Most teens need more than 9 hours of sleep each night. But about 1 in 4 teens has trouble in sleeping. Lack of sleep can affect everything from our feelings to how well we focus on tasks like studying. It can also influence sports performance, increase our chances of getting sick, and may lead to weight gain in some people.

    How can we get the sleep we need? Here are some ideas:

    Be active during the day. Get at least 60 minutes of exercise a day. Physical activity can decrease stress and help people feel more relaxed. Just don't work too close to bedtime because exercise can wake you up before it slows you down.

    Say goodnight to electronics. Experts suggest using the bedroom for sleep only. At least shut everything down an hour or more before lights out.

    Keep a sleep routine. Going to bed at the same time every night helps the body expect sleep. Creating a bedtime routine can improve this relaxation effect. Reading, listening to music, spending time with a pet, writing a diary or doing anything else can relax you.

    Expect a good night's sleep. Instead of worrying that you won't sleep, remind yourself that you can. Say "Tonight, I will sleep well." several times during the day. It can also help to practise breathing exercises or gentle exercises before bed.

    Everyone has a sleepless night once in a while. But if you regularly have trouble in sleeping and you think it's affecting your mood or performance, talk to your doctor.

The traditional Chinese lunar calendar divides the year into 24 solar terms (节气). They mark the changing seasons and agricultural cycles (农业周期). Among the 24 solar terms, Xiaoman, the eighth solar term, falls around May 20th or 21st each year.

The name "Xiaoman" means "little full" in Chinese, showing the fact that the foods in the field are beginning to be full, but they are not yet ripe. It's a time when farmers can watch their fields turn golden under the warm spring sun. They hope to have a good harvest (丰收) soon in autumn.

During Xiaoman, the weather gradually changes from spring to summer. The days become longer and hotter, and the rainfall increases, providing the necessary water for food growth. This period is important for farmers, as it can influence the quality of their harvest.

A special custom related with Xiaoman is silkworm raising (养蚕) . Silkworm raising is an important way to make a living for people who live in south of the Yangtze River, especially in Jiangsu and Zhejiang provinces. The ancient Chinese believed that Xiaoman is the birthday of the god of the silkworm. Silkworms need to be taken good care of at this time of the year with the fresh mulberry (桑 葚) leaves. It's also regarded as the best time to cook cocoons (茧) and produce silk. Famous Chinese poets such as Li Bai and Du Fu from the Tang Dynasty (618-907), and Su Shi from the Song Dynasty (960-1279) all wrote poems that described the silkworm raising activities at that time, such as silk reeling.

Today, it's popular for Chinese children to raise white silkworms in a paper box, covered with green fresh mulberry leaves. For them, raising silkworms is not a way to make a living, but to see the magic of nature. It's exciting to carefully watch the silkwormsgrow bigger and bigger, and finally become white cocoons.

When thinking about your holiday, what comes to your mind first? The hot sun, cool water, yellow sand-where are we? The beach! Australia has lots of beaches. Most people may go there in holidays. Let's take a look!

It's Sunday. Tony wants to have a picnic. At 8:30 am, Tony goes to a forest park near a river with his sisters Jane and Alice by bike.

After an hour, they get there. Tony sees some students there. Some boys have a garbage bag（垃圾袋）in their hands. A boy, Bill, comes to Tony and asks him to clean the park with them. There is some garbage. Tony is a friendly boy and he says "yes" soon.

At 10:30 am, they finish cleaning the park. Then Tony has a nice picnic with his sisters. They have milk, potato salad and hamburgers. After the picnic, Jane and Alice draw pictures and take photos. They want to fly a kite, too, but they don't have one. Later on, Alice wants to swim in the river, but Tony stops her. He says it is dangerous（危险的）to do it. Ten minutes later, it rains hard. There is much water in the river.

At about 1:00 pm, the rain stops and Tony and his sisters go home happily.

When you are reading something in English, you may often see a new word. If you want to get its meaning (意思), you can just guess and you can also ask your teacher or friends for help. But, what's the best way to know it?

A dictionary is your best friend when learning English. You need an English-Chinese dictionary. It will tell you a lot about the word you don't know. For example (例如), it tells you how to read this word, what it means in Chinese and how to use this word. But there are so many English words in the dictionary and how can you know where the word is? There is a way to look for it. 

In the dictionary, you can first see the words beginning with the letter A, then B, C, D, E… That means, if there are two words, "desk" and "hour", " desk" will be before "hour"; "story" before "Sunday", "tomato" before "tomorrow" etc (等等). 

The English-Chinese dictionary will be your good friend. I hope you will often use it in your English learning.