John Grisham is one of the most popular American authors (作家) today. All of his books have been best-sellers (畅销书). And six books of his, including The Client, have been made into films.
Grisham was born in Arkansas in 1955. As a child, he wanted to be a professional baseball player. Later he changed his mind and studied accounting (会计学) at Mississippi State University. After 1981, he worked in a law firm (律师事务所) for nearly ten years. Although he was working 60-70 hours a week, he got up at 5:00 am every day to write his first book, A Time to Kill. It took him three years to write this book and he finished it in 1987. His next novel, The Firm, came out in 1991. It was his first big success.
Now Grisham lives with his wife and their two children in Mississippi. In his free time, he helps children develop their baseball skills.
The mobile phone has become a problem for middle schools. Some middle schools in Australia have banned (禁止) students from carrying mobile phones during school hours.
Mobile phone use among children has become a problem for schools. Several children have got mobile phones from parents and friends as Christmas gifts, and more students will want them.
Lucy Bluett, an expert, said mobile phone use was a distraction (使人分心的事) to students during school hours. Teachers were also saying that sometimes students might use phone messages to cheat during exams.
She said some schools had tried to ban mobile phones. Some parents felt unhappy because they couldn't call up their children.
Many teachers said students should not have mobile phones at the school, but if there was a good reason, they could leave their phones at the school office.
Many people say that they understand why parents would want their children to have phones, but they think schools should let the students know when they can use their mobile phones.
I'm Marie. I work in a nursing home (养老院) and my job is to look after the old people. Alice is one of them. She's a very nice old woman.
This year, Alice had a difficult time. She went to hospital twice. In November, I finally could get her back to her "home".
Alice hoped that her daughter could come to visit her on Christmas Eve because she wanted to be with her family, like the old days. But her daughter was coming after Christmas, so she was very sad. I also felt sad because she would be alone on the holiday!
On Christmas Eve, I took her to a candlelight service (烛光礼拜) at church that night.
I didn't take her to my church. I took her to the church in her old neighborhood. We got there early and I let her sit near the door, so people could see her when they came in. Soon some of her friends came to the church and they all talked to her and sat with her.
Alice got a lot of love from her old and new friends there. She said she loved the gift like this. That night, I thought I got the best gift: the smile on Alice's face.
Every day when I enter the classroom, I will take a look at the wall beside my seat. You will find nothing special about this old wall if you just look at it. But for the students in my class, it is a special wall. Take a good look at it, and you will get to know the real feelings and thoughts of us, the 9th graders.
In the middle of the wall, there is a big "VICTORY". It was written in pencil. I guess it must have been written by someone who got a good mark in an exam.
A little higher above the rules, there is a poem. It only has two sentences. It reads: All those sweet memories have disappeared. Like tears dropping in the heavy rain.
Oh! It must have been written at the end of last term in middle school. Classmates had to leave school and good friends had to part. What a sad poem!
If you "explore" the wall more carefully, you will find many other interesting things, like a crying face, or a happy face, and other patterns(图案). There are still some patterns and letters that: I can't understand, but they all show the feelings of the students who drew them.
For years, the wall has witnessed( 目睹) all the things that have happened in the classroom. I don't know how it will be next year, two years from now, or even ten years from now. But I hope more smiling faces will be drawn on it.
People often ask me for suggestions about how to learn English. Everyone's different, of course, but I thought I'd share some of my experiences. I once took one semester of second-year English in Peking University, but I mostly learned English on my own.
One thing I can tell is, once you've started learning, you should try to think in English as much as you can. When you're riding your bike, or walking down the street, just think about "how would I say them in English?" At first, it will be with simple words or phrases, but later you should be thinking about bigger phrases and sentences. Now when I'm in America, for the most time, I just think in English, and speak directly. It's amazing how much this helps.
For several years after I started learning, I was often afraid of trying to speak English with others because I didn't want to make mistakes. Finally I got over it. And while traveling in America, I'd try to hang out with friends who spoke no Chinese, so I'd have no choice but to use English. And I decided that if I said something stupid and other people laughed, I would take it easy and wouldn't worry about it. My English started improving more quickly after that.
It may be a good idea to ask any of your American friends to look at the way you're writing the characters, and give some suggestions for improvement.
In today's world, almost everyone knows that air pollution and water pollution are harmful to people. However, not all the persons know that noise is also a kind of pollution, and that is harmful to human, too.
People who work and live under noisy conditions usually become deaf(聋的). Today, however, scientists believe that 10 percent (百分比) of workers in Britain are being deafened by the noise where they work. Many of the workers who print newspapers and books, and who weave(织) cloth become deaf. Quite a few people living near airports also become deaf. Recently(近来) it was discovered that many teenagers in America could hear no better than 65-year-old people, for these young people like to listen to "pop" music and most of "pop" music is a kind of noise. Besides(除此之外), noise produced by jet planes or machines will make people's life difficult and unpleasant, or even make people ill or even drive them mad.
Nowadays the government in many countries have made laws to reduce or control(控制) noise and make it less than 85 decibels(分贝). In China, the people's government is trying to solve not only air and water pollution problems but also noise pollution problem.
Nearly every parent says that we never grow up. In fact, we are maybe 16 or 17 years old. In their eyes, we are always little ones and always do wrong things. For example, when I need to stay at home alone, they always worry about me and my life without them.
Most parents always think that they have offered the best things they can to make their children live in a comfortable world. They buy their children pretty clothes, cool shoes, strange but expensive school things, and always a thousand-yuan-cost bike. They think that they have done everything they can to their dear little children. In return, they only want their little boy to give them good results in the examinations.
But wiry their little babies still can't understand them? Does it mean that they still want more material(物质的) things ? No. As a matter of fact, what they want is a true family. What does a true family mean? I think it means a place where we can hide ourselves from the outside cold world. From here, we can get warmth, we can get consolation, and we can get happiness. And one important thing is that we should be stronger and more confident in the outside world because we know that we have a family.
So I think that parents should save their money and sit down to talk with their child to let them know that they have a true family, so the child and his parents could understand each other more and more. Then, no boy will be regarded as a little boy.
In the nineteenth century football began to be played in English public schools. The public schools were actually very expensive private(私立的) schools attended by the sons of the rich and powerful.
The headmasters (校长) of three schools--Rugby, Eton and Harrow--began to develop new versions of football. The game became less violent (激烈的), less dangerous and easier to control（控制). It became a game for young gentlemen.
Each public school divided its pupils into clubs or "houses". The houses played football matches against each other, with each house wearing a particular(特定的) colour.
The first football clubs were organized(组织) in the same way as the house teams. Later the house competitions were used as a model(模型，模范) for the FA Cup(the Football Association Challenge Cup(英格兰足球杯).
Many of the boys at the public schools went on to the two English universities, Oxford and Cambridge. Football was very popular at Cambridge, but the young men from the different schools played with different rules. In 1848 a set of Cambridge Rules were established(制定) for everyone to play under. Some of these rules now seem a little strange.
It is true that people with better education are usually able to get better paying jobs. In other words, they have more chances to choose a good job while people with little or no education don't. It seems that the purpose of education is to make people get jobs. But this isn't accepted by all people.
Some people may think that a person should spend the best years of his life to get education only for a way of living. This was probably one of the earliest reasons of education. In fact, if education is just a way of making a living, people don't need to spend so much time in school. People can get education for a living in a short time. Subjects like history and geography need not be taught to everyone. Even language and mathematics need not be taught in detail(详细地), either. Here it is clear that education is much more than teaching a man to get a way of living.
Education is well-rounded and it is mainly for improving a man. It is not only to teach him to speak, read and write, but also to develop his creative thinking and other abilities. After that, it is to make him a wise man and thankfully enjoy the achievements of human. Education is to make a man lead a better life. Educated people are expected to be able to listen to good music, read good books, watch plays and most of all take an interest in the world.
I would agree that making a good living is an important reason for education, but certainly not the most important or the main reason.
At just 17 years old, Pakistan's Malala is the youngest ever winner of the Nobel Peace Prize.
Malala came to international attention when she spoke up for the rights of all children to have an education. Malala's father was a teacher who ran a school. For her early life, her family lived in the school so she was used to sitting in the classrooms before her school age. Now, she can speak three languages and loves learning.
She grew up in Pakistan. The living conditions in her area were very poor and unsafe. Many people were hurt and many schools were closed. Especially girls were not allowed to go to school.
Reporters from Britain told the world what was happening with the help of Malala. In 2009, 12-years-old Malala wrote 35 diaries on the Internet. She wrote about the difficulties of her life, and about her strong hope for education. Soon after that, Malala's family was chosen to be in a TV program to show ordinary children's education because both father and daughter spoke good English, and they cared about children getting an education.
From then on, a few people hated her and hurt her. Though terribly wounded, Malala became a courageous fighter for the education rights of millions of girls worldwide. "I don't want to be remembered as the girl who was hurt, I want to be remembered as the girl who stood up," she said.
She has now written a book about her life called I am Malala. The book shows that one person's voice has the power to inspire change in the world. In her speech, she spoke warmly about her aims for education and peace. One sentences she said one day became famous: One child, one teacher, one pen and one book can greatly change the world.
