1 . Did you know that creating a product that fails terribly could get you featured in a museum? Hundreds of failed products and inventions are getting attention and appreciation in the Museum of Failure in Hollywood.

It is the brainchild of Samuel West, a Swedish psychologist who created it to change the way people think about failure. “Failure is necessary for any kind of progress,” West said. It had a traveling exhibition in Shanghai in 2019 with over 100 “failed” products from big-name companies such as Nokia, Apple and Coca-Cola. “I really hope you see that these well-known brands that everybody respects screw up too,” West told the New York Times.

West's opinion isn't new. The famed physicist Albert Einstein once said, “A person who never made a mistake never tried anything new.” This idea has even been embraced by big companies in Silicon Valley. A common slogan is “Fail fast, fail often.” “The best companies are those that encourage failure, embrace out-of-the-box thinking, and allow employees to make mistakes and see what happens,” wrote Simon Custo of Forbes.

But some people are skeptical of this so-called “culture of failure”. They are worried that if failure becomes “a badge (徽章) of honor”, it may even be seen as “uncool” when someone tries to reduce the risk of failure. This may lead to carelessness and lack of effort. “Sometimes people hide behind failure, when they could have prevented,” wrote Anna Issac of The Telegraph.

So it's important that people set apart the 2 kinds of failure: the kind that shows laziness or incompetence and the kind that takes you forward. The key is whether you've learned something from your mistakes.

4 . I’d never been to a Day of the Dead festival before. As my dad and I looked around for seats, I _______ Marco, my best friend, hurrying toward us. “Hi, Mr. O’kane,” he _______ my dad. Then he turned to me. “Nate! Will you help me?"

“Whatever you need,” I said.

Marco threw me parts of a _______ : Mexican sandals（凉鞋）, a straw hat, a cane(手杖), a gray wig, and an“ old man” mask（面具）. “My cousin couldn’t_______ !” Marco’s voice rang with worry.

“It’s part of a traditional dance” he said.

“You expect me to dance? ” I _______ . “I don’t dance!”

Marco smiled. “It’ll be fun. And hurry! We’re _______ late.”

“ We’re going to do a lot of stomping(跺脚). Slow at first. Keep one hand _______ on your back, like an old man with an ache.” added Marco.

The speakers _______ : “Ladies and gentlemen, it’s time for The Dance of the Little Old Men!”

“Be quick,” Marco _______ to me to follow his lead.

We all began stomping slowly to music. I could only see ________ the small holes of the mask. I continued to stomp, trying to ________ what to do. I leaned on my cane and kept a hand low on my back. After a few minutes of dancing like that, my back ________ started to ache.

The music ________ . And we stomped quickly. Performing with Mexican sandals was ________ . People laughed as we hopped and kicked, but after a moment the laughter turned into cheers.

Marco gave me a thumbs-up. As the audience clapped for our group, I said to him happily, “You were right. That was ________ .”

Holi is the ancient Hindu festival of colours and love. It     1    (celebrate) in India and Nepal and many parts of South Asia. There are also lots of Holi celebrations in the UK, organized     2    the large British -Hindu community.

Holi marks the beginning of spring. The dates change each year according to the full moon, but it is     3    (normal) in March and sometimes in late February. Its celebrations happened as early as the     4     (five) century. It is a celebration of good winning over evil, and a time to give thanks for the good harvest.

In recent years, holi -themed events have become popular with a new generation in Europe and North America. Every year, large     5    (crowd) of people go to Holi events in London andall over the country. There are paint -throwing parties at music festivals and races like the five-kilometre ‘ Colour Run’ ,     6     is celebrated in more than 35 different countries. It does not matter     7    you are rich, poor, old or young ,everyone can throw coloured paint powder at each other. They arrive dressed in white T -shirts and return     8    (cover) from head to toe in bright colours. In the UK, restaurants and cultural organisations also offer their own Holi celebrations, with special menus, Indian music and dance.

There is a spirit of togetherness and     9    (equal) in Holi. It is a time     10     (forgive) people and repair broken relationships, as well as meet with other people, play and have fun.

7 . The American Thanksgiving holiday is on Thursday. Many people will get together with family members for a big meal. It is a time to celebrate family, friends and everything there is to be thankful for.

But some people do not look forward to spending a lot of time with their family. It can be stressful. Family members can start arguments with each other. Some people at the meal may have conflicting (冲突的) political beliefs. Conflict can even find its way into the kitchen, where all the cooking takes place. There is a saying called “too many cooks in the kitchen.” This means that sometimes, if many people are trying to do a project together, it does not turn out as well as it could have if only one person were in charge. That is why people are offering Thanksgiving survival ideas on Twitter.

Rick Irwin had one. “Say that you’re letting the dog out and use it as an excuse to disappear for several hours.” Tracy Brooks had a suggestion for limiting Thanksgiving dinner responsibilities. She wrote: “Be the last to arrive and the first to leave.”

Since there is so much food at the Thanksgiving meal, Christine Turner suggested forgetting about your diet and wearing loose clothing. But, one fitness expert said people do not have to give up on their diets during the big meal. They can prepare foods that have few calories (卡路里). For example, they could bake some foods instead of frying them in oil.

But other people are looking forward to the holiday. Sara Marie Brenner wondered why people need to “survive” Thanksgiving, at all. She wrote: “I enjoy the holiday.”

Earth Day is a yearly event celebrated on April 22. Various activities    1    ( hold ) worldwide to show support for environmental protection. Here is a brief history of    2    event.

In the 1960s, Americans were becoming aware of the effects of pollution    3    the environment. In 1969, Senator (参议员) Gaylord Nelson,    4    ( consider )one of the leaders of the modern environmental movement, developed the idea of Earth Day. His idea really raised    5    (aware )about the environment. On April 22, 1970, over 20 million people turned up for the first Earth Day. They believed it was important    6    ( keep ) the planet safe.

In 1990, Earth Day went global, with 200 million people in over 140 nations     7    ( participate ). In 2000, Earth Day focused on clean energy and involved hundreds of millions of people in 184 countries and 5000 environmental    8    ( group ). Activities ranged from a traveling to a gathering of hundreds of thousands of people at the National Mall in Washington, D. C. Today, the holiday is a global celebration    9    is sometimes extended (延长) into Earth Week, a full seven days of events focusing on green living. In 2018, more than 1 billion people were involved in Earth Day activities, making it one of the    10    (large)events in the world.

9 . In 1947 a group of famous people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theatre in Edinburgh. The idea was to reunite Europe after the Second World War.

It quickly attracted famous names such as Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich as well as the big symphony orchestras(交响乐团). It became a fixed event every August and now attracts 400,000 people yearly.

At the same time, the “Fringe” appeared as a challenge(挑战) to the official festival. Eight theatre groups turned up uninvited in 1947, in the belief that everyone should have the right to perform, and they did so in a public house disused for years.

Soon, groups of students firstly from Edinburgh University, and later from the universities of Oxford and Cambridge, Durham and Birmingham were making the journey to the Scottish capital each summer to perform theatre by little -- known writers of plays in small church halls to the people of Edinburgh.

Today the “Fringe”, once less recognized, has far outgrown the festival with around 1,500 performances of theatre, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959,with only 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

A paid administrator(行政人员) was first employed only in 1971, and today there are eight administrators working all year round and the number rises to 150 during August itself. In 2004 there were 200 places housing 1,695 shows by over 600 different groups from 50 different countries. More than 1.25 million tickets were sold.