“Have a nice day!”may be a pleasant gesture or a meaningless expression. When my friend Maxie says “Have a nice day” with a smile, I know she sincerely cares about what happens to me. I feel loved and secure since another person cares about me and wishes me well.

“Have a nice day. Next!”This version of expression is spoken by a salesgirl at the supermarket who is rushing me and my groceries out the door. The words come out in the same tone (腔调) with a fixed procedure. They are spoken at me, not to me. Obviously, the concern for my day and everyone else’s is the management’s attempt to increase the business.

The expression is one of those behaviors that help people get along with each other. Sometimes it indicates the end of a meeting. As soon as you hear it, you know the meeting is at an end. Sometimes the expression serves us when we don’t know what to say. “Oh, you just had a tooth out? I’m terribly sorry, but have a nice day.”

The expression can be pleasant. If a stranger says “Have a nice day” to you, you may find it heart-warming because someone you don’t know has tried to be nice to you.

Although the use of the expression is an insincere, meaningless social custom at times, there is nothing wrong with the sentence except that it is a little uninteresting. The salesgirl, the waitress, the teacher, and all the countless others who speak it without thinking may not really care about my day. But in a strange and comfortable way, it’s nice to know they care enough to pretend they care when they really don’t care all that much. While the expression may not often be sincere, it is always spoken. The point is that people say it all the time when they like.

Manners are important in our lives．Everyone likes a person  (1)   good manners. As parents, you should teach your children manners as soon as they can   (2)   what you're saying.

Here are some basic manners for children.

Don't talk when other people are  (3)  . Gently（轻轻地）tell your children to wait until someone finishes his words. Always greet someone when they  (4)  your house. You can teach your children to shake hands with adults but it's not  (5)  to shake hands with other children. And your children should always say "Hello" to those who visit you  (6)   they feel welcome. Say "Please" and "Thank you" often. If someone    (7)  them, tell them to say "You're welcome."

Have good sportsmanship（运动品德）. After playing a game,no matter what the  (8)  will be,be pleasant. If your children win, tell them not to  (9)  the others. If they lose,tell them not to get mad．Open doors for others. When going into buildings,they should  (10)  the elders to go first and open the door for them.

Life comes in a package. This package includes happiness and sadness, failure and success, hope and despair. Life is a learning process. Experiences in life teach us new lessons and make us a better person. With each passing day we learn to deal with kinds of situations．

Love plays an important role in our life. Love makes you feel wanted. Without love a person could become cruel. In the early stage of our life, our parents are the ones who show us with unconditional love and care, they teach us about what is right and wrong, good and bad. But we always tend to take this for granted (认为理所应当). It is only after marriage and having kids that a person understands and becomes sensitive to others’ feelings.

Happiness achieved by bringing a smile on otherˈs face gives a certain level of fulfillment(成就)．Peace of mind makes you feel happy. No mind is happy without peace. We realize the true worth of happiness when we are sad．Sadness comes from the death of a loved one or the failure .But all of these things will pass away.

Failure is the way to success, and it helps us to touch the sky, teaches us to survive and shows us a specific way. Success brings in money, fame, pride and self-respect.

Hope is what keeps life going. Parents always hope their children will do well. Hope makes us dream. Hope builds in patience. Life teaches us not to despair even in the darkest hour, because after every night there is a day.

   Life teaches us not to regret over yesterday, for it has passed and is beyond our control. Tomorrow is unknown, for it could either be bright or dull. So what we can choose is to work hard today, so that we will enjoy a better tomorrow.

It is not an easy job to be a good parent. Here I’d like to share something with other parents.

I have learned that little kids are loving dogs, while teenagers are cats. It’s easy to be a dog owner. You feed it and train it, and it will put its head on your knee gently. Whenever you call it, it will run to you with great warmth.

Then around age 13, your lovely little puppy turns into a big old cat. When you ask it to come inside, it looks surprised, wondering why you give such an order. It may turn its nose up at the meal you’re serving. When you reach out to touch its head, it will stay away from you, as if trying to hide its own secrets.

The kid now is not a dog any more. It thinks something in a totally different way. It seems so strange. Maybe it even doesn’t want to go out with its family members.

You may think that you have done something wrong, because you are the one who raises it and stays with it all the time. Flooded with guilt and fear, you double your efforts to make your pet under your control, but the result always turns out to be disappointing.

Instead of continuing to act like a dog owner, you should learn to behave like a cat owner. Put a dish of food near the door, and let it come to you. But remember that a cat also needs your help and your love. You need to tell it there is a door which is always oven for it.

One day, your grown-up child will walk into the kitchen,give you a big kiss and say, “Let me get those dishes for you.”

Then you  realize your cat is a dog again.

Cars are very popular in America. When the kids are fourteen years old, they dream of having their own   (1)  Many students work after school to   (2)   a car. In most places   (3)   people learn to drive in high school. They have to take a   (4)   test to get a license. Learning to drive and getting a driver’s   (5)  may be one of the most exciting things in their lives. For many, that piece of paper is an important symbol(象征)that they are now grown-ups.

Americans seem to love their cars almost more than anything else. People almost never go to see a doctor when they are  (6)  ___. But they will take   (7)   cars to a “hospital” at the smallest sign of a problem. At weekends, people   (8)  most of the time in washing and waxing(打蜡) their cars. For some families it is not enough to have   (9)  car. They often have two or even three. Husbands need a car to go to work. Housewives need a car to go shopping or to take the children to school or   (10)   activities.  

When you are learning English, listening, speaking and writing are important, but reading can also be very helpful. When you read, you can not only learn some new words, but also you can learn how to use these English words. When you read, it gives you a good example for writing.

Good reading tips :

Try to read at the right level(水平). Read something that you can (more or less) understand. If you need to stop every three words to use a dictionary, it is not interesting.

Try to increase the number of your new words. If there are four or five new words on a page, write them in your notebook. But you don’t have to write them while you read. Instead, try to guess their meaning as you read: mark them with a pen. Then come back when you have finished reading to look them up in a dictionary and write them in your own vocabulary book. Then try to remember them.

Try to read regularly. For example, read for a short time once a day. Fifteen minutes every day is better than two hours every Sunday. Fix(固定)a time to read and keep to it. You could read for fifteen minutes when you go to bed, or when you get up or at lunchtime.

Read what interests you. Choose a book or a magazine about a subject that you like, because you are going to spend time and money reading it. So, choose an interesting book. You can also read newspapers. There are many English newspapers in China. For example, 21st Century Teens . It is easy enough for you to understand it . There is something interesting in it.

Have you ever had trouble sleeping in a new place?

Lots of people do. And now researchers fromBrown Universityin Rhode Island think they know why. They found that one-half of the brain "remains more awake" than the other half when people are trying to sleep in a new place.

The sleep findings were reported in Current Biology by Brown University. In their report, the researchers said many people report they have a harder time sleeping the first night at a hotel or other places outside their home. They call it "first-night influence". "In Japan they say, 'If you change your bed, you can't sleep,'" said Yuka Sasaki, one of the report's writers. "You don't sleep very well in a new place. We all know about it."

The researchers measured brain waves(测量脑波)for 35 volunteers over two nights in a laboratory. The two nights were a week apart(间隔). They found during the first night the left half of the brain was more active than the right half. This was during the first deep-sleep period, the researchers said. 

Sasaki said a lot of questions remain. Researchers did not keep measuring brain waves all night long. So, they don't know if the left half keeps "watch" all night, or whether it "works in shifts(轮换)with the right half later in the night". They also do not know why the brain activity, at least during the first period of deep sleep, is always on the left half.

For some, this research may be calming. It is good to know that our brain is "looking out for us" in a new place. But it may not help with sleep. That brain activity, at least according to this new research, makes it harder to get the sleep people need to wake up well rested in the morning.

After his parents’ meeting, Wang Jiaming, 14, from Beijing knows that he will face invisible(看不见) “enemies”--- “other excellent students”. “ Look at such and such a student. You and he are taught by the same teachers. Why couldn’t you be as ___  (1)  __ as him?” his mother would say. Many students hear _  (2)  ___ words from their parents. After the parents’ meeting, their parents begin to __(3)___ them with other students, especially those who are praised by teachers. “ I want to encourage my child to _  (3)  __ them,” explained Li Shulan, a mother of a 14-year-old boy from Xi’an, Shanxi. However, many children, like Wang, don’t like it. “I feel very _(5)_ and sometimes even “hate” those students,” Wang said.

Parents have good intentions (意图), but in fact they could ___(6)___ children’s self- esteem(自尊), said Lin Ying, a psychological(心理的)teacher at Xiamen Hubin Middle School in Fujian. If children feel hurt, they should let parents know it. “You can choose a relaxing occasion(场合), for example, over the dinner, and tell your parents your feelings,” Lin said. “Also, some articles online explain _  (4)   it could be bad for children. You may want to show such articles to your parents.”

It’s not all bad, though. Liu Jiayang, 13, from Taizhou, Zhejiang said students could take the chance to learn to be open-minded. “I find the students that my mom talks about really have strong __  (5)  __ that I don’t have. I take them as examples and try to __(9)___ with them,” she said. “During the process (过程), always keep in mind that you’re unique(特别的). Never _  (6)   heart,” Lin added.