Warm weather gets thousands of people to gather outdoors and celebrate for various events. Here are a few fun festivals that you should travel to see this summer.
Naadam (Ulaanbaatar, Mongolia)
Naadam, also known as "the three games of men", is the biggest traditional festival held in Ulaabaatar, the capital of Mongolia. Each July, men compete in Mongolian wrestling, horse racing and archery. Today, women also take part in the archery and girls in the horse racing.
Elvis Week (Memphis)
If moving your body to Blue Suede Shoes this summer sounds good to you, then head to Memphis for Elvis Week, usually held in August. Movies, special performances and the Ultimate Elvis Tribute Artist Contest are just a few activities to keep fans busy. The week of scheduled events is held to mark the anniversary of the death of Elvis Presley, the "King of Rock and Roll".
Glastonbury Festival (Somerset, England)
Hundreds of thousands of people gather on a diary farm in Somerset, England every year for Glastonbury Festival. Famous bands and singers appear at the 5-day music celebration. Admission to the festival was £1 when the festival started in 1970, but in 2019, full-weekend general admission tickets went for £248.
World Body painting Festival (Klagenfurt, Austria)
During the annual World Body painting Festival in Austria, artists from more than 40 countries compete using a variety of techniques, including brushes, sponges and airbrushes. Alex Barendregt created the festival in 1998, when he was tasked with organizing a new summer event.
That cold January night, I was growing sick of my life in San Francisco. There I was, walking home at one in the morning after a tiring practice at the theater. With opening night only a week away, I was still learning my lines. I was having trouble dealing with my part-time job at the bank and my acting at night at the same time. As I walked, I thought seriously about giving up both acting and San Francisco. City life had become too much for me.
As I walked down empty streets under tall buildings, I felt very small and cold. I began running, both to keep warm and to keep away any possible robbers. Very few people were still out except a few sad-looking homeless people under blankets.
About a block from my apartment, I heard behind me. I turned quickly, half expecting to see someone with a knife or a gun. The street was empty. All I saw was a shining streetlight. Still, the noise had made me nervous, so I started to run faster. Not until I reached my apartment building and unlocked the door did I realize what the noise had been. It had been my wallet falling to the sidewalk.
Suddenly I wasn't cold or tired anymore. I ran out of the door and back to where I'd heard the noise. Although I searched the sidewalk anxiously for fifteen minutes, my wallet was nowhere to be found.
Just as I was about to give up the search, I heard the garbage truck pull up to the sidewalk next to me. When a voice called from the inside, "Alisa Camacho?" I thought I was dreaming. How could this man know my name? The door opened, and out jumped a small red-haired man with an amused look in his eyes. "Is this what you're looking for?" he asked, holding up a small square shape.
It was nearly 3 a.m. by the time I got into bed. I wouldn't get much sleep that night, but I had got my wallet back. I also had got back some enjoyment of city life. I realized that the city couldn't be a bad place as long as people were willing to help each other.
If you ever visit an English village, make sure to look out for morris dancing. Undoubtedly one of the strangest traditions of English culture, morris dancing is a form of folk dancing that dates back to the 15th century. If you ever get the opportunity, you really have to see it.
Men and women wearing old-fashioned, shabby（破烂的）clothing dance in the streets of towns and villages across the country during the holiday periods. Women wear long skirts and men wear short trousers with bells attached to them. They dance to traditional folk music which is often played on traditional musical instruments.
Some groups carry heavy black sticks with which they beat against each other while they dance. Other groups wave handkerchiefs in the air while they perform. The dances are usually performed near a pub so that when they're over, the dancers and audience can sing some traditional folk songs over beer. The celebrations will often continue long into the night.
Morris dancing is a great English tradition but it's facing a big crisis. As the years go by, fewer and fewer young people are joining morris dancing groups. The dancers are getting older and older and eventually, if not protected, the tradition will die out within the next few decades.
If you've ever had the fortune to see morris dancing, you may understand why teenagers aren't rushing to sign up. Frankly, it's not exactly the coolest thing for an 18-year-old to do. Why dress up in bells and funny costumes when you could be going camping, playing sports or doing anything else?
However, it would be a great shame to lose such a fun and lively part of England's history and culture. So here's a toast to the next generation of would-be morris dancers! Let's hope they don't leave it too late.
What do you plan to do when you retire? Keep working? Get more exercise? Or learn something new? You may put them on hold. There's a chance that, sooner or later, you might have to move further than you were thinking, as far as Mars.
On Thursday, National Geographic will show the first-ever Mars show home, giving earthlings（地球人）an idea of what their life could look like on the Red Planet. In the not-so-distant year of 2037, the igloo-shaped structure could be the home of your future.
It shows a house built using recycled spacecraft parts and Martian soil, called regolith, which has been microwaved into bricks. Some parts of the home are recognizable — a kitchen, a bedroom — but there are fundamental differences that are important to human survival.
As the Martian atmosphere is around one hundredth as thick as the Earth's, people will need permanent（永久的）shelter from the sun; society will move largely indoors. Most buildings will be connected by underground passages and the houses won't have windows. The homes will have simulated solar lighting, or natural light that has been bent several times. Walls will need to be 10 to 12 feet thick, to protect people from dangerous rays（光线）that can pass through six feet of steel, and a double air-locked entrance to keep the home under proper pressure.
"We don't think of our houses as things that keep us alive, but on Mars your house will be a survival centre," says Stephen Petranek, author of How We'll Live on Mars. This is not just the stuff of sci-fi. "10 to 20 years from now there will certainly be people on Mars," Petranek says.
"We've had the technology for 30 years to land people on Mars, but we haven't had the will," Petranek says. But two main factors have "completely swung public attitudes".
The private companies' participation has forced government agencies to speed up their game, and influential films such as Gravity and The Martian have caught society's eye.
Everyone sleeps. However, taking time to develop a sleep habit is probably the last thing on your mind and some sleep advice simply can't be forgotten.
Watch TV until you fall asleep
It has nothing to do with what you watch — TV news isn't a better pre-sleep choice than TV series. The bright light keeps you awake all night. So even if you nod off (in front of the TV, for example), you probably won't stay asleep for long.
Sleep with pets
They get comfortable, and then they move. This goes on all night, and whether you admit it or not, it interrupts your ability to get the level of sleep needed to feel rested.
Eat fatty, heavy foods when it is too close to bedtime
Heartburn strike（侵袭）anyone of any age, but it's the most common GI disorder（胃肠失调）in older adults. If you've ever tried to go to sleep after eating a fatty meal, you've probably found the discomfort of your stomach preventing you from falling asleep or staying asleep.
Remember how poorly you sleep when you have a fever — turning over and over again, never really feeling rested. Well, heavy exercise too close to bedtime has the same effect — it raises your body temperature so that your sleep is disturbed until your body temperature drops to normal, which may take several hours.
Accept snoring（打呼噜）as normal sleep behaviour
Snoring may seem as common as breathing, but it's considered the biggest sleep killer, and it's linked to several causes: sleeping on your back, being overweight, having a cold, drinking, or taking drugs. For the snorer, it disturbs sleep by awakening him/her every so often in order to breathe normally. For the partner, the noise can be unbearable.
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A. Lower your body temperature before bedtime. B. Here are some suggestions you'll need to follow. C. Rather it's the TV's bright light that is the criminal. D. Exercise heavily when it is too close to bedtime. E. Here are some bad habits you need to get rid of F. More seriously, it can be caused by a dangerous illness G. Pets sleep most of the day, and they move a lot when sleeping. |
Being jobless for the last three months, I am upset nowadays. My son has failed to be1into a good school and he might have to go a less qualified school. We have moved from a big apartment to a small one in order to2living expenses. On top of that, my father-in-law3a week ago, which has built up my wife's extra stress.
Facing these situations I have two mental4: either to feel upset and keep losing my peace of mind, or5my passive thoughts with super mental powers about self-confidence and positivity. I choose the second one because I believe that the pain I am suffering today will build up my6. My strengths will then increase my confidence and make me a(n)7man one day. I understand that good and bad times are part of8. While good times make me happy, bad times9the "inner" me.
Two months later,10, I have landed a high-paid job. Time has healed my wife's mental stress11the death of her father and my son has already been accepted by another good school.
As I am back on the track of normal life, I have the12to say that the most important thing was13attitude towards life. So, while I wish you all the best that life can14you, I would highly suggest taking the same attitude towards life in case you are15in any of such situations.
, he was rather unwilling to take part in your program.
It was Mother's Day and I was shopping at the local supermarket with my son who is five years old, Tenyson. As we were leaving after finishing our shopping, we realized that only minutes earlier an elderly woman had fallen over at the entrance and hit her head on the ground badly. Her husband was with her, but there was blood everywhere and the woman was embarrassed and clearly in shock. Fortunately, a lot of people stopped to help out.
While we were walking towards the scene, Tenyson became very worried about what had happened to the elderly couple. He said to me, "Mom, it's not much fun falling over in front of everyone." Seeing that there was a flower stall（摊位）at the front of the supermarket, he added, "Why shouldn't we buy the lady a flower? It will make her feel better." I was amazed that he'd come up with this sweet idea. So we went over and told the flower seller what we wanted. "Just take it," she replied. "I can't take your money for such a wonderful deed."
By now medical staff had arrived, and were looking after the injured woman. There we saw the old man was also in great horror, but he tried to comfort his wife and held her hands tightly to encourage her to be strong. We gave the flower to the woman's husband and I told him it was from my son. At that, the old man started crying and said, "Thank you very much." He then turned to me, "You have a wonderful son. Happy Mother's Day to you."
The man bent down and gave his wife the flower, telling her who it was from. Regardless of being badly hurt, the old lady looked up at Tenyson with love in her eyes and gave him a little smile. And my son went down his body to the injured lady and tenderly said, "Happy Mother's Day to you, too."
注意：
1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；
2）续写部分分为两段，每段的开关语已为你写好；
Paragraph 1:
After a moment, the elderly lady was taken into an ambulance.
Paragraph 2:
One year later,
