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    Black History Month is also known as the African-American History Month. It is celebrated all over the United States of America and Canada in the month of February, while in the United Kingdom it is celebrated in October. Each and every school and university conducts various activities to make the generation aware of the importance that African-American history holds in the nation. The electronic media is filled with themes inrelevance to the occasion, and many activities are carried out across the country to remember the contribution made by African-American citizens in the development of this nation.

    Black History Month was first started bya famous African-American historian Dr. Carter G. Woodson in the year 1926. February was chosen as the month to celebrate the African-American history because it was the birth month of two of the most highly valued people among African-Americans. These were President Abraham Lincoln, who freed the slaves, and Frederick Douglass, who was also the first vice presidential nominee (被任命者) amongAfrican-Americans. Initially, Black History Month was known as the “NegroHistory Week”. This was Dr. Woodson's attempt to encourage awareness amongcitizens about the contribution of African-Americans towards the building of the nation. It was only in the early 1970's that the name “Negro History Week”changed to “Black History Month”. And later, in the year 1976, the entire monthof February was declared to be the National African-American History Month, orthe Black History Month.

Every year, National African-AmericanHistory Month is celebrated by many activities with various ideas and themesfor the younger generation. In 2013, Black History Month celebrates the 50^th anniversary of the March on Washington at which Martin Luther King, Jr. gavehis famous speech “I have a dream”. It also marks the 150^th anniversary of the Emancipation Proclamation (解放黑奴宣言). The theme for Black History Month in 2014 is “Civil Rights in America” remembering the important milestones by African-Americans and others in the battle for civil rights and equaltreatment under the law.

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    No one knows for sure when advertising first started. It is possible that it grew out of the discovery that some people did certain kinds of work better than others did them. That led to the concept of specialization, which means that people would specialize, or focus, on doing one specific job.

    Let's take a man we'll call Mr. Fielder, for example. He did everything connected with farming. He planted seeds, tended the fields, and harvested and sold his crops. At the same time, he did many other jobs on the farm. However, he didn't make the bricks for his house, cut his trees into boards, make the plows (犁), or any of other hundreds of things a farm needs. Instead, he got them from people who specialized in doing each of those things.

    Suppose there was another man we shall call Mr. Plowright. Using what he knew about farming and working with iron, Mr. Plowright invented a plow that made farming easier. Mr. Plowright did not really like farming himself and wanted to specialize in making really good plows. Perhaps, he thought, other farmers will trade what they grow for one of my plows.

    How did Mr. Plowright let people know what he was doing? Why, he advertised, of course. First he opened a shop and then he put up a sign outside the shop to attract customers. That sign may have been no more than a plow carved into a piece of wood and a simple arrow pointing to the shop door. It was probably all the information people needed to find Mr. Plowright and his really good plows.

Many historians believe that the first outdoor signs were used about five thousand years ago. Even before most people could read, they understood such signs. Shopkeepers would carve into stone, clay, or wood symbols for the products they had for sale.

    A medium, in advertising talk, is the way you communicate your message. You might say that the first medium used in advertising was signs with symbols. The second medium was audio, or sound, although that term is not used exactly in the way we use it today. Originally, just the human voice and maybe some kind of simple instrument, such as a bell, were used to get people's attention.

A crier, in the historical sense, is not someone who weeps easily. It is someone, probably a man, with a voice loud enough to be heard over the other noises of a city. In ancient Egypt, shopkeepers might hire such a person to spread the news about their products. Often this earliest form of advertising involved a newly arrived ship loaded with goods. Perhaps the crier described the goods, explained where they came from, and praised their quality. His job was, in other words, not too different from a TV or radio commercial in today's world.

    The Canadian red and white maple leaf (枫叶) flag is officially called the National Flag of Canada. The Canadian flag shows a stylized red maple leaf with 11 points on a white background, with red borders down each side. The Canadian flag is twice as long as it is wide. The white square containing the red maple leaf is the same width as the flag.

    The red and the white used in the National Flag of Canada were proclaimed the official colors of Canada in 1921 by King George Ⅴ. Although the maple leaf did not have its official status as a symbol of Canada until the announcement (宣告) of the national flag in 1965, it had historically been used as a Canadian symbol, and was used in 1860 in decorations for the visit of the Prince of Wales to Canada. The 11 points on the maple leaf have no special significance.

    In the early days，the Royal Union Flag，or the Union Jack, was still flown in British North America. In 1925 and again in 1946, the Canadian Prime Minister Mackenzie King tried to get a national flag of Canada adopted, but failed. In 1964，Prime Minister Lester Pearson appointed a 15-member, all-party committee to come up with a design for a new flag. The committee was given six weeks to complete its task.

    The committee studied 2,000 submitted(提交的) designs as well as 3,900 that had been gathered as a result of the 1946 committee's study. Those designs with a chance of being accepted were given to the full committee for further study.

    The suggestion of a red and white single maple leaf design for the Canadian flag came from George Stanley, a professor at the Royal Military College. After a heated discussion, they finally decided on his suggestion.

    In the late 1990s, Google was just a start-up company operating out of a garage in PaloAlto, California. Co-founders Larry Page and Sergey Brin started the company while studying at Stanford University. Google's founders and its employees, then understood some of the challenges that entrepreneurs(创业者) around the world may face. An entrepreneur is a person who starts a business. They must be willing to risk financial loss in order to make money.

    Mary Grove is the director of a program called Google for Entrepreneurs. She said Google wants to help new start-up businesses grow and be successful.

Google for Entrepreneurs has opened campuses around the world. Entrepreneurs in each city can use Google's

    buildings without paying.Entrepreneurs can work with each other and learn from people who are more experienced in business.

    Yeram Kwon is the head of a company in South Korea.Her business is called L.M.Lab. It makes a product that helps people learn to perform the lifesaving technique called CPR. She said she has learned how to solve some of her business problems by attending Google events in Seoul.

    Outside of its own buildings in these cities, Google provides financial support and resources for partner organizations around the world. Building partnerships is a way for Google to spread the idea of entrepreneurialism around the world. Google can use its network to help find people who want to invest in start-up businesses. Those people need to be ready to take risks. That is something Kwon said that makes some Koreans uncomfortable. "Most

    Korean people think that it is much safer to work for big companies like Samsung and LG," she said. But, Kwon said the Korean government and technology companies are now supporting people willing to take business risks.

    Singapore's public transport system is one of the best in the world, so you should have no problem finding your way around like a local. There are three main forms of public transport that you would find in any other major city－trains, buses and taxis.

TRAINS

    Trains run from 6:00 am to midnight. Single trip tickets start at 80 cents. If you buy an EZ-Link card for $15, you can ride the trains and buses as you like.

If you need more information, just call Transit Link on 1800 767 4333.

BUSES

    There are several bus services in Singapore and fares start at 80 cents. Be sure always ask the driver the cost of your ticket as he cannot give change.

If you need help, just call Transit Link on 1800 767 4333.

TAXIS

    There are three main taxi companies－City Cab (6552 2222), Comfort (6552 1111) and Tibs (6552 8888). Booking can also be easy by calling the numbers listed above.

RENTAL CARS

    Driving in Singapore is a pleasure and if you like to travel at your own pace, renting a car is a good choice. Renting takes away the hassle of getting to places around Singapore. Just sit back and enjoy the city. It also means you'll get to see a lot more that a trains or a bus won't let you see.

    For car rental, call Avis on +65 6737 1668.

    The guzheng is a traditional Chinese musical instrument. It belongs to the zither（齐特琴）family of string instruments. It is the parent of many musical instruments of some other countries.

    The guzheng should not be confused with the guqin, another ancient Chinese zither but without bridges. Now the guzheng is zither with movable bridges and usually 21 strings, although it can have from 15-25 strings. The guzheng's strings were formerly made of silk, though most players used metal strings by the 20^th century. Since the mid-20^th century most performers use steel strings. The guzheng has a large resonant cavity（共振腔）.

    The guzheng has existed since the Warring States Period and became especially popular during the Qin dynasty. The number of strings on the guzheng has always fluctuated. There were as few as 6 to as many as 23 strings during the Tang dynasty. The earliest record of the guzheng belonged to the historian Sima Qian. Until 1961, the common guzheng had 16 strings, although by the mid-20^th century 18-string guzheng were also in use. In 1961, Xu Zhenggao, together with Wang Xunzhi, introduced the first 21-string guzheng after two years of research and development. In 1960, they also invented the “S-shaped” left string rest, which was quickly adopted by all guzheng makers and is still used today. This curve allows for greater ease in tuning the strings and, combined with strings of different thickness, allows for greater resonance in both the deeper and the higher pitch（音调）ranges. The 21-string guzheng is the most commonly used one, but some traditional musicians still use the 16-string one.

    One of America's best-known artist colonies, the MacDowell Colony, will turn 110 next year. It is a place where artists of all types can sweep away distractions (令人分心的事物) and just create.

    MacDowell's operations are funded by foundations, corporations and individuals. Writers, composers, photographers, filmmakers and sculptors — both famous and unknown —compete for the 32 free studios at the place. Once accepted, an artist can stay for as little as a couple of weeks, or as long as a couple of months.

    When they arrive, artists find a kind of isolation (隔绝) hard to find in our world. There's no phone. No fax. No friends. No family. It's just a cabin in the snowy woods.

    Writer Emily Raboteau lives in New York City. She came to MacDowell to work on a novel. She received a desk, chairs, pencil and paper — and ice grippers. The walk from one isolated, one-room studio to another is icy, so colony residents (居住的人) fasten the ice grippers to the bottom of their shoes.

    Another colony resident, Belfast composer Elaine Agnew, plays a piece called “To a Wild Rose,” written by Edward MacDowell. She says it's so famous that every pianist in the world has played the tune. A hundred years ago, Macdowell owned the land where the colony now sits. He liked its isolation and his ability to get work done there. After his death, his wife, Marion, encouraged other artists to come.

    And for the last century, artists have accepted the invitation, coming to step outside of their daily lives for a short time. Privacy is respected, but cooperation and discussion is common.

    Screenwriter Kit Carson — who wrote Texas Chainsaw Massacre 2 and the film adaptation of Sam Shepherd's play Paris, Texas — has visited MacDowell twice. He says that the interdisciplinary (学科间的) discussion there is valuable.

    “You sit around at dinner, talking, and then somebody runs off and brings you back some stuff and shows it to you,” he says. “That, I didn't realize, was part of the magic here, because people are really open to showing their opinions here.”

    New Year's resolutions(决心)have been around long enough that we all scent to stick to the same ones--hit the gym, lay off the candy, read more books, call your mother-regardless of whether we follow through with our intentions.

    While January 1st seems like the perfect time to have a new start again, exactly when people developed that mindset(思维模式)isn't common knowledge. It turns out that the modern belief of' a New Year's resolution isn't as old as you thought. According to many historians, the ancient Babylonians were the first group of people to make New Year's resolutions. However, instead of making a commitment to self improvement, they made a commitment to the gods to pay their debts and return any objects they had borrowed.

    An ancient Roman tradition from 46 B. C, bears even more likeness to modern resolutions. Emperor Julius Caesar declared January the month of Janus. Romans believed Janus looked backwards into the previous year and ahead into the future. In his honor, they made sacrifices to the god and promises of good behavior for the coining year.

    But the modern New Year's resolution didn't fully form until centuries later. The practice was common enough by the early 1800s. An article in 1802 states, "Statesmen have sworn to have no other objet in view than the good of their country. the physicians have determined to advise the use of medicine no more than is necessary, and to the very reasonable in their fees.”

    The first time “New Year's resolution" appeared as a phrase was in the January 1st issue of a Boston newspaper in 1813. “I believe there are a lot of people," the article goes, “with a serious determination of beginning the New Year with new resolutions and new behavior, and with the full belief that they shall accept punishment for all their former faults and wipe them away.

    So as you make (and possibly fail at) your New year's resolutions, know that you're in good company.

    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.

    At the same time, the Fringe appeared as a challenge 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 out grown 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 19theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

    A paid administrator 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. In2004 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.

    Getting rid of dirt, in the opinion of most people, is a good thing. However, there is nothing fixed about attitudes to dirt.

    In the early 16th century, people thought that dirt on the skin was a means to block out disease, as medical opinion had it that washing off dirt with hot water could open up the skin and let ills in. A particular danger was thought to lie in public baths. By 1538, the French king had closed the bath houses in his kingdom. So did the king of England in 1546. Thus began a long time when the rich and the poor in Europe lived with dirt in a friendly way. Henry IV, King of France, was famously dirty. Upon learning that a nobleman had taken a bath, the king ordered that, to avoid the attack of disease, the nobleman should not go out.

    Though the belief in the merit of dirt was long-lived, dirt has no longer been regarded as a nice neighbor ever since the 18th century. Scientifically speaking, cleaning away dirt is good to health. Clean water supply and hand washing are practical means of preventing disease. Yet, it seems that standards of cleanliness have moved beyond science since World War II. Advertisements repeatedly sell the idea; clothes need to be whiter than white, cloths ever softer, surfaces to shine. Has the hate for dirt, however, gone too far?

    Attitudes to dirt still differ hugely nowadays. Many first-time parents nervously try to warn their children off touching dirt, which might be responsible for the spread of disease. On the contrary, Mary Ruebush, an American immunologist (免疫学家), encourages children to play in the dirt to build up a strong immune system. And the latter position is gaining some ground.

    Insects(昆虫) are a very healthy food. They have almost as much protein(蛋白质) as meat from a pig or cow and are low in fat. Eating insects is also very good for the environment since they need less land and water than larger animals.

    Marcel Dicke, who studies insects, explained in a talk how insects also produce more meat from the food they eat. For example, imagine a farmer feeds a cow 10 pounds of food. Those 10 pounds of food produce about 1 pound of meat for people to eat. However, imagine the farmer gives a certain number of insects 10 pounds of food. Those 10 pounds of food produce 9 pounds of meat for people to eat!

    Eating more insects can also help people in poor areas. Many people can raise and sell insects, which can provide jobs and food.

    But insects will not replace animal meat very quickly. First, people in some countries would have to change how they think about eating insects. Many people in North America and Europe eat a lot of meat like beef and pork. But they do not traditionally eat insects. In fact, for many people in the west, eating insects sounds crazy. They believe insects are dirty and dangerous. Insects make them feel uncomfortable.

    Some people are trying to deal with this problem. For example, David George Gordon wrote a book named “The Eat-A-Bug Cookbook”, which tries to show people that insects can be delicious. Other insect experts travel around telling people about the benefits of eating insects. But they will still have a lot work to do.

    In Chinese customs, red is the main color for weddings. It is used in different ways as it signifies love, joy and happiness. The bride's wedding gown（女礼服）is often red, the wedding invitations, gift boxes and envelopes are red and the bride and the groom's homes are decorated in red on the wedding day.

    Before the wedding, the married couples from the groom's family visit the bride's place with gifts in red baskets and boxes. One of those baskets has milk honey. Three days before the wedding, the women from the bride's family bring return-gifts to the groom's family.

    On the wedding day, the groom arrives at the bride's place on his way to the chapel（佛堂）. The groom has to give gifts in cash wrapped in red paper to the bride's friends for letting her go. The bride and the groom then leave for the chapel together.

    The wedding ceremony is attended only by the couple's immediate relatives. Just after the wedding ceremony, the bride serves tea to her parents in-laws as a tradition. The couples will then go to get wedding pictures. Then a reception（宴会）will follow.

    In the reception, a welcome speech is followed by a cake cutting ceremony. A Chinese wedding cake has many layers（层）, and each one represents a step to success for the newly married couples. So couples cut the cake from the bottom.

    Travour.com describes and provides information on the wedding traditions of the Chinese and around the world. Below are some wedding traditions performed in Italy.

    If you've ever visited London, it's likely that you've heard the loud chimes（鸣响）of Big Ben, the 157-year-old clock bell of the UK's Houses of Parliament（议会）.

    But on Aug 21, the world's most famous bell fell silent. This is because the Palace of Westminster's Elizabeth Tower, which houses Big Ben, needs to be repaired. The workers who'll carry out the repairs don't want their ears to be damaged by the sounds of the huge bell, reported BBC News. Big Ben won't ring again regularly until 2021.

    There's been quite an emotional response to the move. Several members of parliament gathered in front of the Houses of Parliament to hear the bell's last regular chime for four years. A few even shed tears, as if they were attending a friend's funeral.

    But a number of politicians are angry about the lengthy silencing of Big Ben, calling it a symbol of Britain, according to ABC News. And some members of public agree with it. "It's our heritage," David Dummigan, from Cumbria in the north of England, told The New York Times. "People come from all over the world to look at it and listen to it. It's part of British history." This kind of emotional reaction could be linked to "fears about Britain losing its voice and place in the world, which is part of the threat that comes from Brexit", according to CNN. "The reality of losing a place at the top table is being made obvious," it wrote.

    Worries aside, fans of Big Ben will still be able to hear its unique chimes during special occasions such as New Year's Eve. But if we do miss hearing Big Ben on a regular basis, we could always set its sound as our message tone.

    When Sir Ector saw Arthur pulled the sword out of the stone and then pushed it back, he rubbed his eyes. "I can't believe it!" he cried. Then he fell on his knees before Arthur. "Father, please do not kneel before me. Tell me what you mean!" Arthur said with great confusion.

    "Listen, then," said Sir Ector. "Years ago the wise magician, Merlin, carried a baby in his arms. That baby was you. Merlin told me to bring you up as my own son. Now I can guess. You must be the late king—King Uther's son. Who else could have pulled out the sword? Arthur, we must let all England know you are qualified to be the new king."

    "I would rather be your son than be a king!" cried Arthur.

    "On Christmas the Bishop (主教) will give everyone a chance to pull the sword. You must take your turn and show everyone that you are the only person who can pull the sword out."

    On Christmas Day the great crowd of knights (骑士) and lords gathered before the church. They pulled and pushed, but no one could make the sword move.

    Down the street came Merlin. Behind him came Sir Ector with Arthur. "Who are these men?" asked the Bishop. "Here is one who will try the sword," said Merlin. He laid his hand on Arthur's shoulder. "Here, lords of England, is the true son of King Uther!" Arthur stepped upon the stone and laid his hand on the sword. Smoothly and easily he pulled it out. He held it high so all could see.

    So Arthur became King of all England. Some of the lords did not want him, and he had to fight them. As the years went by, he became stronger and greater. Knights came from all lands to be in his court. At Camelot Arthur started the famous Knights of the Round Table. These were the greatest of all the knights. They made their names famous for all time.

    The world's oldest sweet shop has been put up for sale in North Yorkshire after its owner wanted to be elected the county's next police commissioner (局长).

    The Patley Bridge store was founded in 1827 and simply called The Oldest Sweet Shop in the World. It has been run by one-time police officer Keith Tordoff for more than 20 years. But now the former officer is set to leave behind his old-fashioned sweet jars. And, if police are quite different from sweets, the 63-year-old officer is convinced that he can be equally effective leading the emergency services.

    "I've a proven track record (可靠的工作业绩) in succeeding and completing at the things I set out to do," he told The Independent." I know first-hand about policing and first-hand about managing successful organisations, which are the exact qualities needed."

    "It's not been an easy decision to make," said Mr. Tordoff. "Running this shop has been a joy. My parents brought me here for sweets when I was a boy, so getting the chance to buy it and then run it with my wife and our son was a dream that had come true."

    "People are fascinated by it. And why wouldn't they be? We all love sweets, don't we? I give talks about sweets in my spare time. I'm always asked what our most popular kind is. And the answer? Rhubarb and custard," he says. "You see, you think they're old-fashioned, but what happens is that grandparents come in, buy their grandchildren what they used to have themselves, and then the kids fall in love with them, too." It's the same with chocolate mice and pear drops, too, apparently.

    He hopes to sell the shop — which was recognized in 2014 by Guinness World Records — for ￡399,000.

    Manutea Owen is a hero on his home island of Huahine. His ancestors took over nearly every island in the South Pacific Ocean in what was perhaps the greatest achievement before humans went to the moon. Only recently have scientists begun to understand where these amazing sailors came from, and how, with simple boats and no navigation equipment, they could manage to find hundreds of distant islands that cover nearly a third of the globe. This expansion into the Pacific was achieved by two wonderful peoples: the Lapita and the Polynesians.

    How did the Lapita and early Polynesian pioneers do this? Very little evidence remains to help scientists understand their great sailing skills. However, with little evidence, scientists have been able to develop some theories about the secrets of these explorers' success.

    Sailors have always relied upon the so-called trade winds, winds that blow steadily (匀速地) and in predictable directions over the ocean's surface. Geoff Irwin, a professor of archeology (考古学) notes that the Lapita's expansion into the Pacific was eastward, against steady trade winds. Sailing against the wind, he argues, may have been the key to their success.

    Athol Anderson of the Australian National University believes that they may also have been lucky—helped by a weather phenomenon known as EI Nino. E1 Nino occurs in the Pacific Ocean when the surface water temperature is unusually high. It affects world weather in a variety of ways, but one of its effects is to cause trade winds in the South Pacific to weaken or to change direction and blow to the east. Scientists believe that E1 Nino phenomena were unusually frequent around the time of the Lapita expansion, and again when early Polynesians began their even more distant journeys.

    The success of the Lapita and the Polynesian may have been because of their own sailing skills, of reverse (反向的) trade winds, of a mixture of both, or even of facts still unknown. But it is certain that by the time Europeans came to the Pacific, nearly every piece of land, hundreds of islands in all, had already been discovered by the Lapita and the Polynesians.

Photographic self-portraits have existed for as long as cameras have been in human hands. But what about selfies in space? On Twitter last year, NASA astronaut Edwin Aldrin, who famously became the second man to walk on the moon in July 1969, laid claim to a spaceflight first: taking the first selfie in space during the Gemini XII mission in 1966.

"For me, it needs to be digital to be selfie, " argues Jennifer Levasseur, a director at the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. According to Levasseur, the concept of a selfie is directly linked to internet culture. "The thing that makes a selfie is sharing it," she says.

Still, astronauts have been carrying cameras aboard space vehicles since the 1960s. In 1966, Aldrin used a Hasselblad camera designed specifically for space. Hasselblad also painted the first camera in space a matte (不光亮的) black to reduce reflections in the orbiter window. But cameras used in space need to survive extreme conditions, like temperature swings from -149°F to 248°F, so Hasselblad painted later model silver.

Astronauts visiting the moon then had to take out the film and leave their camera bodies behind when they returned to Earth, because early space missions were limited by a weight limit on the returned trip. Then a big change in space camera technology came after the space shuttle Columbia broke apart on its return to Earth in 2003, Levasseur notes. "Fear that they'd never be able to bring film back from space and lose all that hard work accelerated the push for digital," she says.

Today, astronauts also have access to internet and social platforms in space and can post true space selfies made using digital cameras. Similarly, space robots are participating in selfie culture, capturing remote pictures of themselves in space or on other planets and sending them back to Earth.

Two days after eight e -sports games were officially announced to be included in the 19th Asian Games, China's Edward Gaming ( EDG) team earned its first League of Legends World Championship little with a 3-2 win over South Korea in a tough battle on November 7th , immediately drawing cheers from people around the country. The topic "EDG wins" had been viewed more than 2. 63 billion times as of press on Sina Weibo, ranking the top trending topic for a long time.

With the popularity of digital technology, new forms of cultural exchanges have been appearing, of which e-sports are the most popular. Unlike texts and videos, e-sports go beyond the barriers of language and are understandable around the world. E-sports mostly appeal to those in their early 20s, as shown by the carnival of college students. That in turn makes them a good bridge of communication between young Chinese people and their competitors around the world.

More importantly, the e-sports industry is sustainable in spreading Chinese culture, as the large audiences mean huge commercial potential. In 2020 alone, the sales income of the domestic e-sports industry reached 278. 69 billion yuan, and involved 280，000 enterprises, which in turn created over 10 million jobs. According to a media report, nearly 95 percent of graduates from e-sports majors at the Communication University of China in Nanjing, succeeded in finding a job after graduation this year , with 62 percent of them devoted to the e-sports industry, including video game clubs , game design companies and game competition operation companies.

The inclusion of e-sports in major sporting events has been a much-discussed topic in recent years. With more Chinese gaming clubs and teams appearing , the industry is expected to further prosper (繁荣) and continue spreading Chinese culture to the world.

For many, Labor Day weekend signals the end of summer and an opportunity to host a socially-distanced barbecue (an outdoor meal). But this national holiday—celebrated every year in the United States and Canada on the first Monday in September—has revolutionary (革命性的) origins.

By the late 19th century, the Industrial Revolution had made working life miserable for people around the world. In many places, workers toiled for at least 12 hours a day six days a week in mines, factories, railroads, and mills. This holiday actually originated in the US on May 1, 1866, in what came to be known as the Haymarket Riot, workers flooded Chicago streets to demand an eight-hour workday.

It would take another conflict in the American Midwest to make Labor Day a national holiday. On May 11, 1894, workers at the Pullman Palace Car Company, a railroad car manufacturer near Chicago, went on strike to protest their low wages and 16-hour workdays. In August 1893, James Kyle introduced federal legislation (立法) to make Labor Day a public holiday, but for ten months the legislation was put on hold. To quiet the strikers and their supporters, the Senate quickly passed the bill on June 22. The bill passed the House four days later and President Grover Cleveland signed it into law on June 28, 1894.

The holiday is more information May Day labor celebrations. Many observers relax at home or head to outdoor recreational activities, such as boating, barbecues, and camping. It may also be marked with fireworks shows and other events. Labor Day has also become associated with retail sales, as many shop owners try to take advantage of the customers' day off. It is one of the largest sales events of the year. meaning retail employees actually have to work more on this day. Parades are the most common model of celebration, which often feature processions of labor groups.

What makes a tradition—and why do people keep traditions alive? Photographer Daniel Ochoa de Olza has spent his career documenting various Spanish traditions. His work on a bullfighter Juan Jose Padilla won a World Press Photo Award in 2013. This year he presents the portraits from Las Mayas.

Las Mayas, a tradition in the Spanish village of Colmenar Viejo, has been around for many years to mark the beginning of new season. Each spring, festival officials keep a running list of girls typically between the ages of seven and eleven. However, only about four or five of them will have the honor of being chosen as the year's stars of "Las Mayas".

There are no written rules—everything has been passed down orally from generation to generation. The participating families are honored if their daughter is selected from the dozens of young girls who apply to participate in this local tradition with ancient roots. They spend weeks building and decorating altars （祭坛）with fresh flowers gathered from the surrounding countryside. On the festival day, the Mayas, dressed in costumes, are to sit perfectly still on the altars on the streets of the village tor two hours as the people living in the village pass by, admiring and commenting on the displays. A band of musicians move from altar to altar, and 10 to 15 other girls wearing long while dresses and black jackets serve as the attendants, asking for coin from passers-by in exchange for cleaning their jackets with brushes. For the entire day, the Mayas are the center of attention. After the festival, the Mayas come down and head to church to attend evening mass with community.

The magic of being a Maya tends to fade as the girls grow beyond childhood. As teenagers, onetime Mayas tend to laugh off their past participation, projecting an air of coolness by denying their youthful enthusiasm. And yet, as the former Mayas have daughters of their own, the tradition continues.

"The pictures are very simple," Daniel says, "but it's another way of telling the story of my country. " The Maya girls create the compositions in which they star. While the portraits are not photographically daring, they, in some sense, make us aware that even in one's own country, there are always customs and traditions to discover—practices with vigor and beauty. "We are all doing strange things in all parts of the world, " Daniel continues. "And I find it interesting in the 21st Century we are still doing these festivals—it is a way to see where we are going and where we have come from—looking back to look forward. "