Whizzfizzing Festival

One of the “Home Counties” to the north and west of London, Buckinghamshire is known for the rolling Chiltern Hills, its pretty villages, and the much-loved children’s author Roald Dahl.

The writer who penned Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Witches, Matilda and The Big Friendly Giant is the i9nspiration for the Whizzfizzing Festival – which will transform the market-town of Aylesbury into all kinds of music, colour and fun on Saturday, 1 July.

Formerly known as The Roald Dahl Festival, this year’s event will celebrate a broad range of children’s films and bring to life some of its best-loved characters – from Alice in Wonderland and the Gruffala to The Big Friendly Giant and Harry Potter.

Things to see and do

The fun and festivals start at 11 a.m. with a colourful children’s parade. More than 650 local school children and teachers, many in fancy dress, will march through the town carrying giant carnival puppets（木偶）, with thousands of audiences lining the streets to watch.

The parade will be followed with a range of child-friendly activities and workshops held in venues across the town.

Don’t be late for the Mad Hatters Tea Party in the Bucks County Museum, catch a splendid screening of a Roald Dahl movie in the Old Court House, and watch leading children’s authors, including Julian Clary, give readings in the Market Square.

CBeebies’ children’s chef Katy Ashworth will once again be cooking up a storm with her inter-active

Concoction Kitchen, located outside Hale Leys Shopping Centre. Little chefs will have lots of opportunities to get involved with preparing, cooking – and best of all, tasting – Katy’s fabulous recipes.

With hands-on arts and crafts workshops, storytelling sessions, live music, a fancy dress competition, street theatre and more, there is something for everyone.

For more information, visit: http://www.aylesburyvaledc . gov.uk/cylesbury-whizzfizzing- festival-inspired- roald-dahl

When I was ten years old I went to the USA to visit some family friends. I noticed something funny about the way everyone spoke English.

One moment! I remember very clearly was at the beginning of the holiday, when my friend asked me if I wanted to order “French fries”. I couldn’t imagine what they were. She was amazed that I had never tried them and she ordered a portion for us to share. When the waiter brought us some chips, I asked her where the French fries were. She pointed at the plate of chips! Later that week she said she was going to buy some “chips” from the supermarket. She came out with a packet of crisps（薯片）! How come?

During that holiday we were also offered “biscuits” with our lunch. This was a very strange idea to me, because in England biscuits are sweet. I later realized that “biscuits” in America are salty snacks. What we call “biscuits’, they call “cookies”.

I was also embarrassed when a stranger told me she liked my “pants”. I wondered how she could see them! My mum then told me that they call “pants” what we call “trousers”, the outer clothing that you wear on your legs instead of inside clothing!

I was disgusted when I saw an “eggplant” pizza on the menu in a restaurant. But I was puzzled how eggs can grow on plants. My dad ordered this pizza and it was covered in aubergines（茄子）. “They call aubergines ‘eggplant’ in America!” he told me.

I think part of the excitement of learning a language is learning about the differences that exist in how it is spoken in different places.

Many people wrongly think that cities don’t have farms and fruits and vegetables are only grown in the country. Believe it or not, there are more urban farms popping up in cities all over the world.

Alexandra Sullivan, a food systems researcher in New York, studies urban agriculture. Urban agriculture is another name for farming and gardening in a city environment. Ms. Sullivan studies everything from tiny gardens in empty lots between buildings to bigger fields that have been planted and grown. According to Ms. Sullivan, “Urban agriculture has existed since cities have, across the world.”

The number of humans living in urban areas, or cities, is increasing. The amount of people who wanted to garden in urban areas is also rising. Ms. Sullivan says, “In small gardens, on rooftops and indoors, city residents grow fruits, vegetables, grains, and herbs, and raise animals to produce milk, eggs, honey, and meat. City residents use these foods as supplements to food produced by rural agriculture.” Even though some people who live in urban areas grow crops, urban residents still need to rely on food grown in rural areas. This is because a city doesn’t have enough space to grow enough food for everyone living in it.

In New York City, urban farmers have come up with many different ways to grow their own produce, even though there isn’t a lot of room. For example, Brooklyn Grange is a farming operation that has two rooftop vegetable farms in New York City. All together, the farms are made up of 2.5 acres of rooftop space. This makes Brooklyn Grange one of the largest rooftop farming operations in the world.

Brooklyn Grange grows all kinds of things. The farming company sells its vegetables to local residents and restaurants. And because the farms are on rooftops, they are specially adapted to their urban location. They use available space that is not needed for anything else. As more urban farmers find ways to grow food in cities, urban residents will be better able to get fresher materials for their meals.

World Elephant Day is the perfect time to find out more about these amazing animals and what we can do to preserve them so they do not go the way of the mammoth（猛犸象）.

World Elephant Day was created in 2011 by two Canadian filmmakers Patricia Sims and Thailand’s Elephant Reintroduction Foundation and was first celebrated on August 12, 2012. They made the documentary Return to the Forest, a fascinating 30 minute film about the reintroduction of caught Asian elephants to the wild.

Currently, the demand for ivory（象牙）is becoming bigger and bigger, whose price is higher than that of gold, making elephants bigger targets than ever. Habitation loss is also a danger to the world’s elephant population as it robs elephants of the hundreds of pounds of food they need every day, making it more difficult for them to breed and making it easier for hunters to track them down. Circuses and tourism are also serious threats to the animals’ well-being.

The best way to celebrate this day is to take the opportunity to educate yourself about these magnificent（巨大的）mammals and share your knowledge with others. As ever, simply spreading the word about the dangers these magnificent mammals face via social media can actually make a real change. Expose that “training” elephants often involves tying and beating them daily for months on end. If you want to get a bit more involved, you could choose to make a donation to a foundation dedicated to protecting elephants from hunters or relocating them to locations better suited to their needs.

Whichever way suits you best, make sure that you spend this day in a way that helps elephants all over the world, so we, in turn, can continue to wonder at them and their uniquely fascinating way of life.