Never try to work when you are very hungry. If you decided to do your homework right after school, you may get something to eat before getting to work. Always do your homework before you get too tired. Don't wait until very late in everything, or your work will seem much harder than it really is.

    If you have more than an hour's work, give yourself a break after an hour. On the other hand, don't break it up so much, or you can't finish anything, you should be able to work at least a half at a time without stopping.

    Don't put it off until the last minute. If you put off doing your homework, you will have it on your mind, and you will not enjoy your free time so much. If you put it off until the end of the week or until right before a test, you will have too much work to do. A little bit each night, enough to keep up with what is happening each day in school, will make you not afraid of the test and get good grades.

Do your homework at the same time every evening. This will help you make it a habit. It will make it easier to do, and it will make your free time more enjoyable, as well.

    People like to keep different animals such as dogs as pets. But cats are the most popular pets among Americans. So it is not surprising there are many expressions about cats. Do you know any of them? Now let me introduce some to you.

    Some cats like to catch small birds, like canaries. If someone looks very proud or pleased with himself, we say "he looks like the cat that ate the canary".

    Sometimes, a cat likes to play with a small animal it catches. So if you "play cat and mouse with someone", you keep him in a state (状态) of uncertain expectation. For example, a child might repeatedly give something sweet to her little brother, and then take it back when her brother is confused or relaxed.

    A cat will often catch a small animal and show it to its owner. The saying that "looks like something the cat dragged in(把……拖进来)" means something in bad condition.

    "A fat cat" is a person with a lot of money.

    There are many other expressions about cats in America. How interesting! Which kind of cat are you, or which kind would you like to be?

    In China, the 12th month of the lunar calendar(阴历) is called layue. The month is full of interesting festivals and customs.

    Laba Festival, which falls on the eighth clay of layue, is the first festival in this month. From this day on, people begin Io get ready for the Chinese New Year. On Laba Festival, people eat hot Laba porridge.

    There are usually eight things in the porridge: rice, red beans, peas, dried lotus seeds (莲子), dates(红枣), and three dill)rent kinds of fruits and nuts. The porridge is not just good for your health, but a blessing(祝福) for the coming of Chinese New Year.

    Laha porridge is not the only tasty food in layue. Laba garlic (腊八蒜) is popular in the north. People begin to soak garlic in vinegar from that day on, and eat it with dumplings during the Chinese New Year. While in the south, people like making sausages.

    Another major celebration before Spring Festival is xiaonian. It is usually on the 23rd or 24th day of the last lunar month. Traditionally it is an important occasion when people offer sacrifices (祭品) to the Kitchen God who looks after the family.

    Don't forget to clean your home. This is also an important thing to do to prepare for the Chinese New Year.  It means sweeping away the dust of the old year and welcoming a fresh start. Now, the last thing for you to do is to wait for the coming Spring Festival.

    Can you speak English? Maybe you know a lot of English words. You can read, speak and understand English, but there is another kind of language—the language of the body. All over the world, people "talk" with their hands，their heads and their eyes. When Japanese people meet, they bow. When Indians meet, they put their hands together. When British and American people meet someone for the first time, they shake hands. They do not usually shake hands with their friends. Women sometimes kiss their women friends, and men kiss women friends on the cheek(脸颊). When a man meets a man friend, he just smiles, and says "hello". Men do not kiss each other, or hold hands. Even fathers and sons do not often kiss each other.

    How funny would it be to see memes(表情包) in our textbooks? Fourteen high school students from Sichuan Province have made this a reality.

    They wrote a set of creative textbooks that includes five subjects: Chinese, English, Maths, Chemistry and Physics. They share their notes and experiences to help you prepare for high school entrance exams. You can see funny memes almost everywhere in their textbooks. The language they use is not too serious.

    Each textbook has its own highlights(亮点), too. The English textbook introduces tongue twisters(绕口令), movies and TV series. The chemistry textbook has wuxia characters. There is a boy named Shangguan Huaxue(chemistry) in the book. He meets a girl and they learn chemistry together. It has ancient poems and wuxia-style descriptions.

    Yan Zuhuai, 15, a top student from Chengdu No.7 High School, is the textbooks' editor-in-chef. He got the idea to create the books in June. "Many underclassmen wanted me to share my notes with them. When I saw people sharing bikes, I thought, why not share knowledge as well?" Yan said.

    But when he put all of his notes together, he found that they were boring. Realizing that his classmates enjoy online novels and memes, he decided to add these things. He wrote guidelines and samples for each textbook and invited 13 students to join him in creating them.

    Their first drafts(草稿) came out in August. Students and teachers praised them. But Yan felt the books needed to be improve. In October, he and his team learned how to use the design software to improve the books. The final version(版本) will come out at the end of December. About 2,500 people have preordered them. Many publishing houses have shown great interest in them.