1 . Getting less sleep has become a bad habit for most American kids. According to a new survey(调查) by the National Sleep Foundation, 51% of kids aged 10 to 18 go to bed at 10 pm or later on school nights, even though they have to get up early. Last year the Foundation reported that nearly 60% of 7- to 12-year-olds said they felt tired during the day, and 15% said they had fallen asleep at school.

How much sleep you need depends a lot on your age. Babies need a lot of rest: most of them sleep about 18 hours a day! Adults need about eight hours. For most school-age children, ten hours is ideal(理想的). But the new National Sleep Foundation survey found that 35% of 10- to 12-year-olds get only seven or eight hours. And guess what almost half of the surveyed kids said they do before bedtime? Watch TV.

“More children are going to bed with TVs on, and there are more opportunities(机会) to stay awake, with more homework, the Internet and the phone,” says Dr. Mary Carskadon, a sleep researcher at Brown University Medical School. She says these activities at bedtime can get kids all excited and make it hard for them to calm down and sleep. Other experts say part of the problem is chemical. Changing levels of body chemicals called hormones not only make teenagers’ bodies develop adult characteristics, but also make it hard for teenagers to fall asleep before 11 pm.

Because sleepiness is such a problem for teenagers, some school districts have decided to start high school classes later than they used to. Three years ago, schools in Edina, Minnesota, changed the start time from 7:25 am to 8:30 am. Students, parents and teachers are pleased with the results.

6 . Next week, as millions of families gather for their Thanksgiving feasts (大餐), many other Americans will go without. According to the United States Department of Agriculture, more than 12 million households _________ enough food for everyone in their family at some time during the year — including _________.

Hunger is surprisingly widespread in our country — one of the world’s wealthiest — yet the government estimates that we waste almost 100 billion pounds of food each year, more than one-quarter of our total supply.

Reducing this improper distribution of _________ is a goal of America’s Second Harvest, the nation’s largest domestic hunger-relief organization. Last year, it _________ nearly 2 billion pounds of food to more than 23 million people in need.

America’s Second Harvest is a network of 214 inter-connected food banks and other organizations that _________ food from growers, processors, grocery stores and restaurants. _________, the network distributes food to some 50,000 soup kitchens (施食处), homeless _________ and old people’s centers in every county of every state.

A great deal of work is involved in distributing tons of food from thousands of _________ to thousands of small, non-profit organizations. Until a few years ago, America’s Second Harvest lacked any _________ way to manage their inventory (存货). Without accurate and timely information, soup kitchens were sometimes empty while food was left to __________ in loading places.

In 2000, America’s Second Harvest began to use a new inventory and financial-management system — Ceres. It is a __________ designed specifically for hunger-relief operations. It is used by more than 100 America’s Second Harvest organizations to __________ food from donation to distribution.

Ceres has helped __________ the spoiling of food and improve distribution. An evaluation found that the software streamlined (精简) food banks’ operations by 23 percent in the first year alone.

With more accurate and timely reports, Ceres saves time, frees staff members to focus on finding new donors, and __________ more efficient use of donations.

Hunger in America remains a(n) __________ social problem. Technology alone cannot solve it. But in the hands of organizations such as America’s Second Harvest, it is a powerful tool that is helping to make a difference — and helping more Americans to join in the feast.

7 . The requirements for high school graduation have just changed in my community. As a result, all students must _______ sixty hours of service learning, _______ they will not receive a diploma. Service learning is academic learning that also helps the community. _______ of service learning include cleaning up a polluted river, working in a soup kitchen, or tutoring a student. _______ a service experience, students must keep a journal and then write a _______ about what they have learned.

Supporters claim that there are many _______ of service learning. Perhaps most importantly, students are forced to think _______ their own interests and become _______ of the needs of others. Students are also able to learn real­life skills that _______ responsibility, problem­solving, and working as part of a team. ________ students can explore possible careers ________ service learning. For example, if a student wonders what teaching is like, he or she can choose to work in an elementary school classroom a few afternoons each month.

________ there are many benefits, opponents ________ problems with the new requirement. First, they ________ that the main reason students go to school is to learn core subjects and skills. Because service learning is time­consuming, students spend ________ time studying the core subjects. Second, they believe that forcing students to work without ________ goes against the law. By requiring service, the school takes away an individual’s freedom to choose.

In my view, service learning is a great way to ________ to the community, learn new skills, and explore different careers. ________, I don’t believe you should force people to help others — the ________ to help must come from the heart. I think the best ________ is one that gives students choices: a student should be able to choose sixty hours of independent study or sixty hours of service. Choice encourages both freedom and responsibility and as young adults, we must learn to handle both wisely.

8 . Android phones will be used to sense earthquakes around the world and may one day be able to provide global warnings, with the first mass alert system coming into use on August 11 in California, a search engine company announced.

The company, which helped develop Android, worked with California and the United States Geological Survey to build the quake alerts into all phones that run the common mobile operating system. Android users who have enabled location services and are near a quake of magnitude 4.5 or greater will receive a full-screen earthquake warning telling them to seek cover. The screen also will provide estimates of the quake’s magnitude and distance from the user. Depending on their distance from a quake, people could get several seconds or perhaps a minute of warning.

Users won’t need to download California’s MyShake app in order to receive the alerts. That application, developed by the University of California, Berkeley and launched last year, has been downloaded by only about 1 million of California’s 40 million residents. By contrast, many millions of people own Android phones.

“This announcement means that California’s world-class earthquake early warning system will be a standard function on every Android phone — giving millions of people precious seconds to seek cover and hold on when the big one hits,” Gov.Gavin Newsom said in a statement. The iPhone users won’t receive the alerts through Apple’s operating system, but they can download the MyShake app.

Also, the company announced that Android phones would begin detecting earthquakes from around the world through their motion-sensing accelerometers. “Your Android phone can be a mini-seismometer, joining millions of other Android phones out there to form the world’s largest earthquake detection network,” according to a blog post of the company. More than 2 billion devices run the Android operating system. Hundreds of millions of people live in earthquake-prone areas. But many countries lack the resources to build detection and alert systems, the company said. The information will be used at first to provide fast and accurate information on the search engine. But the company said it could begin sending out earthquake alerts next year.

10 . A lecture hall should be like a church—a little too dark, much too cold, and uncomfortably silent. You should feel guilty opening your water bottle, because all 200 people in the room can hear it.

So when I’m trying to pay attention, the last thing you should be doing is carrying on a conversation about your last weekend party or anything else.

During the past school term, I’ve had enough. One of my biggest complaints of large class sizes is the tendency for three to five friends to sit together and loudly whisper each others’ ears off for an hour and 15 minutes straight. My stupid monkey brain can’t help but focus on your conversation about the difference between ash blonde and light blonde colored hair that look exactly the same.

To me, it just feels like a waste. You’re actively wasting money, and missing vital information. We (and the government) pay quite a lot for our education, but you are here to ignore someone significantly more experienced than us, in classes we picked, for hours every week.

I know major requirements can be boring, but this is still an education. It requires two­way effort. Most students here have at least one goal in common: success. Not every checkpoint on that path is going to be filled with joy. Sit down, shut up, and force yourself to listen to your professor. Society tells us it will eventually pay off.

Or maybe it won’t because you don’t want to.

I actually don’t care if you decide to pay little or no attention to the lecture itself, so long as you’re not being disturbing.

For those willing to try, in 20 years when you finally pay off your debt with your fairly secure white­collar job, you’ll look back and be happy that you went through the lectures.