Mr Smith is a teacher of English. He comes from America. He teaches English in China. He speaks Chinese quite well.

He reads a lot of books and his wife often writes books for the students at home. Mr Smith gets up at five in the morning. He leaves home at ten to six. He begins the first lesson at 8:00. He teaches English every day except Saturday and Sunday. At ten to twelve he finishes his lessons. Ten minutes later he has lunch. In the afternoon, he often plays games with his students. Sometimes he teaches his students in his office. Supper                    time is at about six. After that, he reads newspapers and watches TV. At about ten to eleven he goes to bed.

My daughter Eyen is ten years old. She is in Grade Three in a primary school. She is a cute girl though she has some strange ideas sometimes.

One day she asks me, “Mum, what is your favorite subject?” I think for a while and answer, “ It is difficult to tell. I love singing, so music is my favorite. And I am good at English. My history teacher also says I am excellent. Well, I can say I don’t like Science. But Science is important for us, you know. So you must do well in it. What is your favorite subject, Eyen? Tell me something about your subjects, dear.”

“I like Chinese. It is easy. I like English because my English teacher likes me very much. I can’t stand Maths. It is serious and sad.”

“Do you mean your Maths teacher is serious and sad?”

“No, it is Maths, not the Maths teacher.”

“Why do you think so?”

“Because Maths has so many problems! Isn’t it sad all day?”

Hi! I am Mike. I have a sister and two brothers. We live in a happy family. Nancy is my sister. She is the oldest. She is a kind girl. She is beautiful. She likes learning. She studies very hard. She gets up early and finishes her breakfast quickly. Then she goes to school by bike. David is my brother. He is older than me. But he is a little lazy. He gets up late and then washes his face, brushes his teeth in a hurry. Then he goes to the bus stop without breakfast. He usually plays basketball after school. In the evening, he seldom does homework. He goes to bed late. Jack is our little brother. He is a lovely boy. He gets up very slowly and then he usually takes a shower before breakfast. He goes to school in his father’s car. He likes watching TV in the evening.

Today more and more students are getting shorter sleeping time. Most students sleeps for fewer than (少于) eight h    76    every night, as (因为) they have m    77     homework to do. Some homework is given by the school teachers, and some is from their p    78    . Also, some students don’t know how to save (节约) the t    79    . They aren’t careful enough when they are d    80     their homework, so it t    81     them lots of time. Some students have to get up e    82     to read English in the morning. Some want to get to school on time, b    83     their homes are far away from the school.

We hope t    84     and parents should cut down (减少) on the homework, so that children can have more free time to e    85     their childhood (童年).