1 . International Day of Education

24 January

Education is a human right, a public good and a public responsibility. The United Nations General Assembly proclaimed (宣布) 24 January as International Day of Education, in celebration of the role of education for peace and development. Today, 250 million children and youth are out of school, and 763 million adults are illiterate (文盲的). Their right to education is being violated (侵犯) and it is unacceptable. It’s time to transform education.

International Day of Clean Energy

26 January

The International Day of Clean Energy on 26 January was declared by the General Assembly as a call to raise awareness and mobilize action for a just and inclusive transition (过渡) to clean energy for the benefit of people and the planet. 26 January is also the founding date of the International Renewable Energy Agency (IRENA), a global intergovernmental agency established in 2009 to support countries in their energy transitions.

World Health Day

7 April

It is celebrated annually and each year draws attention to a specific health topic of concern to people all over the world. The date of 7 April marks the anniversary of the founding of WHO in 1948.

The theme for World Health Day 2024 is “My health, my right”, which was chosen to champion the right of everyone, everywhere to have access to quality health services, education and information, as well as safe drinking water, clean air, good nutrition, quality housing, decent working and environmental conditions.

World Environment Day

5 June

World Environment Day, held annually on 5 June, brings together millions of people from across the globe, engaging them in the effort to protect and restore the Earth. People from more than 150 countries participate in this United Nations international day, which celebrates environmental action and the power of governments, businesses and individuals to create a more sustainable world. The event has been led by the United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) since its start in 1973.

2 . Accents in English

Accents are fascinating and usually come with kinds of information.     1    . So many people, especially actors, are interested in learning accents.

Thanks to the development of technology, various handy accesses are available for people to share and pick up accents. English actor and accent coach Sarah Valentine is an expert in teaching the tones which can change the English language.     2    .

Valentine has been working in TV since the 1990s. She appears to have found success coaching other actors to speak in a variety of dialects.     3    , TikTok is a medium to educate the masses. Valentine’s TikTok takes simple phrases, such as “I’m hungry” or “the milk smells funny”. Valentine then repeats these simple words in accents including German, Dutch, and New York. She also highlights the rich variety of dialects within the UK, including Yorkshire, Scouse, Cockney, Geordie, Welsh, and Northern Irish.

“    4    ,” James Lantolf, a professor at Penn State, said. “Isolated (偏僻的) areas, such as New Orleans, develop different dialects. Since there is no contact between regions, entire words and languages can grow and develop independently. Social standing and education also affect the language of an individual person.” It is thought that accents have psycho-social purposes, allowing individuals to identify oneself and others as part of a group.

Everyone has an accent. A dialect coach like Valentine can help one learn to speak differently, for an acting job or for fun.     5    . Learning a second language as an adult is difficult; for much the same reason, it’s tricky to change your accent. With that in mind, watching Valentine change accents at the drop of a hat is all the more impressive.

3 . REGISTRATION OPENS FOR STUDENT ROBOTICS 2024

We’re excited to announce that registration for the 2024 season of Student Robotics is now open! Based in the UK, Student Robotics challenges teams of 16 to 19 year-olds to design, build and program fully autonomous robots to compete in our annual competition. Teams will have just three months to engineer their creations. As well as supplying teams with a kit, which they can use as a framework for their robot, we mentor (指导) the teams over this period. Thanks to the generosity of our sponsors, we provide all of this to our teams at no cost.

The competition cycle will start with a live streamed Kickstart event on our YouTube Channel. During the event, the game and the structure of the competition will be announced and kits handed out to teams.

The competition year will culminate (达到高潮) in an in-person competition from September 30 to October 1, 2024, which will see the robots compete through a league stage and a seeded knockout. As usual the prizes will recognise not only the teams which come top in the knockouts, but also those who are excellent in other ways.

Details of the game and prizes will be revealed at Kickstart. Details of the Kickstart and competition events will be published when they are available. We expect to confirm places towards the end of August, 2024.

If you would like a chance to compete in Student Robotics 2024, please fill in the entry form with the required information. The deadline of the registration is May 30, 2024. Places are limited, so please click here and sign up soon to avoid disappointment.

We look forward to seeing your teams!

4 . HOW TO DO HARD THINGS

It’s an inconvenient truth that the road to success isn’t a secret. Most of us know exactly what we need to do to improve our lives.     1     We prefer things that feel good and avoid things that we know are hard but most effective. Follow these tips to get hard things done with less struggle.

First, you need to make sure you know what the hard, but effective thing is in the skill or job that you want to improve.     2     It’s usually the thing that creates the output. For writers, it’s writing. For musicians, it’s writing a song. For athletes, it’s doing a workout.

Figure out your why. Make sure you know why you want to do this hard thing.     3     So figure out your why and frequently remind yourself of it. Write it down and put it where you can see it. The stronger your why, the better.

    4     Every day at a particular hour, you will do this hard thing. Pure focus, no multi-tasking. Take it easy at first and gradually lengthen the amount of time you spend on this. Enjoy it, too. You’re a winner and you can do it.

Leave the doubts behind. When you’re doing something hard, your brain will try to find ways to stop doing it. You’ll want to look things up or find easy ways of doing the hard thing. Don’t give in to these tempting arguments during your hard work sessions.     5    

If you keep improving yourself by doing hard things, you’ll be getting better at your targeted skill. So don’t spend too much time working around the hard task. Just do the hard thing instead.

5 . There’s been an enormous amount of progress in language-generating AI over the past couple of years. OpenAI’s GPT-3, for example, is a language generator that’s been trained on 570 GB of text, and is able to write convincing essays. Google, of course, is working on language generators too, and its latest one helps you write like a legendary poet.

Google’s new AI tool, Verse by Verse, allows users to compose a poem using “suggestions” from classic American poets. The AI generates these suggestions based on what it’s collected from reading the poets’ oeuvres. That is, the program uses machine-learning algorithms (算法) to identify the language patterns of a particular poet’s work, then applies those to text it generates as the suggestions.

The tool works by allowing users to select from 22 American poets for the suggestions, including legends like Walt Whitman, Emily Dickinson, and Edgar Allen Poe. After a user has selected up to three poets, they then pick the type of poem they’d like to write. The program offers various poetic forms, and even allows users to select the number of syllables per line.

Users then give the program a first line, and AI generates the rest of the poem. The AI makes suggestions line by line, however, making it more interactive than other top language generator s out there. As far as results, they’re interesting, but not nearly as impressive as GPT-3’s writings.

According to Google engineer Dave Uthus, “The system was trained to have a general understanding of what lines of verse would best follow a previous line of verse. So even if you write on topics not commonly seen in classic poetry, the system will try its best to make lines that are relevant. The widely varying degrees of Verse by Verse output quality show that while good lyrical gems (宝石) may occasionally emerge, further work by the AI team remains to be done.”

7 . The Dragon Boat Festival, also known as the Double Fifth Festival, is a traditional Chinese holiday celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth month of the lunar calendar. It is a time for family reunions, dragon boat races, and the eating of zongzi (rice dumplings wrapped in bamboo leaves).

The Origin of the Festival

The Dragon Boat Festival is said to commemorate the ancient poet Qu Yuan, who drowned himself in the Miluo River during the Warring States period. People paddled dragon boats to search for his body and threw rice dumplings into the river to feed the fish, hoping to prevent them from eating Qu Yuan's body.

Festival Customs

Dragon Boat Races: The most exciting part of the festival is the dragon boat races. Teams of rowers compete in long, narrow boats painted with dragon heads and tails. The races are held on rivers and lakes, attracting crowds of spectators.

Eating Zongzi: Zongzi, made of glutinous rice wrapped in bamboo leaves, are a traditional food eaten during the festival. They can be filled with different ingredients such as red beans, dates, and meat. Eating zongzi is a way to remember Qu Yuan and his patriotism.

Wearing Sachets: Wearing sachets filled with herbs and spices is a custom that is believed to protect people from evil spirits and diseases.

Modern Challenges

However, with the rapid development of society and the popularity of Western festivals, some traditional customs of the Dragon Boat Festival are gradually being forgotten. Many young people are unaware of the significance and origins of the festival, and some even consider it just another holiday to have fun and relax.

Preserving the Tradition

Efforts are being made to preserve and promote the tradition of the Dragon Boat Festival. Cultural festivals and exhibitions are held to educate people about the history and customs of the festival. Schools also organize activities such as dragon boat races and zongzi-making workshops to engage students in the tradition.

8 . A family attempting to travel to Australia without flying have arrived in the country after a three-and-a-half-month journey. Shannon Coggins, Theo Simon and their daughter Rosa, 19, left England to begin their 10 thousand-mile trip to Sydney on 16 August. The family was hoping to make it in time for Ms. Coggins’ sister’s wedding on 28 December.

The family saved up for several years to pay for the trip, which has cost them much more than air tickets would have done. They travelled through Kazakhstan, China, Laos, Thailand and Indonesia, and finally arrived in Dili, hoping to find a boat to cross the Timor Sea to Darwin, Australia. From there they planned to take a bus to Sydney.

“The world is a huge thing, and one personal thing that I do will never make the difference that we need but I want to live by my principles,” Ms. Coggins said. “I want a clean world for my daughter when she’s growing up in the future and the grandchildren. But the world is getting hotter. There is so much going on in Australia here at the moment with floods and fires, and I think we’ve all got to take that seriously.”

“All three of us have campaigned in different ways for action on climate change, so we decided our journey to Australia would have to be as low-carbon as practical,” Mr. Simon said.

The family arrived on the other side of the world just in time. But they said there were many moments during their journey across continents and oceans when they thought they might not make it to Australia. A conflict between Azerbaijan and Armenia, and the danger of travelling through Iran, forced them on a four day detour (绕行) through Russia where Mr. Simon almost get arrested.

“It hasn’t always been easy, but it was worth it”, Mr. Simon added. “We want to keep this beautiful planet, don’t we?”