Many books have been written about "the art of giving". And we also know that it's hard to give people a gift, 1 a personal one. If we want to make it better, we should understand who you will give the gift to and their likes and2.
As is often the case, some little kids think they don't get enough gifts 3 some old people think they get too many gifts. Different people like different kinds of gifts. Some presents are never too4. For example, when a little child just gives his or her mother a leaf from a tree, it is enough to make her very5.
Gift giving is different in different 6. Here are some of their likes. In Japan, people sometimes give special gifts. But they are not opened. Later, the same gift may be given away to someone7 , because many people have enough things and don't want 8 gifts themselves. In Canada, a tree can help remember9. In the USA, some people ask their families and friends to give money to charity rather than buying them gifts. In Sweden, doing something for someone is the best gift. People don't need to10 too much money. Instead, making a meal for him or her is enough.
To make things 11, some people would rather just give money. In some cultures, however,12 money can make people uncomfortable. "When someone gives me money, it just makes me think they're being lazy," says John Wilson. "In England, we have a saying: It's the thought that13 When someone gives me money, I feel they don't think it about at all. I prefer to receive a gift14 has some thought behind it."
Different people have very different thoughts15 this subject! So maybe the art of giving is difficult! What do you think？
Ben: Hello. May I have your name?
Mike: Sure. My name is Mike.
Ben: 1?
Mike: I want to join a music club.
Ben: What can you do?
Mike: I can sing and dance.
Ben: Can you play the guitar?
Mike: 2. I can play it very well.
Ben: OK. We practice in the school music room every Sunday. Can you come?
Mike: Yes, I can.
Ben: 3?
Mike: I take the subway to school.
Ben: 4?
Mike: About half an hour. By the way, 5?
Ben: Yes, it's best to wear school uniforms.
Mike: Thank you very much.
Ben: You're welcome. Catch you on Sunday!
Mike: See you!
"I sometimes get up at three or four in the morning and I surf the net." "I often check my e-mail forty times a day." "I often spend more than three hours during one time on the net." "I spend more time in chat rooms(聊天室) than with my 'real-1ife' friends."
Do you know any people like these? They are part of a new addiction(瘾) called Internet addiction. Internet addicts spend at least thirty to forty hours online every week. The use of the Internet can be an addiction like drug(毒品) use. People lose control(控制) of the time they spend on the Internet
For example, one college student was missing for several days. His friends were worried, and they called the police. The police found the student in the computer lab: he was surfing the net for several days straight.
Studies show that about 6 to 10% of Internet users become addicted. And people worry about the teens because the Internet is changing the playing field for some of them. They spend more time in cyberspace than in the real world of friends and family.
Is "surfing the net" a hobby or an addiction for you? You may have a problem if you have these symptoms(症状):
You do not go to important family activities or you do not do school work because you like to spend hours on the Internet.
You can't wait for your next online time.
You plan to spend a short time online, but then you spend several hours.
You go out with your friends less and less.
In 1909 an English newspaper offered £ 1,000 to the first man to fly across the English Channel in an aeroplane. Today, modern jets cross it in minutes. But at that time it still seemed a good distance. The race to win the money soon became a race between two men. Both were very colourful.
One was Louis Bleriot. He owned a factory in France that made motor car lamps. He was already well known as a pilot because he had had accidents several times. Some people laughed at him. One man said, "He may not be the first to fly across the Channel but he will certainly be the first to die in an accident!" But Bleriot was really a good and brave pilot. He also had many good ideas about aeroplane design.
The other man was Hubert Latham. He was half French and half English. He took up flying when his doctors told him he had only a year to live. "Oh, well," he said, "if I'm going to die soon, I think I shall have a dangerous and interesting life now." Latham was the first to try the flight across the Channel. Ten kilometres from the French coast, his plane had some trouble. It fell down into the water and began to sink under the water. A boat reached Latham just in time. He was sitting calmly on the wing and was coolly lighting a cigarette. Bleriot took off six days later. He flew into some very bad weather and very low cloud. He somehow got to the English side and landed in a farmer's field. When he did so, a customs (海关) officer rushed up to his plane. Planes have changed since then, but customs officers have not. "Have you anything to say?" The officer asked.
I found out one time that doing a favor for someone could get you into a lot of trouble. I was in the eighth grade at the time, and we were having a final test. During the test, the girl sitting next to me whispered something, but I didn't understand. So I leaned over her way and found out that she was trying to ask me if I had an extra pen. She showed me that hers was out of ink and would not write. I happened to have an extra one, so I took it out of my pocket and put it on her desk.
Later, after the test papers had been turned in, the teacher asked me to stay in the room when all the other students were dismissed. As soon as we were alone she began to talk to me about what it meant to grow up; she talked about how important it was to stand on your own two feet and be responsible (负责任) for your own acts. For a long time, she talked about honesty and emphasized the fact that when people do something dishonest, they are really cheating themselves. She made me promise that I would think seriously about all the things she had said, and then she told me I could leave. I walked out of the room wondering why she had chosen to talk to me about all those things.
Later on, I found out that she thought I had cheated on the test. When she saw me lean over to talk to the girl next to me, it looked as if I was copying answers from the girl's test paper. I tried to explain about the pen, but all she could say was it seemed very very strange to her that I hadn't talked of anything about the pen the day she talked to me right after the test. Even if I tried to explain that I was just doing the girl a favor by letting her use my pen, I am sure she continued to believe that I had cheated on the test.
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good in kinds life swimming |
Nowadays, after-class activities are becoming more and more popular in schools. We also have many of after-class activities in our school, such as English corner, playing basketball and . I take part the English corner, because it can help me make some new friends here. If you want to have after-class activities, I would like to share some advice. You'd better choose the activities which are for you. You'd better choose what you like. Please relax yourself and enjoy the after-class activities. And your school will be colorful.
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love leave catch learn drop |
When I looked through my old photos last Sunday, one photo my eyes. In the photo, I was sitting in a chair, hugging Duke, my best friend in the whole world.
Duke was an interesting name for such a little dog. But he was my friend from the moment I could walk. He stayed with me when I read books. When I went outside playing games, he always drove our cats up to the trees and then walked off feeling proud of himself. When he was hungry he would carry his food dish in his mouth and it at my mom's feet. When I was sick, he refused my bed until I got better than before.
Now Duke is gone, I won't see him again. But I a lot from Duke, life can be good when you live it with love and joy. In my heart, Duke is like a teacher who has taught me how we can love and how we can .
When you wake up every day, once again to see this beautiful world, when your parents, teachers and friends give you help, will you know how to be grateful? And when you feel unlucky and make mistakes, will you still be thankful?
Yu Dan, a professor at the Beijing Normal University, made a report about Gratitude Education（感恩教育）.
Nowadays, some teenagers only care about things outside. For example, they fight each other, use phones in class, be rude to their parents and teachers and so on. Most of them don't know love, respect and gratefulness.
It is impossible for anyone to be lucky and successful all the time as long as he lives in the world. We should learn how to face failure or bad luck bravely and to try to deal with it. As we know, "Life is a mirror. When you smile in front of it, it will also smile and so will it when you cry to it. " If you always complain about everything, you may own nothing in the end.
I think the teenagers should be grateful to life even when we are unsuccessful or unlucky. We have many reasons for being grateful. And it is also a way to sing for our life which comes just from our love and hope.
If each of us has an attitude of being grateful, we'll lead a better and more beautiful life. So remember, being grateful forever.
A. It will affect Chinese people, especially the teenagers.
B. They don't care about others.
C. If you are grateful to life, it will bring you shining sunlight.
D. For example, being grateful is a way to communicate with adults.
E. They often behave badly.
F. Being grateful or thankful is very important.
G. Some students love and respect others.
