Last year, I worked in a middle school near my mother’s house, and I stayed with her for a month. During that time, I helped her do some housework and buy some food. After the first week, I noticed that the food was _______ up very quickly. Then I began keeping an eye on my mom. _______, I found that she would put some of the food into a paper bag and go out with it at about nine every morning. And finally, I decided to _______ her. I saw her taking the food to the street children(流浪儿童). She would also _______ a lot of time talking and playing with them.

One day, I talked to a neighbor and found out _______ my mom was well-known in the area. The children were very friendly with her and even thought of her as _______ own mother. Then it hit me — why wouldn’t she want to tell me about it? Was she worried that I would stop _______ food if I found out?

When my mom got home, I gave her a big hug. I told her she didn’t need to keep it a secret from me. And she told me something about the children. Some of them lived with an old lady in a small house. _______ slept on the street. For years, she was helping the poor street children _______ giving them food. After she told me everything, I was so _______ by how selfless(无私的) she was. As her son, I was so proud.

I continued to buy food for my mom after that. But I always added one more bag for her other children.

Li Haoqin is an 8th-grader in Mianyang, Sichuan. The 14-year-old girl studies hard in her English class. Every day, she listens carefully in class and does many exercises after class. However, she can’t get good grades, so she is very sad. “Why doesn’t my hard work pay off（回报）?” Li Haoqin asks.

Lots of middle school students are now facing this problem: They try their best at something but can’t make it. “They don’t have effective（有效的）learning methods. This is the main reason of their difficulties,” says BiQin. She is a well-known English teacher in Beijing No. 4 High School.

Bi Qin thinks that hard work is not enough for middle school students. She says, “Students have more subjects now. They should learn in many different ways. The more you use new words, the better you can remember them. For example, making sentences with new words is an effective way to learn.”

Chen Xiping, 13, of Shandong, has his own ways of learning English.“I study hard in school, and I also like watching CCTV-9. On this TV channel, I always see the English words from my textbook,”says Chen Xiping. “It’s really useful.”Lin Pingyi, 13, of Shanghai, has a habit of reading. “I like English novels like The Old Man and the Sea（《老人与海》）. And I write notes in my diary, says Lin Pingyi. “In this way, I can remember more words, and make my reading and writing better.”

Stamps (邮票) help people keep in touch with their friends and families. They have played an important role in people’s lives for centuries now. People have a special day for stamps.October 9 is World Post Day.

Before stamps, people did not pay for the letters they sent, but instead they paid for the letters they got. The first stamp ever made is called Penny Black. It is a British stamp made in 1840 with a picture of Queen Victoria on it.

The earliest stamps didn’t have sticky (黏性的）backs. In the past ,people used paste(糨糊) sometimes, but usually they had to pin (钉住) or sew (缝) stamps onto letters!

October 16 is World Food Day. The UN started the day in 1979. It is used to remind people not to waste food and fight hunger (饥饿).

Food shortage (匮乏) is a big problem around the world. Right now, there are more than 1 billion (10亿) hungry people in the world. Many children go to sleep with hunger, and 15 million of them die because of hunger each year.

There are several reasons why there are food shortages. First, there have been more droughts (干旱) and floods (洪涝) recently. This is bad for farmers and hurts their ability to grow food. Also, a growing population makes it more difficult to feed everyone. Another big reason is food waste. Most people don’t realize how much food they throw away every day. Sometimes we cook too much, or we don’t use it before it goes bad. The average (平均的) person throws away 50 kg of food every year, More than one third of all food produced goes to waste around the world each year according to the UN. That is1.3 billion tons of food being wasted.

If the wasted food was saved, it could feed lots of people. The amount of food wasted in Europe could feed 200 million people, and the food wasted in Latin America (拉丁美洲) could feed 300 million people.

As teenagers, we should think twice next time we want to throw away extra (额外的) food on our own plate. By cutting down on food waste, we could also help put food on the empty plates of some hungry children.

Internet is educational. Many people think children should be     61     to surf the Internet as they wish. In this way， they can look through different subjects on different     62     of websites according to their own interest. But in my opinion， children should always be watched，     63     they are surfing the Internet，

Many websites have information and pictures     64     children should not see. There are many things children don't understand. All of these may have some     65     influence on children's development. Also，it is more dangerous to let children use chat rooms（聊天室）by     66     .

Many parents tell their children not to talk to     67     on the street， so they should be careful of whom their children talk to on the       68     ， too. What's more，sitting in front of a computer     69     a long time isn't good for children's eyes， so parents monitor（监督）the time that children spend on the Internet.

In a word， children should be kept away from anything that could be bad for them. I     70     believe that it is necessary for parents to watch their children when they use the Internet.

Life is hard. And junior middle school students have every reason to say so.

Recently, Zhejiang did a survey of young people’s mental(精神的）health. It found that junior middle school students in Zhejiang feel the biggest pressure from school among teenagers. Besides, 48.8% of middle school students show signs of mental health problems.

What are students worried about?

“First, the class ranking(排名）after exams. Second, being unable to reach their parents’ expectation,” the Youth Time reported.

This is not only true with Chinese students.

The experts in America recently did a similar survey. The results are surprising: In the US, teenagers have a higher level of stress than adults. For them, one of the big reasons for stress is also schoolwork.

What can we do to help?

*Be sure to have an active life.

*Sleep for 9—10 hours a day.

*Find someone to exercise with every day.

In China,children ask their parents for pocket money (零花钱）.However,in Western countries,most children make pocket money for themselves.1. They help parents do housework to make money. They can also get some part-time jobs.The best time for part-time jobs is during the summer holiday. They can send newspapers or work in a fast food restaurant. Doing these things can teach children a lot. 2. They learn that making money isn’t easy,so they will not waste money. They will buy things they need or want, such as books, pencils, movies and even clothes they like. So parents should encourage their children to make pocket money.