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.

    It quickly attracted famous names such as Alec Guinness, Richard Burton, Dame Margot Fonteyn and Marlene Dietrich as well as the big symphony orchestras(交响乐团). It became a fixed event every August and now attracts 400,000 people yearly.

    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 outgrown 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 19 theatre groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

    A paid administrator(管理人员) 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. In 2004 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.

Best Smartphone Games To Put Your Brain To Test

    I am a fan of blood shedding MMORPGs. But sometimes I play brain games. Here are four games for you that will surely put your brain to test.

    Real Chess

    Chess has been bursting brains for over 14 centuries, and this virtual variant of chess really brings a new taste. It's a 3D virtual chess that lets you play with users from all around the world.

You can chat with opponents, play with AI, get newbie tips and much more. The animations and 3D structures are really cool as well.

    Juice Cubes

    Juice Cubes is a light and colorful game full of fruity juice cubes that you need to connect to pop and clear levels. There are multiple types of challenges, powerups, and over 550+ levels to keep you addicted.

    It might seem easy at the start, but it will burst your brain when you reach higher levels.

    WordBrain 2

    A really fun word game where you need to guess words based on the number of letters provided. Each word puzzle has a theme category, such as food, human body, color, or even space.

    And you can also use hints to solve the level when you get stuck. Your vocabulary is sure to be challenged in it.

    Puzzlerama

    Puzzlerama basically joins some of the top puzzles in one single app, making it a perfect app for puzzle lovers. It lets you play popular puzzle games such as flow, jigsaw, unblock, pipes, tangram, and more. There are hundreds of levels available for each puzzle type and things get really tough as you advance.

    The game interface is also very colorful, and smooth animations make the game fun to play.

    When you're a junior in high school, three little letters quickly become larger than life: SAT.

    At the start of my junior year, I realized that the environment was packed with competition. Surprisingly, this pressure didn't come from adults. It came from the other students. Everyone in my grade had college on the brain. To get into the college of our choice, we all believed, we had to outcompete and outscore everyone else with less sleep, because time for sleeping was time you didn't spend studying for the SAT.

    I let myself get swept up in the pressure. My new motto was, if I wasn't in every single honor level class, I wasn't doing enough. I was bad-tempered and I couldn't focus. I stopped talking to my friends and my mom, and I couldn't figure out who I was. I didn't have the confidence to know that my own passions and unique skills were what would make me stand out to colleges.

That's when I realized: I am not my SAT score. Trying to stick to what I thought colleges wanted masked who I really am. I decided to rely on my strengths and get away from the crazy pressure I was putting on myself.

    Instead of forcing myself into higher levels of math, I took on an extra history class. I learned how to love what I was doing and not what I thought I was supposed to do. I learned to shine as an individual, not a faceless member of the crowd. And I found that not only was this better for my happiness, but it also made me more effective and efficient when I studied.

    To me, individuality means having the confidence to decide who I am and who I want to be, and a number on a page is never going to change that. I am more sure of myself, and more ready to apply for college, than ever.

The theatre in Shakespeare's time was much different than it is today. Authors wrote plays for the masses, especially those who couldn't read or write.

The theatre changed a lot during Shakespeare's lifetime. The authorities didn't like it and didn't allow acting in the city itself: They thought it had a bad influence on people and kept them from going to church. Queen Elizabeth, on the other hand, loved acting and helped the theatre become popular.

The theatre in Shakespeare's time was full of life. People did not sit all the time and it was not quiet during the performance. The audience could walk around, eat and drink during the play.

Theaters were open arenas or playhouses that had room for up to three thousand people. There was almost no scenery because the dialogue was the most important part of the play. Colourful and well­designed costumes were very important and told the people about the status of a character. Women never performed in plays, 80 young boys played female characters. The performances took place in the afternoon because it was too dark at night.

There was no stage crew as there is today. Actors had do everything themselves—from making costumes to setting the stage. Plays were organized by acting companies. They performed about 6 different plays each week because they needed money to survive. They had almost no time to rehearse (排练).

The companies in Shakespeare's time had a rank system. The company belonged to shareholders and managers. They were responsible for everything and got most of the money when the company was successful. Sometimes they even owned their own buildings. Actors worked for the managers arid after some time became a permanent member of the company. Apprentices (学徒) were young boys and were allowed to act in unimportant role. They also played females characters in play.

Whales are celebrated for being the largest and most intelligent creatures in the ocean. Now, biologists have discovered that they also capture（捕获） tons of carbon from the atmosphere, a service with an economic value of US $1 trillion for all the great whales, according to a new study published by the International Monetary Fund. The study points out that protecting whales, normally viewed as a human good, also has a monetary motivation.

"The carbon capture potential of whales is truly incredible," said the report. "Our conservative estimates put the value of the average great whale at more than US $2 million, and easily over US $1 trillion for the current stock of great whales." Whales absorb carbon in their bodies during their long lives, some of which stretch to 200 years. When they die, they sink to the bottom of the ocean, taking the carbon with them. According to the study, each great whale traps around 33 tons of carbon dioxide on average. A tree during the same period only contributes to 3percent of the carbon absorption of the whale.

Whale populations are today a smidgen of what they once were. It is estimated that there are slightly more than 1.3 million whales in the ocean, a quarter of their pre-whaling number of 4 t o5 million. Some species in particular, like the blue whale, are only 3 percent of what they used to be. "We can create financial methods to promote the restoration of the world's whale populations," said the report's authors. "Rewards could help those who pay significant costs as a result of whale protection."

With the Paris Agreement coming into force next year and the effects of climate change ever more widespread, we must prevent the harm to whales. Researchers analyzed that unless new methods are put forward, it would take over 30 years to double the number of current whales, and several generations to return them to their pre-whaling numbers. "Society and our own survival can't afford to wait this long," they said.

While wandering around a Swedish Christmas market, you'll likely come across booths {#blank#}1{#/blank#} (sell) carved wooden horses, typically in an assortment of bright colors and floral patterns. These {#blank#}2{#/blank#} (tradition) Swedish toys are much more than a classic holiday gift or travel souvenir: the Dala horse has become intertwined (交织) with the very image of Sweden {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

The little wooden horses of Sweden were originally carved by men that worked in the forests during {#blank#}4{#/blank#} winter. When they returned to their villages, they gave the horses to children as playthings. This was in the 17^th century during {#blank#}5{#/blank#} the horses were also sold at market in small towns and villages in the Dalarna region, in central Sweden. The horses were painted in bright colors that were inspired by the furniture in the region. {#blank#}6{#/blank#} (eventual) , even young children learned to carve wooden horses. 

The global attention didn't come until the 20 ^th century in the World's Fair in New York 1939. That was because an enormous painted Dala horse was placed outside the Swedish pavilion, which caused excitement throughout the crowds of {#blank#}7{#/blank#} (visit) . After this, the Dala horses were seen {#blank#}8{#/blank#} a symbol of Sweden and mass production of the horses started. Since then, Dala horses {#blank#}9{#/blank#} (be) popular souvenirs and inspired other products as well. You can now find anything from clothing to tableware and phone cases with a Dala horse {#blank#}10{#/blank#} (decorate) .