4 . There’s no better way to better understand a foreign culture than through one of its festivals. Here are some interesting festivals in the world.

La Tomatina(Spain)

Last Wednesday of August

This “largest food fight in the world” is believed to have been started with a tomato—but it certainly didn’t end with just one. Now, more than 50,000 people pack the streets of Bunol, Spain, armed with cheap tomatoes, ready to pelt friends and strangers alike. Gloves and safety glasses are suggested as the battle can get quite heated, even though it lasts just an hour. While past years allowed anyone and everyone to take part, the large number of attendees pushed town officials to require tickets.

National Beer Day(Iceland)

March 1

It’s no secret that Icelanders are fond of a bit of partying. After all, when there are days when the sun won’t stop shining, it makes sense to throw a few back to celebrate. However, it wasn’t that long ago(1989) that Iceland was still under a form of prohibition(禁酒令) and unable to sell beer. When the laws were passed to make beer legal on March 1,1989, Icelanders were excited and have since celebrated National Beer Day each March 1 with pub dances and other celebrations that last until the early hours of the morning. Beer has since become the most popular drink in the country.

Lopburi Monkey Banquet(盛宴)(Thailand)

Last Sunday in November

If you’ve ever come in close contact with monkeys, you know that they’re often a bit troublesome, taking a sandwich from your hand without warning or breaking into your hotel minibar if you forget to lock the doors(true story). However, in 1989, in Lopburi, Thailand, a local innkeeper decided to feed the monkeys a banquet as they’re also believed to bring good luck. Thus, a tradition was born and the banquet has grown each year. As the monkeys run into the banquet, they soon get a bit excited and start dancing on the tables and throwing food. For visitors, it’s a highly enjoyable sight—just be sure to wear clothes that you don’t mind being decorated by the monkeys.

5 . It was around the 4th grade when I started noticing that I didn’t fit in that well with a lot of kids in my grade. While the other girls were starting to wear make-up, style their hair, and only wear fashionable clothing, I stayed the same. At first I didn’t care, but then I started to feel a little worried. I was afraid that the other girls wouldn’t like me. I wanted to be like them, but I really hated that.

After I entered the 5th grade my mom found a local vocal studio. I had always loved to sing, and taking lessons seemed like fun. I was thrown into a brilliant world of music. Something inside me just clicked, and I had finally found where I belonged. Music gave me a place of my own in the world.

Starting voice lessons was the first of many times that music has changed my life. In the 7th grade, I really didn’t fit in at middle school. Being an athlete is what made you popular, and I was not super athletic. Music saved me again. Every day I knew I could come home from school and sing. I would become someone else. I would let the music fill my body and shine its light in the darkest corners. The light gave me strength. I became friends with other people who were into music. Music also gave me courage.

Friedrich Nietzsche once said, “Life without music would be a mistake.” This is true for me. Without music, my life would be a mistake. Maybe I would have found another hobby, but I doubt that it would help and change me the way music did. I know that music had changed my life.

8 . Amid polite applause (掌声), the speaker walked slowly toward the stage. When he ____, he set down a pile of notes and took a long breath that could be ____. After pulling his necktie hard and adjusting his eyeglasses, he finally ____ the room’s back wall with a slight frown on his face.

“It’s a great pleasure to be here today,” he said. “I have a message of extreme ___ for you.”

Many people in the ____ were already fidgeting (坐立不安). It was ____ that their attention was focused elsewhere. Ten seconds after it began, the speech was ____ over. Why?

To begin with, the speaker set himself up for ____ by sending his listeners a double-edged message. What they ____ was completely different from what they heard, and when this happened, the audience ____ only what they saw!

Even though the speaker’s words expressed ____ in addressing the audience, his ____ messages said, “I don’t want to be here.” Those same words showed that his speech was important to his ____, but his body indicated that his message wasn’t important to him. At the same time, his facial expression gave the appearance that he ____ very little about his audience.

None of these messages was performed consciously ( 有意识地); they were caused by simple nervousness and inexperience. Yet they marked this ____ speaker as insincere (不真诚), even though he was none of those things.

9 . When Marybeth Hearn was 10 years old, she asked her parents to let her train a dog to become a guide dog. It turned into a lifelong thing. Over more than fifty years, Hearn has raised 56 dogs to help visually impaired (视力受损的) people. But her influence doesn’t end there — the longtime high school teacher has encouraged several of her family members and some of her students to train many more.

When she looked to her parents for support years ago, things were different from what she expected. Her mom didn’t like dogs, and her dad doubted she would be able to find any money to pay for the cost of the training. However, Hearn presented the project at a Lions Club and raised $2, 500. So on a sunny summer day in 1962, the family drove home with a black Lab named Letta, the first of a long series of dog trainees.

Two sons and a granddaughter have followed in Hearn’s footsteps, but her greatest influence has come from guiding student trainers, who since 1992 have worked through a school club with 170 dogs that ended up in different service posts. They spend 14 months with each dog teaching them skills. The dogs live full-time with the students, attending their classes and field trips to become socialized.

The dogs then go to trainers employed by Guide Dogs for the Blind, an organization that partners with the program, before graduating and being paired with two-legged companions. Those that aren’t up to the difficult task of helping the blind can become other kinds of service animals. Often students attend the graduations and help pass the dogs on.

“I love seeing the look on kids’ faces ... when they get to see that dog again after three or four months and the dog remembers them,” Hearn said. “It’s a great feeling.”

10 . On Monday, American ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson and her partner Jim Morrison reached the summit of 26,781-foot Manaslu, the eighth-highest mountain in the world. Soon after the 49-year-old Nelson began her descent（下降）on skis，she triggered small avalanche（雪崩）and was swept away. On Wednesday, Morrison found her body.

“Often times in life, people want to play it safe, and we make everything around us to be comfortable and safe,” ski mountaineer Hilaree Nelson once said. “Therefore, we can make choices where you can see where that road is going to take you, and I've always been tending to make a choice that I don't know where it's going to take me.”

Nelson, a National Geographic Explorer, had a distinctive sense of travel that led her through more than 40 expeditions to 16 countries. In 2012, six years later, Nelson returned to Lhotse to become the first to ski from its summit.

She was deeply respected for both her extensive big-mountain experience, and her mindful approach to life's challenges. In 2018, Nelson was named captain of the North Face Athlete Team, a title only one other athlete has held. A National Geographic Society grantee, she was also one of the winners of the 2018 National Geographic Adventurer of the Year award. Despite her many super-hero accomplishments, friends recall her as a thoughtful presence and quiet leader, someone who never sought the limelight.

Throughout her career, Nelson struggled at times with the expectations and limitations of being a woman, a mother, and a professional adventurer---and becoming a role model for younger generations of female athletes in the process. “Nelson paved the way for women in the adventure sports space with her refusal to choose between motherhood and her athletic career," says Emily Harrington, a climber who joined her on the Hkakabo Razi expedition. “ She followed her passion as well as raising her family with a mix of courage and grace in a way only a true leader could.”