Literature is a term used to describe written as well as spoken material. Generally speaking, it is often used to describe anything from creative imagination, including works of poetry, drama and fiction.

   Then why read literature, since it is often imaginary and seems unconnected with real life?

   A lot of us read literature for pleasure and relaxation. It’s always pleasant to read some interesting books, such as comedies and novels, in our spare time. In a modern life full of pressure, it is our common desire to read some imaginary works and seek relaxation from the stress in life.

   Reading literature is more than fun; it also enables us to acquire knowledge. As a general rule, literature represents a language or a people, and it often gives us an insight(洞察)into the traditions, customs, beliefs, attitudes and values of the age in which it was written.

   Sometimes literature can even offer us new, creative ways to understand the world better. It helps us make sense of the world around us. It introduces us to new worlds of experiences. We enjoy the comedy and the tragedy of poems, stories and plays; and we may even grow through our literary journey with books. Eventually, we may discover meaning in literature by looking at what the author says and how he/she says it. In a sense, we explore the human condition and analyse how and why people think the way the think and feel the way they feel. Literature enables us to think analytically and open our minds. We see the world through the eyes of different cultures and in turn learn the ways to deal with things that happen around.

   So we can definitely say literature is of great importance to us. Why not get going with one poem, drama or fiction at once?

Acting is the activity of performing in plays or films. It’s about living an alternative reality. It lets you explore all kinds of possibilities of what you could be. Just being your own self can be boring sometimes, and acting gives you an opportunity to be someone else for a while. It is voluntarily entering the psyche (心灵) of another personality and thinking according to a different set of values and constraints (约束). It lets you explore many parts of you, which you thought never existed. It lets you deeply explore what it means to be a human being.

One of the best ways to begin your own acting studies is to start reading some good plays. Choose your favorite role from one of your favorite plays and prepare to act it out in front of the audience. To learn to act, you must act. Here are some tips on how to become an actor with no experience:

To play a role, you must understand the character that you are going to play with open arms. Understand the plot of the play, as well as the psyche of your character. Understand the conditions in which your character lives. Try to understand why your character behaves in that way. So you must learn the lines or dialogues thoroughly and explore the thought behind every sentence. This will help you picture the circumstances in which the character finds himself/herself. Some actors go as far as “living” as that person for a while, to understand him or her. The idea is to go as close as possible to being that person. More importantly, only through practice can you get close to actually being that person. So seize every chance and perform as frequently as you can. This will help you develop confidence and overcome stage fright.

As a student of acting, you need to always be a sponge (海绵), ready to absorb, learn, and observe the performances of great actors, to learn the slight differences of the art. While you watch movies, plays and any other performance, study the differences of a role played by any actors, especially the masters. By just keeping your eyes open, you can pick up a lot of things.

Why do you want to act? Is it for money, fame, or genuine love for the art? Would you do it if you were not paid for it? If the answer and y our motivation is love for acting, you are sure to eventually succeed.

___________this, VR can be used to practice skills in a secure environment that ___________would be quite dangerous. For example, firefighters could use RealCine to train safely, without the risk of getting injured in a burning building. It could be used in class as well. Teachers could ___________ history ___________ by placing students in an ancient town., or they could teach biology by allowing students to _____________the world as a whale or a squirrel.

Blood donation, also called blood banking, is a wonderful thing to do. It is an easy and direct way of contributing to social work and having a big effect on the community. It helps to save lives and helps those who are in need of blood due to bad condition or the heavy loss of blood during operations or in accidents.

You are able to give or donate blood every three or four month, and it is such a beautiful way of making a huge difference to someone’s life and you can always be proud of it after making a valuable contribution to society. Blood donation is not a big problem, but you need to keep a few points in mind.

Before donating blood, make sure that the ferrum（铁）level in you body is high enough and for that you should take a healthy diet. Do not go for blood donation on an empty stomach. You should follow the correct process so that everything goes well. After having a balanced diet you will feel strong and comfortable to donate blood. Afterwards, you will not feel faint or weak.

For required hemoglobin（血红蛋白）in your body, drink lots of juice and other drinks. Fruit juice, such as apple juice is very good for increasing the blood level in your body.

For a good blood flow in your body, drink at least 6-7 glasses of water every day. Completely avoid, a day before and after giving blood, taking alcohol, caffeine, etc. Do not smoke half an hour before giving blood.

When you are going for blood donation, be relaxed, which helps keep the right blood pressure. During the blood donation activity take a deep breath and try to calm yourself. Don’t take part in some other activities.

When you donate blood, you are making the effort to save someone’s life. Blood donation is a very simple and fast process, but you need to take care of yourself after donating blood. Proper care helps to reduce side effects. The following are a few tips that will help you out.

Take a rest for 15 minutes after completion of the donation. It helps you to feel relaxed and energetic.

Eat something and drink juice before leaving the blood donation center. Make sure that you have meals after donating blood. Smoking should be avoided for one hour after the process. Avoid some activities right away, for example, driving.

Finally, be proud of yourself because you have done a great thing in helping to save someone’s life. Blood donation is a very important activity.

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Parents can help their seventh and eighth grade students stand out in and out of their English classroom if they introduce them to newspapers. Newspapers not only offer information on current events, but they can also be used to test your child’s knowledge of grammar, vocabulary, and more.

Who, What, Where, When, Why, and How

Have your child read the first couple of paragraphs of a news story. Ask them to write down all of the important facts, such as who, what, where, when, why and how. This helps parents to see if their children comprehend the basic facts and information.

Grammar[

Parents can monitor a child’s understanding of grammatical parts of speech (词性) without a grammar textbook. Ask your child to read a paragraph in an article and then list a specific number of nouns, verbs, adjectives, adverbs, pronouns, prepositions and the like, which serves more of a test of their grammatical knowledge. Encourage them to list each of these parts of speech in a paragraph. Then, reread the paragraph to see if they missed anything.

Persuasion

Ask your child to select an advertisement from the newspaper. Have them investigate how the author expresses himself to influence their feelings about a particular product. Then, encourage them to create an advertisement of their own for an item they do not like. Tell them not to show their true feelings and try to make people want to buy this unwanted item. After that, ask them to list the persuasive techniques used in their ad.

Facts vs Opinions

Select an editorial for your middle schooler to read. Have your child divide a piece of paper into two columns, one marked fact, and the other marked opinion. Have your student decide which column it fits under. This will help your child better understand facts versus opinions. Another related exercise is responding to an editorial. Encourage your child to write letters to the editor or responses to editorials or other articles. Before your child sends his or her letter, check the opinion section to see what requirements there are.

Headlines and Synonyms(同义词)

Ask your middle schooler to rewrite a couple of headlines using the synonyms of the originalwords. Compare the headlines. Do the original versions(版本) or the rewrites sound better? This is a great exercise to help students learn synonyms and expand their vocabulary.

If you find your seventh or eighth grade child is struggling with these newspaper activities, it may be an indicator that they have fallen behind in their reading skills. These activities were designed with a seventh or eighth grader in mind; therefore, while they are educational, they should be more of reinforcement (增强) instead of a major reading challenge.

In a broad sense, migration is usually defined as “permanent or semi-permanent change of residence”. Although movements within nations (internal migration) are often greater than movements between nations (international migration) in number, the motives of people who move short distances are very similar to those of international migrants.

Students of human migration speak of “push” and “pull” factors, which influence an individual’s decision to move from one place to another. Push factors are associated with the place of origin. A push factor can be as simple and mild a matter as difficulty in finding a suitable job, or as traumatic as war, or severe desaster. Obviously, refugees who leave their homes with guns pointed at their heads are motivated almost entirely by push factors.

   Associated with the place of destination, pull factors are mostly economic, such as better job opportunities or the availability of good land to farm. In general, pull factors add up to an apparently better chance for a good life and material well-being than is offered by the place of origin. When there is a choice between several attractive potential destinations, the deciding factor might be a non-economic consideration such as the presence of relatives, friends, or at least fellow countrymen already established in the new place who are willing to help the newcomers settle in. Considerations of this sort lead to the development of migration flow.

   Besides push and pull factors, there are what the sociologists call “intervening obstacles”. Even if push and/or pull factors are very strong they still may be outweighed by intervening obstacles, such as the distance of the move, the trouble and cost of moving, the difficulty of entering the new country, and the problems likely to be encountered on arrival.

   The decision to move is also influenced by “personal factors” of the potential migrant. The same push-pull factors and obstacles operate differently on different people, sometimes because they are at different stages of their lives, or just because of their varying abilities and personalities. The thought of packing up everything and moving to a new and perhaps very strange environment may appear interesting and challenging to an unmarried young man and terribly difficult to a slightly older man with a wife and small kids. Similarly, the need to learn a new language and customs may excite one person and frighten another.

   Regardless of why people move, migration of large numbers of people causes conflict. The newest arrivals are usually given the lowest-paid jobs and are resented by native people who may have to compete with them for those jobs. It has usually taken several decades for each group to be accepted into the mainstream of society in the host country.

Is your child wishing for any great after-school activities? If yes, then you should consider dancing as an after-school activity for the kid. From learning a new skill to improving coordination (协调能力) and making new friends, dance school can be the perfect place to develop a kid’s creativity. Besides, song and dance can play an important role in the physical and emotionaldevelopment of the child. Therefore, choosing the right dance school is necessary if you want your child to receive proper training.

There are some things you need to take into consideration when you choose a dance school for your kid. One of them is the dance style. Before you begin your search, try to find out the different dance forms that your child may be interested in. At the dance school, ask about the dance forms they teach. More importantly, while you choose a dance style, don’t forget to involvethe child in the process. While you may love classical dance forms like ballet, the child may be more interested in Latin dance. It’s better to allow him or her to choose the style he or she likes best.

You have to consider the background of the teacher. The teacher should have rich performing and training experience. He or she should be professionally trained in the dance style, and should also have experience of performing with a dependable dance company. Besides knowledge about the dance form, the teacher needs to be caring and patient enough to teach young children.

How many students are there in a dance class? This question should also be considered. When there are too many students, teachers will find it difficult to pay personal attention to each student. This results in poor development of the dance skills. This is especially true for very young children, especially those in preschool, who require close attention. However, when there are less number of students and more space for dancing, the children can get more chances to practice dancing.

Also, don’t ignore the reputation(名气) and the location of the dance school. One of the best ways to know about a dance school is to ask around. Parents whose kids are going to dance classes can provide proper opinions about the school. You can also ask neighbors, friends, and colleagues for advice. On the other hand, how far is the dance school from your home? Will traveling to and from the school affect the child’s study? You also need to look into these important factors when choosing the dance school for your child.

For centuries people dreamed of going into space. This dream began to seem possible when high-flying rockets were built in the early 1900s.

In 1903 a Russian teacher named Konstantin Tsiolkovsky figured out how to use rockets for space travel. His plan was the first one in rocket science to use correct scientific calculation. About 30 years later, a U.S. scientist named Robert Goddard built the first rockets that could reach high altitudes. During World War II, German scientists built large rockets that could travel very far and carry dangerous explosives. After the war, scientists from Germany went to the United States and the Soviet Union to help those countries build space rockets.

These two countries were soon racing to get to space first. Each of these countries wanted to prove that it was stronger and more advanced than the other one. Both countries also had powerful bombs. People in the United States were worried when the Soviets were first to launch a space satellite, which was called Sputnik. The Soviets were also first to send a person into space. Yury Gagarin orbited the earth in the Vostok I spaceship in 1961.

The US government set a goal for its space program to be the first country to put a person on the Moon. The U.S. space program built a series of Apollo spaceship. These vehicles were powered by huge Saturn 5 rockets. In 1969 Apollo II took three men to the moon successfully. Nell Armstrong became the first person to walk on the Moon.

The Soviets may have lost the race to fly people to the Moon, but they built the first space station in 1971. The United States also built a space station. The space stations allowed people to live and work in space. Then the Soviet Union and the United States cooperated to hook two spaceships together in space. This action ended the "space race". Today a much larger space station, built by several countries together, orbits Earth.

Another new way to go to space is by space shuttle. A space shuttle, first made in the United States in 1981, looks like an airplane. Astronauts who fly spaceships have used shuttles to help put satellites into space.