Many parents would like to teach their children English at home, but don't know how to start. It doesn't matter if your own English is not perfect. The most important thing is that you give your children lots of encouragement and praise. They will need some time to learn the language.
Make it a rule
Try to do certain activities at the same time every day. For example, you could read an English story with your children before bedtime. Repetition (重复) is important — children often need to hear words many times before they say them themselves.
Playing games
Cards are a great way to teach words and there are many different games which you can play with cards, such as Memory and Happy Families.
Using everyday situations
The advantage of teaching English at home is that you can use everyday situations to practice the language naturally. For example:
Talk about clothes when your child is getting dressed (＂Let's put on your blue socks＂, etc.).
When you go to the supermarket, give your child a list of things to find.
Using songs
Songs are a really good way to learn new words. Songs with actions are especially good for very young children because they are able to join in.
A. Fifteen minutes is enough for very young children.
B. Children learn naturally when they are having fun.
C. Teach food words when you are cooking or going shopping.
D. The actions often show the meaning of the words in the song.
E. With younger children, there is no need to teach grammar rules.
F. Don't worry if your child doesn't start speaking English immediately.
G. Children feel more comfortable and confident when they know what to expect.
Is your mind completely filled with thoughts of something? That's called obsession (痴迷). When we think of obsession, we tend to think of the 1 aspects of extreme behavior. It can be unhealthy or dangerous. However, actually, “productive obsessing” can be not only a 2 for boredom and passivity, but also the recipe for a 3 life. Having a productive obsession appears to 4 people to do this, even if things get tough. In contrast, those without passion (激情)may end up letting challenges and difficulties 5 them.
But there is a fine but important 6 between obsession and passion. So how do you 7 a passion, and avoid the negative aspects of obsession?
Whatever the project is, it should 8 love and interest. People, who have an unexplored interest in something, but always put it off, should begin by 9 themselves to it for a month. When people do commit themselves on something, even for a month, their brains become retrained. It 10 hesitating and worrying and explores its own potential.
Having a productive obsession leads to various mental 11: pleasure when things are going very well; 12 when you are offended. The key is being prepared for these states and knowing how to handle them. Being obsessed with a(n) 13 plan for years without putting it into practice is not productive.
Going after something with 14 may not make you outstanding, but you don't know where it will lead until you give it a try. At the very least, it could be the 15 to a satisfying and meaningful life。
There is a popular saying in the English language: “Sticks and stones may break my bones, but words will never hurt me.” Well, that is not true. Unkind words, name-calling or even the so-called “the silent treatment” can hurt children as much as being physically hit, sometimes even more so.
A recent study of middle school children showed that verbal (言语的) abuse by other children can harm development in the brain. The study was a project of researchers at Harvard Medical School in Massachusetts. Researcher Martin Teicher and his team studied young adults, aged 18 to 25. These young men and women had not ever been treated in a cruel or violent way by their parents. The researchers asked the young people to rate their childhood exposure to verbal abuse from both parents and other children. Then the researchers performed imaging tests on the brains of the subjects.
The images showed that the people who reported suffering verbal abuse from peers in middle school had underdeveloped connections between the left and right side of the brain. The two sides of the brain are connected by a large bundle of connecting fibers called the corpus callosum. This was the area that was underdeveloped.
The middle school years are a time when these brain connections are developing. So, unkind, hurtful comments from children or adults during this period have the greatest effect. The researchers tested the mental and emotional condition of all the young people in the study. The tests showed that this same group of people had higher levels of fear, depression, anger and drug abuse than others in the study.
The researchers published their findings online on the AmericanJournalofPsychiatry's website.
Parents cannot control what other people say to their children, but they can prepare their children.
阅读下列短文，从每题所给的四个选项（A、B、C和D）中，选出最佳选项。
Are you sometimes a little tired and sleepy in the early afternoon? Many people feel this way after lunch. They may think that eating lunch is the cause of the sleepiness. Or, in summer, they may think it is the heat. However, the real reason lies inside their bodies. At that time—about eight hours after you wake up—your body temperature goes down. This is what makes you slow down and feel sleepy. Scientists have tested sleep habits in experiments where there was no night or day. The people in these experiments almost always followed a similar sleeping pattern. They slept for one long period and then for one short period about eight hours later.
In many parts of the world, people take naps (小睡) in the middle of the day. This is especially true in warmer climates, where the heat makes work difficult in the early afternoon. Researchers are now saying that naps are good for everyone in any climate. A daily nap gives one a more rested body and mind and therefore is good for health in general. In countries where naps are traditional, people often suffer less from problems such as heart disease. Many working people, unfortunately, have no time to take naps. Though doctors may advise taking naps, employers do not allow it! If you do have the chance, however, here are a few tips about making the most of your nap. Remember that the best time to take a nap is about eight hours after you get up. A short sleep too late in the day may only make you feel more tired and sleepy afterward. This can also happen if you sleep for too long. If you do not have enough time, try a short nap—even ten minutes of sleep can be helpful.
A new collection of photos brings an unsuccessful Antarctic voyage back to life.
Frank Hurley's pictures would be outstanding—undoubtedly firstrate photojournalism—if they had been made last week. In fact, they were shot from 1914 through 1916, most of them after a disastrous shipwreck (海难), by a cameraman who had no reasonable expectation of survival. Many of the images were stored in an ice chest, under freezing water, in the damaged wooden ship.
The ship was the Endurance, a small, tight, Norwegianbuilt threemaster that was intended to take Sir Ernest Shackleton and a small crew of seamen and scientists, 27 men in all, to the southernmost shore of Antarctica's Weddell Sea. From that point Shackleton wanted to force a passage by dog sled (雪橇) across the continent. The journey was intended to achieve more than what Captain Robert Falcon Scott had done. Captain Scott had reached the South Pole early in 1912 but had died with his four companions on the march back.
As writer Caroline Alexander makes clear in her forceful and wellresearched story TheEndurance, adventuring was even then a thoroughly commercial effort. Scott's last journey, completed as he lay in a tent dying of cold and hunger, caught the world's imagination, and a film made in his honor drew crowds. Shackleton, a onetime British merchantnavy officer who had got to within 100 miles of the South Pole in 1908, started a business before his 1914 voyage to make money from movie and still photography. Frank Hurley, a confident and gifted Australian photographer who knew the Antarctic, was hired to make the images, most of which have never been published before.
Teens don't want to be seen with their parents, much less talk to them or do anything with them. That's what we hear all the time. I don't believe it. Oh, sure, when my daughter and my son were in their teens, they wanted to spend most of their free time with their friends. But there were always those special times planned when we enjoyed being alone with each other, when we connected deeply, and when we were reminded again how much we loved one another.
I recall how delighted my 14-year-old daughter, Alisa, felt when I asked her for a date to see a movie. It was a bittersweet Italian movie, Cinema Paradiso, and I wanted this story to give her a sense of how I grew up as an Italian boy in a small town, where life was simple and where everyone knew one another. I wanted her to know how her father had been brought up and shaped.
We both laughed and cried during the same scenes in the movie. She was attached to the movie. I decided we should complete our evening with some lively conversation at a nearby bakery. I told her the movie was now so much more special for me because I had shared it with her. She smiled. She understood. We made a memory that night.
From our living room window, I saw my 13-year-old son, Jason, tearfully searching our vegetable garden for a place to bury his pet boa constrictor (蟒蛇). Because my son had suffered from asthma (哮喘) and allergies, he could never have a dog, a faithful friend that he wanted so much. Every pet he owned—lizards, fish, or snakes—had died.
I was at his side as we searched for the best gravesite (墓地). We dug the grave, said our goodbyes and then he cried. He cried hard and he asked me why every pet he had owned died so soon. I could feel his heart break against my chest. I just held him close. He let me hold his aching soul. He needed me while he was confused. Share your heart with your teens. Show them repeatedly that you know and love who they really are. There are tender memories waiting to be made.
增加： 在缺词处加一个漏字符号(∧), 并在其下面写出该加的词。
删除： 把多余的词用斜线(\)划掉。
修改： 在错的词下划一横线, 并在该词下面写出修改后的词。
注意：①每处错误及其修改均仅限一词;
②只允许修改10处, 多者(从第11处起)不计分。
My parents run the restaurant in our city. I help out there after school every time when I am free. Yesterday afternoon I went there help out as usual. While I was there, two foreigners from Australia came to have a meal. Learned that they didn't speak Chinese at all, I went up and greeted them with English. I recommended some typical dish to them and they had a nicely meal. After the meal, they expressed their satisfaction with the food but praised me for my English. It was the first time that I have communicated with foreigners. My parents felt proud of mine.
