When I was a child, I was particular about food. It was Aunt Nelda that changed my habit of being a picky eater.
As far as I could remember, on a Friday night, when Dad and I arrived at Aunt Nelda’s house at dinner time, she prepared a big meal for us. Though the dishes smelled delicious, I didn’t feel like eating some of them. I took several bites of the sandwich and then laid it aside. Dad wanted to kick me under the table to remind me to finish all the food, but drawers (抽屉) between us protected me.
Looking at those drawers, I had a good idea. When Dad got up to refill his soup bowl, I pulled the bottom drawer open. It was full of cloth napkins (布餐巾). I put my sandwich under them and shut the drawer quickly. A plan for my rest food at Aunt Nelda’s emerged.
The next morning, I did the same to the food which I hated to eat. When Aunt Nelda saw my empty bowl, she gave me some sweets and said, “Good job, Jodi. You like my cooking just as much as your father.”
On Sunday, the food under the napkins continued growing, but somehow more slowly. Aunt Nelda was actually a pretty good cook. At noon, her children were coming for lunch. I offered to help set the table.
“Jodi, get the cloth napkins out of the bottom drawer,” she said. My heart began to beat fast. It was not because of the bottom drawer or the cloth napkins, but because of the left food.
“No, let’s use these!” I said, grabbing a handful of paper napkins. Aunt Nelda reached for the drawer. “My children prefer cloth napkins!” she said. I held my breath, waiting for the horrible scene. However, I couldn’t believe that she handed me some neat napkins.
“I’ve already cleaned them up,” she said. “It was so strange that there was much food under the napkins. I hadn’t seen mice for years! Guess what? They were back again. A long time ago, they made a nest and carried the food all over the house.”
注意：1. 续写词数应为150左右；
2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
Aunt Nelda’s words made me feel relieved but ashamed.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Hearing what I said, Aunt Nelda opened her mouth wide.
_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________How to Enhance Children’s Attention Span
In a world of increased multitasking and smart devices that constantly compete for our attention, it has become harder to keep children on task during studying or house hold activities. Part of this is environmental, put part of it is also a lack of training that is taking place. Being attentive is a skill, rarely an innate talent, and must be cultivated in children for them to succeed.
Eliminating environmental distractions’ can be a smart way to, improve a child’s attention. It’s important to remember that many things in a child’s environment can draw a child’s attention span away from the task or lesson at hand, including surrounding noises, visual messes and internal distractions. Providing an environment that is as free of distractions as possible can dramatically Improve a child’s attention because it means there are fewer things around for the child’s attention span to be divided between. This is also why it’s a good idea to do studying in an area which is not usually used for other activities, such as in the sitting room.
Not being prepared for a lesson also serves as a distraction because it needs a five or ten minutes to gather the necessary materials. Help keep your child organized and make sure all necessary study materials are close at hand before it’s time to start a lesson to avoid a wild goose chase that will break up your child’s attention before the lesson has even begun.
Several scientific studies have linked a child’s decreased attention span to increased time in front of screened devices such as tablets and television, so parents should make efforts to limit over-stimulation caused by these devices to leisure time and keep them away from studying activities. This isn’t to say that children should avoid the use of smart devices, televisions, or video games indefinitely. After all, these outlets provide much-needed relaxation to children and can even help to improve their hand-eye coordination. I strongly suggest that parents should make sure that screen-time is a privilege (特权) , not a right. That is to say, use screen-time as a reward.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mama notices that there has been a rise in bad manners in the family lately, such as Sister taking things from Brother without asking, and Brother pushing Sister without saying “Excuse me”. It then turns into a shoving (推搡) match between the kids, with them calling each other names and making faces. Their table manners are getting worse, as instead of asking to pass items across the table, Brother and Sister stuff their mouths with food and use some of it to engage in a food fight and kick each other from under the table.
Mama tries to coax (用好话劝) the kids, then complains, and finally shouts. She also tries to ask Papa for help, but he is also part of the problem, as when Papa gets angry at the kids, he bangs (猛捶) on the table. Nothing for Mama works, so she decides to take out a big piece of cardboard and writes out her politeness plan. When she is done, Mama calls a family meeting and introduces the plan to Papa and the kids: if they do something rude such as forgetting to say “please” or “thank you”, the punishment is to sweep the floor. Brother and Sister object to the politeness plan, telling Mama that she’s not being fair. Mama, however, reminds the kids that they’re the ones who aren’t being fair to themselves or other people. She then explains what manners are and why they are important until Papa interrupts her.
While Mama is thankful for Papa’s comment, she notes that he breaks one of the rules. She hands him a feather duster and has him dust the room. Brother and Sister note how serious the plan is and both come up with the idea of being super polite to get Mama to call off the politeness plan.
注意：1. 续写词数应为150个左右；2. 请按如下格式在答题卡的相应位置作答。
They put their idea into practice.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________Mama is pleased with the change.
____________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________With the development of economy, people tend to pursue high quality living conditions. Most of the parents try their best to offer their children comfortable circumstances, but they seldom have time to stay with their children. In my opinion, no matter how busy they are, they should make the best use of their time to stay with their children.
Every time when parents take them to the amusement park, help them to prepare their birthday parties, applaud for them when they are competing in the sports meeting, the time they spend with children will become treasure in their memories.
Children need the direction from their parents. There is some wrong behavior in our society, such as dishonesty, violence and so on. Children have weak resistance in defending this negative influence. In this case, parents’ instructions seem to be very important to children’s growth. Parents should sit down and talk with them about what they should do and should not do.
I do not deny that there are some disadvantages in spending too much time with children. Some parents restrict their children, and give them little freedom to develop their interests. Therefore, I emphasize that parents should educate and instruct their children appropriately in their spare time apart from their busy work.
写作内容：你将参加一场主题辩论会，主题为“父母该为孩子的行为习惯负责吗?”参赛前，你要查阅相关资料，并准备你的主题发言，请仔细阅读下文，然后完成以下的任务：
以约30个词概括短文的要点；
然后以约120个词就“父母该为孩子的行为负责吗?”这个主题发表你的看法，并包含以下的内容要点：
你认为父母是否该对此负责，并阐明你的理由；
你对父母们的建议。
写作要求：你可使用实例或其它论述方法支持你的论点，也可以参照阅读材料的内容，但不能抄袭阅读材料中的句子。
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Drawing High Schoolers to Science
A group of educators and plant scientists at Michigan State University (MSU) are connecting to reshape science classes. And this particular partnership isn’t just helping students get a better understanding of biology; it’s turning them into young scientists, even if only during class.
It doesn’t take long to see that the curriculum born from this collaboration makes for a much different experience than the traditional high school biology classes. For starters, it has a comic book for a workbook. Secondly, students are getting their hands dirty growing plants. MSU researchers are also studying the plant. The high schoolers are asking some of the same questions professional plant scientists are trying to answer.
“We’re getting them engaged with science in science practices, not just having them learn about science,” says Hildah Makori, a researcher at MSU. “They learn to look at things differently. That’s a life-time impact.”
The main characters of the comic book are a pair of young field scientists. They invite the high school students to help with plant research inspired by a real project at MSU. By growing their own plants, the students learn about genetics, evolution and how these interact with the environment.
The team has seen how this practice could keep students in the driver’s seat of their learning. To help the characters out, students set up different experiments to test their ideas.
The program is working. “This comic personally gave me a click that sparked my curiosity,” reads one student’s survey response. “The comic book put a lot of creative atmosphere into the story instead of just looking at words, instead of just listening to the teacher talk,” says another.
Teachers also had positive reviews. In a survey, one remarked how helpful it was to have the comic to refer to. The students could see the comic’s characters doing something in the lab and realize, “I’m able to do this right here at my table and I can do the same thing,” the teacher says.
__________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________内容包括：
1. 你的看法；
2. 你的理由。
注意：
1. 写作词数应为100左右；
2. 适当增加细节使行文连贯。
My Views on the Cooking Lesson
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优点：给我们提供了很多方便，同学们可以更好地了解世界……
缺点：容易成为手机控，影响视力……
注意：
1.词数120左右；
2.可适当增加细节，以使行文连贯。
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Due to the increasing number of violence acts produced in schools all over the world, more and more parents prefer to have their children educated at home rather than at school. This way they can ensure their safety and well-being, although teachers and school representatives are trying to improve the situation in schools by increasing the number of the persons in charge of the safety of the students.
The main reason for violence acts are the films and cartoons that fill the children’s time. They want to do everything they watch on TV and never think of the consequences, and they may hurt a classmate or a teacher.
On the other hand, parents are not fully satisfied with the children’s results obtained in classes and they consider private classes would have better results. When a teacher has to watch 30 students in class he can’t probably see what each of them is doing, how he is writing, or if he understands the explanations. At home the teacher can explain in details everything the child doesn’t understand as many times as he considers proper. And many times the child grows fond of the teacher at home, who becomes his best friend, and who helps him whenever he needs someone to talk to.
However, the best solution would be a mixture between the education received at school and that at home, because school makes children communicate and socialize. Keeping a child at home for fear there might happen something bad to him only makes the child’s character weak and prevents him from knowing what real life is. Staying in a crystal ball only does harm to the child.
All in all, schools have been created to help children, not to harm them, so it’s best to keep children in these special places, where they learn, laugh, have fun and make new friends.
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| 学生的观点 | 一部分学生：劳动教育有助于身体健康，全面发展。另一部分学生：劳动教育占用学习时间，影响成绩。 |
| 你的观点 | …… |
| 你的做法和感受 | …… |
1. 词数 100 左右，开头已给出，不计入总词数;
2. 包括所有要点，可适当发挥，使短文连贯、通顺;
3. 文中不得提及真实的人名、校名等相关信息。参考词汇: 劳动 labour
The Ministry of Education has issued a requirement that students should be given labour education. The students in our school had a heated debate.
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Teens and younger children are reading a lot less for fun, according to a Common Sense Media report published on Monday.
While the decline over the past decade is steep for teen readers, some data in the report shows that reading remains a big part of many children’s lives, and indicates how parents might help encourage more reading.
According to the report’s key findings, “the proportion who say they ‘hardly ever’ read for fun has gone from 8 percent of 13-year-olds and 9 percent of 17-year-olds in 1984 to 22 percent and 27 percent respectively today”.
The report data shows that pleasure reading levels for younger children, ages 2-8, remain largely the same. But the amount of time spent in reading each session has declined, from closer to an hour or more to closer to a half hour per session.
When it comes to technology and reading, the report does little to counsel (建议) parents looking for the data about the effect of e-readers and tablets on reading. It does point out that many parents still limit electronic reading, mainly due to concerns about increased screen time.
The most hopeful data shared in the report shows clear evidence of parents serving as examples and important guides for their kids when it comes to reading. Data shows that kids and teens who do reading frequently, compared to infrequent readers, have more books at home, more books purchased for them, and parents who read more often and set aside time for them to read.
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