【推荐1】How many of you do household chores at home? It’s reported that few teenagers would like to spend time on them. In their opinion, it’s a complete waste of time. Some even think they should be taken good care of by their parents all the time. However, such life skills are really necessary.

On June 3, 2020, the Ministry of Education (MOE) produced a document (文件) for high schools. According to the document, labor education is listed as a compulsory (必修的) course for high school students. The labor course takes six credits (学分)-the same as the foreign language or physics. voluntary service, as part of labor education, would take two credits. The MOE also asks schools to make sure students do 40 hours of voluntary service during the full three school years.

A recent study shows that teenagers in China are doing very little housework. Primary and middle school students spend only 12 minutes a day on chores, compared to 72 minutes in the US, 42 minutes in South Korea and 30 minutes in France.

Parents think doing household chores can make students pay less attention to their schoolwork. In fact, it is very helpful for teenagers. According to Northwest Educational Service, chores can not only teach teamwork and problem-solving skills but also give people a sense of pride. “Through such education, students are expected to develop working abilities as well as a better understanding of the world,” said Zheng Fuzhi, vice-minister of the MOE.

Once Tao Xingzhi, the headmaster of Yucai Primary School, saw a boy hitting other boys with a stone in the school. He immediately stopped him, and ordered him to go to his office after school.

When Tao came to his office after school, the boy was already waiting at the door. Tao took out a candy and gave it to him, saying, “This is for you, because you came here on time and I was late.” The boy took the candy in surprise. Then Mr. Tao took out another candy and put it into his hand, saying, “This candy is also for you, because when I stopped you, you stopped immediately. This showed that you respected me.” The boy looked at him with his eyes wide open.

Then Tao took out the third candy and gave it to the boy. “I found that those boys were bullying (霸凌) the girls. You hit them, and it showed your courage.” The boy was moved to tears and said regretfully. “Mr. Tao, please punish me. I hurt my own classmates.”

Tao smiled. He took out the fourth candy and handed it to him. saying, “4.你意识到了自己的错误，所以我会再给你一块糖。My candies are over, and our talk is over!”

5.Some people always punish others to remind them of their mistakes. However, they forget that praise can also achieve that.

【推荐1】In China, there are 24 solar terms（节气）in a year. And there are six of them in winter. They are beginning of winter, light snow, heavy snow, winter solstice（冬至），lesser cold（小寒）and greater cold.

Beginning of winter usually falls on November 7th or 8th. After beginning of winter, most parts of the country can start to expect cold weather. On this day, after a year of hard work, people are happy to have a rest and spend time with family. The northern China celebrates beginning of winter as the “Small Spring Festival”. People usually have dumplings and mutton soup on that day.

Light snow usually falls on November 22nd or 23rd and heavy snow usually falls on December 7th or 8th. When winter solstice comes, it brings the shortest days of the year and the longest nights. Many places around the country can expect the coldest weather yet. People often start counting “nine cold periods” starting from winter solstice. Every cold period has nine days. People believe that after 81 cold days, spring will come.

Greater cold comes after lesser cold. The field is covered with snow. And all the people in China are ready to welcome the Spring Festival after it. Of course, a new round of solar terms will start.

Living on the ISS

Hello everyone, my name is Jessica Meir. I am an astronaut. I work on the International Space Station(国际空间站，缩写为ISS) as a flight engineer. Today, I will tell you something about what life is like on the ISS.

The ISS has over 425 cubic meters(立方米) of living space. I work here with astronauts from the United States, Russia, Japan, Canada and several other European countries. When we are on the ISS, we have to follow a detailed daily schedule. It tells us when to get up, eat, exercise, work, relax and go to sleep. We spend about two hours each day exercising. Without regular exercise, we would lose a certain amount of muscle and bone due to the microgravity (微重力) environment in space.

The food we eat is specifically designed for space missions. Some foods, such as cakes, can be eaten in space just the way they are eaten on the Earth. But some other foods are real challenges. For example, when you’re in space, you can’t shake salt onto food, because the salt would float away. As a result, we have to use special liquid salt.

When we are not busy doing experiments on the ISS, we can relax and have fun in a variety of ways. Like most of you, we listen to music, read books, play cards, watch movies and talk with our family members.

As you can see, the microgravity environment in space brings many challenges that don’t exist on the Earth. Would you like to live for some time on the ISS?

Yours sincerely, Jessica Meir

Can you cook by yourself? Do you like the homework of making a meal? These days, primary and middle school students are required to take the Practical Activity Class (实践活动课) at least one class hour every week. The topic of cooking was discussed mostly by parents and students. Learning practical skills plays an important role in shaping a person’s character for sure.

Some schools and students have already practiced their practical activities. Gu Quan, 13 years old, from No. 6 Middle School, used to be a lazy boy. In his own words, he hardly ever did any housework. But things have changed since No. 6 Middle School made housework part of its students’ homework. Housework like doing the dishes, cooking and making the bed…All of these tasks have become part of Gu Quan’s daily life.

At the beginning of each month, every student gets a list of housework to do every weekend. They can ask their parents to help them keep a record of their performance. The tasks are common and simple in daily life, such as sweeping the floor, washing cups and cooking food. On holidays like Mother’s Day, students should prepare presents for their mothers. Huang Yixi, 14, has learned several life kills, including cooking. “I used to be afraid of fire,” she said. But she managed to overcome her fear and complete her cooking tasks. At the same time, she also learned how tired her mother gets after doing housework every day. On Mother’s Day, she made a cake for her mother to show her thanks. “I began to better understand my parents and want to help them more.” she said.

Should we teenagers help our parents do chores? Is it important for us to learn how to do chores? I think so. Most of the teenagers like us students are the only children in each family. So our parents love us very much. They do everything for us and don’t want us to do any housework. I think it’s bad for us. Here is a real story. I have a classmate named Li Ting. She is the only child in her family. (A) 她的父母如此爱她以至于他们不让她做任何家务活。Every day she only gets up, has meals, goes to school, comes home, does homework and goes to bed. So she doesn’t know how to do chores. One day, her father was badly ill and had an operation (手术) in a hospital. Her mother had to take care of her father in the hospital and couldn’t cook the dishes for her. Li Ting didn’t know how to cook the meals. She often felt hungry. (B) Later she even ate instant (速食的) noodles only for her meals. From the story we know it’s important for us to learn to do chores and other skills from now on.