Teenagers growing pains

    Today, our students are facing many different problems and they want to ask some experts for help. Nancy says she feel stressed these days because of too much homework. She hasn't enough time to sleep for a long time and often falls asleep during the classes. John says he doesn't like to study because of the bad effect of computer games. Cindy says she gets fat because she likes to eat junk food and hardly ever takes exercise. Frank has the worst problem. He always fights with others as he doesn't know how to get on well with others and few of his classmates would like to talk with him.

C

    Waste can be seen everywhere in the school. Some students ask for more food than they can eat and others often forget to turn off the lights when they leave the classroom. They say they can afford these things. But I don't agree with them.

    Waste can bring a lot of problems. Although China is rich in some resources, we are short of others, for example, fresh water. It is reported that we will have no coal or oil to use in 100 years. So if we go on wasting our resources, what can we use in the future and where can we move? Think about it. I think we should say no to the students who waste things every day. Everybody should stop wasting as soon as possible.

    In our everyday life, we can do many things to prevent waste from happening, for example, turn off the water taps when we finish washing, turn off the lights when we leave the classroom, try not to order more food than we need, and so on. Little by little, everything will be changed. Waste can be stopped one day, if we do our best.

    Jack London was born in San Francisco in 1876. Life was hard when Jack was growing up and he started working when he was 10. He did lots of different jobs. In his free time he went to the library and he spent many hours there, reading. In 1894 he went back to school, and published his first short story Typhoon, off the Coast of Japan. Then in 1896 he went to the University of California at Berkeley, but he had to leave because of money problems.

    In 1897 he left for the Klondike Gold Rush in Alaska. However, he became ill and came home and started working as a full-time writer. He wrote short stories and soon he was well-known. In 1903 he wrote his most famous story: The Call of the Wild.  His next novel was The Sea-Wolf (1904) which is perhaps his best literary novel.  With the earnings he bought a large farm in Califonua, where he died in 1916, aged only 40 years old.

    London was a prolific writer in his short life.  Between 1905 and 1916 he published 18 novels and six collections of stories, as well as a play, various works of non-fiction and a biography.  He is best-known for his descriptions of nature and the animal world.

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    Andy was still traveling in Spain when he realized he had to confirm (确认) his     home with the airline company. He was visiting Spain in order to improve his Spanish. When he was speaking to people face to face, he had no difficulty understanding what they said. However, when he was speaking on the phone, he still had a problem. Andy called the airline. And the clerk confirmed that his plane was leaving at nine o'clock three days from that day. She also told Andy to be at the airport a little earlier in order to check in his luggage and get a seat.

    Since he was leaving in three days, Andy didn't lose any time. He visited as many places as he could. He thought that it would probably be a while before he had enough money again. He wished he could come back and spend a year in Spain.

    Too quickly, the final day arrived. Andy left early for the airport before take-off. He hated to rush. When he went to the clerk to show his ticket, the clerk looked at the ticket in surprise, "Why, sir, but your flight was at nine o'clock in the morning, and now it is eight in the evening." "But I confirmed my flight," insisted Andy. "Will I have to pay for another ticket?"

    "No, Sir. However, the next flight out will be three days from now."

    Andy's      of shock turned to smile as he realized that now he could go on with his vacation.