In Washington, Virginia and Maryland, the final months of the year have many festivals. Whether you are into a theatre environment, medieval times or a book festival, there is an event for you.

1). Maryland Renaissance Festival

    The festival, now in its 38th season, features 12 stages and hundreds of costumed actors offering entertainment such as music and theatre performance, sword swallowing and a human chess match. Sept. 21 through Oct.19.

2). Baltimore Book Festival in Maryland

    This three-day fair features talks and book signings from more than 275 locally and nationally known authors, including Alice McDermott and Andre Dubus III. The festival also includes live music and literary hands-on projects for kids. Sept. 26-28.

3). Middleburg Film Festival in Virginia

    The festival offers a relaxed theatre environment, and the events include a dancing party, an orchestra performance of horror film music by Marco Beltrami, and a discussion with Colleen Atwood, who is a famous costume designer. Oct. 30 through Nov.2.

4). Temple Hall Corn Maize and Fall Festival in Virginia

    The 286-acre farm offers a lot of family-friendly entertainment, including pig races, farm animals and camel rides. Grab seasonal goods at the farmers' market, take part in the corn harvest, and hear live bluegrass and folk music. Friday through Sunday, Sept. 26 through Nov.2.

5). Kids Euro Festival in Washington

    Here is a chance to celebrate and experience European arts and Culture, no passports required. Twenty-eight European countries will be represented during the multicultural children's event, which features more than 200 performances and workshops. The festival is for children ages 2 through 12, librarians and educators. Activities include puppet shows, cooking and theatre workshops. “It really brings Europe to the children, ” said organizer Sandi Auman. Oct. 24 through Nov. 9

    A speech is a wonderful opportunity to inform,persuade or entertain.The best speeches often take on a combination of all three of these components（组成部分）.However,before you can go about the writing of a great speech,it is important to set goals.Goals keep you,your speech and your audience focused.

What a goal is

    In the context of a speech,a goal is the purpose of the speech,and what it hopes to accomplish.For example,the goal of a eulogy（颂歌）might be to celebrate the life of a loved one.The goal of a speech at a political gathering would be to inform the crowd about the political position of a candidate and persuade them to vote and campaign for the candidate in question.

    Why a goal is important

    Without a goal,a speech is without direction.The goal informs the structure and content of the speech.For example,if a speech's goal is to convince people that smoking is bad for them,the speech will be structured with persuasive arguments to back up the goal.A speech with a goal of informing audience will keep the information fair and factual.

    A goal is incredibly important to the speech's ability to connect with an audience.If the speaker is unaware of the goal of the speech,the audience will likely be unaware as well.This severely reduces the effectiveness of the message.

    Besides informing the audience of the content and structure,a speech's goal drives the speaker to greater heights. If a speaker is asked to speak on a specific subject but never establishes the goal,they won't know where to start in the research,organizing and writing of the speech.

    If you have been charged with delivering a speech,establishing a goal can seem difficult at first.There are several things to take into consideration.First,think about who you will be speaking to.The demographic（人口统计）of your audience will likely determine whether you will be able to persuade them or whether they will be able to sit through（一直坐到……结束）.Second,think about the topic itself.If the topic is something controversial（有争议的）,it may worth your while to consider an informative approach to present both sides of the issue.Finally,consider your resources.A speech with an informative or persuasive goal usually requires a great deal of research,and sometimes takes more time to write.

    Teachers in some secondary schools in Britain are worried that their job may become impossible shortly unless something can be done to restore discipline in the classrooms. In the problem schools, mostly in large cities, a small minority of teenage pupils disturb lesson to such an extent that the teacher can no longer teach their classes effectively.

    Some people consider that the permissive (随意) nature of modern society is responsible for such kind of behavior. Small children who are continuously encouraged to express themselves without reservation are naturally unwilling to accept school discipline when they grow older. Furthermore, modern teaching techniques) which appear to stress personal enjoyment at the expense of serious study work, might be teaching the child to put his own interests before his duties to the community in which he lives.

    Perhaps the problem can be solved by improving facilities for the moral guidance of these difficult children or by better cooperation between the schools and the parents—for the parents may be mainly responsible for the bad behavior of their youngsters. Violence at home, violence and crime on TV make some children turn violence themselves.

    But some of the teachers believe that there ought to be a return to more “old fashioned” methods. At present, in some school teachers are even not allowed to punish a child who does something bad and wrong. Physical punishment is not permitted now. People are too soft on children these days. It seems that children can do whatever they like at school while the teachers can't do anything to punish them. I don't know why the schools authority abandoned some of the effective punishments that worked well. Things like that didn't happen when we were at school because the teachers kept those problem students under control by using a stick.

    Stefano Boeri, the Italian architect, famous for his Bosco Verticale, a group of tree-covered skyscrapers in Milan, introduced his new plans to pioneer a similar project in the Chinese city of Nanjing.

    The Chinese version of Boeri's Bosco Verticale, or vertical forest, will be his first project in Asia. The project will consist of two neighboring towers that will be coated with 23 different species of trees and more than 2,500 kinds of bushes hanging down the sides of the buildings. The structures will be built with the ability to house offices and will feature a 247-room luxury hotel, as well as a museum and even a green architecture school. The towers are currently under construction and are set for completion within the next year.

    But two buildings aren't enough for the ambitious Boeri as he now has even bolder plans for China to create “forest cities” in a country that has become known as an urban center choking on poisonous gases and dust.

    In an interview about his plans to “greenify” the city and country Boeri said, “We have been asked to design an entire city where you don't only have one tall building, but you have 100 or 200 buildings of different sizes, all with trees and plants on the sides.” Boeri continued, “We are working very seriously on designing all the different buildings. I think they will start to build at the end of this year. By 2020 we could imagine having the first forest city in China.”

    Although these towers will lend a huge hand in decreasing air pollution in China's eastern city, Boeri has said, it will take more than a pair of tree-covered skyscrapers to really solve China's pollution crisis. This is why the Italian architect hopes to repeat his design in other parts of the country, as well as in other places around the world.

    For several decades, there has been an organized campaign intended to produce distrust in science, funded by those whose interests are threatened by the findings of modern science. In response, scientists have tended to stress the success of science. After all, scientists have been right about most things, from the structure of the universe to the relativity of time and space.

    Stressing successes isn't wrong, but for many people it's not persuasive. An alternative answer to the question "Why trust science?" is that scientists use the so-called scientific method. But what is called the scientific method isn't what scientists actually do. Science is dynamic: new methods get invented; old ones get abandoned; and at any particular point, scientists can be found doing many different things. False theories sometimes lead to true results, so even if an experiment works, it doesn't prove that the theory it was designed to test is true.

    If there is no specific scientific method, then what is the basis for trust in science? The answer is the methods by which those claims are evaluated. A scientific claim is never accepted as true until it has gone through a long process of examination by fellow scientists. Scientists draft the initial version of a paper and then send it to colleagues for suggestions. Until this point, scientific feedback is typically fairly friendly. But the next step is different: the revised paper is submitted to a scientific journal, where things get a whole lot tougher. Editors deliberately send scientific papers to people who are not friends or colleagues of the authors, and the job of the reviewer is to find errors or other faults. We call this process "peer review" because the reviewers are scientific peers—experts in the same field—but they act in the role of a superior who has both the right and the responsibility to find fault. It is only after the reviewers and the editor are satisfied that any problems have been fixed that the paper will be printed in the journal and enters the body of "science."

    Some people argue that we should not trust science because scientists are "always changing their minds." While examples of truly settled science being overturned are far fewer than is sometimes claimed, they do exist. But the beauty of this scientific process is that science produces both creativity and stability. New observations, ideas, explanations and attempts to combine competing claims introduce creativity; transformative questioning leads to collective decisions and the stability of scientific knowledge. Scientists do change their minds in the face of new evidence, but this is a strength of science, not a weakness.

Inspired by the movement to protect the Carmanah Valley and Clayoquot Sound, I decided to devote myself to producing images for conservation full-time in 1992. Since that time my work has taken me all over the world and my photos have appeared in many major magazines. However, many of my most rewarding moments have come from working on projects in British Columbia, Canada, and sharing those images in slide show tours I have given throughout Canada, the U. S. and Europe.

The more I travel and photograph in other parts of the world, the more I have come to realize the wilderness we have in Canada is truly special and rare.

I have always felt that as a photographer my goal is to approach the natural environment with the sense of wonder and curiosity that comes so naturally to children. This, I believe, is one of the basic keys not just to producing meaningful images, but more importantly, to gaining a full appreciation and enjoyment of the natural world.

I find that not only my best images, but also my most enjoyable experiences in nature, occur when I have an open mind and follow my intuition (直觉). When I feel drawn to a certain scene, I try to make the scene simple and not include anything that is not relevant. I also try all ways to look for beautiful light. Early morning and the end of the day almost always produce light that results in more pleasing images than those taken under the strong light in the middle of a sunny day. Soft cloudy skies are wonderful for photographing all day, especially in our beautiful forests or for small subjects like wildflowers. Rain, storms, and snow also provide wonderful opportunities for new and different kinds of images.