2 . Teenagers in England do much the same as children in America do. They enjoy sending messages by their mobile phones and they also like swimming, listening to the latest music, watching TV and surfing the Internet.

How do teenagers in England spend their free time and holidays? Let’s follow Sally, a British teenager, and spend five days with her during her school holiday.

Day One

After breakfast, Sally’s mother went out and left her alone at home. She checked her mobile phone during lunch—one of her friends sent her a message early in the morning. Dinner was at 6:30 pm. After that, she finished her English homework. Then she surfed the Internet.

Day Two

Sally and her mother paid a visit to their friends and went swimming together. Later, they went shopping for clothes and books, and had dinner in a restaurant.

Day Three

She went to the supermarket with her mother to buy fish and chips for lunch as well as some pens. After she got back home, she spent the next few hours surfing the Internet and watching TV.

Day Four

She surfed the Internet. Her mother took her out for lunch before she went to work. She then read stories after lunch.

Day Five

She woke up at 2 pm, and so did her mother. They went to a park. Her mother met some friends there. When they got home, it was already time for dinner. Afterwards, she did her homework until 10 pm.

3 . Forty-nine years ago, on April 22, 1970, twenty million Americans took to the streets to voice their concern about the deteriorating environment. The movement led to Earth Day.

Unfortunately, our planet is in worse shape now than it was when Earth Day was first celebrated. The good news is that it's still not too late to reverse（转变）climate change if we all do our part. This Earth Day, take the first step towards helping our planet by participating in one of these fun activities.

NASA is putting our planet up for adoption so you and your friend can apply for a portion（份额）of the planet as your own. The space agency has divided the globe into 64,000 sections, each about 55 miles wide. All you have to do is type your name into NASA's “Adopt the Planet” site and you will be offered the location of your “slice of paradise（天堂）”complete with details of its environment and climate. NASA hopes that this activity will inspire interest and care about our planet.

Search giant Google is also trying to engage the public with an updated Google Earth focused on Earth Day events. Through a new Voyager feature, users will be able to discover stories from around the world, learn about new places by reading “Knowledge Cards” and send postcards.

If you happen to be anywhere near the nation's capital on April 22, join the millions that are expected to participate in the Earth Day March at the National Mail. The mission of the event that will feature guest speakers and musical performances is to mobilize（动员）citizens into taking action by promoting this year's Earth Day theme；climate and environmental science literacy.

While participating in the above-mentioned activities is a great idea, it is just the beginning. All that is required are small lifestyle changes. Planting a tree or two, going meatless just one day a week, or switching your plastic water bottle for a reusable one will go a long way to help reverse the damage we have caused.

4 . USA TODAY 10Best's Readers Choice Awards are currently on hold.We asked our readers to vote for the top events across six categories:music,general food,specialty food,film,cultural and emerging industries(founded in the past five years).These are some of the winners:

The nine-day Kutztown Folk Festival is the nation's oldest continuously operated folk life festival,drawing visitors from around the globe.A celebration of Pennsylvania Dutch culture and heritage,the event includes America's largest quilt sale,200 craftsmen and folk artists,local food and family friendly entertainment.

The Water Lantern Festival is all about connections.Magical nights in cities across the US include food,live music and the beauty of thousands of lanterns decorated with letters of love, hope and dreams floating on the water.

The Quebec Carnaval is a 10-day festival of winter,the world's largest,complete with nighl parades(庆祝游行），ice skating,snow sculptures and a towering ice palace.Other highlighls include ice canoe racing,a sugar shack and iconic Caribou drinks.

San Francisco has celebrated its Chinese heritage during its annual Chinese New Year Festival&Parade since just after the Gold Rush.The parade ranks among the best in the world, with 100 units,fancy costumes,fireworks and a 268-foot Golden Dragon,which takes a team of 100 men and women to march through the streets.It has become one of the largest events of its kind in the world,drawing some three million spectators and television viewers.

5 . The Torch Festival (火把节) is a traditional festival which is celebrated among some ethnic groups in southwestern China, such as the Yi, Bai, Hani, Lisu, and Lahu, etc. It usually falls on the 24th or 25th of June, with three days of celebrations. The festival came from worship (崇拜) of fire by ancestors (祖先). For some ethnic groups, it’s a tradition in the festival for elders to share farming experience with young people and educate them about taking care of crops.

During the festival, big torches are made to stand in all villages, with small torches placed in front of the door of each house. When night falls, the torches are lit and the villages are bright. At the same time, people walk around the fields and houses, holding small torches and placing the torches in the field corners. Inside the villages, young people are singing and dancing around the big torches that keep burning throughout the night. Other activities like horse races are also held during the festival.

In a horse race of the Yi people in Yunnan, torches are used to form hurdles for riders to get through. The Hani people in Yunnan traditionally tie fruits to torches with strings. When the strings are broken after the torches are lit, people struggle for the fruits for good luck.

For the Lisu people in Sichuan, the festival is an occasion for holding torch parades. Big torches are carried by teams of people, which is like a fire dragon. If different teams meet, it’s a tradition to exchange the big torches with one another.

6 . The Sahara Festival is a celebration of the very recent past. The three-day event is not fixed to the same dates each year, but generally takes place in November or December. It is well attended by tourists, but even better attended by the locals.   

During the opening ceremonies, after the official greetings from the government leaders, people who attend the festival begin to march smartly before the viewing stands, and white camels transport their riders across the sands. Horsemen from different nations display their beautiful clothes and their fine horsemanship. One following another, groups of musicians and dancers from all over the Sahara take their turn to show off their wonderful traditional culture. Groups of men in blue and yellow play horns and beat drums as they dance in different designs. On their knees in the sand, a group of women in long dark dresses dance with their hair: their long, dark, shiny hair is thrown back and forth in the wind to the rhythm of their dance.   

The local and visiting Italian dogs are anxious to run after hares. The crowd is on its feet for the camel races. Camels and riders run far into the distance, and then return to the finish Line in front of the cheering people.   

Towards the evening, there comes the grand finale of the opening day, an extremely exciting horserace. All the riders run very fast on horseback. Some riders hang off the side of their saddles（马鞍）. Some even ride upside down—their legs and feet straight up in the air—all at full speed. Others rush down the course together, men arm in arm, on different horses. On and on they went. So fast and so wonderful!

7 . Most people buy a lot of gifts just before Christmas. But some people think we buy too much. They have started a special day called Buy Nothing Day.     1    .

Buy Nothing Day is November 29. It’s 25 days before Christmas. It’s after Thanksgiving and often the first day of Christmas shopping.     2    .

The idea for Buy Nothing Day started in Vancouver, British Columbia.     3     In California, parents, and children get together to read stories, sing songs, and paint pictures. The children talk about why they don’t need a lot of toys. This year, in Manchester, England, people dressed up in costumes to tell people that we buy too much.

In Albuquerque, New Mexico, high school students, wanted to tell other students about Buy Nothing Day. They organized a spaghetti dinner to give people information about Buy Nothing Day.     4     They made posters and talked to other students about it.     5     The students at high schools liked the idea of this new tradition. Next year, they want to have another dinner to tell more people about Buy Nothing Day!