Seventy years ago, a group of well-known people from the art world headed by an Austrian conductor decided to hold an international festival of music, dance and theater 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 theater 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 theater 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 theater, music and dance on every one of the 21 days it lasts. And yet as early as 1959, with only 19 theater groups performing, some said it was getting too big.

    A paid administrator 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.

    If you are studying at school, do be a polite and clever student! There is no excuse for not doing your assignments. If you can't come to school, you should call your teacher or your classmate ask about homework. It is your responsibility to find out what homework you have missed. It is not the teacher's job to remind you of the missed assignments.

    You must not be absent on a test day. If you are seriously ill, call and let the teacher know you will not be there for the test. If your teacher allows a make-up test, you should take the test, again within one or two days after you return to class. Serious illness is the only reason for missing a test.

    Be on time! It is impolite to be late. Also, it bothers other students. If you must come in late, be sure to do it quietly. Have your books and papers out of your bag before you come into the classroom. Then go to your seat and sit down quietly. In the USA, it is not necessary to knock before you enter the classroom. Most teachers will give you a low grade if you are often late.

    In America, you should call your teacher by his or her last name instead of “teacher”. Also you should use Mr, Miss, Ms or Mrs before the last name (such as Mrs Smith or Mr Jones). The teacher will tell you the title that he or she likes. It is impolite in the USA to eat, drink or chew gum during class. Don't do these until the break. Also, removing your shoes in the classroom is not polite.

    A new study of 8,000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily, it is a bad thing for young people. Puppy love, (早恋) may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression. The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys, and younger girls are the worst of all.

    The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is “loss of self”. According to the study, even though boys would say “lose themselves in a romantic relationship”, this “loss of self” is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls. Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions. They won't tell that to their parents.

    Dr Marianm Kaufman, an expert on young people problems, says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing. Trying romance often causes the depression. She advises kids not to jump into romance too early. During growing up, it is important for young people to build strong friendships and a strong sense of self. She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends, attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family.

    Parents should watch for signs of depression-eating or mood changes-and if they see signs from their daughters or sons, they need to give help. The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age. Love will always make us feel young, but only maturity gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects.

    Chinese audiences seemed not to have been satisfied

    Chinese audiences seemed not to have been satisfied with the third season of the highly anticipated food documentary A Bite of China.

    Even though the series has maintained high viewership ratings since its comeback last week, much higher than other programs aired at the same time, the ranking on Douban, a social networking website featuring films, literature and events, slipped to 4.2 out of 10, as of Tuesday, compared with 9.3 and 8.4, respectively, for the first two seasons.

    Picky viewers complain that some of the narration is not accurate, while others pinpoint misleading content. At the same time, food blogger questioned whether it is appropriate to give a close-up shot of the poisonous plant Nandina (南天竹) in a food program.

    A Bite of China, which debuted in 2012, became hugely popular nationwide for its quality introduction of some rarely-known and mouth-watering domestic cuisine. In the new show, however, watchers are not satisfied with "irrelevant" food references, such as lipsticks made of Chinese traditional medicine and martial arts films.

    The first episode introduced a hand-made iron frying pan from east China's Shandong province, which prompted thousands of Chinese Internet users to buy one from China's leading e-commerce website Tmall in the next few days. Sales of the pan at "Zhensanhuan" surged 6,000 times compared with a year ago, according to Beijing Youth Daily.

    In response to overwhelming criticism and questions, A Bite of China production crew responded on Weibo that they seek innovation despite the risks following the first two phenomenal seasons.

    "It is unavoidable to make comparisons with the first two, and some audiences may not accept the changes," the crew said. "We explore the culture and civilization behind food, and give food a historic touch. That's why we feature culinary (烹饪的) tools, feast and rituals, as well as a healthy diet to show Chinese wisdom and philosophy, which has not been shown in any food programs before."

    My first impression of Miss Vicki was a highly authoritative(权威的) person towering over me. She spoke in a loud voice and the earth shook whenever she marched. That was in the first year of high school. She was a knowledgeable literature teacher then. However, during my first year in school, she struck terror into my heart(使我胆战心惊). And everyone else's of course. Just the mention of her name made the most unruly classes silent.

    Nevertheless, the two years of junior high passed by rather quickly. Soon, I went to senior high class. I had worked hard and gotten the subject combination that I wished for. Together with a group of old friends, I soon settled down in class comfortably.

    To everyone's surprise, she was fortunate enough to be my teacher that year. I was shocked when I heard the news. This time round, however, I decided not to hide in terror whenever she was near. I decided to face the fact that we were going to meet each other for the next 365 days. Instead of trying too hard to lick her boots, I tried my best to my natural self in front of her.

    Still, I could not shake off the ice-cold impression that she put in my heart. True, her jokes sometimes sent me into fits of laughter, yet at other times these jokes simply fell flat the moment she told them. My lovely class, however, was already ready to laugh at the right time of her amusing stories. After all, we would not want to run the risk of provoking(激怒) her.

    Unluckily, life was not to remain boring. One day we received news that Miss Vicki was to leave Singapore for the Philippines where she would take part in a voluntary teaching program for the poor. We did not know what to say actually. All of us cried at the airport.

    A growing number of Chinese tourists are helping to save a dying town, after a like-known tourist attraction was featured on a number of Chinese travel blogs.

    The residents of Sea Lake, a town of just 600 people, barely see travelers stop at their gas station while driving by, but the sudden influx of Chinese tourists is helping keep the town's economy alive.

    The tourists come to see Lake Tyrrel—a shallow, salt crusted and often dry lake just out of town. According to a local teacher, Rachel Pearce, the extremely beautiful nightscape combined with the mysterious appearance of stars reflected on the salt lake gives people the impression of walking among the stars. Besides, the town is so far away that no light pollution ruins the particularly attractive views, and as it is situated in a barren(寸草不生的), dry part of the country, there are rarely any clouds to spoil the night sky.

    The attraction's growing sought-after status has resulted in the town's motel rooms being full almost every night, and while local farmers are suffering in a two-year drought, tourism is keeping the town's agricultural-based economy stable.

    Despite the popularity of the town and its attraction, locals are still confused as to why their little town deserves so much attention. Sea Lake's population has fallen from around 1, 200a decade ago to 600 today. "We're still unsure why Lake Tyrrel is such a big, big tourist attraction," one local says. "It's quite a shock."