In many countries, it is important to have many children In the US, a few religious groups emphasize the importance of large families, but most people think one or two children are enough, and many couples have no children. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Having many children would restrict the freedom and individualism of the parents as well as the other children in the family.

    Parents teach individualism by the way they raise their children {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Parents begin teaching this self-reliance early, asking the child to do things on her own and praising her when she does.

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#} They bring their children with them to church, to sporting events, to stores, and to social events. However, many places, such as expensive restaurants and live theatre productions, do not welcome children. Most formal social gatherings those with written invitations do not welcome children either.

    Children，especially boys are expected to be energetic and assertive(果敢的).

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} Parents are expected to keep their children under control at all times, particularly in public places and in the homes of others. When a child misbehaves only the child's patents may discipline him. {#blank#}5{#/blank#} Most patents discipline their children by rewarding good behaviors, not by punishing bad behaviors. while a spanking，a slap to the child's buttocks(屁股), is acceptable to some people, any punishment that wounds the child or leaves a mark is considered child abuse and is against the law.

A. The relationship between American parents and their children is harmony

B. That doesn't mean, though, that they are allowed to “run wild” in public.

C. Because taking care of a child is very costly, financially, emotionally, and socially, many couples view large families as a disadvantage.

D. Others adults should not interfere (干涉) unless the child is doing something which may be harmful to himself

E. American children are expected to accept invitations to a formal party.

F. Many parents want to expose their children to a variety of situations.

G. They want to create a self-reliant, independent child, who can make it on her own by age eighteen.

My decision to travel around China lay merely with my curiosity about the place. Before coming here, China seemed alien to me —-a place that expected to be hugely dissimilar from my own British culture.

After travelling from Beijing up to Xi'an, I wanted to challenge myself by choosing a smaller town—-Xiahe in Gansu Province. I arrived in Lanzhou at around 5 am, but there were no buses to Xiahe. I managed to spot a policeman and attempted to explain my destination to him in simple English, praying that he would understand. I wasn't sure that he did but I just followed him anyway as I had no choice. He took me on a bus and I didn't know where I was going. Luckily, I met a student who explained to me in English that the policeman was taking me to another bus station where I could take a bus to Xiahe. During this conversation a third man said he was also a policeman and would help me buy tickets. But as he was not in uniform, I was a little doubtful. The uniformed policeman told me it was OK to go with the third man, so I got off the bus with the so-called policeman who at this point, disappeared and I was left in the middle of nowhere. I stood panicking. Around one minute later a police car came and stopped right by me. It was the un-uniformed policeman. I got into the car and he dropped me directly at the bus station, and helped me buy the ticket.

    This is one of many experiences that I have had in China. I realized that however different this culture was, there was one thing that would always stand out—kindness. In the west we seem to lack the foundation of trust, yet in China it seems that there will always be someone to answer your questions and lead you the right way.

    I was never very neat, while my roommate Kate was extremely organized. Each of her objects had its place, but mine always hid somewhere. She even labeled（贴标签）everything. I always looked for everything. Over time, Kate got neater and I got messier. She would push my dirty clothing over, and I would lay my books on her tidy desk. We both got tired of each other.

    War broke out one evening. Kate came into the room. Soon, I heard her screaming. "Take your shoes away! Why under my bed!" Deafened, I saw my shoes flying at me. I jumped to my feet and started yelling. She yelled back louder.

    The room was filled with anger. We could not have stayed together for a single minute but for a phone call. Kate answered it. From her end of the conversation, I could tell right away her grandma was seriously ill. When she hung up, she quickly crawled（爬）under her covers, sobbing. Obviously, that was something she should not go through alone. All of a sudden, a warm feeling of sympathy rose up in my heart.

    Slowly, I collected the pencils, took back the books, made my bed, cleaned the socks and swept the floor, even on her side. I got so into my work that I even didn't notice Kate had sat up. She was watching, her tears dried and her expression one of disbelief. Then, she reached out her hands to grasp mine. I looked up into her eyes. She smiled at me, "Thanks."

    Kate and I stayed roommates for the rest of the year. We didn't always agree, but we learned the key to living together: giving in, cleaning up and holding on.

    The world's first luxury space hotel, Aurora Station, was announced Thursday at the Space 2.0 Summit in San Jose, California. Developed by US-based space technology start-up Orion Span, the space station will host six people at a time, including two crew members, for 12-day trips of space travel. It plans to welcome its first guests in 2022.

    "Our goal is to make space accessible to all," Frank Bunger, CEO and founder of Orion Span, said in a statement." Upon launch, Aurora Station goes into service immediately, bringing travelers into space quickly and at a lower price point than ever seen before."

    While a$10 million trip is outside the budget of most people's two-week vacations, Orion Span claims to offer an authentic astronaut experience. "It has taken what was historically a 24-month training to prepare travelers to visit a space station and streamlined(精简)it to three months, at a fraction(小部分)of the cost," says Bunger. During their 12-day adventure, the super-rich travelers will fly at a height of 200 miles above the Earth's surface in Low Earth Orbit, where they will witness incredible views of the blue planet. The hotel will orbit Earth every 90 minutes, which means guests will see around 16 sunrises and sunsets every 24 hours.

    Activities on board include taking part in research experiments such as growing food while in orbit, which guests can take home for a super-smug souvenir, and soaring over their hometown. Guests can have-live-video chats with their less-fortunate loved ones back home via high-speed wireless Internet access and, upon(return to Earth will be greeted with a specially arranged hero's welcome. While enjoying the thrills of zero gravity, the travelers will be able to float freely through the hotel, taking in views of the northern and southern aurora from the station's windows.   Deposits are already being accepted for future stays on the space hotel.

    On a recent afternoon, some 60 years after they graduated from grammar school, Kathleen Rys, 72, and her sister Lorraine O'Kelly, 70, sat down and had a meal with a classmate, Bruce Smit, 71 for the first time.

    In the 1950s, Lorraine and Kathleen Rys' family moved from Chicago to Monee. As new kids at Monee Elementary School, they soon found themselves on the outs with other students.

    "I would be with the other guys and see Kathleen walking down the hallway, her head down, holding her books, walking slowly. And all of us guys would be flat against the wall until she passed. Then we'd burst into laughter. How rude is that? It's just crazy." said Smit, a doctor whose wife, Tammy, organized the meeting.

    The women said none of the teachers cared about it. "We just kept it to ourselves. " Lorraine said.

    Over the years, Tammy Smit said, "Bruce would just start to cry at times. He'd wonder what happened to the sisters, if they landed OK." One day a few weeks ago, Tammy took to the internet and found Mary O'Kelly, Lorraine's daughter, and offered to set up a meeting. The idea of revisiting the pain was not well- received by Kathleen, who had never married, let alone gone on a date. It took some convincing, but Lorraine finally got Kathleen to agree to meet with Bruce.

    Bruce broke into tears. "I'm so ashamed, so embarrassed," he said. "But I'm so happy you're still here and that I can finally apologize. " He said he hopes his apology will encourage others to seek forgiveness for the pain they make on others. Lorraine said, "This is a beautiful thing. It's just wonderful that a person from 60 years ago can ask for forgiveness. It's like a miracle to us. It's a healing to us."

    Plants are living things. So can they feel pain? Plants don't feel pain the same way animals and people do, says Anke Steppuhn. She is a scientist at the Free University of Berlin in Germany. "What we define as pain usually has to do with a nervous system," Steppuhn explains. When you put your hand too close to a hot stove, nerve cells send a signal to your brain. Your brain decodes (解码) that signal as pain. This causes you to pull your hand away before any serious damage is done.

    Plants don't have nerves or brains, so they can't feel pain like we do. "But plants do recognize when something is hurting them," Steppuhn says. Because they are rooted to the ground, they can't escape a dangerous situation. So they need other ways of fighting back.

    The biggest threat to a plant's life is getting eaten. Some plants grow sharp little hairs. Other plants produce bad-tasting or even harmful chemicals. These force an attacker to abandon its meal. A plant called bittersweet nightshade does something even smarter, Steppuhn found. When a slug (蛞蝓) chews holes in a nightshade' s leaf, liquid begins dripping (滴) around the wound. It is almost as if the plant were bleeding. The liquid is sugary nectar (花蜜), and it happens to be a favorite food of ants. In their effort to collect the nectar, the ants swarm (蜂拥而至) all over the injured plant. They will attack anything that stands in their way. That includes the slug that damaged the plant in the first place. It's a very clever trick. Whenever a slug attacks a plant, the plant calls an army of ants to kill the slug.

    Nectar isn't the only way plants attract bodyguards. They also release certain chemicals into the air when they are being eaten. People usually can't detect these smells. But wasps (黄蜂) can. When a wasp detects this cry for help, it races to the scene of the crime. If it finds the right kind of insect chewing down on the plant, the wasp will interrupt the attacker's meal. It will do this by laying eggs inside the insect's body!