Nearly all American students in colleges and universities pay for their education. There are many expenses. First of all, there is tuition (学费). At some schools, the tuition is very high, ten thousand dollars a year or more. At other schools, it may only be a few hundred dollars a year. At some community (社区) colleges, tuition is free. There are other expenses as well. Many students leave their homes to go to schools in other cities. They may live in dormitories or apartments (flats), and they must pay for it. Finally, students must buy textbooks for their courses. Some families start saving money for their children's education when the children are small. Many students work to save money for tuition. They can also get loans (贷款) from the government. They pay the money back to the government when they finish their education.
In the United States, "hitting the books" means studying a subject with great effort.
One of the greatest challenges for students is taking tests. Students 1 long hours preparing for a test. They read all their books carefully, and then read them a second time and a third time. They 2 they know all the material the teacher has offered and prepare for every possible question. They study every night. They are "hitting the books".
In the United States, most children go to school 3 they are 5 years old. Public education is free and most children go to schools near their homes. School in these early years is 4. The children learn to read and write, but they also play games and go on trips. There is no 5 for them to hit the books at such an early age.
This situation changes as children become older. The subjects become more difficult. Students must 6 world history, physics and the life sciences. Tests become more common.
Pressure is 7 to hit the books, study hard, and advance(升级). However, most serious students only really begin 8 the books for long hours when they reach high school.
High school students who hope to continue their education at a college or university 9 take a special test called the SAT. If they get a 10 score on the test, they have a good chance to enter a top American college. For this reason, many students hit the books for months to prepare for the SAT.
All this adds up to a lot of work-"hitting the books". Knowledge is a prize that is not easy to gain.
Hold Your Head Up High
Hold your head up high I was 15 months old, a happy and carefree kid, until the day I fell. It was a bad fall. I landed on a piece of glass that cut my eye badly. from then on, my injured, sightless, cloudy gray eye lived on with me.
Sometimes people asked me embarrassing(使人难堪的) questions. Whenever kids played games, I was the "monster". I was always imagining that everyone looked down on(瞧不起) me. Yet mum would say to me, "Hold your head up high and face the world." I began to depend on that saying.
As a child, I thought mum meant, "Be careful, or you will fall down or bump into something because you are not looking." As a teenager, I usually looked down to hide my shame. But I found that when I held my head up high, People liked me.
In high school I even became the class president, but on the inside I still felt like a monster. All I really wanted was to look like everyone else. When things got really bad, I would cry to my mum and she would look at me with loving eyes and say, "Hold your head up high and face the world. Let them see the beauty that is inside instead of your appearance(外貌)." My mum's love was the sunshine that made me bright. I had faced hard times, and learned not only to be confident(自信的) but also to have deep compassion(同情) for others. "Hold your head up high" has been heard many times in my home. I say it to my children. The gift my mum gave me will live on.
Hi, dear boys and girls! Do you know how to be a healthy kid? Here are some rules you should follow.
First, eat different foods, especially fruit and vegetables. You may have a favorite food, but you'd better eat something different, if you eat different foods, you will probably get more nutrients(营养物质) your body needs.
Second, drink water and milk as often as possible. When you're really thirsty, cold water is the No. l choice(选择). Milk is a great drink that can give you more calcium(钙) your body needs to grow strong bones(骨头).
Third, listen to your body. How do you feel when you are full? When you are eating,notice how your body feels and when your stomach(胃)feels comfortably full. Eating too much will not make you feel comfortable and make you fat.
Fourth, limit(限制) screen time. Screen time is the time you watch TV, DVDs and videos, or using computers. It is good to take more exercise such as basketball, bike riding and swimming. You can't watch TV for more than two hours a day.
Fifth, be active. One thing you'd like to do as a kid is to find out which activity you like best. Find ways to be active every day. Follow these rules and you can be a healthy kid.
One day,a teacher entered the classroom and told the students about a test. After hearing,all students were seated and waited for the test to1. Now, the teacher gave the test papers to all students and put the text face down at the desk. When he finished handing out the test to all students, he asked2 to turn the test pages and begin.
Students were surprised to see that there was not a 3 but just a black dot in the center of the page. The teacher noticed the students' face expression and told them, “I want you to write about 4you see there.”
The students were still5but got started with the test. At the end of the class, the teacher took all answer sheets and started reading each answer from each sheet in front of all students. All of them described about the black dot and tried to explain its position etc. After the teacher finished reading, the whole class was6.
Then professor began to explain, “Don't worry, I am not going to give you 7 for this but I just want you to think about something. Here everyone focused on the black dot and wrote about it,8no one wrote about the white paper, the 9 is with our lives. The white paper stands for our whole life and the black spot stands for10in our life.
Our life is a gift given to us by God,11love and care, and we always have reasons to celebrate –our friends around us, the job that can 12us our living, the miracles we see every day.
Still we just13 day to day problems like health problems, lack of money, problems in relationships etc. but we never see that these problems are very small compared to14 we have in our lives.”
So we should try to take eyes off our problems and15each moment that life gives us. Be happy and live life positively.
Many middle school students don't know how to spend their free time. When they have holidays, they always have nothing to do and feel bored. Some may play computer games all day long and some may stay in bed and sleep all day. It's not a good way. Here is some advice.
If you don't like to stay at home, you can go for a picnic or play some sports. In this way, you can take some fresh air and keep healthy. If you like to stay at home, you may enjoy some light music or read a few novels. You can play some indoor games such as chess, cards, and table tennis. You can also plant some trees and flowers in your garden to make your home beautiful. It is also a good way to keep a pet and talk with it. Just develop some hobbies and you will feel much happier after a long holiday.
We wake up very early to go to school, maybe even earlier to meet with a teacher, complete our extracurricular(课程以外的) activities, come home to have a quick dinner, talk for eight minutes with our parents and do homework until we fall asleep. But then we remember we have to look at the American College Test (ACT) exercises one more time. Half asleep, we run downstairs to get the ACT books, and start studying. After this we finally get to turn off the lights and drift away to sleep. And then six hours later, we do it all over again.
In my health class, my teacher told us that teenagers need at least eight to nine hours of sleep each night. The sad truth is, with so much to do every day, high school students cannot keep to this sleep schedule(安排).
Let me ask you all a question: Doesn't it seem more humane(人道的) to give a teenager perhaps two hours of homework each night? This would allow us to have the eight to nine hours of much needed sleep. Or does it seem better to pile students with five hours of work a night? It leaves us very little time to relax, therefore reducing the time that we can sleep.
In my opinion, the present structure(结构) of the junior year of high school doesn't work well. Junior year of high school is a time for growth. By this time many students have the ability to think creatively, and solve challenging problems. Homework is important for a student's growth. But do we really need to spend countless hours a night doing it? Too much homework can only lead to too little sleep and too low an ability. I do think it is time to change the structure, so that we sleep at home and learn at school.
If you go into the forest with friends, stay with them. If you don't, you may get lost. If you get lost, this is what you should do. Sit down and stay where you are. Don't try to find your friends. Let them find you. You can help them find you by staying in one place. There is another way to help your friends or other people to find you. You can shout or whistle (吹口哨) three times. Stop. Then shout or whistle three times again. Any signal given three tines is a call for help.
Keep up shouting or whistling. Always three times together. When people hear you, they will know that you are not just making a noise for fun. They will let you know that they have heard your signal. They will give you two shouts or two whistles. When a signal is given twice, it is an answer to a call for help.
If you don't think that you will get help before night comes, try to make a little house with branches. Make yourself a bed with l eaves and grass.
When you need some water, you have to leave your little branch house to look for it. Don't just walk away .Pick off small branches and drop them as you walk in order to go back again easily.
①"I will think of it." It is easy to say this, but do you know what great things have come from thinking? Though we can't see, or hear, or feel our thoughts, they have great power(力量) !
②Isaac Newton was seated in his garden on a summer evening when he saw an apple fall from a tree. He began to think, and tried to find out why the apple fell. Then he discovered how the earth, sun, moon, and stars are kept in their places.
③James Ferguson once saw the inside of his father's watch, and he wondered, "Why should I not make a watch?" This set him thinking and it led to a wooden clock which kept good time.
④Walt Disney, the famous American film-maker, was often thinking of new ideas. One day, when he was in a meeting, he suddenly stopped talking, deep in thought. He looked and looked at a place high up in the room. This continued for a long time, end then he got an idea for a new cartoon.
⑤Ideas come at any time, end the important thing is to think. When you meet with any difficulty, don't lose heart. Try to think of it before asking someone to help you. And by thinking you will learn how to think creatively.
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For many of us, the idea of a family is a lot narrower(狭窄的) than it used to be. Today children go away to college, and take up jobs wherever chances seem greatest. So instead of growing up in a family with grandparents, aunts, uncles and cousins, many of us are truly connected(有联系的) only to our parents, brothers and sisters.
Many kids today know little about the lives of their relatives and don't care deeply about them.
Whether we realize it or not, this feeling of being disconnected makes people feel kind of lonely. "People need to feel connected," says Joy Browne, a doctor in the U.S. "And they will do it in the easiest ways." When family members aren't connected, what could be easier than forming a connection to famous people?
For that, we need to stay connected to our own families. Parents can help by telling their children stories about their grandparents, aunts and cousins, and by telling them the children's latest activities and interests.
We can use technology to keep connected with each other. It's easy to send e-mails to grandparents and take a vacation with members of your relatives – not with any other person. A week or so of relaxing vacation can be a great way to tie up family ties(纽带). And when a bad thing happens, no one can be as helpful as your relatives. Because no matter how much we cry for the famous people, they can't be there to cry for us.
Most of us like travelling. And we will be happier if we share our travel stories with1.
Then 2 can we write better travel stories? The following may be helpful.
You may have a good memory(记忆力), but you cannot remember3. You are seeing and hearing so much 4 while you're on a trip. When you start to write about your travel stories, you may forget(忘记)something. 5 you should make notes and take photos. In this way, you can write down your travel stories without 6 anything.
When you are writing about your travel stories, make sure they are not too 7, because you may miss some important information in 8. And you should also make sure they are not too long, because the readers may get bored(无聊的).
Make sure the readers will find your travel stories not only interesting to 9, but helpful as well. You can write down popular things, like food to eat and places to stay while10.
Lots of kids hate school, a new study found. Usually this kind of feeling doesn't last long. But what happens if you feel this way too much? School is a fact of life and getting a good education can help you build the kind of future life you want. So let's talk about school and what to do when you don't like it.
If you don't like school, the first step is to find out the reason. You might not like school because you don't have enough friends, or maybe you don't get along with your teacher. Sometimes it's a big problem with your classes and school﹣work. You may be getting farther and farther behind, and it may seem like you'll never catch up.
When you know why you don't like school, you can start taking steps to make things better. It's a good idea to talk to someone about your problems with school. Your mum, dad, teacher or school counselor(心理辅导员)will be able to help you. Another good idea is to write down your feelings about school in notebook. It's a great way to let out emotions(情绪). Remember, you don't have to share what you've written with others.
Bullying (欺凌) can happen to anyone. A great many children around the world are bullied every year, but there are things that can be done to help.
What is bullying?
Bullying is when someone makes you feel bad or hurts you again and again. Bullying can happen at school, out of school and online. Bullying includes;
·calling people mean (恶意的) names
·laughing at people
·telling lies about people
·taking someone's things without permission (允许)
·not letting someone play in a group
·hitting people
What is cyberbullying?
Cyberbullying includes:
·sending bad messages online
·sharing photos online without permission
·not letting someone be part of an online group
·spreading lies online
What can you do?
If someone is not kind to you, tell an adult that you know and like. For example, talk to a parent or a teacher.
If you get bad messages, don't reply. You should save them and give them to your teacher, your family, or the police. Ask an adult for help. Don't share something before you make sure it is true, That will help stop the cyberbullying.
Talk to your parents or teacher or an adult if you see bullying or if you are worried about a friend.
Say sorry if you are not kind to someone. You can write a message or talk to the person. And always remember: think about how to be kind in the future.
For more information, visit our home page at WWW.kidsworld. com.
Sea lions are kind to people. They are (love) and friendly animals. We can often see them on the (beach) all around the world. It can be quite dark in the ocean, but sea lions can find their way (easy). Sea lions are good divers. They can dive 45 feet or even deeper. But they dive too deep, maybe they will die. Sea lions are great (swim), too. They can swim at a speed of 40 kilometres each hour. This helps them get away sharks. Every year,people kill (thousand) of sea lions for their skin. That's sea lions are becoming fewer and fewer. To keep this kind of animals alive forever, we should (stop) people from killing them. Or our grandchildren will have no chance to see sea lions in many (year).
When you were very young, you liked to play with your friends. Did you find that playtime was always more fun when everyone(share) the toys? Everyone got a turn. No one was left out.
That's a life lesson that changes as you get older. The idea of sharing hasnew meaning.
As you grow up, you begin to understand that others have less than you do. When you "have" things, you should help those "have less" than you do.
You can share with people in some ways. You can give them some of your money. You can share things you don't use any longer, such as old clothes and (toy).You can give them away to people without enough money (buy) them. Besides, you can help people by giving your time.
The last one(call) volunteering. Volunteering is about giving your time. You can take partactivities to help others. Every year, many thousands of volunteers in the world give (valuable) gift of all, their time.
Actually, volunteering isn't just about giving. You will also meet different people, get different experiences and learn important skills. A few hours in volunteering now will(possible) help you in the future. That's there is always a saying—The roses in her hand , the flavor(香气) in mine.
If you think you are too shy and want to be a little bit braver, just try the following things.
Tell people you are shy. There is no need to hide it. When they get to know you are a shy kid, they will understand you better. This also helps you feel more comfortable in talks.
When you smile, people think you are friendly and easy to talk with. Remember that other people have feelings, too; and most people will stay away from an angry-looking face.
If you find it hard to start a conversation, say something, nice about people around you. Think about how great you feel when someone says something nice to you. Doesn't it make you want to keep talking to that person?
Think more about ways to enjoy parties or games. Don't waste time worrying about your look or whether people like you or not. You will become relaxed and find it's not so hard to talk with others.
Each time when you say "Hi!" or smile at someone, say to yourself "You can make it! "Keep trying and one day you'll never feel shy when you talk to others.
1)根据短文内容,从方框中选出每段的小标题。
A. Just enjoy parties or games. B. Learn to be a good talker. C. Encourage yourself and keep trying. D. Be open to others. E. Try to smile more. |
2)根据短文内容,完成表格。(每空一词)
Title: Advice on to be a little braver
Advice |
Reasons |
Don't the fact. |
If you tell people you are shy, they will understand you better. |
Smile more. |
People don't like the one with an angry-looking face. |
Start a conversation with words. |
People will feel great and want to talk to you. |
Pay more attention to ways to enjoy or games. |
You will become relaxed. |
Encourage yourself to say "Hi!" or smile at someone. |
Keep doing this and you'll be braver to talk to others the future. |
①What will you do if you want to show your love for someone? Write it down? Good! Speak it out? Sweet! Use the ILY sign (手势)in the picture? Special!
②The ILY sign means "I LOVE YOU". Deaf schoolchildren in America used the sign first. Those children couldn't hear, so they used sign—language to talk with each other. They made it with the signs for the letters I, L and Y. The sign was simple to use, so it soon became popular.
③Then the ILY sign became famous around the world because of Spiderman. He always used the sign in fights. Now many people use the ILY sign, and singers love to use it more. They use it to show their love for music, and their fans use it to show their love for the singers.
④You can use this sign to show your love for anyone—your family, your friends and your favourite stars.
on, how, imagine, tidy, chore |
Dear Sir,
I think it's important for children to learn to do chores. As we know, doing can help children develop their independence. They should do their part in keeping their houses clean and . If they depend us too much, can you what will happen in the future?
Mrs. Smith