Before the day I stepped into junior high school, I had always thought that as long as I could read, speak, and listen well, English will be a "no problem" 1 for me, and that English grammar was a piece of cake. My father 2 to tell me the importance of grammar but I just wouldn't listen. I didn't understand what's so important about the whole "grammar" thing.

    This misunderstanding didn't last long. Something unexpected happened. It was only 3that day, and I would never forget that day. I was just a young and seventh grader when our English teacher 4 to give us a quiz on English grammar. We had to fill in blanks. After I read the sentence in question number one, different kinds of answers which I thought were possible came into my mind. All of them seemed right and made sense to me, but there was only one 5 answer to it, but I didn't know which one exactly. I was shocked, but I said to myself "never mind", and went on to question number two. Unexpectedly, the same trouble that just happened, appeared right in front of me again, and it just kept happening again and again until I heard our teacher say 6"Time's up." I had to turn in my answer sheet 7 so many unsure answers on it.

    I was really sad about the whole thing. And since then, I've 8 that in English, writing grammar is quite different from spoken grammar. My father had been trying to tell me the important role grammar plays in learning English. Well, it's 9 too late to learn anything, including ENGLISH! So, I started to work on my grammar skills, and thanks to that bad 10, I really learned a lot from it! Now, I'm still on my journey of learning grammar, and I am enjoying it.

    Giraffes are beautiful, smart and friendly. They have long legs and necks (脖子). They are so tall that they can grow up over 5 meters (米). So how do they sleep or drink?

    You may think it's difficult for them to sleep, but they have no such problems because giraffes don't often stop for a sleep. Giraffes just need to sleep about thirty minutes a day. When they sleep, they don't always lie down (躺下). They usually sleep for minutes at a time, because it's difficult for them to get up again. And it's a great danger to sleep in the wild (荒野). But the giraffes in the zoo sleep for about 4-6 hours every day. They usually lie down when they sleep.

    Drinking water is a big problem for giraffes because their long necks are too "short". To drink water, they must spread (伸展) their front legs in a difficult way. And in this way, other animals like Africa's big cats can easily hunt (猎食) them. So they usually get most of their water from the trees and flowers. Giraffes don't need to drink water very often. They can even drink no water for months!

When I was about ten, I was woken up by the shouts（喊声）of my sister one morning. She was hungry, but my mother wasn't at home, so I made a banana cake for her. Let me share the recipe with you.

What you need:

2 eggs  3 bananas  2 cups of flour(面粉)

2 spoons of baking powder(发酵粉)

1/4 spoon of baking soda (小苏打)

1/2 spoon of salt

2/3 cup of sugar

1/3 cup of vegetable oil(油)

What to do:

l  Mix(混合) together the flour, baking powder, baking soda and salt in a large bowl.

l  Add the vegetable oil. Then add a little sugar, and stir (搅拌) it.

l  Pour the eggs into the bowl and stir them well.

l  Add the bananas and stir them.

l  Turn the oven to 180℃.

l  Pour them into the oven（烤箱）. Bake（烘焙） the cake for 20 minutes.

l  Get the cake out of the oven, and cut it into pieces to eat.

Some people are very careful about everything they do. On the other hand, some people, especially teens, do things without thinking too much about the results. Why is this? 

Anna, a psychologist uses computer games to find out why some people are more likely to take risks. In one game, players are asked to click(点击) on a balloon on a computer screen. Every time they click, the balloon gets bigger. The bigger the balloon is, the larger the prize will be. But if the balloon gets too big, it'll be broken and the player will get nothing. 

Anna found that when teens played this game, a part of their brain called the striatum (纹状体) would become more active. It makes teens want to win. Another part of the brain, the prefrontal cortex (前额皮质), helps them control their decision-making process. 

It turns out that young people have more striatums and less prefrontal cortexes, which affects their ability to make careful decisions. You might have already guessed that teens break more balloons during the game than adults – mainly because they like to take risks more and don't take the time to think carefully. 

"The teen brain is like a car with a very strong engine, " Anna said. "Its brakes (刹 车) just don't work as well. "

A..Have the willingness to change an opinion in the face of better data. 

B.Reading is a good way to stay open-minded.

C.A system can be measured,refined,and optimized.

D.The better we get at writing the better we get at thinking. 

E. Argue with yourself.

F.They only make a conclusion once they have studied a topic in depth.

There is no quick hack to becoming a critical thinker but there are some habits that one can build to after their character in the right direction.

● Read a lot and read widely

{#blank#}1{#/blank#} Well read people understand that there are different ways to look at a problem and different lenses with which to view the world.

● Don't jump to conclusions

A good critical thinker has built up the habit of not jumping to conclusions especially when there is no data.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

● Create systems,not goals

For example,creating a system habit that promotes writing every day is more effective than setting the goal of writing an essay a week. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.A goal only focuses on the outputs.

●{#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Great thinkers routinely and intelligently try to counter their own arguments.They go back and forth until only the most rational and strongest argument exists based on the knowledge they have.

● Write

Writing is thinking. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.Writing also helps us separate what we actually know from what we think we know.