I’m Maria, an exchange student in a junior high school in Wuhan. I have three roses here: a red one, a white one and a yellow one. These roses are to thank three groups of people.

I give the red rose to my friends. When I started school here, my Chinese was not good and some of my mistakes were very funny. I once tried to say “xiexie”, but I said “xiaxia” instead. But they didn’t laugh at me. They taught me to say many things in Chinese and kindly invited me to join them. Today thanks to their kindness, my Chinese is much better and we have become friends.

I give the white rose to my teachers, who have taught me that there is no success without effort. When I started running in the 800-meter race, I always finished last and I just wanted to give up. But the P. E. teacher, Ms. Huang, helped me a lot. She ran along with me and she said to me. “You will never succeed if you give up!” I’ve learned to try my best, not only with running but with whatever else I do!

I give the yellow rose to my parents for teaching me that love is about trust. When I wanted to learn the violin, my father told me that I should work much harder at math. I was disappointed.

However, on the morning of my birthday, I woke up to find a beautiful violin at my bedside. There was a note from my father “T am sure you will be good at music. I believe that you will be better at math.”

I truly show my thanks to my friends, teachers and parents for the three most important things that I have learned from them. These three things are friendship, effort and trust.

【推荐2】Save the Sharks

Many have heard of shark fin soup.This famous and expensive dish is especially popular in southern China. But do you realize that you’re killing a whole shark each time you enjoy a bowl of shark fin soup?

When people catch sharks, they cut off their fins and throw the shark back into the ocean. This is not only cruel, but also harmful to the environment. Without a fin, a shark can no longer swim and slowly dies. Sharks are at the top of the food chain in the ocean’s ecosystem. If their numbers drop too low, it will bring danger to all ocean life. Many believe that sharks can never be endangered because they are the strongest in their food chain. But in fact, around 70 million sharks are caught and traded in this industry every year. The numbers of some kinds of sharks have fallen by over 90 percent in the last 20 to 30 years.

Environmental protection groups around the world, such as WildAid and the WWF, are teaching the public about “finning”. They have even asked governments to develop laws to stop the sale of shark fins. So far, no scientific studies have shown that shark fins are good for health, so why eat them? Help save the sharks !

The cub suddenly found himself near a Native American camp. A man saw him and came toward him. The cub was too afraid to move. The man bent down and stroked the cub. This made the cub angry and he bit the man. The man hit him very hard, and the cub cried out loud.

The she-wolf heard her cub’s cry and ran to the camp to help him. Immediately, one of the men saw her and recognized her. He shouted “Kiche!” at her. This was her name, and she remembered it. She sat down and waited to be told what to do. The man said, “This animal was my brother’s pet. When he died, she ran away. Her father was a wolf, but her mother was a dog. He walked up to Kiche and stroked her. She was pleased. She seemed to remember the man. They fed her and put a rope around her neck. She was used to being tied up.

“He has very white fangs,” looking at the cub, the man said to the other men, “We’ll call him White Fang. We’ll take him and his mother with us.”

When the dogs saw Kiche and White Fang, they ran at them. Then the dogs started to fight. The men shouted at the dogs, but they would not stop. They had to hit them with sticks and throw stones at them. At last, they drove the dogs away from Kiche and White Fang. The man checked Kiche carefully. “She has many bites,” he told his friends, “and so does the cub, but they will be all right. The dogs will soon accept them.”

Later that day, some men began putting small branches and leaves into a pile. White Fang saw something like mist coming from the sticks, and then, something bright like the sun appeared. White Fang went up to smell it and he put his nose into it. The pain was very bad. He ran away from it to Kiche. She knew what had happened and licked the burns. White Fang learned that men could make this bright thing that hurt so much. He believed that they were Gods.

Do you know what the body mass index (BMI，体重指数) is? According to the National Health Service, BMI is a measure (测量方法) that uses your height and weight to work out if you are fit.

Some cities in China have included BMI in the PE test for the high school entrance examination, or zhongkao. For example, Beijing in 2021 announced that BMI officially became a subject of the PE test for the zhongkao. Chengdu and Shanghai have also started similar actions. BMI in cities like Xiamen, although not included in the zhongkao, still plays a role in regular PE tests.

Zhang Yanshu is a grade 8 student from Beijing Chaoyang Foreign Language School. He used to be overweight (超重的). “It was this summer that I decided to work on my BMI,” Zhang said. He started by running with his dad, and soon took a stamina (体能) course which trained him for different things like running, pull-ups and so on. “I think BMI and the events for the exam go well together. When I practice the events, my BMI gets better; when my BMI gets better, I feel more energetic (精力充沛的) doing the events.”

Zhang also paid much attention to his diet (日常饮食). “I ate brown rice instead of white rice, and chicken for meat most of the time,” he said. “It was for sure sad.” His BMI reached a normal level (水平) after four months of effort. “My health and willpower (意志力) have seen a big improvement.”

Chen Kaifei, 14, also from Beijing said that BMI is also a problem for students who are too thin, and has caused some “figure anxiety (身材焦虑)” among students. “However, mostly I think it has a good influence,” Chen said. “Everyone has a better understanding of their body and health conditions, and I started to care about my diet and lifestyle every day, simply to keep my BMI at a good level.”

You may know about “junk food” like French fries. But do you know about “junk sleep”?

A British survey shows that there are many electronic products in teenagers’ bedrooms. They are influencing teenagers’ sleep badly.

The survey was done among 1,000 British kids from 12 to 16. It is found that 50% of them got just 4 to 7 hours’ sleep every day. But doctors say they need 8 to 9 hours.

Almost 25% of the kids said they often fell asleep while they were watching TV, listening to music or using other electronic products.

“This is very worrying,” said Dr. Chris, a British professor (教授), “We call it ‘junk sleep’. It means you don’t get enough sleep and the quality (质量) of the sleep is low, too.” The survey found that quite a few of the kids felt tired each day because of the junk sleep, especially girls between 13 and 16. Nearly all the teenagers have a phone, music player or TV in their bedrooms. And lots of them even have all the three.

Dr. Chris suggested that parents should help their children keep away from electronic products, and that teenagers should spend less time on the electronic products.

Do you know mint (薄荷)? It may be added to summer drinks to let us cool. Mint plays an important role in our daily lives. It keeps our breath fresh and gives food and drinks a fresh smell.

Mint is found almost everywhere in the world, except South America and Antarctica. There are almost 600 kinds of the plants. Their similar looks make it difficult for scientists to tell the difference among them. What we have known for thousands of years, however, is that eating mint has many benefits for our body’s health.

For starters, if people’s stomachs are upset, mint can be used to relieve (缓解) that uncomfortable feeling. That’s ①________ it has acid (酸). What’s more, if you have a common cold, drinking mint tea can reduce your sore throat.

Although mint is safe to eat and is used to treat people, it also has disadvantages. ②First of all, ________ If you’re taking it for any health condition, don’t use it too much. Also, mint oil should not be used on the faces of children. This could cause breathing problems.

Now there is a family problem. Nearly every parent says that we never grow up. In fact, we are probably 16 or 17 years old. In their eyes, we are always little ones and often do wrong things. For example, when we need to stay at home alone, they always worry about us and our life without them.

Most parents always think that they have offered the best things they have to make their children live in a comfortable world. They buy their children everything, such as pretty clothes, cool shoes and so on. In return, they only want their children to get good results in the exams.

But why can’t their children understand them? Does it mean that we still want more material things? No. As a matter of fact, what we want is a true family. What does a true family mean? I think it means a place where we can hide ourselves from the cold world outside. From there, we can get warmth, consolation ( 安 慰 ) and happiness. And one important thing is that we can be stronger and more confident in the outside world because we know that we have a true family.

I think that parents should sit down to talk with their children to let them know that they have a true family, so the children and their parents can understand each other better and better. Then, parents will not treat their children as little ones.