1 . Whether you are travelling for business or pleasure, every trip needs a little planning. Travel planning doesn’t have to be stressful, though. Here are some simple steps for you.

Start planning in advance.

    1     International trips can take months to plan. Trips during high seasons, like summer vocations, need to be planned further out than trips during low seasons.

    2    

Before you do anything, you need to know how much money you will have for this travel. It is easy to overspend when you are travelling if you don’t plan ahead. So start your planning by working out how much you want to spend on transportation, food, sightseeing and hotels.

Make reservations.

Booking transportation and accommodations in advance is quite necessary. Things like flights, trains and even car rentals can be quite different depending on when and where you book them. It’s worth considering booking accommodations online. There are many reliable websites for booking hotels.     3    

Make a tour routine.

Make your routine simple and clear. You don’t need to plan out every minute of every day.     4     Researching and planning these before you leave allows you to see and do more of you want.

Pack your essentials.

    5     For example, your ID card and mobile phone charges. Check the night before you depart. Check the weather and pack proper clothing for your trip.

3 . I attended a college where every student left it as an all-rounded (全面的) person. The teachers in this college were _________. One of them, in particular, caught my _________ most, not because of his teaching skills but in the _________ he would always bend over and pick any piece of paper _________ on the floor and throw it into the nearest dustbin. On his way to the office, he would always _________ the dustbins to the right position if they were left by the cleaners in a wrong position.

In the beginning, when I _________ him, I used to wonder why? However, growing up with this _________ in mind, I have come to follow the same _________. Walking down the street, I often bend over to pick the paper blown away by wind from the dustbin.

As I look at the puzzled _________ around me whenever I do this, I often __________ the story of the little girl who was walking on the __________ and saw turtles (海龟) washed ashore by the waves __________ to get back in the water. She picked them up one by one and threw them back into the water. One guy walking by asked her why she did this since there were so many of them. She bent down, picked one up, looked at the guy and said, “I cannot __________ all of them, but I can surely make a __________ to this one.” She then threw it back into the ocean.

So, I may not clean the __________ town by picking litter but I can surely leave one pavement clean by doing so, one at a time.

6 . Dede Gardner was born in Chicago in 1967 and studied English at Columbia University. Seventeen years after her graduation, she worked as President of Plan B Entertainment, a production company started by Brad Grey.

At Plan B, Dede finds stories to make into films. Jeremy Kleiner, who is now co-president of Plan B, says Dede was his mentor (导师) before he joined her as a producing partner. “I’ve had the honor to work with her for almost 20 years,” he says. “She’s just a one-of-a-kind person in so many ways. She is very brave and views storytelling as the focus of her films.”

This year, Dede is the only woman to have won two Best Picture Oscars, for Moonlight and 12 Years a Slave. Before, together with Kleiner, she won seven films to Best Picture nominations (提名) including Selma in 2015, The Big Short in 2016 and Minari in 2021.

“Basically, whatever Dede does, it turns to gold,” says Jessie Buckley, one of the stars of Women Talking. “Dede has also changed the culture of making movies. She is always there to make the set feel comfortable when we are obviously coming across difficult things. She’s a great example to follow. She’s very careful with protecting the workers’ voice.”

Dede is actually exploring a much healthier and kinder way to make movies. She’s a producer who consciously thinks about creating a set where there is care. That includes making sure there are therapists (治疗专家) on set for all the workers in case there are emergencies happening.

7 . The Fire Festival is celebrated in northern Ghana. It’s a holiday we had never heard of before we came to live in a village here as Peace Corps community volunteers. It’s unbelievably great.

On the Fire Festival — Bugim Chug u in the local language — drums beat a quick and regular rhythm that locals dance to in a circle of bodies, men and women, the old and young, holding torches of burning grass above their heads, which stands for the light and getting off negative energies.

At this moment, this festival is being held at the beginning of the lunar year. The locals are all so involved in the celebration that they don’t pay as much attention to us as they normally will. When they find us getting involved as they are, they dance more vigorously and scream with joy.

Danielle, a friend of mine in the Peace Corps, says, “That we join in the celebration is significant because foreigners here are typically seen as the representatives of other organizations, not as people who are willing to join in the Fire Festival rituals (仪式). But in fact, we are dancing and celebrating as one.”

Our two-year Peace Corps service will finish up in mid-November. We can think of no better way to say goodbye than by celebrating the Fire Festival with the villagers we’ve come to know. The festival lets us see a different side of them — and lets them see a different side of us. The neighbors who sell rice are now the women who urge us to run faster and dance harder at the Fire Festival. And rather than view us as low-key (低调的) volunteers, they see us as the ones who have crazy dance steps with wild screams.

9 . For as long as I can remember, music has been a special part of my life. Throughout my _________, my family constantly had music playing in our house. I _________ the music that my parents liked, from The Beatles to John Denver to the Irish music that everyone in my family loved. As I grew older, music remained something that was _________ to me. It became more and more meaningful to me as I began to _________ my own taste in music. I started finding songs that I _________ over others, and I found singers that I admired. Taylor Swift was my favorite; I loved her poetic lyrics and I looked up to her as a person. As an idealistic child who loved to daydream, I loved all of Taylor Swift’s passionate _________ about love and the beauty of life.

As I grew older, I began to develop a unique taste in music. I saw the world of music as a place to _________, a place where I could discover who I was and express myself. I loved listening to different types of music and finding my own bands that I liked. My _________ were like a collection to me; I could keep adding more to enjoy and to show to other people. Listening to music was a hobby for me. It allowed me to feel as if I was free to do _________ I wanted to do. I felt happiest when I was listening to music because it was, and _________ is, my favorite thing to do.

I felt a sense of _________ and independence when I could choose whatever I was in the mood to hear, and I loved feeling as if I could use music to _________ myself and my personality. I was a shy and _________ child, but music gave me the ability to be someone else. When I listened to music, I could be whoever I wanted to be. Whenever I felt _________ or afraid, I listened to my favorite music and immediately felt _________ alone. Music has brought me so much joy in my life that I would not trade for anything.