Embrace Diversity: 2024 International Cultural Festival
Welcome to the 2024 International Cultural Festival, a celebration of diversity, unity, and global harmony! This year' s festival promises to be a spectacular showcase of cultures from around the world, bringing people together to appreciate the richness and uniqueness of each heritage.
Cultural Extravaganza:
Join us for a mesmerizing journey through the diverse cultures represented at the festival. From captivating dance performances to tantalizing culinary delights, the International Cultural Festival is a feast for the senses. Immerse yourself in the vibrant colors, enchanting music, and the spirit of camaraderie that transcends borders.
Interactive Workshops:
Engage in hands-on activities and workshops that offer a deeper understanding of various cultures. From traditional art and craft demonstrations to language tasters, these interactive sessions provide a unique opportunity to learn and appreciate the slight differences that make each culture special.
Global Marketplace:
Explore the Global Marketplace, where you can shop for unique handicrafts, traditional clothing, and exotic spices. This is a chance to support local artisans and take home a piece of the world' s cultural tapestry.
Educational Forums:
Research on deeply thought-provoking discussions and presentations on the importance of cultural diversity in today' s interconnected world. Learn how embracing different perspectives can foster understanding and tolerance, and ultimately contribute to global peace.
The 2024 International Cultural Festival is not just an event; it' s a celebration of the shared humanity that unites us all. Mark your calendars and join us in promoting harmony through cultural diversity. Let' s make this festival a memorable testament to the beauty of our global tapestry.
If there' s one thing I' ve realized since becoming a male college student, it' s that finding a summer job is nearly impossible. I've applied to so many places and I' ve experienced so many interviews, but I always either get straight-up refusal or never hear from the company again.
One time, I even called one of the companies multiple times, but the manager avoided me. I was close to giving up. I felt like I was the only one struggling hard. I had a pretty good resume, and I always dressed nicely for my interviews, so why couldn' t I get a job?
Well, the reason is actually right in front of me—I am a student. Companies generally want students who can work all year long, but most of them aren' t willing to be flexible with schedules. I couldn' t tell you how many times interviewers told me that they were looking for someone permanent.
I tried looking for jobs marked as temporary ones. And I even once tried to apply through a temporary agency. But it didn' t work. Even if I wanted to work during the school year, none of the companies wanted to hire me because of my limited weekday availability. And despite not knowing if I could juggle (尽量兼顾) both school and a job, I even started to tell interviewers that I would like to work during the school year and give up my weekends. But I had no luck.
I' m not sure if there are others like me out there. But if you are going through something similar, what I want to tell you is to keep on trying. Despite being rejected so many times, I still applied for any job that I was qualified for. I even started my job search before the semester ended to get ahead. Eventually, I got my ideal summer job.
I know it' s frustrating, and you may feel like you' ve tried everything—that' s how I' ve felt for a long time. And now, with companies requiring years of experience, it' s even harder to get a job if you' re someone like me. But don' t give up. Keep searching and applying, sign up for sites that send you job offers and look on the university' s website for on-campus jobs.
Why do children learn so quickly? Is it simply a necessity, or is a child' s brain more capable of taking in new information than an adult' s brain?
" It is a common way of thinking that ‘children are like sponges' and have the magical ability to learn new skills faster than an adult, but there are some misconceptions here, " said Debbie Raven, a researcher at the University of Chester. " A child' s cognitive (认知的) development is age-related and, naturally, children perform worse than their older peers in most areas. However, there are times when being young brings an advantage, and this is especially true around their earliest years.
This advantage is largely due to neuroplasticity, meaning the brain' s ability to form and change its connections, pathways and wiring based on experiences. Neuroplasticity is what gives children the capacity to learn-and, if necessary, unlearn-habits, routines, approaches and actions very quickly. This ability is most constant and rapid before a child' s fifth birthday, when much of what they encounter or experience is novel. " This ability to learn quickly is connected to several areas, including plasticity, their experiences with adults, their environment, and their biological drive to explore, " Raven said. " Childhood is a place where children spend their time catching up with adults' more sophisticated abilities. "
Language learning, in particular, is an area where children often have a huge advantage over adults. This is largely because " babies are able to tune in to the rhythm and sounds used in their native language, and can therefore become fluent speakers by the age of four. " This ability can help young children learn a second or third language with apparent ease, Raven said.
In a research paper, the authors suggest that " human babies are born seeing and hearing linguistic information that older children and adults miss, although they lose this ability with more experience in their environments. Moreover, babies can " discriminate speech sounds and tones used in al of the world' s languages, making them open to al input, regardless of the linguistic environment they are born into.
Researchers from The University of Queensland(UQ)have helped design a new app to protect birds at risk of extinction across the world by eliminating language barriers among scientists. The Bird Language Diversity web app will help provide a " birds eye view" , ensuring vital information is shared to improve worldwide conservation.
UQ' s Dr Pablo Negret said the research team analysed more than 10,000 bird species, and found that 1,587 species have 10 languages or more spoken within their distributions. " Scientific information on species can be spread across different languages, but valuable information can go missing or get lost in translation," Dr Negret said. " Without enough sharing of information, this can affect the effectiveness of conservation measures. "
Take the common bird Pochard for example. It is classified as vulnerable species(易危种)and crosses 108 countries in Europe, Asia and north Africa, where a total of 75 official languages are spoken. The survival of the common Pochard, and so many other species, depends on effective cooperation and policy agreements among people with diverse linguistic and cultural backgrounds.
This app reveals where threatened and migratory birds exist geographically, in relation to the language spoken in those regions. " We hope the app will encourage researchers and conservation organisations to interact with their peers in other regions, especially if they speak different languages, and be a starting point to allow everyone to work together to protect threatened species," Dr Negret said.
Dr Tatsuya Amano, a researcher and the co-author of the paper, said this work could extend further than bird species. " Any species, whether they' re mammals, amphibians(两栖动物), or plants, with a range crossing multiple countries will be impacted by language barriers, as well as species that migrate across different countries, such as marine species and butterflies," he said. " The significance of the impact of poor communication on such an important issue is evident, and is the reason why we' re working hard to improve science communication across languages. "
How to Be Funny?
Humor can help you connect with other people and make unpleasant situations a little more bearable. But it' s not that hard once you tap into your inner sense of humor. Even if you don' t think you' re naturally funny, there are things you can do to make yourself and other people laugh.
Learn from funny people. You can expand your reach a good deal by listening to other funny people. Whether they' re professional comedians, your parents, your kids, or your boss, learning from the funny people in your life is a key step towards being a funny person. Look for what you admire most in these people.
Broaden your factual knowledge for joke material. They may be your amazing knowledge of 17th-century poetry, your familiarity with fishing trips that went wrong, etc. Whatever the material is, it needs to resonate(引起共鸣)with your audience.
Being funny doesn' t come in a one-size-fits-all package. What makes you funny is unique to you and the way you observe the world. Trust that you do have a funny bone; as babies, we laugh from four months of age, and all children express humor naturally from the kindergarten age, using humor to entertain themselves and others. It' s already in you. You just need to bring it out!
Read, read, read. Get your hands on everything that is funny, and consume it like your mom told you not to. Chemists become chemists by reading and practicing chemistry. Sports writers become sports writers by reading and writing about sports.
A. Strike while the iron is hot.
B. Trust in your inner sense of humor.
C. Observe the funnier things these people say or do.
D. Being funny might seem to take a great deal of work.
E. It' s much easier to find funny moments in familiar material.
F. You' ll become a humorous person by reading and practicing jokes.
G. The better you know someone, the easier it will be to make them laugh.
After my mother suffered from Alzheimer's disease（阿尔茨海默病）, the plants in our house began to die. In years past, I remember the deep, earthy smell that would 1 in our house after my mother had made her weekly watering rounds. Back then, I never connected it with the care that was at the 2 of everything she did.
But now, leaves were 3 , some dry and edged with brown, and many of the stems（茎） bare. It was a mark of how my mother can no longer attend to all the things that she lovingly cared for. I was so focused on the increasing 4 of her own care that her beloved plants had escaped my 5 .
I began her old rounds, pouring water into the thirsty soil, and soon the plants 6 . That's the thing about houseplants: They demand nothing. They wait quietly, no matter how 7 they are. But even after my best 8 , some of the plants couldn't survive. My mother's kind caregivers have since brought new ones to add to her 9 , and my father buys fresh flowers every week.
Though Alzheimer's disease 10 so much of her memory, her desire to care is still there. I would guide her down the steps to water the plants herself. I watched as her shaking hands picked the brown leaves. Each time, she smiled up at me with 11 satisfaction because being able to 12 something is still, what brings her the greatest joy.
I look at plants 13 these days. I see them as my mother does:14 reminders of the need for kindness toward all living things. It is clear to me that the things we spend a lifetime 15 are never truly lost and the love she has planted in me still blooms（开花）.
Fireworks are essentially rockets in their simplest form. They produce noise, light and smoke, and sometimes they even explode sending up floating materials, like confetti (五彩纸屑). They can be designed to burn in all different colors and patterns, so people often set off a number of them in an effort (create) an interesting fireworks display or show.
Historians believe fireworks (appear) for the first time in ancient China in the second century B. C. , when they were made from bamboo stalks and gunpowder that would explode when (throw) into a fire. They were said to drive away evil spirits. By the 15th century, fireworks had become popular in Europe, (common) used for religious festivals and public entertainment. And when the U. S. settlers left Europe, they brought fireworks with them and made them a (centre) part of the first Independence Day, tradition still followed today.
Fireworks are wildly popular, they have been linked to air pollution increases, and (expert) are concerned about their negative effects wildlife. Although they' re fleeting and infrequent, fireworks shows spray out a toxic concoction (混合物) that rains down quietly into lakes, rivers, and bays throughout the country. Many of the chemicals in fireworks are also persistent in the environment, means they stubbornly sit there instead of breaking down.
1. 相关介绍；2. 注意事项。
注意：1. 写作词数应为80左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题纸的相应位置作答。
Dear fellow students,
Every October, my neighborhood has a Halloween costume contest. And every October, my neighbor Ollie and I race to the announcement board in the park to find out the theme. One year, the theme was " Dress up as your favorite book character. " Another year, it was " Be something scary. " But this year, the theme was kind of, well, themeless.
" Be creative? " I said, reading the announcement board. " That' s not really a theme, is it? "
Ollie hopped off his skateboard s to get a closer look. " You' re right," he agreed. " I think my favorite theme ever was ‘Superheroes' . I loved my Super-Force Flying Eagles costume so much, I kept that thing hanging in my close t for years!"
" My favorite theme was ‘Farm Animals' . " I giggled. " Remember how you insisted on being a Stegosaurus (剑龙)? "
" When I was five, dinosaurs were my world. " Ollie laughed. " I would have loved to see a Stegosaurus out grazing with the cows. "
" Now that' s the creative spirit we need for this challenge!" I said. " Maybe, since we don' t know exactly what we want to be yet, we should start by choosing some cool costume-making materials. "
" I' ve got it!" Ollie said, scooping up a bunch of fallen leaves.
" Really? " I said. " You' re going to make an entire costume out of leaves? "
" Why not? " he said, scooping up some more.
" They' re totally free, and I can guarantee, no one will be a tree as great as me. "
" Don' t you mean, a tree as great as we? " I grinned.
" Um, first, that grammar doesn' t sound right," said Ollie. " And second, no way! Think of your own creative ideas. "
" Aw, come on," I said. " You should be flattered that I like your idea so much. Plus, I just thought of the perfect way to make branches. "
Finally, Ollie said OK.
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。
Paragraph 1: We ended up filling two jumbo bags with different kinds of leaves.
Paragraph 2: Then the big moment came.
