A young boy was walking with his father along a country road. When they came across a very large tree branch, the boy asked:“Do you think I could move that branch?” His father answered:“If you use all your strength, I’m sure you can.” So the boy tried as hard as possible to lift, pull and push the branch but he couldn’t move it.

  Discouraged he said:“Dad, you were wrong. I can’t do it.” His father said:“Try again.” This time, as the boy struggled with the branch, his father joined him and together they pushed the branch aside. “Son,” the father said, “the first time you didn’t use all your strength. You didn’t ask me to help.”

  This is an important lesson. There are many things we can’t do alone, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get them done. We all are surrounded by resources that can be used to help us achieve our goals including family, friends and beliefs. Sometimes we fail to ask for help, because of pride. Sometimes we think it’s a sign of weakness to admit we need a hand. And sometimes we don’t even think about asking for help. Whatever the reason, it’s a waste.

  It’s important that we learn to use all our strength: this includes inner resources such as self-control, courage and even love. But it also includes outer resources. Just as we should be willing to help others, we should be willing to ask for the help of others.

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For thousands of young people everywhere, college means taking their first big step into adult life. What you do in your first year of college can have a big effect on the rest of your college years. Here are some tips of mine for you.

Plan ahead.By the end of your first week, you’ll know when you should finish each of your study tasks. Put those on your list. More importantly, you need to finish them on time. Start making good use of your time at the beginning of the term.

Eat right.College students often gain weight in their first year. Without Mom and Dad planning your meals, it’s easy to lose track of just how many calories you’re taking in. Try to limit the fast food and keep a varied diet.

It was in my high school literature class.I was giving a lecture in the front of the classroom with my favorite shirt on．

A voice came, “Nice shirt,” I smiled from ear to ear. Then John said, “That shirt belonged to my dad.Greg’s mother works for my family.We were going to throw that shirt away, but gave it to her instead.” I was speechless.I wanted to hide.

I told my mother what had happened.She then telephoned her employer, “I will no longer work for your family,” she told him．

The next morning she went to a job interview for a teaching assistant in a local primary school, but the headmaster said without a higher education she could not teach. So my mother decided to go to university.

After the first year in college, she went back to that school and finally got the job of a teaching assistant, helping the disabled children who have little or no chance of learning.    

For almost five years, she saw teacher after teacher give up on the children and leave the job, feeling anxious.Then one day, the headmaster showed up in her classroom.The headmaster said, “We have watched how you treat the children and how they communicate with you over the last five years.We all agree that you should be the teacher of this class.”

My mother spent more than 20 years there and she was made Teacher of the Year.All of this came about because of the thoughtless comment made in the classroom that day. I have learned a lot from her.

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Parents can help their seventh and eighth grade students stand out in and out of their English classroom by introducing them to newspapers. Newspapers not only offer information on current events, but they can also be used to test your childˈs 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 they read.

Grammar

Parents can monitor a childˈs 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 specific words or phrases 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 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.

Japanese bookseller Yoshiyuki Morioka has come up with a highly unusual concept（理念）for a bookstore — he sells one book at a time in a tiny shop located in Ginza, Tokyo’s luxury shopping district. Ever since he started the store in May, he has stocked copies of only one title per week.

You might think that it’s hardly a bookstore if you can’t go in and spend at least a few hours looking through hundreds of books, but Morioka never planned to create a classic bookstore. It’s like a weekly ‘suggested reading’ service — you just go in and pick up the book chosen for the week, relieving（减轻）yourself of the burden of choice. Morioka said he came up with the idea — a store that only focused on one book at a time, after organizing several book-launch events at his old bookstore.

“Before opening this bookstore in Ginza, I had been running another one for 10 years,” Morioka said. “There, I had around 200 kinds of books, and used to organize several book launches per year. During such events, a lot of people visited the store to look for a single book. As I experienced this for some time, I started to believe that perhaps with only one book, a bookstore could be managed.”

The store itself is very small, with a small table in the center displaying the title of the week. According to Morioka, his concept has an obvious advantage. “For example , when selling a book on flowers, the store could exhibit a flower that actually appears in the book,” he said.

It isn’t clear how Morioka goes about choosing which books to display and sell. However , his concept has met with great favor—he claims to have sold over 2,000 books within only one month.

In a dizzying about-face, the White House announced that the president will be signing the Ban Biofuels Act tomorrow.

In addition to turning off the tap on plant-based petrol, the Ban Biofuels Act sets out an ambitious plan of shifting over $10 billion in annual direct and indirect subsidies(补贴) from oil companies to the construction of wind farms in rural areas of Texas, Kansas and Wyoming.“One of the great things about the act is that it demands the building of transmission lines, which has been a big infrastructural problem of putting renewable energy back on the right track in the United States,” said House Speaker Nancy Pelosi at a press conference yesterday. In acknowledging her failure in the past to support alternative fuels in a meaningful way, Pelosi credited activists for her increased understanding of the need for renewable energy.

The shift was cheered by environmental activists as well as average Americans worn down by the steep rise in food prices. “Vegetable oil and corn are for feeding people, not cars,” said Elizabeth Johnson, a hospital worker and mother of three, at yesterday’s demonstration outside Capitol Hill. “There was only so much more we could keep paying.”

Six nationwide protests over the last four months had been prepared for the bill’s success, according to Andrew Kohut of the Pew Research Center, who said that national polls indicate a sharp decrease in public approval of biofuels and increased concern about global warming. “The public sees the terrible damage of biofuels to environment.” Kohut said.

He added that recent investigative reporting on the effects of biofuels, including one piece in the New York Times and several on C.N.N., had been key in causing public anger. “Television and

print journalism haven’t done this type of reporting for years,” Kohut said. “We found that when people weren’t disturbed by disinformation, they developed a much sharper analysis of the situation.”

International response has been mixed. “I must admit, no one saw this coming,” said a World Bank official who spoke on condition of anonymity(匿名). “We’ve all known there were big problems with our subsidies for biofuel crops in developing countries. We just never expected to be pushed on it by U.S. officials.” The official predicts that the legislation(立法) will have a series of effect, at last easing pressure on the remaining rainforests.

“If the demand for biofuels drops, then there’s far less incentive to clear-cut native forests,” added a spokesperson from Friends of the Earth Indonesia, also known as Walhí. “This is what the people in the rainforest have been fighting for four years.” The spokesperson also added that the struggle would not be over until similar controls are implemented(实施) by governments around the globe. “Ecological destruction is a systemic problem, it’s not just one company or one place.”

The production of coffee beans is a huge，profitable business，but，unfortunately，full-sun production is taking over the industry and bringing about a lot of damage．The change in how coffee is grown from shade-grown production to full-sun production endangers the very existence of certain animals and birds and even disturbs the world's ecological balance．

    On a local level，the damage of the forest required by full-sun fields affects the area's birds and animals．The shade of the forest trees provides a home for birds and other species that depend on the trees' flowers and fruits．Full-sun coffee growers destroy this forest home．As a result，many species are quickly dying out．

    On a more global level，the destruction of the rainforest for full-sun coffee fields also threatens human life．Medical research often makes use of the forests'plant and animal life．and the destruction of such species could prevent researchers from fending cures for certain diseases．In addition，new coffee-growing techniques are poisoning the water locally，and eventually the world's groundwater．

    Both locally and globally，the continued spread of full-sun coffee plantations could mean the destruction of the rainforest ecology．The loss of shade trees is already causing a slight change in

the world's climate，and studies show that loss of oxygen-giving trees also leads to air pollution and global warming．Moreover，the new growing techniques are contributing to acidic(酸性的) soil conditions．

    It is obvious that the way much coffee is grown affects many aspects of life，from the local environment to the global ecology．But consumers do have a choice，They can purchase shade-grown coffee whenever possible，although at a higher cost．The future health of the planet and mankind is surely worth more than an inexpensive cup of coffee．

There is a woman named Tao Porchon-Lynch. She was born in India in 1918. So, if you do the math, she is 98. And at the age of 98, she has been recognized as the oldest yoga teacher in the world. She has been teaching yoga in a gym in her hometown, full-time, since 1967.

    But that is not all she has done. She has also been a model, actress and dancer. She became a model after she graduated from high school. She acted in more than ten fields. She won a lot of medals as a dancer in many competitions. She once said, “If you try your best and never give up, nothing is impossible.”And she is a firm believer in positive thinking. She dreams the impossible dreams, and she is also well-known as a thinker.

    Tao Porchon-Lynch is not the person who talks the talk; she is the person who walks the walk. When she makes up her mind to do something, she takes action to do it without delay. At the age of 85, she learned how to dance and even won several dance competitions. She offers this piece of advice to others, “Don't put off till tomorrow what you can do today. Don't delay. Tomorrow never comes.”

    So, what about retirement? At 98, she is well past the age when many people make retirement plans. Retiring, it turns out, is not Tao's style.“ A little girl, who is only 6 years old and is now learning yoga with me, once asked me,‘ Dear granny, what are you going to do when you retire?’ “ Tao Porchon-Lynch told the little girl that she had no plans to retire but instead would continue to teach yoga and dance her way to the next planet.

第一节  阅读表达

Advertisers always ask what will make their campaigns successful. Before answering it, let’s understand what advertising is. According to Merriam-Webster’s Dictionary, the definition of advertising is “to tell about or praise (a product, service, etc.) publicly, as through newspapers, handbills (传单), radio, etc., so as to make people want to buy it.”

Most advertisers focus on the first part — telling people about their product or service. This is why most advertising fails. Telling your story alone won’t make people want to buy. Actually, there are two sides to the purchasing — logic (逻辑) and emotion. The decision to buy is made on the emotional level first, and then backed up with logic. Most advertising provides consumers with plenty of logical reasons but few emotional ones.

Another reason why campaigns fail is that most advertisements are full of clichés (陈腔滥调). When it comes to advertising, a cliché is defined as a statement every marketer makes but no one believes. Thus, rather than loading your advertisements with clichés, consider using words that are powerful, colorful, descriptive and relevant, and create your advertisements from consumers’ point of view, not yours.

Additionally, many campaigns fail also due to advertisers putting too much information and too many different thoughts in their advertisements. This is a 2-part problem. The first part is that the advertisements contain more than one major theme. A clear, single message delivered with real emotion will beat the advertisements filled with competing messages every time. When you load your advertisements with numerous messages, you will confuse consumers. Confused consumers don’t buy. The other part is that there’s just too much information in the advertisements. Once you start loading your advertisements with long lists, you’ve lost the interest and attention of consumers. Non-interested consumers also don’t buy.

So, if you want a successful campaign, simplify your messages in the advertisements. Often, many advertisers will attempt the use of sound effects to gain the attention of potential customers. Sound effects can work if they’re relevant to your product / service.

The most successful advertisers craft (精心制作) their messages by communicating with customers so that they deliver useful & relevant information for them. If you want a successful campaign, don’t annoy consumers. So don’t put one message on TV, another on radio and yet another in print. Actually, the most successful advertisers will place the same message across every media channel they use. Anyway, by making a few adjustments to how you craft your advertisements, you’ll see an increase in inquiries (询问), and eventually, higher sales.

Nobody is allowed to eat pizza near Christopher Merrett－just the smell of it can be deadly for the two-year-old, who has a severe allergy (过敏反应) to dairy products (奶制品).

    Mrs. Merrett said she first realized something was wrong with her son when she stopped feeding him with her milk at six months old and moved onto cows’ milk.

She said her son spent three weeks in hospital after sitting in a supermarket trolley (手推车) which had tiny traces of milk in it. She said, “It looked clean. We put him there and within minutes his feet and hands had gone blue and we knew there was something dreadfully wrong. We realized then he must have put his fingers in his mouth after touching the trolley and it must have previously had some sort of milk product on it.”

Mrs. Merrett added, “We cannot have pizza when he is in the house. I remember going to Pizza Hut for my daughter’s birthday and Christopher began to cough as soon as we got there.”

Mrs. Merrett, who took time off her job to care for her son, and her husband Michael, 47, have spent hours reading ingredients labels (成分标签) and carrying out hard research on the Internet, trying to find suitable food that their son can eat.

Because Christopher’s allergies are so severe that the couple has prepared an entire cupboard for his food. He also has his own shelf in the fridge and oven.

    Little Christopher was taken out of nursery school when he was given cheese by accident and he ended up in hospital. His mother now worries about what could happen when he eventually goes to school.

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