How to write a Letter to Parents

    As a teacher, one of the most difficult parts of your job is working with parents. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} Writing a letter to parents is one way to do this. If you do it properly, this is an excellent way to communicate when you cannot meet with parents face to face.

    Put positive communication in the letter, even if you are writing to discuss a problem. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} Even if it is difficult, you must find this positive spin（言辞）, because it will make the parents more open to what you have to discuss. The general rule is “start with the good, hit them with the bad, then end on a positive note”.

    Share the problem with the parents. Express your concern and desire to help. {#blank#}3{#/blank#} Show them through the letter that you want to work with them to find a solution to the problem.

    {#blank#}4{#/blank#} You can ask them to write back, sign a part of the letter or give you a call. If you do not hear from them, you should call them. Be caring, but make sure they got the communication. Remember, your goal is to work together to help their child succeed.

    Consider mailing the letter to the parent, rather than sending it home with the student. Some students will intentionally forget to give the letter to their parents, while others will accidentally or purposely lose the letter. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. Ask for a response.

B. Respect parents and never quarrel with them.

C. Whenever you meet with problems, you should keep cool.

D. Sending it in the mail makes it more certain that it will be received.

E. Do not place it completely on their shoulders, as they may hate this action.

F. You can do this by pointing out a little progress the child has made recently.

G. With proper communication, however, you can build bridges between the school and home.

    Why Don't Students Like School?

    Most of the teachers I know entered the job because they loved school as children.{#blank#}1{#/blank#} However, they are understandably discouraged when they find that some of their students don't like school much, and that they, the teachers, have great difficulty inspiring them. Why is it difficult to make school enjoyable for students?

    As a matter of fact , the brain is not designed for thinking. It's designed to ask you not to have to think, because the brain is actually not very good at thinking. Thinking is slow and unreliable.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}People like to solve problems, but they do not like to work on problems that cannot be solved. If schoolwork is always just a bit too difficult for a student, it should be no surprise that he doesn't like school much.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    What is the nature of being human?{#blank#}4{#/blank#} Many people would answer that it is our ability to reason that makes us different—birds can fly, fish can swim, and humans can think . (By thinking I mean solving problems, reasoning, reading something complex, or doing any mental work that requires some effort.)  Shakespeare thought highly of our cognitive(认知) ability in Hamlet: “What a piece of work is man! How noble in reason!” Some three hundred years later, however, Henry Ford came up with a quite different opinion, “Thinking is the hardest work there is, which is the probable reason why so few people are interested in it.” They both had a point of view. Humans are good at certain types of reasoning, especially compared to other animals, but we hardly often exercise those abilities.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}Thinking is not only painful, as Ford noted, it's also slow and unreliable.

A. A cognitive scientist would add another point of view, “Humans don't think very often because our brains are designed not for thought but for escaping from thought.”

B. What sets us apart from other species?

C. Of course you could make each decision with care and thought.

D. However, people enjoy thinking if it is successful.

E. Therefore, teachers should reconsider how they encourage their students to think, in order to make thinking enjoyable enough for students to go after.

F. If we are all so bad at thinking, how does anyone get through the day?

G. They want to help their students feel the same excitement and passion for learning that they felt.

    After you go to college, you'll find you have to buy a lot of textbooks.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}If you want to make ends meet and successfully make it through college, you have to find ways to save on college textbooks. Here are some of the tips that would help you cut back and manage your book expense.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}The first thing you want to do when you need a specific book is to go to the bookstore. But the most effective way to save money on college books is to stay away from the bookstore. While it is more convenient to purchase textbooks in the bookstore, it could cost you a lot of money.

    Buy your books online. You can save a lot of money when you purchase your books online. You can buy college textbooks from Amazon, Half, CENGAGE Learning, Barnes&Noble and other websites. If you want to save money on college books，it is best to check BigWords.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Rent your college textbooks. If you feel you are not going to use the book after the end of the semester, it is best to rent it instead.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}You can check campus book rentals, bookbyete, bookrenter, chegg and ecampus. This can save you a lot of money on textbooks.

    Check your university library. ff you do not need the book all the time, it is best to do your research in the university library instead.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}In this way, you can ensure the book is available when you need it. You can also use the interlibrary loan system.

A. Do not go to the bookstore.

B. You can rent books from other students.

C. College textbooks can be very expensive.

D. Buy books from second-hand bookstores.

E. Many websites and booksellers rent books.

F. You'd better order the book you need ahead of time.

G. This website will help you find promotions, discounts and other deals.

    The First Americans

    There was a time long ago when a land bridge connected Asia and North America. The first settlers in North America crossed this land bridge from what is now Siberia to Alaska. The people who made this initial crossing were probably following the animals they used for food.

    Finally, the oceans rose and the land bridge between the continents disappeared. The settlers, who I shall call the “First Americans”， could not return to their homeland.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}

    For the next few thousand years, the First Americans moved south and east throughout North and South America. They made the journey all the way from Alaska to the southern tip of South America, a distance of more than 10,000 miles.{#blank#}2{#/blank#}

    In the far north, above the Arctic Circle, the First Americans became hunters of the ocean.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}In the summer, they gathered berries and other plants. In the winter, they stayed in lodges much of the time preparing for the next summer. It was a hard life, but they learned to survive in these terrible conditions.

    Farther south, in what is now Arizona, Utah, Colorado, and New Mexico, the First Americans became cliff dwellers. They began by living in caves that already existed in the cliffs.{#blank#}4{#/blank#}The dwellings they built in many ways resembled today's apartment buildings.

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#} They built a system of dams and canals so they could store and use water almost any time of the year. They were so successful that they could raise fruits and vegetables that were not found naturally in the desert.

A．They also discovered foods like corn and potatoes.

B．Along the way, they established many different civilizations.

C．They discovered how to add to the caves by building structures of wood and stone.

D．People living near each other tended to share similar environments and customs.

E．They built boats of animal skins and hunted or fished for their food.

F．They would have to survive in the New World they had discovered.

G．The First Americans of the Southwest learned to water the desert.

    Global Positioning System (GPS) is now a part of everyday driving in many countries. It is a space-based system that provides position and time information in all weather conditions. GPS can help people get to where they want to go.{#blank#}1{#/blank#}When this happens, the driver is often to blame. Sometimes a GPS error is responsible. Most often, it is a combination of the two.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}Barry Brown, a GPS technologist, took an incident as an example. His friend once flew to an airport in the eastern United States. There he borrowed a GPS-equipped car to use. He wrongly plugged in the home address in the west. It wasn't until he was driving for thirty minutes that he realized it. Mr. Brown says this is a common human error. But he says, “One problem is that GPS has a very small screen and it can just tell you the next turn.{#blank#}3{#/blank#}”

    “The Normal and Natural Troubles of Driving with GPS” lists several areas where GPS can cause difficulties. They include maps that are outdated, incorrect or difficult to understand. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}GPS may fail due to these reasons and then lead to confusion for the drivers.

    Although GPS sometimes causes difficulties when people are driving, the most attractive point of this system is its 100% coverage on the planet. It is important for you to have to know what you are doing when you use GPS. You need to have the “ability” to be able to use GPS because it sometimes goes wrong.{#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. There are quite a few situations showing the problems of using GPS.

B. That means that it is not really telling you about going to the wrong place.

C. This space-based system is an important tool for civil and commercial users.

D. But sometimes it sends you to the wrong place or leaves you completely lost.

E. They also contain timing problems related to when GPS commands are given.

F. Advances in technology play an active role in modernizing GPS in many ways.

G. To make GPS well used, you need a good understanding of how drivers and GPS work.

    Before there was the written word, there was the language of dance. Dance expresses love and hate, joy and sorrow, life and death, and everything else in between.

    {#blank#}1{#/blank#}We dance from Florida to Alaska, from north to south and sea to sea. We dance at weddings, birthdays, office parties and just to fill the time.

    “I adore dancing,” says Lester Bridges, the owner of a dance studio in Iowa. “I can't imagine doing anything else with my life.” Bridges runs dance classes for all ages. “Teaching dance is wonderful. {#blank#}2{#/blank#}It's great to watch them. For many of them, it's a way of meeting people and having a social life.”

    {#blank#}3{#/blank#}“I can tell you about one young couple,” says Bridges. “They're learning to do traditional dances. They arrive at the class in low spirits and they leave with a smile. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}”

    So, do we dance in order to make ourselves feel better, calmer, healthier? Andrea Hillier says, “Dance, like the pattern of a beating heart, is life. Even after all these years, I want to get better and better.{#blank#}5{#/blank#} I find it hard to stop! Dancing reminds me I'm alive.”

A. So why do we dance?

B. Dance in the U.S. is everywhere.

C. If you like dancing outdoors, come to America.

D. My older students say it makes them feel young.

E. I keep practicing even when I'm extremely tired.

F. Dancing seems to change their feeling completely.

G. They stayed up all night long singing and dancing.