How do you spend your time at school? Do you know how students in other countries study every day? Here are the studying ways in some western schools.

American Students

    American students spend seven hours in their schools every day. And the day is divided（划分） into classes of about 40 to 50 minutes. Students study English, history, math, science, art and foreign languages. They go to listen to different lessons taught by different teachers in different classrooms. After class they learn job skills. Sometimes they study by working in an office, a hospital or other places one day a week.

German Students

    German students love practicing. Lots of schools have lessons for only half a day. They spend most time practicing. Teachers give students enough freedom. Students may try all kinds of ideas they have. They begin to plan what they will do in the future and work hard at a young age.

French Students

    French students like independence（独立） and freedom. Their school life is very relaxing and interesting. When they have tests, they may have snacks. For example, they can put a few desks together, and put some peanuts （花生）or candies on them.

    The sea has always interested man. From it he can get food, minerals (矿石) and treasure. {#blank#}1{#/blank#}But he could not go far under its surface.

    {#blank#}2{#/blank#}However, he is not a fish. He must breathe air, so he can't stay under the water's surface for any length of time. To explore deep water, man faces even more dangers and problems.

    A diver who wants to stay under water for more than a few minutes must breathe air or a special mixture of gases. {#blank#}3{#/blank#}He can carry a tank of air on his back and breathe through a nose and a mouthpiece. Water weighs 800 times as much as air. Tons of water pushes against a diver deep in the sea. {#blank#}4{#/blank#}

    When a diver is under great pressure, his blood takes in some of the gases he breathes. As he rises to surface, the water pressure becomes less. If the diver rises too quickly, the gases in his blood form bubbles(气泡). The diver is then suffering from the bends(减压病). The bends can cause a diver to double up in pain. {#blank#}5{#/blank#}

A. His body is under great pressure.

B. For thousands of years, he could sail on it.

C. They can even kill him.

D. He can wear a diving suit and have air pumped to him from above.

E. Man wants to explore deep into the sea.

    There is half a glass of water on the table. Is the glass half empty or half full? This question can represent a situation where there is both opportunity(机会) and trouble, but people with different point of views see the same situation in different ways. Ask yourself this question and see what kind of person you are.

    If your answer is "half empty", it shows that you tend to look on the dark side of things. You are a negative-thinking person. You are worried about what you don't have or what you have lost more than what you already or still have. In other words, you are a pessimist(悲观主义者).

    If you see the glass as half full, you tend to look on the bright side of things. You are a positive-thinking person. You know you should take the opportunity that comes your way rather than worry about getting into trouble. This is to say, you are an optimist.

    We don't live in a perfect world, but if we can change the way we see things, the things we see will change.

    Most of us have never thought about building an educational toy by ourselves. If we need a learning toy or something, we simply go to the nearest store and buy it. However, things are not as easy in third world countries. With families even having no food to put on the table, buying toys, especially the educational ones, is the last thing on the parents' minds.

    So how can one get these kids interested in science？This was a question that worried the Indian engineer Arvind Gupta so much that he decided to give up a good job and spend his life making toys from trash, things that people no longer want or need!

    Mr Gupta began teaching in the 1970s. While still an engineering student at the Indian College of Technology, he volunteered to teach the children who could not afford to go to school. Upon graduation, he found a good job at India's Tata Motors and spent the next five years designing cars.

    But he soon realized that this was not something he wanted to do for the rest of his life. So he took a year's training course and took part in the Hoshangabad Science Teaching Program whose aim was to make science fun and exciting for poor children using available materials.

    Mr Gupta found the whole project so satisfying that he decided to leave his high-paying job and focus his attention on designing educational toys that were not only cheap and easy to build, but also full of scientific principles(原理) , so that children could get interested in this interesting subject.

    When the Internet started becoming a more widespread learning tool, Mr Gupta created a toys from Trash website and also recorded over 250 You Tube videos.

    Today, over 50, 000 children and teachers visit the website daily to download the videos for the toy creations based on cool science, Some young children have become so inspired(鼓舞) that they have even won international science competitions with the help of his creations