The best festivals in August
Edinburgh Festival Fringe
The Edinburgh Festival Fringe is the largest arts festival in the world. In 2018, the festival lasted 25 days, including 55, 000 performances of 3, 548 shows in 317 places. The festival started in 1947. For around three weeks in August, the city of Edinburgh welcomes a large number of artists and performers around the globe. Anyone can join in with the performance of their choice.
Wilderness Festival
Wilderness Festival takes place in one of the oldest woods in England. Taking place four days in nature, people will experience music, comedy, theatre, and dance from Sadler's Wells. All the campsites(野营地) are made to order for different needs, including family camping.
Notting Hill Carnival
Notting Hill Carnival takes place on the streets of Notting Hill in London, England in each August lasting over two days. Attracting around one million people each year, it's one of the biggest street festivals in the world. Happening since 1966, Notting Hill Carnival is an essential cultural experience in London.
La Tomatina
Each year, the Valencian town of Bunol gets changed into a red mess as locals and tourists take to the streets and throw tomatoes at each other, all for fun. This tomato festival has been happening since 1945 and is held on the last Wednesday of August each year.
Giant pandas (大熊猫) are no longer endangered, Chinese officials have said, decades of work to save the creatures helped drive their population in the wild up to 1, 800. The species will be listed as vulnerable (易危物种),Cui Shuhong, director of the Department of Natural Ecological Protection of the Ministry of Ecology and Environment, said at a press conference on Wednesday.
China has spent half a century attempting to boost the population of its famous animals, creating panda reserves across several mountain ranges in an effort to save them from extinction. They were taken off the endangered list by the International Union for Conservation of Nature (IUCN) in 2016.
Since the 1970s, Chinese officials have worked on a campaign to drive up their numbers. To prevent habitat loss, officials created specially designed nature reserves in areas where their main food source, bamboo, is plentiful. In 2017, China announced plans for a 10，476-square-mile reserve, which is three times the size of Yellowstone National Park.
"China has established a relatively complete nature reserves system," Cui said on Wednesday as he announced the move. "Large areas of natural ecosystems have been systematically and completely protected, and wildlife habitats have been effectively improved."
Pandas are known in China as an umbrella species, which means experts believe measures to protect them would help protect other species, as well as the larger ecosystem. Cui added that the populations of some other rare and endangered species are gradually recovering as well. "The number of species such as Siberian tigers, Amur leopards, and Asian elephants has increased significantly." he said.
Popularization has in some cases changed the original meaning of emotional (情感的) intelligence. Many people now misunderstand emotional intelligence as almost everything desirable in a person's makeup that cannot be measured by an IQ test, such as character, motivation, confidence, mental stability, optimism and "people skills". Research has shown that emotional skills may contribute to some of these qualities, but most of them move far beyond skill-based emotional intelligence.
We prefer to describe emotional intelligence as a specific set of skills that can be used for either good or bad purposes. The ability to accurately understand how others are feeling may be used by a doctor to find how best to help her patients, while a cheater might use it to control potential victims. Being emotionally intelligent does not necessarily make one a moral person.
Although popular beliefs regarding emotional intelligence run far ahead of what research can reasonably support, the overall effects of the publicity have been more beneficial than harmful. The most positive aspect of this popularization is a new and much needed emphasis (重视) on emotion by employers, educators and others interested in promoting social well-being. The popularization of emotional intelligence has helped both the public and researchers re-evaluate the functionality of emotions and how they serve people adaptively in everyday life.
Although the continuing popular appeal of emotional intelligence is desirable, we hope that such attention will excite a greater interest in the scientific and scholarly study of emotion. It is our hope that in coming decades, advances in science will offer new perspectives (视角) from which to study how people manage their lives. Emotional intelligence, with its focus on both head and heart, may serve to point us in the right direction.
University of Pennsylvania researchers say that for the first time they have linked social media use to increases in depression and loneliness. The idea that social media is anything but social when it comes to mental health has been talked about for years, but not many studies have managed to actually link the two. To do that, Penn researchers, led by psychologist Melissa Hunt, designed a study that focused on WeChat, Snapchat and Instagram.
The study was conducted with 143 participants, who before they began, completed a mood survey and sent along photos of their battery screens, showing how often they were using their phones to access social media. "We set out to do a much more complete study which attempts to imitate real life." Hunt said.
The study divided the participants into two groups: The first group was allowed to maintain their normal social media habits. The other, the control group, was restricted to 10 minutes per day on social media. The restrictions were put in place for three weeks and then the participants returned and were tested for outcomes such as fear of missing out, anxiety, depression and loneliness.
The results showed a very clear link between social media use and increased levels of depression and loneliness. "Using less social media than you normally do would lead to significant decreases in both depression and loneliness," Hunt said.
Social media invites what Hunt calls "downward social comparison. "" When you're online, it can sometimes seem that everyone else is cooler and having more fun and included in more things and you're left out，"Hunt said. And that's just generally discouraging. "Every minute you spend online is a minute you are not doing your work or not meeting a friend for dinner or having a deep conversation with your roommate." And these real life activities are the ones that can encourage self-esteem and self-worth, Hunt added.
"People are on their devices, and that's not going to change，" she said. But as in life, a bit of control goes a long way.
Debris flow (泥石流) is a kind of destructive geological disaster. July to August is the most frequent period of debris flow in China. , it can increase the probability of survival in an emergency.
Don't overlook your surroundings while hiking. Pay attention to the surrounding environment and pay special attention to whether you hear thunder-like sound from the valley in the distance. If you hear it, you should raise the alarm. .
Don't panic and escape in the direction of debris flow. When meeting with debris flow, stay calm. If the path is perpendicular (垂直的) to the direction of debris flow and climbs to the hillside on both sides, the higher the better and the faster the better. It is absolutely not allowed to go to the downstream of debris flow.
When traveling by car meeting debris flow, you should abandon the car and run away. If you hide in the car, it is easy to be buried in the car. In that case, you are at great risk.
Don't think it's safer in the area where the debris flow just happened. Sometimes the debris flow will happen intermittently (间歇地). you must be careful of another one on the road. You'd better take another way to find a safe route.
A. Don't try to stay in your car
B. It is likely to be a sign of debris flow
C. Try to determine the safe path to escape
D. Don't drive a car for a trip in the mountain
E. Stay calm and look at the map on your phone
F. If you know some emergency knowledge about debris flow
G. If you are walking through the area where the debris flow just happened
My mom is about to have a spinal (脊柱的) operation. The operation is 1minor, but does carry a risk of paralysis (瘫痪). Friends and family have 2 to this news by talking in such pessimistic terms that Mom has come to 3this kind of talk as "psychological theft". It occurs when other people increase your anxiety 4providing comfort.
Last week Mom5Geoff who works for the local school. "How are you?" he asked. "Not great," she replied, "I have been having some trouble with my back and I'm going to need a (n)6""Oh, the back the most 7place to operate on! My mom had that and she was in terrible pain." He responded. Geoff's8had been kind. He'd given his own mother's story to show sympathy, 9Mom only heard danger and pain.
People could have 10things that would be equally true, but more 11to patients. "The specialists in our hospitals are among the best in the world." that's a good one. "You're going to feel much better 12"that's another.
I'm not suggesting patients should be13from the reality of the risks they're taking. But if the decision to have an operation can't really be 14 ， what's the purpose of stressing the 15?It's just common sense to say, "Get well soon, and how can I help?"
In ancient China lived an artist paintings were almost lifelike. The artist's reputation had made him proud. One day the emperor wanted to get his portrait (画像) done so he called all great artists to come and present their (fine) work, so that he could choose the best. The artist was sure he would (choose), but when he presented his masterpiece to the emperor's chief minister, the old man laughed. The wise old man told him to travel to the Li River— perhaps he could learn a little from the greatest artist in the world.
Filled with (curious), the artist packed his bags and left. he asked the villagers on the banks of the river where he could find the legendary (传奇的) artist, they smiled and (point) down the river. The next morning he hired a boat and set out (find) the well-known painter. As the small boat moved (gentle) along the river he was left speechless by the mountains being silently reflected in the water. He passed milky white waterfalls and mountains in many shades of blue. And when he saw the mists rising from the river and the soft clouds (surround) the mountain tops, he was reduced to tears. The artist was finally humbled (谦卑) by the greatest artist earth, Mother Nature.
内容包括：1）时间；2）活动安排；3）欢迎他表演节目。
注意：1）词数80；
2）开头和结尾已为你写好，不计入总数；
3）可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
Dear Allen,
……
Yours,
Li Hua
Fifteen years ago, I was born in a big family. I had been taught that money couldn't buy everything ever since I was a little kid. My parents are the most hard-working people I have ever seen. As much as my parents tried to teach me these values, some could only be learned through personal experiences.
As a child, I would sit in the church trying to concentrate on the words of the priest (牧师), but my attention was soon attracted by the shining gold and the diamonds worn by the Saturday churchgoers. As my eyes began to wander, I noticed men dressed in their tailored suits and shirts accompanied by women in their designer dresses with matching handbags and shoes.
My family, on the other hand, was the opposite of rich. Our hand-me-down clothes had been washed so many times that the colors had become dull and lifeless. Although this revealed the money struggles of our large family, our faces were always washed and hair neatly combed. When sitting on the old big red and white truck after the service, I pictured the lives led by those driving their brand-new cars, wishing I would be one of them.
I never stopped those fantasies, even when I was in middle school. Since it was a private school, most of the children came from wealthy families. As a result, I constantly felt ashamed. Although I could hide my lack of wealth at school by wearing our school uniforms, my poverty was embarrassingly apparent on weekends with my classmates wearing designer jeans and I had no choice but to wear my sister's old jeans. I never fitted in with my classmates. To my relief, there was only one girl named Julie who opened her heart to me. I was attached to her like a shadow. Soon, her birthday was approaching. Julie invited me to attend her birthday party.
注意：
续写词数应为150左右；
Paragraph 1:
However, I grew upset as I couldn't afford a gift.
Paragraph 2:
When she opened the gift box, my heart missed a beat.
