Plans for the holidays

    The summer holiday is coming. Students are going to enjoy it this month.

 Tom is going to his family party."I can't wait to go home and go to the family party. I also plan to go to New York to see some friends. A lot of friends and I are going to dance at my house," he says.

    Tom's friend—Jack is going to spend the holiday with his aunt. "I really want to go to England to meet my family. I want to have a good time with them. But now I can't. I am going to look after my aunt because she is ill," Jack says.

    Mike is Tom's friend too. "I want to spend my summer holiday with Jim. We plan to travel around the world. We think we are going to enjoy ourselves," he says.

① {#blank#}1{#/blank#}  When a teacher assigns(布置) a lot of homework, Domenica Roman draws up a timetable, dividing the assignment into small parts. "It's like eating a steak(牛排)," she says. "You chew it one bite at a time."

② {#blank#}2{#/blank#}  One student put a vocabulary list in the bathroom. He learned a new word every day while brushing his teeth. Another student used the time to remember biology terms while practicing running.

③{#blank#}3{#/blank#}   In high school, McCray ran track, played football and was in the band and orchestra. "I was so busy that I couldn't waste time looking for a pencil or missing paper. I kept everything right where I could put my hands on it," he says.

④ {#blank#}4{#/blank#}  In an international class, Asian-Americans, on average, scored higher than other students. The teacher found that the Asian-Americans discussed homework problems together, tried different ways to work out the problems and explained their solutions to one another.

⑤ {#blank#}5{#/blank#}  Christi is an excellent student at the University of California. If her math teacher assigns five problems, she does ten. If the history teacher assigns eight pages of reading, she reads twelve. "Part of learning is practicing," she says. "And the more you practice, the more you learn."

    Over the last few centuries, there have been many changes in our lives.

    To start with, people were not able to travel such a long distance in such a short time in the past. Planes were not very popular at that time because they used to be a very expensive way to travel. Nowadays, we have fast, comfortable cars, and more and more people can travel by plane.

    Secondly, in the past, people had to work much harder because they did not have the tools that we have today. Today, most of the difficult and dangerous work is done by computers and machines.

    Thirdly, in the past, the living conditionswere not as good as they are now. There were no bathrooms or running water in many houses, and many people could not buy things like fridges, TV sets or washing machines. Now, most families have several of these things.

    Finally, nowadays, more and more people have the chance to get a good education. In the past, there were fewer schools and the quality of education was much poorer. Also, it is much easier to find the educational materials that you need on the Internet now. 

    The scientific and technological development in the world is amazing. Life now is much faster and busier than it used to be. And we are still creating new things to make our lives better and easier.

    If you ask people of different countries "Could you tell me the way to the post office?" you will get different answers.

    In Japan, people use landmarks（路标）instead of street names. For example, the Japanese will say to travelers, "Go straight down to the corner. {#blank#}1{#/blank#} The post office is across from the bus stop. "

    In Kansas, America, there are no towns or buildings within miles. So instead of landmarks, people will tell you directions and distance. For example, people will say, "Go north two miles. {#blank#}2{#/blank#} "

    People in Greece sometimes do not even try to give directions. They will often say, "Follow me." {#blank#}3{#/blank#}

    Sometimes if a person doesn't know the answer to your question, he or she might say, "Sorry, I have no idea." But in Yucatan, Mexico, no one answers "I don't know." {#blank#}4{#/blank#}They usually give an answer, but often a wrong one. A visitor can often get lost in Yucatan!

    {#blank#}5{#/blank#}You might not understand a person's words, but maybe you can understand his or her body language. He or she will usually point to the right direction. Go on in that direction and you may find the post office!

    Today we had a discussion about "If you have only one day left". It seemed that different people had different ideas. Most students said they would stay at home and help their parents with housework. They wanted to show love to their parents. Some students wanted to do something different such as helping others. They said they should do something meaningful to the world. Only a few students said they would do nothing but just have a rest at home. They had too much to do every day. They needed a rest.

    Although the class had different ideas. We all knew one point，that was to cherish(珍惜)our life. At last，the teacher summed up our discussions.

    She said," I'm glad you all want to use your limited(有限的) life to do something meaningful. But please remember：try to make the best of your time!"

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