Do you like drinking coke, coffee, juice or milk? Do you often drink them instead of water? However, of all the things we eat and drink, water is the most important. Not all of us understand this but it is quite true. Human body can go without food for a long time, but two or three days without water usually makes people die.

    Many people do not understand how much water the human body needs to work well. What is true is that many people do not drink enough, especially in hot weather. Most people drink only when they are thirsty but often need more water after they take exercise.

    Does anyone know what is the 65%-75% of human body? It is water. If we do not have enough water, we will feel tired and become ill. So, do you know what the best drink is? It's water.

    How many men do housework? Recently a European commission(委员会) tried to find out people's ideas about it .They made a survey. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The men answered very differently from the women!

    The housework they asked people about was: preparing meals, washing dishes, cleaning the house and babysitting. 48% of British husbands said they did these things. 37% of Danish(丹麦的) men helped in the house. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} The Italian and British men did not tell the truth! The Commission found that Danish men were the most truthful (诚信的）husbands; {#blank#}3{#/blank#}.

Do the men you know help in the house? {#blank#}4{#/blank#} ?  Do you want to know Chinese men help with housework? {#blank#}5{#/blank#}.

C

    To me, music is food and water. I know this isn't right for everyone. Usually lots of people go to concerts or listen to music records. Maybe some of you don't do these, but music is everywhere in our life. For example, when you watch movies or TV plays, we will find them boring if there's no music. And when you're waiting for the train or the plane, some music can make the time short.

    Some people like to listen to the sound of the sea. Some enjoy listen to the singing of birds. Those sounds are some kind of music. So music has meaning for everyone. Of course, it has special meaning for people like me. We spend our lives playing or writing music.

    Someone said, “Through music a child goes into a world of beauty(美丽), learns to take care of others and makes his mind and body healthy.”

ERIC'S PAST LIFE

Hi Ben,

    I was talking to my mom yesterday about when I was a baby. I remember lots of things about when I was small. I don't remember much about when I was a tiny baby.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}. I haven't always lived in LA. I was born near Des Moines, Iowa.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} . We lived with my grandpar—ents on their farm. It was in the middle of wheat fields. We moved to LA when my dad change jobs. I was eight years old. So my first school was in Des Moines, Iowa.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}. I had to stand on the road by our farm at 7 am and wait. If the bus was late, I waited for the bus.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}! If I was sick, someone went down to the road to tell the driver I wasn't coming. A lot of the students came from farms.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}, and we also played happily with brothers and sisters. We soon made friends. It was good to be with kids of our own age. My best friend was Sam. He was very naughty! Were you naughty at school?

Eric

A.I had to catch the bus to school

B.But my mom has told me about that

C.It's a small farming town in America

D.If I was late,the bus driver waited for me

E.So we all spent a lot of time on our own farms

    When it comes to the letter grade on your test or homework, you might notice that there is no letter E. Have you ever thought about why that is so?

    In the A, B, C, D and F grading system, the first four letters are typically considered passing grades. An F in this system simply stands for“fail”.The word“fail”happens to start with the letter F, which seems to leave out the letter E. The fact”．Some schools have U grade for“unsatisfactory”,or I grade for “incomplete”.

    Even with all this said, we should also point out that E grade actually has been used pretty commonly throughout the history of letter grades in the US.

    The first college in the US to use a letter grading system like the ones we use today is Mount Holyoke College. In 1897, they began to use the following grading scale:

A: 95-100%(excellent)       B: 85-94%(good)      C: 76-84%(fair)

D: 75%(barely passed)       E: below 75%(failed)

    We can see the inclusion of E instead of F.

    Gradually,the letter grading system became more popular throughout the US. However, many schools decided to drop the E grade and go straight to F.There is no evidence(证据) to really support this, but one possible explanation is that teachers were worried that some students and parents might mistake E for “excellent”.

    Why do we have letter grades? Well, part of the reason is that they made grading simpler during a time of great change for schools. As the 20th century began,growing cities and an increase in immigration led to larger school classrooms. Most teachers at that time thought this new letter grading system was an easy, fair and clear way to grade students.

    Today, more and more people argue that letter grades don't fully reflect(反映) student learning. However，as teachers try to improve grading methods, many parents continue to favor the letter grades they got as kids, they are familiar(熟悉) and easy for parents to understand. So while they might not be perfect, the letter grades probably aren't going away any time soon.

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