had led the soldier 7 around the hospital grounds. And together the two walked peacefully back toward the doctor.
8 by what his dog could do, Dr. Stalling set up the first 9 in the world to train dogs as guides. Dorothy Eustis, an American woman 10 as a dog trainer for the International Red Cross in Switzerland, was 11 to study the way Stalling trained dogs and spent several months in his school. She came away so impressed that she wrote a(n) 12 about it for the Saturday Evening Post in America.
A blind American man, Morris Frank, 13 the article and he wrote to Dorothy and asked if she could train a dog for him. Dorothy took up the 14, and trained a dog, Buddy. She brought Frank over to Switzerland to join her in the training 15. Frank went back to the US with what many believe to be America's first guide dog in 1928.
Environment-friendly ideas have been created to supply people with helpful (tip) on how they can help the environment well as save money. I honestly believe that everyone wants to help the environment, even if they do or do not believe in（globe）warming.
With power bills, water bills and all other expenses (continue) to rise, it's very hard for the average worker. No matter what your financial position is, there is always something everyone can do (help) save our environment. We are not the only ones that live on this (amaze) planet. We also share it a wide range of strange and wonderful animals. It would be a great tragedy if they (be) not around for our future generations to enjoy. Every little bit helps, so please do all you can to protect our environment and the environment of these surprising animals.
I hope these environment-friendly ideas can help everyone to do (they) bit for the environment and to make this world a better place.
1）对发音的纠正；2）对内容的指导；3）感谢他送你的英文词典。
注意：1）词数80左右；
2）可以适当增加细节，以使行文连贯；
