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    A group of cultural calendars, with creative designs, informative content and delicate printing, were hot sellers last year and now posting photos of the calendars has become a new fad on social networks. Many people posted photos of their cultural calendars with their comments to arouse memories of traditional knowledge. Though the cultural calendars are a return to traditions, designers are racking their brains to make the calendars appear more attractive.

    Weddings in the United States vary as much as the people do. There are church weddings with a great deal of fanfare(仪式上的短曲); there are weddings on mountain tops with guests barefooted; there have been weddings on the ocean floor with oxygen tanks for the guests. But many weddings, no matter where or how they are performed, include certain traditional customs.

    Before a couple is married, they become engaged. And then invitations are sent to those who live nearby, their close friends and their relatives who live far away. When everything is ready, then comes the most exciting moment.

    The wedding itself usually lasts between 30 and 40 minutes. The wedding party enters the church while the wedding march is played. The bride carrying a bouquet enters last with her father who will “give her away”. The groom enters the church from a side door. When the wedding party is gathered by the altar, the bride and groom exchange vows(誓言). It is traditional to use the words “to have and to hold from this day forward, for better, for worse, for richer, for poorer, in sickness and in health, to love and to cherish, till death do us part.” Following the vows, the couple exchange rings. Wearing the wedding rings on the fourth finger of the left hand is an old custom.

    After the ceremony, there is often a party, called a “reception” which gives the wedding guests an opportunity to congratulate the new couple.

    The car in which the couple leaves the church is decorated with balloons. The words “Just Married” are painted on the trunk or back window. And then the couple go in their honeymoon.

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    When we first gave our daughters (then 13 and 15 years old) cell phones for emergencies, we made them sign an agreement in which we strictly ruled where and when they could use their phones and even we could check their every text message. However, in less than a year, we lost control of the situation.

There is a terrible reality that almost every teenager sends between 50 to 100 messages a day - some as many as 300, and 70% of teenagers admit hiding their online behavior from parents. According to a study, teenagers need as much sleep or more than they get as children - that's between 9 and 10 hours of sleep a night, but only 20% of them are getting it. When they don't get enough sleep, they perform poorly in school, feel very hungry, are more likely to have flu and are very emotional.

    Recently, we adopted a "check in at tuck in" (盖被子时交手机) rule at our house, an idea I learnt from a parenting expert. It is very simple. At bedtime, when we "tuck in" our children for the night, they must "check in" their phones.    They will probably bargain like this:

    "But I use it for my alarm clock."

    "I'll wake you up."

    "My friends might need me."

    "If there is an emergency, they can call the fixed phone and I'll wake you up."

    A few weeks ago, when I drove my younger daughter to a friend's house for a sleepover, she handed me her phone. "I guess I should check this in now, since you won't be there to tuck me in tonight. I'll call you from Ellie's phone if I need you."

    As the saying goes, “Without music, life would be a mistake.” Music is very important in our lives and here are four of the greatest musicians in history.

    Ludwig van Beethoven(1770-1827)

    Born in Bonn, Germany, Beethoven never held an official position in Vienna. He supported himself by giving concerts, teaching piano, and the sale of his compositions(作曲). The last 30 years of Beethoven's life were filled with a lot of hard times, the first of which was his deafness. Beethoven's music greatly influenced the next generation of musicians.

    Johann Sebastian Bach(1685-1750)

    Bach, “the father of modern music”, was born in Eisenach, Germany. His parents died when he was nine years old, and in 1695 he went to live with his brother Johann Christoph, who was an organist(风琴手) in Ohrdruf. He stayed there until 1700. Seven years later, he moved back to Weimar, where he served as court(宫廷) organist for nine years. His music greatly influenced classical music.

    Frederic Chopin (1810-1849)

    Chopin was born in Zelazowa Wola, Poland. He showed a talent for the piano at a very young age. Chopin began composing when he was still a child, but some of his early works have been lost. He gave his first public concert in 1818. Chopin was considered as the leading musician of his time.

    Franz Schubert(1797-1828)

    Schubert was born and died in Vienna. Unlike most of his predecessors(前辈),Schubert was not a great performer. He never had much money but he was very productive. He wrote his first masterpiece when he was only sixteen. However, he died young, before his talents had even been known.

    George Aldrich, whose official title is chemical specialist, works at NASA's White Sands Test Facility in New Mexico. He uses his nose to protect astronauts from unpleasant or harmful odors (气味). His near four-decade career has involved smelling objects from technical handbooks to astronauts' personal things.

    It's crucial that all items taken aboard the International Space Station (ISS) are odorless. Since astronauts are allowed to bring personal items aboard, all their objects must be smell-checked before leaving Earth. In a video provided by Science Channel, Aldrich relates one specific occasion when an astronaut wanted to build a ship in a bottle in space. Everything in the ship-building process had to be sniffed—right down to the glue.

    Aldrich and his team are responsible for making sure that objects are not only odorless but also harmless to astronauts. When the ISS heats up, a process called off-gassing occurs, which means chemicals flow out from certain substances (物质). Objects that would be safe on Earth could give off unpleasant odors or become dangerous when exposed to high temperatures in the ISS's unique environment.

    Of course, humans aren't the only testers or the first to be exposed to potentially dangerous objects. Before Aldrich sticks his nose into a substance, it has been examined by machines. Even though machines can detect unsafe substances, computers cannot tell exactly how things smell to humans. While something could be technically fine, it could be smelly to an astronaut.

Aldrich's nose is not alone there. He is the head of a hard-sniffing team of smell testers. Together they smell each object and rate it on a scale (等级) of 1 to 4. According to NASA, 1 cannot be detected, and 4 is considered not bearable. After the scientists conclude their tests, the scores are averaged. If an item is rated more than 2.4 on the scale, it fails the test and is not allowed on the flight.

    Your mobile phone vibrates in your pocket. 'Need to see you,' reads the screen. Nothing new, considering that texting is currently the most common form of long-distance communication. But how were messages conveyed in the past?

    One of the first methods was the smoke signal. This practice was used by Chinese soldiers guarding the Great Wall to warn of the enemy's approach. The Greeks invented a whole alphabet of smoke signals for sending messages. But it was Native Americans who made the system mobile by carrying small bunches of dried grasses around with them. These could be lit quickly from any place at any time.

    Moving on to messages transmitted by sound, an early technique was the drum. Drums are still used today in the rainforests of Africa, Papua New Guinea and Central and South America for broadcasting news. The instrument is made from a piece of wood, which is empty inside, and this is hit with a stick. On receiving the message, each village passes it on to the next, which means that news can travel at up to 150 km an hour.

    In some parts of the world, humans are able to convey messages over long distances without using instruments. On La Gomera, one of the Canary Islands, people use Silbo, or the 'whistling language' to communicate across the valleys. The language involves the use of the tongue, lips and hands to make sounds, which can travel up to 5 km. To ensure its continuation, Silbo is currently a compulsory subject in primary and secondary schools on the island.

    A look at long-distance communication would not be complete without mentioning the art of yodelling. This is a form of singing, in which the voice changes sound levels very quickly, making it easily heard over long distances. It is believed that the technique was developed in the Swiss Alps, but it is also found in other places such as Central Africa. At one time, yodelling was popular in theatres and music halls, but this is no longer so.