When it comes to benefits of volunteering, a lot of people think it's all about the warm feelings after helping someone. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} For example, volunteering...

1）Teaches you new skills

    From helping make websites to teaching kids languages, to arranging events for charity, volunteering can really be almost anything.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} And through overcoming these you learn and start to master completely new skills.

2）Can be relevant work experience

    Something that seems to stop many is that experience often seems to be a prerequisite (必备条件) for some jobs.{#blank#}3{#/blank#} There's many a journalist that gets his or her start through volunteering for a college or university paper, and that's not at all the only profession this applies to.

3）Can be therapeutic (治疗的)

    One of my close friends has completely transformed since she started working for disabled kids.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} It allows you to see the world and other people from a whole different point of view, which in turn can make you grateful for what you already have and see your own personal value.

4）Helps you expand your network

    One of the great things for volunteering is that you meet a wide variety of people.  {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Sometimes it's very convenient to have a broad network.

A. Volunteering helps you grow as a person.

B. As it turns out, that's far from the only benefit.

C. Volunteering can actually help you get the experience you need.

D. Volunteering helps you look outside yourself and your problems.

E. It's a way to prove that you've not just been sitting and doing nothing.

F. That means when you get involved in voluntary work, you will face many challenges.

G. You're getting to know people involved in many different walks in life that you wouldn't have had the opportunity to meet otherwise.

    In our daily life, it is necessary to make small talk in some situations. It helps to fill time between people when it is very quiet. You may not feel like talking with someone else or you are very shy at the beginning, but it is sometimes thought to be not polite to say nothing.

    People use small talk almost every day. It usually takes place when you meet someone you don't know at all or someone you're not familiar with. For example, waiters and hairdressers often make small talk with their customers（顾客）. If you happen to be outside when the postman comes to your door, you might make small talk with him, too.

    Most often, small talk happens in places where people are waiting for something. For example, you might talk with another person who is waiting for the bus to arrive. People also make small talk in a doctor's waiting room, or when they are waiting in a line to buy something. At the office, people make small talk in lunch rooms, especially if there is a line-up. Mingling is often required（要求）among people who don't know each other very well at a party. That is to say, they are expected to walk around and talk with others.

    The most common time for small talk to happen is the first time you see or meet someone on a given day. For example, if you see a neighbor in the waiting room of the airport you might say hello and discuss the sports or weather. However, the next time you see each other you might just smile and say nothing. If there is very little noise, it might be the right time to start a pleasant conversation. If someone is reading a book at the bus stop, it is probably not a good idea to start a conversation. Another good time to make small talk is during a break in a meeting when there is nothing important going on. However, it is important to recognize the signal when the other person wants the conversation to stop.

    In the coming months, we are bringing together artists from all over the globe, to enjoy speaking Shakespeare's plays in their own language, in our Globe, within the architecture Shakespeare wrote for. Please come and join us.

    National Theatre of China   Beijing︱Chinese

    This great occasion will be the National Theatre of China's first visit to the UK. The company's productions show the new face of 21st century Chinese theatre. This production of Shakespeare's Richard III will be directed by the National's Associate Director, Wang Xiaoying.

    Date & Time: Saturday 28 April, 2:30pm & Sunday 29 April, 1:30pm & 6:30pm

    Marjanishvili Theatre   Tbilisi | Georgian

    One of the most famous theatres in Georgia, the Marjanishvili, founded in 1928, appears regularly at theatre festivals all over the world. This new production of As You Like It is helmed (指导) by the company's Artistic Director

    LevanTsuladze.

    Date & Time: Friday 18 May, 2:30pm & Saturday 19 May, 7:30pm

    DeafinitelyTheatre London | British Sign Language (BSL)

    By translating the rich and humorous text of Love's Labor's Lost into the physical language of BSL, Deafinitely Theatre creates a new interpretation of Shakespeare's comedy and aims to build a bridge between deaf and hearing worlds by performing to both groups as one audience.

    Date & Time: Tuesday 22 May, 2:30pm & Wednesday 23 May, 7:30pm

    Habima National Theatre Tel Aviv | Hebrew

    The Habima is the centre of Hebrew-language theatre worldwide. Founded in Moscow after the 1905 revolution, the company eventually settled in Tel Aviv in the late 1920s. Since 1958, they have been recognized as the national theatre of Israel. This production of Shakespeare's The Merchant of Venice marks their first visit to the UK.

    Date & Time: Monday 28 May, 7:30pm & Tuesday 29 May,7:30pm

    As the Chinese Mid-Autumn Festival approaches, mooncakes are turning up all over China, from traditional teashops to Starbucks counters. The holiday is one of China's four most important festivals, and in the weeks before the date arrives, top hotels get into the spirit with lavish(奢华) treats in lovely packaging. Traditionally, the cookie-sized round pastry(馅饼) has a rich thick filling usually made from red-bean or lotus-seed paste and covered by a thin crust. It may also contain yolks from salted duck eggs, integrating a beautiful savory tinge into the sugary taste. Fillings and crusts have become more diverse over time, especially in the hands of skilled pastry chefs. The mooncakes in Chinese culture represent homesickness, and the top crust of each moon-shaped pastry is generally imprinted with the Chinese characters for longevity or harmony.

    This year, the fancy gift boxes that have long driven the mooncake trade are particularly striking and rich with tradition.

    For example, the Fairmont Peace Hotel in Shanghai, built in 1929 and a magnet for Hollywood celebrities in the 1930s, has prepared a selection of mooncake gift boxes with designs inspired by the beauty and elegance of the hotel's famous art deco style. The simplest box of four pieces (red-bean paste, creamy custard, plain cheese, green-bean paste) is 198 yuan($29.64), while more lavish selections of five or six pieces, including mooncakes with egg yolk, run up to 338 yuan for a box.

    Beijing's Nuo Hotel, meanwhile, has created Ming Dynasty (1368－1644) inspired mooncake gift packs based on the design of porcelain vases in the hotel lobby, with the essence of landscape painting using Zhang Dai's poetic passages to show the peaceful harmony of man and nature. The box of six is 158 yuan, and includes mooncakes ranging from cheese mango to charcoal burning fragrant Pu'er tea and white lotus with egg yolk. A box of eight cakes of different flavors is 228 yuan.

    Researchers continue to show the power behind our sense of smell. Recent studies have found, among other things, that the smell of foods like pizza can cause uncontrollable anger in drivers on roads.

    The review explains that smell is unique in its effects on the brain. According to Conrad King, the researcher who carried out the review, "more than any other senses, the sense of smell goes through the logical part of the brain and acts on the systems concerned with feelings. This is why the smell of baking bread can destroy the best intentions of a dieter."

    Smell, which dictates(决定) the unbelievable complexity of food tastes, has always been the least understood of our senses. Our noses are able to detect up to 10,000 distinct smells. Our ability to smell and taste this extremely large range of smells is controlled by something like 1,000 genes (基因), which make up an amazing 3% of the human genome. Researchers Richard Axel and Linda Buck were together awarded a Nobel Prize in 2004 for their ground-breaking research on the nature of this extraordinary sense. These two scientists were the first to describe the family of 1,000 olfactory (嗅觉) genes and to explain how our olfactory system works.

    According to one study in the research review, smelling fresh pizza or even the packaging of fast foods can be enough to make drivers feel impatient with other road users. They are then more likely to speed and experience uncontrollable anger on roads. The most reasonable explanation is that these can all make drivers feel hungry, and therefore desperate to satisfy their appetites.

    In contrast, the smells of peppermint and cinnamon were shown to improve concentration levels as well as reduce drivers' impatience. Similarly, the smells of lemon and coffee appeared to promote clear thinking and mental focus.

    However, the way genes regulate smell differs from person to person. A study by researchers in Israel has identified at least 50 olfactory genes which are switched on in some people and not in others. They believe this may explain why some of us love some smells and tastes while others hate them. The Israel researchers say their study shows that nearly every human being shows a different pattern of active and inactive smell-detecting receptors.

    One of the best-loved American writers was William Sydney Porter, or O. Henry. From 1893 he lived with his family in a house in Austin, Texas, which is now a museum. Visitors to Austin can see the house. It was saved from destruction (破坏) and turned into a museum in 1934. The museum is a good way to learn about the interesting life of the American writer.

    William Porter rented this house in Austin and lived there with his wife Athol and daughter Margaret for about two years. Many objects in the museum came from the Porters. Others did not. An important piece in the room is the original photo over here. It was taken there in the house about 1895. The piano there dates back to the 1860s. His wife took lessons on it when she first moved to Austin.

    Porter wasn't a successful writer in the beginning. He worked on a farm, in a land office and bank. He also loved words and writing. The museum has a special proof (证明) of Porter's love of language—his dictionary. It is said that he had read every word in that dictionary.

    Later William Porter was forced to leave Austin because he was charged (指控) with wrongdoing at the bank and lost his job. Because he was afraid of a trial (审判), he left the country secretly. But he returned because his wife was dying. After her death, he faced the trial and served three and a half years in a prison in Ohio.

    William Porter would keep his time in prison a secret. But there was one good thing about it. It provided him with time to write. By the time he was freed, he had published 14 stories and became well-known as O. Henry. Porter later moved to New York City and found great success there. He published over 180 stories in the last eight years of his life.