In classes, your teachers will talk about the topics that you are studying.  The information they provide will be important for you to know when you take tests. So you must be able to take good written notes from what your teachers say.

    Here are three stages (阶段) of taking notes and what you should do during each stage.

    Before class

    Review your notes you have taken before you come to class. This will be good for remembering what was covered. Get you ready to understand new information your teacher will provide.

    During class

    Keep your attention on what your teacher is saying and "the signal words" that tell you what your teacher is going to say and it is important to write in your notes.  Examples of signal words are "The most important point.” and "Remember that . . . ” Be sure to include in your notes information that your teacher repeats or writes on the blackboard. Write quickly so that you can include all the important information in your notes. Do this by writing abbreviations such as med for medicine, using symbols such as % for percent, and writing short sentences.

     After class

     Rewrite your notes to make them more complete and accurate (准确的) by changing abbreviations into whole words, symbols into words, and shortened sentences into longer sentences. Use them to answer your questions. If necessary, ask your teacher for help.

    ① {#blank#}1{#/blank#} It's on the fourth Thursday of November. And it is also a time for tradition and sharing. Even if they live far away, family members gather for a reunion at the house of an older relative. All give thanks together for the good things that they have.

    ② {#blank#}2{#/blank#} It is on the first Sunday after the full moon which falls on or after March 21st. It is said that on that day Jesus Christ comes back to life. But now for most people, it is a spring holiday, while for children, it means, more than anything else, Easter eggs or chocolate eggs!

    ③ {#blank#}3{#/blank#} It's also called Double Fifth Festival, is celebrated on the fifth day of the fifth moon of the lunar calendar. It is one of the most important Chinese festivals with a history of more than 2,000years. It was originally designed in memory of ancient poet called Qu Yuan.

    ④ {#blank#}4{#/blank#} It is a very important Chinese festival. There will be a big family dinner. People who work far away from home will try to come back. At night, people can enjoy the moon while eating moon cakes. They are the special food for this festival.

    ⑤ {#blank#}5{#/blank#} It falls on the ninth day of the ninth month of the lunar calendar in China. The aim is to promote respect for the elderly. According to centuries-old customs, people climb mountains to admire the view.

A. The Double Ninth Festival    

B. The Mid-autumn Festival C. Easter Day     

D. The Dragon Boat Festival   

E. Thanksgiving Day

    195 countries reached an agreement(协议) on Dec. 12, 2015 after two weeks' talks in Paris. They talked about climate(气候) change. It is the first time in history that most of the world's countries, rich or poor, promised to take action to deal with climate problems.

    Below is a chart showing where the greenhouse gas(温室气体) comes from.

Where is greenhouse gas from?

    The Paris Agreement(巴黎协定) sets up a goal of cutting down the earth temperature to less than 2℃. If the warming gets above 2℃， there will be serious problems on the earth like natural disasters.

The agreement also asks countries to volunteer to do things. For developed countries, they will do even more. They have a plan to offer over 100 billion dollars to help poorer countries to develop clean energy like water and wind power.

    However, the Paris Agreement won't solve earth warming by itself. The future also depends on how well each country will carry out their promises.

    "Mom! Get my annoying(令人讨厌的)brother off me," I shouted. I woke up because of my brother. It happens almost every day. I got out of bed and put on my clothes hurriedly. Then I realized a huge problem—it was the first day of high school! It meant I had to go to the same school as my brother. But I didn't want to go there. At that exact moment, a thought came into my mind. I had never thought of it before.

    I had to go to school in 30 minutes. I had to eat, pack and think of a plan to get my brother embarrassed(尴尬).20 minutes later, I got my bag and slowly walked out of my bedroom. I saw my mom taking the school uniform downstairs and in exactly a second I had a great plan. I quickly ran after my mom and followed her downstairs. Like a cat I hid behind a couch, seeing her put the uniform on the couch and make her way back upstairs. I only had one chance. I quickly wrote something that would make my brother embarrassed on the back of a shirt as my brother ran downstairs. We put on out clothes right away and we wore the same size. It was quite a cold day, so I took a jacket and put it on.

    A couple of minutes later, we were in the car and were almost at school. I was secretly waiting for my great plan to happen. I got out of the car and ran to my classroom. I unpacked and decided to take off my jacket, because the day was heating up. Once I took my jacket off, everyone started laughing. I had no idea why everyone was laughing until suddenly I realized what had happened.

    There are lots of strange things about animals in the world. Do you know the following things?

    You may think bears walk slowly. In fact, they can run very fast like horses.

    Cats won't die if they fall off very high places because they can turn themselves up the right way.

    Chocolate tastes nice but you cannot give it to little dogs because it may make the little dogs die.

    We may sleep for eight hours at a time but a snail（蜗牛） may sleep for three years.

    Our ears and nose become bigger when we grow up but eyes keep the same after we are born.