The World Heritage(遗产) Centre is pleased to announce the Call for Projects for the World Heritage Volunteers Campaign 2017. The WHV 2017 aims to raise awareness of young people, volunteers and local communities, about World Heritage related to continuous development and biodiversity, integrating non-formal education tools on heritage preservation and conservation. For more information, please consider the Call for Projects document at this website.

Who can participate in this campaign?

Youth organizations that want to sensitize young people to the value of World Heritage sites, NGOs and institutions including public authorities that wish to organize an action camp to preserve and promote a World Heritage site with young national and international volunteers.

How to apply for this campaign?

We kindly invite all the interested organizations and institutions to join the projects. In order to get involved in or renew your commitment to the protection and preservation of World Heritage through voluntary action and non-formal education, please fill in the on-line application as follows: form.jotformeu.com.

Please submit your application at the latest by 3 November 2017 at midnight (Paris Time).

If you have difficulties to access the online form, please download the PDF application from below and send it to secretariat@ccivs.org (for projects in Africa, Arab States and Latin America), to info@heritagevolunteers.eu (for projects in Europe) or whv@betterworld.asia (for projects in Asia) with a copy to i.yousfi@unesco.org.

As we all know nowadays, English , which was only spoken by people living in Britain    (1)   the 16^th century, began to be spoken in many other countries from the next century with the English colonists（殖民者） making voyages to conquer other places all over the world.   (2)   that, a large   (3)   of countries speak English   (4)   their first language, such as the U.S., Canada, Australia.   (5)  people in many more countries have a good command of English and speak   (6)   fluently as a foreign or   (7)   language   (8)    ever before.
     Although there are   (9)   kinds of English in the world, the    (10)   speakers can have almost no   (11)   in communication with each other   (12)   they don’t make   (13)    of the same kind of English. However, sometimes they do have some difficulty in   (14)    and understanding each other’s words, dialects , pronunciation and   (15)  .
     English is an all-the-time changing   (16)   , for example, the English of AD 450 to 1150, which was  (17)  on German, was quite different from the English spoken at   (18)   .     (19)    to Shakespeare’s efforts, English had a big change in usage. American English got its own identity with the   (20)   of Noah Webster.

That saying perfectly describes Zhang Lei, the 34-year-old champion of the fourth “Voice of China” singing competition, which ended on Oct 7.

Critics thought Zhang’s  success as a victory for folk singers. The Voice of China used to attach great importance to singing skills and vocal techniques, which are not necessarily what folk singers are good at. “Folk songs are more about emotions and storytelling,”said Li.

Folk is one of the oldest musical styles. It dates back to ancient times, when people sang about their everyday lives and the society around them.

Folk music became popular again in the Western world in the 1960s. During social revolutions, many young Westerners turned to the simple rhythms of folk. Pioneers included US singer Bob Dylan, whose songs are reflections of some social issues like the Vietnam War. Singers at that time used traditional folk instruments like the banjo, the upright bass, the mandolin and the piano.

In the late 1970s, folk music was introduced to Taiwan. The rise of singers like Lo Tayu and Chyi Yu popularized folk music, particularly among young Chinese people.

At that time, folk tunes were based on simple song structures, with pleasant chord progression and pretty lyrics, just like during old times. But they focused more on the dreams and sorrow of youth than on politics.

Sadly, it didn’t last long in China. Folk gave way to pop in the late 1990s, when people started living more fast-paced lives. But that didn’t mean folk music had disappeared from the music world entirely.  “The drop in the popularity of folk songs is because the business mode of the music industry is outdated, not because of the music itself,” folk singer Song Ke once said.   He was right. Recent years have seen folk songs gaining popularity, with the appearance of singers like Li Jian and Song Dongye.

 “The popularity of the Internet has shocked the traditional profit model in music industry,” Lu Zhongqiang, manager of 13-Month, a music recording and publishing company, told Tencent Entertainment.  “Not-so-well-known music starts showing its strength when the production of mainstream music is declining,” he added.

China has more than 30 intangible cultural heritage (非物质文化遗产) recognized by the UNESCO, including paper-cutting, the Dragon Boat Festival, Peking Opera, acupuncture (针灸) and so on. The organization adopted a decision that China’s “The Twenty-Four Solar Terms” (二十四节气) should be put on the Representative List of the Intangible Cultural Heritage of Humanity in 2016 in Ethiopia.

The Twenty-Four Solar Terms, knowledge of time and practices in agriculture, starts from the Beginning of Spring and ends with the Greater Cold, moving in cycles. It developed through the observation of the sun’s annual movement in China. In ancient time, the method of tugui, earth sundial（日晷）, was used to measure the shadow of the sun for determining the solar terms.

The Twenty-Four Solar Terms came into being and developed in close relationship with Chinese agricultural production. At the initial stage of agricultural development, people began to explore the seasonal rules in the agricultural production to meet the needs in seeding, harvesting and other activities. Gradually, they formed the concept of “seed in spring, grow in summer, harvest in autumn and store in winter”. During the spring and autumn periods, the agricultural production was highly influenced by the seasonal changes, thus forming the concept of Solar Terms.      

As a traditional Chinese knowledge system of time with a history of thousands of years, the Twenty-Four Solar Terms clearly expresses the concepts of respect for nature, and harmony between man and nature. Created by Chinese ancestors, it has functioned as a complete set of weather calendar (日历) to guide the agricultural production in China. It has also been introduced into North Korea, Japan and other neighboring countries and still used in Japan. The Chinese heritage has provably influenced the people’s way of thinking and behaving and will continue to be an important carrier of Chinese cultural identity.

When July comes, children know they’ll have their examination and the school year will end soon. Boys and girls will have a nearly two   (1)  holiday, and they’ll leave school   (2)    train or by car to     (3)    to see their fathers and mothers.The summer holidays are the      (4)     time of the year for most children. The weather is usually good, so one can    (5)   most of his time playing outside.    (6)   one lives in the country, he can  (7)     into the woods and in the fields. If one lives in a big town, he can    (8)   go to a park to play.

    The best place for a summer holiday is the    (9)    . Some children are   (10)    enough to live near the sea. But for   (11)    who do not, if they have the chance to stay at one of the big seaside towns for a week or two,    (12)   will talk about it all the following school year. Now,    (13)    makes the children like the seaside so much? I think it is the  (14)   , the sea and the sun, not   (15)   else. Of course, there are    (16)    new things to see, nice things to eat, and    (17)   things to do. But the feeling of the sand under their feet of the  (18)   water on their skin, and   (19)   of the warm sun on their backs make   (20)    happier.

Each year, more than 30,000 elephants are poached (偷猎) for their ivory (象牙). But recently, China — the world’s largest market for ivory products — promised to end its sale of ivory.

“Ending legal sales of ivory in China is the greatest step to reduce elephant poaching in Africa，”says Peter Knights, CEO of the conservation (保护) group WildAid. “We praise China for its leadership.”

Chinese leaders say that the nation will gradually reduce its amount to zero. They are also encouraging other countries to follow China’s lead by taking bigger action against the illegal ivory trade.

Africaonce had as many as 3.5 million elephants. Today, only about 500,000 remain. Conservation experts say elephants could someday disappear entirely if the illegal ivory trade does not end.

The international trade of ivory was banned in 1989. However, China has still allowed ivory to be sold. In addition, the US — the second­largest market for ivory — still allows the trade of ivory acquired before the ban. Europeans still support the ivory market by selling ivory from long ago. Many poachers are taking advantage of these rules. They are still illegally hunting elephants for ivory, but selling the ivory in legal markets.

Last week, the US destroyed more than a ton of ivory in New York City’s Times Square to show its commitment (承诺) to ending the illegal ivory trade. China held a similar ivory­crushing event last month, and other countries have done the same in recent years.

Some wildlife supporters say destroying ivory will reduce the supply of ivory, leading to more poaching. But organizers say the events will raise awareness (意识) of the illegal ivory trade and increase support for ending it.

“China, the US, and other major ivory­consuming countries hold the key to saving Africa’s elephants，”says Ginette Hemley, senior vice president of Wildlife Conservation at the World Wildlife Fund.