Proudly reading my words, I glanced around the room, only to find my classmates bearing big smiles on their faces and tears in their eyes. Confused, I glanced toward my stone­faced teacher. Having no choice, I slowly raised the report I had read carefully, hoping to hide myself. “What could be causing everyone to act this way？”

    Quickly, I flashed back to the day Miss Lancelot gave me the task. This was the first real task I received in my new school. It seemed simple: go on the Internet and find information about a man named George Washington. Since my idea of history came from an ancient teacher in my home country, I had never heard of that name before. As I searched the name of this fellow, it became evident that there were two people bearing the same name who looked completely different! One invented hundreds of uses for peanuts, while the other led some sort of army across America. I stared at the screen, wondering which one my teacher meant. I called my grandfather for a golden piece of advice: flip (掷) a coin. Heads—the commander, and tails—the peanuts guy. Ah! Tails，my report would be about the great man who invented peanut butter, George Washington Carver.

    Weeks later, standing before this unfriendly class, I was totally lost. Oh well, I lowered the paper and sat down at my desk, burning to find out what I had done wrong. As a classmate began his report, it all became clear，“My report is on George Washington, the man who started the American Revolution.” The whole world became quiet! How could I know that she meant that George Washington?

    Obviously, my grade was awful. Heartbroken but fearless, I decided to turn this around. I talked to Miss Lancelot, but she insisted: No re­dos; no new grade. I felt that the punishment was not fair, and I believed I deserved a second chance. Consequently, I threw myself heartily into my work for the rest of the school year. Ten months later, that chance unfolded as I found myself sitting in the headmaster's office with my grandfather, now having an entirely different conversation. I smiled and flashed back to the embarrassing moment at the beginning of the year as the headmaster informed me of my opinion to skip the sixth grade. Justice is sweet!

The Opening of the Book Nook

    Saturday, October 4, 10 AM to 10 PM

    You will not want to miss the opening of your new neighborhood bookstore! Located at 2289 Main Street, the Book Nook is within walking distance of schools, many homes and businesses. Come and check out the Book Nook on Saturday!

    Activities will include:

    Live music by local musicians

    One Book-of-the-Month Club membership giveaway (赠送)

Wide Selection

    The Book Nook has three floors with books of all kinds-­--any kind you could want. If we do not have the book you are looking for, we can specially order it for you. You will have it in your hands within two days!

Reading Nooks

    We are proud of our children's reading area on the first floor, as well as our teenagers' nook on the second floor. Come for the activities and stay for a while! Settle in one of these inviting reading areas; take a seat with a good book and a free cup of hot chocolate. You will discover the perfect way to spend a few hours.

Book Events

    The Book Nook will be featuring monthly book signings by different authors, giving you a chance to meet and speak with well-known writers. Don't miss the experience of hearing these authors read aloud their own books!

    The Book-of-the-Month Club

    Our Book-of-the-Month Club will feature 12 books each year. As a member, you will be able to select one new book each month. The membership fee is only $10.00 per month. That is a great price for 12 books each year!

So please join us on Saturday and learn about all that the Book Nook has to offer. You can come anytime between 10 AM and 10 PM. Our activities last all day long!

B

    According to a new study ,a smiley face emoji（笑脸符）in work-related e-mails may not create a positive impression and could even weaken information sharing. In formal business emails, a smiley is not a smile.

    In one of the experiments, people were asked to read a work-related e-mail from an unknown person and then tell about both the ability and warmth of that person. Before that, they all received similar messages. But some included smileys while others did not. The results suggested that contrary to face-to-face smiles, which increase both ability and warmth, the smileys in a business e-mail had no effect on the perception（感知）of warmth, and in fact had a bad effect on the perception of ability. The perceptions of low ability in turn weakened information sharing.

    In another experiment, the use of a smiley was compared to a smiling or neutral photograph. The findings showed that in the case（情况）of a photograph, a smiling sender was judged to be more able and friendly than a neutral one. However, when an e-mail on formal work-related maters included a smiley, the sender was thought to be less able. The smiley did not influence the opinion on the sender's friendliness.

    “People are easy to accept that a smiley equals a real smile, but the findings of this study show that in the workplace, this seems not the case, especially when first communications are concerned.” Dr. Glikson says. “In such a situation, it is better not to use smileys to people at whatever age. Smileys could hardly be a wise choice to a person you are not familiar with.”

    Many people in high school cannot wait to go to college and leave their hometown behind. Questions arise, though, when it comes to all of the decisions involved in choosing a college.

    One of the first considerations may be finance. State and public colleges are often the least expensive. Often, though, the better colleges are private and more expensive. It is sad when gifted students cannot attend a college of their choice just for financial reasons.

    Another major factor is location. Whether the college is in a small town or large city can have a major impact on its activities. A water lover probably will be more comfortable spending four years near an ocean or a lake. Those who cannot tolerate heat will probably be more comfortable at a northern college. Distance from home may also come into consideration. If family is a top priority, that person should stay close to home; on the other hand, if independence is desired, a campus farther from home would be more appropriate.

    School size also plays a major role in the decision process. If you want to get to know your teachers, a small college is suitable. For those of you who consider yourself a “people person” and want a wide range of activities, a large college is more fitting. Your area of interest is another factor to consider in the decision-making process if you want to get the most from your education. The whole point of college is to learn what is of interest to you.

    Crucially(至关重要地), one must take into consideration the colleges by which you can realistically be accepted. An Ivy League school for an average student would probably not be a good match. Similarly, an average school for an above-average student would not work well. The college should provide enough of a challenge for the student to work hard. Although there may not be the perfect college out there, there probably will be one that is close. Those who cannot find a suitable college are probably not looking hard enough.

    What do you think of your Chinese? If you think your Chinese is good enough, you can take part in the competition named Chinese Characters Dictation Competition(中国汉字听写大会).

    Today teenagers are using more and more smart phones. They spend too much time in shopping, chatting, playing games and so on. Many of them cannot using smart phones to help with their study. Overuse of smart phones will make students too lazy to think and write. Some of them even forget how to write Chinese characters by hand. Teachers and parents are very worried about it.

    In order to draw people's attention to the problems above, in 2013 CCTV held the first Chinese Characters Dictation Competition. About 200 students from 32 teams took part in it. They stood on the stage to write down Chinese characters by dictation. Lu Jialei, a 14-year-old girl from Zhejiang, got first place.

    Since then, the competition has been popular among teenagers. Many people are interested in this kind of competition, too. They like to write down the characters while the competitors(参赛者)are writing them.

    Can you be the next winner?

增加：在缺词处加一个漏字符号（∧)，并在其下面写出该加的词。

删除：把多余的词用斜线（\）划掉。

修改：在错的词下划一横线，并在该词下面写出修改后的词。

注意：

1.每处错误及其修改均仅限一词；

2.只允许修改10处，多者（从第11处起）不计分。

In our English class yesterday, we had a lesson, during what we learned about how body language is crucially in communication. Body language includes various type, like facial expressions, gestures, postures, and eye contact. Facial expressions like smiling or frowning show our emotions, while gestures like waving or pointing helps us express ourselves. Our postures, eye contact also send messages.

Body language is important because it assists us to understanding others better. It adds meaning to what they say and can show our feelings. Moreover, it's important to be aware to cultural differences in body language. Paid attention to body language, we can not communicate more effectively and avoid misunderstandings.