【推荐2】

【推荐1】American schools are quite different from those in China. In America, at the beginning of the term, students must select their subjects and teachers first.

Selecting is very important for your marks in America. So at the first term, don’t select too many subjects, or you’ll feel very tired. Then you have to ask for some teaching plans. There is some information about subjects, timetables, marks and textbooks. At the same time, you must choose the teachers. Different teachers have different teaching methods. If the teacher is called “killer” by the last grade, many students will give up choosing him, because this kind of teacher will leave too much homework, too many exams and give too low grades.

There is another thing after you select the subjects and the teachers. How to buy textbooks makes each student feel hard. The textbooks in America are very expensive. Each one is about $30-50. In order to save money, many students buy some used textbooks, and some students usually borrow textbooks from the school library.

In class, discussion is very important. The teacher encourages you to ask questions or show your own opinions. They don’t usually ask you to sit well. Instead, they allow you to sit or stand everywhere you like.

【推荐2】Arkansas may give up the BMI program or weaken it with the help of the new governor，who said it had "a lot of negative，unexpected results"．

The number of overweight children in the United States has more than doubled in the past 20 years． Being seriously overweight can lead to health problems later in life． As a result， Arkansas first started the BMI program in 2004﹣public schools were required to provide parents with a yearly report of their children's body﹣mass index （BMI），a number to show whether their weight is appropriate （合适的）．Along with students' BMIs，parents also received information on health risks of being overweight．

A study shows that obesity （肥胖）rates in Arkansas have stopped increasing since 2004．But not everyone supports schools in reporting students' BMIs．Some parents have complained their kids worry that they are being "graded" on their weight， although Dr． Joe Thompson， who helped plan the BMI program，gave the explanation at the start of the program，"Just like a school check for vision or hearing，this is a way to raise awareness （意识）about a health risk． ''

Critics argue that telling parents their children weigh too much could hurt children's self﹣esteem（自尊）．Some also question whether it's the role of schools to monitor students' weight．Dr Nancy Krebs，a nutrition expert，also thinks obesity report cards aren't good enough．‘‘They're making kids feel bad about how they are，'' she says．"Instead of focusing on kids' BMIs，schools should provide better health and physical education classes and serve healthier foods． "

However，supporters of the program say overweight children have had self﹣esteem problems before their parents get obesity report cards．Dr．Karen Young at Arkansas Children's Hospital says，"The overweight kids are already being teased （被嘲弄）．It doesn't take the letter for them to feel bad． ''

Health experts from the University of Arkansas think it would be a pity to stop the BMI program． They see the program as a wake﹣up call for families and the letter is spurring some major action on some parents．Danita Thomas said she knew her son Irie was too heavy．But since getting that first BMI report，Irie has lost nearly 100pounds and given up junk food．"It was helpful，" she said．"It made me realize that we needed to do something different． ''

The BMI reports and other steps，such as limits on vending machine （自动售货机）use at school，are leading to healthier students．If there was no BMI program，there should be other effective tools to get schools and parents involved with preventing children from becoming overweight adults．