【推荐3】South Africa does have a calendar filled with more festivals than most people can think of. In fact, many of these festivals have won international popularity.

Aardklop Arts Festival

Every year during the last week of September, the southern region of the northwest province prepares itself for one of the country’s greatest cultural festivals. Held in the university town of Potchefstroom with its thousands of students, it offers a five-day feast of classical music, jazz, hard rock, visual arts, poetry and more, ending with the “OppiAarde” rock festival on the final day.

Grahamstown National Arts Festival

At the end of June each year Grahamstown in the Eastern Cape is transformed into one huge happening for a period of 11 days, when the Grahamstown National Arts Festival gets underway. It’ s a national phenomenon of arts. The festival offers more than 500 shows from opera, drama and jazz to stand-up comics and folk music.

Arts Alive International Festival

The Arts Alive International Festival , held in Johannesburg every September since 1992, is an annual festival of music, dance, theatre and performance-poetry. Over 600 artists take part in the four-day festival, which consists of a musical feast, dance performances and events , poetry readings , theatrical productions, and workshops. The festival ends with the popular “Jazz on the Lake“ held on the final day.

Cape Town Jazz Festival

Since its birth in the year 2000, the Cape Town Jazz Festival has grown into a successful international event. Arguably the best jazz festival in Africa, it takes place in Cape Town every last weekend in March. It features around 40 international and local artists. Performances are held on stages in exhibition halls throughout Cape Town, including one free , open-air show.

【推荐1】Three Types of Renewable Energy Sources

Water power is the world’s biggest source of renewable energy by far, with China, Brazil, Canada, the U. S. , and Russia the leading water power producers. While water power is a clean energy source provided by rain and snow, it also has several drawbacks.

Large dams can damage river ecosystems and surrounding communities, harming wildlife and displacing residents. Even water power at full capacity bears its own emissions problems, as rotting organic material in reservoirs releases methane (甲烷,沼气).

Dams aren’t the only way to use water for power. Tidal and wave energy projects around the world aim to capture the ocean’s natural rhythms. The potential marine energy is great.

Wind turbines (涡轮) are growing around the globe, and China, the U. S., and Germany are the leading wind energy producers.

Some people may object to how wind turbines look on the horizon (地平线) and to how they sound, but wind energy, whose prices are declining, is proving too valuable a resource to deny. Another problem with wind turbines is that they’re a danger for birds and bats, killing hundreds of thousands annually that engineers are working on solutions to make them safer for flying wildlife.

From home rooftops to farms, solar power is reshaping energy markets around the world.

In addition to solar panels, which change the sun’s light to electricity, concentrating solar power (CSP) plants use mirrors to concentrate the sun’s heat, getting thermal energy. Solar thermal energy is also being used worldwide for hot water, heating, and cooling. China, Japan, and the U. S. are leading the solar transformation, but solar still has a long way to go.

【推荐3】To dye (染色) clothes by machines is very common now. But in ancient times, the whole process was completed by hands. This skill is called tie-dye (扎染). It is said that tie-dyed clothes appeared in the Qin Dynasty. During the Tang Dynasty, tie-dyed clothes became very popular and the most beautiful ones were sent to the emperors as gifts.

Yang Cheng, a 52-year-old man, was well-known for his tie-dye skills. He started learning tie-dye in the 1980s. Later, he went to other countries to learn different ways of tie-dye, such as Japan, India and France. He has been studying tie-dye for 35 years and he wants more people to know it. At present, he teaches tie-dye in schools, communities and companies. More than 100, 000 people have learned from him.

Tie-dye is one of Chinese intangible cultural heritages (非物质文化遗产). It has become very popular among people, even children can do it for fun. Liu Mei is a teacher at a kindergarten. She teaches kids to dye scarves. They tie a white scarf together at first, then they put the scarf into the dye. After they finish, there are some amazing pictures on it.

Tie-dye is interesting and fun. Do you want to have a try?