1 . Portland Rose Festival 2021

May, 2021

Multiple Locations in Portland

The Portland Rose Festival, for more than a hundred years,begins the summer with Memorial Weekend festivities. The celebration lasts about two weeks and includes fireworks, all-floral and light parades, a city fair, boat races, a half marathon, live music, fleet week and ends with the Rose Cup Races. Children enjoy the Junior Rose Festival with their own parade and a royal court. The Rose Festival Court is made up of high school girls as part of a scholarship program.

Rocklahoma Music Festival 2021

May, 2021

Catch the Fever Music, Pryor, Oklahoma

The annual rock festival, known as Rocklahoma, is back for another rockin’ year! The rock festival takes place in Pryor, Oklahoma over several days. The festival is an outdoor, all-ages event. The show is divided into four main stages, with the biggest names in rock taking over. Concert-goers are encouraged to camp out on the grounds and stay close to the action.

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival 2021

June, 2021

Manchester, Tennessee

Bonnaroo Music and Arts Festival is an iconic annual event in Manchester, Tennessee that features four days of assorted styles of music, art, camping, comedy and much more. There is plenty of music, art, comedians and other activities to keep everyone moving in this great, friendly atmosphere. The view is amazing, the festival is life changing and attendance is growing each year.

Tomorrow world 2021

September, 2021

Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia

Tomorrow world is an unforgettable venue based on Belgium’s Tomorrow land. Hidden deep in the forest of Chattahoochee Hills, Georgia, the landscape is breathtaking full of lush green foliage. As a result, their annual festival is a perfect mix of nature and creative fun.

Jingxi Taiping Drum is a traditional form of dancing. With its display of profound cultural elements, it     1    (include) in the first batch (批次) of China’s national intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) items in 2006.

The     2    (early) historical references of this art date back to the Spring and Autumn Period. At the beginning of the Qing Dynasty, it started to gain     3    (popular) in and around the capital, and then it was introduced to Mentougou District of Beijing.

In ancient times, the drums were played     4     New Year’s Eve at the imperial palace to bring peace. As a result, the performance also became known as the “New Year Drum” by Beijingers. This type of drum dance is commonly seen     5    (perform) during the last and first month of the lunar year in many local festive activities, thus expressing people’s hope of     6     peaceful and prosperous year to come.

During a given performance, drummers perform various dance moves while     7    (hold) the drum in their left hands and a mallet (球棍) in their right hands. Traditional Chinese aesthetic (美学的) concepts are reflected in the drum playing, all of     8     represent distinctive local features.

In the past decades, efforts     9    (make) by Mentougou District to preserve this signature folk dance culture. Today, the time-honored folk art of the Jingxi Taiping Drum is being taken up by the young people     10     is presenting its lively artistic charm (魅力) on a global stage.

TV Drama Puts the Spotlight on Ancient Tea Art

A Dream of Splendor, a 40-episode TV drama     1    (broadcast) on Tencent Video platform, has become a hit recently. The series features China’s traditional tea acrobatics(高难度动作), which are also one of the intangible cultural heritage     2    (item) in China.  

Chinese tea culture has witnessed a long history    3     the Tang Dynasty (618-907). It flourished throughout the Song Dynasty,     4     the popular way of having tea became dian cha — a kind of tea art. It is     5     delicate technique that starts from pouring hot water over fine powdered tea to make it mushy(糊状的). Then more hot water is added slowly while the tea is     6    (constant) stirred by hand with a bamboo stick to create froth(泡沫), which can be used     7    (draw) patterns on the surface of it. This action of pouring hot water is called dian,     8    (give) this art the name dian cha, while the art of using water to draw on the tea is called Cha Bai Xi.  

This old practice not only makes drinking tea more    9    (enjoy), but also enhances the taste of it. It’s common to see coffee art in modern society, while tea art is relatively little-known. This popular TV series brings this intangible cultural heritage to more audiences and     10    (spread) traditional Chinese tea culture.

7 . Australians are pretty (大胆的) when it comes to humor. Not afraid of saying something insulting (冒犯的) in the name of a good laugh, they generally don’t hold back. This is always done in fun, however.

You get yourself a haircut before going to meet your new Aussie friend. You’re expecting to be praised, but what you hear is, “Did you have a fight with a lawnmower (割草机)?’’ You might take this as an insult, but it’s just your friend’s way of saying that you’ve had a haircut.

Your friend comes knocking at your bedroom door one morning to tell you’re late for class. You were up studying late the night before and you look a mess. Your friend thinks you need to put a brush through your hair before leaving, but instead of just saying so he says, “Wow. Your hair looks like a bush pig’s airse.’’ He’s trying to be nice.

Australia is one of cultures on this planet where making fun of someone is a sign of friendship. If you find yourself being made fun of lots, it could be that you’ve scored yourself a whole lot of new friends. Consider yourself lucky -- these insults are all part of building a relationship.

Australians also use a lot of sarcasm (讽刺). You foolishly say something that’s obvious (明显的). For example, “A six pack of beer is named after the number of beers you get in the pack, the number being six.’’ A normal answer would be, “That is the most obvious statement I’ve ever heard”, but an Australian would say, “Really? You’re so clever”.

Now let’s say your teacher tells you that there will be a test the following day. Australians might say, “Great. I can’t wait to add preparing for a test to my already long to-do list. Thank you for this gift.“

With a history of more than 2,000 years, the Silk Route dates back to Han dynasty. Through this route, the Chinese highly qualified silk made     1    (it) fame to the Western countries. The merchants in different regions     2    (seek) the opportunity of trading Chinese silk and they indeed made their fortune along this route. That route functioned     3     the life blood of international trade at that time. Meanwhile, the Chinese civilization     4    (introduce) to the Western countries and vice versa. The Silk Route was considered as a new chapter     5    (record) the friendship between the European and Asian peoples.

Throughout all these years, many great figures have made significant     6    (contribute) to the development of the Silk Route. Today, the Silk Route has a poetic name called One Belt One Road, aiming to help those     7    (connect) regions in culture and economy exchange with     8     more advanced road. The main cities alongside it are becoming     9    (large) and more important in helping trade and culture exchange. Many countries have gained great benefits along the trading process. All in all, the ancient Silk Road is more like a historical textbook for everyone to read and to know about     10     happened during that ancient time. It has been playing a significant role in the development of the civilizations of China.

9 . Many of China’s ancient architectural treasures crumbled into dust before Lin Huiyin and Liang Sicheng began documenting them in the 1930s. The husband and wife team were among the first preservationists to operate in China, and by far the best known. Their efforts have since inspired generations of people to speak out for architecture threatened by the rapid development.

Becoming China’s best architectural historians was no easy accomplishment. The buildings they wanted to save were centuries old, often located in distant parts of the country. In many cases, they had to journey through dangerous conditions in the Chinese countryside to reach them. Exploring China’s remote areas during the 1930s meant traveling muddy, poorly maintained (养护) roads by mule (骡子), or on foot. Inns (客栈) were often dirty, food could be polluted, and there was always risk of violence from rebels, soldiers and robbers.

Their greatest discovery was the Temple of Buddha’s Light, in Wutai County, Shanxi Province. The breathtaking wooden temple was rebuilt in 857 A.D., making it the oldest building known in China at the time.

Liang and Lin crawled into the temple’s most forbidding, forgotten areas to determine its age, including one hideaway inhabited by thousands of bats and millions of bedbugs, covered in dust and littered with dead bats. “In complete darkness and among awful smell, hardly breathing, with thick masks covering our noses and mouths, we measured, drew, and photographed with flashlights for several hours. When at last we came out to take a breath of fresh air, we found hundreds of bedbugs in our bag. We ourselves had been badly bitten. Yet the importance and unexpectedness of our find made those the happiest hours of my years hunting for ancient architecture.” Liang wrote of the experience in an account included in the book “Liang and Lin: Partners in Exploring China’s Architectural Past”.