This week we asked students at New Star High School about the best ways to learn more English. Some said they learnt by using English. Some students had more specific suggestions.

      Lillian Li said the best way to learn new words was reading English magazines. She said that she never studied grammar. She thought it was too boring.

      Wei Ming felt differently. He has been learning English for six years and really loves it. He thought studying grammar was a great way to learn a language. He also thought that watching English movies was a good way to watch the actors say the words.

      Liu Chang said that joining the English Club at school was the best way to improve her English. Students got lots of practice and they also had fun.

    My mother used to say things just to make me mad。 Like most teenagers, I thought I knew everything. And what I didn't know, I didn't want to be told. For example, if I said I was going to a movie, my mother would roll her eyes. On my way out, she'd shout, “You need to slow yourself down before something bad happens! You don't want to learn that the hard way!” I didn't know what that meant. I thought she just wanted me to stay at home.

    Many years later I had three teenagers of my own. They thought they knew everything. I would say the same things to them like my mom. That's when I first saw it. My mother wasn't trying to help me.

    Why do we always have to learn things “the hard way”? Why can't we just accept our elders' wisdom? It's a good lesson for anyone. Clearly, I still haven't learned it.

    Yesterday, I stepped out of the shower when I heard my cell phone ringing in the kitchen. Grabbing a towel, I ran through the house. I grabbed the phone and hit my left foot against the table. The X-ray showed that I'd broken two toes.

    We all need to slow ourselves down once in a while, before something bad does it for us. My mother was right about a lot of things. I wish I could have told her.

    Children know that summer is probably the most fun of all seasons. However, experts say it is also the most dangerous, especially, for children aged 14 and under. In its first study of children's safety in the US, the National Safe Kids Campaign(NSKC) founds that nearly half of the injury-related(与受伤相关的) deaths among children happened in summer.

    Experts are not surprised by the study's results. They always know summer is a dangerous season for children. During the summer, children are out of the school and spend more time outdoors. They are more likely to get into an accident or be injured. “While we encourage children to be active and spend more time outdoors, they need to understand the importance of safety,” said Everett Koop, an expert of the NSKC.

    To help children say safe, the NSKC started a “Make it a Safe Kids Summer” campaign during National Safe Kids Week, from May 5 through May 12. Here are some important summer safety tips from the NSKC:

    Always wear your seat belt.

    Make sure there is an adult around when you decide to go swimming.

    Wear a life jacket when on a boat or doing water sports.

    Obey all traffic rules.

( B )

    These days, "What do you want to do when you grow up?" is the wrong question to ask children in the USA. The question should be: "What job are you doing now？"American companies are employing more and more young people as consultants(顾问)to evaluate(评估)products for child consumers. The 12-to-19 age group spends more than $100 billion a year in the USA. Specialist agencies help manufacturers ask kids about all the latest trends in clothes, food and other markets. One company, Teenage Research Unlimited, has groups of teenagers who give their decisions on products like jeans. Another company, Doyle Research Associated, holds two-hour meetings in a room called the "imaginarium". Children are encouraged to play games to get into a creative mood. They have to write down any ideas which come into their heads.

    Some manufacturers prefer to do their own market research. The software company Microsoft runs a weekly "Kid's Council" at its headquarter in Seattle, where a group of school children give their decision on the latest products and suggest new ones. They are called young consultants. One 11-yearold consultant, Andrew Cooledge, told them they should make more computer games which are suitable for both boys and girls. Payments for the work are increasingly attractive, Andrew Cooledge was paid$250 and given some software. However, even if their ideas are valuable, the children will never make money. They cannot have the copyright to their ideas.