Speaking in public meetings is necessary for many students and employees. As well, it is a difficult task for them, especially for non-native speakers. A great many researchers have made efforts to help foreign language learners to improve the approaches.

    Charles LeBeau is a public speaking professor and consultant. Currently, he teaches at two universities and at the Toshiba International Training Center. He has also written books on the subject. English language learners around the world use his book Speaking of Speech.

    In Speaking of Speech Mr. LeBeau says a simple approach helps the learners. So, the professor divides public speaking into three parts: the physical message, the visual message, and the story message. He says, “The central thing to remember about public speaking or presentation is that it's a very complex communicative activity. For non-native speakers it's a really scary activity. So to make that more simplistic and easy for them, the approach that I've taken is to simplify and break it down. First if we look at presentation, what's going on? There are basically three messages that the presenter is giving the audience at the same time. There's what I call the physical message, namely body language. It's the way that my body, as a speaker, is talking to the audience. Then there's also the visual message. The visual messages are the slides that we now make and show the audience. The third message is the story message, which is the content of our presentation. The story message is the verbal message, what we say to the audience. The story message also includes how we organize our ideas to present to the audience.”

    He says the simple approach to breaking down the parts of public speaking has proved itself. He says learners improve quickly and do a good presentation after a few days of study.

    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.

    David Cameron is urging today's youngsters to abandon French to concentrate on the tongue of the future—Mandarin(普通话)。

    Cameron said: "I want Britain linked up to the world's fast-growing economies. And that includes our young people learning the languages to seal tomorrow's business deals.”

    "By the time the children born today leave school, China is to be the world's largest economy. So it's time to look beyond the traditional focus on French and German and get many more children learning Mandarin.” To strengthen his message , he quoted Nelson Mandela—the former president of South Africa who said "If you talk to a man in a language he understands that goes to his head; if you talk to him in his own language that goes to his heart.”

    Cameron said that a partnership between the British Council (英国文化协会) and Hanban will double the number of Chinese language assistants in the UK by 2016 and provide increased funding to schools of offering Mandarin as a language choice. In a development of the UK—China School Partnership programme , funding will also be provided for 60 headteachers to make study visits to China in 2014.

    In recent research the British Council found only 1% of the adult population speaks Mandarin to a level that allows them to conduct a basic conversation. Just 3,000 pupils in England, Wales and Northern Ireland entered for Chinese languages GCSEs in 2013, putting it far behind the traditional choices of French with 177,000, Spanish with 91,000 and German with 62,000 entrants(加入者), as well as Urdu, Polish and Arabic.

    Professor Dame Helen Wallace, the British Academy's foreign secretary, said, " a lack of qualified teachers could be a barrier to improve its popularity.”

    Laura Chan, one of the co—founders of a bilingual Mandarin—English primary school, said the prime minister's announcement was good news for the status of Mandarin. She said, "It's a great help. It will increase people's awareness of Mandarin as a language they can learn.”

Plants, and the insects which rely on them, are the living foundations of our planet. But these foundations are under stress because we have a tendency to replace fields and forests with decorative trees and shrubs imported from around the world. Adding to the problem, our obsession (痴迷) with perfection leads us to use a lot of pesticides (杀虫剂).

These actions are part of the reason global biodiversity is crashing. There are over three billion fewer wild birds in North America than there were in 1970. Recent research shows that insect numbers, even in nature reserves, have fallen, and 40 percent of all insect species may be extinct within a few decades. This is discouraging news; however, there are actions we can take to help bring at least some species back.

The first step is to redefine our concept of "garden" to include more than just plants. We need to intentionally share our space, and not just with the birds, bees and butterflies that visit our flowers, but also with the little insects that may eat a part (very rarely all) of our plants. Therefore, we must limit pesticide use. It's crucial to support nature's recovery, and it's much better for everyone: no doctor has ever recommended long-term exposure to pesticides.

Many drought-tolerant plants brought in from across the planet are being passed off as ecofriendly. However, mostly they're not. Yes, you're saving water, but these foreign plants can become disasters when they escape our yards. Helping the environment can be about more than saving water. Even in drier areas, like the American West, the selection of attractive native plants to choose from is vast. If dry is your style, there are native wildflowers, flowering bushes and trees that allow you to save water and nature.

Xeriscapes (节水型园艺) leave many gardeners thirsting for green, and there's an important alternative that has been largely ignored. For those disenchanted with dry landscaping, using underappreciated and water-loving native plants to make your garden a real-life oasis (绿洲) could be lifesaving to wildlife. In nature, this unsung group of native plants is limited to riparian zones, the narrow belts of green along water bodies, but if consumers demand them, nurseries will increasingly carry these riparian species, and the presence of such plants in the garden will provide for many animals including not just butterflies and their relatives but also colorful birds.

The ideal garden would offer a combination of drought-tolerant native plants and a few species that need a little more water, providing options for little guests and the bigger ones that will come to eat them. As more creatures stop by to share our yards, we will be making nature, and us all, a little healthier.

During the Christmas season, Care Bears dressed in Santa Claus hats and other decorations, an {#blank#}1{#/blank#}（adore）toy favoured by kids, can be {#blank#}2{#/blank#}（easy）found on the shelves of shopping malls in the United States. Care Bears are multicoloured bears {#blank#}3{#/blank#} are used on greeting cards and later turned into plush（毛绒） bears. 

Before these stuffed animals reached their destination, they {#blank#}4{#/blank#}（produce）in Qinling Mountains in China and journeyed for almost a month across the ocean. 

Min Hua, manager of Ankang Heng'an Toy Ltd. said the production of a Care Bear involves nearly 20 workers covering eight {#blank#}5{#/blank#}（procedure）. After {#blank#}6{#/blank#}（apply）textile（纺织品） printing on piece goods, workers would add embroidery （纺织品刺绣）. Then, they use machines to cut patterns, sew them by following the given draft, {#blank#}7{#/blank#} stuff them. Min Hua noted the toy factory is highly labor-hungry, and that was {#blank#}8{#/blank#} the company chose to settle down in Ankang, where labour and land costs were relatively low. 

{#blank#}9{#/blank#} （ensure）quick delivery, in 2020, the local government and Shanghai International Port （Group） Co., Ltd. （SIPG） co-found a logistics （物流的） company named Ankang SIPG, ensuring multimodal transport {#blank#}10{#/blank#} a lower cost. 

Given the fact that chemical pesticides and artificial fertilisers can fight crop diseases and increase production, they{#blank#}1{#/blank#}(be) in wide-spread use since the 1950s. When they were first introduced,many farmers considered them as a great way.However, with time {#blank#}2{#/blank#}(go) by, they have been proved harmful to the environment and people's health if{#blank#}3{#/blank#}(use) for a long time.{#blank#}4{#/blank#} (tackle) this problem, some farmers have switched to organic farming{#blank#}5{#/blank#}an alternative. And organic food has become{#blank#}6{#/blank#}favorite for many customers. Farmers who grow organic products rely on it that{#blank#}7{#/blank#}(nature) means could keep their soil fertile and free of disease. Different organic methods have come up,{#blank#}8{#/blank#} goal is to grow good food while avoiding damage to the environment or to people's health. However, organic farming cannot replace chemical farming{#blank#}9{#/blank#}(instant) for it's feeding a huge number of people worldwide now. There is still a long way to go before scientists find a suitable{#blank#}10{#/blank#}(solve) that can serve the high demand for food around the world while protecting the environment.