Four of the best British foodie gatherings
Scottish Wild Food Festival
If you've wondered if anything in there would make a tasty soup, then the Scottish Wild Food Festival (adult £16, child 5-13 £2, family £30) should be in your calendar. The festival focuses on the local, in-season and kind to the planet. Hosted at Tir Na Nóg, six miles east of the West Highland Way, the weekend makes a great start (or end) to a hike.
Ludlow Castle Food Festival
The lovely setting of Ludlow Castle is a great place for a food festival (adult £10, child 5-13 £4, family £26). It is a real treat in many ways. There are over 100 stalls (摊位) selling samples of country fare such as Hereford beef pie to all comers. A cheese-rolling game down the castle mound (堤) was great fun. Plus there are bands and poetry readings with food themes, too.
Sheffield Food Festival
Sheffield Food Festival (free) is held each June in the city centre. Local vendors (摊主) have everything on offer from Caribbean fusion dishes to specialty focaccia. Heeley City Farm, a charitable city centre farm, is my favourite producer with its organic produce and focus on sustainability. There is, of course, plenty of craft beer, too.
Bolton Food & Drink Festival
Love food? Enjoy cuisines from every corner of the world? Well, Bolton Food & Drink Festival (free) is a food lover's dream. It takes place in December. As soon as you enter the Market Square your sense of smell and taste will be in overdrive with Greek, Chinese and Indian cuisines, etc. You could learn a few cooking skills from celebrity chefs (名厨) as well.
By day, Robert Titterton is a lawyer. In his spare on stage beside pianist Maria Raspopova — not as a musician but as her page turner. "I'm not a trained musician, but I've learnt to read music so I can help Maria in her performance."
Mr Titterton is chairman of the Omega Ensemble but has been the group's official page turner for the past four years. His job is to sit beside the pianist and turn the pages of the score so the musician doesn't have to break the flow of sound by doing it themselves. He said he became just as nervous as those playing instruments on stage.
"A lot of skills are needed for the job. You have to make sure you don't turn two pages at once and make sure you find the repeats in the music when you have to go back to the right spot." Mr Titterton explained.
Being a page turner requires plenty of practice. Some pieces of music can go for 40 minutes and require up to 50 page turns, including back turns for repeat passages. Silent onstage communication is key, and each pianist has their own style of "nodding" to indicate a page turn which they need to practise with their page turner.
But like all performances, there are moments when things go wrong. "I was turning the page to get ready for the next page, but the draft wind from the turn caused the spare pages to fall off the stand," Mr Titterton said, "Luckily I was able to catch them and put them back."
Most page turners are piano students or up-and-coming concert pianists, although Ms Raspopova has once asked her husband to help her out on stage.
"My husband is the worst page turner," she laughed. "He's interested in the music, feeling every note, and I have to say: ‘Turn, turn!' "Robert is the best page turner I've had in my entire life."
When we were small children trying to get to sleep, a creaking floorboard was really scary. Who or what could be making the noise? The only way to make sense of the experience was to fantasize: there's probably a crocodile under the bed.
Children scare themselves silly like this, but while they have no knowledge of heating pipes, they have to engage with make-believe to bridge the gap between experience and knowledge. As time passes and children learn about the effect of heat on pipes and floorboard, they still often prefer the crocodile theory. Fear, within a safe context, is fun.
Children are born with all kinds of human emotions, but they are also inexperienced and longing to explore their feelings. Fantasy is an excellent, "safe" way to do it-going out to find real crocodiles to play with is neither practical nor safe.
Fantasy offers children an exploration of the too big, too wide, too dangerous world that is getting closer and more real every day. Fantasy needn't just be dragons-it can be any element of pretend. As they grow, children need stories that include divorce, loss, war, falling in love, becoming a hero and saving the world, which help them develop emotions in various situations and get them ready for real life when it hits.
Most importantly, fantasy isn't just for children. Growing up, facing failure and defeat, coming to terms with betrayal (背叛) and disappointment-all the stuff of emerging adult life also has to be faced and coped with. Psychological analysis and comforting have their place, but the most important tool, with which we as humans face reality, is the creation of the fantasy story.
Taking one step away from reality to the "safe" place of pretend prepares us to look at the world's hard realities in the face. From there we can name the horrors and celebrate the joys before going back to reality, with a clearer perspective on situations that bother us.
Over our long shared history, dogs have developed a range of skills for bonding with human beings. Their ability to make sense of human instructions like "lay down" is just one such skill. But whether dogs understand human intentions, or merely respond to outcomes, remains unclear. The ability to recognize others' intentions is a basic part of Theory of Mind, long regarded as uniquely human. Can dogs also distinguish between something done on purpose and something done by accident?
To answer this question, a team of researchers in Germany conducted an experiment that examined how dogs reacted when food rewards were held back. They found that dogs responded differently depending on whether the actions of the experimenter were intentional or unintentional.
The experiment was conducted under three conditions. In each condition, the dog was separated from the human tester by a transparent (透明的) barrier. Then the experimenter fed the dog pieces of dog food through a gap in the barrier. In the "unwilling" condition, the experimenter suddenly withdrew the reward through the gap in the barrier. In the "unable-clumsy" condition, the experimenter brought the reward to the gap in the barrier and "tried" to pass it through the gap but then "accidentally" dropped it. In the "unable-blocked" condition, the experimenter again tried to give the dog a reward, but was unable to because the gap in the barrier was blocked. In all conditions, the reward remained on the tester's side of the barrier.
Not only did the dogs wait longer in the unwilling condition than in the unable conditions, they were also more likely to sit or lie down-actions often interpreted as being uninterested-and stop wagging their tails.
The team acknowledges that their findings may be met with challenges and that further study is needed to deal with alternative explanations, such as behavioral cues (暗示) on the part of experimenters or knowledge transfer from earlier dog training. "Nevertheless," the paper concludes, "the findings present important initial evidence that dogs may have at least one aspect of Theory of Mind: the capacity to recognize intention-in-action."
We all do little things to boost the way we feel and think throughout the day. Something as simple as taking a walk or eating a piece of chocolate can brighten your mood almost instantly, thanks to certain chemical reactions that occur in the brain. If you're going through something complex, you need a more permanent(持久的) practice. That's where writing comes in.
As Mental Health Awareness Month begins, it's worth learning about the ways that you can use writing to support your mental well-being.
Use writing for mindfulness. Mindfulness is a tried-and-true technique for improving mental wellness, but can writing have the same effect? By focusing on a particular moment and getting it all out there on the page, you can free yourself from any of the other concerns that are crowding your mind. This way, you can use writing as an approach to mindfulness and as a way of relieving stress.
Another benefit to writing is its ability to clear your mind of worries, negative thoughts, or sources of pain. Fortunately, writing can speed up the process of restoring mental clarity.
People were more likely to talk to others about a painful event after writing about it privately, which powerfully suggests that writing can indirectly lead to reaching out for support, which can mean even greater healing (治愈)and relief.
Through the process of populating a blank page with letters and words, writing can be a useful mental health tool that both records your experiences and allows you to work through them.
A. Become more self-aware.
B. These pleasures are just temporary, however.
C. There's real power behind the pen—here's why.
D. Writing is also the best method of self-care treatment.
E. Clearing your brain of negative thoughts can be really tough work.
F. Actually the act of writing for a mere 20 minutes each day can work.
G. This is because writing tends to stimulate questions about your life and direction
It's hard to believe my husband and I will be celebrating our 11th wedding anniversary this year, but I still remember our honeymoon clearly.
After our1 , we flew to Mexico for our honeymoon. We stayed at a beautiful hotel on the east coast facing a beautiful sea and we had a(n)2 time! The weather was perfect, locals were friendly, and we had plenty of things to 3 while we were there.
At the top of our list of4 was to swim with dolphins. There was a place down there called Dolphin Discovery and it was included within our honeymoon 5 . We headed over there one afternoon and were 6 with the place. The dolphins looked well-kept and happy.
The employees told us that the dolphins 7 interacting with us humans as it entertained them and gave them exercise. They were social animals and loved to play. They spent about 30 minutes 8 us all about these wonderful animals. Then it was our group's 9 .
We 10 clothes and got into the pool. We were given clear11 so that we could swim with the dolphins as a couple. Gradually, the dolphins 12 us, so it was a great chance for my husband and me to13 them closer they were so cute and lovely. It 14 let me appreciate dolphins more and made me realize how 15 it was to save and protect them.
The Xi'an City Wall is the most complete city wall that has survived China's long history. It (build) originally to protect the city the Tang dynasty and has now been completely restored (修复). It is possible (walk) or bike the entire 14 kilometers.
We accessed the wall through the South Gate. The wall is 12 meters high and from here you can see streams of people moving inside and outside the City Wall.
After (spend) some time looking at all the defensive equipment at the wall, we decided it was time for some action and what (good) than to ride on a piece of history!
We (hire) our bikes from the rental place at the South Gate. My bike was old and shaky did the job. It took us about 3 hours to go all way around the Xi'an City Wall. Supposedly you can do it in two hours, but we stopped at the different gates and (watchtower) to take pictures or just to watch the local people going about their (day) routines.
Snow the theory that cholera was caused by an infection from germs in food or water.
Snow suspected that the water pump was .
by his uncle's encouragement, he promised to do his best to his family's expectations when studying overseas.
we can say, however, is that culture and cuisine go , and if you do not experience one, you can never really know the other.
, a greater to the rest of the world will help you to see things from different angles.
A Sweet Song
"Nothing will ever be the same again," Ally whispered.
Ally's father died last summer. It wasn't fair, Ally thought, frowning. Dad was young and had never been sick. Why had his heart suddenly stopped? Ally curled herself up in her father's favorite chair and looked at his picture on the bookcase. It was one of her favorite shots. Ally smiled. "I miss you, Dad," she said softly.
She felt a hand smoothing her hair and glanced up. " Why don't you come outside with me, Ally?" her mother asked. "The birds are nesting(筑巢) in the woods. By this time last year you had already taken dozens of pictures." But she knew bird watching wouldn't be the same this year. How could it be? Ally wondered. Ever since she could remember she and Dad had been a team, searching the woods for the special wood warbler(林中莺). "I'll be out in a while, I promise," she answered.
After her mother left, Ally reached for the photo album she and Dad had put together. On the cover was a photo of a tiny orange bird with blue-gray wings and black eyes. Dad cut it from a local newspaper. Ally smiled, remembering the excited look on Dad's face when he showed her the pretty bird.
"I can't believe someone spotted(发现) this little guy way up here in New Jersey," he said. "Wood warblers are usually found in the south, not this far north. I bet if we search real hard, Ally, we'll see this little guy together someday."
Ally leaned her head back and closed her eyes, letting her mind wander. She loved thinking about the times she and Dad had spent searching the woods for the little bird. They'd never spotted the warbler, but her father had an amazing way of making each outing seem special. He was her best friend, and when they were together Ally felt comfortable, "If only I could get that good feeling back," she thought, sighing.
Staring at the bird, suddenly, she knew exactly what she had to do. Waving goodbye to her mom, she placed her camera around her neck and hurried outside. "Please let me see the warbler," she murmured to herself. She gave her worried Mom a kiss and then set off into the woods.
注意：1.所续写短文的词数应为 l50 左右;请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。2.续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好。
Paragraph 1：
Familiar smells of the earth rose up to greet her the moment Ally stepped into the woods.
Paragraph 2：
All too soon the sun disappeared behind thick grey clouds and Ally was about to head home when a ringing birdsong floated down to her.
