1 . A music festival is a community event focusing on live performances of singing and instrument playing that is often presented with a theme. On the list are the music festivals for fans around the world. Find your favorite now!

Field Day

January 1, 2023, Sydney

Field Day means New Year’s Day for young people in Sydney. Seen as the city’s original multi-stage party, it’s a gathering of friends coming together for a great fun-filled first day of the year. There’s an air of hope and positive energy on a perfect summer’s day.

The Envision Festival

February 27—March 6, 2023, Uvita

The Envision Festival is an annual gathering in Costa Rica that aims to provide an opportunity for different cultures to work with one another to create a better community. The festival encourages people to practice art, music, dance performances, and education. Meanwhile, our connection with nature is expected to be strengthened.

The McDowell Mountain Music Festival

March 2—4, 2023, Phoenix

The McDowell Mountain Music Festival is Phoenix’s musical celebration of community culture. Since its foundation in 2004, it has been the only 100% non-profit music festival designed to support, entertain and educate the community. The festival attracts thousands of visitors each year from around the country, and it is an opportunity to experience true culture.

The Old Settler’s Music Festival

April 20—23, 2023, Dale

The Old Settler’s Music Festival is a nationally known music festival for American music. The festival is held in the country of Texas at the height of the wild flower season. The Old Settler’s Music Festival offers great music and activities for the whole family.

2 . Istanbul & Faces

Titled “Timeless City: Istanbul & Faces”, the Turkey photography exhibition celebrates the 30th anniversary of Istanbul and Shanghai’s sistership. The 42­year­old photographer focuses on the distinctive (独特的) historical quarters and the atmosphere that spreads in Istanbul. His work also pays respects to its people as well, with well­defined portraits.

Date: Till Jan. 18, 10 a.m.—4 p.m.   Venue: Shanghai Art Collection Museum.

Knitted Works

The knitted (编织的) show is aimed at raising awareness of post natal depression. The works were created by more than 20 mothers from different cities. All the knitted dolls and other works will be sold with the profits (利益) going to charity when the exhibition ends. If you are interested in the knitted works, you can order a special piece.

Date: Till Jan. 1, 7 a.m.—9 p.m.   Venue: B1 Jinxiu Fun.

Old Shanghai Teahouse

The newly­opened zone at Shanghai Dungeon features nostalgic sets and experiences for visitors to have “scary fun”. Visitors can wear traditional Chinese costumes and take photos with the performers.

Date: Daily, 11 a.m.—8 p.m.   Venue: Mosaic Shanghai Mail.

Musical Titanic

The Tony Awards winning musical “Titanic” is in Shanghai with more than 100 characters cast. The impressive stage effects promise to take the audience to the bottom of the ocean.

Date: Till Jan. 22, 2 p.m.—7:30 p.m.   Venue：SAIC Shanghai Culture Square.

3 . When you are about to go to a boarding school (寄宿制学校) in England, there are many different questions that may come to mind. But once you look at them with some perspective (视角), you will certainly feel easy. Here is a normal boarding day.

Early Morning:

Usually boarders get up around 7:00 am and have around an hour to take a shower and put on their uniform before breakfast.

Lessons:

Classes start at 9: 00 am and every lesson lusts for 50 minutes. After two lessons, at 10: 40 am, you’ll have a short break. The next period of classics will include two more lessons.

Lunch:

Lunch is usually held around 12:30 pm at the dining hall, where you’ll join your friends to enjoy a hot dish. After an hour of lunch, you’ll have three or four more lessons to attend.

Dinner:

At 5:00 pm you will have finished your school lessons for the day. Most boarding schools in the UK offer their full boarders different kinds of hot meals to choose from.

Activities/ Sports:

All boarding schools in the UK provide many different kinds of activities for their boarders, such as football, swimming, golf or art.

Prep:

An important part of boarding school life is the supervised homework session known as “prop”. Although “prep” might sound stressful, it’s a great way for you to keep up with your studies.

Free time:

Once you have done all your classes and activities, it’s time to relax.

Bedtime:

In most boarding schools, the lights go out around 10:30 pm.

Being nervous just before you go to a boarding school is completely normal and understandable. Hopefully, knowing the usual routine (常规) can help you. Once you are there, you will also see how exciting life in a boarding school in England can be.

4 . Afroz Shah, a lawyer in Mumbai, hasn’t had a weekend off in four years. But he hasn’t spent this time preparing for _________.

His mission? Saving the world’s oceans from _________ pollution.

It’s a calling he found in 2015 after moving to a community in Mumbai called Versova Beach. He had played there as a child and was_________to see how much it had _________. The sand was no longer _________ because it was covered by a layer of garbage more than five feet thick — most of it plastic waste.

“The whole beach was like a_________of plastic,” he said. “It hurt me. The _________ mess.” What Shah had seen is part of a global environmental crisis. More than 8 million tons of plastic _________in the world’s oceans each year. It’s predicted that by 2050, there will be more plastic in the ocean than fish. “Plastic in the ocean is a _________. And the sea species have no choice at all, ” Shah said. “We are ______________ their habitats.”

In October 2015, Shah began ________________ up plastic waste from the beach every Sunday morning. At first, it was just him and a neighbor, and then he began calling on others to join in. Word ________________ and with the help from social media, more volunteers got ________________.

For Shah, the work has always been a ________________ journey, but it has earned global attention. After he was ________________ as a Champion of the Earth by the United Nations in 2016, Shah now devotes nearly all of his free time to this ________________.

He’s now spent 209 weekends on this mission, ________________ more than 200,000 volunteers, some of whom are young students, to join him in what’s been called the world’s biggest beach cleanup. By October 2018, Versova Beach was ________________ clean and Shah’s cleanups expanded to another beach as well as a stretch of the Mithi River and other regions of India.

“This world talks too much. I think we must talk ________________ and do action more, ” he said when interviewed by CNN in October 2019.“We are a smart species. Well adapt. We’ll learn. And with these youngsters rising up, I see ________________.”

5 . Every festival has its own meaning. Labor Day, for example, celebrates the value of hard work. Thanksgiving is about showing thanks to people around you. And Valentines’ Day is a time when you express love to your loved ones. But somehow it now seems that all festivals we just care about one thing — shopping. And that can be a big problem.

“In a way, over-consumption (过度消费) is the mother of all our environmental problems,” Kalle Lasn once told CNN. Lasn is the organizer of Buy Nothing Day, a day set up in Canada in 1992 to fight against unhealthy spending habits, and has now become an international event. It’s held on the day, which is known as Black Friday — a famous shopping day in the US and Canada.

You can see the irony (讽刺) here.

Even though the idea of Buy Nothing Day was brought up 26 years ago, we seem to need it now more than ever. It’s just as Lasn said, all the different kinds of pollution in our lives today — bad air quality, the reduction of forest area, endangered animal species, and plastic bags found in the ocean — seem to be the same cause: over-consumption.

The latest example is the Singles’ Day shopping craze of Nov 11, which saw a new sales record. But as Nie Li, a campaigner at Greenpeace, told Reuters, “Record-setting over-consumption means record-setting waste.” And it was reported that last year the Singles’ Day packages left more than 160,000 tons of waste, including plastic and cardboard. The Collins Dictionary has also just named “single-use” its Word of the Year, pointing out the problem that there’re too many things we tow out after only using them once.

So, Buy Nothing Day might only be here for one day a year, but it’s not just to remind us to the a break from shopping on that day, but to change our lifestyle completely, focusing on fun “with people we care about” rather than wasting money on useless things.

6 . “Just sign here, sir,” the deliveryman (送货员) said as he handed Oscar Reyna a package.

The package consisted of (装有) a long, narrow box ______ wrapped in brown paper. ______ the box, Oscar saw an umbrella inside—a very old one with a beautifully carved handle. ______ he had not seen it for more than 20 years, he recognized it immediately.

Oscar was 16 when he first saw the ______ umbrella. He had gone to a concert with his grandparents. As they were leaving, he noticed an umbrella on an empty seat. Impressed by its ______, Oscar felt a strong desire to find its owner.

Oscar ______ the manager to look in the record of advance ticket sales. Just as he thought, a name matched the seat ______ Oscar had found the umbrella. The name was Mrs. Katie O’Brien.

Oscar talked his grandparents into going by Mrs. O’Brien’s house on their way home. He rang the bell, the door opened, and an elderly woman appeared. “May I ______ you?” she asked. “I’d like to return it if it’s yours,” Oscar said, ______ the umbrella as if presenting a gift that had long been wished for. “Why, yes! it’s mine, “ replied Mrs. O’Brien with a ______ smile and shining eyes. “It was given to me by my father years ago. Thank you so much for returning it. May I offer you a reward for your ______?” “No, ma’am.” he said, “my grandmother says that a good deed is its own reward.” “Well, that’s ______ what my father used to say. What is your name, Young man?”

Years later, Oscar was staring at the finely carved handle of the umbrella as he remembered Mrs. O’Brien. It was in perfect condition, considering how ______ it was. Why had it arrived here today? As if ______ , a note fell from the paper. It read: Mrs. O’Brien wanted you to accept this umbrella as a present for a kind, ______ gesture long ago.

7 . Are you looking for some movies? You’ve landed on the right place. Let’s take a look at the list I’ve collected.

A Beautiful Mind

A Beautiful Mind is the story of John Nash, a mathematician who went on to win the Nobel Prize for his Game Theory. This movie brings his whole journey on screen—from his beginning to his downhill ride.

The first half is all about his rise to fame while the second half shows how he slowly falls into madness. After many years of fighting, he finally is victorious.

I.Q.

The story is about an auto mechanic who falls for Albert Einstein’s niece. The only problem is that she is engaged (已订婚的) to someone else. Fortunately, Einstein likes him. The young man pretends to be a physicist to run after her, but things don’t go as he has planned.

If A Beautiful Mind was a little too heavy for you, I.Q. would be the perfect fit. It’s a light drama that is funny and heartwarming for the most part.

Good Will Hunting

Good Will Hunting is a touching tale of a troubled young man called Will Hunting who is gifted with a natural talent in mathematics.

However, he is struggling to find his identity. He can solve any math problem, but not the one he seems to be struggling within his life. His life seems to be getting only worse until one day he meets Sean, a therapist, who helps him find direction in life.

Creation

Creation is a story of a famous scientist, Charles Darwin, best known for his Theory of Evolution. This movie attempts to bring his struggling days into focus, the time when he was dealing with the loss of his daughter and was suffering from hallucinations (幻觉). At the same time, he was working on a book called On the Origins of Species, which he finally completed.

All in all, Creation is a great historical drama.

8 . Dance Classes

Ballet

Ballet teaches grace, posture (姿势) and flexibility. Students focus on the use of proper ballet items (物品), expanding their knowledge of classical ballet techniques and improving motor skills for classical ballet practice. The class is a formal ballet class.

Age: 8 — 10

Date: September 7, 2019 — May 16, 2020

Time: 10:30 am — 12:00 am on Saturdays

Creative Movers

Students can explore creative movement, balance, focus, the development of skills, motor planning and balance. The class helps build strength, flexibility and self-confidence, and allows children to realize expression in a positive and encouraging environment. Children use their imagination to celebrate movement and have lots of fun.

Age: 3 — 5

Date: September 7, 2019 — January 18, 2020

Time: 9:00 am — 9:45 am on Saturdays

Jazz

Jazz includes movements from both classical ballet and dance techniques. This class will focus on traditional Jazz dance. Students will be introduced to jazz-style rhythms and movements. In order to ensure proper placement for your child, we invite all students to participate in a sample (示例) class. Students and parents work with program staff to meet students’ personal dance goals.

Age: 5 — 6

Date: September 7, 2019 — May 16, 2020

Time: 2:00 pm — 3:00 pm on Saturdays

Hip Hop

Students will be introduced to several different aspects of hip hop dance including Popping, Locking, Breaking and Tutting in a high-energy environment. Our hip hop instructors are highly knowledgeable and will provide students with a wonderful view of hip hop dance.

Age: 7 — 10

Date: September 7, 2019 — May 16, 2020

Time: 1:00 pm — 2:00 pm on Sundays

10 . Most people agree that eating healthy food is important. But sometimes making good food choices can be difficult. Now there are apps that can help people learn about the food they eat to improve their health and their dining out experience.

Open Table app

Open Table app helps people choose restaurants when they want to go out to eat. It is a free service that shows users restaurant available based on where and when they want to dine. It gives users points when they make reservations, which can add up to discounts (折扣) on restaurant visits.

Max McCalman’s Cheese &Wine Pairing app

Wine and cheese can be a great combination. But which wines go best with which cheeses? Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app can help. It provides information about hundreds of different cheeses and suggests wines to pair with each. Max McCalman’s Cheese & Wine Pairing app is free.

Happy Cow app

Vegetarians do not eat animal meat. Vegans do not eat any animal products. The Happy Cow app is made for both groups. Users can search for vegetarian-vegan restaurants and stores around the world.

Local Eats app

Restaurant chains, like McDonalds, can be found almost anywhere a person might travel. But sometimes travelers want to eat like locals. The Local Eats app is designed for that. It can help you find local restaurants in major cities in the US and in other countries. It costs about a dollar.

Where Chefs Eat app

“Where Chefs Eat” is a 975-page book. Most people would not want to carry that around. But there is a much lighter app version of the same name for just $15. Six hundred chefs provide information on 3,000 restaurants around the world on the Where Chefs Eat app.