Each year Canada Chocolate Town, St. Stephen, New Brunswick, celebrates our community’s rich and delicious heritage with our annual Chocolate Fest. Now in its 30th year, this week-long, family-oriented festival is “choc-full” of activities, fun events, and all things chocolate-related. Our beloved mascot, the Great Chocolate Mousse, and his lovely wife Tiffany, invite you to join us this August for the sweetest festival of the year — Chocolate Fest!

Carma Charlotte County Coffee Morning

9:30 a.m. to 12 noon

Location: St. Stephen Town Square

Come out and join us for a Starbucks coffee, cup of tea or juice and scrumptious home-baked goods, many featuring chocolate. Sponsored (赞助) by Carma Charlotte County and adoption programs — caring for homeless and feral cats.

Dots Delecto Birthday Party

11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

Location: Boys and Girls Club of Charlotte County

Who does St. Stephen love? Dot Larsen! Please join us for chocolate cake and chocolate milk and help celebrate Dot’s birthday. Come and play in our indoor/outdoor playground, have your face painted and enjoy a barbecue to help raise funds for the Barracuda Swim Team. For details call BGCCC, 466-4300.

Lucy the Lady Bug’s 1st Birthday Party

12 noon to 3 p.m.

Location: Kingsbrae Garden, St. Andrews

Come to celebrate with Lucy and her friends for a picnic on our front lawn (草坪) — bring your own picnic or have lunch at our Garden Cafe. At 2 p.m., join Lucy and her friends for an amazing race adventure through the big maze (迷宫), find treasure in the fantasy garden and much, much more!

Cost: $38/Family Day Pass, $16/Adult, $12/Students and Seniors, Free/Children 6 and younger.

School field trips have been part of the educational experience for children across the US for decades. While many schools believe there’s value in letting students develop socially with out-of-classroom experiences, measuring the influence and the value of field trips is difficult. And showing the value of out-of-class time can be challenging for teachers tasked with providing a good education.

As such, many art venue, science museums and zoos have reported drops in field trip attendance. Teachers and students have also reported falling numbers of school supported trips. Particularly for minority students in academically low-performing schools.

But thanks to pew research from B rig ham Young University and the Heritage Foundation, the value of field trips is finally being understood. The study used an experimental design and randomly arranged fourth-and fifth-grade students from fifteen elementary schools in Atlanta to join in three field trips during a school year. The field trips included a trip to a gallery, a live theater performance and a symphony concert.

Students who attended three different field trips in the fourth or fifth grade scored higher on end-of-grade exams, received higher course grade, were absent less often and had fewer behavioral problems. Besides academic (学业的) improvements, students who took part in field trips were more likely to express a desire to have careerism related fields in the future. In parents’ opinion, they are very interested in the academic quality of their children’s schools, but they’re also interested in the social skills and social engagement habits they develop. Field trips are easy ways to help improve both.

We expected that field trips wouldn’t harm test scores. However, we never predicted the all-around improvements for students who joined in these field trips, “said Erickson, a researcher in the study.” One potential reason for this is that field rips widen students’ world concepts and introduce them to new ideas. Similarly, students might be more engaged in school thanks to field trips. Students find school more exciting and want to try harder in class.

When you step into a new environment, you must have a strong wish to fit in. Fitting in means making more friends, having more influence on others and getting more chances to live a happier life. Here is some advice that can help you.

Be confident. Confidence (自信) attracts most people. Everyone is special and there is only one person like you in this world.    16     If so, you will be able to build up confidence step by step. You won’t have much difficulty fitting in.

    17    Kindness is the bridge to your own happiness. When people notice your kindness, they will return it one day. Always give more than you receive, and think more of others than of yourself. A person who cares for others is popular everywhere.

Be active in group activities. Various activities like playing football can help you to be known to others. You may add more friends to your circle.    18    . Instead of wasting time being alone, go out to dance and sing together with others to develop friendship.

Do smile to everyone every day. It makes both you and others feel happy. A pleasant smile costs the least and does the most. Humor catches others’ attention as well.       19    

    20     As a result, you will fit in very well and enjoy your new life.

It was the first night of a tiring seven-day 250km race across the Gobi Desert a year ago. Mr. Leo spotted a little dog going around his camp trying to _________ herself.

“Cute, but I’m not giving you any,” Leo thought. Like all _________ he had packed just enough for the whole course. He’d been running competitively for three years, and he had a _________ to win.

The next day, at the starting line, the dog _________ him again. He waved her away, _________ she might be stepped on by the runners. However, the dog followed him all the way until the day’s race _________ . That night the dog snuggled up to Leo and even _________ to get a little food from him. By then, he was determined to name her Gobi.

The pair went on to finish the seven-day race, with Gobi _________ a distance of 125km on her own, and winning Leo over, enough for him to make a _________ — he would take her home to Edinburgh. “Seeing Gobi on the race changed my attitude to things. It made me think more about stopping and helping her, ______________ just focusing on winning,” said Leo, who finished second. “It also made my running more ______________, giving me a lot of pleasure.”

As Leo was preparing to get Gobi home, she was ______________. With a group of 20 local volunteers coming to his ______________ , he finally found her. After that, Leo never let Gobi out of his ______________ .

Now Gobi’s favorite activity is still running, and she ______________ does at least 8km a day with Leo up the hills.

Videos of 77- year-old Au Xiuzhen,    44     speaks different languages with foreigners while       45     (work) at a scenic spot selling water, postcards and he address flowers, have brought her instant fame. X’s village       46    (locate) at the base of Moon Hill,       47     popular scenic spot famed for a moon-shaped hole at the summit.

    48    (support) her family, Au, who dropped out of junior school in the third grade, began to beat different languages to attract more foreign customers. Au said she would convert words in any language into Chinese characters based on their pronunciation and then memorize them. Repeating the words in her head before going to bed and     49    (immediate) after waking up has given her fluency in basic conversations with foreigners, she said. Over the past two decades, Au       50     (teach) herself all foreign languages, including English, Spanish, Japanese and Korean. In addition to making her incredibly popular, her linguistic prowess (超凡技术) has made       51     easier for her to communicate with foreign tourists. As a result, Au has also become one of the busiest tour     52     (guide) in Yangshuo. Her reputation draws a large crowd of tourists every day, especially foreign visitors, who come to meet the multilingual guide out of admiration.

“More and more foreign tourists are coming to Yangshuo, and I hope they will feel       53     home here with my help,” she said.