3 . How do you feel when your teacher asks you to work with other students in groups? Do you like to work together with others or work alone?

The Program for International Student Assessment(PISA)did a survey of students’ ability to work together in groups. They found that top students who do well on tests by themselves are better at working with other people. The finding was true for many countries. Students in Japan, South Korea, Finland and Canada, where test scores are high, also do well in working together to solve problems.

But this was not sure for every country. The collaborative(合作的)skills of top students in China, who also have high scores, are not high. “One reason might be that Chinese parents and teachers pay too much attention to grades,” said Zhao Zhongxin, the president of the Chinese family Education Association(CFEA). “Students have a lot of exam pressure and they think school is a place for competition. However, collaborative skills are very important for the students to solve the problems” he added, “luckily, more Chinese parents and teachers are realizing the importance of this and are thinking of ways to help students improve them.”

Another interesting finding from PISA survey was that girls are better than boys at working together. They said girls are more willing to listen to others’ opinions.

PISA also found that the classroom environment might influence how well students work with others. In classes there are a lot of activities that require communication, such as class discussion, students like to work with others.

4 . The year 2020 is a special one for China, as the Chinese government has set a goal of lifting all the people out of poverty(贫困)by the end of the year. To achieve this goal, one important task is to reduce the education gap(差距)between the poor countryside and the cities.

In recent years, the governments have worked hard to improve the education in poor areas. Schools have put great efforts onto improving education in these areas. More new schools have been built, and more money has been used to help students from poor families. Let’s have a look at how the students across the country have benefited(得益)from this.

“Do you like playing football?” asked British teacher Matthew.

“I prefer to play basketball,” answered Wang Qi.

These “dual-teacher- classes(双师课堂)” were set up by China Daily. Through an online video talk, the foreign teachers are teaching students from the poor areas. The goal is to bring better English education to poor areas.

He Jiao is a student from Dafang, Guizhou. In 2015, when she was admitted(录取)to Tsinghua University, her family were nervous about her tuition fees. Her father made no more than 1,000 yuan a month.

Thanks to a project started by the local government. He Jiao received scholarship(奖学金)of 100,000 yuan, and her university dream came true.

6 . 面对现在越来越多的中小学生带手机进校园, 今年春季教育部发布了一项通知, 表示了禁止中小学生带手机进校园。请你根据同学们的不同观点，写一篇文章，谈谈自己的看法。

Nowadays, smartphones are popular among students. Should we be allowed to use smartphones at school or not? Our students have different opinions. ____________________________________ ___________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

7 . In your spare time, do you help your parents with chores（杂活） around the house? Can you cook for your family?

In order to stress（强调）the importance of hard-working spirit education among students of different ages, the Communist Party of China Central Committee（中共中央）recently released （发布）a guideline（指导纲要）.

The guideline calls for students to respect labor work. Students should learn basic life skills and form good working habits through such education.

The government has been trying to stress the importance of hard-working spirit education. But this has been overlooked（忽视）in recent years. Many teenagers do not value the importance of working hard and aren’t interested in doing so.

According to a study of nearly 3,000 students that was done by Ningbo Evening News in March, only 22% of students help with everyday chores around the house.

Schools and families play an important role in teaching students about the value of working hard, the guideline says.

Primary and middle schools should provide students with hard-working spirit classes every week, according to the guideline. Schools can also hold activities to give students real-world work experience. For example, schools can teach children how to plant trees on Tree-Planting Day.

As children’s first teachers, parents should also encourage children to learn how to do chores at home. Students should master one or two life skills every year. These skills can include cooking, washing their own clothes and tidying their rooms.

8 . The junior high school graduates have to take a P.E. test in many places around China. The full marks are usually 50 points and it means much in the senior high school entrance exam.

In Tianshui, the test is often in May and June. Students have the test in schools. Each student is tested on four sports. They take part in long-distance running, rope skipping and football dribbling (运球). The pull-up is for boys and girls can choose the sit-up. Both boys and girls must run in the test.

Most students find the test easy and more than 90% of them can get high marks. That’s because they have been training for it during the three whole years. Students in Junior Three usually do lots of practice in P.E. classes. The training makes the test easier than it seems to be.

Running is one of the sports in a test. So in P.E. classes, they usually run a lot. Sometimes they have to run 1,500 meters in one class. Most teachers and parents say that the P.E. test is great. They say it helps students build up their health.

9 . One day a teacher entered the classroom and gave the students a surprise test. He gave out the paper and asked his students to turn the page and begin. To everyone's surprise, there were no questions, just a black dot in the center of the page.

The teacher saw the expression on everyone’s face and said, "I want you to write what you see there. The confused students got started on the hard task. At the end of the class, the teacher took all the answer papers and started reading each one of them. All of them described the black dot and tried to explain where it was on the paper.

After all had been read, the classroom was quiet. The teacher began to explain, "I am not going to grade you according to this. I just wanted to give you something to think about. No one wrote about the white part of the paper. Everyone focused on the black dot (点). The same happens in our lives. We have a white paper to enjoy, but we always focus on the dark spots. Our life is a gift filled with love and care. We always have reasons to celebrate—friends that help us or jobs that support our lives."

"However, we keep focusing only on the dark spots, the health problems, the lack of money or the bad relationship with a family member. The dark spots are really annoying, but they are very small. Take your eyes away from the black spots in your life. Enjoy each moment that life gives you. Be happy and live a positive life!"