A generation gap（代沟）has become a serious problem. I read a report about it in the newspaper. Some children have killed themselves after 1 with parents. I think this is because they don't often have a talk with each other. Parents now spend more time in the office. 2they don't have much time to stay with their children. As time passes, they both feel that they don't have the 3 topic to talk about. I want to tell parents to be more with your children, get to know them and look after them. And for children, 4 your feelings with your parents. They are the people who love you. In this way, you can have a 5 understanding of each other.
Once there was a farmer who owned a farm near the ocean（大洋）. It was 1 for him to do all the farm work alone. 2 he wanted to hire（雇佣）someone for help. But most people didn't want to work on farms there because of the storms across the ocean.
One day, a mid-aged man came for an interview. The farmer asked, "Are you good at 3work?" The man answered, "Well, I can sleep when the wind blows." The farmer didn't understand what he meant, but he still hired him.
The man started to work on the farm. He kept busy every day. The farmer was satisfied 4his work. One night, the wind blew 5. When the farmer heard it, He jumped out of the bed and rushed into the man's room, He 6 at the man, "Get up! Hurry! A storm is coming!" But the man said, "No, sir, I've already told you, I can sleep when the wind blows."
The farmer was very 7and planned to fire（解雇）him after the storm. He hurried outside to 8 the storm. To his surprise, he found that cows and chickens were in place and doors of the farmhouse were closed tightly. 9 was in the right place. Nothing could be blown away by the storm.
Just then, the farmer 10the man's words. When one is well prepared, he has nothing to fear（害怕）。
I grew up in South Africa. Our family had no TV at that time, and we had a small radio that played my dad's favorite music. To get the news, we usually depended on the radio or the newspapers. But as kids, we were just interested in running around and climbing trees with friends.
I was only 7 years old then, but I remembered it so clearly. My best friend and I were trying to climb over the school's wall to get a ball when we saw our neighbors all walking to the house that had the "big TV". So we followed them.
Everybody in the house was in silence. All I remembered was the pictures of fallen buildings, explosions（爆炸）and smoke on the TV screen. My parents were already there. Although I couldn't understand what they were talking about clearly, I knew there was a terrorist attack（袭击）on America.
My mother often taught us at home, and all our textbooks（教材） were from the US. So I knew American history and geography well. The news made me feel really shocked and remember the date--September 11, 2001.
Life just went on, and we moved to America. I learned more about the attack in books and films later on. Even some of our history books have changed because of it. It's crazy to see such a thing with our eyes.
Would you like to live in a city where buildings turn off the lights for you, and self-driving cars will find the nearest parking place by themselves? Although it sounds a little far from you, living in a "smart" city like this could happen sooner than you think.
Great changes have taken place（发生） in towns that we have lived in for centuries, while completely new cities are being built. One such place is the city of Songdo. Every home there will have a "telepresence system（远程遥控系统）"—allowing users to control the heating and locks, take part in（参加）video meetings, and receive education, health care and government services. Around the city, escalators（自动扶梯）will only move when someone is on them, and offices and schools will all be connected（连接）to the system.
The great mind behind Songdo is from the company（公司）Cisco. In fact, technology companies around the world such as IBM, Siemens, Microsoft are already in the business.
About 75% of the world's population（人口）will live in cities by 2050, so cities will need to be more modern（现代的）to deal with the coming problems."Making cities smarter is one way out, and I think this will make cities greener."said Dan Hill, head of a research company.
I live on the twelfth floor of a building. Yesterday afternoon I got into the lift（电梯） just after 4 o'clock.
The lift started to go up, but very slowly. And then, it suddenly stopped between two floors. I couldn't understand it. I pressed all the button（按钮）from 1 to 14. I called for help very loudly, but nobody answered.
Then suddenly the light went out, and I was alone in the dark. I started to cry and beat the walls of the lift. Then, I felt hopeless, and pressed all the buttons with my open hands. And at the same time, there was a bell far away. It rang and rang, it was the fire alarm. I thought the building was on fire. I said to God quietly,"Just get me out of here, I'll never be bad again."
Just then, I realized the lift was moving very slowly. Then it stopped. And the door opened. A man was standing there,"How long have you been there? It is good that you pressed the alarm bell. But haven't you learned to read at your school?"He pointed at a small piece of paper on the wall beside the lift. It said,"Attention（注意）: This lift will be stopped for repair between 4:00a.m. and 5:00a.m..on Thursday, March 13."
I'm in Boulder Colorado and I'm one of the luckiest ones without flood（洪水）coming into my house. But some of my friends' houses are in a mess after the flood. Today, I went to a friend's house and helped her do some cleaning.
Some of her friends were helping with the housework when I arrived in the morning. She asked me to move the broken things out of the room and clear the mud（泥土）in the room. With another helper, I got busy cleaning the mud and the broken things.
There was a desk in front of a door and a tall cactus（仙人掌）was on it,. My friend asked us to be careful with that plant, because it was the only one that meat a lot to her, it was once her mother's.
I thought if we could clean the mud under the cactus, it would make our friend feel better. So we moved the cactus and cleaned the mud under it. Then I asked my helper to get some water to make it clean. It was a small job.
When our friend came back, she was really moved by what we did for her mom's plant. She smiled and put her hand on her heart. To her, it was not one place without mud, but something that warmed her heart.
Short videos are now popular with people. They have millions of views（浏览）online. Many people share short videos on popular video apps like Tik Tok（抖音）and kuaishou/ You can even add music and special effects（特效）to your videos. They show people doing activities like cooking, exercising, and singing.
More than 50 percent of junior high school students said they enjoyed watching these short videos. "About 47 percent have posted their own video." the China National Youth Palace Association reported.
The videos let teenagers see funny and exciting things they wouldn't usually see. For example, a 12-year-old user named Xiaoqiangyu posts videos showing her learning jazz dance. This wins her many fans.
However, the videos can also cause much trouble. Some videos have vulgar content（低俗内容）and it is not good for teenagers. Many teenagers imitate（模仿）what they see in short videos.
Some students spend much time watching them. They don't have enough time to study.
To deal with this problem, Tik Tok added a new function（功能）. The government also monitors（监管）these apps much more strictly.
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A. Some of them even get hurt. B. Teenagers enjoy these videos a lot. C. The videos are 15 seconds to a few minutes long. D. It's the perfect thing to do when they want to kill time. E. Many teens like to share the fun things they do with others. F. It locks the app if someone uses the app for over two hours a day. |
( be ) a middle school student is not easy, and it's not easy to be parents, either, especially（尤其是）when I face a test. I'm always under a lot of (press ), and so are my parents, I think.
Next week, I'll take my mid-term test, I'm worried about it that I can't fall (sleep ) these days. (get ) better grades, I had to study hard until midnight even ( late ). My parents accompanied（陪伴）me, of them went to bed before I finished my study.. They were either reading or getting ready for tomorrow's work while I (study). It seems that they have already been used to (cheer ) me up in this ( silence) way.
Thank you, mom and dad. I'll do my best.
