Little Brother, Big Help

Jared’s mom asked him to bring his little brother, Max, to the basketball court where Jared planned to meet his friends. Jared didn’t want to bring Max, but he had no choice.

To Jared’s relief, a few of his friends had brought their little brothers and sisters too, so at least Max would have some kids to play with during the _______. Then, Jared noticed the gate to the basketball court was locked.

For a few minutes, everyone waited _______, trying to find out what to do. Then, from around the corner came Mr. Giles. He ran to the boys quickly and said apologetically. “Sorry, I’m behind schedule today, guys. I had a flat tire.” He took out a bunch of keys from his belt and reached over to _______ the gate. But instead, Mr. Giles accidentally dropped the keys on the other side of the fence.

There was a long silence. Then Max said, “I can get them.” No one noticed him until he _______ himself, this time more loudly.

When he finally heard Max, Jared asked, “How can you possibly help?”

Max simply answered, “Watch what I can do.” He _______ to the ground and squirmed （来回扭动) under the gate. Within a minute, he was on the _______ side. He grabbed the keys and passed them through to Jared, who returned them to Mr. Giles. In seconds, Mr. Giles had the gate unlocked. The boys ran to the basketball court, calling out their _______ to Mr. Giles as they moved quickly toward the net.

Mr. Giles responded, “Don’t thank me. Max is the one who _______ the day. He was the only one small enough to squeeze under that gate.” After that, Jared never again thinks of his brother as an inconvenience.

Cool Technologies at Beijing 2022 Winter Olympics

I couldn’t wait to show my new sneakers to my friends at the rehearsal（排练）for the fourth-grade play. I had cleaned yards for three weeks to save the money to buy them, and I was really proud of them.

When practice started, our director, Mrs. Rodriguez, asked us to remove our shoes first. So I put my sneakers carefully in my red backpack and zipped it up before joining the group.

After rehearsal, I unzipped my backpack and found my sneakers were gone! I dashed across the stage.

“Mrs. Rodriguez!” I shouted. “Someone stole my sneakers! I put them right in my backpack when you told us to take off our shoes, and now they’re gone!”

Mrs. Rodriguez raised her voice so everyone could hear. She asked the students to look around for my missing sneakers.

Everyone searched for the sneakers, but they weren’t anywhere. Then, I noticed Sasha James opening up her backpack and looking inside. There, right on the top, were my sneakers!

“Those are my sneakers, Sasha! Why did you steal them?” I said angrily.

“I didn’t! I promise! I don’t know how they got in my backpack,” said Sasha.

All of a sudden, my face turned red as I realized what had happened. Sasha’s backpack was exactly the same color as mine. I had put my sneakers in her backpack by mistake.

“I’m really sorry, Sasha. I put my sneakers in your backpack by accident. I must not have been paying attention. I shouldn’t have accused（指责）you of stealing.”

“It’s okay.” Sasha said, “They’re really amazing sneakers. If they were mine, I would be upset about losing them, too.”

That’s the last time I’ll ever say something about someone without checking first!

What’s the Secret of Our Height?

Have you ever wanted to be taller? Perhaps we all have wished for this, whether we’re trying to see over a crowd of people or dreaming of becoming a basketball player. Height is mainly a result of genetics (遗传), though other factors like nutrition and healthcare can also influence our height.

According to World Data, the average height for Chinese men is 1.71 meters, while for women it’s 1.59 meters. But what stops us from growing to three meters or even taller? The answer is evolution (进化), according to a study from Harvard University.

“Height is not just about height. It’s about the biological growth of an organism,” biologist Terence D. Capellini from Harvard University told Popular Science. Over millions of years, natural selection has influenced the way our organs (器官) grow and therefore the way our bodies grow too. In general, the genes that are responsible for organ growth are quite active in infants (婴儿), causing them to grow rapidly. But as children get older, the genes slacken. Eventually, as they enter late adolescence, the genes turn off and teenagers reach their adult height.

According to the study, about 70 to 80 percent of our height is mainly determined by the growth genes. The other factors are some environmental factors like proper nutrition and modern healthcare. An example of an environmental factor is when a child doesn’t get the nutrition he or she needs, the child is less likely to reach the average height.

Many people would like to be taller than they are, but is that necessarily good for them?

Robert Wadlow from the US was the tallest man in history. He was 2.71 meters tall. But he suffered from several related health problems. For example, he needed leg braces (支架) to help him walk. He died at the age of 22 from an infection that was caused by a brace that didn’t fit him properly. Being very tall can cause high blood pressure in the legs. It can also put too much stress on the heart, according to The Guardian.

It seems that beyond having tall parents, the only way to increase your height is to eat a healthy and balanced diet, according to Forbes.

Micro-habits are small habits which require the smallest motivation or effort to complete. The idea is that micro-habit will slowly build on top of itself and result in something great over time.

My middle school gym teacher introduced me to micro-habit in the form of weight lifting. He said, “Imagine weightlifting as stacking up pieces of paper. Every day you lift weights, just pretend like you're adding a piece of paper to a pile. On the first day, you start with one single piece of paper. After a month of weight lifting, you could have as many as 30 sheets of paper stacked up. After several years of keeping up with weight lifting, you are going to have a serious pile of paper!”

The idea has stuck with me ever since, and I have tried to develop a number of micro-habits. These micro-habits have shaped the way I live and have helped me do things I wouldn't have been able to do otherwise.

The first habit I started with was reading. I have never been a big reader but decided I wanted to start reading more to learn new things. At first, I began reading one page a night before bed. Just one page, that’s it! Anyone can read a single page of a book. No matter what, I would read before bed every single night. What I found was reading the page of the book wasn’t what was important, but rather forming the habit. It’s nearly impossible to make an excuse not to take a minute for reading a page of a book. Thus, the habit begins to form. Sometimes it is a struggle, but remember — it’s only one page. Finally, by adding only five minutes at a time, I am able to increase the total amount of reading from five minutes to forty-five minutes per night.

The beauty of micro-habits is that they’re so simple, you can’t say no to them or make any excuse not to follow through with them. As humans, we often overvalue what we think we can complete, but then we give up the moment reality. Micro-habits are all about preventing you from giving up due to something being too ‘hard’. When practicing consistently, you can do something without even having to think about it. Micro-habits you probably already fixed into your daily life include brushing your teeth, taking a shower, making a morning cup of coffee, etc.

Pick something you want to do and improve on. Then find out the micro-habits you can start today to help you reach your goal, and eventually achieve your dream.

When you take notes in your classes, are you confident that you’ll actually go back and look over them? Or do you just write out your notes in class and then completely forget all of the information you wrote down? A useful note-taking method can not only save you precious time and energy, but also help you better understand what you learn.

This well-known note-taking method is called the Cornell Note-taking System. It was first developed in the 1940s by education professor Walter Pauk at Cornell University to help students learn. According to Cornell Notes, each page is divided into three sections: the note-taking column, the cue column （提示栏） and summary space. It’s very easy. You just need to draw two lines on your note page, leaving a 2.5-inch margin on the left and a 2-inch margin on the bottom.

The note-taking column, which is the biggest space is used to write down notes while you are in class or reading an article. The key point is that you don’t write down what you hear word by word. It requires you to be very brief, using short phrases, symbols or keywords to replace long sentences.

To help with future review, you can write some related questions on the left. The next step is to cover the note-taking column with a sheet of paper or your hand. Then, by only looking at the questions for key words, try to repeat the content in your own words.

The summary space is designed to help you reflect on what you’ve learned. Questions may also be useful. For example, what’s the significance of these facts? What principles are they based on? What’s beyond them? You can also write down your own ideas and personal feelings. Don’t forget to review from time to time so that you will remember the information more easily.

Practice makes perfect. After a few months of using this handy note-taking method, you are sure to become the note-taking star of your class. And even better, you’ll finally be able to remember what you have learned.

39. 实践类作业 (project-based homework) 形式多样，如制作海报、撰写调查报告、制作手抄报、表演戏剧等。

There are different kinds of project-based homework. ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Yours,

Li Hua