According to a new American study, having dinner with children may help to reduce (减少) the number of problems that develop in parent—child communication. The1was done among about 5, 000 middle school students in Chicago public schools.

    The students were studied at the beginning and the end of the sixth grade and again at the end of the seventh and the eighth grade. They were asked2they ate dinner with their parents. They were 3 asked how often their parents had a conversation(谈话)with them that lasted more than 104, praised(表扬) them when they did well, asked them where they were going and asked how they were doing in school. The study5the more parent—child communication, the6problems between them.

    Family meals are a good opportunity to7in touch with children, said Jayne Fulkerson, a member of the study team. "You can get to know8going on in their life better."

    However, Fulkerson also suggested that parents9suitable(合适的) topics(话题). Topics10grades and homework are not good choice.

Car pool(拼车)

    "Beep, beep," goes the car horn(喇叭).You've got dressed，but you've not had time to eat breakfast. You run out of the front door with your schoolbag, and jump into the waiting car. Inside, your Friends say "hey" as one of their parents drives you to school. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} 

    Car pools are a common way of transportation for many students in the US. You, along with many of your friends, can sit in one car.{#blank#}2{#/blank#} And your parents may take turns to drive you all to school {#blank#}3{#/blank#}  If you're late, you can eat that breakfast you don't have time for at home. If you're behind on your homework. this is your last chance to finish it before class. Some simply add to their sleep time before classes begin.

    Besides walking or cycling to class, car pools are green if you can't take the school bus. Instead of four cars taking four students to school each day, they can all squeeze (挤) into one. {#blank#}4{#/blank#} 

More importantly, car pooling teaches students valuable life lessons not taught in class. It can teach students about being on time. It can also teach them the bad influence of being late. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} 

    There are many ways for us to reduce waste. For example, we can reuse paper and plastic bags. We can also recycle newspapers, glass, and cans (易拉罐) make new things. Here are some useful ways to reduce waste.

    ◆Write on both sides of paper. Many people write on only one side of their paper. Why not stop wasting the other side? Some students only use half the pages of their notebooks before getting new ones. Try to use up all the paper. People often give cards on birthdays or festivals. How about trying to send e-cards instead?

    ◆Don' t throw away your old batteries. Maybe you do not know that old batteries make the Earth dirty. This is because they have poisonous parts. So, don't throw away batteries. Keep them together. Try to use rechargeable (可充电的) batteries for your game machines and CD players.

    ◆Donate (捐赠) all your unwanted clothes. There are many poor families in China, You may ask your mother to collect your unwanted clothes. Then you can pass them on to those poor children who do not have clothes to wear. You will feel happy that you are helping someone else. Also, you can ask if your friends or relatives want them before throwing them away.

Henry. I have a dog! She's yellow and white and her {#blank#}1{#/blank#} is Amy. She is only five months old, but she is cute. She likes playing {#blank#}2{#/blank#} me and she also likes playing with the hall. She is friendly to us and all of my family {#blank#}3{#/blank#} her. Oh! Her favorite {#blank#}4{#/blank#} is apples. I think she's {#blank#}5{#/blank#}. Do you think so?

Every person has his birthday. People in different countries spend their birthdays in different ways. Here are four people from different countries. They are talking about how they usually spend their birthdays in their countries.

Jack comes from Spain. "My twenty-first birthday is on a Saturday , " he says. " I'm going out with my friends. To wish me a happy birthday, they will pull on my ear twenty-one times, once for each year. It's an old habit. Some people pull on the ear just once, but my friends are very strict! "

Mr. Sato is from Japan. He's going to be sixty tomorrow." In my country, people call the sixtieth birthday Kanreki, " he says. " It's the start of a new life. The color red is for a new life, so they always have something red for the sixtieth birthday. "

Phillip, from France, smiles and says, "I'm going to be thirty next week, so I want to ask three very good friends out to have dinner. In France, when you have birthday, you often ask people out with you. In some countries, I know it's opposite- people usually take you out. "

Li Xiao is a Chinese girl from Beijing. She is happy and tells us, " Tomorrow is my sixteenth birthday. It's a special day. So we're going to have a family party. l can get some money in lucky envelopes(信封)from my family. My mother will cook noodles that are for a long life. "

Have you ever heard the word "body image"？It means the way we see our own bodies and how we feel about them. Some people have a good body image﹣they know that while their bodies might not be perfect，they are still healthy and happy. 

But many others，especially women，have a "broken" view of their bodies. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}

{#blank#}2{#/blank#}I often see them complain about their weight，even though they are already in good shape. I want to tell them to stop worrying and complaining（抱怨），but It's not my place to do that. This phenomenon（现象） has been a problem in the US and other countries for many years. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}Some of you may remember the "A4 challenge" of

2016. Women put pictures online，comparing their waist to the width of a piece of A4 printing paper. A4 paper is only 20cm wide. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

Unluckily，society and the media will probably always promote（提倡） these kinds of strict beauty ideals. But one thing to remember is that as long as you are not very thin or overweight，you are probably in good health. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}