October

The tenth month of the year has a lot to offer

O - Opal is the traditional birthstone for this month. The Greek meaning is to see a color change. The stone occurs in several colors such as white or black. It can even be transparent with flashes of color.

C - The calendula, or marigold, is this month's flower, which represents sympathy.

T - Top names in theater, music and dance will appear at the Melbourne Festival. It runs from October 11 to 27. If you are headed to Australia, don't miss it!

O - The Old City in Jerusalem will hold the Jerusalem Knights Festival the last four Thursdays this month. Visitors will get a taste of the Middle Ages with entertainment from that time period.

B - Blindness awareness marks this month. World Sight Day occurs October 10 this year. If focuses on educating people about blindness and raising money for blindness prevention programs.

E - Every year, October ends on the same day of the week as February does!

R - The Regent's Park in London hosts the Frieze Art Fair in mid-October. Contemporary art galleries from around will be featured along with a sculpture park.


Grammar Gym
"Blindness awareness marks this month."
marks: to characterize or to make s.t. special or different
- A fireworks display marks the evening.
- The opening ceremony was marked by a special performance from a children's choir.

Info Cloud
Teaching Topic: Acrostics (離合詩)
a poem or piece of writing in which the first or last letter of each line spells a word

In this month's month facts feature, our author presents her information in a very creative way.
She uses the word "October" as an acrostic.

An acrostic is formed when the first letters in a series of lines or verses are arranged in such a way that they spell out a word or phrase.

Over the centuries, acrostics have been used to highlight people's names to conceal a message and to remember information.

Right! By associating something with each of the seven letters of the word "October", the author is helping us remember the seven points she makes about the month of October.

OK. Here's an acrostic that helps us remember the colors of the rainbow, "ROY G. BIV".

Now, this acrostic is made up. "ROY" is the fictitious man's first name, "G" is his middle initial, and "BIV", B-I-V, is his last name.

"ROY G. BIV" helps us remember the colors in order "Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue, Indigo, and Violet."

Here's another acrostic to help us remember the planets of our solar system. The sentence, "My Very Excellent Mom Just Served Us Nachos."

Good one, Ken. Mercury, Venus, Earth, Mars, Jupiter, Satum, Uranus, and Neptune for Nachos.

Language Lab
flash n.
a bright light that shines for a short time and then stops shining:
- A sudden flash of lightning brightened up the night sky.
a sudden appearance or occurrence of something
- A flash of inspiration came to the director, and he decided to shoot the scene outdoors.

sympathy n. [sym一起/path 感受]
[plural,uncountable] the feeling of being sorry for someone who is in a bad situation
- Nathan has a lot of sympathy for hearing-impaired kids.
sympathetic adj.
- Many people are sympathetic toward the hurricane victims.

educate v.
to teach (someone) especially in a school, college, or university [+ obj]
- Jenny quit her job to educate her kids at home.
education n.
- Higher education in America is quite expensive.
educational adj.
- an educational magazine

contemporary adj.
/kənˈtɛmpəreri/
existing or happening in the same time period : from the same time period
- She wrote a lot of contemporary music for movies.
- The contemporary style of the hotel attracted many customers.


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