Hello. I'm Jan from Mrs. Lake's class. My class wants to work together to help the public. We think we have found a great way to do this. Last month we did a class project on the highways near our town. We learned about the Adopt-a-Highway Program. This program brings people together to pick up litter along the roads. We think it would be a great idea for all students in our school to join the program and adopt a highway.

    Adopting a highway is not like adopting a pet. When a highway is adopted, only part of the highway is cared for by a group of people. The group agrees to work every week to keep its part of the highway clean. Each group gets its own sign that has the name of the group printed on it. The sign is put up at the side of the road. This sign lets drivers know who is keeping that area of the road clean.

    The Adopt-a-Highway Program is a great way for people to help their environment look nicer. Also, the government does not have to send out as many road workers. This saves money. Finally, people may try harder to keep roads clean if they see people, especially teenagers like us, cleaning them up.

    We will need helpers to care for our adopted highway. If you want to feel great and keep our roads clean，please come with your parents to the meeting next week. We will meet in Mrs. Lake' room on Wednesday at 6:00 P.M. At the meeting, we will talk about which roads are the dirtiest as a result of people's unkind acts. Then we' ll try to pick an area to adopt and clean.

    I look forward to seeing you at the meeting. Remember to keep our roads clean!

    Recently,people in US education have gotten extremely worried because a new report has shown that American students have a math problem.

    The 2015 Program for International Student Assessment（评估）(PISA) shows math scores in the US getting lower and no improvement in science or reading.PISA tests 15-year-olds from different countries and regions in their math,science and reading skills.About 540,000 students from 72 countries and regions took part in the assessment in 2015.

    US scores in reading and science were about the same as three years ago,leaving Americans near the middle of the bigger group.But the situation in math is much more worrying.The US average score was 470,be;ow the OECD（经合组织）test average of 490,meaning the US was No.40 among the 72 countries and areas.It was 12 points lower than in 2012 and 18 points lower than in 2009.So,what is going on with American students' math skills?

    One reason may be that the US does not teach math in enough depth."Students are often good at answering the first part of a problem in the United States,"said Andreas Schleicher,director of education and skills at OECD."But as soon as students have to go deeper and answer the more complicated part of a problem,they have difficulties."In comparison,many high-performing countries and regions in math teach a lot less but focus in much greater depth, especially when you look at East Asia,Japan and Singapore,according to Schleicher.

    Another reason may be the fact that many people in the US are unwilling to travel to foreign countries to learn better teaching practices."One of our biggest challenges in the US is that the teachers are not going out and seeing what high-performing countries do differently,"said Wendy Kopp,who started Teach for America,in a news program.

    A new study of 8,000 young people in the Journal of Health and Social Behavior shows that although love can make adults live healthily and happily, it is a bad thing for young people. Puppy love(早恋)may bring stress for young people and can lead to depression. The study shows that girls become more depressed than boys, and younger girls are the worst of all.

    The possible reason for the connection between love and higher risk of depression for girls is “loss of self”. According to the study，even though boys would say “lose themselves in a romantic relationship”, this “loss of self” is much more likely to lead to depression when it happens to girls. Young girls who have romantic relationships usually like hiding their feelings and opinions. They won't tell that to their parents.

    Dr Marianm Kaufman，an expert on young people problems, says 15% to 20% young people will have depression during their growing. Trying romance often causes the depression. She advises kids not to jump into romance too early. During growing up, it is important for young people to build b friendships and a b sense of self. She also suggests the parents should encourage their kids to keep close to their friends, attend more interesting school activities and spend enough time with family.

    Parents should watch for signs of depression—eating or mood changes—and if they see signs from their daughters or sons, they need to give help. The good news is that the connection between romance and depression seems to become weak with age. Love will always make us feel young, but only maturity(成熟)gives us a chance to avoid its bad side effects.

    It is that time of year when people need to lock their cars. It's not because there are a lot of criminals running around stealing cars. Rather, it's because of the good-hearted neighbors who want to share their harvest. Especially with this year's large crop, leaving a car unlocked in my neighborhood is an invitation for someone to stuff it full of zucchini（西葫芦）.

    My sister-in-law, Sharon, recently had a good year for tomatoes. She and her family had eaten and canned so many that they began to feel their skin turn slightly red. That's when she decided it was time to share her blessings. She started calling everyone she knew. When that failed, she began to ask everyone in the neighborhood like a politician, eventually finding a neighbor delighted to have the tomatoes. "Feel free to take whatever you want," Sharon told her. She felt happy that she could help someone and that the food didn't go to waste.

    A few days later, Sharon answered the door. There was the neighbor, holding some bread. The neighbor smiled pleasantly, "I want to thank you for all of the tomatoes, and I have to admit that I took a few other things and hope you wouldn't mind."

    Sharon couldn't think of anything else in her garden that had been worth harvesting and said no. "Oh, but you did," the neighbor said. "You had some of the prettiest zucchini I've ever seen."

    Sharon was confused. Zucchini in her garden? They hadn't even plated any zucchini. But her neighbor insisted that there really were bright-green zucchini in her garden. The two of them walked together into the backyard. When the neighbor pointed at the long green vegetables, Sharon smiled, "Well, actually, those are cucumbers that we never harvested, because they got too big, soft and bitter for eating or canning."

    The neighbor looked at Sharon, shock written all over her face. Then she smiled, and held out the bread that she had shared all over the neighborhood, "I brought you a loaf of cucumber bread. I hope you like it."

    The National Storytelling Youth Olympics is an event where thousands of kids from grades 6 to 12 compete against each other by telling stories. It is sponsored by the Master's Degree Program in Reading and Storytelling at East Tennessee State University. The sole purpose of this event is to promote and encourage both the art and science of storytelling among middle school and high school students. Although this event is competitive, its underlying intent and goal is to provide students across the nation with a reason to practice numerous noncompetitive skills.

    Those skills include skillful sportsmanship , responsible behavior, and an attitude of respect for others and the storytelling genre. The eventual goal of the National Storytelling Youth Olympics is to encourage every classroom in America to discover (or rediscover) the beauty of storytelling and story performance.

    The National Storytelling Youth Olympics takes place usually around the first weekend in March. Students from all over the country arrive by bus, plane, or automobile in Johnson City, Tennessee. They usually arrive on Thursday or Friday. Those that arrive on Thursday take advantage of their early arrival by telling stories at local schools. On Friday, an evening meal is prepared for all contestants, coaches, and parents. Games are played, stories are told, and lifetime friendships begin. Saturday is the day of the big event. A luncheon(午餐会) is held in the afternoon so contestants can familiarize themselves with the surroundings and do a sound check.

    The event is divided into three categories separated by grades. Contestants are judged not only by their storytelling performance, but also by the attitude and behavior they display during the entire weekend. A winner is picked from each of the three categories; however, there is an overall winner who is granted the name of Grand Torch Bearer. This person is selected not only by the judges, but also by the contestants. After the winners have been announced, the contestants retreat back to their hotel where a celebratory ice cream party is held; and believe it or not, they tell more stories! This is what the National Storytelling Youth Olympics is all about: developing a love for the art of storytelling.

Ivan Pavlov was a Russian physiologist (生理学家) best known for his discovery of classical conditioning (经典条件反射). During his studies on the digestive systems of dogs, Pavlov found that the animals salivated (流口水) naturally upon the presentation of food. However, he also noticed that the animals began to salivate whenever they saw the white lab coat of an experimental assistant. By associating the presentation of food with the lab assistant, he finally found that a dog would salivate to the presence of a stimulus (刺激物) other than food. He called this response a conditional reflex.

Ivan Pavlov was born in a small village in Ryazan. Russia, where his father was the village minister. His earliest studies were focused on theology (神学), but reading Charles Darwin's On the Origin of Species had a powerful influence on his future interests. He soon stopped his religious studies and devoted himself to the study of science at the University of Saint Petersburg. Pavlov's interests were the study of physiology and natural sciences. He helped found the Department of Physiology at the Institute of Experimental Medicine and continued to manage the program for the next 45 years.

Pavlov received much praise for his work. He worked in the Russian Academy of Science and won the 1904 Nobel Prize in Physiology. The Soviet government also offered lots of support for Pavlov's work, and the Soviet Union soon became a leading center of research on physiology. While Ivan Pavlov was not a psychologist, and reportedly disliked the field of psychology, his work had a major influence on the field, particularly on the development of behaviorism. His discovery and research on reflexes influenced the growing behaviorist movement. and Pavlov's discovery had a major influence on many thinkers, such as John B. Watson.