Think your school rules are boring? Take a look at these rules.
| No hugging | Some schools in Portland and Florida started the rule — no hugging in 2010. Two years later some schools in New Jersey and Brooklyn made the same rule. The reason is clear —to avoid "unsuitable interactions(不适当的互动)"between students. |
| No bags into the classroom | One high school in Michigan doesn't allow bags into the classroom at all. The school asks students to return to their lockers(有锁存物柜) between classes for their books in order to make sure they are safe in lunchrooms and classrooms. |
| No Ugg boots (Ugg靴 子) | It might get very cold in winter in Pennsylvania，but students there aren't allowed to wear their Ugg boots into class. It's to stop them from hiding things like mobile phones in the boots. |
| No balls | A Toronto school doesn't allow its students to bring any hard balls to school. Why? A parent was taken to hospital with a concussion(脑震荡) after being hit by a ball. |
Two years ago what my 10-year-old son Peter wanted for Christmas was a Hess truck. As soon as I saw the new truck online, I told it to my husband Joe, and we agreed to order it. Unluckily, we did not buy it. Joe thought I had bought it, and I thought he did. Well, OK, no problem. It was only December 9. I would just go online and get it.
My heart dropped when I went on the Hess truck website and saw that they were sold out. For a while, I didn't know what to do. Finally, I told myself that nothing is difficult to the man who will try. I found out that a few malls were carrying them.
But it looked like all the malls in New York were out. I went to Amazon (an online shop). When I saw they had a Hess truck, I got excited. Then I noticed that it was $144, much higher than the list price (定价) which was about $30.
I decided to come clean and let Peter know what was going on. Hearing my words, he started to cry. I held him. I said we made a mistake and I was really sorry. But I also told him something else that he'd have to learn sooner or later.
After a long hug, he stopped crying. We then got on the Internet and started looking at other types of toy trucks.
The next day at school, Peter's teacher asked them to write about the one thing they wanted for the holidays. Peter wrote that he wouldn't get the Hess truck even though it was the only thing he wanted. But he added that it was OK because Mom told him that sometimes we just don't get what we want.
Have you ever done something that you didn't really want to do, just because other people were doing it? All of us feel pressure to fit in (相处融洽) sometimes, and this can lead us to pretend (假装) that we like something more than we actually do.
In fact, when we do this, we're not being true to ourselves. It's important to be honest about your feelings with yourself because this can help you feel happier and less worried.
Being true to yourself means listening to your own thoughts and feelings. If you want some time alone, then being true to yourself might mean saying no to friends who want you to join them for an activity. Or if there's a game that your friends invite you to join in but you don't enjoy, then being true to yourself might mean doing something else instead. Being true to yourself is when your actions match how you really feel.
When we keep doing things we don't like and ignore our thoughts and feelings, we may feel uncomfortable, worried or sad. Naomi Richards, a life coach for children and writer of Being Me (And Loving It) says, "Children need to know who they are, their values and their beliefs (信条). If children have this self-awareness (自我意识), then they may not easily turn to doing things they know are wrong."
So you may ask,"▲ "One part of being true to yourself is in how you speak to other people, and being OK with saying no. Richards explains, "You can be true to yourself by learning how to say no." However, she adds that being true to yourself is also about "being honest with yourself and what you really want and need." Finally, Richards says, "You can learn how to be true to yourself by being yourself — not by changing your thoughts and actions to fit in."
New research suggests that climate change helped dogs develop from animals looking like cats to the way they are today. Scientists from Brown University in the USA believe that 40 million years ago, dogs were smaller and they looked like cats. They hid, ran after and killed other animals.
As climate changed in the world, the physique (体形) and eating habits of dogs also changed. Thick forests that once covered North America started to become less thick as the Earth became cooler. The appearance of grassland made dogs have fewer places to hide to hunt for food. To get used to the environment, they changed their ways of hunting and slowly grew longer legs.
The scientists studied how dogs have changed themselves by looking at the elbows (肘部) and teeth of 32 different species that lived from 2 million to 40 million years ago. The scientists said that the dogs' elbows greatly changed. Dogs from 40 million years ago had elbows that were more similar to those of cats.
The function of the elbows was to allow the front paws (爪子) to catch what they could get and hold on to it. The elbows changed to allow dogs to become good runners and then they were able to run after other animals over long distances. Teeth in dogs also changed to be more useful. They became much stronger to be able to hold on to what they get.
①Dogs grew longer legs.
②Climate changed.
③Dogs changed ways of hunting.
④Forests became less thick.
We often think of reusing (再使用) as a way to help save money or protect the environment. Any object can be reused to make something amazing. Reusing is also a way to help us think about things in new and different ways.
Using found objects to create art is not new. Found art became popular in the 1900s. Many things could be made into art!
Today many artists still create art from things they find. Sometimes they use things as they find them, and other times they make changes to the things they find. The rubbish from our homes has plenty of metal, plastic, rubber and cardboard (橡胶和硬纸板). Artists might also use old toys, old newspapers and so on. Dan Rawlings, a British artist, makes sculptures (雕塑品) from old metal tools. The South Korean artist Yong Ho Ji makes sculptures from old rubber tires (轮胎). Brian Marshall, an American artist, makes sculptures of robots using objects he finds.
Do you get any inspiration from them? Look around and see if you can use something you find to create art. You may be surprised by what you create.
A. Sometimes they use rubbish.
B. Rubbish can be seen everywhere.
C. His sculptures are usually about animals.
D. But some people see it as a chance to create.
E. In the hands of those artists, rubbish was turned into amazing works of art.
F. Found art made people think about the things around them in a different way.
Mr. Hope is the janitor (看门人) of our school. He walks with a limp (跛行). Sometimes students make fun of him.
Watching him make his way slowly around our school, I often1why he limped.
One day as I walked past Mr. Hope with two boys, the two2him. The headmaster saw this and was very mad. I tried to3that I didn't do anything bad, but the headmaster took all of us to his office. He showed4a picture of a young man standing by a long, thin boat. "This is Mr. Hope when he was a young man," he said.
We were quite5to learn that our janitor was once a great rower (划船者) and that in the 1968 Olympics, Mr. Hope made it to the final. He was6and his only real competitor was one other racer.
The race7. These two boats were soon far ahead of the other boats. The race was going well when8, Mr. Hope heard a big noise. He turned around and saw that the other racer was sinking (下沉) fast. The man was in trouble9the boat had broken in the middle. He was stuck inside and he couldn't move.
The other10were a long way back. Mr. Hope was the only one who could do anything. Without11too much, he jumped into the water and pulled the man up. Finally, the man was12. However, some thin pieces of wood from the broken boat hurt Mr. Hope's13badly. And he has always limped since then.
As we stood there listening, the two boys felt sorry for14they had done. We all thought that Mr. Hope was a hero. His bravery and selfless (无私的) action set a good15for us to follow.
It was a warm summer day and Alice was getting (bore) sitting beside her sister. Suddenly a little white rabbit with pink eyes ran in front of her shouting, "Oh dear, I'm late!" and then (appear) down a hole. "I must find out why he's in such a hurry!" cried Alice. She ran to the （rabbit）hole and looked into it. The hole dropped suddenly and Alice fell in. Finally she landed in a hallway with doors of many sizes. On a table, Alice found a tiny gold key and a green bottle that said "DRINK ME". She drank it. Alice began to become smaller and smaller until she was no (big) than a doll (玩偶). She opened a door and quickly ran it. In front of her was a beautiful garden. "What amazing garden!" she shouted. But the (excite) soon vanished(消失). "I want to be big again," she shouted. Alice went looking for help. Soon, she saw a green caterpillar (毛虫) (sit) on the top of a large mushroom (蘑菇)."One side of the mushroom makes you big; the other side makes you small," he said to Alice. Alice ate a piece of the mushroom. "I'm growing!" She continued her walk. In the middle of a field, the Queen of Hearts was playing croquet (槌球). "Have you ever played croquet?" the Queen asked Alice. "Yes," Alice answered. "Play with me!" ordered the Queen. "And let me win I'll have your head!"... "Off with her head!" cried the Queen. Alice felt someone touch her head.
"Wake up. You (sleep) for too long," said her sister softly.
"I had a strange dream," said Alice.
