4 .

I saw her at the play and because of her invitation, I sat beside her. “Do you remember the first time I saw you? You asked me to have lunch,” she asked.

Did I remember?

It was twenty years ago. I was living in a tiny flat and making little money.

After reading my book, she wrote to ask if I’d have a chat with her and give her a lunch at Foyot’s. Foyot’s was such an expensive restaurant that I never went there before, but I had £80 and a lunch shouldn’t cost over £15. So I agreed.

Still, I was shocked to see the prices. They were much higher than I expected, but her words comforted me, “I never eat more than one thing for lunch.”

“Don’t say that!” I answered generously (慷慨地).

“I never eat more than one thing, except a little salmon (三文鱼) ” Well, a beautiful salmon just came in Foyot’s. I ordered it for my guest. And the waiter asked if she’d have something else.

“No, I never eat more than one thing, unless you had caviar (鱼子酱),” My heart sank (下沉), but I told the waiter to bring it. For myself, I chose the cheapest dish.

She talked happily while I was wondering whether I had enough money to pay the bill. If no, it’d be awful to borrow from my guest, and I’d say my money was stolen. It’d be worse if she had no enough money either. Then I had to leave my watch here.

She finished eating. “Coffee?” I asked. “No more than one thing, except ice cream and coffee.” I didn’t care now, ordering one for her and another for myself. Then a terrible thing happened. The waiter came with huge peaches, and my guest took one.

At last, the bill came. I knew she thought me mean (吝啬的) when I left only £3 for the waiter as the tip, and there was nothing in my pocket.

“Follow my example,” she said as we left. “Never eat more than one thing for lunch.”

“I’ll do better,” I replied. “I’ll eat nothing for dinner tonight.”

“Humorous!” she cried, jumping into a taxi.

I had my revenge (报仇). Today she weighed 294 pounds.

6 . As your alarm clock rings, you slowly open one eye. It seems like it was only a few hours ago that you finished your homework. You close your eyes for just five more minutes, but then your mom knocks on the door. “Time to get up, or you’ll miss the bus!” she says.

If this sounds familiar, you’re not alone. According to a survey, nearly 60 percent of middle school students in the U. S. aren’t getting the recommended 8.5 to 9.5 hours of sleep a night.

How does it happen? In fact, starting the school day too early can take away much-needed sleep from teenagers. Studies show that well-rested teenagers are more likely to get good grades and less likely to suffer from depression (抑郁). Besides, teenagers fall asleep later at night by nature. As a result, some students may only get as few as five hours of sleep.

Many people have realised the importance of enough sleep. Schools in several states have changed to later start times in recent years. In New Jersey, a group of students have formed an organization called Later School Start Times. It wants local middle schools to start 30 minutes later.

▲ Many schools say later start times would create a number of problems. There’s a worry that some kids will walk back home in the dark if the school starts later. It will also leave teens with fewer hours for after-school activities and homework. That’s what Erin Isherwood, a parent from California, is worried about. “My son has an exercise class that he really loves at a gym right after school,” she says. “Now he can’t go.”

Considering the advantages and disadvantages of later school start times, it seems a hard choice to make. The early bird catches the worm (虫子). But what if the bird is too sleepy and tired to catch one?

7 . For thousands of years, humans have used names to communicate with one another. We also give names to our pets. Until now there has been few animals naming one another, but a new study suggests that elephants use certain noises to call other elephants.

A few animals, including dolphins (海豚), use sounds that are similar to names. Each dolphin invents a special sound, and other members communicate with it by copying this special call. The new study, led by Michael Pardo, shows that wild African elephants use names in a way that is not just copying sounds and is much closer to the way humans use names.

For the study, the researchers recorded 625 sounds made by wild African elephants in Kenya that they called “rumbles”. This is the most common kind of call produced by elephants, and it can travel as far as 3.7 miles. It takes place at a very low frequency (频率), which means humans can’t hear it.

The scientists studied the sounds and found that some rumbles were directed at certain elephants to get their attention. They found that all the elephants in the group used the same call to get a certain elephant’s attention. Also, unlike the way dolphins communicate, the rumbles were not just imitations (模仿) of the elephants they were trying to communicate with.

The researchers then played back some of the recorded rumbles to the elephants. They found that elephants responded more to their own name than to other calls. Caitlin, an elephant expert, said the study shows that elephants can still keep in touch with one another even across a large area. She told Live Science, “It allows them to spread out much further and still communicate with each other.”

8 . On the last Sunday of every month, my mother would sit my sister and me down and force us to write letters to our family in India. Although my mom was an orphan (孤儿), she came from a large Indian family with lots of caring and friendly relatives. At the time, we were the only ones who had left India to go abroad.

It was the 1970s, and my mother raised two little girls on her own, living a hard life in a new country. We lived in a small apartment and couldn’t afford the phone calls. Letter-writing was the cheapest and the only way for us to keep in touch.

The last thing I wanted to do was to sit down for an hour after dinner and write letters to people I hardly knew. But over time, my sister and I came to enjoy it. My mother would tell us stories about each family member, and it was interesting to get to know some people who looked and sounded just like us.

When my mother died, my sister and I took her ashes (骨灰) back to India. We spent a month visiting relatives. Each family would take out photo albums full of photographs of us as well as the letters they’d received over the years. They’d saved them all and wanted to show us that they’d never forgotten us

As we managed to five abroad, my mother made sure that we always knew who we were, where we came from and where we were going. She kept us connected to a family that was thousands of miles away through a lifetime of letter-writing. It’s a gift that we are always proud of. I’ll be thankful for it forever.

9 . Need money to support your project?! Want to offer help? This is the right website for you both!

This Week’s Projects

Super kitchen!

A year ago, we made homemade food from our own kitchens for school restaurants of our city. Our food is not only low-cost, but also healthy for the students. We have been so successful that we need a larger kitchen now. Support us and you will receive VIP cards for our top ten dishes!

★Help us put on our play!

The play we wrote last year is a new look at the family life. It has won first prize in a national play writing competition. Now we want to take it to the International Youth Theatre Festival, but we don’t have enough money for our trip to the festival. Support our project, and you will receive free tickets to the opening night!

★Give a positive message!

I am an art student who has designed various posters with positive messages. Now I need to print and sell them to art shops around the country. Invest in me and you will receive a free warm poster—and you will help make my dream come true.

★A tree house for everyone to share!

We have got a plan to build an imaginative tree house in our local park. It will be a place for children to have adventures or for families to have a picnic. When completed, the tree house will show our talents and enable us to realize our dreams. Support us and you will receive a 20% discount on your first tree house order!

10 . ①Everyone has goals and most people believe practising repeatedly will help us get a success. Actually, when we reach an acceptable and automatic (无意识的) performance, the additional (额外的) practice won’t make us improve. Suppose we’re learning to play the piano. At first, we know nothing. After taking lessons, we can gain skills as soon as we just practise a few times. Unluckily, after we can play some pieces well with little thoughts, we may find some weak points don’t disappear no matter how often we practise. That’s because automatic abilities will weaken without making efforts on purpose.

②So what do we need if we want to get further improvement? Purposeful practice could be a successful method. It’s different from just practising repeatedly. It has the following features.

③ ▲ It’s all about putting a large number of small steps together to reach a longer-term purpose. For example, passing your piano exam is not a clear goal. It may not guide you to practise effectively (有效地). You will be more successful if you change it into: “Play this piece of the music at a proper speed without a mistake three times.” That’s because it’s easier to judge whether this practice has led to a success.

④Feedback also plays an important role in purposeful practice. It’s a kind of information about how good your performance is. You have to know whether you are doing something right. If not, how you can correct it. Without feedback, you cannot find out what you need to improve or how close you get to your goals.

⑤Another key to achieving purposeful practice is getting out of your comfort zone. It means trying to do something that you couldn’t do before. Most of us like practising what we’re good at. In fact, it’s useless to focus on something we’ve already known. Getting out of comfort zone isn’t about “trying harder,” but about “trying differently”. For example, a professional striker (足球前锋) needs to practise not only shooting, but also other football skills like goalkeeping.

⑥Purposeful practice isn’t everything, but if you want to keep improving, it can be more useful than usual methods.