Primavera Sound

    To kick off the summer, there's no better place to be than Barcelona. On the concert lineup, you'll find bands like The Zombies, Arcade Fire, and Bon Iver. Then take some time to soak up the local food, wine, and culture.

    Date: May 31 – June 4, 2018

    Location: Barcelona, Spain

    Music Type: Indie, rock, hip-hop

    Price: 80€ – 300€ (around $86 – $323)

    Recommended places to stay in Barcelona:

    Hotel 1898

    Hotel Barcelona Universal

    Mercer Hotel Barcelona

    Governors Ball

    One of the greatest summer concerts in New York City is Governor's Ball, which takes place in early June at Randall's Island Park. Some of the many artists playing include Tool, Phoenix, Lorde, Flume, and the Wu-Tang Clan.

    Date: June 2-4, 2018

    Location: New York City, New York, USA

    Music Type: Rock, hip-hop, pop

    Price: $105 – $305

    Recommended places to stay in New York City:

    W New York – Union Square, Union Square, New York City, United States

Aloft Harlem

    Super 8 Long Island City LGA Hotel

    Courtyard New York Manhattan / Upper East Side

    Bonnaroo

    Bonaroo is another epic summer event that draws in crowds of around 60,000 each year. Some of the most iconic music legends will be playing this year, including U2, Red Hot Chili Peppers, The Weeknd, and Chance the Rapper.

    Date: June 8-11, 2018

    Location: Manchester, Tennessee, USA

    Music Type: Rock, hip-hop

    Price: $210.50 – $554+ fees

    Recommended places to stay in Manchester:

    Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham Manchester

    Country Inn & Suites Manchester

    The Ambassador Inn & Luxury

    The best way of learning a language is using it. The best way of learning English is talking in English as much as possible. Sometimes you'll get your words mixed up (混合) and people will not understand you. Sometimes people will say things too quickly and you can't understand them. But if you keep your sense of humor, you can always have a good laugh at the mistakes you make. Don't be unhappy if people seem to be laughing at your mistakes. It's better for people to laugh at your mistakes than to be angry with you, because they don't understand what you are saying. The most important thing for learning English is: "Don't be afraid of making mistakes because everyone makes mistakes."

    A five-year-old dog named Kelsey has been praised as a hero for helping to save the life of her owner who slipped in the snow and broke his neck.

    The man, Bob, was alone when he left his Michigan farmhouse on New Year's Eve to collect firewood. Expecting a journey of only several meters, Bob was wearing just long johns (衬裤), a shirt and slippers when he went outside, although the temperature was around -4℃.

    After the accident, he was unable to move in the snow. Fortunately, Kelsey came to his assistance.

    "I was shouting for help, but my nearest neighbor is about 400 meters away, and it was 10:30 pm, Bob explained." But my Kelsey came. By the next morning, my voice was gone and I couldn't yell for help, but Kelsey didn't stop barking."

    Kelsey's companion kept him warm by lying on top of him. She licked his face and hands to keep him awake." Kelsey kept barking but never left my side," Bob recalled. "She kept me warm. I knew I couldn't give up and that it was my choice to stay alive."

    Bob spent 20 hours in the freezing cold. When he finally lost consciousness, his dog kept barking. Finally, hearing the barking, Bob's neighbor discovered him at 6:30 pm on New Year's Day and called the emergency services at once. When Bob arrived in hospital, his body temperature was below 21℃. However, doctors were surprised to find that he didn't have any frostbite (冻疮). They believed it was because of Kelsey's determination to keep him warm, Dr. Chaim Colen, the doctor who treated Bob, said, "Animals can help and his dog really saved him... He was very fortunate.”

    Bob said he was "enormously" grateful to both Dr. Colen and his Kelsey, "They saved my life. They are truly heroes!"

    I'm sitting in my kitchen in London, trying to figure out a text message from my brother. He lives in our home country of Germany. We speak German to each other, a language that's rich in odd words, but I've never heard this one before: fremdschämen. I'm too proud to ask him what it means. I know that eventually, I'll get it. Still, it's slightly painful to realize that after years of living abroad, my mother tongue can sometimes feel foreign.

    Most long-term migrants know what it's like to be a slightly rusty(生疏的) native speaker. The process seems obvious: the longer you are away, the more your language suffers. But it's not quite so straightforward.

    In fact, the science of why, when and how we lose our own language is complex and often different to what we think. It turns out that how long you've been away doesn't always matter. Socializing with other native speakers abroad can worsen your own native skills. And emotional factors like trauma(精神创伤) can be the biggest factor of all.

    It's not just long-term migrants who are affected, but to some extent anyone who picks up a second language. The minute you start learning another language, the two systems start to compete with each other, says Monika Schmid, a linguist at the University of Essex.

    Schmid is a leading researcher of language attrition, a growing field of research that looks at what makes us lose our mother tongue. In children, the phenomenon is somewhat easier to explain since their brains are generally more flexible and adaptable. Until the age of about 12, a person's language skills are relatively easy to change. Studies on international adoptees have found that even nine-year-olds can almost completely forget their first language when they are removed from their country of birth.

    But in adults, the first language is unlikely to disappear entirely except in extreme circumstances. For example, Schmid analyzed the German of elderly German-Jewish wartime refugees(难民) in the UK and the US. The main factor that influenced their language skills wasn't how long they had been abroad or how old they were when they left. It was how much trauma they had experienced as victims. Those who left Germany in the early days of Nazi occupation, before the worst violence, tended to speak better German – despite having been abroad the longest. Those who left later, tended to speak German with difficulty or not at all.

    "It seemed very clearly a result of this trauma", says Schmid. "Even though German was the language of childhood, home and family, it was also the language of painful memories." The most traumatised refugees had held them back. As one of them said: I feel that Germany betrayed me. America is my country, and English is my language.

    There was a man playing the piano in a bar. He was a good piano player and always performed in this bar. People came in just to hear him play. But one night, a customer told him that he didn't want to hear him just play the piano any more. He wanted him to sing a song.

    The man said, "I don't sing." But the customer was persistent(执着的). He told the bar manager, "I'm tired of listening to the piano. I want that man to sing!" The manager shouted across the room, "If you want to get paid, sing a song. Our customers are asking you to sing！" So he did. He sang a song. A piano player who had never sung in public did so for the first time. And everyone was surprised by his song Mona Lisa. He got lots of applause(掌声) that night.

    He had such a talent for singing, but he just had been sitting on his talent for the past years! If without such a chance, he may have lived the rest of his life as a no­name piano player in a no­name bar. However, now he has become one of the best­known singers in America.

    You, too, have skills and abilities. Maybe your "talent" is not as great as the singer above, but it may be better than you think! And with effort, most skills can be improved. So, in your life, you should be brave enough to try doing different things and find out what talents you really have!

    Thanks to this new hands- free suitcase, carrying around heavy luggage may soon become a thing of the past. Designed by Israeli company NUA Robotics, this "smart" suitcase can follow you everywhere you go.

    The carry­on suitcase, now a prototype(雏形), connects to a smartphone app via bluetooth. It has a built­in camera sensor that can "see" you and follow you around on flat floors. It comes with an anti­theft alarm to prevent someone carrying it away when you're not looking. "It can follow and carry things for people around while communicating with their smartphone, and avoiding bumping into other objects," explained Alex Libman, founder of NUA Robotics. "We're combining sensor network, computer vision, and robotics. So if you download our app(应用), press the 'follow me' button, the luggage recognizes its user and knows to follow and communicate."

    NUA is still testing the products and trying to improve features like speed and customization(客户订制), but they hope to make the suitcase available to customers in a year's time. If it proves successful, they want to use the bluetooth pairing technology to automate(自动化操作)lots of other products, like shopping carts at the supermarket. These products are especially meant to be useful to the physically disabled and elderly. "Any object can be smart and robotic," Libman told Mashable. "We want to bring robots into everyday life."

    The Israeli tech company made it clear that the finished product will look just like a common suitcase. They're planning to partner with a carry­on luggage maker, since the product that makes it "smart" weighs just 2.5 pounds and can be fitted on old­fashion luggage.

    With NUA's smart suitcase, carrying around heavy luggage isn't a burden. But how their invention will handle tough blocks like stairs? It will be interesting to wait.