March, April and May are months full of festivals and events all over the world. Here are four wonderful festivals around the world that happen in spring. If you want to know more about them, please click here or visit http://www. buddhanet. net/festival, htm/.

SongKran—Thailand

Dates: 13th-15th, April

    In Thailand, people celebrate a festival called Songkran, when people head out to the streets with water guns to spray everyone who walks past.

Naghol—Vanuatu

Dates: Every Saturday from April to May

    Every year, villagers come together to celebrate the harvest of yams, an important part in the people's diet in Vanuatu. The festival is most famous for its “land diving ceremony”. During the ceremony men and boys dive to the ground from high wooden towers with only two thin vines (藤) attached to their ankles.

Cherry Blossom Viewing—Japan

Dates: The cherry blossom season is different from year to year depending on the weather forecast.

    The festival is well-known. Japanese celebrate the days when the flowers finally blossom. Only a few days later, the petals (花瓣) fall to the ground, like pink snowflakes. That means the traditional festival only lasts for several days. In Japan, almost everyone has picnics in the parks to view the flowers.

Sinhalese New Year—Sri Lanka

Dates: 13th or 14th, April

    Just like in many other countries in South or South East Asia, this is the time when the Sinhalese celebrate the traditional New Year, an ancient celebration which marks the end of the harvest season and is one of two times of the year when the sun is straight above Sri Lanka. There are a lot of delicious foods during the celebration.

    Enough sleep is important to health. The amount of sleep needed depends on the age of the person and the conditions in which sleep takes place. The young may need more sleep than the old, but usually eight hours are enough for the health of grown-ups. Some can do with less than this amount, but others may need more. Every person knows his own need. It is then a matter of good judgement to satisfy his need. Sleep should always be enough to make one bring back his strength and get ready for a day's work.

    Fresh air is necessary to sound sleep. It is not without reason for some people to think that it is practicable to sleep in the open air. When one can keep himself warm, out-of-door sleeping probably gives the body its most complete relaxation (放松).

    Ability (能力) to sleep lies largely in habit. The conditions referred to only lead to sleep. Out-of-door exercises, a good habit of regular hours and the avoidance (避免) of late eating and worry, which are largely within the control of any person, are all helpful to sound sleep.

    A bath at bedtime, neither hot nor cool but of body temperature may be helpful to sleep. Sleep-producing drug (药) should never be taken except when suggested by a doctor.

    Taylor Swift added another great honor this year—the first-ever Taylor Swift Award—at the 64^th yearly BMI Pop Awards.

    Held at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, the ceremony honored the writers and publishers of the most-performed pop songs during the past year. The Taylor Swift Award was a recognition（认可）of both Swift's musical influence and creative gift.

    In her acceptance speech, Swift said that she was happy to get the award named after her. “It is really a relief that BMI decided to give me the Taylor Swift Award, because if they had chosen somebody else to give it to, I'd be like kind of angry about it.” the singer joked.

    This eponymous（同名的）award marked only the second time in BMI's history that the organization has presented an award in an artist's name. Michael Jackson, a legendary（传奇的）artist, was the first to get that honor in 1990.

    “Taylor Swift is one of the most popular singers in US. She has shown pop culture through her songs,” said Barbara Cane, BMI's Vice President of Writer/ Publisher Relations, “She has had a deep influence, not only musically, but also through her personal belief and commitment to create a standard that values and respects music for everyone. We felt it suitable to award Taylor with an honor that is an special as she is.”

    Swift also claimed four of the year's most-performed songs to earn the honor of Pop Songwriter of the Year.

    The day will come when renewable energy such as wind, solar, geothermal and others replace fossil fuels as the major source of world energy. However, most analysts insist that this day will not arrive for many decades to come—certainly well past the middle of the century. Systems of fossil fuels have already been firmly set up, and it is too costly or impractical to replace the existing systems with renewables. But there are good reasons to believe that the transition (转变) to renewables will come much faster than previously thought.

    It is hardly surprising that many experts say we will see a relatively slow transition from fossil fuels to renewables, given what is known about previous energy changes of this sort. "Energy transitions take a long time," observed Vaclav Smil of the University of Manitoba in Scientific American. It took more than 50 years for coal to replace wood as the world's leading source of energy and another 50 years for oil to replace coal; the change from fossil fuels to renewables, he argued, is not likely to come any faster.

    Under ordinary circumstances, Smil's forecast would no doubt prove accurate. But these are not ordinary times. Growing concern over climate change is leading to increasingly strict controls on CO₂ and other greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions (排放), while the development in renewables technology is lowering their price and speeding their installation.

    There are, of course, many difficulties in the effective control of carbon emissions, as demonstrated by coal companies to block the introduction of new rules by the US Environmental Protection Agency. Nevertheless, it is impossible to dismiss the progress being made at the local and international levels to promote the use of renewables. The European Union (E. U), for example, is well on the way to achieving a 20% reduction in GHG emissions from 1990 levels by 2020, along with a 20% increase in the use of renewable energy.

    The transition to renewables will be faster due to dramatic improvements in the pricing and performance of such systems. As a result of the steady increases in the efficiency of wind and solar systems, together with the savings achieved through large-scale manufacture, the price of renewables is falling globally. With prices dropping this fast, solar energy is now proving competitive with fossil fuels for generating electricity in many areas.

    The change from fossil fuels to renewable energy will not come overnight, and it will not escape many setbacks. Nevertheless, renewables are likely to replace fossil fuels as the main source of electrical power well before mid-century.

    Use your domestic plan when you travel in over 100 countries for $10 a day. Add International Day Pass to your existing plan before you go, then follow these tips to help manage costs and make the most of your travels:

How it works

    While abroad, if you make or accept a call, listen to a voicemail, send a text, or use data, you will be automatically charged $10 for 24-hour access to your domestic plan. During that period you can:

●Use your domestic plan data to email, post on social media, translate languages and more.

●Make unlimited calls to countries included in International Day Pass.

●Send unlimited texts to the world.

How to help manage costs

●If you are outside of a 24-hour access period and you don't want to use your phone, turn off data roaming (漫游) to avoid being charged $10 accidentally.

●Save data by connecting Wi-Fi, especially if you download, or send and receive large files.

    Note: INTERNATIONAL DAY PASS: Coverage not available in all areas. Int'l Day Pass may be removed if international talk, text, or data use exceeds (超过) 50% of your total talk, text, or data use for two months.

    Heard the Good News?

    Heavy TV headphones are now a thing of the past, thanks to Hearing Specialists who have developed new ultra-lightweight wireless rechargeable TV ear-buds, which enable the wearer to hear any TV show much more clearly. This unique speech clarification audio works for those with any level of hearing loss, and has been proven to outperform even the most advanced digital hearing aids for TV clarity.

    How is this Possible?

    Hearing specialist Don Hudson says the new TV Voice Pro Air ear-buds clarify TV dialogue automatically, based on the intelligence of over 100 hearing test results.

    Customers reported that traditional headphones were too heavy, only allowed them to view TV while sitting in one position, and made them feel cut off from their family and surroundings.

    "Our customers were wanting an ultra-lightweight TV listening experience, so that they could enjoy TV their way, sitting down, lying down or walking around, without discomfort."

    What's More?

    TV Voice Pro Air clarifies TV dialogue automatically. With just one click, the transmitter is guaranteed to connect to any TV, old or new, in under 2 minutes. The users can hear the TV at their preferred loudness of the sound from up to 35 feet from the TV, without affecting others in the room.

    As a special offer, Readers Digest readers can use Gift Voucher Code READERSDIGEST for $50 off the original retail price $299 and enjoy free shipping available only until December, 31st 2019. So reach us now by visiting www. TvVoicePro.com to order online or over the phone on 415 -277-2026.