Over 40 years ago, a country music DJ convention (大会) was held every year in Nashville, Tennessee. Many country performers used to attend (参加) the convention to give their performances. Fans would go to Nashville hoping to see their favorite performers. In the end, so many fans began showing up in Nashville that a festival named Fan Fair was born.

    The first Fan Fair was held in April 1972, in Nashville for four days. Some of country music's biggest stars attended. There were about fifty thousand fans. The first Fan Fair was so successful that planning began almost immediately for 1973. The date was changed to June, when the weather would be better. Over one hundred thousand fans attended the second Fan Fair.

    Every year brought so many performers and fans to Fan Fair that, in 1982, it was moved to the Tennessee State Fairgrounds. Fan Fair stayed at the fairgrounds for another nineteen years.

    There was always the unexpected during the festival. In 1974, former Beatle Paul McCartney attended. In 1992, more than six hundred reporters from Europe, Asia, and South America went to cover the appearance of a popular star, Billy Ray Cyrus, who had introduced a new country line dance. In 1996, Garth Brooks, who made a surprise appearance, signed autographs (签名) for 23 hours.

    In 2001, Fan Fair returned to downtown Nashville as the world's biggest country music festival. Now, over one hundred and twenty-five thousand country music fans go to Nashville every June. As you can imagine, those who want to attend Fan Fair must plan ahead. For example, they need to buy a ticket several months ahead of time. Of course, there's much more to prepare.

    Suppose you are a visitor in the land of Mongolia, some friends ask you to eat with them. What kind of manners do they want you to have? They want you to give a loud burp (饱嗝)after you finish eating. Burping would show that you like your food. In some countries, if you give a big burp, you are told to say “Excuse me, please”.

    In many places people like to eat together. But in some parts of Polynesia it is bad manners（没礼貌） to be seen eating at all. People show their good manners by turning their backs on others while they eat.

    What are manners like in an East African town? The people try not to see you. They are being polite. You may see a friend. He may not see you at all. If you are polite, you will sit down beside him. You will wait until he finishes what he is doing. Then he will talk to you. Manners are different all over the world. But it is good to know that all manners begin in the same way. People need ways to show that they want to be friends.

    The following children's books are our top picks to read together every year on Christmas Eve.

    Snowden written by Nancy Carlson

    This book is aimed at pre-school to the third-grade children, but can be enjoyed by many older children as well. Snowden is the story of a little girl and the snowman she makes that magically comes to life. Together, the two learn to ice-skate and discover that “a little magic and a lot of practice” can make all the difference in the world. The story is heart-touching and sweet.

    The Polar Express written by Chris Van Allsburg

    A young boy cannot sleep on Christmas Eve and is swept away by a steam engine on a trip to the North Pole. During the adventure, the message is that believing will keep you young at heart. The bell that the boy receives and his belief are both touching. The illustrations leave enough to the imagination to make it easy to fall into the story yourself.

    A Snowman Named Just Bob Written by Mark Kimball Moulton

    This book shares a tale of lasting friendship and teaches the lesson that friendship is always in your heart. The illustrations are beautiful and the text is eye-catching. The lessons are taught in such a way that they do not overshadow (使失色) the actual story. I tear up every time I read this book to my children.

    A recent study surveyed 5,000 British families about their experiences with volunteering and their mental health. Participants completed the same survey every two years from 1996 to 2008.

    About 20 percent of the survey participants reported doing regular unpaid work Researchers found that these volunteers also scored highest on their mental health scores. The two were linked so directly that the more a person volunteered, the happier they were.

    One could argue a chicken-and-egg theory: happier people are more likely to have the time, money, energy and resources to give back to others. But even when researchers adjusted for education, social class and total health, the link was there, suggesting that the mental increase came from volunteering and not the other way around.

    According to Dr. Stephen G. Post, author of The Hidden Gifts of Helping, when you help others, your brain releases feel-good chemicals, which can help cells repair themselves and grow. And this translates to better health.

    So volunteering can help improve both your physical and mental health—on one condition. You have to mean it. People who volunteered for "self-oriental" reasons, either because they were forced to do so for work or school or because they were trying to get away from problems in their lives, had a mortality（死亡率）risk that was similar to those who didn't volunteer at all. It was only when people were volunteering out of a true sense of sympathy that they saw any health benefits.

    So whether it's arranging books at the library or walking dogs at the animal shelter, find a cause that's important to you and give it a try. Volunteering is a good way to develop a sense of connection that not only helps your community, but may also be good for you.

    “The world feels anxious and divided, and Facebook has a lot of work to do whether it's protecting our community from abuse and hate, defending against interference by nation states, or making sure that time spent on Facebook is well spent,” Zuckerberg wrote on Facebook in January.

    If the tech firm succeeded, Facebook would end 2018 on a much better path. But the cracks in Zuckerberg's social media empire only grew as scandals(丑闻)about data misuse, security and even Facebook's leadership piled up.

    The social network has faced criticism many times since launching 14 years ago, but the public uproar reached new heights in 2018. Facebook's missteps, even as it tried to fix its problems, were yet another reminder of what happens when a company grows rapidly with little oversight(监管). They also set the stage for another showdown between the tech powerhouse and lawmakers who have their own ideas on how to manage a platform used by 2.3 billion people every month.

    “I think there's just a general growing consensus from both parties in Congress that self-policing is not going to work,” Democratic senator Mark Warner of Virginia said in an interview. Facebook pointed to a series of notes Zuckerberg published this year outlining what the tech firm has done to combat(战斗，争论)election meddling(好干预的), as well as hate speech, misinformation and other offensive content. The social network pulled down more than 1.5 billion fake accounts, launched a database of political ads and announced the creation of a Supreme Court like independent body to oversee content appals.

    But in many ways, Zuckerberg fell short of his New Year's resolution(决议). UN investigators said Facebook played a role in spreading hate speech that fueled ethnic cleansing(清洗)in Myanmar. Media outlets found loopholes(漏洞)and errors in Facebook's political ads database. Users questioned whether they should delete Facebook after learning that Cambridge Analytical, a UK political consulting firm with ties to Donald Trump's 2016 presidential campaign, gathered data on as many as 87 million Facebook users without their permission.

    In short, Facebook's problems ballooned out of the company's control.

“They created a platform where sharing was mindlessly easy and interacting with each other required almost no forethought at all,” said Woodrow Hertzog, a law and computer science professor at Northeastern University. “As a result, there was massive sharing, including leaking of personal information that put lots of people at risk.”

    When you think of a jungle adventure, what comes to mind? Are they gorgeous birds flying through the air or monkeys jumping through the forest? Do you think of plants? Probably not. After all, plants aren't the most exciting living things in the world. They just sit there and absorb water and nutrients from the soil and the sun. But actually there are also some plants that eat insects and even small animals from time to time. We call these unusual things carnivorous(食肉性) plants. Although most carnivorous plants eat small insects, larger carnivorous plants in some hot and wet areas have been known to capture rats, birds, and frogs.

    One carnivorous plant many people are familiar with is the Venus flytrap. Its unique “jaws” will function when flies and other small insects touch it. Once its jaws close on its victim, it produces a chemical substance that breaks down the insect and absorbs the insect's nutrients.

    There are several other examples of carnivorous plants. For example, some plants can catch insects with their leaves, which are like a tall narrow wineglass, while some trap their victims with sticky tentacles(触手). And some growing in ponds and streams absorb their victims like underwater cleaners. Carnivorous plants tend to grow in areas where the soil is very thin and lacks necessary nutrients. These plants must find other sources for the nutrients they need.

    Trapping and eating insects allows these unique plants to survive. Unfortunately, human and environmental factors continue to threaten the limited environments where you can find wild carnivorous plants.

    Still for many people, the thought of a plant eating an animal seems very strange. In fact, more than one person has turned the idea into a scary story or movie. Carnivorous plants don't pose any danger to humans, though. Unless you're the size of a tiny insect, you don't have to worry about falling prey to a Venus flytrap.