1 . Trying to motivate yourself to exercise can sometimes feel like a fruitless attempt. Here are some tips on setting your mind on getting active, and getting fit.

Make your fitness goals known. Tell your family, friends and co-workers about your fitness goals and encourage them to ask you how your goals come along.     1    

Make an appointment with your doctor. Ask the doctor about your health condition and how becoming more physically fit can help you become healthier.     2     A government study found just three hours of advice by doctors over two years helped improve couch potatoes’ physical fitness.

    3     If you’re new to exercise, it’ll be better to have a fitness professional set your goals rather than doing it alone. That means setting the weights on machines for you, determining how long you should walk or run, or giving you a time limit for the running machines.

Consider healthy living, not just workouts. Even if you spend three hours a week in the gym, what of the other 100-plus waking hours each week? Fit people keep energetic during their entire day.     4     You can simply stand up and walk around whenever you get on the phone and always take the stairs, not the lift.

Do it for charity.     5     If you fall into that category, then find a way to use your charitable nature to motivate yourself to exercise. For example, donate & 1 for every mile you walk. Or commit to several fund-raising events that involve walking, biking, dancing, or a sports match.

4 . Beijing Opera appeared in the Qing Dynasty. In 1790, many opera troupes (戏班) went to Beijing for performances to celebrate the birthday of Qianlong. This kind of unusual performance touched the hearts of the people deeply. While in Beijing, the troupes created a new kind of opera called Beijing Opera. It was on the basis of Anhui Opera by taking in the advantages of other operas.

Beijing Opera is quite unique in role shaping because it divides the roles into different kinds. They are sheng, dan, jing and chou which are quite different in many ways.

A popular song goes like this, “Foreigners call Jingxi Beijing Opera.” In fact, Beijing Opera is different from opera. Opera tells the story and expresses the thoughts by singing instead of speaking. But Beijing Opera stresses chang, nian, zuo and da. Chang means singing, nian means musical spoken parts, zuo means dance movements and da means martial (武打) skills.

Mei Lanfang was an excellent performing artist of Beijing Opera in China. In 1930, he led an opera troupe to America and presented Beijing Opera before Western people. Today, Beijing Opera has become the sign of Chinese culture. It is changing with the development of different musical styles.

5 . There are a lot of music festivals to look forward to in the coming months.

Firefly Music Festival

Many people have thought of going to Delaware for a summer vacation, and mid June is a great time to plan a trip if you love music.

Date: June 14—June 17

Place: Delaware, the USA

Music Type: Country Music

Roskilde Festival

This music festival has a long history since 1971. What’s interesting about this festival is that you can get to know some artists from different countries.

Date: June 30—July 10

Place: Cambridge, England

Music Type: Rock

Secret Solstice

Come to Paris. Not only will you have great music in the Secret Solstice, but you can also visit some old museums.

Date: June 21—June 24

Place: Paris, France

Music Type: Folk Music

Montreal International Jazz Festival

All jazz lovers should come to the Montreal International Jazz Festival at least once in a lifetime. This event brings together some of the best musicians.

Date: June 28—July 7

Place: Montreal, Canada

Music Type: Jazz

6 . I devote myself to music because of my grandmother. My mum and I lived with my grandparents from the time I was two until I was eight. And even then, I was at their house before and after school every day while my mother was _______. 

Grandma loved music. It was she that first _______ me to Elvis Presley as a very young child, and once I heard his music, I was truly in_______with it. Most five-year-olds ask for toys for birthdays, but I wanted Elvis’ albums. I would play them non-stop and _______ to the music in my grandma’s family room though my movements didn’t look_______. 

Grandma played the piano and _______ me to sing “America the Beautiful” and “Somewhere over the Rainbow”. I finally started playing music on the piano, and soon grandma was paying for me to take piano lessons from a lady living in the _______. I would come home from_______ and walk there for my lesson. I _______ took about nine months of lessons, but it was enough to give me a foundation and allow me to continue to teach myself. 

Last month when I came home to visit grandma in the hospital, I brought along my guitar with me. She was in great pain, but the music seemed to__________ her soul. She had me sing some songs and when I started to sing “Somewhere over the Rainbow”, her weakened voice__________ in with mine for a few lines. That experience was one of the most __________ of my lifetime and one I will certainly cherish forever. I told her of my music career and she was very __________ and said, “That’s wonderful!” I __________ to play for her throughout the week I was home. 

My grandma passed away two days ago. In my opinion, part of her will live on through every __________ I write or sing for her in my life.

7 . It must sound crazy for a person who is blind and deaf to be a doctor. But that's what Alexandra Adams is struggling for.

Born blind and deaf, this young woman never ___________. She has no vision in ___________ eye and just 5 percent in the other. Her deafness was ___________ when her parents realized their dog was barking next to their baby girl but she didn't ___________. Alexandra’s speech is ___________, which is very unusual in someone deaf since birth because her mum would teach her to speak with a balloon between them. Her parents were keen that she stayed in mainstream education and she made it. She had extra support—a classroom _________ was assigned to help her copy notes and kept up academically. ___________making friends was harder as no one wanted to talk to her. So she always felt lonely.

Aged 16, Alexandra spent most of the year in hospital. It was there that she decided to be a _________. Later Alexandra _________ in applying to a medical school. Now as a fourth-year medical student. Alexandra is now ______________to become the first doctor in Britain who is ______________both deaf and blind. It's ____________that her would-be profession will not welcome this young woman, but she is determined to be a(n) ______________.

Modern ____________ has helped Alexandra a lot. She can't read X-ray print, so she takes photos and enlarges the print on her smart phone which is vital to connect her hearing aid via Bluetooth with a high-tech stethoscope (听诊器).

Alexandra is a campaigner on ____________ issues and has started a support group to serve people with special needs.