1 . After a busy school year, there’s nothing wrong with sleeping late and watching TV or playing video games all day—at least for the first week or two of your summer vacation. But summer is also the best time to have loads of fun and prepare yourself for the next school year or the world beyond the classroom.     1    

Start by learning a new hobby. Is there something you’ve always wanted to learn, but didn’t think you could?     2     For example, you can try a new art form like photography or knitting (编织).

And signing up to volunteer would make a difference to your summer vacation.     3     If you’re an animal lover, you might volunteer at a local animal rescue center. If you enjoy spending time with senior citizens, you might volunteer at a local nursing home. Contacting nonprofits in your district is a great way to get started volunteering over the summer.    4     You can use your experiences as inspiration for a college admissions paper or other writing task in high school.

    5     The outlook of college is very exciting, especially if you’re a rising junior or senior. Every college has a website, so start by visiting college websites that have majors that interest you. You can also read college review websites to get a sense of things like how much colleges cost and what students think about their schools.

3 . For the holiday gathering, you may be wondering how you’re going to pull it off. Before we go into the specifics, a few words of general advice: You don’t have to throw the party your parents did.     1    

We talked to a party-planning expert, Miller. Here’s her advice on how to host a stress-free holiday gathering without losing your mind.

The best way to avoid being exhausted is to be prepared. Many seasoned hosts set their tables several days in advance. “Always pretend your event is a few days before.” Miller says.    3     She recommends cleaning the house, rounding up an extra dining chair and buying drinks a few days in advance.

Before you choose your menu, determine your serving style.     4     If you’ve got the space for it, a family-style meal — where people sit around a table and food is passed on big plates — can cut down on the need for complicated decorations. “Food can be part of the design, so you’re not going crazy with flowers or anything,” she says.

The pandemic has made takeout an option not only for family dinners, but also for entertaining, because many restaurants now offer specific holiday dinner dishes to take home.     5     “You can do a party with literally no cooking,” Ramos says. “I like to live in the in-between, but it’s up to you.” Time- and stress-savers include relying on make-ahead dishes.

5 . Ways to Make the Most of Your Summer Vacation

After a busy school year, there’s nothing wrong with watching TV, sleeping late or playing video games all day long. However, summer is the best time to have fun and prepare yourself for the next school year or the world beyond the classroom.     1    .

• Take a course to learn to cook. Nothing surprises and delights a family more than a teenager who can cook. You can contact community centers in your area to find out about cooking class offerings.    2     — look through your family cookbooks, choose a dish, gather the ingredients (原料) and follow the directions.

• Play a new sport to keep healthy.     3    . Consider tennis, swimming or golf. Playing an individual sport also looks great on a college application. Local sports clubs are the best places to look for beginner classes.

• Volunteer to make a difference. Choose volunteer opportunities based on the things that matter most to you.     4    , if you enjoy spending time with senior citizens. Try to keep a journal of your volunteer experiences. You can use your experiences as inspiration for writing tasks in high school.

•     5    . College life is very exciting, especially if you’re a rising junior or senior. Every college has a website, so start by visiting college websites that have majors that interest you. You can also read college review websites to get a sense of things like how much colleges cost and what students think about their schools.

6 . Kids’ birthday parties are wonderfully fun for all, but in the way that they are traditionally celebrated, they are the enemy of “zero waste living”. A kid’s birthday party can produce lots of waste, from the plates, cups, and uneaten food, to the gift wrap, present boxes, and disposable (一次性的) decorations.

It doesn’t have to be like that, though, as it is possible to hold a birthday party without waste. Here are some ideas on how to cut down on unnecessary waste and have a fun celebration.

Forget the themed paper invitations; they get thrown away almost immediately anyway.     1     The mobile phone is a common communication tool which enables your guests to receive the invitation at any time.

    2     Stay away from them altogether, including balloons. If you must decorate, choose some reusable, classic decorations that can be pulled out every single year, such as colored lights. Make your own painted and personalized banner, paper hats, and so on. Keep them for the next year.

Don’t overdo the food preparation.     3     So you should put out only what is necessary, rather than ending up with loads of leftovers that are potentially ruined by the kids. Keep the rest for other meals. If other parents bring food, ask them to bring it in reusable containers.

The gift giving part of a birthday party can produce a lot of unappealing trash, which is why you should choose an alternative. My kids have gone to several “toonie parties (a toonie is a two-dollar coin in Canada), where each guest gives two dollars in their card and that money can be used by the birthday child to buy a single toy.     4    

In my years of parenting, I’ve realized that kids mostly just want to play together.     5     In other words, you don’t need to worry about it not feeling like a birthday. Furthermore, it will be a new and improved version that doesn’t include massive bags of trash at the end of the day.

7 . Celebrating the harvest around the world

A harvest festival is a celebration of the fall months and the harvest that often accompanies these months.    1    

Canada

In Canada, people celebrate their harvest on Thanksgiving.     2     The English explorer Martin Frobisher (1535-1594) came upon the land, searching for the "New World". As he arrived in Canada in 1578, he celebrated surviving the long journey by holding a formal celebration and eating salt beef and peas.

Today, it has become a recognized holiday in the country that falls on the second Monday in October.     3     One of the highlights (高潮) of the holiday is a big Thanksgiving Day meal, which usually includes turkey and breads, which are prepared and presented in a unique Canadian way.

United Kingdom

Harvest festival activities are considered a special time for communities to come together in celebration. The harvest festival may start with carrying baskets of fruits and vegetables to a local church where people sing praise songs for a healthy harvest while praying for future harvests.     4     Large dinners may also be hosted where eache member brings a special dish to share with each other.

China

In 2018, the Farmers' Harvest Festival was launched in China. It's held on the day of the autumn equinox (秋分), which falls roughly on Sept 22 or 23.     5     In Jiaxing, Zhejiang province, farmers brought 100 seed varieties to the main site of the ceremony in Hanhu district and placed them in a wall to mark the achievements of the seed industry. In Heilongjiang province, the festival was combined with local traditions of the Daur people and the locals danced around bonfires.

8 . On the last day of each year, it has become a ceremony for large crowds to gather in the brightly lit chaos of New York’s Times Square to ring in new beginnings.     1     At the stroke of midnight, the crowd erupts into loud cheers.

    2     Because of the coronavirus pandemic, no one was allowed to gather in person, but there will be a virtual event for those wanting to watch it from home. This marked the first year that crowds were prohibited from flocking to Times Square. Though the ball drop was canceled for two years during World War II, people still came to observe the tradition and hold a minute of silence.

Over the past century, the shining ball has evolved from an iron and wood cage decorated with light bulbs to a colorful crystal object.     3     The Times Square ball began thanks to a metalworker, named Jacob Starr and the former New York Times publisher, Adolph Ochs. In 1907 Ochs commissioned Starr, who worked for sign-making firm Strauss Signs to create a new visual display. The new concept was based on time balls, nautical (航海的) devices that had gained popularity in the 19^th century. As time-telling became more precise, ship navigators (领航员) needed a standardized way to set their chronometers (精密计时表). Each day, harbors and observatories would raise and lower a metal ball at the same time to allow sailors to set their clocks to match the ball.     4    

Though Manhattan had been partially lit by electricity since the early 1880s, half of the American homes were still lit by gas lights and candles until the 1920s.     5       It was instantly popular.