A lovely rabbit, a cute hamster, some colourful fish, a strange-looking turtle or a snake...What kind of pet would you like? Lots of kids love animals and dream of having a pet.

    But not every family can have a pet. So, in many Western countries such as America, Britain and Australia, primary and middle school classes have their own pets. Looking after a pet is not as easy as you may think! Fish and turtles need clean water and the right food. Hamsters and rabbits need fresh vegetables and a warm place to sleep. Even little mice need good care! What would you feed a pet mouse? How about snakes?

    Class pets teach kids about nature and being responsible. Sometimes the pets have babies. It's very exciting but it also means having more animals to take care of!

    Students take turns to take care of their class pets. Every week the pets have a new “mum and dad” to look after them.

    You may want to know what happens to the class pets during school holidays. At the end of term, the teacher chooses a responsible student. This lucky student keeps the pets at his or her home for the holidays.

    Notes:

1) hamster n. 仓鼠   2) turtle n. 乌龟   3) responsible adj. 负责任的   4) choose v. 选择

Nowadays in school life, a lot of students develop a fear of tests. It's not because tests are something to be afraid of. Most students are afraid of tests mainly because they don't always think they are well—prepared and they don't have enough self—confidence. If you follow the advice below, it's not difficult to overcome your fear of tests.

People who know that they are not well—prepared are usually those who fear tests most. However, most students don't know when they are truly prepared for a test. As long as you know that you have studied well and long enough, you have reason to believe that you are well—prepared.

Be confident about yourself. Confidence before a test can bring about two results: either you fail the test and feel as if your confidence was unfounded (毫无根据的) or you could actually do well in the test because of your confidence. Some students find that they experience the first result. However, this is only because those students might not have followed the first advice mentioned above. As long as you have studied well, you will be more confident of your chance to succeed in a test. If you feel as if you have not studied hard enough, then you will not be as confident as you should be.

Ask your teacher in advance (提前) about the material that is going to be covered in the test. In this way, you will know what you should prepare for and you can get confidence in the test. But you have to be brave enough to ask. Most students do not ask unless their teacher gives the information first, so make sure that you ask.

You should know that tests are only telling if you have got the knowledge, not how good or bad your IQ is. So, even if you do badly in one test, you should know that there are other tests to come. As long as you think that there is another tomorrow, you can overcome your fear of a test. However, make sure that you are going to prepare well for the other tests.

Fear can be a problem in the process of achieving success. However, with the right attitude (态度) and preparations, you can overcome your fear of tests by using these suggestions.

With only one yuan, could you live in a city for one day? It may sound impossible.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

On April 10th, more than 60 students from a middle school took part in the One Yuan Metropolis Survival(一元城市生存). A charity organization(慈善组织) for teenagers held this activity.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} And it is going to four others, including Beijing.

In the activity, students had to live and deal with difficult tasks. To make money, many students looked for part-time jobs and saw how hard life was. A 14-year-old girl asked more than 10 restaurants for a job and finally got one. "{#blank#}3{#/blank#} But gradually, we got used to it," she said. After being a waiter for an hour, she got 25 yuan.

Living was hard, but finishing the tasks wasn't any easier. The students went to different places to finish tasks in a short time. The most amazing one was when they had to exchange things worth a thousand yuan with only a piece of paper in half an hour. "{#blank#}4{#/blank#} From a balloon to a cake to a bottle of yogurt...after almost 20 tries, we got an expensive ring," a student said. "We will give all of the money we have raised to poor schools in Tibet."

Now students' English handwriting（书法）gets worse and worse. That makes their teachers feel worried. Is your English handwriting beautiful? If not, here are four steps that really work!

u  Using paper with lines (线条)

Using paper with lines can keep you writing straight when you write English words or sentences. Those lines on the paper can help you to write words in the right size.

u  Slow down

If your writing is hard to read, try slowing down a little. For some kids, going slower makes the handwriting clear. If you write too fast, it's hard for you to stop where you should, and even worse, you may make more mistakes.

u  Hold your pencil right

When you hold your pencil the correct way, writing is much easier. Try to be relaxed and don't hold the pencil so hard while writing, and then it makes your handwriting nice and clean. If you do so, people will think you are a student with a good habit.

u  Draw more pictures

Drawing can improve your handwriting. You need to use the skills to control(控制) your pencil better when you are drawing pictures. If you have no time for drawing at school, you can practice it at home.

Some have good handwriting and some don't. Anyway, handwriting is very important. You need to take time to improve it.

    Schools in the UK are quite different from those in China. In the UK, at the beginning of the term, students must select their courses and teachers first.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#} So in the first term, don't select too many courses, or you'll feel nervous and it may influence your study. Then you have to ask for some teaching plans. There is some information about subjects, time arranging, marks and textbooks. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Different teachers have different teaching methods.

    If the teacher is called "killer" by the last grade, many students will give up choosing him, because this kind of teacher will leave too much homework, give too many exams and too low grades.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} How to buy textbooks makes each student feel hard. The textbooks in the UK are very expensive. Each copy is about $30 -50. In order to save money, many students buy some used textbooks. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    In class, discussing is very important. The teachers always encourage you to ask questions or show your own opinions freely. They don't usually ask you to sit well. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They usually don't give you much homework to do. So in the schools in the UK you can learn knowledge and do exercises by yourself. You must do almost all things independently.

A. And some students usually borrow textbooks from the school library.

B. At the same time, you must select the teachers.

C. Selecting is very important for your grades in the UK.

D. Instead, they allow you to sit or stand everywhere you like.

E. There is another thing after you select the courses and the teachers.

    There are some skills for students to listen to the teachers in class, which means you're going to have to practice them. Just as you would have to practice basketball to be a better player, you also have to practice listening. How to listen in school? {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    One of the things you'll need to do is to make sure that your mind doesn't wander(漫游). It's easy to start thinking about other things, especially when you are not interested in the subject. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}

   Next, listen for the main ideas. If you want to catch every little piece of information, you'll feel tired and bored. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Not only does this show respect to the teacher, it also helps prevent your mind from wandering. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}Or it could just be someone talking to their neighbors who shouldn't be, it can even be some birds outside the classroom window, or a group of kids who are talking loudly as they pass the door to your room.

    Finally, you need to take notes because you will not remember everything the teacher said. You'll have to take down the notes so that you can study it after class. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

    Listening isn't always easy, but if you follow these simple steps, you'll be much more successful in your classes.