People often ask which is the most difficult language to learn, and it is not easy to answer because there are too many factors to take into consideration. Firstly, in a first language the differences are unimportant as people learn their mother tongue naturally, so the question of how hard a language is to learn only makes more sense when learning a second language.

    A native speaker of Spanish, for example, will find Portuguese much easier to learn than a native speaker of Chinese, for example, because Portuguese is very similar to Spanish, while Chinese is very different, so first language can affect learning a second language. The greater the differences between the second language and our first, the harder it will be for most people to learn. Many people answer that Chinese is the hardest language to learn, possibly influenced by the thought of learning the Chinese writing system, and the pronunciation of Chinese does appear to be very difficult for many foreign learners. However, for Japanese speakers, who already use Chinese characters in their own language, learning writing will be less difficult than for speakers of languages using the Roman alphabet.

    Some people seem to learn languages easily, while others find it very difficult. Teachers and the circumstances in which the language is learned also play an important role, as well as each learner's motivation for learning. If people learn a language because they need to use it professionally, they often learn it faster than people studying a language that has no direct use in their day to day life.

    Obviously , British diplomats and other embassy staff have found that the second hardest language is Japanese, which will probably come as no surprise to many, but the language that they have found to be the most problematic is Hungarian, which uses a similar alphabet to English but has 35 cases (forms of a nouns according to whether it is subject, object, genitive, etc). This does not mean that Hungarian is the hardest language to learn for everyone, but it causes British diplomatic personnel, who are generally used to learning languages, the most difficulty. However, Tabassaran, a Caucasian language has 48 cases, so it might cause more difficulty if British diplomats had to learn it.

    Different cultures and individuals from those cultures will find different languages more difficult. Therefore, it is impossible to say that there is one language that is the most difficult language in the world.

    You have never seen him,but they're with you every time you fly.They record where you are going,how fast you're traveling and whether everything on your airplane is functioning normally.Their ability to withstand（经受得住）almost any disaster makes them seem like something out of a magic book.They're known as the black box.

    When planes fall from the sky,as a Yemeni airliner did on its way to Comoros Islands in the India ocean June 30,2009,the black box is the best bet for identifying what went wrong.So when a French submarine（潜水艇）detected the device's homing signal five days later,the discovery marked a huge step toward determining the cause of a tragedy in which 152 passengers were killed.

    In 1958,Australian scientist David Warren developed a flight-memory recorder that would track basic information like altitude and direction.That was the first mode for a black box,which became a requirement on all U.S.commercial flights by 1960.Early models often failed to withstand crashes,however,so in 1965 the device（装置）was completely redesigned and moved to the back of the plane-the area least affected bu impact-from its original position in the landing wells（起落架舱). The same year, the Federal Aviation Authority required that the boxes,which were never actually black,be painted orange or yellow to aid visibility.

    Modern airplanes have two black boxes: a voice recorder,which tracks pilots' conversations,and a flight-data recorder,which monitors fuel levels,engine noises and other operating functions that help investigators reconstruct the aircraft's final moments.Placed in an insulated ( 隔绝的) case and surrounded by a quarter-inch-thick panels of stainless steel,the boxes can withstand massive force and temperatures up to 2,000℉.When in deep water,they're also able to emit signals from depths of 20,000 ft.Experts believe the boxes from Air France Flight 447,which crashed near Brazil on June 1,2009,are in water nearly that deep,but statistics say they're still likely to turn up.In the approximately 20 deep-sea crashes over the past 30 years,only one plane's black boxes were never recovered.

    The Marches were a happy family, Poverty, hard work, and even the fact that Father March was away with the Union armies could not down the spirits of Meg, Jo, Beth, Amy, and Marmee, as the March girls called their mother.

    The March sisters tried to be good but had their share of faults. Pretty Meg was often displeased with the schoolchildren she taught; boyish Jo was easy to become angry; golden-haired schoolgirl Amy liked to show up; but Beth, who kept the house, was loving and gentle always.

    The happy days passed and darkness came when a telegram arrived for Mrs. March. “Your husband is very ill,” it said, “come at once.” The girl tried to be brave when their mother left for the front. They waited and prayed. Little Beth got scarlet fever (猩红热) when she was taking care of the sick neighbor. She became very ill but began to recover by the time Marmee was back. When Father came home from the front and at that joyful Christmas dinner they were once more all together.

    Three years later the March girls had grown into young womanhood. Meg became Mrs. Brooke, and after a few family troubles got used to her new state happily. Jo had found pleasure in her literary efforts. Amy had grown into a young lady with a talent for design and an even greater one for society. But Beth had never fully regained her health, and her family watched her with love and anxiety.

    Amy was asked to go and stay in Europe with a relative of the Marches'. Jo went to New York and became successful in her writing and had the satisfaction of seeing her work published there. But at home the bitterest blow was yet to fall Beth had known for some time that she couldn't live much longer to be with the family and in the spring time she died.

    News came from Europe that Amy and Laurie, the grandson of a wealthy neighbor, had planned to be married soon. Now Jo became ever more successful in her writing and got married to Professor Bhaer and soon afterwards founded a school for boys.

    And so the little women had grown up and lived happily with their children, enjoying the harvest of love and goodness that they had devoted all their lives to.

    It was at least two months before Christmas when nine-year-old Rose told her father and me that she wanted a new bicycle.

As Christmas drew nearer, her desire for a bicycle seemed to fade—or so we thought, as she didn't mention it again. We bought the latest fashionable Baby Sitter's Club dolls, a holiday dress and some beautiful story books. Then, much to our surprise, on December 23rd, she proudly announced that she "really wanted a bike more than anything else."

    It was just too late, what with all the details of preparing Christmas dinner and buying last-minute gifts. We could only think of the bicycle and the disappointment of our child. "What if I make a little bicycle out of clay and write a note that she could trade the clay model in for a real bike?" Her dad asked. The theory, of course, being that since that is a high-ticket item and she is "such a big girl", it would be much better for her to pick it out. So he spent the next five hours painstakingly working with clay to make a tiny bike.

    Three hours later, on Christmas morning, we were excited for Rose to open the little heart-shaped package with the beautiful red and white clay bike and the note. Finally, she opened it and read the note aloud.

    She looked at me and then at her dad and said, "so does this mean that I trade in this bike that Daddy made me for a real one?"

    Beaming, I said, "Yes."

    Rose had tears in her eyes when she replied, "I could never trade in this beautiful bicycle that Daddy made me. I'd rather keep this than get a real bike."

    At that moment, we would have moved heaven and earth to buy her every bicycle on the planet!

    A recent documentary produced by the British Broadcasting Corporation (BBC) has caused a stir in China and in the UK.

    The documentary, titled Are Our Kids Tough Enough? focuses on five Chinese teachers who are sent to teach 50 UK teens at a school in Hampshire.

    The teachers instruct the students for a month. The pupils are then tested, and the results are compared to the ones of those who have continued in the regular UK education system. The idea is to see if the Chinese method improves academic performance.

    The Chinese teachers use their own teaching methods but receive strong resistance from the students. A clip from the documentary online shows some problems, with Chinese teachers calling their students lazy and lacking in discipline, while the students say the high pressure and harsh teachers are driving them crazy.

    This has aroused a new debate in both China and the UK, with some arguing the teenagers need more regulation and discipline. Others say Chinese methods encourage rote learning (死记硬背) instead of independent thinking. For instance, Chinese language teachers should do more than pass on knowledge about words and characters. They should inspire students, helping them feel the sentiment from Chinese literature. This is a higher level of teaching.

    Yang Dongping, dean of the 21st Century Education Research Institute, says, "The Chinese teaching methods are designed to strictly train the majority. Foreign teaching methods, however, are more natural and relaxing, and designed to inspire students' interest in learning. Education methods are based on culture. That is why a successful education method in one place may not work that well when simply 'transplanted' into another place."

    Yang Dongping says, "The documentary does reflect some problems rooted in traditional Chinese teaching methods. Nobel prize winner, Yang Zhenning, gave a very fair comment on this issue. He said the Chinese-style education method works for most ordinary qualified students effectively, helping them reach high standards. However, it may weaken the training for high-potential outstanding students."

    TV, iPads, and computers are fun and sometimes educational, but many people think the technology is bad. My parents let me watch one or two shows or play a game on the iPad for an hour, but then make me find thing else to do, like read or draw a picture. They say that too much screen time won't help me become smarter.

    I think that it is okay to watch TV, but not too much. And some of my friends agree.

    "A tiny bit of screen time is okay," Mateo J., 7, said. "But too much of it is not good for your brain."

    Though my friends and I sometimes complain (抱怨), we think that it's good our parents limit our screen time.

    "Our parents should limit our technology time because otherwise you might get carried away and not even know that you've stayed inside all day watching TV," Naomi J. , 9, said.

    The American Academy of Pediatrics(AAP) used to recommend (推荐) that parents let kids have about two hours of screen time per day, but in 2016, they started recommending that parents of kids 6 and older decide for themselves how much time is okay, as long as the shows and games are appropriate. The AAP still says that kids 2-5 years old should have only about one hour of screen time per day, and kids under 2 no screen time at all. The AAP says that media you've stayed inside all day in all forms, including TV, computers, and smartphones, can affect how children feel, learn, think, and behave. However, parents are still the most important influence.

    I think TV shows like Brain Games and Cupcake Wars are inspiring. I've even learned some magic while watching Brain Games! Video games can be educational, as some TV shows are about nature, and other shows have useful messages. But some games and shows have bad things in them, like smoking.

    You can play outside instead of watching TV. Find other things to do. You don t have to be or screens all day.