Schools across the world are trying to come up with solutions to keep students active. Some are replacing traditional classroom chairs with exercise balls or standing desks. At Ward Elementary School in Winston, North Carolina students have adopted a new program that requires riding fixed bikes while reading.

    'Read and Ride' is the creation of school counselor Scott Ertl, who came up with the idea while he was exercising and reading at the gym. Believing it would be a fun way to convince students to become more active, he placed one in the corner of his classroom and encouraged them to use it during independent reading classes.

    It was so popular that Ertl decided to add more bikes and offer the Read and Ride program to the entire school. Today Ward Elementary has a dedicated exercise room filled with bikes that can be used by students while completing their daily reading assignments.

    Besides making reading more fun, the program also helps students exercise at a comfortable pace without the pressure that comes with regular sports-related activities. It is also a perfect way to release energy during days when the weather is not helpful to outdoor activities.

    Most importantly, however, are the program's academic benefits. A year after Read and Ride was introduced at Ward Elementary School, students actively involved in the program demonstrated an astonishing 83% reading proficiency. Those that had not taken advantage of the exercise bikes tested at a much lower, 41%.

    Though the substantial improvement in academic achievement cannot all be attributed to programs like Read and Ride, experts believe they are a significant contributor. That's because studies have shown that physical activity stimulates（刺激） brain cells and helps prepare it for learning. As word of the difference made by this easy to execute exercise program spreads, don't be surprised to find schools across the country adopt “Read and Ride” for their students.

    Good learners can inspire students or anybody to learn well. Here are some characteristics of good learners.

    Good learners are curious. They wonder about all sorts of things, often about knowledge beyond their areas of expertise(专长){#blank#}1{#/blank#} Finding out about something they didn't know satisfies them for the moment, but their curiosity is addictive.

    Good learners don't give up easily. A few things may come easily to learners but most knowledge arrives after effort{#blank#}2{#/blank#} They try to search out new information. They read, analyze, and evaluate the information they've found. Then they study more and work at what they don't understand.

    Good learners know that a lot of learning isn't fun. The journey to understanding generally isn't all that exciting{#blank#}3{#/blank#} Others need a tiresome attention to detail, and still others need periods of intense mental focus. Your backs hurt, your arms and legs get tired, and your coffee gets cold.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} There's always more to know. Good learners are never satisfied with how much they know about anything. They are pulled around by questions—the ones they still can't answer, or the ones without very good answers. Those questions follow them like day follows night with the answers bringing daylight.

    Good learners share what they've learned. Good learners are teachers committed to sharing with others what they've learned{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Good learners can also explain what they know in ways that make sense to others. They are connected to the knowledge passed on to them and committed to leaving what they've learned with others.

A. Good learners stay positive.

B. They write about it, and talk about it.

C. They love the discovery part of learning.

D. Good learners never run out of questions.

E. Some knowledge can broaden our views.

F. Good learners are willing to put in the time.

G. Some learning tasks require boring repetition.

From birth to death, the word kick has been given an important part in expressing human experience. The proud and happy mother feels the first signs of life kicking inside her body. And that same life——many years later—— comes to its end in a widely-used expression, to kick the bucket( 吊桶) . The expression to kick the bucket is almost 200 years old. One belief is that it started when an English stableman(马夫) killed himself by hanging while standing on a bucket. He put a rope around his neck and tied it to a beam(梁柱) in the ceiling, and then kicked the bucket away from under him.

    Another old expression that comes from England is to kick over the traces. Traces were the chains（链子） that held at horse or mule to a wagon(货运马车)or plow. Sometimes, an animal refused to obey and kicked over the traces.

    Kick around is an expression that is heard often in American English. A person who is kicked around is someone who is treated badly. Usually he is not really being kicked by somebody's foot. He is just not being treated with the respect that all of us want. A person who has kicked around for most of his life is someone who has spent his life moving from place to place. In this case, kicking around means moving often from one place to another. Kick around has another meaning when you use it with the word idea. When you kick around an idea, you are giving that idea some thought.

    There is no physical action when you kick a person upstairs, although the pain can be as strong .You kick a person upstairs by removing him from an important job and giving him a job that sounds more important, but really is not.

    Still another meaning of the word kick is to free oneself of a bad habit, such as smoking cigarettes. Health campaigns urge smokers to kick the habit.  

    An Indian movie about two sisters has become a huge hit in China. The Hindi language film, called Dangal, has earned almost $170 million in China since its release there on May 5.

    Much has been written about why Dangal has enjoyed such big success in China. Some people say one reason is that the film's star and producer, Aamir Khan. He is famous in India's Bollywood film industry. Two of his earlier films were also big hits in China.

    Khan's popularity was clear after he got more than 600,000 followers on the Chinese social media service Sina Weibo within two months of joining. But he is not the only reason that the film strongly connects with audience across China. Media has pointed out how it shows similarities between parental systems in China and India.

Dangal is based on the true story of a man who enjoyed the sport of wrestling(摔跤). He competed as a wrestler, but never could achieve his lifelong dream: winning a gold medal. As a father, he wanted his son to win the medal. But his wife only gives birth to daughters. So he finally decides to train them to be world-class wrestlers.

    The movie is more serious than most Bollywood productions, which tell happy love stories and include colorful music and dance performances.

    Edward Chan is a professor at the Hong Kong Polytechnic University. He says the strict way of parenting in the film is something people in China can easily relate to. "I think the father role described by the movie in India is quite to the culture, especially the traditional culture in China."

    The Chinese government supported Global Times newspaper pointed that movie critics (评论家) in China did not like Dangal. Most of them agree with the fact that the father in the film was forceful in pushing his daughters to become wrestlers. But the film Dangal is really aimed to educate children to work for their dreams.

    Sally Dawly is a woman from Auburn, California. Over the last three and a half years, the anti-littering woman has spent most of her free time picking up cigarette butts (烟头) from the streets of her home city.

    Called the "Butt Lady" by her local community, Dawly began her mission to rid the streets of her city of cigarette butts in October, 2014. The woman looked for cigarette butts, picked them up and threw them in the trash. To keep a count of how many butts she picks up, the Butt Lady has been using a tablet, and earlier this month, she hit a historic milestone—one million cigarette butts.

    "I got tired of going on my walks and seeing cigarette butts everywhere," Sally Dawly said. "I'm just shocked that I had to pick up so many. I've ever picked up 3,000 butts in one day," she said. "Don't throw away your butts; better yet, stop smoking."

    With so many cigarette butts littering the streets, can one person's efforts really make a difference? Surprisingly, the answer seems to be yes. Soon after the Butt Lady of Auburn started her mission and word of her efforts spread, cigarette cans started appearing around bars and restaurants in the city. Members of the local community even came out to cheer her on as she approached her one-million-butt milestone.

    Sally knows her city's cigarette butt littering problem won't be solved anytime soon, but she hopes her work will inspire people to at least think twice before dropping cigarette butts in the streets. She has decided to continue cleaning up after irresponsible smokers, and already has a new milestone in her sights—two million cigarette butts.

    Word of the Butt Lady's efforts to keep the streets cigarette butt-free has reached neighboring communities as well, and CBS Sacramento reports that other cities have started seeking her help as well.

    It's holiday season and time for shopping. There are a bunch of items on your shopping lists ranging from small gifts, toys and festive decorations to Christmas and New Year cards. What's your first reaction to products labeled "Made in China"? If you still tend to relate "Made in China" to poor quality, you need to update your ideas. China's ability to produce high-quality products has been recognized by a growing number of foreigners. It's a misunderstanding to associate low quality with "Made in China".

    Cameron Purdy, a Web user, says that China manufactures poor-quality products does not mean it cannot manufacture high-quality products. He explains that the poor-quality products one purchases in the US for example, are made in the quality that the American companies ask for. "The price that you pay for the product has no relationship to the cost of its manufacturing," suggested Purdy. For example, for an item priced at $20 in the US, the cost of manufacturing it paid by the American company is usually less than $1. To guarantee the room for profit, the Chinese co-manufacturer spends less than $1 to produce the item.

    Amanda Wu, who lives in Shanghai, noted that many top brands have manufacturing factories located in China, and the most convincing example of China's manufacturing quality is Apple products. On the back of the iPhone, one can find the product is Made in China—"Designed by Apple in California. Assembled (装备) in China. "Chinese and foreign Web users commented that some Chinese products with good reputations around the world are Haier, Lenovo, GREE, Huawei and China Railway High-speed.

    On the other hand, foreign misunderstandings can sometimes affect Chinese people's minds. For instance, when Chinese people travel abroad, some would still avoid buying products Made in China. It's time for the world to stop relating Made in China with low-quality products. Just remember, you get what you pay for.