Here's a selection of festivals for tourists to the United States in summer.

San Francisco Silent Film Festival

    Films at this odd cinematic event have a variety of musical accompaniments, including piano and violin. It includes some classic silent movies. If you want to see them all, you can buy a festival pass.

May 29 to June 1; www.silent film.org

Union Street Festival

    This popular street fair stretches out over six blocks of the city, in the fashionable shopping area of Union Street. This year, there's beer, wine, biscuits tasting and more separate themes-fashion, cuisine, tech, local, craft, and health and fitness.

    June 7 to 10; www.unionstreetfestival.com

    North Beach Festival

    This is San Francisco's oldest street party, with live entertainment, delicious food and arts and crafts. Situated in the Little Italy district, known for its associations with the “Beat Generation”, festival goers are guaranteed plenty of good Italian food. There is also as the “blessing of the animals”, a San Francisco tradition which takes place at the National Shrine of Saint Francis of Assisi (610 Vallejo Street) at 2 pm on both days of the festival.

    June 14 to 16; www.sfnorthbeach.org

    Stern Grove Festival

    This is the oldest free summer arts festival of its kind in the United States. It includes a wide variety of acts, from the local symphony orchestra to well known artists such as Smokey Robinson.

    Sundays from June 22 to Aug 24; www.stemgrove.org

B

    Many of us love July because it's the month when nature's berries and stone fruits are in abundance. These colourful and sweet jewels from British Columbia's fields are little powerhouses of nutritional protection.

    Of the common berries, strawberries are highest in vitamin C, although, because of their seeds, raspberries contain a little more protein (蛋白质), iron and zinc (not that fruits have much protein). Blueberries are particularly high in antioxidants (抗氧化物质). The yellow and orange stone fruits such as peaches are high in the carotenoids we turn into vitamin A and which are antioxidants. As for cherries (樱桃), they are so delicious who cares? However, they are rich in vitamin C.

    When combined with berries or slices of other fruits, frozen bananas make an excellent base for thick, cooling fruit shakes and low fat "ice cream". For this purpose, select ripe bananas for freezing as they are much sweeter. Remove the skin and place them in plastic bags or containers and freeze. If you like, a squeeze of fresh lemon juice on the bananas will prevent them turning brown. Frozen bananas will last several weeks, depending on their ripeness and the temperature of the freezer.

    If you have a juicer, you can simply feed in frozen bananas and some berries or sliced fruit. Out comes a "soft-serve" creamy dessert, to be eaten right away. This makes a fun activity for a children's party; they love feeding the fruit and frozen bananas into the top of the machine and watching the ice cream come out below.

    Winter solstice(冬至), an important solar term in the traditional Chinese calendar, as the name implies, means the coming of winter. It generally occurs between December 21st and 23rd. According to the traditional Chinese calendar, one year is divided into twenty-four solar terms. On this day, in the Northern Hemisphere the period of daytime is the shortest of the year and the period of night is the longest.

    In Northern China there is a custom of eating dumplings during winter solstice. The tradition of eating dumplings during winter solstice has its origin in early times. It is said that dumplings were invented by Zhang Zhongjing, a well-known doctor from the Eastern-Han Dynasty.

    One winter, he noticed that many people's ears were frozen, which made him sad. In order to prevent and cure the freezing injury caused by the cold, he asked his followers to boil mutton, chilies and other ingredients with medicinal properties in a pot for fending off cold. After these were boiled, they ladled(舀取) the mutton and other ingredients out of the pot, cut them into pieces, and then wrapped them with dough skins in the shape of ears. Afterward, they put these into pots to boil again.

    On the day of the winter solstice, the people whose ears were frozen were sent to eat the dumplings. People who ate it felt warm from head to toe and had their cold injury healed. Thereafter, every winter solstice people ate dumplings. Then there became a saying that if you eat dumplings during the winter solstice, then you won't freeze your ears off.

    Afterwards, Zhang Zhongjing died on the day of winter solstice. In order to honor him, every year on the day of the winter solstice every household makes dumplings.

    One day, a patient came to see me. He worked as a waiter in a restaurant and his problem was acid reflux (胃酸倒流), a disease that influences as many as 40 percent of Americans, a marked increase in recent years. Reflux can lead to esophageal (食道的) cancer, which has increased by about 500 percent since the 1970s. The drugs we use to treat reflux don't always work and may even increase the risk of developing cancer when used long term.

    What is responsible for these worrying developments? For one, our poor diet, with its huge increases in the intake of sugar, fat, soft drinks, and unhealthy foods. But another important fact has been overlooked: dinnertime. Over the past twenty years, the time of my patients' evening meals has become later and later. Dinner — already pushed back by longer work hours — is often further delayed (推迟) by activities such as shopping and exercise.

    In my experience, the single most important treatment for reflux is to avoid late eating. A patient with reflux came to see me because her father and uncle died of esophageal cancer, and she was afraid of getting it too. Her nightly routine (常规) included a 9 p. m. dinner with at least two bottles of red wine. The reflux was serious, and changes were needed.

    She listened, then did not come back to see me for a year. “For the first two months, I just hated you,” she told me, “and for the next two months, I was having some trouble eating. I guessed I was going to die of esophageal cancer.” Then she added, “You know, we're the reason that it's not so easy to get 6 p.m. reservations (预约) at the good restaurants anymore.”

    To stop the increase in reflux disease, we have to stop eating at least three hours before bed. As for my waiter patient? I told him to eat dinner before 7 p.m. Within six weeks, his reflux was gone.

    Italian Joseph Caspar Mezzofanti was said to have spoken more than 38 languages fluently at the time of his death in 1849, a skill that would have been useful in today's globalized economy. Unfortunately, when it comes to the high school Spanish lesson in the decades, most people nowadays have remembered that there is nothing more complex than "Donde esta la biblioteca". So we set out to uncover what's involved in learning a foreign language and which methods work best.

    Some advertisements say that some language learners believe they're just a 15-minute audio tape away from becoming UN interpreters. But experts say these get-fluent-fast programs are a complete sham." Actually, there is hardly a shortcut that can do that," says Dekeyser, a professor of second language acquisition at the University of Maryland." The only way to learn a language is to make quite a bit of effort on a daily basis."

    Many experts agree that the ideal learning method for language learners really depends on the individual." Find the method that works for you and stick with it," says Simcott, a polyglot who has professionally worked in over 14 languages at once for the British Foreign Service." If audio works for you, do audio. If you like taking classes, do classes. But remember to keep practicing every day."

    However, not all people are created equal. Some may have talent for language learning, but it doesn't mean they can passively await fluency. "Practice is an effective learning method," says Davidson." The more time that you spend during the day speaking your second language, the better at it you're going to be."

    Learning from multiple people is also a good way, especially when you are attempting to cultivate a native accent. "When you are exposed to a lot of people, you get a much better sense of what the sound of a word is supposed to be," says Davidson. "You avoid exposing yourself to what could be features in one individual's speech patterns."

The next time you attend a social function or go to a place where people meet and interact, take note of the number of people who have adopted the same gestures and posture—the way you sit or stand--of the person with whom they are talking. This "carbon copying" is a means by which one person tells the other that he is in agreement with his ideas and attitudes. By this method, one is non-verbally (非语言的) saying to the other, "As you can see, I think the same as you, so I will copy your posture and gesture."

    This unconscious (无意识地) mimicry is quite interesting to observe. Take, for example, the two men standing at the hotel bar. They have mirrored each other's gestures and it is reasonable to assume that they are discussing a topic upon which they have the same thoughts and feelings. If one man uncrosses his arms and legs or stands on the other foot, the other will follow. If one puts his hand in his pocket the other will copy and this mimicry will continue for as long as the two men are in agreement.

    This copying also occurs among good friends or people of the same social position and it is common to see married couples walk, stand, sit and move in very similar ways. People who are strangers, however, try hard to avoid holding mutual(相互的) positions. The significance of carbon copying can be one of the most important non-verbal lessons we can learn, for this is one way that others tell us that they agree with us or like us. It is also a way for us to tell others that we like them, by simply copying their gestures.

    If an employer wishes to develop immediate friendliness and create a relaxing atmosphere with an employee, he needs to copy the employee's posture to achieve the end. Similarly, an up-and-coming employee may be seen copying his boss's gestures in an attempt to show agreement. Using the knowledge, it is possible to influence a face-to-face encounter by copying the positive gestures and postures of the other person. This has the effect of putting the other person in a receptive and relaxed frame of mind and he can "see" that you understand his point of view.