“He who bears the greatest hardship becomes the greatest man.” This idiom shows Chinese people's traditional belief in the vital role that hardship plays in a person's life as they grow up. But today, as our lives have greatly improved, do we still need this so-called “hardship education”?

    “We definitely do.” said Wang Weiqiong, mother of a 15-year-old girl in Jiangxi. “Many children take everything for granted, as they've never known how difficult it is to make money.”

    Wang is not alone. According to a recent survey of 2,017 people done by China Youth Daily, 81.8 percent of the interviewees supported hardship education including experiencing life in poor areas, outdoor training, taking part-time jobs, and doing housework.

    Qiao Yu, from Tianjing Foreign Languages School, also supports the idea. “Hardship helps us grow and be prepared for the difficulties of society,” said the 18-year-old, who worked in a cake store this summer.

    But while it contributes to students' development, “hardship education shouldn't be seen as simply making students suffer,” Sun Yunxiao, deputy director of the China Youth and Children Research Center told China Youth Daily. “It should follow teenagers' growth” Sun said students could also do sports to learn to face difficulties, for doing sporting can greatly strengthen their bodies and minds.

【写作内容】

1). 以约30个词概括上文的主要内容。

2). 以约120个词发表你“对吃苦教育”的看法，内容包括：

（1.）你对“吃苦教育”概念的理解；

（2.）支持或反对对青少年进行“吃苦教育”，并给出2-3点理由。

【写作要求】

1). 可以参考阅读材料的内容，但不得直接引用原文中的句子；

2). 作文中不能出现真实姓名和学校名称；

3). 不必写标题。

【评分标准】

概括准确，语言规范，内容合适，语篇连贯

    Directions: Read the following passage. Answer the questions according to the information given in the passage.

    Kids and Ponds

    Years ago there was a group of kids who would hang around at some local ponds in the woods near their houses in Warwick, Rhode Island. In summer they caught frogs and fish. When winter arrived they couldn't wait to go skating. Time passed, and the ponds became the only open space for the kids to enjoy themselves in that neighborhood.

    One day. a thirteen-year-old boy from this group of kids read in the local newspaper that a developer wanted to fill in the ponds and build over a hundred small houses called condominiums. So the boy went door to door and gathered more than two hundred signatures (签名）to stop the development A group of citizens met and decided to support him.

    At the meeting of the town planning board (委员会)，the boy was quite nervous at first and spoke very softly. But when he saw the faces of his friends and neighbors in the crowd and thought about what was happening to their favorite ponds，his voice grew louder. He told the town officials that they should speak for the citizens. He also insisted that they should leave enough space for children. A few days later，the developer stopped his plan.

    Nine years later, when that teen was a senior in college, he was informed that the developer was back with his proposal to build condominiums. Now twenty-two years old, he was studying wetlands ecology. He again appeared before the town planning board. This time as an expert witness, he used environmental protection laws to explain restrictions on development in and around wetlands and the knowledge of wetlands ecology to help improve the development. Finally some condominiums were built, but less than half the number the developer wanted. The ponds where those kids used to hang around were protected by a strip of natural land，and are still there today.

    I watched from a distance as the homeless man quarreled with those who did not leave money for him – the majority.

    I walked up to him and right on queue he asked me for a quarter. "I'll give you a quarter if you tell me your story." He laughed, "You'll give me a quarter for my story?" I lay the quarter in front of him and corrected myself – "Nah, here's the quarter but it would be nice to hear your story." I followed his eyes to the quarter and for a brief moment I saw a bright reflection. I sat down next to him and waited.

    "I was in the army," he said. "I was a sniper(狙击手)and was supposed to shoot down the enemy from the distance." I listened carefully to his rough voice as he went deeper into the story.  He told me how he used to hunt with his family and was really good at it. He had his own way of respecting animals by not wasting what he killed for food and not killing more than he needed. When the army came knocking on his door, he felt pride and joined up. All those years of polishing his hunting skills could now serve a larger purpose—to defend us from the bad guys. He set out to fight in Iraq.

    It wasn't long before he realized his ideals and expectations were just a shadow of the truth. "I was a sniper but I never really killed anyone innocent," he said. "One day I had to do it. They asked me to shoot this lady from the distance. I saw kids near that lady and my hands were on the trigger (扳机). Man, I was tearing up ... I couldn't do it."

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2）应使用5个以上短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3）续写部分分为两段，每段的开头语已为你写好；

4）续写完成后，请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

"She wasn't doing anything to anyone and she was with the kids.

Paragraph 2:

    The story goes on as he describes eventually being put into prison for 180 days for refusing to follow orders.

    It was an Art lesson. Rachel sat at the desk watching her classmates busy preparing the water jars and paints. She understood why Mrs. Weston asked her to sit down and got Lisa to fetch everything for her. It was always a disaster when Rachel tried to do Art!

    Rachel sighed and reached out to dip her brush in some black paint and—oh, no! She knocked over the jar. The water spread across the desk and drowned the paper. Lisa called Mrs. Weston to see what Rachel had done. Rachel went red in the face. She jumped to her feet to get a cloth. Her chair fell over backwards. She turned round and her paintbrush caught Lisa across the face, giving her a black moustache. Lisa was so surprised that she fell back against a wire bookstand. It came crashing down and the books went all over the floor.

    How clumsy! Rachel thought as she went home on the bus. The bus stopped outside her house. She jumped up and her elbow (肘部)knocked a woman's hat right over her eyes. Oh, no! Rachel said sorry, got off and ran indoors. Mum wasn't in the kitchen but lay in bed as she caught an awful cold. Rachel offered to make a cup of tea but Mum would rather wait for Dad. Rachel sighed. She understood Mum was afraid she would spill (溅出)it.

    “But would you go to Mrs. Willow for some cold cure?” asked Mum. Rachel turned to the door at once.“But Rachel, Mrs. Willow's house is full of beautiful things, so if she asks you to come in, you'd better say no.” Rachel sighed and ran out.

    Mrs. Willow was an old lady with white hair and sharp blue eyes living in an old house. She opened the door and invited her in. Rachel said why she came and that she preferred to wait outside remembering her mother's warning. Mrs. Willow insisted Rachel come inside. Rachel took a deep breath and stepped in. She looked round Mrs. Willow's sitting room and saw at once why Mum had been worried.

注意：

1）所续写短文的词数应为150左右；

2）至少使用5个短文中标有下划线的关键词语；

3）续写部分分为两段,每段的开头语已为你写好；

4）续写完成后,请用下划线标出你所使用的关键词语。

Paragraph 1:

    There were beautiful things everywhere -pretty china figures and delicate vases.

Paragraph 2:

    With a smile, Mrs. Willow comforted her saying it had been broken before.

    The main benefit you get from studying abroad is independence. I feel great to know that you can manage on your own when necessary. This ability gives you more freedom as well as tolerance. After moving abroad you have to start a totally new life. Setting in a new environment is a big challenge for you, but you have to keep in mind that it is only a small part of studying abroad, and experiences like these can help you build your character and understand the world better.

    When I went abroad I knew that I had to find a job and learn to handle my money myself. I did not have a choice. I had to manage on my own. I found a job as a mail carrier for the local newspaper. Not all my co-students were as lucky as me in finding a job right away. You have to keep in mind that besides working you have to attend lectures and do your homework. Carrying mail was not always an easy job, but thanks to it, I got to know many nice people and saw the town and local people from a different view.

Besides looking for a job, I also had to find a place to live in and take care of everyday chores from cooking to doing laundry. When you have only begun with your independent life, this can be quite a challenge. You don't have experience, nor does anyone give a helping hand—you're on your own. So it might happen that the first potato you fry ending up darker than intended, but from that on you can only do better.

    All the trials you go through increase your independence, teach you a lesson and give you a wonderful experience to manage in difficult situations in the future. Learning in a new environment and taking full responsibility for yourself make your time abroad quite extraordinary.

    A recent UN report shows that many of us are working longer and harder than ever. In the past, employees worked eight or nine hours a day. Today, however, many companies expect their employees to work longer. In addition, the boundary between work and personal life has become less clear. If we are not working in the office, we might be working at home. We are required to be on call whenever our company needs us. In short, we are all working and having less time with family and friends.

    This over-emphasis (过分强调) on work can lead to serious problems in our personal lives. The more time we spend at work, the less time there is available for maintaining relationships with our friends and family. Many of us spend so much time on the job that we hardly ever get to see our partners or children. When we do get home, we are often tired and lack the energy to spend time doing what we really enjoy.

    There are, however, a number of ways in which we can regain control of our lives and correct the work-life balance. First of all, workers, especially those employed in offices, have to realize that work is rarely finished. In other words, taking work home does not usually decrease the amount of work. As one task finishes, another one appears. This means that, unless there is a strict deadline, work should stay at work.

    Another way to regain a work-life balance is to plan your free time. Most of us spend a lot of time planning our working week. Few of us put the same effort into organizing our leisure time. However, if we don't have a plan, there is a danger that we will miss out on the things that we really enjoy doing. So, if you like going to the cinema, make sure that you go regularly. Write it in your diary. If you enjoy having friends visit, plan a time and write that in your diary too. It's all too easy to let your precious time slip away.